The new news 24 thread

[Lord Sterling]

Drove the Rover in the pissing rain to work today. As there was a slight chill in the air (As opposed to a boiling hot whether in Belguim I recently had to endure) I hit the heater for some warm air, did I get warm air? Did I fuck. So a cold journey into work was had. Upon getting to the carpark (of the building opposite my work as thats were we have to park due to ongoing construction work ) I hit a few buttons to see what the deal was, couldnt work it out and ran out of time. As the Rover spat coolant out at the airport a few days ago I thought there may have been an airlock, but upon getting into the car after work warm air came out when selected!

 

I did take a mental note that the control panel seemd a little tempramental on the air flow adjustments side too when the problem occured first time so I put it down to a tempremental control panel. Also - My immobiliser likes to stick on when it rains, making me get out of the car, lock it, unlock it again to get it to start. They joys of owning old cars eh, you never know whats next...

[vulgalour]

Must be a day for it. Upon going out for some shopping with a car full of peoples I had the alarming experience of a very strong smell of petrol in the cabin, strong enough to make me stop the car immediately. Checked all the pipework and possible leak areas to find nothing amiss and no puddles of fuel on the floor, no drips, no split pipework... very odd. When trying to start her again she was very reluctant but got going eventually, it was like there wasn't enough fuel getting through. Once running, she's been fine for the shopping trip, hasn't smelled of petrol, hasn't had issues starting and has left me very puzzled indeed.

 

Oh, and I pulled out in front of a Honda the same colour as the road because I genuinely didn't see them at all. No harm done, I kept my foot down when I did see them and they stood on their brakes so an accident was avoided, but now I'm getting (deservedly) ridiculed by my brother for being a blind old cunt.

[dollywobbler]

A rare occasion. I've cleaned and polished the BX.

[vulgalour]

Further to my previous news, a quick talk with Dad revealed that his Ital used to do the same thing periodically as the Princess did and essentially it's a carburettor issue. For some reason, the float or needle gets jammed, flooding the float chamber which in turn makes petrol come out of the carburettor. When it unjams, the whole thing floods and causes issues starting again. This means that ideally I need to get the carb off and clean it out again, but I might just put some tights over the end of the air intake and hope for the best instead as that's where it's sucking little bits of grit and such into the carburettor.

[Negative Creep]

My Granddad has decided to give up driving and offered me his car for a nominal amount. It's a mk.2 Punto which in typical old giffer fashion is used to drive to the shops and back once a week and has probably never been above 50mph in the time he's owned it. Great news, although it does leave me with a bit of a dilemma as it's not shite or interesting but will be mega cheap on fuel, and I only have room for 2 cars

[messerschmitt owner]

My Granddad has decided to give up driving and offered me his car for a nominal amount. It's a mk.2 Punto which in typical old giffer fashion is used to drive to the shops and back once a week and has probably never been above 50mph in the time he's owned it. Great news, although it does leave me with a bit of a dilemma as it's not shite or interesting but will be mega cheap on fuel, and I only have room for 2 cars

puntos, like many small Fiats, are fun to drive - has it the FIRE engine?

 

Am on my second cabrio and both wifey and I like them.

[Volksy]

puntos, like many small Fiats, are fun to drive - has it the FIRE engine?

 

Although much more preferable with power steering, as the non pas rack is about twelthty thousand turns lock to lock.

[Negative Creep]

puntos, like many small Fiats, are fun to drive - has it the FIRE engine?

 

Although much more preferable with power steering, as the non pas rack is about twelthty thousand turns lock to lock.

 

 

I'm not sure what engine it has, but presume it's the 1.2. I think the mk2 all had PAS with that stupid city button didn't they? It's going to be too new for my tastes, but given the circumstances I'm in no position to complain. Either way, this will help getting the Yugo back up and running

[panhard65]

Just got the uk registration and tax disc for my renault 14. Ready for a weekend's worth of running around. Hopefully the weather will stay nice. Then I can sell it and move on to the next project

[barefoot]

If anyone remembers/cares, my Scirocco failed MOT this time last week on Shocks & w/bearings.

While sorting spotted a bit of rot where the struts mount & had welded up to make good.

A pig of a job on account of the sheer quantity of waxoil melting & pissing all over welding chap.

No wonder it is in such fine fettle.

£40 welding for MOT on a 25 year old car is not the end of the world.

[rml2345]

Thats pretty bloody good I'd say...

Had the Volvo Waxoyled the other day at £Lots but if it decreases the chances of it becoming a big brown stain then I'm happy. New years tax sitting in the window too

Just need to save up some money and go for a run in it...

[HillmanImp]

If anyone remembers/cares, my Scirocco failed MOT this time last week on Shocks & w/bearings. While sorting spotted a bit of rot where the struts mount & had welded up to make good. A pig of a job on account of the sheer quantity of waxoil melting & pissing all over welding chap. No wonder it is in such fine fettle. £40 welding for MOT on a 25 year old car is not the end of the world.

 

Glad to see its still going strong.

 

*edit* Here it is with a few other bits and bobs outside my old house:

 

 

60's 70's 80's.........er 70's. Should have had the 205 there again.

 

 

[dollywobbler]

Gave the Bluebird a service. Sump plug didn't want to come off and the oil looked like that from a diesel. Black and horrible. Does seem to run more sweetly now. New air filter as well but spark plugs will have to wait due to crap Ebay seller. I was very impressed with myself as for once I didn't end up pouring oil all over the driveway. Then I dropped the old oil filter. DOH!

 

Also fitted a new voltage regulator to the 2CV and a new ignition barrel so a productive morning. Then took the Bluey's old engine oil to the tip so I could give it a test drive and followed two Micras in (K10 and a K11) and then followed them back out again. Nissan convoy! Wooo!

[skattrd]

Good news on the 'rocco barefoot ... Looking at the trim level in the pics is it the 1.6 carb?

I really do need to get mine back on the road.

[CreepingJesus]

The camera on the A1 that did me a few years ago, did me again last night. Only this time I was dot-on the speed limit. It better have had a senior moment, or Lothian + Borders Police have stepped up for an ass-kicking.

[HillmanImp]

Lancia is now totally road legal with the addition of a tax disc this morning so it was straight to the GT6 which has sat underneath a pile of junk in the garage for 20 months to try and get it going.

 

Here it is in all its 'OMG BARN FIND' glory:

 

 

Volksy and I were surprised that the battery was still charged. After a few turns of the key it spluttered into life only to die again as there was no fuel. Volksy went and got some more fuel and we managed to scrape it out of the garage (low car + steep slope = fail) and then did what anyone would do in that situation. We decided to see if it still drove okay by taking it to the pub for a pint. Here it is sat outside with the Lancia*.

 

 

I have not even looked at it for so long I forgot how many little things are wrong with it. Its mechanically spot on and I think its pretty solid body wise but there are a long list of niggles that need sorting. Going to take off the sills I did and do them again as I am not happy with them. I should have done the inner sills at the same time but needed to get the car legal quick to move house so bodged it. Will get that done, check the floor etc and hopefully get it back on the road pretty sharpish. I forgot how wonderful it was to sit inside with that massive penis extension of a bonnet sticking out in front of you and the noise it makes is immense. When you turn the wheel you can actually feel it as you turn the wheels, you feel like you are really driving the car (i know what I mean even if nobody else does) and the sitting position is how a sports car should be. I fuggin love it.

 

 

* For legal reasons I must stress this is a stock photo of the car some time ago and not one taken today. The events depicted in this post are fictitious. Any similarity to any person living or dead is merely coincidental.

[Spiny Norman]

That looks a bit of alright that does.

Never really liked the Spitfire much but the GT6 has always seemed a bit like a mini-E-Type to me. Looks good beside the Fulvia.

[dollywobbler]

OMG STANCE YO NEGATIVE CAMBER FTW LOL ETC.

[trigger]

That can't be right?

[dollywobbler]

It is right. These things have a fair bit of flex on the rear axle. Here's it going the other way slightly further back.

 

Because it's a beam axle, it effectively pivots around its middle, hence going from one angle to the other.

[trigger]

Ah, Of course, for a moment then I thought you'd snapped something whilst doing some extreme 4 wheeled mountain climbing.

[dollywobbler]

Thankfully not! It's bloomin' good fun. Note that the front end has no flex in it at all - that's one reason for it waving wheels in the air. It could still do with just a bit more ground clearance really but perhaps I should just get a Discovery. It's an itch I need to scratch. Austin-Rover parts bin special FTW!

[John F]

Speaking of which, I spent yesterday hammering my Discovery back into shape after its last green laning expedition down in mid-Wales...

[dollywobbler]

Speaking of which, I spent yesterday hammering my Discovery back into shape after its last green laning expedition down in mid-Wales...

 

Yeah, there are some lanes I definitely won't go driving down solo...

 

Sorry to have missed you due to my utter double-booking phail! Where did you go in the end? Any pics?

[John F]

Speaking of which, I spent yesterday hammering my Discovery back into shape after its last green laning expedition down in mid-Wales...

 

Yeah, there are some lanes I definitely won't go driving down solo...

 

Sorry to have missed you due to my utter double-booking phail! Where did you go in the end? Any pics?

 

If you cross the bridge over the river outside Machynlleth (heading north) and take an immediate left, the start of the first lane we did is a few hundred metres down that road on the right, up quite a steep hill (Pennal Isaf?).

 

This starts off as a nice track, then you have the option of heading down what is actually quite a grim lane, dropping into the valley floor through some woods... flooded, muddly and narrow, with no option for turning round and axle deep in ruts the whole way through (when I slashed a tyre on a submerged rock, bending my track rod like a banana in the process). We decided to call it off after scouting ahead on foot & finding a long, steep muddy downhill section that my not-particularly-aggressive tread pattern wouldn't have got back up again in the event of further problems. It was no fun at all reversing out after we'd finally managed to change the tyre.

 

We followed that with a much less challenging lane into Tywyn, IIRC. I only knocked one of the end caps off my rear bumper on that one, hehe!

[Shep Shepherd]

The Volvo celebrated 22 years of being on the road this weekend, having been first registered as H366FLH by Lex Brooklands of Colindale on Saturday September 1st 1990. In order to mark the occasion, I drove it to Abingdon and left it under some trees all weekend:

 

 

[HillmanImp]

having been first registered as H366FLH by Lex Brooklands of Colindale on Saturday September 1st 1990. [/img]

 

Why is it registered as something different now? Is it a private plate that has recently been valued at £13,500?

[Shep Shepherd]

having been first registered as H366FLH by Lex Brooklands of Colindale on Saturday September 1st 1990. [/img]

 

Why is it registered as something different now? Is it a private plate that has recently been valued at £13,500?

 

I put my private plate on it in 2004. It's worth £500 on a good day

[HillmanImp]

having been first registered as H366FLH by Lex Brooklands of Colindale on Saturday September 1st 1990. [/img]

 

Why is it registered as something different now? Is it a private plate that has recently been valued at £13,500?

 

I put my private plate on it in 2004. It's worth £500 on a good day

 

If you ever sell it ensure to put that in the Ebay ad though. Will no doubt put the price through the roof as that is what any potential buyer is looking for.

[dieselnutjob]

yesterday I finally changed the cambelt on the 607. I haven't done a 16 valve HDI before but it was actually no harder than an 8 valve. The main difference is that the crank locking tool goes into a hole in the back of the engine instead of the front. Unfortunately mine is an automatic so the starter motor still had to come off because I know of no other way to lock the flywheel to torque up the crank pulley (you shouldn't use the timing hole).

 

The whole thing took me 7 hours. I would have down a manual in 5 or 6. I could probably do it a couple of hours quicker next time.

 

Also I discovered that the engine mount is totally stuffed.