The new news 24 thread

[hairnet]

trig - you tried to be scottish and didnt like it so you bought a 50s car again

rust - nice one shagger hope it goes well for you and the boss

 

[Ghosty]

@trigger I've heard people say before that the 1850HL is the thinking man's Dolomite. 

Great choice, looks ace.

[Dayno]

Dolomite looks lovely, may I ask how much you're wanting for the Astra? In case it doesn't go tomorrow, I may be interested.

[trigger]

2 minutes ago, Dayno said:

Dolomite looks lovely, may I ask how much you're wanting for the Astra? In case it doesn't go tomorrow, I may be interested.

I'm asking £3500 for it.

 

[brownnova]

On 23/07/2022 at 21:37, brownnova said:

Local car show tomorrow, we’ve taken the 2CV last two years, think it’s the turn of the Pontiac this year. Thought I’d give it a quick once over, but that turned into a full polish, and use of products to make it gleam! 

That’ll do. 

Woke up with a stomach bug this morning… so car shows were out! Damn, all polished up with nowhere to go! 

[wuvvum]

Trig, that Dolomite looks fantastic!  1850 is a very capable and usable car, plenty quick enough most of the time, especially with a manual overdrive - the one I had was auto but still easily kept up with modern traffic.

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, trigger said:

Then onto today, I went and bought this!

Yep another Dolomite! I'm sure a few people are wondering why I've bought another when i only just sold my Sprint, well, this is a 1850 which is much more reliable and easier to live with and It's a 33000 miles, father and son owned car that's never been restored or welded and is really in timewarp condition plus the best bit is that this cost £6000 less than what i sold the Sprint for which wasn't anywhere nearly as nice.

It's a late Pre-HL model but had all the HL spec but not the tinted glass, It was a Mann Egerton Colchester ex demo hence the triple digits and has only covered a remarkable 3000 miles since 1983!

It does need a bit of love, the paints faded and needs a good mop, the interior needs cleaning too, the brake pull to the left slightly and the carbs needs setting up better but all minor stuff.

This does leave me with too many cars now, the Astra was meant to have sold and gone to Scotland but the sale fell through Friday so I've still got it but someones coming to view it tomorrow so hopefully it be gone and i can get the Volvo back inside.

Utter barg! Bastard!

[High Jetter]

4 hours ago, Bren said:

Torbay motor club had their show today in Paignton.

The green mustang and black catalina were my faves.

Tasty P6 tho

[wuvvum]

Yesterday's main task was to make a start on doing the oil cooler change on the Dodge ready for the arrival of the new one.  I spent a fun* couple of hours yesterday draining the cooling system - part of the reason it took so long was that all the hoses were held on with those bastard spawn of Satan spring clips, and most of them were in locations where it was almost impossible to get a decent pair of pliers into.  Still, I got there in the end, and ended up with a nice bucket full of oily coolant.  I also took the expansion bottle off and brought that inside to give it a good wash out in the kitchen sink.  The joys of being single.

I also got the pistons pumped out on the Volvo's rear caliper, which was more of a faff than it needed to be - I had to make up a brake pipe extension so I could connect the caliper back to the car without it being sat on the brake disc, and the new brake pipe flaring kit I bought turned out to be a bit shite.  Got there eventually though - the pistons had some surface rust as expected, but not too bad, and after a good scrub with 1000 grit they've actually come up OK.

I'm going to grease them up and wind them back in and see if that cures the sticking.  Otherwise a replacement piston kit is 30 quid.

Today I was going to make a start on dismantling the engine on the Mobylette to replace the head gasket, but when I went to the front door I found that the oil cooler for the Dodge had been delivered - I didn't know Royal Mail delivered on Sundays, but there you go.  So I fitted that instead - the actual removal of the old cooler and fitting of the new one was an easy if messy job, but getting all the pipes reconnected was an absolute twat - in fact I gave up on three of the spring clips in the end and drove to Roys to get some Jubilee clips.  Eventually everything was back together and with the coolant refilled (with water plus a bottle of radiator flush - I'm going to drain it again next week and refill it properly with antifreeze) and the oil topped up it seemed to run happily enough.  I actually took it for a run this evening, did 10 miles in it and it behaved fine - the coolant level had dropped when I got home but that's fairly normal on the first run after a refill, and hopefully means it's not pulling any more oil into the system.

I stuck the Toyota up on the ramps to give it a quick look over in advance of its upcoming MOT.  Didn't find anything too scary, although one of the rear flexi ferrules is looking a bit grotty so that may or may not need doing - I'll take the wheel off and wire brush it to see if it'll clean up.  I'm also going to do the annual Gun Gumming of the exhaust - it's actually barely blowing at all at the moment and would probably squeeze through but it looks a bit of a flaky mess.

I then attempted to fit a split CV boot to the Renault 6, which was an almost complete failure.  Everything on that car is an odd size - the small end of the boot wouldn't stretch round the driveshaft far enough to glue it together no matter how hard I tried, so I snipped the end off to use the next size up, only that's looser than a whore's drawers.  The big end is also between two sizes - it really needs to be the third size down and then stretched over the joint but if I cut it down that far the boot is going to be so short that it's going to struggle on full lock. 

A split boot is the only solution though - I can't fit a stretch boot as I can't get the driveshaft out, it needs pressing out of the hub which I could probably wangle but it also then needs drawing back through, which needs a special tool which hasn't been available from Renault for about 40 years.  There are universal puller sets on eBay but they're fucking expensive.  I'm wondering whether the issue is that I bought a cheapo eBay boot as I've never had that much trouble with them before.  I'm going to order another the same make as I usually use and see if that's any better.

Oh, I also fitted the wheel trims that were in the "free shite" pile brought to Shitefest by the Cornish contingent to the 107.  I think they quite suit it - they're a lot better than the random selection of Poundland trims that were on there before, anyway.

Oh yeah, forgot to add, the 121 now has working headlights again.  I gave up on trying to get the original wiring to work and fitted separate switches (one for on / off and one for dip / main beam).  It's not a brilliant bit of wiring - when I have more time and more wire I'll redo it with a relay powered off the sidelight switch rather than a permanent live from the battery - but it'll do for now and means I can drive the car at night again.  Now I just need to find a way of sorting the bloody wheel bearing...

 

[Cord Fourteener]

10 hours ago, trigger said:

Then onto today, I went and bought this!

Yep another Dolomite! I'm sure a few people are wondering why I've bought another when i only just sold my Sprint, well, this is a 1850 which is much more reliable and easier to live with and It's a 33000 miles, father and son owned car that's never been restored or welded and is really in timewarp condition plus the best bit is that this cost £6000 less than what i sold the Sprint for which wasn't anywhere nearly as nice.

It's a late Pre-HL model but had all the HL spec but not the tinted glass, It was a Mann Egerton Colchester ex demo hence the triple digits and has only covered a remarkable 3000 miles since 1983!

It does need a bit of love, the paints faded and needs a good mop, the interior needs cleaning too, the brake pull to the left slightly and the carbs needs setting up better but all minor stuff.

This does leave me with too many cars now, the Astra was meant to have sold and gone to Scotland but the sale fell through Friday so I've still got it but someones coming to view it tomorrow so hopefully it be gone and i can get the Volvo back inside.

Barn find!

Or, at least, what everyone dreams of finding in a barn. 

Win.

[Cord Fourteener]

Can one get a double bass in a 740 saloon?

✅

[dozeydustman]

About a third of the journey back from Manchester to Portsmouth at Norton Canes services.

I need fuel (about 4-5 gallons left) which should do me another 75- 100 miles but not chancing it. Pretty impressed with an average of 19.5 to a gallon though as hire company said I wouldn’t get much better than 15mpg.

If there’s any interest I’ll post about hiring a lorry for a house move and if it’s better or worse than getting a removal firm. It’s certainly a lot cheaper!

EDIT - here it is for the most riveting* topic 

 

[wuvvum]

How big's the lorry?  I used to get ~20mpg on a run out of the 7.5-tonners I've owned.

[dozeydustman]

9 hours ago, wuvvum said:

How big's the lorry?  I used to get ~20mpg on a run out of the 7.5-tonners I've owned.

It’s a DAF LF45 with the big 4-pot (180hp), 30ft long 12ft high.

I’ve forgotten how crap Tot Hill services are.

Edited July 25, 2022 by dozeydustman
Correction of vehicle length

[dozeydustman]

I broke the 20mpg (just!) on arrival at the hire place.

Can recommend Southern Self drive if you’re in Pompey or Fareham area. Good service and good selection of vehicles nothing over 6 years old - lorry I hired is off to auction in a few weeks

[louiepj]

This weekend meant I can now add ‘mis fuel repair service’ to my shiter CV.
 
One of my friends youngest sister is learning to drive. She was out with help in the car, and needed to fuel it up. Nobody helped, so she put 40 litres of diesel into a VW Fox… with a petrol engine. Not realising she had done wrong, she proceeded to drive it, until it died. They had it recovered back to their field and left it.
 
Saturday morning I was heading round to help him set up for a small FoD type event we do every year with some friends. Namely camping, fire, and a big BBQ. Lots of drink, too. I said I’d get the diesel out of the fox, since paying someone to do it seems off, and they’ll keep £80 worth of diesel while they’re at it, too.
 
Fortunately being a Brazilian market car with an engine more at home in the 90s, it was easy to find the fuel hose that feeds the injection rail. Using one of those clickety-clack little electric fuel pumps we could draw from the tank nicely, and get it drained.

 
This went swimmingly, with the pump connected to a 12v bench power supply, until we had half a tank. It couldn’t draw from the other side, but the cars own fuel pump could. A painstaking find of the fuel pump relay (strangely there’s NO information on the VW Fox online, and the owners manual didn’t show where the relays were) it was found. A little jumper wire, and the fuel pump happily pumped the rest of the dizzer out. 15 litres of fresh petrol in, and would it go? Well,  no. It ran happily on brake cleaner, but would die on its own fuel.
 
After ‘some’ beers, and feeling suitably dusty the next morning we had another go. It would cough, but nothing else. With my thinking* cap on, there was probably some diesel left in it, and diesel has a higher specific gravity than petrol. More pumped out, and would it run?
 

Of course! Quite a lot of smoke at first from all of the diesel in the exhaust, but it cleared. A run up and down the field with a couple of handbrake turns for good measure and it’s back to being abused by a new driver.
The leftover diesel will go in their Ford 330 tractor since it will run on fermented pig swill.

Think these have a fuel filter you can change underneath.

[hairnet]

@dollywobbler refurb axles 265 quid

torsion bars 42

[wuvvum]

On 7/24/2022 at 7:44 PM, JakeT said:

This weekend meant I can now add ‘mis fuel repair service’ to my shiter CV.

 

One of my friends youngest sister is learning to drive. She was out with help in the car, and needed to fuel it up. Nobody helped, so she put 40 litres of diesel into a VW Fox… with a petrol engine. Not realising she had done wrong, she proceeded to drive it, until it died. They had it recovered back to their field and left it.

 

Saturday morning I was heading round to help him set up for a small FoD type event we do every year with some friends. Namely camping, fire, and a big BBQ. Lots of drink, too. I said I’d get the diesel out of the fox, since paying someone to do it seems off, and they’ll keep £80 worth of diesel while they’re at it, too.

 

Fortunately being a Brazilian market car with an engine more at home in the 90s, it was easy to find the fuel hose that feeds the injection rail. Using one of those clickety-clack little electric fuel pumps we could draw from the tank nicely, and get it drained.

 

This went swimmingly, with the pump connected to a 12v bench power supply, until we had half a tank. It couldn’t draw from the other side, but the cars own fuel pump could. A painstaking find of the fuel pump relay (strangely there’s NO information on the VW Fox online, and the owners manual didn’t show where the relays were) it was found. A little jumper wire, and the fuel pump happily pumped the rest of the dizzer out. 15 litres of fresh petrol in, and would it go? Well,  no. It ran happily on brake cleaner, but would die on its own fuel.

 

After ‘some’ beers, and feeling suitably dusty the next morning we had another go. It would cough, but nothing else. With my thinking* cap on, there was probably some diesel left in it, and diesel has a higher specific gravity than petrol. More pumped out, and would it run?

 

 

Of course! Quite a lot of smoke at first from all of the diesel in the exhaust, but it cleared. A run up and down the field with a couple of handbrake turns for good measure and it’s back to being abused by a new driver.

The leftover diesel will go in their Ford 330 tractor since it will run on fermented pig swill.

How did she manage to get the diesel pump nozzle through the unleaded restrictor?

[stuboy]

Ever since I had the galaxy I've had a load cover but never the brackets, everytime I ask when being broken they either don't understand what I'm after or wanna sell the cover and brackets together ( understanderbly ) but now I have some and wernt cheap but hey ho, next challenge is to decide where to cut, can't find a decent picture online .so far.

[JakeT]

1 hour ago, louiepj said:

On 7/24/2022 at 7:44 PM, JakeT said:

This weekend meant I can now add ‘mis fuel repair service’ to my shiter CV.
 
One of my friends youngest sister is learning to drive. She was out with help in the car, and needed to fuel it up. Nobody helped, so she put 40 litres of diesel into a VW Fox… with a petrol engine. Not realising she had done wrong, she proceeded to drive it, until it died. They had it recovered back to their field and left it.
 
Saturday morning I was heading round to help him set up for a small FoD type event we do every year with some friends. Namely camping, fire, and a big BBQ. Lots of drink, too. I said I’d get the diesel out of the fox, since paying someone to do it seems off, and they’ll keep £80 worth of diesel while they’re at it, too.
 
Fortunately being a Brazilian market car with an engine more at home in the 90s, it was easy to find the fuel hose that feeds the injection rail. Using one of those clickety-clack little electric fuel pumps we could draw from the tank nicely, and get it drained.

 
This went swimmingly, with the pump connected to a 12v bench power supply, until we had half a tank. It couldn’t draw from the other side, but the cars own fuel pump could. A painstaking find of the fuel pump relay (strangely there’s NO information on the VW Fox online, and the owners manual didn’t show where the relays were) it was found. A little jumper wire, and the fuel pump happily pumped the rest of the dizzer out. 15 litres of fresh petrol in, and would it go? Well,  no. It ran happily on brake cleaner, but would die on its own fuel.
 
After ‘some’ beers, and feeling suitably dusty the next morning we had another go. It would cough, but nothing else. With my thinking* cap on, there was probably some diesel left in it, and diesel has a higher specific gravity than petrol. More pumped out, and would it run?
 
  Of course! Quite a lot of smoke at first from all of the diesel in the exhaust, but it cleared. A run up and down the field with a couple of handbrake turns for good measure and it’s back to being abused by a new driver.
The leftover diesel will go in their Ford 330 tractor since it will run on fermented pig swill.

Think these have a fuel filter you can change underneath.

They do. Spotted it, and will probably change that at some point soon. On a Sunday morning I wasn’t fancying going around the houses trying to find one.

50 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

How did she manage to get the diesel pump nozzle through the unleaded restrictor?

It doesn’t have a flap at the top of the filler neck, so I think either the nozzle just went in, or she managed to just fire the diesel down the filler. To be fair I don’t blame her. She’s never filled a cat before, and had multiple people with her who have a licence. You’d think someone would have got out and helped out.

[Cord Fourteener]

Tweed and twill.

I've been meaning to wear this tweed jacket with the Volvo, now I feel proper and that. 

No occasion, just a band practice. Normally I dress like a sack of potatoes unless there's a reason, I think enjoying a tweed with the twill seats is reason enough. 

[GrumpiusMaximus]

On 7/25/2022 at 8:49 AM, Cord Fourteener said:

Can one get a double bass in a 740 saloon?

✅

I've seen a double bass fit in a Fiat 500.  Granted it was a 7/8ths but it was quite impressive and clearly well-rehearsed.  Unlike the double-bassist.

[GMcD]

I had a nice conversation this morning with a chap who has agreed to buy the 1100 and has sent me a deposit to hold.

He intends to pick it up in a couple of weeks once his Iveco Beavertail is back from the menders....I think he belongs on here!

Plans are to use it in his upcoming retirement to go to shows and wee jaunts. He has a small workshop that he'll store it alongside a Morris Minor he is restoring. 

Sounds like it's going to the ideal person.

...will give it 10 minutes before sellers remorse kicks in! 

[wuvvum]

4 hours ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

I've seen a double bass fit in a Fiat 500.  Granted it was a 7/8ths but it was quite impressive and clearly well-rehearsed.  Unlike the double-bassist.

I found on a trip to the Czech Republic in 1995 that a full-size 'cello will just fit diagonally in the boot of a Škoda Estelle, with about an inch to spare.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

I did a theatre gig when I was about 20 and over the course of the rehearsal week managed to take more and more kit over.  It started off with my drum kit, then it was a small guitar rig, then it was a second guitar, then percussion.  Then a bass guitar.  It snowballed.

By the end of the show I managed to get it all into my S-reg Ford Ka.  I'm also 6'2".  It was so bad that I couldn't use first and third because my drum stool was in the way - good thing then that the gearing was very short...

At one point when I was at college, a few of the theatre technicians got together and wrote 'CAR TETRIS' on the side of the Ka in duct tape.  I got a bit known for it.

[richardmorris]

11 hours ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

I've seen a double bass fit in a Fiat 500.  Granted it was a 7/8ths but it was quite impressive and clearly well-rehearsed.  Unlike the double-bassist.

Citroen lines in house mag in the 1980s had a bassist with a 2cv featured. She had the rear and passenger seat taken out and it slid in no problem.

[AnnoyingPentium]

19 minutes ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

I did a theatre gig when I was about 20 and over the course of the rehearsal week managed to take more and more kit over.  It started off with my drum kit, then it was a small guitar rig, then it was a second guitar, then percussion.  Then a bass guitar.  It snowballed.

By the end of the show I managed to get it all into my S-reg Ford Ka.  I'm also 6'2".  It was so bad that I couldn't use first and third because my drum stool was in the way - good thing then that the gearing was very short...

At one point when I was at college, a few of the theatre technicians got together and wrote 'CAR TETRIS' on the side of the Ka in duct tape.  I got a bit known for it.

I've had a full-size glockenspiel lengthways in the Fabia, rear door to rear door. Couldn't get a fag paper between either side tho.

Helped get an 88-key electric piano into an Aygo too.

[RayMK]

I used my Tipo for a very enjoyable VMCC Founders Day rally/gathering on Sunday 24th July at Stanford Hall.  It was a hot, sunny day and I am now a bit pink.  I used the Tipo rather than my air conditioned 'modern' because the Tipo with its rear seat folded down easily accommodates my mid size mobility scooter after dismantling it to manageable lumps.  Even the scooter's seat seemed bloody heavy. Perhaps I'm just getting old.  After several hours of trundling around on the scooter admiring and photographing the numerous bikes that caught my interest, I drove home, the Tipo as usual behaving perfectly for the 25 or so miles each way trip.  Unpacking the car on arriving back home did reveal one problem.  The rear seat back, when raised back to its normal position was reluctant to latch on one side.  I gently pulled the plastic release button on the latched side so that I could slam the seat on to the latches properly.  The release button had felt a bit strange and pulled out completely.  I checked the side that had initially resisted latching and that button also just pulled out.  Both button stems appear to have given up in the heat, the ends having broken off.  Fortunately, I can operate the seat back release with a screwdriver fairly easily.  I'll see if I can fabricate something (metal) to replicate the broken stems and then return the buttons to their rightful position.  With my productivity rate I'll optimistically say this will be done before the year ends.  If my photos have not suffered from camera shake I'll post some on the bikeshite thread in due course.  This MacBook Air won't talk to my 2007 digital camera, so downloading has to be done on my old MacBook Pro.

Meanwhile, preparation of my '61 Reliant Regal for its eventual sale has been delayed by the hot weather.  Really it just needs a good clearout of the boot, a wash and polish and a test drive. Being a non-urgent activity, I may still be the owner next year! 

 

[wuvvum]

2 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

I've had a full-size glockenspiel lengthways in the Fabia, rear door to rear door. Couldn't get a fag paper between either side tho.

Helped get an 88-key electric piano into an Aygo too.

While we're on the subject of fitting large instruments into small cars, I once fitted one of these:

into the back of one of these:

The drive home was interesting though - I somewhat resembled this chap:

[GrumpiusMaximus]

2 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

I've had a full-size glockenspiel lengthways in the Fabia, rear door to rear door. Couldn't get a fag paper between either side tho.

Helped get an 88-key electric piano into an Aygo too.

We percussionists have special powers, I swear.

@wuvvum that is exceptional.  I did once take a small electric organ around the M25 from Rickmansworth to Gravesend in a Ford Fiesta.  I bought it for £1 on eBay.  It wasn't a good one but was sufficiently entertaining...