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Father Ted

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The Bluebird needs a bit of work, nothing outlandish, but (other than new shocks and brake lines) all stuff I'm going to do at my leisure.

Whats the solution to this when you rely on it for your daily transport.... Of course, buy another car! Enter post last week from @garycox who I went to buy this off today. Nice journey back, cruise control a definite boon on the M25.  Already put to use to finish emptying my old lockup. Bumper gaffer tape is a service part on these, right? 

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6 hours ago, richardmorris said:

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Nice! Judging by the lattice alloys and blanked off grille I’m guessing it’s a vantage. One of my first car books (1988) was a WH Smith publication with its caption “one of the fastest accelerating cars in the world” cool I thought. I still do, especially in an unusual colour choice like that.

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1 hour ago, N19 said:

The Bluebird needs a bit of work, nothing outlandish, but (other than new shocks and brake lines) all stuff I'm going to do at my leisure.

Whats the solution to this when you rely on it for your daily transport.... Of course, buy another car! Enter post last week from @garycox who I went to buy this off today. Nice journey back, cruise control a definite boon on the M25.  Already put to use to finish emptying my old lockup. Bumper gaffer tape is a service part on these, right? 

IMG_20200701_185043.jpg

Nice one! Geography was the main reason I didn’t go for that, it would of been a bit of car buying symmetry as @garycox bought a Sierra ghia estate off me about 7 years ago.

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1 hour ago, N19 said:

The Bluebird needs a bit of work, nothing outlandish, but (other than new shocks and brake lines) all stuff I'm going to do at my leisure.

Whats the solution to this when you rely on it for your daily transport.... Of course, buy another car! Enter post last week from @garycox who I went to buy this off today. Nice journey back, cruise control a definite boon on the M25.  Already put to use to finish emptying my old lockup. Bumper gaffer tape is a service part on these, right? 

IMG_20200701_185043.jpg

dam more tape than plastic

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33 minutes ago, HMC said:

Nice! Judging by the lattice alloys and blanked off grille I’m guessing it’s a vantage. One of my first car books (1988) was a WH Smith publication with its caption “one of the fastest accelerating cars in the world” cool I thought. I still do, especially in an unusual colour choice like that.

I was rather busy so didn’t have chance to wait for a better view. B reg I noticed. And the guys there spent the next hour or so taking photos of it before the heavens opened. It will be for sale at auction I expect - Bonhams or rm Sotheby’s.

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That's the Corsa away to have its strut tops welded.

The chap at the garage thinks they might get away with a patch as it's very localised.

I gave them the 2 new strut tops just in case and if the area to be cut extends around a curve, they have a ready made patch right there in the correct grade of steel so cuts down on laborious fabrication.

I'll know Monday or Tuesday what the state of play is.

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I cleared out a local village garage of autodata books from the 70's,80's and 90's. I've no idea what I'm going to do with them but there's useful information in there. Included in there was a few institute of road transport engineers from the late 60's. Is there a market for that sort of thing?

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1 hour ago, dean36014 said:

I cleared out a local village garage of autodata books from the 70's,80's and 90's. I've no idea what I'm going to do with them but there's useful information in there. Included in there was a few institute of road transport engineers from the late 60's. Is there a market for that sort of thing?

IMG_20200702_142712.thumb.jpg.1bf1c81989cd6bb72c32f680828bb6b8.jpgIMG_20200702_142919.thumb.jpg.a8ea003232bf032724448f43733d3a92.jpg

Yes I would be interested in the Autodata books that cover the cars I have.

Sorry not the other stuff.

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34 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

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Ooh...yes please.  Most cars in that sort of bracket I'm a bit "meh" on...but have a soft spot for the Diablo.  Better in the eye searing orange and purple if it's an SV though.

A purple alcantara with neon orange stitching interior just seems the right sort of bonkers for a Lambo.

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1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

Ooh...yes please.  Most cars in that sort of bracket I'm a bit "meh" on...but have a soft spot for the Diablo.  Better in the eye searing orange and purple if it's an SV though.

A purple alcantara with neon orange stitching interior just seems the right sort of bonkers for a Lambo.

Subtle it was not!

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The other day I noticed one of my VP's had gone missing from a hub cap on the Austintatious. I managed to find one on Ebay so decided to fix it today. Then I noticed another one hanging inside the hub cap on the other side of the car. It appears the little metal tabs that secure them have snapped off. I have therefore used gorilla glue and more gaffer tape to fix them. (About the limit of my skills these days). The good news is that when I took the other hubcap off, the VP centre cap was wedged inside, so I now have a spare.

Full of pride from a job well* done, I used it to go shopping and managed to over fill it with petrol (the gauge is useless) spilling it onto my foot.

I could look into why the gauge doesn't work, but will need to use some of the petrol up first if the tank sender has to come out. I shall probably get the garage to sort it, I don't fancy crawling underneath.

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9 minutes ago, anonymous user said:

I could look into why the gauge doesn't work, but will need to use some of the petrol up first if the tank sender has to come out. I shall probably get the garage to sort it, I don't fancy crawling underneath.

At least the sender is on the side of an Allegro (um, sorry, I mean VP) fuel tank so nothing else needs to be moved to replace it.  Initial test would be to pull the wire off the sender and earth it; if the gauge goes to full the sender is dead (which is probably the case).  Depending on corrosion levels it's then 'just' a case of knocking the locating ring round with a hammer and screwdriver to release the sender.

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I got to drive a mid 90s small car today. You know the ones, a VAG group product (but not a German brand) with an underpowered engine, and tons of blank buttons (but AC). 

I loved it. Real analogue feeling car after all my recent cars. The sort of car that loves to be ragged in all gears yet still feels oddly comfortable on fast A roads. And it was a joy to wrestle around sweeping bends. 

Genuinely put a smile on my face and was exactly what I needed. 

Also picking up cars for other people is a lot cheaper than buying them yourself. 

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9 minutes ago, bramz7 said:

I got to drive a mid 90s small car today. You know the ones, a VAG group product (but not a German brand) with an underpowered engine, and tons of blank buttons (but AC). 

I loved it. Real analogue feeling car after all my recent cars. The sort of car that loves to be ragged in all gears yet still feels oddly comfortable on fast A roads. And it was a joy to wrestle around sweeping bends. 

Genuinely put a smile on my face and was exactly what I needed. 

Also picking up cars for other people is a lot cheaper than buying them yourself. 

That sort of sums up why I like the fiesta, I’d sort of kept away from small simple cars and With it the fun of being able to push quite hard whilst at legal speeds. The a30 is a good companion to it as it’s brakes and handling make the fiesta feel like a rocket ship.

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24 minutes ago, BeEP said:

Depending on corrosion levels it's then 'just' a case of knocking the locating ring round with a hammer and screwdriver to release the sender.

This is why the garage will do it, these days I'm ham-fisted enough to bash a screwdriver through the tank. I worked on these when they were new, but that's over forty years ago now. 

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Busy back shift today once I finished work at 4.

Washed the 75

Cut the grass

Got the Mini on ramps, wired brushed the subframe, Vactan and 2 coats of stone chip.

While the Vactan was drying I changed the oil and filter on the Audi.

After work tomorrow I'm having a beer and doing SFA.

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Hello old friend! 
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New month and the imminent lifting of Wales’ stay local advice means time to tax the 9000!!!

 Flat battery but eventually a jump of the 900 got it going.

 was filthy from being parked under a tree so washed it, pumped up the tyres and taxed it. Let’s see if it gets me to work without issue tomorrow after 3 and a bit months laid up. (I wouldn’t risk it for anywhere I actually wanted to go just in case...)

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On 7/1/2020 at 8:57 PM, stuboy said:

dam more tape than plastic

Some of it became sentient on the A41 this morning and decided to float off... re-patched.

It's a good car, pulls well, fitted with loads of toys... the first fuel injected car I've owned and all. I've treated it to new wiper blades and will do oil and filters next week I think. Cambelt is slightly overdue so think I'll get that done and possibly new tyres before I take the Bluebird off the road.

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Also, I've been put as a named driver on the owner's policy, double winner as that means I can knock about in it a bit, and get a feel for it and if I want to keep it (on paper it makes a lot of sense unless it's mercilessly uncomfortable). I might even send it for an MOT to aid the sale it as it's due on the eighth of August. 

The one interesting thing I've come across is that the car is on a private plate that's going to be put on retention, and I don't know if the process has started or not. I think that'll boil down to 'V5 in post'. 

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