The new news 24 thread

[Mike D]

Hey Trig, I bought some plates off them last week for the 840 - tenner delivered for a pair, they're cock on

[trigger]

I've been using them for a few years now, You always get a next day service and they look spot on, I've recommended them to a few friends who also prise them up, They used to be £7.99 for a pair so they have gone up £2, still sod all though.

[R9UKE]

Well the Mégane has been written off thanks to the woman up the street reversing out of her driveway in her hubby's C5 Estate thinking she's still in her Ka.

 

Supposed rear axle damage has written it off. Now to do the impossible and find a Meggy as well spec'd up as this one was. Or maybe a 2.0 Avantime or Vel Satis...

 

[Cheggers]

Popped a new thermostat in the 944 as the old one looked like it'd been attached with a hammer. I know this doesn't sound like a major undertaking, but anyone with a 944 will have a wry smile on their face at the thought of shifting "that" circlip

[wuvvum]

I won a Yamaha Diversion project on eBay earlier in the week, and went to pick it up today. I drove down in the Transit; seller was just outside Romford, and getting there without going into the LEZ involved going down some roads which were not really suitable for a LWB transit. Got there and back OK though, Transit didn't miss a beat and did 250 miles on £50 of diesel, which I work out to be about 32mpg - not bad considering, although I wasn't really caning it apart from the last few miles of the A11 on the way home, where I opened it up to see exactly what it would do on the sat nav before it ran out of revs (78mph as it turns out).

 

Tomorrow morning's job is to get the bike out of the back of the van (buggered if I was going to attempt it in the dark) and then see if I can get it running - engine turns over fine but doesn't seem particularly keen to fire, but it's stood for a few weeks so might benefit from plugs being cleaned etc. The fuel tap leaks slightly, but only when it's being turned - if I leave it alone it seems OK. Headlight doesn't work (sidelights do) and the chain is rather loose, but other than that I can't see it needing a huge amount to get back on the road. It's done a lot of miles (82K) but the Diversion engine is not exactly highly strung (60bhp from 600cc) so I'm hoping it'll be OK.

[The Moog]

The speedo hub cap on the T25 bounced off somewhere doing 50 mph! Bugger. They dont seem to stay on. Got Carat wheels and I dont think they hold it on like the steelies.

[eddyramrod]

The carport canopy I referred to in the Grin thread... this morning I spread it on the gravel in the back yard, then hung it on the washing line (it was put away wet). The damage doesn't look too bad at all, the worst being concentrated in one corner. I've salvaged some big swathes of cloth fom one of my damaged covers and I reckon I can repair this one. Beige patches on an olive-green cover, FTW! I might even post up some pics.

[RobT]

I've been using them for a few years now, You always get a next day service and they look spot on, I've recommended them to a few friends who also prise them up, They used to be £7.99 for a pair so they have gone up £2, still sod all though.

 

Cheers, will go with them then. One job off the list!

[Father Ted]

CBA starting a new thread but have some delightful 60's style Car and Caravan Rammell:-

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/caravan-concourse

[messerschmitt owner]

The carport canopy I referred to in the Grin thread... this morning I spread it on the gravel in the back yard, then hung it on the washing line (it was put away wet). The damage doesn't look too bad at all, the worst being concentrated in one corner. I've salvaged some big swathes of cloth fom one of my damaged covers and I reckon I can repair this one. Beige patches on an olive-green cover, FTW! I might even post up some pics.

take the pics on the day the landlady visits!

[dollywobbler]

The Mini has made it to Cornwall without losing vast quantities of oil. However, on the day of departure, I did notice that one of the headlamp trims is missing. Must have disappeared while my wife was out in it the night before. Went for a look along her route but no sign of it. Sod.

 

2CV is proving difficult to start at the moment, and has made some very impressive 'gun going off' backfires! I'm hoping a spell of drier weather will make her feel better, especially as the new spark plugs that I've ordered seem to have failed to arrive. Grrrr.

 

Discovered why the Maverick has been making a horrible burning smell. Should have linked it to the squealing alternator belt sooner... Managed to tighten it up but by heck it's a horrible job! Much easier if you remove the battery and top hose I imagine. Not even slightly convenient! My right wrist looks like a depressed Emo teenager's.

[wuvvum]

Well, the Diversion is a runner. Getting it out of the back of the van using a wheelchair ramp from the Metrocab was interesting, but I managed it without killing myself or dropping the bike. Once it was in the back garden, my expert bike ressurecting skillz (choke out, stick jump leads on it and wind it over till it fires) had it running within about five minutes. Which was a relief, as the next step had that not worked was to whip the plugs out and see if they were sparking - except that among the half dozen plug spanners I found in the shed, none was the right size.

 

Anyway, the engine sounds as healthy as can be expected for an 82,000-mile Diversion (cam chain rattle FTW), but it does have a fairly major oil leak -this seems to be coming from around the filter though, and looking at the colour of the oil it's probably due a service anyway, so hopefully an oil and filter change will sort the problem. Unfortunately I don't think it'd appreciate Asda 20W50 though.

 

Other than that, the clutch is free, the brakes work, the exhaust is quiet and the dipped headlight has now started working (still no main beam though) so once I've had my lunch I might don my helmet and risk a (very) brief run up the road on it, seeing as how it's warmer out there than it was for most of last July.

[Cavcraft]

Sounds like you've had a right touch there Wuvvum, when you're ready can you post some pictures up of the bike please for us two wheel pervs? Cheers.

[dollywobbler]

Sun refused to disappear so I painted the boot floor of the BX and one of the sills with black rustoleum (no point doing the other sill as it's knackered and I have a replacement) and then went laning in the Maverick again. Good fun!

[Cavcraft]

Take an Aldi, A dirty, filthy Aldi that needed a damned good buffing.

 

 

Add birthday present, spend a couple of hours.

 

Fleet photo's, yo!

 

 

Still got to do the wheels and a bit on the o/s/r quarter bottom where some used veg oil may have plastic welded itself to the bottom of the bumper.

[trigger]

What kind of mop did you get?

[Cavcraft]

Silverline 'SilverStorm'.

[Tayne]

 

Jesus, look at those keys!

Are you running a jail? Or just looking after Nigel Bickle's spare car keys.

 

 

Fleet photo's, yo!

 

Calendar shot.

 

Good result with mop.

[dollywobbler]

 

Interesting mop. I'm amazed it isn't pink after all that cleaning!

[Shep Shepherd]

That's an incredible transformation, Billy

[trigger]

@ Dolly, They look quite well priced, was it any good? I used to use a Sealey one 10 years again with variable speeds, that was a good bit of kit but they are expensive, I want one that i can do the Cortina with that doesn't cost the earth and isn't one of those rubbish two handled polisher things you buy from Halfords.

[Cavcraft]

@ Ian!

 

Quite impressed with it Trig, witch's tit under fifty rips from Argo and had to buy the spare mop heads seperately (Machine Mart) which are about a fiver a throw. Had one of those Halford's one once, absolute shite, would have been better off flicking toothpaste off an elastic band two hundred yards away then wiping it off with wet bog roll.

[trigger]

I'm just reseaching it now, There's a thread about them on detailing world, they seem to have a good review from what I'm read so far and at £41 on amazon they aren't expensive.

 

They recommend a 3m backing pad though the polishers I've always used in the past never had backing pads, just mop heads which screwfix sell so I'm a bit confused at the moment as too what they are on about.

[Cavcraft]

Yeah, a bit confusing really. Machine Mart sell screw on and velcro ones, though the screw on ones are female and on the buffer itself the whole head is male screw on, so I got the velcro ones. Just to muddy the waters further they're not actually quite the right size, about an inch or smaller I think.

[cobblers]

There's a cretinous bloke that does cheap resprays from a single garage behind a row of terraces near my mate, and he's got one of those silverline buffer jobbies. He's as shit as you'd expect, so every job needs hitting hard with the buffer to sort out runs and dry paint and all the bits of his asbestos garage roof that have fell off and landed in the wet paint.

 

The whine of his buffer is heard for a few hours every morning from inside anyone up the street, but it's lasted him about 3 years so far, so I can only assume they would last a hobbyist pretty much forever.

 

EDIT: Oh, he (and I)always just buy a farecla mop head for them. I think they are about 7 quid, but they last 3 or 4 full vehicle shit respray flat and buffs. If you just want to tidy some faded paint up with tcut they would last for ages.

[Lankytim]

Top work, Billy. Those mops can work wonders on pink cars- they can make an old clunker into a minter with just a few hours work. My 240 was just the same, although there are a few bits I need to finish off properly...

 

Just for future reference, electric mops use one size thread, air powered mops use a different one. Thats what the guy at machine mart told me anyway! I think one is metric and the other is imperial?

 

Talking of the 240 I has today mostly been finishing installing the rear electric windows The new loom all plugged straight in, except the wires to the drivers window needed careful removal and soldering back into place as for some reason Volvo didn't put a connector on them. Rear power windows isn't an essential piece of engineering to have but it was on the spares car so I fitted it anyway. I'm well pleased! I also changed the front carpet for a better one that didn't have a hole from the previous owners heel and while the seats were out I took the time to give everything a good hoover, under the centre console was full of decomposing lentil things but I did find £1.30! I also added the plastic parking ticket holder from the spares scrapper to the passenger side of my windscreen. Hopefully now the frigging tax disc won't fall out again.

 

Best of all I didn't damage or destroy a single piece of trim. Is this some sort of world record?

[trigger]

.Oh, he (and I)always just buy a farecla mop head for them. I think they are about 7 quid, but they last 3 or 4 full vehicle shit respray flat and buffs. If you just want to tidy some faded paint up with tcut they would last for ages.

 

That's what i used to use when i mopped cars in the bodyshop, Billy just to check, your mop has a threaded male nut coming out of it doesn't it that i can just spin the Farecla mop head on? They are under £9 on ebay and are ideal for what i need.

[dollywobbler]

BRAKING (sic) NEWS!

 

Just came very close to smashing the BX into a Merc Sprinter, after we met on a tiny mountain road. I was driving too quickly but quick reactions and cadence braking (BX brakes are VERY powerful) meant I just about avoided disaster. On the plus side, the handbrake is now really good! (it self-adjusts with heavy footbrake application). I really did think "there's nothing I can do here. This might hurt." as despite my best efforts, the BX was skidding and I had no directional control. I still can't quite believe I got away with it. The chap in the Merc didn't seem too bothered at all! He accepted my waved apology and drove off. I'm a bit annoyed with myself as it was a stupid and needless incident.

[eddyramrod]

As mentioned earlier, I invested the glorious day we had yesterday in repairing my "new" canopy. So here is where it's going:

...and here's what the other one looks like:

I was able to salvage some cloth from this one for repair purposes.

So, this is the replacement canopy, hung on my washing line:

Closer views of some of the damage this one has sustained...

That little gash isn't very long but I thought I'd better fix it while I had the kit out.

My parents made their own tents, so I learned to sew pretty early. After they died I simply didn't throw away their sewing supplies. So here I am, making good use of them...

And I think I can be pleased with the results.

That's where the little gash was, bang in the middle of one panel.

Same corner fom the underside:

As the light was going I left the canopy on the line overnight, planning to figure out a way of fitting it today. When you fit them from new, of course, you do it before attaching the uprights... And last night it rained. It's still raining now. I'm going to need at least a day of sun to dry the thing out before it can be fitted. Darn, as they say!

 

Oh yeah, and I needed hardly any of the beige cloth! I patched the green with torn redundant bits of itself. I did use a bit of beige where one of the attachment eyelets had disappeared; now there's one in the same place still fixed to its beige runner. When I do put it up, that'll be 3 of the 4 spans covered, which isn't bad for the price.

[barefoot]

The day after passing it's MOT, Porsche screenwasher motor died.

Two minutes to remove and replace.

£45 - shock horror for a new one. There is apparently no such thing as a used one as they all fail.

Well, mine has lasted the best part of 25 years so I can't grumble, but I'll bet this one doesn't keep working until 2037.

I'll put it in my diary now, before I forget.