The new news 24 thread

[ashmicro]

Got a box load of this range today free gratis:

 

 

Wax, wheel cleaner stuff etc as well. My mate's thinking of stocking it in his shop, so I'll tell him if it's any good after the weekend. It would need to be good - the relatively small box of stuff he gave me retails at a total of over £150 Will report back if it's any good/shit/indifferent.

[M'coli]

Cavalier has a fresh MOT, and been to look at a dog-rough 168000 mile E-reg Polo with no T&T, I'm undecided about what to do about it.

[vulgalour]

Turns out a Manual 1.3 Maestro costs about the same as the Polo to insure. The 1.6 auto like the one I'm borrowing from Skattrd is only an extra £100 per year. Didn't expect that really, but it just adds weight in favour of replacing the Polo with a Maestro for me, providing I get the right model which will likely be a 1.3 manual base spec to make me happy.

[dollywobbler]

Feeling the urge to replace the Maverick. It's far too competent so I'm considering buying a Discovery instead. While the Maverick is good, I'd rather have permanent 4x4 and a centre diff, and a bit more economy would be pleasant too. I'd like to get £750 for the Maverick (long MOT, tax until next year) though I wonder if this is realistic. It's very solid underneath and runs well.

[outlaw118]

Should have got my new van last week - a Vauxhall Combo/Fiat Doblo.

Except I haven't, apparently they've been recalled, summat about the brakes - blokes mouth was moving but nothing seems to have registered properly, but there's nothing about it on the DVLA site...Hmmm...reckon someone is pissing me about....

[wuvvum]

I vicariously bought a car last night. Fit bird at work passed her test yesterday morning, so much of the conversation during the morning revolved around cars, driving and what she wanted as a first car. Which suited me fine.

 

One of the cars that got mentioned as being near the top of her list was a Pug 206. Idly browsing eBay at lunchtime, as is my wont, I happened across an S-reg 1.1L about 10 miles away from Norwich. It's black, so the povvo-spec black bumpers aren't really noticeable. It had a few minor dings and 131K on the clock, but it had 11 months' test and 5 months' rent. Showed it to fit bird and she told me to sling a bid on it - ended up winning it for £570, which is more than I would have paid myself but probably not over the odds really.

 

We jumped on the train straight after work and picked it up - she'd asked me to drive it back for her. Now I've experienced the 1124cc engine in an AX and a 205 and it's always come across as a sweet little lump, but it really does struggle in a 206. Accelerating up the sliproad onto the A11 required a lot more revs than I'd anticipated, and it appears to need about half throttle to hold itself at 70 - in fact the performance seems quite similar to my Transit van. It also comes with keep fit windows and no central locking - luxuries are apparently limited to a pop-up sunroof and PAS.

 

It drove well enough apart from the lack of grunt and the driving position though. I've actually been half-thinking about a 206 as a runaround as they do seem to be getting quite cheap, but driving hers put me off, mainly because it seems to have inherited the pedal box from the Saxo, on which the pedals are positioned on top of each other rather than side by side. I'd have to drive it in socks if I were doing any distance.

 

Still, the lucky new owner is over the moon with it. As an added bonus, on the train down she took out her new iphone (4S, not 5) to show me, and she seemed to have forgotten that her wallpaper was a picture of her on holiday in a rather skimpy black bikini. I politely pretended not to notice.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Yo VA, you'll never get anything like an accurate MPG number off a 40-mile journey so don't worry about it, you need to do a few hundred miles to get a semi-accurate figure. I bet you'll get low 30's

[coalnotdole]

I've bought this....

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's fucked... Does anyone have a spare chassis lying around?

[HillmanImp]

| don't profess to know much about mechanical shizzle but just in case you didn't know the wheels should be on the outside. Its normally the first thing I look for when I am buying a car.

[rml2345]

If I may step it up a technical notch from Mr. Imp, should the body and chassis not be... You know... Connected in some way?

Was it very cheap?

[vulgalour]

I've got a metal stepladder, that's a bit like a chassis, right?

[holbeck]

Nice project you got there.

 

I've always had a want for a Scimitar GT, after seeing a nice white one with minilite wheels in St.Albans 20 yrs ago.

 

My fantasy scimitar GT project would be to drop in the Daimler V8 lump as used in the Ogle GTS.

[ashmicro]

 

Jaaag. Washed, clay-barred. Machine applied Poorboys Blackhole and then Poorboys Carnuba.

 

For: Easy to put on, not too bad to take off, smells nice.

Against: Makes very little difference to the quality/depth of the shine. Instructions on the bottle contradict those on the poorboysworld.com website

Score: 5/10 (would give it 7 if it was cheaper)

Verdict: Meh. Average. Meguiars 1-2-3 is better, and costs a lot less.

[vulgalour]

I'm looking into clay bars to try out on the Maestro, it seems like a good opportunity since the paint is white and super flat and clinging onto any dirt at all. I kinda like the matt white look it has, but it's a devil to keep clean. Any suggestions on clay bars? The result:price ratio has to be favourable, obviously, and the £18 item that Autoglym are offering seems a bit steep.

 

In other Maestro news, I fitted a new thermostat (only £5, a worthwhile investment to make the heaters work early in the morning when I'm driving to work) and now the temperature gauge does things. I also got the passenger washer jet to work all the time so no longer do I get this mess with a dribbly jet.

 

Turns out the washer bottle had some black gunge and limescale sediment in the bottom that wasn't visible with the bottle in situ but kept getting pumped through and blocking the jets anyway. Took the bottle off, gave it a good swill out and a quick wipe down on the outside before reinstating it with some fresh screenwash and water and now it works brilliantly. The rear driver's door has decided that it can now stop working again, thus restoring the Autoshite balance. Only other thing I want to sort out is the blow on the exhaust so that the car runs and sounds better and uses less petrol, but that's a bigger job than I want to tackle today so it can wait a while.

 

Oh, and I found out that a 'jiggle pin' is a real thing. I thought the motor factors were pulling my leg. The replacement thermostat doesn't have a jiggle pin, none of the ones in stock did, but apparently it makes no difference anyway.

[loserone]

... a nice white one with minilite wheels ..

 

Yum. Is the chassis the same as that one the more familiar shaped Scimitar?

 

323F news: Clutch hydraulics have failed, leaving the car stranded for the last 4 weeks. New master cylinder finally fitted last weekend, proving quite nicely that the problem lies with the slave. New slave has arrived, but I can't get the old one off because the engine mount is blocking access to one of the mounting bolts. And the car is currently stuck on the grass at the bottom of my steep drive.

 

My last attempt was to use a very small socket (which fits onto the bolt as long as there's nothing attached to it) and try to rotate it with mole grips. It didn't work. Going to trail around cheap tat shops this afternoon looking for a box spanner I can cut down to size.

 

VA: PM me your address, I ended up with three (quite small, but still perfectly usable) claybars after a birthday present confusion incident last year, and you'll do more with one than I possibly ever could.

[ashmicro]

@ volksangyl: any decent clay starter kit is gonna be in or around a score of quid. I use the Meguiars one, dunno what the Autoglym one is like, but I'd imagine it's fairly good.

[vulgalour]

The £18 is for just a clay bar, not for the kit, the kit is about £30-35. That's why I think the bar is a bit on the steep side.

[Spiny Norman]

The £18 is for just a clay bar, not for the kit, the kit is about £30-35. That's why I think the bar is a bit on the steep side.

 

Urban legend has it that Blu-Tack is a cheaper alternative, and certainly more suited to shite since you can use it to hold stuff together afterwards, but does it actually work?

[sporty-shite]

I bought a set of clay bars off ebay (three different grades). I just use them with soapy water as a lubricant, and they work fine.

 

They weren't dear. They can't have been. I'm far too tight.

[skattrd]

Wishbone bushes - as a shiter I prefer to buy the bushes and press the old ones out and new ones in instead of buying the easier and more expensive alternative of new wishbones with them all ready in. Of course this involves quite a bit of sweating & cursing to save a few quid. The bushes needed doing on the Volvo and at £20 for bushes or £80 for a whishbone I bought just the bushes.

Obviously one of the bushes is an absolute pig to get out/in, after arsing about for half an hour I gave up. Thankfully I have a tame mechanic who is better at this shit then me, it still took him another half an hour, use of a 20 ton press and blow torch to change one damned bush... Theres still the other side to do, but that can wait until next weekend when it's getting the MOT done.

 

The Galant Sapporo is almost ready after it got cooked earlier this year. It's had quite a bit skimmed off the head and had a bit of an engine rebuild. I was hoping to take it to Limes tomorrow, but have been advised against it as it has an occasional staring issue, which we think may be a tight piston

 

VA: good work on the Maestro, I'm not going to recognise it if you carry on like this.

[coalnotdole]

Was it very cheap?

 

By Autoshite standards No it wasn't cheap, but by by Scimitar coupe standards it was probably an ok price. Only 1000 Coupe's were made so they are ten times rarer than the se5/5a and they are in demand at the moment.

 

Its now unloaded and I've got various options in mind for the chassis. I can start a project thread if thats of interest?

[Cavcraft]

If it's of interest?

 

Of course it's of bloody interest, what are you waiting for?

[vulgalour]

The £18 is for just a clay bar, not for the kit, the kit is about £30-35. That's why I think the bar is a bit on the steep side.

 

Urban legend has it that Blu-Tack is a cheaper alternative, and certainly more suited to shite since you can use it to hold stuff together afterwards, but does it actually work?

 

Blu-tak is great for getting ingrained dirt off your fingers, but it does leave them feeling a bit weird and I imagine much the same would happen on paint. Probably not as good as a clay bar, but could be the shiter's choice which makes me tempted to give it a go, just got to find enough Blu-tak around the house first, I don't think I've ever bought any, just salvaged it off the back of posters and stuff I've been given.

 

@Skattrd: Can't help myself.

[dollywobbler]

Aye. Moar Reliant threads please.

 

I seem to have got myself in a bit of a mess fleet wise. I've replaced a fairly broken BX with a fairly broken BX (but still have both), got a deliciously lovely Bluebird that my wife refuses to drive because she knows I'll only sell it (She may have a point. £500ono to a 'Shiter!), have a 4x4 which I've finally tired with (after a record nine months!) and a 2CV that's been almost entirely ignored this year while I piss about with other stuff.

 

What I need is a 4x4 that's a bit more thrifty with the juice with more comfortable suspension, a working BX, a repaired 2CV and maybe something small, boring and free of any power assists for the good lady - something that unlike a Mini, I'm happy to work on and drive. I shall try to rectify this situation over the coming months. As this is the News thread, we'll now cross to an expert.

 

"He may predict a more sensible, smaller fleet but I'm willing to bet that he'll own something stupid like a Vauxhall Senator before Christmas."

[Cavcraft]

I found the Meg's clay bar really good, need to fish it out and have a go at one of my cars with it really. The Pug should* be ok as I got a buffer for my birthday and treated the car to a right good going over and it came up a treat.

[holbeck]

... a nice white one with minilite wheels ..

 

Yum. Is the chassis the same as that one the more familiar shaped Scimitar?

 

Yum indeed.

[Pete-M]

Impreza had a bit of a clean today. Some of the paintwork is tired on it so was beyond clay, but AutoGlym Super Resin Polish and half an hour with detailing spray brought it up quite nicely.

 

[HillmanImp]

Out of interest, have I missed something? Eddie Ramrod has not been on the forum since the 9th of Sept. Is he under a different name or AWOL?

[outlaw118]

Isn't he on his way home at the minute? Perhaps he's not unpacked the 'pooter yet....

[Lord Sterling]

Hmmm, looks like a fair few people have been at this shite cleaning malarky....

 

I decided after I woke up late (again) to tackle the Rovers leather seats with the Gliptone stuff I purchased not a couple of weekes back. I took it down to my local friendly car wash, chuckled it in and once the exterior was fairly clean I started oon the interior.

 

The bloody drivers seat is what took most of my time, it was seriously filthy, mostly through whoever the last owner was not cleaning it at all, but then as I work in a rather dusty and dirty warehouse it wouldnt have helped.

 

I managed to get most of the crud off but there was still shit in the crevices that I just couldnt get to, I was starting to run out of time, it was getting dark and my car wash mate wanted to shut up shop, I did the passenger seat in a half arsed fashion, nothing came off that apart from seemingly the colour of the seats. Got home and gave the seats a wipe over with Gliptone Seat Conditioner, smells nice once applied to the seats, not sure what the results are as it was very dark outside, but will have a look tomorrow.

 

The reinstatement of my car seat cover is in order now.