The new news 24 thread

[SiC]

31 minutes ago, Mally said:

Triumph Spitfire and sell the MGB?

Unfortunately no and definitely no. 

Still have my eye out for a Spitty though.

[Back_For_More]

Pah...... Double figures FTW etc.... 

Although sometimes some of mine count double that's for damn sure. 

* - actually down to 8 at the moment so off to practice what I preach 

Hope it's a P4 as they're on my shopping list as the next project..... I'll read up on your thread first methinks 

[lesapandre]

JLR woes:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/mar/13/how-jaguar-land-rover-fell-behind-in-the-race-to-an-electric-future-and-what-it-means-for-the-uk

[New POD]

Good news if you live near Halewood. 

[Split_Pin]

Dug the auld dear out from hibernation to get the Saab in the garage for fixing. I think I'll stick on 6 months tax and use it for a bit.

 

[barefoot]

I appreciate that ultimately I'm paying a bit more, but I just get the Porsche out  & do the pay monthly thing & SORN it as & when. That way I can just run it on the nicest of nice days without feeling that I'm committed. They always take the money after I cancel, but that's just the way the system is set up and it's always refunded within about a week/ten days

[andy18s]

Bulgaria has a vignette (road tax) system that allows you to buy cover for 24hrs,3 day weekend,7 day week,a calender month and then on to 3,6 or 12 month options.

[wuvvum]

Coming home in the 107 I was followed on to the car park by a chap in a Defender (a proper one) who wound down his window and informed me that he'd been following me for a while and thought I should know that my offside rear wheel was, in his words, "like a fucking pretzel".  

I initially thought that it was probably just the wheel trim not on straight or uneven wear on the tyre, but when I jacked the back of the car up and spun the wheel by hand it was obvious that the rim is indeed warped.  I have no idea how or why it happened - I assume it must have been before my ownership as I haven't hit anything with it, although it wasn't picked up at MOT time (would that be something a tester would spot?).  It doesn't seem to affect the car at normal speeds so I'm not sure what to do about it - I can get a second hand rim for 40 quid and then pay the local tyre place a tenner to change the (nearly new Falken) tyre over, but it seems a bit of a pointless expenditure given that the car may only have three months left to live anyway.

I was looking on eBay for electric radiator fans for the Volvo, and then it dawned on me that there is an unused one fitted to the Mazda that I put on there last year - the Mazda probably won't be going very far, and anyway it never got close to needing a radiator fan even in the heatwave last summer, so I'm going to nick that for the Volvo and save myself a few quid which is a Brucie bonus.

[camryv6]

On 3/13/2023 at 8:02 AM, Six-cylinder said:

Yes but where does the cassette slot in!

I thought that was the cassette slot in the middle, until you said that 🤦‍♂️

[stuboy]

36 minutes ago, camryv6 said:

I thought that was the cassette slot in the middle, until you said that 🤦‍♂️

 

[RoverFolkUs]

I love working on older cars sometimes

Lovely* old Saab 900 this afternoon (very leggy and filthy, mostly held together with gaffa tape) needing a door latch

Removed it and I found myself pulling it apart and repairing it. That's old school mechanics for you

Bonus points for the cassette player actually having a cassette in it that the chap was listening to! 

[BeEP]

17 hours ago, wuvvum said:

I can get a second hand rim for 40 quid and then pay the local tyre place a tenner to change the (nearly new Falken) tyre over, but it seems a bit of a pointless expenditure given that the car may only have three months left to live anyway.

Does your 107 have a full size spare (the three C1s I've owned all did, so I assume they all do)?  If so I'd get the tyres swapped and put the prezel in the boot!

[Split_Pin]

Got fired into the Saab heater blower job on my lunchbreak.

Sealed up the pollen filter housing, put the wiper back on and punted it back out the garage.

Got to the stage where the blower is ready to come out.

Shitload of stuff to take off to get to it but its all T20, T25 and one cheeky T15. The fixings were a weird shape so my Torx Plus bits came in handy.

Boot is full of plastics now.

Hopefully the rain will stay off long enough after work to allow me to get the old blower motor out.

I also have a mobile tyre fitter due to come and fit a couple of Falkens to the back of the TT this afternoon.

[Lankytim]

I still don’t understand why car designers are allowed to design cars where it’s impossible to change things like light bulbs. Guys on Facebook said this was a 5 min job, nope. Bumper off time! 
 

I thought I’d been smart and just pulled back the driver’s side of the bumper to pull the headlight out. Replacing the bumper was impossible at this angle so the whole lot had to be removed. What a pain! I think my neighbours heard me swearing and peeped around the net curtains to see my waving my fist at the sky too. Embarrassing. 

 

[wuvvum]

4 hours ago, BeEP said:

Does your 107 have a full size spare (the three C1s I've owned all did, so I assume they all do)?  If so I'd get the tyres swapped and put the prezel in the boot!

The spare is indeed full size, but that's pretty shagged as well - the tyre is on its last legs, and the edge of the rim is bent out in several places so I'm not sure whether the tyre place would even be able to swap a good tyre onto it.

[mat777]

I did a thing! And apparently I now own a 109 year old car. Have I bitten off more than I can chew? Almost certainly! But who cares, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it....

[wesacosa]

found when browsing an old practical classics off eBay.  @danthecapriman ??

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, wesacosa said:

found when browsing an old practical classics off eBay.  @danthecapriman ??

Fame/infamy!!

How long ago was that!? I think it was from their old forum. 
Im still not a fan of Rovers from that era! I spent my years as a mechanic working on them when they were much newer and couldn’t stand them. Specifically anything K-series! The amount of head gasket replacement jobs we had! Then flushing milky oil out of everything.

[Lacquer Peel]

17 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Fame/infamy!!

How long ago was that!? I think it was from their old forum. 
Im still not a fan of Rovers from that era! I spent my years as a mechanic working on them when they were much newer and couldn’t stand them. Specifically anything K-series! The amount of head gasket replacement jobs we had! Then flushing milky oil out of everything.

No K series in the 600. 

[GingerNuttz]

On 3/13/2023 at 4:05 PM, GingerNuttz said:

Aye it's Gary's car, he needed a corner welded for an MOT but he's wanting it restored in the future.

Someone had made a total arse of the back corner 

 

Tacked on arch panels and patches over holes, first pic is the arch where it meets the bottom of the quarter panel, they couldn't even be arsed finishing the weld 😑 

Oh aye and the sheet metal tek screws just slammed through the panel.

He should have it back at 5pm tonight 

 

Nearly done I said, have it back at 5pm I said, I need to give myself a slap.

Held together with hopes and dreams topped off with a ton of filler.

12 hour days since Monday to crank it out and this whole side is done but I'm burnt to shit and tired, look like I've been shooting up 😂

 

 

 

[wesacosa]

40 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Fame/infamy!!

How long ago was that!? I think it was from their old forum. 
Im still not a fan of Rovers from that era! I spent my years as a mechanic working on them when they were much newer and couldn’t stand them. Specifically anything K-series! The amount of head gasket replacement jobs we had! Then flushing milky oil out of everything.

April 2007 . for what its worth I really liked my emergency 623GSI auto I bought when I broke my wrist 5 or so years ago

[Split_Pin]

25 minutes ago, GingerNuttz said:

Nearly done I said, have it back at 5pm I said, I need to give myself a slap.

Held together with hopes and dreams topped off with a ton of filler.

12 hour days since Monday to crank it out and this whole side is done but I'm burnt to shit and tired, look like I've been shooting up 😂

 

 

 

Are those self tappers structural?

[Split_Pin]

The rain started pushing in so had to do everything sat where I was inside the car, contorted to fuck. I used a mirror and a torch to see where the screws at the back were in the end, worked OK!

Done before tea.

I also got 2 new Falkens fitted to the back of the TT.  The fitter asked if it was a 225 and really liked it, saying how tidy it looked which was great.

 

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, Lacquer Peel said:

No K series in the 600. 

What was the one called in the 600? Weren’t they Honda engines or the bigger Rover engines that had similar looking rocker covers to the kettle series?

My mate had a 600 diesel which was (I think?) a BMW diesel engine. That was a good car!

Most of the work I did on that era Rover was 200 and 400 with the kettle series. Although to be fair I think most of that was caused by crap parts and poor ownership/maintenance. The problems seem less common nowadays. I remember we did get a bulletin from head office once saying ‘due to excessive warranty repairs from the company completing head gasket repairs, company policy is now to replace the head and cam carrier with new genuine parts only!’ I don’t think it lasted long though!

[Pat Earrings]

THE BLUEBIRD IS FINALLY READY

it went in my trusted garage near the end of December last year and owing to delays sourcing stuff etc, it’s finally done. It hasn’t even been driven yet in 2023.

Heater matrix that was given was correct but had the adjusting rod the opposite way on, and we couldn’t do anything about it. We agreed on having it have a constant flow of heat so it’ll always blow hot air, at various speeds but only hot which is a compromise I can live with. I have heat! So it now has a new heater matrix, new radiator and new thermostat and fresh coolant. The final bill isn’t too disgusting either. 
 

celebratory picture to follow tomorrow when it returns. 

[artdjones]

6 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

My mate had a 600 diesel which was (I think?) a BMW diesel engine. That was a good car

No, it was the Rover L Series, based on the original Perkins Prima. You're right about it being a good car, though.

[GingerNuttz]

37 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Are those self tappers structural?

I've taken about 20 self tappers out of it 😂

I don't even know if Gary has had it long but whoever had it tarted it up and made an arse of it.

[danthecapriman]

19 minutes ago, artdjones said:

No, it was the Rover L Series, based on the original Perkins Prima. You're right about it being a good car, though.

It was! Never ever put a foot wrong that car. Got used every day for years and years and just kept on going. Never wanted for anything other than servicing really. No idea what happened to it but it had hundreds of thousands of miles on the clock when he sold it. It was a lovely dark grey metallic colour with lovely soft (velour?) seats. He used to wash it regularly too so it didn’t even rust!

The best K series car I remember working on was a special edition Metro (GTA?) with a 1.4 K series in it. Did the HGF and took it out to road test… man that thing flew!

[PicantoJon]

Picanto's oil doneded.

Minging. Probably never changed, the oil filter certainly hadn't been - it was rusty!

[artdjones]

29 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

It was! Never ever put a foot wrong that car. Got used every day for years and years and just kept on going. Never wanted for anything other than servicing really. No idea what happened to it but it had hundreds of thousands of miles on the clock when he sold it. It was a lovely dark grey metallic colour with lovely soft (velour?) seats. He used to wash it regularly too so it didn’t even rust!

The best K series car I remember working on was a special edition Metro (GTA?) with a 1.4 K series in it. Did the HGF and took it out to road test… man that thing flew!

Yes I did 50k miles in my 620SDi. It did blow 2 turbo hoses (same one each time), but great seats.