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Good to see Hobbs & Parker are still going. 22 years ago I made my student beer tokens there buying snotters with 6 months' ticket and flogging on for £50-£100 profit to fellow students who needed wheels.

Got my 205 from there for £150 and ran it for 3 years with no issues save worn carbs

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So I've been off to Simply Japanese at Beaulieu this weekend as a bit of a holiday with some friends, and I went in the Aerodeck. About 780 miles on it, ran well on the way down to Southampton but then later that night when we were off to the beach, it started running on three cylinders, and it turns out the carbs were making a bit of a bid for freedom. Stuck them back on and tightened them up and they behaved themselves for the next day or so - the car show was rubbish, though I did . Went across to Littlehampton that night, then the next morning started to head north at a leisurely pace, A roads etc. Stopped off for a bit in London in the evening, then headed north. Got as far as Banbury and stopped at a petrol station - turning into the forecourt there was a bit of a dip, and that knocked the carbs off. The night guy at the petrol station and a passing copper were both quite helpful and made sure I was OK. Got them all screwed back on, headed off, and the car cuts out again - after a previous electrical FTP, the fuel pump wiring had been get-you-home bodged into the switched live for the electric windows by soldering a wire to the fuse (!) as I thought I'd have sold it by now, and the bodge expired. Swapping it to the other electric window didn't work either, but the fuse hadn't popped, and touching it to the battery positive ran the fuel pump. 

So, I ran to a nearby Tesco (the benefits of FTPing in a town), got some parcel tape, and taped the fuel pump's bodged positive feed to the battery positive, and started the car so it doesn't flood. Ran fine. Can't turn the engine off unless I un-tape it, so it's a one shot run home. I have two mates to drop in Warwick and Leeds on the way home too. 

Oh, and the car FTPd with an open window. Which is now stuck open. At night. I also later found out that the windscreen wipers have also died. 

Hoodie on, heater on, it bloody worked. Got home and stuck a bin bag over the open window with the parcel tape, and went to bed. 

That was fun*. 

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I've not posted much for a while, mainly because not much has happened and therefore there is not much to say.  This is just an update of uneventfulness.  My '94 Tipo 1.4ie continues to serve as reliable transport whenever needed. Average usage is about twice per week, covering maybe 100 miles total. I am playing mild cambelt roulette on age, not miles.  Just occasionally, I drive faster than usual and have found its handling and roadholding to be better and more predictable than my modern Mitsubishi Mirage. I'd even rate it more highly than a Peugeot 205 - all of the examples we've owned were very good but had a sudden breakaway at the rear when driven enthusiastically,  as does the Mirage, despite its electronic safety nonsense which makes it behave strangely at times. The Tipo just corners fast and very tidily without drama. The other old car in the fleet is my 1961 Reliant Regal MKVI. I'm ashamed to say that I still have not fitted an electric fuel pump which I bought years ago to overcome its warm weather vapour locking tendencies. Insulated fuel lines, rerouted fuel lines, heat shields, insulation blocks etc have all been tried and made absolutely no difference. Running with the internal engine cowl removed, it's fine, but then I cook as I go deaf with the din. It definitely needs a pump to push fuel to the engine from the tank rather than the standard mechanical pump mounted on a hot engine in a cramped, hot engine bay which tries to suck fuel and hence cause it to turn to gas about a metre before getting to the pump. A chap in the Netherlands who had the same problem (same make and model) engineered a fuel return line which worked reasonably well, though it took a lot of trial and error to find and fit the best orifice size in the return line to enable full throttle without fuel starvation. My Reliant has barely moved off my driveway in the last 12 months - and only then when I can be bothered to clear its way out of the garage.

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Every fortnight or so a fella comes round to our block of apartments. He does the lawns and such and uses a highly irritating leaf blower when a yard brush would do the same job to clean the footpaths. The leaf blower blows crap over all the cars also. Which is mildly irritating. 

Anyway, I'm up getting ready for work and his leaf blower isn't happy. Keeps stalling when any throttle is applied. And it's annoying this fella greatly. Spying him from the upstairs window after about the 14th time it stalled he fucks it across the patio with lumps of plastic flying. I may have laughed. He may have heard me. He's returned with a yard brush to finish the job 🤣

 

 

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2 hours ago, Ghosty said:

So I've been off to Simply Japanese at Beaulieu this weekend as a bit of a holiday with some friends, and I went in the Aerodeck. About 780 miles on it, ran well on the way down to Southampton but then later that night when we were off to the beach, it started running on three cylinders, and it turns out the carbs were making a bit of a bid for freedom. Stuck them back on and tightened them up and they behaved themselves for the next day or so - the car show was rubbish, though I did . Went across to Littlehampton that night, then the next morning started to head north at a leisurely pace, A roads etc. Stopped off for a bit in London in the evening, then headed north. Got as far as Banbury and stopped at a petrol station - turning into the forecourt there was a bit of a dip, and that knocked the carbs off. The night guy at the petrol station and a passing copper were both quite helpful and made sure I was OK. Got them all screwed back on, headed off, and the car cuts out again - after a previous electrical FTP, the fuel pump wiring had been get-you-home bodged into the switched live for the electric windows by soldering a wire to the fuse (!) as I thought I'd have sold it by now, and the bodge expired. Swapping it to the other electric window didn't work either, but the fuse hadn't popped, and touching it to the battery positive ran the fuel pump. 

So, I ran to a nearby Tesco (the benefits of FTPing in a town), got some parcel tape, and taped the fuel pump's bodged positive feed to the battery positive, and started the car so it doesn't flood. Ran fine. Can't turn the engine off unless I un-tape it, so it's a one shot run home. I have two mates to drop in Warwick and Leeds on the way home too. 

Oh, and the car FTPd with an open window. Which is now stuck open. At night. I also later found out that the windscreen wipers have also died. 

Hoodie on, heater on, it bloody worked. Got home and stuck a bin bag over the open window with the parcel tape, and went to bed. 

That was fun*. 

Japanese reliability. 

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41 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

...That's been monkeyed with to the nth degree by people that kind of but don't really know what they're doing.

This. There's a short somewhere and the wash/wipe is blowing fuses. 

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On 7/26/2021 at 6:58 PM, Jerzy Woking said:

image.png.615f45c6f9756f3188494223adb22417.png

Can't believe a Kawasaki GPz 305 deserves to be called a classic. Old yes, rare yes, but neither make something a classic.

They were awful things, with horrendously fragile engines. Can you guess what lead me to this conclusion?

I had a Z250 Scorpion bought new from Myers Motors in South London for courier work. That had a horrendously fragile engine too. My path to this conclusion was probably the same as yours. A real pile of wank. 

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17 hours ago, Spurious said:

The leaf blower blows crap over all the cars also. Which is mildly irritating. 

similar dude blows the crap from the trees  and grass all over my car at work... only when its damp on the car ..grrr

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1 hour ago, brandersnatch said:

I had a Z250 Scorpion bought new from Myers Motors in South London for courier work. That had a horrendously fragile engine too. My path to this conclusion was probably the same as yours. A real pile of wank. 

I will say that the Kork Ballington Z250 was a nice looking thing. 20210727_212931.jpg.e47be55355ea24cb602b8d1b827abc2c.jpg

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Filters and oil change of the Golf of many dents just done as I have a day off.  Picked up the VW OEM oil from eBay for £25 and the other bits from EuroCarFarts.  For once they weren't used when I checked the box.  Obviously managed to get more oil out than usual with my suction pump as it wanted exactly 4.5 litres back in, which is the stated capacity.  Pleased with that.  Forgot to prime the fuel filter as usual so it took a while starting up the second time afterwards (but fortunately can self-prime on the PD engine, unlike the VE, just don't try it with a low battery...). 

Took it out for a drive.  Feels a bit perkier.  It was well over the stated 10,000 mile interval.  Whoops.

MOT booked for Friday as I thought it was later in August - turns out it's the 4th and we're due to be elsewhere for a couple of days and want to take the car with air conditioning.  So my tame garage managed to squeeze me in.  Dropping it off with them Thursday lunchtime so it can get the earliest slot in case any work needs doing.  They're great like that.

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The Toyota is now MOT'd.  That's the last one apart from the Innocenti - at least until the merry-go-round starts again in late October.

I'm having an interesting issue with the choonz in the Swift.  The original radio stopped working - it'd turn on but no sound would come out.  I replaced it with an old Sony CD player I had lying around - that works fine but there are some dodgy contacts in the plug so it occasionally switches itself off when I hit a bump in the road, which is annoying.

So I bought a cheapo mechless stereo from eBay.  Plugged that in and exactly the same issue as the original Clarion - switches on but no sound.  I initially thought I must have got a duff unit, but I tried it in the Škoda and it works fine.  Tried the radio/cassette from the Škoda in the Swift and same thing again - turns on but no sound.

So I'm at something of a loss as to why the Sony manages to get its output to the speakers when seemingly no other stereo will...

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Whilst sitting on the terrace of our holiday cottage having lunch, this afternoon. This pulled in. 20210728_152715.thumb.jpg.d4aacb856cc41f581ac84af63d43b3eb.jpg

So I popped downstairs for a chat.

A 1960 Bentley.20210728_154307.thumb.jpg.33a05987e0f969a6ee6e466cba7eea5a.jpgreceived_414621206540287.thumb.jpeg.19191db53b7bac6d16f4c2dd947da7a8.jpeg20210728_154340.thumb.jpg.589ece7b86e9126a63bef22c45c45d72.jpg

Bought new by an electrical company in London, then sold on within the company. Later sold and moved to America then onto Sweden. Where it was bought by VW when they acquired the Bentley brand and recommissioned.

It then returned to the UK. The new owner was saying he had just retired, the money he had in the bank wasn't making anything so he invested in the Bentley.

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