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[grogee]

8 minutes ago, HMC said:

The dash at twilight by the union @grogee

Near my first girlfriend's house. Ah, Kate...

Aaaaaanyway, that is a safe and sensible dashboard. Almost like they'd been benchmarking Volvos.

[Popsicle]

Couriering van passed its test this morning.

Felt a bit guilty about the state it was presented in.

I did wipe the crud off the number plate first! It was spotless on Monday..........

No photos as I'd left my phone in the van but there was a K reg 1971/72 Mk3 Cortina having its first MOT since 1996 according to the owner, looked lovely in dark green. The 1.3 engine had been swapped for a 1.6 transit lump apparently. 

[richardmorris]

On 12/15/2022 at 10:21 AM, Austat said:

This 504 is dangerously close to me and is a good price. I'm having a hard time convincing my Dad as it's an automatic (anything manual is sought after and overpriced here) but I plan on treating myself to something special this Christmas and the funds for it will come out of my pocket. There's a dent and a little bit of surface rust in three spots to fix, but for around £1420 it's a steal.

 

Would anyone recommend them? Any technical gremlins to look out for?

Should I or shouldn't I?

 

[RoverFolkUs]

On 12/16/2022 at 1:34 PM, Braddon81 said:

New clutch kit finally fitted to my roffle winning  406 Coupe - it's thrust bearing finally gave out the ghost a few months back. Had dagger eyes from my usually chirpy spannerman - it turned out to be a pig of a job.

Am I remembering rightly its engine out to do a clutch on those if its got the V6?

[Asimo]

On 15/12/2022 at 10:21, Austat said:

This 504 is dangerously close to me and is a good price. I'm having a hard time convincing my Dad as it's an automatic (anything manual is sought after and overpriced here) but I plan on treating myself to something special this Christmas and the funds for it will come out of my pocket. There's a dent and a little bit of surface rust in three spots to fix, but for around £1420 it's a steal.

 

Would anyone recommend them? Any technical gremlins to look out for?

Should I or shouldn't I?

Have you bought this yet?

There was a 504 for sale at the local classic car auction recently. It had been driven here from Australia. 

[Spottedlaurel]

15 hours ago, HMC said:

The dash at twilight by the union @grogee

That shot brings back happy memories of my old ones, things like the cliff-face styling and the feel of the HVAC controls with their air/vacuum assistance (still a better system than push buttons). I removed a couple of those stereos and replaced them with a JVC and remote 6-disc CD changer set-up.

[cort1977]

2 hours ago, Asimo said:

Have you bought this yet?

@Austat this. You know it makes sense.

[Bren]

After 10 days with the lurgy I have given in and gone to the walk in centre for antibiotics.

Paracetamol, honey and ginger have done fuck all.

Sadly it's like a disaster centre in here.....

[lesapandre]

Halfords this morning....ah London...

[lesapandre]

Then spotted. The driver was smoking a fag for full on 80's effect too.

[richardmorris]

Italian job on c5 now for that Christmas spirit. Just starting the mini chase .

[richardmorris]

Oh and swapped the cars round earlier now that the -8overnight temps are over and daily can live outdoors again. Flattened the the 2cv battery so pushed it. I knew it was low as it hasn’t gone anywhere  since the mot last month, can’t be bothered to do anything in the cold and wet so will wait until daylight in Saturday to put it on charge.

[cobblers]

I fucking hate ramps.

But this one was all me. Putting my 3250KG van on some stands marked as "for up to 2500kg GVW". What an idiot.

[Carlo_Raffo_TDS]

On 12/16/2022 at 9:38 PM, GMcD said:

Been using the Cav most days.

If you listen carefully I'm sure you can hear it fizzing, but fuck it, I'm enjoying the experience of just using it as intended. 

 I'll try and jet wash underneath whenever I can. 

 

What wheels are those? Standard steel wheels painted?

[Mally]

1 hour ago, cobblers said:

I fucking hate ramps.

But this one was all me. Putting my 3250KG van on some stands marked as "for up to 2500kg GVW". What an idiot.

Aren't this sort of thing supposed to be tested well over GVW?  Something like plus 50% of marking.

You should have been well* in.

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, lesapandre said:

Halfords this morning....ah London...

That's rubbish.

[lesapandre]

3 hours ago, richardmorris said:

Oh and swapped the cars round earlier now that the -8overnight temps are over and daily can live outdoors again. Flattened the the 2cv battery so pushed it. I knew it was low as it hasn’t gone anywhere  since the mot last month, can’t be bothered to do anything in the cold and wet so will wait until daylight in Saturday to put it on charge.

I've spent the past couple of days outdoors coaxing various cars into life (hence the trip to Halfords for a new battery) - I had my doubts about the wisdom of being outside so long - but actually well wrapped up it's been quite enjoyable and I feel better for it - so do the cars. Cold and crisp weather I can handle - London had a wet/cold rain this afternoon but hey.

[barefoot]

A tale of xmas grump.

As seems to becoming the norm, our local garage had no E5 so I bobbed up to EMA to brim the tank. Whilst I was stood at the pump another car pulled up, a twenty something lad got out & clattered something against the side of the Scirocco. It's a bit scruffy as you know, so I wasn't really bothered but then he, his partner & a child were all unloaded onto the forecourt by an older bloke ready to walk the couple of hundred yards over to the terminal. If lad hadn't clattered my car, there is a very good chance that I would have shouted, and told him to get back in because they'd soon be facing a hefty fine for alighting there.

But I never... I just wished him 'a good holiday'. 

Twat.

[cort1977]

Agree he was a twat but how will they get fined?  Is it not allowed to walk to the terminal?  As someone who would rather die* than pay an airport drop off fee I'm interested.

[barefoot]

It's been in all the local papers. Cctv at the garage and vicious parking enforcement at ema. People are fined for momentary pauses on double red lines.

If you ever fly from here, park in a local village and catch the bus which runs every 15 or 20 minutes.

[Rust Collector]

30 minutes ago, cort1977 said:

Agree he was a twat but how will they get fined?  Is it not allowed to walk to the terminal?  As someone who would rather die* than pay an airport drop off fee I'm interested.

Most services around airports have those parking eye style things to catch people using the forecourt for waiting/drop off/pick up rather than the designated areas or short stay car park, at least the ones at Gatwick do. To be fair though, if they didn't then I imagine you wouldn't be able to get to the pumps for the amount of cars stopped there to dodge the fiver charge for pickup/drop off.

 

[cort1977]

Yeah I can see the argument.  I just feel that if they're that concerned about safety they would provide a safe drop off area for free.

[Markeh]

I would've made a remark on it costing the same for the drop off as it cost me to get there via a tram and bus from Nottingham, but I've since learned the price of that's gone up since I last did it in 2018 (was £5, now £10)
£5 for 15 minutes rapid drop off is a joke though.

[captain_70s]

On 12/19/2022 at 5:23 PM, cort1977 said:

Yeah I can see the argument.  I just feel that if they're that concerned about safety they would provide a safe drop off area for free.

They aren't. They're concerned about making fat stacks.

I once accidentally took the slip road to Glasgow airport and had to pay to be able to turn around and get back out...

[Zelandeth]

33 minutes ago, Markeh said:

I would've made a remark on it costing the same for the drop off as it cost me to get there via a tram and bus from Nottingham, but I've since learned the price of that's gone up since I last did it in 2018 (was £5, now £10)
£5 for 15 minutes rapid drop off is a joke though.

Could be worse, could be Luton.

Picked up a friend from there back...November I think it was.  I was there for 12 minutes at the short stay pickup area (well within the posted limit), got to the barrier...£37!  Bugger all you can do about it by that point though.  Whole terminal parking arrangement had been completely redone since I was there last so I had no idea where I was going and just followed the signs.  Won't be doing that again.

Wonder how much that makes them on an average day.

[wuvvum]

It's that time of year again when I have an internal debate about which car to drive down to my parents' in Somerset for Christmas.  The cheapest option would be to take the 107 (and cheapness is an important consideration as I didn't get any overtime pay in my December pay packet - partly my fault for procrastinating about submitting my hours and partly the company's fault for moving the deadline for submission without telling anyone).  It's perfectly capable of doing the distance - I've done FOD and back in it in a day, and that's about the same distance in total - and since fitting the Osram Nightbreaker bulbs and polishing the headlights at the weekend I can now actually vaguely see where I'm going at night, but it's a bit noisy at speed, and also it looks like it might be breezy over the weekend and the 107 doesn't like windy conditions very much.

The other option is the Rover 75.  That's more comfortable than the 107 and a lot quieter, with a much better stereo.  It also has cruise control, and being an automatic it'd be much more relaxing in the likely event that I get stuck in traffic.  On the flip side it uses 25% more fuel than the Pug and with diesel being 15% more expensive that makes quite a difference to fuel costs on a 500-mile round trip.  It's also a lot bigger, which is a consideration as parking is likely to be fairly tight on Christmas day.

Left field choice is the Toyota - that's on a par with the Rover comfort-wise, although it doesn't have cruise control and it's manual so traffic is more of a chore.  It does slightly less than the Rover mpg-wise but that's largely offset by the lower cost of petrol, although I'm not 100% comfortable about running it on E10 so I'd be putting in additive which raises the cost a bit.  The other argument in the Toyota's favour is that it's a family heirloom and Christmas day is going to be the biggest gathering of my mum's side of the family since before the pandemic.

Of course I could always go completely daft and take the Innocenti, although I'd be unable to walk properly after 7 hours in that.

[hairnet]

3 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

It's that time of year again when I have an internal debate about which car to drive down to my parents' in Somerset for Christmas.  The cheapest option would be to take the 107 (and cheapness is an important consideration 

Tldr cos Dave

 

[Noel Tidybeard]

14 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

It's that time of year again when I have an internal debate about which car to drive down to my parents' in Somerset for Christmas.  The cheapest option would be to take the 107 (and cheapness is an important consideration as I didn't get any overtime pay in my December pay packet - partly my fault for procrastinating about submitting my hours and partly the company's fault for moving the deadline for submission without telling anyone).  It's perfectly capable of doing the distance - I've done FOD and back in it in a day, and that's about the same distance in total - and since fitting the Osram Nightbreaker bulbs and polishing the headlights at the weekend I can now actually vaguely see where I'm going at night, but it's a bit noisy at speed, and also it looks like it might be breezy over the weekend and the 107 doesn't like windy conditions very much.

The other option is the Rover 75.  That's more comfortable than the 107 and a lot quieter, with a much better stereo.  It also has cruise control, and being an automatic it'd be much more relaxing in the likely event that I get stuck in traffic.  On the flip side it uses 25% more fuel than the Pug and with diesel being 15% more expensive that makes quite a difference to fuel costs on a 500-mile round trip.  It's also a lot bigger, which is a consideration as parking is likely to be fairly tight on Christmas day.

Left field choice is the Toyota - that's on a par with the Rover comfort-wise, although it doesn't have cruise control and it's manual so traffic is more of a chore.  It does slightly less than the Rover mpg-wise but that's largely offset by the lower cost of petrol, although I'm not 100% comfortable about running it on E10 so I'd be putting in additive which raises the cost a bit.  The other argument in the Toyota's favour is that it's a family heirloom and Christmas day is going to be the biggest gathering of my mum's side of the family since before the pandemic.

Of course I could always go completely daft and take the Innocenti, although I'd be unable to walk properly after 7 hours in that.

have you checked if the toyoyo can/can't run E10

[Ghosty]

10 minutes ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

have you checked if the toyoyo can/can't run E10

Official advice for a Carina E (that's right innit?) is to use E5. 
I would, it gives slightly better MPG for a mild difference in cost, and the cars seem to like it more  - and the bigger the engine, the more appreciable the performance drop is for E10 in my experience. My 520i hated the stuff, for one, it made it properly slow. I'd be interested to see how it affected my 300E, but considering the relative similarity of the injection system to the 520, I'm fairly sure it'd just run like it was down a significant amount of power. 

[gm]

i’m just in from a late one at work, spotted this on vaguely near the roundabout just up from my house. considering it’s a 40 zone and the ice has completely cleared, he must have been pissed or half asleep to get that far into the field

i stopped to check there wasn’t anyone injured but, on closer inspection, this hadn’t just happened - big red police aware sticker on the boot lid !

@DVee8 you’ll probably pass this on your way to tomorrows driving lesson, the next roundabout up towards waldridge from ours.

 

then i noticed coolant flavoured steam coming from the binis front end  job for tomorrow then