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Father Ted

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Bored today so crunching some numbers about the Leaf road test yesterday.. if I charged at home, the Leaf was doing the equivalent of 106MPG.. Double what I get out the Focus.. my electric costs me 19p per KW/h.. the nearest public charger to me is 15p per KW/h.. 

Stuff the car, I'm off to plug my house In! 😯

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7 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Those gusset(ooh er missus) plates are the wrong way round, tin that thin needs to be under tension or have a fold put in to stiffen it to resist buckling.

What way should have they been? 

I did think about bending the edge to stiffen it up. 

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4 hours ago, SiC said:

What way should have they been? 

I did think about bending the edge to stiffen it up. 

My preference would be a pair of angles as shown in red, but a pair of short angles bent up and welded on to your gussets(fnarr) as shown in green would probably be perfectly adequate.

 

trolley.thumb.jpg.8eae85fa79966c26e653b397afa1c935.jpg

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2 hours ago, Sunny Jim said:

A tunnel near Merthyr Tydfil that was sealed 60 years ago has been opened revealing some cars* that were abandoned in there. Go on shiters, who can identify them?

0_Abandoned-tunnel-south-wales.thumb.jpg.110bae5674e4115059646c703a1d4dd8.jpg1_Abandoned-tunnel-south-wales.thumb.jpg.565436389dc6e4bc17989df77c8b1587.jpg2_Abandoned-tunnel-south-wales.thumb.jpg.fd18e895b3df481d58bd6ed65cbd8b61.jpg3_Abandoned-tunnel-south-wales.thumb.jpg.66d8ebaed3789812eab67cb2b8b532c4.jpg

Daily Post article here

I’ll go Cavalier, Punto, Escort and fuck knows! 

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So what to do with a car you’re trying to convince yourself you should sell… go to a meet for that car and then go for a drive through the Welsh hills of course. 
089B3ACB-D534-4BF3-A7D5-6E1E0CC4CA32.jpegE506E990-9467-4E4A-AA3B-5C2B07BC31E2.jpeg
Having not actually given it a good run since October I thought the heavy rain last night will have washed most of the salt away, and I’ll make sure to power wash the underside too. So I taxed it and drove it about a bit. It’s a good fun thing, forgot how much. Not sure what I’ll do without an MX5… I’ve had one on the drive for nearly 8 years in total! Second thoughts on selling… definitely… 

After the MX5 meet I met my wife for a brief mooch round some antiques… these were my favourite antiques… 

44E9EF34-9A2B-4B0E-B57E-B2A9B32AAEA5.jpegB67BDD68-C121-4482-9AEA-C1E88B99E199.jpeg

Then it was time to do the bi-monthly cabinet reshuffle and move the cars about to put the Merc at the front so I can tax and use that now I have the logbook. 
AD9C33F2-4666-4A89-A5C0-413C0550D75A.jpeg

Decided to put the Pontiac in the back as it’s the least likely to be used in the next few days. Also started the Nova again took 3 or 4 goes but went happily enough, it really is quite tappy though. But I can’t get it to move… might need to give it a tug with the Elgrand to free it off. 
 

 

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3 hours ago, Sunny Jim said:

A tunnel near Merthyr Tydfil that was sealed 60 years ago has been opened revealing some cars* that were abandoned in there. Go on shiters, who can identify them?

0_Abandoned-tunnel-south-wales.thumb.jpg.110bae5674e4115059646c703a1d4dd8.jpg1_Abandoned-tunnel-south-wales.thumb.jpg.565436389dc6e4bc17989df77c8b1587.jpg2_Abandoned-tunnel-south-wales.thumb.jpg.fd18e895b3df481d58bd6ed65cbd8b61.jpg3_Abandoned-tunnel-south-wales.thumb.jpg.66d8ebaed3789812eab67cb2b8b532c4.jpg

Daily Post article here

I’ve seen Urbex type videos on this place a few years ago, I’m fairly sure it was established it was used as a chop shop for stolen cars back in the early 90s 

There are close up vids of what’s left, mainly Mk3 fiestas, couple of Nova saloons, mk2 Astra etc from memory.

 

You can see the below was a Mk3 Fiesta, look at the wheels 

1_Abandoned-tunnel-south-wales.thumb.jpg.565436389dc6e4bc17989df77c8b1587.jpg

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Got the new in-tank fuel filter fitted to the Volvo this afternoon.  It's definitely running better, but it's still not quite right.  I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and give the carbs a clean - that is going to have to wait until warmer weather though.

Not much else done this weekend - the hub nut for the Mazda still hasn't shown up so I couldn't do that job.  I spent a little while trying to work out whether there's an easy way to mount the replacement universal radiator fan I've bought for it, but I think I'm going to have to either buy or make some brackets as cable tying it directly to the radiator isn't going to be a long-term solution - it's surprisingly heavy.

Once the Volvo had vacated the ramps I put the front of the Laguna up on them to see if I could find any sign of a boost leak.  There's nothing obvious - most of the pipes are hard plastic or metal, there's only one short bit of rubber pipe on the intercooler outlet, and that looked OK as far as I can see.  I'm not hugely bothered - the car is plenty quick enough as it is, even if it is probably not giving 100% of its potential performance.  My bodge expert repair to the boost pipe seems to be holding together too.  I've been running around in the car for the last week or so just to try it out - it's nice enough but it's very similar to the 75 in what it does (except the ride isn't as good but that might be because it's on 18s rather than the 16s of the Rover) so it might not be hanging around in the long term.

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Investigating why the Rover's driver side electric window has ceased functioning... happily turns out to be a broken connector inside the switch rather than anything awkward or expensive.

Stripped the switch down, attempted a rather clumsy soldering repair... it sort of worked. Window now goes down when you press the switch down. And when you press the switch up it goes... down still. More investigation needed, or possibly just buy a replacement switch.

Still, it's not an entirely failed venture - I restored 50% of the window's functionality... :D

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2 hours ago, JJ0063 said:

I’ve seen Urbex type videos on this place a few years ago, I’m fairly sure it was established it was used as a chop shop for stolen cars back in the early 90s 

There are close up vids of what’s left, mainly Mk3 fiestas, couple of Nova saloons, mk2 Astra etc from memory.

 

You can see the below was a Mk3 Fiesta, look at the wheels 

1_Abandoned-tunnel-south-wales.thumb.jpg.565436389dc6e4bc17989df77c8b1587.jpg

The first is probably a Cavalier rather than a Manta based on numbers produced, and I think the third is a Mk IV Cortina.

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The wee Fabia is being dragged kicking and screaming into my new 30 mile (round trip) daily commute because I'm only timetabled to be in 1 hour every day at University. At least the wee thing doesn't have to drive all the way up though.

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So my wife has booked a car with Enterprise to go to London with work. 

 

She booked a D Auto which means Large car / automatic 

 

This is what they dropped off and posted the key for this morning IMG-20220110-WA0000.thumb.jpg.4cc37cb02091b60a6c32561ab95bbb80.jpg

 

Rang the branch and explained that a skoda fabia isn't a large car. This is only automatic we have in sir, 

 

Ah right well if I book a suite at a hotel and you've none left ill just take a standard room even though I've paid for a suite, no bother! Cunts. 

Also it's 3 years old says 'service now' on the dash and the key is loose as anything 😅

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5 hours ago, Jamie said:

So my wife has booked a car with Enterprise to go to London with work. 

 

She booked a D Auto which means Large car / automatic 

 

This is what they dropped off and posted the key for this morning IMG-20220110-WA0000.thumb.jpg.4cc37cb02091b60a6c32561ab95bbb80.jpg

 

Rang the branch and explained that a skoda fabia isn't a large car. This is only automatic we have in sir, 

 

Ah right well if I book a suite at a hotel and you've none left ill just take a standard room even though I've paid for a suite, no bother! Cunts. 

Also it's 3 years old says 'service now' on the dash and the key is loose as anything 😅

My top tip for hiring cars like a skinflint….

Choose the smallest car they have, C1, Up etc but tick the box for ‘automatic’.  They probably won’t have one and voila, free upgrade.

You just have to be prepared for the 1 in 50 chance they do actually have one available and roll with the punches if that happens… 

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21 minutes ago, MJK 24 said:

My top tip for hiring cars like a skinflint….

Choose the smallest car they have, C1, Up etc but tick the box for ‘automatic’.  They probably won’t have one and voila, free upgrade.

You just have to be prepared for the 1 in 50 chance they do actually have one available and roll with the punches if that happens… 

Yeah we usually do that however on this occasion we paid for a class 4 auto due to 4 adults traveling to London but received a downgrade with no warning 🤣

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4 minutes ago, Jamie said:

Yeah we usually do that however on this occasion we paid for a class 4 auto due to 4 adults traveling to London but received a downgrade with no warning 🤣

Think yourself lucky, I got a 5 year old Mokka last week as an 'upgrade' from a Fiesta sized, car, it had done 70k, was wearing mismatched ditchfinders and the stereo/nav didn't work, from Enterprise, previously everything I have had off them has been under 6 months old and 10k miles, I wasn't impressed, the age and mileage I could forgive but a Mokka :(

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37 minutes ago, MJK 24 said:

My top tip for hiring cars like a skinflint….

Choose the smallest car they have, C1, Up etc but tick the box for ‘automatic’.  They probably won’t have one and voila, free upgrade.

You just have to be prepared for the 1 in 50 chance they do actually have one available and roll with the punches if that happens… 

Yeah, I tried that when I pronged my A6 auto, asked for an auto hire car via insurance, a bubble micra auto in full giffer spec was delivered.

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