The new news 24 thread

[Stevebrookman]

Neighbour gave me a shout today-remembered he had these wheeltrims in his garage. Used to work 20 years ago for a company that made wheel trims.  Genuine Ford-will paint up and replace the old ones.

[brownnova]

Goodbye rubbish looking stickers! 

After: 

[brownnova]

Also, tried a different classic car breakfast meet in Chester today….

Saw the same Clan Clover that I posted in the spotted thread yesterday… 

And… 

Couple of Australian ones by the looks of it… 

Took the 2CV…. 

[artdjones]

26 minutes ago, Stevebrookman said:

Neighbour gave me a shout today-remembered he had these wheeltrims in his garage. Used to work 20 years ago for a company that made wheel trims.  Genuine Ford-will paint up and replace the old ones.

They are the nicest trims on mk 1/2 Mondeo's.

[AnnoyingPentium]

7 minutes ago, brownnova said:

That is bloody lovely, that Nova.

[HillmanImp]

Wow, that Maxi is brilliant. 

[Popsicle]

Not sure whether to put this in the grumpy or not grumpy thread, so I'll put it here instead.

2009 Suzuki Swift, been in the family for about 6 years, was daughter numbers ones car, we purchased it from her a couple of years ago for daughter number two as daughter number one fancied a change. Everyone was happy no hard feelings or owt, daughter number 2 really wanted it as her first car. Because of the last two years being a shit storm we were a bit late to the party teaching daughter number two to drive, we've done the basics with the Beetle in carparks and such and she is currently taking driving lessons. I promised her over Easter I'd drag her car out of the garage and get it going again, its been parked up for two years.

Obviously flat as a pancake but I'd been prepared and had an old spare but good battery ready to swap on. Pumped all the tyres up, popped the new battery on, check al the fluids and made sure everything looked ok and fired it up, took a few goes but it springs into life and is sounding as sweet as a nut, brilliant, cant believe my luck!

Leave it running for a bit, roll it up and down the drive, everything seems good. Tell our lass to take it steady up and down the street, just as she get to the top of the drive a flow of fluid come down the drive to greet me.

Quick shufty underneath and the leak is coming from the oil filter area, up on the ramps and the bloody oil filter has rusted through. How can something covered with oil on the inside rust through? Its been in a dry concrete floored garage for two years and I'm sure it wasn't that long ago that I last changed it.

I was going to do and oil and filter change as the bare minimum so had a new filter and oil ready to go.

So happy days its all running sweetly, I'll book it in for an MOT on Tuesday and see how it goes, I suppose I've got to be happy at just needing an oil filter change and it springing quite easily into life, but fuck me am I getting grief about the drive!

[Cookiesouwest]

Sad face for the drive

[Popsicle]

4 minutes ago, Cookiesouwest said:

Sad face for the drive

Thanks and thats how it looks after brushing some soil up and down it for 20 minutes.

[Split_Pin]

Despite my best efforts, I've found that the only thing which clears significant fluid spills off a monoblock drive is to not park a car on it for a period of time and let the elements at it.

[Popsicle]

I was a bit short of time this afternoon so other than sweeping some soil around I didn't try anything else, I'll probably chuck some TFR or Gunk degreaser on it tomorrow and attack it with the pressure washer, if that fails, which I'm expecting it to, but our lass can't moan to much because I've tried, then I'll do as suggested and sit back and let nature/elements do there thing.

Then when our lass starts moaning this will be me.

[keith777]

Try coke ! No the fizzy drink 👍

[Fumbler]

I've found washing up liquid, a little scrubbing with water and then hosing it off works well.

[Split_Pin]

Another MUTHA_LOAD of action man items and vehicles donated by my Auntie. There's even a horse!

These were my cousin's from the 1970s. I also had the Jeep and trailer as a kid in the early 1980s, which I absolutely loved until my dad accidentally crushed it with his MK2 Cavalier when I left it on the driveway.

Most things need rebuilding, but all the parts are there. I started with the Jeep and it looks great.

It's all being given to an ex-serviceman from Alloa who is absolutely over the moon at getting these. He already has my collection which I gave to him in February. 

I am however gutted that the Foden lorry which they had and I loved even more than my jeep, was apparently too far gone and was thrown out a few weeks ago. Nevertheless every one of the detachable parts have survived in the box so I retrieved them. In a fit of unbridled nostalgia, I went onto ebay and found one with all the detachable parts missing for £25 plus £8 postage. I put in a cheeky offer of £17 which was accepted so very soon I'll have a complete Foden lorry. Not sure if I'll keep it forever but I'll certainly have a play and should get a wee bit in my back pocket if I move it on.

[HMC]

I went to the shops 

[andy18s]

15 hours ago, Popsicle said:

I was a bit short of time this afternoon so other than sweeping some soil around I didn't try anything else, I'll probably chuck some TFR or Gunk degreaser on it tomorrow and attack it with the pressure washer, if that fails, which I'm expecting it to, but our lass can't moan to much because I've tried, then I'll do as suggested and sit back and let nature/elements do there thing.

Then when our lass starts moaning this will be me.

Do you have a patio cleaning attachment for the pressure washer? The spinny things work well on this sort of thing

[HillmanImp]

21 hours ago, HillmanImp said:

Gonna have to look at the inner sill where it joins the floor behind here tomorrow I think. Its 'crusty' but I'm hoping to get away with it. 

Predictable. 

[HillmanImp]

 

1 hour ago, HillmanImp said:

Predictable. 

However there's some more further along the floor that I'll have to tackle from underneath that I can't face starting on today. It'll have to wait. 

I might ring the lad who runs the garage down the road and see if I can borrow his ramp on a weekend or something. Possibly worth a go. I'm not as agile rolling around under cars on the drive like I used to be.

[richardmorris]

My rich ( very) newish  neighbour got his ac cobra finally running today. It turned up before Christmas and never moved. Then a couple of weeks ago did move and had a uk rather than South African plate and then last weekend the roof was removed and it had a tonneau cover. He’s been trying to start it since Friday but today it did ( I think it was the immobiliser ). Then went off to smiths lawn to play polo.

i haven’t seem them this year yet, according to another neighbour they’ve been at their chalet in verbier since Christmas.

Life must be like living in a James Bond film for some people! The only reason I can think that they rent this apartment is the location for schools and secure parking. 

 

[artdjones]

4 hours ago, HMC said:

I went to the shops 

Getting definite Uncle Buck vibes.

[stuboy]

Missus wanted to go to the sandy beach at folkestone as she never been.. I not been in donkeys, get there and its all residential permits only..  even a nice friendly local walking his dog said it driven away visitors, planned to go too hythe but was Nearish to the grand Hotel (now closed down😪)  and erindoors said there's a kiddies park for ministuboy, there some steps called the metropole steps, but coming up it nearly killed me... moral of this story is that if you have arthritis and overweight avoid this area u less u want to be in agnoy.. ha ha ha

[High Jetter]

From one fat bastard to another, maybe it's a sign?

[AnnoyingPentium]

2 hours ago, artdjones said:

Getting definite Uncle Buck vibes.

Wasn't just me then. 😆

[OM646]

I rode in this car as a kid, and drove it, for a grand total of 23 years now.

 

I never suspected the ashtray and cig lighter were supposed to light up. Until today when taking stuff apart found the bulb that blew, probably more than 23 years ago.

Time for a quick replacement

[aotb]

Retest Ready, refresh of a rear caliper and some fettling of lights and it should be good to go. The front headlight aim is the best I could get it- the mounting points don’t line up very well. At least the pop ups don’t rub on the bonnet now. I even washed the three years of storage grime off- not with the hot wash as that  would probably take it back to it’s multicoloured past. 

[catsinthewelder]

30 minutes ago, OM646 said:

I rode in this car as a kid, and drove it, for a grand total of 23 years now.

 

I never suspected the ashtray and cig lighter were supposed to light up. Until today when taking stuff apart found the bulb that blew, probably more than 23 years ago.

Time for a quick replacement

Can't beat that but my dad got our Focus 10 years ago, I've been driving it almost every day for three and a half years and I've only just found out that it's got auto windscreen wipers.

[wuvvum]

Did my first long run in the Doblo over the Easter weekend - 500 miles to my parents and back.  I'll be honest, it's not the most refined vehicle on the fleet on a long run but it's tolerable, and it behaved fine.  The computer reckons I've done 56mpg, but Fiat computers are notoriously economical with the truth.  If the fuel gauge is accurate (which it seems to be) then the van used 3/4 of a tank on the run, which equates to 10 gallons.  Which comes back to a nice round 50mpg, which isn't too bad really for something that boxy.

[Bren]

I restored the e60's headlights a couple of years ago - I used the lacquer which did the job but it needed doing again. They had gone yellow.

They suffer with condensation - sadly the only cure is new units but at £1400 each new that isn't going to happen. It's make do and mend.

[richardmorris]

Been round the m25 to leatherhead ish and back this morning to go for a walk. 

If anyone is in the vicinity of Epsom downs the Langley vale project is worth a trip. Only recently planted, but in thirty years I am sure it will look completely different. Sculpture and memorial to the servicemen of the First World War.

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/media/49109/langley-vale-wood-remembrance-trail-2020.pdf

 

[wuvvum]

Went and picked up the second replacement ECU for the 75 from the post office at lunchtime.  Fitted it to the car, plugged it in and it fired up first time, so that's a relief.

Took it for a quick spin - the new ECU has been remapped as well so pulls fairly well, although the throttle response isn't quite as sharp as with the tuning box that was on there before.  It was a tad smoky at full throttle too, although I suspect that may be partly because it hasn't been anywhere for a while.  Also since I've been fiddling about with the electrics the driver's door window switch pack has decided to stop working again, having previously fixed itself.

Still, at least I can use the car again now.