The new news 24 thread

[High Jetter]

6 minutes ago, Popsicle said:

Not work wise, I'm having this year off.

Lazy sod! 🤣

[Lankytim]

The 2cv was in desperate need of a battery and my pile of used batteries were all knackered (which is why they were in the pile, but it doesn’t stop you trying a couple). The Citroen branded battery that came with the 2cv was absolutely cream crackered and dated 1997. I did try to charge it, but of course it’s karked it.

Batteries are quite expensive aren’t they? A chance browse around Halfords while the wife was in Morrisons led me to then battery isle. The absolute cheapest batteries in their range are a sort of “Asda smart price” of batteries. With my trade card in hand an appropriate battery was scanned out at £38 odd. 3 year warranty so I took the chance.
 

Nothing says  cheapskate owner like a Halfords Essentials battery but there we are. I might peel off the shite Halfords sticker but then that might affect the warranty. Just a couple more things and it’s MOT time! 

[richardmorris]

30 minutes ago, Lankytim said:

The 2cv was in desperate need of a battery and my pile of used batteries were all knackered (which is why they were in the pile, but it doesn’t stop you trying a couple). The Citroen branded battery that came with the 2cv was absolutely cream crackered and dated 1997. I did try to charge it, but of course it’s karked it.

Batteries are quite expensive aren’t they? A chance browse around Halfords while the wife was in Morrisons led me to then battery isle. The absolute cheapest batteries in their range are a sort of “Asda smart price” of batteries. With my trade card in hand an appropriate battery was scanned out at £38 odd. 3 year warranty so I took the chance.
 

Nothing says  cheapskate owner like a Halfords Essentials battery but there we are. I might peel off the shite Halfords sticker but then that might affect the warranty. Just a couple more things and it’s MOT time! 

I see you have the dim dip set up still. Could be why your light switch was cooking.  I’d recommend you bin it.

http://www.2cvclub.pl/dokumentacja/nowe2014/Electrical/DIM-DIP.pdf

 

and

https://shared.yellowgrey.com/2015/11/22/removing-a-2cvs-dim-dip-system-quick-version/

 

 

[Popsicle]

13 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Lazy sod! 🤣

Its the self employed courier way mate, I've mentioned it in the deliveryshite thread, I'm a lazy person! 😴

[High Jetter]

33 minutes ago, Popsicle said:

Its the self employed courier way mate, I've mentioned it in the deliveryshite thread, I'm a lazy person! 😴

Enjoy! (I was only messing, I think I recall why you're off)

[Lankytim]

2 hours ago, richardmorris said:

I see you have the dim dip set up still. Could be why your light switch was cooking.  I’d recommend you bin it.

http://www.2cvclub.pl/dokumentacja/nowe2014/Electrical/DIM-DIP.pdf

 

and

https://shared.yellowgrey.com/2015/11/22/removing-a-2cvs-dim-dip-system-quick-version/

 

 

I’ve been advised over on Facebook to delete it. It seems to be as simple as just unplugging the relays and adding a jumper wire to one of the relay plugs. From what I’ve heard the dim-dip setup were a really bad idea to begin with and are best disabled. 
 

I’ve also added tell-tales for the indicators and main beam which should keep any MOT testers happy and make operating this contraption a little easier. The indicators don’t self cancel so without a tell tale I might end up driving around all day with the left indicator on or something. The flasher unit does make a noise but it might not be audible over the sound of the engine. 
 

I used a couple of dashboard lights of unknown origin, probably salvaged from a breakers many years ago from a Hillman Minx or something. They were part of the rats nest of wiring I removed recently, the previous owner had made an abortive attempt at adding tell tales and the whole lot was taped to the steering column. The tell tales didn’t quite fit the holes fitted with blanks on the dashboard so I got the cone cutter out and opened them up a little. A little hot glue gun action later and after connecting the factory installed wiring I now have a full compliment of dash lights! 

I’ll order a hazard switch this week and with that fitted I should have 100% working electrics. 

Any ideas what these “aftermarket” dash lights came from?

[SiC]

2 hours ago, Lankytim said:

Batteries are quite expensive aren’t they?

They are but they're also worth a fair bit as scrap! Hence the base material costs are high. 

[brownnova]

Went to a cracking car show on the Wirral today! 

 

Got home and put the 2CV in the garage just in time for the storms to arrive! 

[wesacosa]

42 minutes ago, brownnova said:

Went to a cracking car show on the Wirral today! 

 

Got home and put the 2CV in the garage just in time for the storms to arrive! 

some great stuff there, loving the Fuego and the Jesse Pinkman spec Tercel

[wuvvum]

Last weekend I spent a lot of time getting pretty much nowhere.  This weekend ended up being slightly more productive.

Last weekend I got the split intake hose off the Z4 and attempted a repair.  This turned out to be a waste of time as the little pipe that had split had to be stretched so far to get where it needed to be that I couldn't get any glue to hold it together - not helped by the fact that the rubber was perished.  So I had no choice but to fork out a ridiculous 42 quid for a new hose.  It arrived Friday and I fitted it yesterday (fiddly fecker of a job).  Fired the engine up and it ran spot on from cold - no missfiring, no engine light.  Took the car for a spin up the road and it was noticeably more responsive, and nailing it in third a couple of times it spun happily up to 5,000rpm with no misbehaviour (traffic and speed limits prevented me from giving it a proper caning).  So I'm going to call that fixed.  It's not perfect - there's still a slight hesitation when flooring it from low revs - but it's good enough.

Now I just need to fix the sticky steering (which actually wasn't too bad today despite it being the hottest day of the year so far) and it'll be fully usable.  I did start to have a look but I don't think I can get a socket and ratchet in there so I'm going to have to invest in a T11 Torx spanner before I can go any further.

The Lexmoto had been refusing to start, then it started pissing petrol out of the carb.  Diagnosing a stuck float I took it all to bits, but I couldn't get it to a point where it'd work properly - it was either not letting any fuel through at all or it was overflowing.  I looked on eBay to find the price of a replacement float and valve and discovered I could get a complete brand new carb for £14 delivered.  So that was the obvious solution to save even more buggering about!  The carb was also delivered yesterday, I fitted it and the bike fired straight up and ran fine.  So that's another job jobbed.

Shiny new £42 BMW hose:

Shiny new £14 Lexmoto carb:

I did also attempt last weekend to fit the replacement exhaust to the Spacy, but annoyingly although it's very similar there are enough differences between the 125 and the 150 that it's not a straight swap - one of the lower mounting holes is in the wrong place.  I could probably do without that mount but it'd be putting a lot of strain on the studs in the cylinder head, which aren't in the best condition anyway.  Also one of the other mounting bolts has seized solid (unsurprising being a steel bolt through an alloy crankcase) which is hindering things a bit.  I've not worked out a solution just yet. 

The Spacy did at least fire up though, after quite a bit of cranking, and ran happily for several minutes - the dip switch seems to have joined the gang of switches that have gone on the blink though, I can get main beam fine but I can only get dipped if I hold the switch in exactly the right position.  The switches on the spares bike are completely different so I can't use those.  I did get the headlight assembly off the spares bike though and I'll be fitting it at some point - one thing it does have that the Spacy's doesn't is a manual override for the pop-up mechanism, which has never worked on the Spacy since I've had it so the headlight has been permanently up.  It'll be good to be able to fold it down for the full '80s'futuristic look.

One job I was hoping to tackle this weekend was the valve clearances on the Renault 6.  Poking round under the bonnet though it soon became apparent that this was going to be a more involved job than I'd thought - I'd read through the procedure in the HBOL, but hadn't realised that they were doing it with the engine removed from the car.  To get the rocker cover off the throttle linkage has to be removed - this is held in with C-clips which are guaranteed to go pinging off never to be seen again, I do have a box of replacements somewhere but I can't find it at the moment.  Also I don't think there's enough clearance to get the rocker cover fully off without removing the gear linkage, and to do that I need to take out the cross brace that runs across the engine bay above the gearbox - but as well as the gear linkage the cross brace also has the top radiator hose running through it, which means I need to take that off and partially drain the cooling system.

I only had a couple of free hours left by this point and there was no way I was going to get it done in that time, and I need the 6 to be mobile so I can move it off the drive when I need to charge the Ampera, so that's going to have to wait for another weekend.  The tappets have been rattly for the 16 years I've owned the car, I'm sure another couple of weeks won't hurt...

So I went for a blat up the coast road in the Z4 instead.  Which turned out to be most enjoyable, very little traffic despite it being a lovely sunny Sunday, the only time I got held up (and then only slightly) was by a giffer in a Lotus Elise (!) but I was only behind him for a mile or so.

Now that it's running properly this car is definitely growing on me.

[The Vicar]

1200 miles covered in this over the weekend, Rome to Lyon and back. 

5 up with baggage and we were snug. Will be looking at a roof box next:

What can I say about it? I did Rome to Aosta (450ish miles) with a stop outside Bologna for LPG and Milan for lunch, and no real complaints. For a 1 litre 3 cyl loaded up to the gills it performed very well. I have no other experience of new 3 cyl engines, but I can say that if I knew no better I would think that this was a 1.6. 

I took to the passenger seat for the last leg of the journey and did Bologna-Rome yesterday on the return, so all in 650ish miles at the wheel. What can I say about it? The seats after a while can get a bit uncomfortable, I think the material is a bit tough/hard. Other than that, nothing really. I’m still really surprised at how well it drove. Whatever about the longevity of these engines remains to seen I suppose, but in the meantime I’ll call this a good “an car”

[wuvvum]

I'm slightly disappointed you didn't take the Ypsilon.  Actually that could almost be the first line of a joke - "How do you get five priests into an Ypsilon?"

[stuboy]

Yesterday myself, missus, the boy, the oldest stepdaughter and my niece popped up too the 'the stag pub' on the roundabout of charing Kent, these are the older motors there.. very nice too, there was some exotica like aston martin , mclaren etc if u like I can put them up too.

[dozeydustman]

1 hour ago, stuboy said:

Yesterday myself, missus, the boy, the oldest stepdaughter and my niece popped up too the 'the stag pub' on the roundabout of charing Kent, these are the older motors there.. very nice too, there was some exotica like aston martin , mclaren etc if u like I can put them up too.

That HA Viva is dribbleworthy

[lesapandre]

Travelling through France I came across a bunch of British touring with what I can only describe as Chit-Chitty-Bang-Bang cars. There were about 20 together - I did not manage to snap them all as only some stopped. I did not have chance to speak to anybody - maybe someone here knows who the are? The cars certainly weren't  simple restorations - more like variations on a vintage theme. Overall very impressive.

[Dyslexic Viking]

36 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

Travelling through France I came across a bunch of British touring with what I can only describe as Chit-Chitty-Bang-Bang cars. There were about 20 together - I did not manage to snap them all as only some stopped. I did not have chance to speak to anybody - maybe someone here knows who the are? The cars certainly weren't  simple restorations - more like variations on a vintage theme. Overall very impressive.

 

@barrett may be know these.

[Spottedlaurel]

1 hour ago, lesapandre said:

Travelling through France I came across a bunch of British touring with what I can only describe as Chit-Chitty-Bang-Bang cars. There were about 20 together - I did not manage to snap them all as only some stopped. I did not have chance to speak to anybody - maybe someone here knows who the are? The cars certainly weren't  simple restorations - more like variations on a vintage theme. Overall very impressive........

Maybe heading back from visiting the Historic GP at Monaco?

[brownnova]

1 hour ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

@barrett may be know these.

Came here to post the exact same! 

[hairnet]

4400ae is a straker whatever one of those is  1913

the silver car is a gn made between 1910 and 1925

although that one regd in 1989

 

[Ghosty]

Took the Civic to Retro Rides Weekender.

I'd just added CNC bushes to the gear linkage stabiliser, and a short shifter. One of these bushes fell out on the M3, so changing gears was fun*. Wipers had packed in too because of another failed bush, but this was an existing issue I was waiting for the parts to fix - ended up fixing all this in the campsite on the Saturday night, sticking some cable ties in the gear linkage and boring out a new wiper linkage bush with a penknife to fit it. I must have forgotten to tighten the nuts on the wiper arms as they got a bit confused on the M6 and ended up caught in each other...
then I stopped at a services and had lost PAS... one of the bolts had disappeared. Hung the pump off its hard line on the slam panel using a cable tie, and just about got home, but the formerly tight tensioner bolt on the bottom had almost escaped. Lucky.

Repaired all that today, so we now have working wipers again, the original bush is back in the linkage while I wait for the polybush replacement to arrive, and the pump is bolted back on. Even my limited camping gear (basic tools, 3 backpacks, a tent and a Brompton) was enough to make the Civic drag its arse - fun*. The clutch is absolutely on its last legs. The car's about 1400 miles off 100k, and I want to get it there before I swap the engine... but I want to start that next week so I somehow doubt it's going to happen...

[Rocket88]

7 hours ago, Ghosty said:

Took the Civic to Retro Rides Weekender.

I'd just added CNC bushes to the gear linkage stabiliser, and a short shifter. One of these bushes fell out on the M3, so changing gears was fun*. Wipers had packed in too because of another failed bush, but this was an existing issue I was waiting for the parts to fix - ended up fixing all this in the campsite on the Saturday night, sticking some cable ties in the gear linkage and boring out a new wiper linkage bush with a penknife to fit it. I must have forgotten to tighten the nuts on the wiper arms as they got a bit confused on the M6 and ended up caught in each other...
then I stopped at a services and had lost PAS... one of the bolts had disappeared. Hung the pump off its hard line on the slam panel using a cable tie, and just about got home, but the formerly tight tensioner bolt on the bottom had almost escaped. Lucky.

Repaired all that today, so we now have working wipers again, the original bush is back in the linkage while I wait for the polybush replacement to arrive, and the pump is bolted back on. Even my limited camping gear (basic tools, 3 backpacks, a tent and a Brompton) was enough to make the Civic drag its arse - fun*. The clutch is absolutely on its last legs. The car's about 1400 miles off 100k, and I want to get it there before I swap the engine... but I want to start that next week so I somehow doubt it's going to happen...

Legendary Honda reliability?😱😁

[Christine]

My Civic is just ..wonderful  

[vulgalour]

I find myself in a bit of a dilemma with this job I went to an interview for on Sunday.  The interviewer and I were a little concerned about the distance and cost and that's on me because I thought I'd applied for the position advertised in Brigg (about 7 miles from home) but had actually applied for a position in New Waltham (about 30 miles from home) and I've finally had time to sit down and do some number crunching.  Working on the basis I'm using the Princess, which is getting at best low 30s mpg and running on E5 it's going to cost me £15-20 a day for the commute.  I could maybe shave a bit of that cost off by taking the motorway but I'm not keen on that at the moment.  Then there's the concern of putting that much mileage that frequently on a car I both give a shit about and has been idle for a while so is likely to throw up problems impacting my ability to be reliable.

Getting another car isn't that much more viable either because then I've got the extra costs of tax, insurance, etc. which arguably is going to cost me more than just using the Princess, even if it's a more fuel economical option.  I even looked at rental options nearer to the potential new job location and there just isn't anything other than a couple of three bed places that are way out of budget.  That's definitely getting ahead of things too, I don't want to move house for a part time job, that's just silly.

I do have another interview on the 16th for a place much closer to home.  I also might be able to get a transfer to the Brigg store even though I interviewed at the New Waltham store if they do offer me the position.  I hate stuff like this.  The artwork is doing okay, I've actually had a better May than usual (even with the price rise to industry standard, weirdly that hasn't put people off so I definitely should have done that sooner!), but it's also been a very expensive month because of having to start over and having to buy stuff again.

I don't know that I'm looking for any particular solution here, just getting the thoughts out into the wild a bit.  I'm trying to find a part time role I can fit around the artwork that's close to home that I can ideally do on public transport since I hate commuting in my own car.  Something that's not going to leave me totally exhausted too so I don't burn out too quickly.  I'm absolutely certain going into full time regular employment isn't the answer for me at the moment and since June/July usually sees a better amount of work coming my way things should start getting a bit easier very soon.

All that said, I wouldn't be surprised if I do end up with a supplementary 'modern'.  I'm on a real push to get the Princess sorted this year and in an ideal world I'd happily run it as my only car all year round, I just need to do a lot of work to get it into a condition where I can trust it and that I can afford to keep on top of it all.  Right now it doesn't seem fair to push it into doing a 60 mile commute regularly and I feel like I might be pushing my luck a bit if I tried.  If I do get a second car it has to be stupid cheap to run, proper economy appliance machine stuff.

[lesapandre]

No public transport option? Or mixing the modes - driving to a public transport option - and leaving the Princess somewhere safe?

If there are public transport problems the other end - you could go for mixed-mode gold star - by putting a folding bike in the Princess and taking it on the public transport and using it the other end to get to your destination. Or variations on a theme.

Or tried any of the car share apps?

Running two cars will possibly not be cost effective? 

1200+ commuting miles P/M is going to test any old banger and you don't want to be spending all your free time on maintenance - or indeed two cars that are a bit needy?

[barrett]

14 hours ago, lesapandre said:

Travelling through France I came across a bunch of British touring with what I can only describe as Chit-Chitty-Bang-Bang cars. There were about 20 together - I did not manage to snap them all as only some stopped. I did not have chance to speak to anybody - maybe someone here knows who the are? The cars certainly weren't  simple restorations - more like variations on a vintage theme. Overall very impressive.

They were all coming back from the Vintage Revival event at Montlhéry (where I have also been) and funnily enough I do know all those cars and their owners. The first one is a French Derby, which was imported and sold in the UK by the well-known Amilcar racer Vernon Balls, and marketed as a Vernon-Derby. That's owned by my friend Gilly and I'm hoping to write a story on the car later this year. The GN has the super-duper OHC engine, but it's a built-up car. The Straker-Squire is a recently completed restoration using components found all over the world, and the body is a loose replica of the 1914 TT cars. It's owned by a very nice chap in London. Quite a heroic drive down to Montlhéry in that one, I imagine.

[artdjones]

14 hours ago, lesapandre said:

Travelling through France I came across a bunch of British touring with what I can only describe as Chit-Chitty-Bang-Bang cars. There were about 20 together - I did not manage to snap them all as only some stopped. I did not have chance to speak to anybody - maybe someone here knows who the are? The cars certainly weren't  simple restorations - more like variations on a vintage theme. Overall very impressive.

They are all completely real. The Vernon Derby was a small French sports car imported into England by a gent in the motor trade by the name of Vernon Balls. 

The GN was one of the last and best of the cyclecars, and very fast for the time. The N in GN was Archie Frazer-Nash, who carried on to build Frazer-Nash cars with a similar final drive using chains and no differential.

Straker-Squire built all kinds of stuff, including buses at one time, but went out of production when Mr.Straker got killed on the hunting field. They had been Bristol-based, but moved to London after WW1, and built large 4 litre cars and lighter stuff as well.

[SiC]

1 hour ago, vulgalour said:

All that said, I wouldn't be surprised if I do end up with a supplementary 'modern'. 

Sounds like a CityBug (C1/107/Aygo) would be perfect for you. 50+ mpg easily, super cheap or no tax, cheap parts, easy to work on and reliable. 

[320touring]

@vulgalour have you been offered the job yet?

If so, it's worth accepting it currently, and seeing how it goes on the 16th with the other interview.

It's a bit of a quandary, but one where regardless you come out with a potential job and can then consider options like transfers/applying for other posts etc.

Just getting the job and getting into the routine should hopefully make the process a little less stressful and give you a bit of security to set your base up on.

Glad to hear that the art is picking up well!

[vulgalour]

The other thing I forgot to mention about this job is it's evenings and weekends.  Store opens 6am to 11pm, and while the interviewer suggested they'd want me more for weekends and evenings, I might be needed mornings.  That makes the public transport option even more difficult even in an area that has good options.  This is Lincolnshire, public transport isn't great at all out here, especially outside of office hours.

I've not been offered the job yet, I'll find out at the end of the week, but the interview had that feel that it was likely I'd get the position.  Honestly, it'll be a relief if it turns out I was unsuccessful.  I'll go to the interview on the 16th anyway and see what happens with that, though I'm much less confident of my chances there.  I'm probably overthinking things again, it's been so long since I've been part of the job hunt circus and I've never really been in a position where I don't immediately need the work while looking that there's a lot of possibilities rattling around in my head.

Getting a two wheeled conveyance could be an option too of course, that just comes with its own plethora of expenses since I've never had a motorbike of any variety and I doubt very much that I'd want to do a long commute in the winter in Lincolnshire on two wheels, that just feels like a fast route to becoming an organ donor tbqh.

[artdjones]

1 hour ago, vulgalour said:

(even with the price rise to industry standard, weirdly that hasn't put people off so I definitely should have done that sooner!),

People are always willing to pay for quality, so there was no point underselling yourself.

Also, as an experienced window cleaner once told me "better 3 customers at £4 than 4 at £3.