The new news 24 thread

[JJ0063]

3 hours ago, Snake Charmer said:

Do you know what the Solus went for?

£320 I believe?

I’ve just listed the wing cover for £70 plus post on eBay so hopefully that’ll go. I also have the red Halfords roll cab so may stick this black cabinet on the side as I believe they attach fairly easily, otherwise I may just sort the tools out, clean it all up and sell it on. Not 100% sure as I didn’t intend to buy it 😂

[morrisoxide]

I went out for a drive in the Oxford by myself for no reason. With the sun shining down on a Friday evening with some Chopin on the stereo, with windows down and the quarter lights cocked.

Stopped at this place for a picture.

[stuboy]

Er'indoors has been using my galaxy all week, and she drove me too tesco , i asked was it better now i sorted the turbo actuator, and she replied 'yeah' i asked as she was driving quite sprightly...lol

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, morrisoxide said:

I went out for a drive in the Oxford by myself for no reason. With the sun shining down on a Friday evening with some Chopin on the stereo, with windows down and the quarter lights cocked.

Stopped at this place for a picture.

Nice. Door fits could do with a fettle tho?

[morrisoxide]

32 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Nice. Door fits could do with a fettle tho?

Aye they could and that's the half of it. I saved the car from the track years ago. It was owned by Rea's Creamy Ices (Chris Rea's Dad) and used to move fridges about with Ice cream in them hence no back door handles and odd floor strengtheners.

I'm well aware it is a dog of car. Everyone seems to go out of one's way to tell me, even on this forum. This is the main reason I don't have my own car threads on here or anywhere.

[vulgalour]

Fuck em, it's a great looking car and given its age it doesn't really matter what the door gaps look like.

[High Jetter]

53 minutes ago, morrisoxide said:

Aye they could and that's the half of it. I saved the car from the track years ago. It was owned by Rea's Creamy Ices (Chris Rea's Dad) and used to move fridges about with Ice cream in them hence no back door handles and odd floor strengtheners.

I'm well aware it is a dog of car. Everyone seems to go out of one's way to tell me, even on this forum. This is the main reason I don't have my own car threads on here or anywhere.

Ooh, history! Do not paint/restore - I get the colour scheme now.

[SiC]

9 hours ago, morrisoxide said:

I'm well aware it is a dog of car.

Nah it's a survivor. Vast majority of its contemporaries haven't survived. 

[brownnova]

10 hours ago, morrisoxide said:

I'm well aware it is a dog of car.

100% disagree! It looks ace! Proper charm to it. I’d rather that than something over polished and unusable! 

[Matty]

On 21/05/2024 at 12:49, grogee said:

Designed by my brother in law (he's a design engineer at Norbar). I have a few wrenches like that of various capacities, nicely made and have lasted well. 

Oh I've a mate works as a Turner and gear cutter at Norbar. Small world!

[Snake Charmer]

14 hours ago, JJ0063 said:

£320 I believe?

I’ve just listed the wing cover for £70 plus post on eBay so hopefully that’ll go. I also have the red Halfords roll cab so may stick this black cabinet on the side as I believe they attach fairly easily, otherwise I may just sort the tools out, clean it all up and sell it on. Not 100% sure as I didn’t intend to buy it 😂

My old red side cabinets have a return on the upper left and right edges to hang on the roll cabinet and the door can be hinged left or right. They currently sit in that useless area under the bench below the vice. 

[Shite Ron]

15 hours ago, morrisoxide said:

Aye they could and that's the half of it. I saved the car from the track years ago. It was owned by Rea's Creamy Ices (Chris Rea's Dad) and used to move fridges about with Ice cream in them hence no back door handles and odd floor strengtheners.

I'm well aware it is a dog of car. Everyone seems to go out of one's way to tell me, even on this forum. This is the main reason I don't have my own car threads on here or anywhere.

I think by the number of likes your picture got that I am not alone in wanting to see more posts on this car. The history is interesting and the fact it may not be perfect adds to its character. Whilst it is nice to see immaculate cars, the ones that really draw my attention are ones that look like they have and still are being used for what they were made for.

[Momentary Lapse Of Reason]

16 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Nice. Door fits could do with a fettle tho?

The fits are about as good as they left the factory with and certainly after a couple of years many were much much worse than Morrisoxide's car.

A lot of the Farinas were rotted out by five years old.

We used to have a fleet of them where I worked in the late 70s - most could not have passed an MoT even then ...

[Ghosty]

Er, does anyone in Essex have a Beetle fuel tank knocking about?

[camryv6]

18 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Nice. Door fits could do with a fettle tho?

Everyone's a critique, lol 

[Ghosty]

Never mind, we’ve found one. 

[captain_70s]

2 hours ago, Momentary Lapse Of Reason said:

The fits are about as good as they left the factory with and certainly after a couple of years many were much much worse than Morrisoxide's car.

A lot of the Farinas were rotted out by five years old.

We used to have a fleet of them where I worked in the late 70s - most could not have passed an MoT even then ...

They're also a bastard to get looking perfect as soon as they've had the inevitable replacement sills and door bottoms due to the slab sided shape being very unforgiving.

[richardmorris]

Just replaced the rear window trim on the 2cv without the correct tool. Using a penknife and wooden peg with autoglym rubber and vinyl cleaner as a lubricant.  It has been sitting in the full sun since midday too.

[Dobloseven]

18 hours ago, morrisoxide said:

Aye they could and that's the half of it. I saved the car from the track years ago. It was owned by Rea's Creamy Ices (Chris Rea's Dad) and used to move fridges about with Ice cream in them hence no back door handles and odd floor strengtheners.

I'm well aware it is a dog of car. Everyone seems to go out of one's way to tell me, even on this forum. This is the main reason I don't have my own car threads on here or anywhere.

What a back story.Bet you get lots of Driving home for Christmas comments!

[junkyarddog]

Out and about in the diesel Jetta.

Deepest rural Tipperary visiting my uncle.

You can nearly hear the banjos!😂

 

[Wibble]

45 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Just replaced the rear window trim on the 2cv without the correct tool. Using a penknife and wooden peg with autoglym rubber and vinyl cleaner as a lubricant.  It has been sitting in the full sun since midday too.

Fair play! I’ve been putting that job off on the Cortina for years. Have the trim, just lacking the motivation.

[richardmorris]

5 minutes ago, Wibble said:

Fair play! I’ve been putting that job off on the Cortina for years. Have the trim, just lacking the motivation.

So was until I realised my ccc mag column was due tomorrow and I had no copy to send in! Wasn't too bad in the end  - I'm sure a cortina will be twice the length! The corners were the hardest

. 

[Wibble]

25 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

So was until I realised my ccc mag column was due tomorrow and I had no copy to send in! Wasn't too bad in the end  - I'm sure a cortina will be twice the length! The corners were the hardest

. 

That hasn’t persuaded me to give it a go🙂

[richardmorris]

4 minutes ago, Wibble said:

That hasn’t persuaded me to give it a go🙂

My skills are always along the lines that it’s already buggered so I can’t make it worse.

[Wibble]

5 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

My skills are always along the lines that it’s already buggered so I can’t make it worse.

That’s my philosophy at work and what I tell my staff. If something’s fucked and we do nothing, it’s still fucked. If we try something and it doesn’t work, it’s still just fucked. If we try something and it works, one more thing saved! Nothing to lose in having a go. Still can’t be arsed giving those chrome inserts a try at the moment though😆

[richardmorris]

Tractor porn on countryfile bbc1 now.

[stuboy]

not that i need it currently i can not find my towing eye for the mondeo, looked in the cars, the shed, missus handbag and no avail.. so ive ordered one from amazon, bet the missing one will turn up shortly....

[meshking]

2 hours ago, richardmorris said:

My skills are always along the lines that it’s already buggered so I can’t make it worse.

Bit late now, but I have the tool here as the van has four windows with the same trim. 

[adw1977]

23 hours ago, morrisoxide said:

Aye they could and that's the half of it. I saved the car from the track years ago. It was owned by Rea's Creamy Ices (Chris Rea's Dad) and used to move fridges about with Ice cream in them hence no back door handles and odd floor strengtheners.

Interesting!  Do the rear doors not open at all? 

I've never heard of a van conversion of an A55 Mark 2 before, of course BMC carried on making the van version of the A55 Mark 1 all the way through to the introduction of the Marina.

[wuvvum]

I've been having fun this weekend with parts not fitting.

My first job to get done this weekend was to get the fuel filter changed on the Getz.  I got everything unplugged, got the filter assembly off the car, drained and unscrewed the old filter and then went to fit the new one.  It was exactly the same size and shape as the old one (I'd checked the dimensions before I bought it), with one crucial difference - the hole on the bottom of the filter for the water detector has a completely different thread.  Given that the water detector is also the plug for the bottom of the filter, not being able to fit it was a bit of a show stopper, so the Getz is immobile until the correct filter arrives.  (Annoyingly the correct filter is about half the price of the one I bought.)

This afternoon I backed the Volvo up onto the ramps to have a look at the brakes.  First job was to measure up for a replacement brake pipe to the nearside rear load sensing valve, which was easy enough.  The next job was to fit the replacement valve I'd bought for the offside, which appears to have seized and isn't letting any fluid through to the caliper.  Except the replacement valve doesn't fit - the mountings are completely different, and they're not really modifiable either as the ones on the car use much bigger bolts and there isn't enough metal on the replacement to drill a hole the right size.  So that's back to square one too.

I did get the valve clearances done on the Renault though.

This is a job I've been intending to do for the last 16 years but only just got around to, partly because it's such a pain in the arse removing all the bits that need to be removed to get the rocker cover off.  The clearances were easy enough to adjust while I was in there though.  Some of the valves were spot on (one was even a bit tight, but I left it because it was only .05mm out), some needed a minor tweak, and a couple you could have driven a fugging bus through.  They're all where they should be now though, and the engine sounds the quietest it ever has in my ownership (it's still a Cléon-fonte, so everything is relative).  I had a bit of a worrying moment when I first started it up and there was a loud buzzing from somewhere, but I soon realised that I'd left my ratchet on the crank pulley from where I'd been turning the engine over, and it was now merrily being spun at 1,500rpm by the engine. 🤪 

Reassembly was the reverse of removal, with a few bits that needed taking apart again and redoing when I realised I'd forgotten bits.  The most awkward bit was getting the new rocker cover gasket to stay in its groove in the cover while I manoeuvred it back onto the head - in the end I had to run a bead of Hylomar round the groove to hold the gasket in place.  Next job is to fix the bonnet lock (I've ordered a R12 lock which I'm going to butcher for the bits I need), then the car should be properly usable again, hole in the floor notwithstanding.

The Visa is the next in the queue to have the valve clearances done - I suspect that's going to be awkward as well being a flat twin.  I also need to look at the brakes again - the pedal is nearly on the floor again, but what is different now is that if I pump it once it comes back again and the car stops as it should.  So I'm wondering if air has got in somehow - I did bleed all the brakes before but I'm going to give it another try.

I had been intending to look over the Toyota and the folding electric scooter for their upcoming MOTs, but I realised when I went to check the advisories that I'd got my dates wrong and the Toyota doesn't run out until August and the scooter in September, so that was a Brucie bonus.  So I went for a top down drive in the Z4 instead.