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Father Ted

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Got pulled over by a copper earlier - a careless overtake. Fair cop, it wasn't the best piece of driving, I was impatient at someone in front. Fortunately for me they checked out my license/insurance etc, gave me a verbal rollocking and said "Don't do it again", and said if I was seen doing it again today I'd get a ticket. I presume they record the details of the rollocking and if I was pulled over later today the coppers would be able to access that? Certainly put the fear of Darwin into me so I will be driving like a granny for the next few weeks methinks...

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49 minutes ago, N19 said:

Got pulled over by a copper earlier - a careless overtake. Fair cop, it wasn't the best piece of driving, I was impatient at someone in front. Fortunately for me they checked out my license/insurance etc, gave me a verbal rollocking and said "Don't do it again", and said if I was seen doing it again today I'd get a ticket. I presume they record the details of the rollocking and if I was pulled over later today the coppers would be able to access that? Certainly put the fear of Darwin into me so I will be driving like a granny for the next few weeks methinks...

If this was Pistonheads someone would say hammer frozen sausages into the coppers lawn 😂

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14 hours ago, brownnova said:

The Saab’s boot leaks... I ran a plug in dehumidifier in there for several hours and it did nothing... (ETA I did buy it secondhand of Facebook marketplace so there’s  chance it’s shite)

Its soaking in there! 
 

Oh and happy new year Shitesters! 

If it's a heatpump based one (does it make a noise like a fridge?) then it'll do little to nothing if the temperature is anywhere below about 10-15C.

These are the conditions where a dessicant based mains dehumidifier is your friend, the colder it is the more efficiently they work, and as a bonus they chuck out 500-700W of heat too so that in turn helps to warm up and dry out a car.

The amount of water and the rate they can pull it out at is mind blowing to be honest.  Really need to get a new blower motor for mine so I can dry both the Xantia and the Jag out as they both have water ingress issues just now.

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Bit more mini fettling today, the brake pipe kit i bought is shite, theyre all about 2" too long... 🙃 so I thought id tackle the heater. I wasn't going to bother with it, but back when I first bought it in 2006 it had a slight leak on the matrix. Radweld fixed it back then, but with all this effort on it I thought i'd pull it out and change the matrix.

20210101_141546.thumb.jpg.a8f59ea4653aa2e1c4e859f39984bcc2.jpg20210101_142211.thumb.jpg.64439471413571b2953feae7fbdf938f.jpg20210101_142501.thumb.jpg.17e4de1cdd30599b7b08647cb205747b.jpg

 

Mouse fresh 🤢🐁

ps, dont tell the mrs....

IMG-20210101-WA0018.thumb.jpeg.593fe3e5eb5d700c746264b2be846f8e.jpeg

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It was a little on the chilly side to do much in the way of fettling (not hugely surprising for 1st Jan to be fair) but I did do some preliminary investigations into changing the alternator on the diesel C2, now that my HBOL has arrived.  The tensioner moved easily enough, but Mr Haynes says to then use a 3mm drill bit in the hole provided in the tensioner assembly to hold the tensioner in position so the belt can easily be removed.  Except that there isn't room to get a drill bit in between the tensioner assembly and the engine mount.  I'm going to have to see if I can find a suitable alternative, although whatever I find it's going to be a fiddly bastard to get in - I might just end up holding the tensioner off with a spanner and whipping the belt off with the other hand. 

I've taken the battery off and put it on charge - the battery removal process is fairly simple on the C2, unlike some Citroëns where before disconnecting the battery you have to wind the driver's window down, switch the sidelights on, set the stereo to Radio 4 and then dance three times round the car anticlockwise whilst singing La Marseillaise or the ECU will shit itself.  There are other issues to sort with the car - the central locking is playing up so the passenger door won't currently open, the HRW doesn't appear to work and the rear wiper switches itself on every time you open the tailgate - but those are minor and can be dealt with at a later date.

I also did some investigation into the reversing light situation on the Iveco.  It doesn't currently have a reversing light - I'm assuming that at some point the nearside rear light lens must have got damaged and someone has replaced it with an offside lens turned upside down, so there's no provision for a white light at the rear.  Fortunately it seems that the reversing light wiring is intact and comes live when reverse is selected, so it should be a simple task to wire up a separate light (cheaper and potentially more effective than buying a replacement correct lens).  I'm actually surprised at the almost complete lack of electrical maladies in the van, considering the reputation of the things - although admittedly there's not much in the way of electrics to actually go wrong.

I then took the petrol C2 for a quick blat up to the coast, given that today is the last day it will be road legal until I can get the welding done.  It was as amusing to drive as ever, although I didn't push it too hard as the road was rather greasy.  It's a shame that only the backrest bit of the driver's seat heater works though - leather is rather cold on the arse when the ambient temperature is around zero.

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Watching vintage electrics on quest. Has it says vintage cars converted to electric cars by a company in wales. Haven't seen anything on prices but I imagine its eye watering. They do make a nice car at the end though. Just started another and a bloke wants an Enfield motorbike converted to electric. Budget of £20,000 inc sourcing motorbike. 

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Decided to go and put some petrol in the mg6 earlier... Only to find that it was so fucking cold this morning, the doors are frozen shut and the fucking locks won't work. 

On a normal car this wouldn't be much of a problem, but this is a chinese special and the link rods from the handle into the locks are plastic, so snap if you try to force them open and the mechanisms themselves are about as solid as a kinder egg toy.

Fucked it off and went in for a brew instead. Bloody moderns. 

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First unexpected 3D printing failure. 

Was going fine right up until the point at which the extruder decided that it would like to travel to Z=0 apparently - which would be fine if it weren't for the fact that there's a 35% completed model in the way.

IMG_20210102_132535.thumb.jpg.a7b9cfa6a305e056486554fe2f8a6309.jpg

Guessing there was something awry in the G-code so have recreated it, tweaked a couple of settings I'd forgotten to save and set it going again.  We'll see if it does the same thing again.  Hopefully not.

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I’ve just arranged for the merc service and mot this month with my mechanic friend. That marks 9 years I’ve had it as my daily. Currently on 129,600 and last mot was 125,229 so 4400miles this year.  I’ve also done 700 miles by 2cv and 3000miles by bicycle. Not being able to go on holiday or visit parents a few times and go to the Lake District etc Has really kept the mileage down.

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10 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

I’ve just arranged for the merc service and mot this month with my mechanic friend. That marks 9 years I’ve had it as my daily. Currently on 129,600 and last mot was 125,229 so 4400miles this year.  I’ve also done 700 miles by 2cv and 3000miles by bicycle. Not being able to go on holiday or visit parents a few times and go to the Lake District etc Has really kept the mileage down.

Most of us have done fewer miles this year, for some strange reason...

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My E300 became damp inside because the fan motor had stopped working and a door seal was somewhat flat. I used a few of those small boxes that take moisture out of the air. Not from my Merc they didn't.

Got a couple of those that are bags, hung one from the rear view mirror on a Saturday morning. By Sunday afternoon...

Screenshot_20210102-184601_Photos.thumb.jpg.aba5c7cde2276cbb9ca2111affa58022.jpg

Excellent at doing what they say they do.

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13 minutes ago, Stanky said:

If anyone find these bag things please either point me in their general direction or buy me 5 and I'll willingly pay good money for them!

As @Jerzy Woking suggested, there are many of this sort on a popular internet auction site

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1311&_nkw=wardrobe+dehumidifier+bags&_sacat=0

I've not used this type before, so might be worth a try in my laid-up-for-winter but a bit leaky Mondeo.

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Well surprisingly* the alternator on the C2 turned out to be rather more of a pain in the arse than anticipated.  In fact I haven't actually got it off yet.  The belt came off easily enough, the tensioner was rather more of a pain as access to the bolts is not good and I ended up undoing then 1/12 of a turn at a time (and they are long bolts).  The two alternator mounting bolts then came out relatively easily (although I did have to resort to the breaker bar to crack the bottom bolt off), but once those were out I realised there were two more mounting bolts behind the alternator that I hadn't noticed before.  One of those I was just about able to wangle out (again, 1/12 of a turn at a time and usually taking several attempts to get the spanner back on the bolt after each 12th of a turn) but the other one is almost completely inaccessible - I'm going to have to either remove the aircon compressor or the front bumper to get to it. 

I gave up at that point - I might have another crack at it tomorrow if I can be arsed.  The belt is looking a little perished though so I'm going to order a new one of those before putting it all back together.  Oh yeah, and the actuator wire snapped clean in two whilst I was removing the wiring harness, so I've got to somehow join that back together before fitting the new alternator.  The good news is that the belt only drives the alternator and the aircon compressor, so with a fully charged battery I can still drive the car if need be.

I'm part way through sorting a reversing light for the Iveco - I had one of those LED COB strips lying around doing nothing so I thought I'd use that as a temporary solution.  I've got the live side wired up - I then went out and bought a replacement plug for the towbar electrics as the one on the van at the moment is completely knackered, so I'm going to wire the earth side of the reversing light into that.

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Went on a exploration with the mutt the other day and found this lurking down an alley in a nice bit of Notts.

f231236679710610cf1e61f14081c163.jpg

Arches look solid. Sport leather inside and manual if it was a 325 would be worth some coin. Left a note saying if you want to sell holla at me.

Still people seem to pay a lot for e30’s nowadays so worth seeing what happens.


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35 minutes ago, Danterzza said:

Went on a exploration with the mutt the other day and found this lurking down an alley in a nice bit of Notts.

f231236679710610cf1e61f14081c163.jpg

Arches look solid. Sport leather inside and manual if it was a 325 would be worth some coin. Left a note saying if you want to sell holla at me.

Still people seem to pay a lot for e30’s nowadays so worth seeing what happens.


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I would imagine it would be well worthwhile buying even if it is fundamentally knackered as thet are only going to go up in value,  drifty skids yo 🤘

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