The new news 24 thread

[Split_Pin]

Just now, 320touring said:

It's had a new back box but not been sealed properly at the join apparently!

Nice one, not too bad then. I knew this thing was too good to throw away, just had too much on myself to take it on.

[Lankytim]

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

You'd think they'd notice it going!

I’ve seen a hard top at the side of a motorway before, I imagine they fall off cars on the back of “Shiply” recovery trucks doing the job for £25.

[Asimo]

This made me smile.

 

[stuboy]

Me again... December meet.. 

 

 

The kit car looked ace...

[stuboy]

and this..

 

 

 

[Yoss]

15 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

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!

 

6 hours ago, Lankytim said:

My Mum made loads of 1/12 Edwardian dolls houses and dioramas etc. she was into it for years! 

Mrs Yoss has a dolls house upstairs. The latest acquisitions are a gong  and a gramaphone. White metal kits, they need painting obviously. 

And she's been working on this for a, while. A spiral staircase covered in wisteria. 

Even the wisteria comes in kit form. The leaves, and petals are individual pieces that have to be folded and glued. 

 

She also buys cheap bigger dolls from charity shops and gives them the Mexican day of the dead treatment. 

[Split_Pin]

That staircase is amazing!

[Yoss]

3 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

That staircase is amazing!

Again, it's a white metal kit. Each stair is an individual piece that slides over a central pole. Each pole is individual and the banister came in four pieces. But it's the wisteria that has been so time consuming. She could only do so much at a time before she had to have a break or else she would go mad/blind. 

My contribution was the two wooden stairs at the bottom which were needed to make it the right height for her house. 

[danthecapriman]

Any plumbers or knowledgeable heating engineers or even boiler enthusiasts… @paulplom???

Just moved into the new house and started looking into stuff, but found a few weird things about the boiler and heating system. 

This is the boiler,

And this contraption is next to it and part of it!!

 
Im no expert but I have never seen anything like this thing before! 
The boiler itself looks reasonably normal but the mass of pipes and tanks/gauges etc etc is all linked to it and a radiator type thing up on the roof outside. From what the house survey said it’s basically a solar water heater on the roof to help the boiler heat the water (a joke in a country that sees about 5 mins of sun a year!). 
Weirdly though, when you run the cold water it can start off cold but almost always then gets hot until you run off a considerable amount of water before it gets cold enough to use. We’ve also noticed that sometimes when you flush the toilet the water from the cistern is actually hot water!

This can’t be right surely!? 
Seems incredibly wasteful and inefficient to me.

Anyone know anything about these things?

[GeordieInExile]

£120 to sort the Panda's exhaust, happy with that. It didn't need a new one, but it did need some fabricating and welding of a flange. That done, the exhaust volume is now at an acceptable level and it'll be a perfectly pleasant place to spend a drive to and from Manchester tomorrow.

A few other minor* issues identified in the course of fixing the exhaust...

- The coolant is like strawberry milkshake in the expansion tank. Presumed condensation as there's no mayo in the oil, and the oil level is fine and it isn't using any. Trusted mechanic suggested leaving it be lest flushing and refilling should create other problems. That's free of charge, so I'm happy with this. It doesn't overheat and the heater is working great.

- The sills have been bodged with fibreglass and slathered in underseal, presumably to get it through the last MOT. It failed one, including on knackered jacking points, and then passed cleanly a couple weeks afterwards. I'll worry about this later.

- Three engine mounting bolts are absolutely fine. One, less so. I'm choosing to ignore this on the basis it's been fine so far, there's no vibration or movement of the engine. 

Otherwise, it's being a very well behaved little thing. Doing the weekly shop in it the other day was great fun - didn't even need to put the rear seats down.

[reb]

There's two asteroids in close proximity to earth right now. One is 70cm across, the other is the size of a football stadium.

Which is due to hit us, do you think?

[andy18s]

Fitted a new battery to the Legacy today.The Bosche it came with had being perfect in the 5 years we've had it,but hasn't enjoyed the last few cold nights so we took advantage of a Black Monday sale to pick up another for half-price 

[captain_70s]

26 minutes ago, reb said:

There's two asteroids in close proximity to earth right now. One is 70cm across, the other is the size of a football stadium.

Which is due to hit us, do you think?

Fingers crossed for the big'un...

[richardmorris]

4 minutes ago, captain_70s said:

Fingers crossed for the big'un...

Something to look forward to isn’t it.

[reb]

18 minutes ago, captain_70s said:

Fingers crossed for the big'un...

I regret to inform the reader that it was the weeny one, which plopped down onto Siberia a little while ago, mostly harmlessly burning up on the way in.

[stuboy]

Mclaren GT ?

 

Spotted whilst driving out the hospital

[richardmorris]

21 minutes ago, stuboy said:

Mclaren GT ?

 

Spotted whilst driving out the hospital

They all look the same to me. 

[richardmorris]

Turner prize 2024. Oh well, it’s not exactly Matisse is it

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/dec/03/jasleen-kaur-38-wins-the-turner-prize-2024
 

[artdjones]

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

Turner prize 2024. Oh well, it’s not exactly Matisse is it

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/dec/03/jasleen-kaur-38-wins-the-turner-prize-2024
 

And Matisse wasn't exactly Rembrandt.

[EyesWeldedShut]

20 minutes ago, artdjones said:

And Matisse wasn't exactly Rembrandt.

And Metisse is better looking that either of them? No, not the bike

 

[bunglebus]

Last Thursday night my mum heard odd noises outside and saw two blokes by the front of the house, so told them to get lost. Popped round there today to do a couple of bits and noticed this

So for the last four or five days, some scrotes have had the keys to the house and garage. There's absolutely nothing worth stealing, but like fuck was I not getting all the locks changed this evening, and upgraded to insurance approved ones over the standard ones that came with the doors. She said she'd found the garage unlocked over the weekend, but thought she'd just forgotten to lock it.

What I didn't realise until today was that the incident the other night wasn't my mum opening her bedroom window and shouting at the low-lifes, she was downstairs and opened the door, and had a brief conversation with one of them, before a second popped up as they both scarpered. 

 

[catsinthewelder]

Thats why I always hide those things when I fit them for customers.

[catsinthewelder]

11 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Any plumbers or knowledgeable heating engineers or even boiler enthusiasts… @paulplom???

Just moved into the new house and started looking into stuff, but found a few weird things about the boiler and heating system. 

This is the boiler,

And this contraption is next to it and part of it!!

 
Im no expert but I have never seen anything like this thing before! 
The boiler itself looks reasonably normal but the mass of pipes and tanks/gauges etc etc is all linked to it and a radiator type thing up on the roof outside. From what the house survey said it’s basically a solar water heater on the roof to help the boiler heat the water (a joke in a country that sees about 5 mins of sun a year!). 
Weirdly though, when you run the cold water it can start off cold but almost always then gets hot until you run off a considerable amount of water before it gets cold enough to use. We’ve also noticed that sometimes when you flush the toilet the water from the cistern is actually hot water!

This can’t be right surely!? 
Seems incredibly wasteful and inefficient to me.

Anyone know anything about these things?

I wonder if the solar water heater is heating more than just the water its supposed to heat?  If the pipe feeding it with cold water is heating up too that might give you warm water from the cold tap/toilet cistern.  Theres been some clear skies over the last few days and they can be suprisingly efficient. 

[bunglebus]

42 minutes ago, catsinthewelder said:

Thats why I always hide those things when I fit them for customers.

It's pretty tucked away, I'll be looking at a different type to replace it as that one has an obvious weakness

[Wibble]

8 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

It's pretty tucked away, I'll be looking at a different type to replace it as that one has an obvious weakness

I’ve fitted loads of these over the years to fire and flood damaged houses. Always tried to make them less obvious but not sure there’s a better alternative.

[bunglebus]

Drive past this place today, website is just bog standard garage stuff, but there were plenty of interesting cars outside. Pic off Google

[bunglebus]

19 minutes ago, Wibble said:

I’ve fitted loads of these over the years to fire and flood damaged houses. Always tried to make them less obvious but not sure there’s a better alternative.

I was looking at the neighbour's one, it doesn't have the sliding cover they've prised out, looked more like this

 

[Wibble]

The ones we fitted were specified by insurers, if they want to get in, they will. I don’t think that one would be much harder to bust.

[High Jetter]

7 hours ago, bunglebus said:

I was looking at the neighbour's one, it doesn't have the sliding cover they've prised out, looked more like this

 

A couple of my customers have ones very similar to that. They're OK to open, but a real pain to close up after you - even with the plate out, you have to re-press the code then hold the opening lever then put it back in place (assuming you've put the key(s) back with the key-ring in the rught place for the cover to close).

[danthecapriman]

10 hours ago, catsinthewelder said:

I wonder if the solar water heater is heating more than just the water its supposed to heat?  If the pipe feeding it with cold water is heating up too that might give you warm water from the cold tap/toilet cistern.  Theres been some clear skies over the last few days and they can be suprisingly efficient. 

Could well be. I did wonder if it was just dumping excess hot water it’d heated but wasn’t being used? I assume if the roof panel heats the water its not actually costing anything from the gas boiler, so doesn’t matter if it gets dumped?

It’s actually quite annoying though as you have to run off quite a quantity of water sometimes to get any cold. Sometimes you start accidentally brushing your teeth with warm water! The toilet water being warm is an odd one though, you get a rush of warm air blowing out the bowl!!