The new news 24 thread

[captain_70s]

1 hour ago, The Vicar said:

My 3rd purchase in 3 weeks…

Nice. These are the only car Girlfriend_70s has any real interest in owning.

[SiC]

3 hours ago, Cookiesouwest said:

I am now the owner of said E320.

SiC is not kidding about the fuel economy. I've not hit 20 mpg yet, this week.

Still love it though.

My lighter/smaller 330i with it's more modern/less slushy box isn't doing much better tbh. 

 

[Split_Pin]

Best I get is 32mpg from my E46 330CI on a run.

[beko1987]

3 hours ago, captain_70s said:

Nice. These are the only car Girlfriend_70s has any real interest in owning.

Good job your a good welder then 👌🤣 Made her dreams* come true yet with one? 

I saw/got next to one up at handy cross/m40 j4 a few years ago and it looked cool but I could see bubbling creeping out of the paintwork up close around the edges 😬

[captain_70s]

24 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

Good job your a good welder then 👌🤣 Made her dreams* come true yet with one? 

I saw/got next to one up at handy cross/m40 j4 a few years ago and it looked cool but I could see bubbling creeping out of the paintwork up close around the edges 😬

I've said she's welcome to buy one and I'll maintain it, given she can't drive I don't think one will be landing any time soon! I suspect when the time comes she'll chicken out and go for as new a car as she can afford...

They do go frilly but panel supply is very good, if not cheap.

I do worry of the logistics of a soft top living outside full time in sunny* Scotland.

Decent ones seem to be £4-6k. Around the £2k mark they usually have rotten arches and bumpers.

[EyesWeldedShut]

An afternoon of ups, ups and then downs finally tinkering with the FreeLoader that landed last weekend.
Handbrake sticks on both rear wheels, was expecting to have to drill out the holding screws and wallop the drum off over a massive lip;
Nope wheel nuts and screws all well copper greased, drums eased off with a little tap - it's all just filthy inside and needs a good clean,  then free up the internal handbrake lever and adjusting up the shoes ✅
Old exhaust back box fell off with some gentle* angle grinding and BFH ✅
Tank strap securing bolts freed off with just a socket and short handle ✅

Rear steel brake pipes on both sides are rather buggered and one looks to have rusted so badly around the flexi join that the top of the flexi pipe is distorting. Feeding a new copper pipe around the subframe looks to be really* easy. Not even looked at the fronts yet ❌

At least with no back box access to the pipe runs and tank straps is much simpler✅

9,000 miles, eight months and one new owner later:

[Stinkwheel]

24 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

An afternoon of ups, ups and then downs finally tinkering with the FreeLoader that landed last weekend.
Handbrake sticks on both rear wheels, was expecting to have to drill out the holding screws and wallop the drum off over a massive lip;
Nope wheel nuts and screws all well copper greased, drums eased off with a little tap - it's all just filthy inside and needs a good clean,  then free up the internal handbrake lever and adjusting up the shoes ✅
Old exhaust back box fell off with some gentle* angle grinding and BFH ✅
Tank strap securing bolts freed off with just a socket and short handle ✅

Rear steel brake pipes on both sides are rather buggered and one looks to have rusted so badly around the flexi join that the top of the flexi pipe is distorting. Feeding a new copper pipe around the subframe looks to be really* easy. Not even looked at the fronts yet ❌

At least with no back box access to the pipe runs and tank straps is much simpler✅

9,000 miles, eight months and one new owner later:

Ugh, annoying and weird that its kind of been looked after but not 'actually' looked after. All apologies for posting the thing in the e-bay thread.

[EyesWeldedShut]

1 hour ago, Stinkwheel said:

Ugh, annoying and weird that its kind of been looked after but not 'actually' looked after. All apologies for posting the thing in the e-bay thread.

No apology needed it’s better than I was expecting (genuine LR branded tow bar and electrics for example), minimal corrosion underneath, couple of recent front wishbones and bushes.

From the V5 changes I reckon the last keeper has ran it for a year without spending a penny on it and has unloaded it now looking at the MOT due in February.

The tank straps and brake corrosion have been advisories since 2018 (!) makes you wonder if people even read them.

 I reckon it’s going to need about £200 in parts (including the back box and full oil/filters) to get it to a standard I’d be happy to drive/MOT.  
I’d be happy with that 😀

[stuboy]

11 hours ago, Cookiesouwest said:

I've not hit 20 mpg yet, this week.

the mondeo only does 17.7 today

[JMotor]

25 minutes ago, stuboy said:

the mondeo only does 17.7 today

Sounds about the same as my Altezza.

Fuel consumption? Yes! 😆 

However. That BEAMS just sounds too good.

[brownnova]

Important collection undertaken in the most suitable vehicle. 

[reb]

On 29/11/2024 at 08:48, richardmorris said:

Who thought a pinky grey tank with orange leather was a good idea?

That's @17-Coffeesspec, he always says if he comes into money he's going to buy something of exquisite luxury in a spec with absolutely awful resale value

[Popsicle]

The money pit Qashqai passed its test in the week.

More drop links to replace, must be a Nissan thing as I've got to change them on the Elgrand as well.

Thats 2 out of 3 MOTs done that are due November/December, just the van to do in a couple of weeks.

[dome]

Having a clear out of my lockup to get the Porsche in there over winter. 

2 wiring looms here. One is from 1981, one is from 2009. Progress*

(Manta and MX5)

[dome]

Also went today and swapped out the Jeeps bonnet for one not painted by an imbecile. Not me I hasten to add.

Original bonnet 

Going full Roadkill here.

It should be noted that High Output in Jeep terms is a massive* 56bhp/litre🤣🤣🤣

Replacement fitted.

Sorted. The guy took my old bonnet in part ex which saves me disposing of it. 

[alcyonecorporation]

Spotted these bulbs in town as my mate went to buy a pile of old PS3 games. 

Any good, @LightBulbFun?

 

[Split_Pin]

A while ago I gave one of my old Vauxhall buddies the flaky Android head unit out the E46. He had a bonnet sitting for me for ages so I went over to his bit in Tuesday to fit it. Turns out the wiring is a bit fiddly and he was really busy with work that day so we decided to patch it for the time being.

He kindly delivered it today for fuel money so I now have an excellent bonnet in colour with brand new kidney grilles . My wife is going to help me fit the bonnet and then I'll do the wiring at my leisure in my garage. 

Delighted!

[BorniteIdentity]

Fuckentrains meant I had to use Shanks’ pony earlier. 

Some beauties in Barnet. Actually wouldn’t mind living around here. Is it fairly decent or did I just find the one nice road from Barnet to Cockfosters? 

Anyway. 

[LightBulbFun]

53 minutes ago, alcyonecorporation said:

Spotted these bulbs in town as my mate went to buy a pile of old PS3 games. 

Any good, @LightBulbFun?

 

very interesting find! especially the Tripti Indian made lamps, I wonder if the Bush ones are Indian as well? since Tripti is an Indian domestic market brand (possibly made their own lamps, not 100% sure tho)

£3 a bulb is a bit strong, but i'd probably have the indian lamps and maybe (some of) the Bush depending on where they where made/who they where made by, if they where all different colours (I am also curious what the one in the blue box behind is?)

 

India is fun in that they never had incandescent lightbulb bans, and they have a fair few factories made with ex British lamp machinery, so in India, from Surya for example you can still to this very day in 2024, get high quality Coiled Coiled 100W Bayonet lightbulbs! I admit I am pretty jealous of that, its gotten surprisingly hard to get decent quality tungsten lamps in quantity these days...

[alcyonecorporation]

Listen, props for wanting some of the bush but I think as a young fella you'll need to find that on your own. 

On a more serious note, I'll have a look at 'em properly the next time I'm back in town. 

[richardmorris]

5 hours ago, brownnova said:

Important collection undertaken in the most suitable vehicle. 

I’d have been tempted to bungee cord it to the rack. I have offered tree collection services to my sister…

[Dyslexic Viking]

Found something I had been given as a gift and forgotten about. So unpacked it and put it on and this is quite nice in the winter darknes.

[Split_Pin]

I had a free day today as the new season of Fortnite is out and my wife's next dolls house project arrived (she's in her 3rd now and counting) so we all stayed home and did hobby stuff.

Before changing the bonnet on the E46, I did an oil change on the red A4.

The Pela is just there to suck out the old  oil from the bottom of the filter housing, the change was done through the drain plug as it doesn't like the extractor.

[wuvvum]

The main job on my list this weekend was to get the replacement exhaust section fitted to the Merc.  That didn't happen, because the part I bought was the wrong one.  I naïvely assumed that the part for a W204 would be the same as for a W203 - same engine and similar underpinnings - but this turned out not to be the case, the end where it connects to the cat is different - of course this wasn't visible until I'd removed the clamp.  If I'd thought about it a bit more I probably would have realised they'd be different - the W204 has a DPF whereas the 203 doesn't.

So I've now ordered the correct bit - hopefully the weather next weekend will be clement enough for me to fit it.  I just about managed to get at the bottom mounting bolt with my flex-head ratchet, but it doesn't seem to want to undo very far - fortunately the bottom mounting point on the pipe is a slot rather than a hole so once everything else is undone I should be able to wiggle it out.

I haven't refitted the dash yet either - the GPS antenna adaptor hasn't turned up yet so I haven't finished fitting the stereo.  I did get one job done though - I bought a secondhand tuning box off eBay, it'd come off a W642-powered Vito but in this instance it did fit the C-Class, so that's now installed.

It's a bit more sophisticated than the usual cheapo resistor-in-a-box tuning devices you see on eBay - it controls both the fuelling and the turbo boost, and has four different maps each with two power settings.  It would have been quite an expensive bit of kit new.  Quoted power is 270bhp - obviously I can't vouch for that as I don't have a rolling road, but the car definitely feels more responsive (not that it was slow before) and the way it lit up the rear Falkens when I floored it out of a junction suggests there's more low-down torque as well.  It doesn't seem to chuck out clouds of smoke and it hasn't put the engine light on, so I'm counting that as a win - it's 80% of a Celtic Tuning remap for 10% of the price...

I also fitted a new bonnet strut as the bonnet wasn't staying up very well.  I ordered a pair of struts but for some reason the eBay seller sent me 4, so one of the extras has been repurposed as a tailgate strut for the Visa - it's not quite as long as the original but it holds the tailgate up without resorting to a 2x4, so I'm calling that an improvement.

That's about all I got done because of the shite weather.  I was hoping to get the Merc up on the ramps this afternoon to try and retrieve the screwdriver that fell into the engine bay when I started the engine after fitting the tuning box, but much as I love that screwdriver I wasn't going to roll around on the floor in the pissing rain, so that will have to wait.

[IronStar]

On 30/11/2024 at 20:30, LightBulbFun said:

very interesting find! especially the Tripti Indian made lamps, I wonder if the Bush ones are Indian as well? since Tripti is an Indian domestic market brand (possibly made their own lamps, not 100% sure tho)

£3 a bulb is a bit strong, but i'd probably have the indian lamps and maybe (some of) the Bush depending on where they where made/who they where made by, if they where all different colours (I am also curious what the one in the blue box behind is?)

 

India is fun in that they never had incandescent lightbulb bans, and they have a fair few factories made with ex British lamp machinery, so in India, from Surya for example you can still to this very day in 2024, get high quality Coiled Coiled 100W Bayonet lightbulbs! I admit I am pretty jealous of that, its gotten surprisingly hard to get decent quality tungsten lamps in quantity these days...

100W Tungsram readily available over here AFAIK (not that I bought a non-LED bulb for ages). Interesting for you maybe?

[Lankytim]

6 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

I had a free day today as the new season of Fortnite is out and my wife's next dolls house project arrived (she's in her 3rd now and counting) so we all stayed home and did hobby stuff.

Before changing the bonnet on the E46, I did an oil change on the red A4.

The Pela is just there to suck out the old  oil from the bottom of the filter housing, the change was done through the drain plug as it doesn't like the extractor.

What sort of Dolls houses is your wife into? My mother was into minatura (sp?) for ages and built up quite a collection, she’s been dead for 12 years and the things are still all over my Dads house. 

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, IronStar said:

100W Tungsram readily available over here AFAIK (not that I bought a non-LED bulb for ages). Interesting for you maybe?

 

interesting indeed  did you mean to type Tungsram, or did you mean Tungsten? as Tungsram is the Ex-state-run Hungarian lamp manufacture, taken over by GE in 1992, and eventually made their return when GE spun off their European lighting devision in the late 2010's, (although in the in between years GE kept the Tungsram brand around in Central and Eastern European countries for brand recognition reasons)

sadly all their Hungarian factories are now closed, but I do believe they are still sourcing tungsten lamps from Brest Electric Lamp plant in Belarus for sale to countries that have not banned them

https://brestlamp.by/

what sort of fluorescent tubes are available over there out of curiosity? 

[Split_Pin]

5 hours ago, Lankytim said:

What sort of Dolls houses is your wife into? My mother was into minatura (sp?) for ages and built up quite a collection, she’s been dead for 12 years and the things are still all over my Dads house. 

She makes 1/12 scale modern houses with a theme, so she's done a Scandinavian winter cabin, a (huge!) 4 floor Parisian town house, she's now making a beach hut and after that will be a larger beach front house.

1/12 scale means I've only 2 cars suitable, a Vullierme Citroen BX and AX but I'm not allowed to park them outside her houses!

[IronStar]

7 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

 

interesting indeed  did you mean to type Tungsram, or did you mean Tungsten? as Tungsram is the Ex-state-run Hungarian lamp manufacture, taken over by GE in 1992, and eventually made their return when GE spun off their European lighting devision in the late 2010's, (although in the in between years GE kept the Tungsram brand around in Central and Eastern European countries for brand recognition reasons)

sadly all their Hungarian factories are now closed, but I do believe they are still sourcing tungsten lamps from Brest Electric Lamp plant in Belarus for sale to countries that have not banned them

https://brestlamp.by/

what sort of fluorescent tubes are available over there out of curiosity? 

Tungsram, the Hungarian one.

Boxes like this

I’ll check the country of manufacture next time I see one. What are you interested in? Non-Belarus? Either? 

As for the fluorescent tubes, I saw some Phillips branded ones when we were replacing them in the garage, but I have no idea on the specifics or what’s available. 

[richardmorris]