The new news 24 thread

[wuvvum]

Just treated the Mobylette to a new exhaust.  The exhausts on those mount onto the cylinder with a BFO nut, and the flange on the exhaust down pipe that the nut pushes against to hold the pipe against the exhaust port was partially snapped off many years ago by my brother riding it like a twat.  The result of that was that the nut kept coming undone and I had to go everywhere with a 32mm spanner strapped to the luggage rack to tighten it up again.  I found a new pattern exhaust for 45 quid which will hopefully solve that particular issue.  

Then I just need to fit the new rear tyre, tidy up the wiring and find a way to stop the front brake cable from pulling through its nipple.  Oh, and do something about the massive amount of play in the headstock bearings.

[stuboy]

What do u get when u have ... narrow winding country roads... oncoming traffic ... damp surface water and a missus who may be heavy footed....

 

Yup... 2 fuc♡Ed tyres, broken mudflaps and £180 bill too pay..

[artdjones]

2 hours ago, wuvvum said:

No, they're open-ended, like these:

I could probably knock something up by cutting up a metal biscuit tin or something, they're not a difficult shape.

There's someone in Austria claiming to sell them for €1.30

https://www.doppelwinkel.at/scheinwerfer-haltklammer-für-verstellung

The other price is a joke.

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, Mally said:

How Much!

Precisely. Back in the late 70s, I was selling tins of GTX and Duckhams Q. Their reps swung by, every month or so. Strong, sassy females, moi at 18 had no chance (what a way to go tho). Also had own brand Longlife tins. Must be at least 10x dearer now?

[wuvvum]

1 hour ago, artdjones said:

There's someone in Austria claiming to sell them for €1.30

https://www.doppelwinkel.at/scheinwerfer-haltklammer-für-verstellung

The other price is a joke.

Found some on eBay UK for £5.50 (for a pack of 5) using the part number from that link, so cheers for that.

[wuvvum]

It's Saturday morning and I'm about to board a train. 

This can only mean one thing.  Collection Mission!

[wuvvum]

Station car park modernshite. 

[grogee]

Just seen this tweet, thought of @LightBulbFun

[HillmanImp]

Flat battery on the Nissan. 

Its okay, I can just open the door with the key can't I.... 

Feck. 

This is the only door with a keylock too. 

Got ImpJr up on the roof but its too soon after easter and he couldn't get his fat arse through the gap. 

So I looked online to see where the bonnet release was as I can't remember, and thank fuck its on this side. 

Managed to reach in with a wheel nut wrench  and pull it to get the bonnet open. 

As the van is on the drive it's not ideal for a trickle charger so have been looking at a dashboard solar charger.

Has anyone experience of these and any suggestions?

[tooSavvy]

This is headed for bean tins....

https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread/223954/1990-mazda-626-off-head?page=1

Sad 😕

[dome]

37 minutes ago, HillmanImp said:

Flat battery on the Nissan. 

Its okay, I can just open the door with the key can't I.... 

Feck. 

This is the only door with a keylock too. 

Got ImpJr up on the roof but its too soon after easter and he couldn't get his fat arse through the gap. 

So I looked online to see where the bonnet release was as I can't remember, and thank fuck its on this side. 

Managed to reach in with a wheel nut wrench  and pull it to get the bonnet open. 

As the van is on the drive it's not ideal for a trickle charger so have been looking at a dashboard solar charger.

Has anyone experience of these and any suggestions?

I've heard tales of folk sticking 12v to the car via a side repeater or the like to get enough power to unlock it. I've never tried it though...

[wuvvum]

London achieved.  Saw some geese.

[wuvvum]

Final train of the day. 

[hairnet]

4 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Station car park modernshite. 

aban. doned.

[320touring]

All hail the mighty Rexton! 

Many thanks to @Lacquer Peel for his excellent Clio moving services.

 

First up, collect the super shiny and fully metal burd's Clio 172 from @GingerNuttz. First time seeing it in the flesh - it looks fucking superb!

Take it to where the 182 was sitting after disgracing itself by blowing a power steering line.

Remove 172, swap with 182

Drop 182 at tame Clio fettler

It's in the queue and will get done.

 

Then take up as much car park as possible whilst going for lunch.

Been a good wee day TOWday🤣

[wuvvum]

Collectioned. 

[bigfella2]

Renaultsport Heaven right there. 👍

[ruffgeezer]

 

52 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Collectioned. 

Blimey,  I'm just reading this issue of Car Mechanics from November 1996...

Well bought.

[High Jetter]

I bet it was a bit* more than £100, despite looking a bit ropey in places.

[sdkrc]

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

Collectioned. 

That is fucking superb

[RoverFolkUs]

On 4/26/2023 at 9:36 PM, UltraWomble said:

https://classicoilsshop.co.uk/gtx-classic-10w40

Castrol GTX in proper tins.

🤔

...

...

...

...

😄

[loserone]

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

Collectioned. 

Dibs please 

[danthecapriman]

Had a weird but funny one today!

Sat indoors and the door bell rings. 
Look out the front window and there’s two young kids at the door, must have been 12 or 13, something like that. 
Answer the door and they’re really nicely spoken polite kids that have been passing by for the last few months on the way to school. 
Turns out they’re both really into cars, and old cars in particular! 
They’d seen the Mercury on the drive and wondered what it was and were wondering if they could have a look at it! 
One of them asked if it was a Lincoln, which he was actually very very close to being right about. Since they seemed so interested and keen I opened it up and let them have a sit in it and take a few pics. 
They were absolutely over the moon!😁

It’s actually so nice to see the younger generation get excited about stuff like this! Reminds me of how I was at that age. Maybe, hopefully letting them have a proper look will spark a lifelong interest in cars. Hopefully it’ll be those kids looking after these old cars in the future.  
Im a bit surprised they had the balls to knock the door tbh, but fair play. Hopefully that’s not something that gets them in trouble some day though.

[eddyramrod]

Not so much at home, but certainly at shows, I was always happy to let the youngsters sit in Huggy.  As you say, that little experience might just give one of them the bug (or nurture it, because it sounds like it's already taken root!).  Maybe in 30 years one of them will remember that eccentric old bloke with the big green car, find you, buy the car off you and restore it!  If we're still allowed to do such things...

[tooSavvy]

When I was about 9, I saw an old gadger down the bottom of our street with his garage doors open and he was polishing his car..... Hmm, 'lookinn cool, thinks I'..... Bold as brass I asked what it was and if I might look a little closer??

Nice as 9pence, he was.... Only an ffin Holbay Rapier, in silver.

*Yep, didn't know it was a Hunter estate underneath [then...] 🤣🤣

🚙💨

[wuvvum]

And home.

Fuck me, what a drive!  What a heap!  I need a drink and some Paracetamol...

It actually made it back fine, although it needs some looking at.  It's an absolute twat to drive in traffic because it isn't idling properly, and very few of the dashlights work.  Also the speedo is comically optimistic - 85 on the speedo corresponds to 62 on the sat nav...  It has a few other issues that I'll try and look into tomorrow, including a couple of interesting noises that it developed on the way home, but hey, it was a cheap (by today's standards...) Renault 4 so I expect it to need some loving.  It's MOT'd until June and after then it'll be exempt anyway.  The seller spent a lot of money having structural welding done so it should be rather more solid than the 6 even if it is cosmetically (even) rougher.

Plenty of interesting stuff on the roads too - unsurprisingly seeing as it's a sunny Bank Holiday weekend.  The R4 got plenty of looks as you'd expect, and I got a thumbs up (which I returned) off a bloke in a floppytop E30 on the A1M (M11 was closed so got diverted) - that was one of two convertible E30s I saw on the journey.  I also saw two Alfa 8Cs, which was impressive as I've never seen any until now.  And at one point on the M25 I had a black Ferrari either side of me - a 430 Spider on the right and a 400i on the left.

Dinner now, then bike ride to collect the 107 from the station.  Then sleep.

[richardmorris]

2 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Had a weird but funny one today!

Sat indoors and the door bell rings. 
Look out the front window and there’s two young kids at the door, must have been 12 or 13, something like that. 
Answer the door and they’re really nicely spoken polite kids that have been passing by for the last few months on the way to school. 
Turns out they’re both really into cars, and old cars in particular! 
They’d seen the Mercury on the drive and wondered what it was and were wondering if they could have a look at it! 
One of them asked if it was a Lincoln, which he was actually very very close to being right about. Since they seemed so interested and keen I opened it up and let them have a sit in it and take a few pics. 
They were absolutely over the moon!😁

It’s actually so nice to see the younger generation get excited about stuff like this! Reminds me of how I was at that age. Maybe, hopefully letting them have a proper look will spark a lifelong interest in cars. Hopefully it’ll be those kids looking after these old cars in the future.  
Im a bit surprised they had the balls to knock the door tbh, but fair play. Hopefully that’s not something that gets them in trouble some day though.

Our first family trip to france in 1979 , when I was 7, there was a couple with a green Morgan at the same hotel . I was obviously looking at it (things being unheard of in wales at the time ). Owner let me sit in it for a bit. Passion for old cars certainly helped along there.

[Vince70]

It seems to be the week of MOTs for my fleet,  as it was time to put my immaculate E36 Ti through the ticket.

I needn’t have worried though, as she went straight through without an advisory, although on the the journey over,  I did get a slight shake from the steering, which disappeared after about 10 miles, which I put down to a flat spot on one of the tyres, as all I have done in a year is about 500 Miles and 45 miles were for the MOT.

Then on the way back, I had to stop off and repair my Girlfriends son’s yellow mini R50 , as it had an SRS light on and I also pulled a dent out the roof which came out perfect with a big suction cup, plus fitted some new speakers for him.

I will also need to fit a new lcd  in his rev counter and  fit a new cigarette lighter socket plus a new interior light,  as the circuit board inside has a dodgy solder joint.

A new light is  so cheap, though it’s not worth my while trying to find my soldering iron, so all in it should cost about £25 to fix everything.

 

 

[richardmorris]

23 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

And home.

Fuck me, what a drive!  What a heap!  I need a drink and some Paracetamol...

It actually made it back fine, although it needs some looking at.  It's an absolute twat to drive in traffic because it isn't idling properly, and very few of the dashlights work.  Also the speedo is comically optimistic - 85 on the speedo corresponds to 62 on the sat nav...  It has a few other issues that I'll try and look into tomorrow, including a couple of interesting noises that it developed on the way home, but hey, it was a cheap (by today's standards...) Renault 4 so I expect it to need some loving.  It's MOT'd until June and after then it'll be exempt anyway.  The seller spent a lot of money having structural welding done so it should be rather more solid than the 6 even if it is cosmetically (even) rougher.

Plenty of interesting stuff on the roads too - unsurprisingly seeing as it's a sunny Bank Holiday weekend.  The R4 got plenty of looks as you'd expect, and I got a thumbs up (which I returned) off a bloke in a floppytop E30 on the A1M (M11 was closed so got diverted) - that was one of two convertible E30s I saw on the journey.  I also saw two Alfa 8Cs, which was impressive as I've never seen any until now.  And at one point on the M25 I had a black Ferrari either side of me - a 430 Spider on the right and a 400i on the left.

Dinner now, then bike ride to collect the 107 from the station.  Then sleep.

My parents first new car was a white Renault 4, it failed its first mot when the floors fell off the sills. They did I think get some money back from Renault.

[danthecapriman]

4 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Our first family trip to france in 1979 , when I was 7, there was a couple with a green Morgan at the same hotel . I was obviously looking at it (things being unheard of in wales at the time ). Owner let me sit in it for a bit. Passion for old cars certainly helped along there.

That’s exactly what I was thinking when they asked. 
If it’d been some gobby oik I wouldn’t have entertained it, but they were so polite and enthusiastic I just couldn’t say no! You could just tell they were little petrol heads in the making so I thought I’d let them see it and get in. 
I think we should give kids or even adults like this the experience when we can. Not only to be nice but hopefully encourage what is a great hobby and one that’s running a risk of dying out if it’s not encouraged. Besides that, not everyone can have these things so it’s nice share it sometimes with others.