The new news 24 thread

[Zelandeth]

14 hours ago, richardmorris said:

This time of year means you don’t have to be up mega early to see dawn on the commute to work. Across chobham common this morning as my usual road closed to fallen tree.

 

I miss the views from my commute at this time of year.

I do NOT however miss the fact that I was for several months driving due east for 40 miles at dawn or early morning and driving due bloody west for 40 miles every evening around sunset though!

[gm]

the little red smart car has a usb socket where there should be a 12v socket - handy for charging my phone but precisely sod all use when i need to inflate a soft tyre  

parking it next to the mazda and stretching the cable did work but was far from ideal. 

so i parked it up under cover

and got to work 

sorted

the fuse box is held in with cable ties, i’ll need to sort that next  

but then i got distracted and installed a bass box instead  

ridiculously loud in such a confined space 

[juular]

Van Vs stag.

We were away in the Trafic for a few nights. We were just past Lairg at around 9pm when I saw eyes in the distance. I turned off full beam and slammed the brakes on. I was going very slowly past the panicking deer, probably rolling at around 5mph on the wrong side of the road, when it decided to turn round and run head first into the passenger door.

Paint is cracked and the door is quite badly creased.

I did try to push and dolly it back out but it's still a bit fucked.

It'll do for now but I might replace the door, since it's the one vehicle we have that's actually in decent nick and worth anything.

Could have been a lot worse though.

[Pat Earrings]

So here it is, getting two new rear tyres as they were cracked to fuck. Other than a grubby interior it seems really strong mechanically , only 92k miles and really feels healthy. I had one of these a while ago off the forum and forgot how they sounded, smooth but also almost agricultural at the same time. Front bumper needs sorting though, the shitty Perspex grill hasn’t been seated properly and it’s loose, and you can see there’s a small bracket on the front right that’s bent back slightly so the old dear who I bought it off had clearly bumped something. No big deal. Small list of stuff to do, including a full service this weekend and demisting the headlamps etc. After a full wet vac inside it should be a nicer place to be.

[JJ0063]

5 minutes ago, Pat Earrings said:

So here it is, getting two new rear tyres as they were cracked to fuck. Other than a grubby interior it seems really strong mechanically , only 92k miles and really feels healthy. I had one of these a while ago off the forum and forgot how they sounded, smooth but also almost agricultural at the same time. Front bumper needs sorting though, the shitty Perspex grill hasn’t been seated properly and it’s loose, and you can see there’s a small bracket on the front right that’s bent back slightly so the old dear who I bought it off had clearly bumped something. No big deal. Small list of stuff to do, including a full service this weekend and delisting the headlamps etc. After a full wet vac inside it should be a nicer place to be.

I do like these but never entertained the idea of getting one.

What made you change from the 535D just out of interest? I’m seriously debating one.

[Pat Earrings]

24 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

I do like these but never entertained the idea of getting one.

What made you change from the 535D just out of interest? I’m seriously debating one.

The fear factor, and coupled with the fact I didn’t need such a large car at the time. Plus it wasn’t economical at all. These are a bit more gruff in comparison but the engines are so strong, and give amazing MPG. The interiors are a bit cheapy, the ride is a bit crashy and the cabin isn’t the most sound insulated either, however I’m still enjoying it.

[Split_Pin]

Presuming it's a diesel, they are an incredibly quiet engine. Agree on the indifferent ride but with comfy seats and cruise they are a great long distance car. Yes the interior is made of hard plastic but its good hard plastic and the design is great, really different. The diesel has tons of torque too. I really rated mine. 

Go for a post facelift 2009-on example as they seem to be better rustproofed. The rear suspension mounts rotting is  a bit of a weak spot.

[Pat Earrings]

6 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Presuming it's a diesel, they are an incredibly quiet engine. Agree on the indifferent ride but with comfy seats and cruise they are a great long distance car. Yes the interior is made of hard plastic but its good hard plastic and the design is great, really different. The diesel has tons of torque too. I really rated mine. 

Go for a post facelift 2009-on example as they seem to be better rustproofed. The rear suspension mounts rotting is  a bit of a weak spot.

Yeah I don’t know how to describe it, it is quiet at idle and the way it revs is not like a traditional diesel sound. Lovely things though and this one has lived most of its life in a garage as the body work is dent and scuff free amazingly.

[Rust Collector]

 

25 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Presuming it's a diesel, they are an incredibly quiet engine.

 

18 minutes ago, Pat Earrings said:

Yeah I don’t know how to describe it, it is quiet at idle and the way it revs is not like a traditional diesel sound.

It was one of their main marketing points for that engine when it launched:

 

[Crackers]

I love it when a plan comes together.

N+1 rule applies.

[SRi05]

12 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

 

 

It was one of their main marketing points for that engine when it launched:

 

Honda's marketing was 11/10 around that time

 

[Pat Earrings]

16 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

 

 

It was one of their main marketing points for that engine when it launched:

 

Yeah sounds like that 😂

im perhaps overly critical. The 6 cylinder of the 5 series was smoother and that’s what I was comparing it against, unfair really.

[SiC]

18 minutes ago, Pat Earrings said:

Yeah sounds like that 😂

im perhaps overly critical. The 6 cylinder of the 5 series was smoother and that’s what I was comparing it against, unfair really.

The 5-series is a very different class of car, so as you say, a bit unfair to compare. It has heaps more soundproofing which helps a lot to mitigate the diesel rattle. Plus 6cyl engines always are naturally smoother than 4cyl (well okay some manufacturers put balance shafts and what not to try mitigating that).

On the 9th gen civic, Honda sorted out the interiors much better. Essentially the same vehicle but refined a lot. It's suspected Honda spent most of the development budget making the 8th gen "spaceship" look funky inside and out but not on complete refinement+fit and finish.

[Pat Earrings]

4 minutes ago, SiC said:

The 5-series is a very different class of car, so as you say, a bit unfair to compare. It has heaps more soundproofing which helps a lot to mitigate the diesel rattle. Plus 6cyl engines always are naturally smoother than 4cyl (well okay some manufacturers put balance shafts and what not to try mitigating that).

On the 9th gen civic, Honda sorted out the interiors much better. Essentially the same vehicle but refined a lot. It's suspected Honda spent most of the development budget making the 8th gen "spaceship" look funky inside and out but not on complete refinement+fit and finish.

Totally agree with you, I owned the 9th gen too briefly from @Agilaand by far they had insulated and upgraded the cabin quality.

[richardmorris]

Pretty much everything coming up to sale next weekend at Sotheby’s was outside my window today - I didn’t seem to get much work done! The delahayes and Talbot lago were superb, but not that valuable it seems.

https://rmsothebys.com/en/home/lots/lf22

Freddie Mercury’s rolls shadow was photographed outside my building ( some photoshop has been done to remove my company signs).  It is wonderfully shabby outside, but I’d rather have it than the similarly priced Mini Cooper with no miles.

[High Jetter]

No disrespect to your building, but surely a more contrasting background would have shown it better?

[richardmorris]

4 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

No disrespect to your building, but surely a more contrasting background would have shown it better?

I’m not an artist, but yes. They usually photograph them against the red-brick derelict building on the corner, or the aircraft hanger that they are stored in ( it used to house the goodyear blimp in the 1980s).

[Lankytim]

Finally got around to washing the exterior of this Xantia. The engine is working correctly now so manoeuvring it onto the driveway to wash it was easy.

We were given an old shite jet wash the other week and  tried it out on the rather green bodywork. Progress was slow but the results are pretty good! 

The door shuts and inner wings were jetted off and the whole lot washed again with some “Wash N Wax” stuff in a bucket. 

[JJ0063]

3 hours ago, Pat Earrings said:

The fear factor, and coupled with the fact I didn’t need such a large car at the time. Plus it wasn’t economical at all. These are a bit more gruff in comparison but the engines are so strong, and give amazing MPG. The interiors are a bit cheapy, the ride is a bit crashy and the cabin isn’t the most sound insulated either, however I’m still enjoying it.

Makes sense! My 335D still got 36-38MPG, is the 5 much worse?

BTW, was listening to Spotify earlier and Casisdead came on. Can’t believe I’ve never noticed the connection before 😂

[Pat Earrings]

2 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

Makes sense! My 335D still got 36-38MPG, is the 5 much worse?

BTW, was listening to Spotify earlier and Casisdead came on. Can’t believe I’ve never noticed the connection before 😂

Haha come on man, I even stole the display picture 😂

its a bit worse than that in all honesty, on account of the extra weight it carries.

[davehedgehog31]

With winter fast approaching the roads will have salt on them any day now. I already have the sacrificial Subaru, but given the Kangoo has four nearly new Michelin all season tyres on it, I thought I should use it. 

It's very clean for an old van and is a genuinely useful tool that I'd like to have around for a while yet. 

I'd thought about various ways of protecting it against rust. It was pretty clean to begin with so didn't want to hide it under stonechip, I also don't have the patience to apply it neatly. In the end settled on a Lanolin based wax. I looked at Lanoguard initially, but at £100 for 5 litres I thought better. 

I went for a product called Corrolan;

https://www.rust.co.uk/product/cat/corrolan-sustainable-rust-proofing-43

At £35 for 5 litres it seemed like a more affordable bet for when I made a hole of applying it. 

They have a couple of products, the "pure" is a thick underseal for exposed bodywork and the "Active" is for cavities. I suspect you could probably just thin the "pure" down with white spirit and use it in cavities in a pinch. I got 5L of the pure and 2.5 of the Active.

It's seriously gloopy stuff, when it arrived it was almost solid. I sat it on a little 130 watt tube heater overnight which had the whole bottle runny. 

You could hear some of it in a vessel in a pot of boiling water if in a hurry. Alternatively it can be thinned with a bit of white spirit. Given the time of year I should probably have done this too. 

This is the gun I've got to apply it, it's a Sealey Professional number and seems very good quality;

Got the van up on stands. I done a bit of preparation. I treated surface rust underneath with Vactan the day before. The OSR arch was scabby so I cleaned it right back with a wire wheel to solid metal, vactan then primer and paint. 

Removed all the plastic liners and the spare wheel beforehand too. 

This was my first mistake, it really needed to be much higher in the air for the undercoating. In future I think I'd drive it up on ramps, or jack one end right up and do one half at a time. 

The main issue was that I couldn't get the tip of the gun far enough from the floor to get a wide fan on the spray. As a result I've probably applied it too thick in places and used more product than I would have with the car higher up. Still, it's well covered all the same. 

I used my 6 litre SGS compressor to blow it on. I had it heated, so very runny and it managed fine. I'd probably add a nip of white spirit next time. 

I didn't mask anything up really, just put a carrier bag over the front brakes. I could probably have been a bit tidier, but it's a van so aesthetics aren't high up my list of priorities. 

Anyway, got there in the end. The flash on the pictures makes it look a bit glossier and patchier than it is, but it's well covered. 

Less visibly, I used the extension with the 360 degree nozzle on it to get wax into the cavities and front subframe.

We'll see if I regret it the next time I need to do any work on it. It dries to a slightly tacky finish that you can scrape off, I'm sure a bit of effort with a pressure washer would take it off. 

The stuff gets good reviews online. Hoping it will provide good protection while being relatively easy to remove or top up as required. 

[Shirley Knott]

Top work there young master hedgehog.

I've looked over the brim of my undersealing goggles at the lanolin products for a while now, mostly because of social media adverts/spam. I'm still struggling to move away from the traditional stuff TBH. The days of me having access to a pit and a compressor are long gone and I've shifted from dynax UB to comma wax seal to save money, but in aerosol form it's still £16 for a litre and a half... £35 for a gallon does appeal....

All that being said, I'd be slightly perturbed that they've chosen to produce their product in EXACTLY the same colour as actual rust (Maybe that's just the flash?)

Only time will tell eh? It would be interesting to run some side by side tests on unprotected metal to see which product works best.

 

[davehedgehog31]

Cheers man.

I had heard that Lanolin based products were on fleek at the minute, as the youth would say. 

I worship at the altar of Project Farm and he said good things about Lanolin based Fluid Film which got me curious. 

 

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 hour ago, davehedgehog31 said:

With winter fast approaching the roads will have salt on them any day now. I already have the sacrificial Subaru, but given the Kangoo has four nearly new Michelin all season tyres on it, I thought I should use it. 

It's very clean for an old van and is a genuinely useful tool that I'd like to have around for a while yet. 

I'd thought about various ways of protecting it against rust. It was pretty clean to begin with so didn't want to hide it under stonechip, I also don't have the patience to apply it neatly. In the end settled on a Lanolin based wax. I looked at Lanoguard initially, but at £100 for 5 litres I thought better. 

I went for a product called Corrolan;

https://www.rust.co.uk/product/cat/corrolan-sustainable-rust-proofing-43

At £35 for 5 litres it seemed like a more affordable bet for when I made a hole of applying it. 

They have a couple of products, the "pure" is a thick underseal for exposed bodywork and the "Active" is for cavities. I suspect you could probably just thin the "pure" down with white spirit and use it in cavities in a pinch. I got 5L of the pure and 2.5 of the Active.

It's seriously gloopy stuff, when it arrived it was almost solid. I sat it on a little 130 watt tube heater overnight which had the whole bottle runny. 

You could hear some of it in a vessel in a pot of boiling water if in a hurry. Alternatively it can be thinned with a bit of white spirit. Given the time of year I should probably have done this too. 

This is the gun I've got to apply it, it's a Sealey Professional number and seems very good quality;

Got the van up on stands. I done a bit of preparation. I treated surface rust underneath with Vactan the day before. The OSR arch was scabby so I cleaned it right back with a wire wheel to solid metal, vactan then primer and paint. 

Removed all the plastic liners and the spare wheel beforehand too. 

This was my first mistake, it really needed to be much higher in the air for the undercoating. In future I think I'd drive it up on ramps, or jack one end right up and do one half at a time. 

The main issue was that I couldn't get the tip of the gun far enough from the floor to get a wide fan on the spray. As a result I've probably applied it too thick in places and used more product than I would have with the car higher up. Still, it's well covered all the same. 

I used my 6 litre SGS compressor to blow it on. I had it heated, so very runny and it managed fine. I'd probably add a nip of white spirit next time. 

I didn't mask anything up really, just put a carrier bag over the front brakes. I could probably have been a bit tidier, but it's a van so aesthetics aren't high up my list of priorities. 

Anyway, got there in the end. The flash on the pictures makes it look a bit glossier and patchier than it is, but it's well covered. 

Less visibly, I used the extension with the 360 degree nozzle on it to get wax into the cavities and front subframe.

We'll see if I regret it the next time I need to do any work on it. It dries to a slightly tacky finish that you can scrape off, I'm sure a bit of effort with a pressure washer would take it off. 

The stuff gets good reviews online. Hoping it will provide good protection while being relatively easy to remove or top up as required. 

May have to follow this somewhat as I'd like to do something about the Sandero before I'm learning how to weld.

[dome]

4 hours ago, SRi05 said:

Honda's marketing was 11/10 around that time

 

143,678% the reason I put the alloys I did on my Accord.

As purchased

Who says advertising doesn't work?

I know they were the wrong colour, they were £50 though!

[SRi05]

8 minutes ago, dome said:

143,678% the reason I put the alloys I did on my Accord.

As purchased

Who says advertising doesn't work?

I know they were the wrong colour, they were £50 though!

They look smart as fuck. That motor does not look like an almost 20 year old design, they really smashed it with that Accord Estate 

[paulplom]

16 hours ago, Pat Earrings said:

So here it is, getting two new rear tyres as they were cracked to fuck. Other than a grubby interior it seems really strong mechanically , only 92k miles and really feels healthy. I had one of these a while ago off the forum and forgot how they sounded, smooth but also almost agricultural at the same time. Front bumper needs sorting though, the shitty Perspex grill hasn’t been seated properly and it’s loose, and you can see there’s a small bracket on the front right that’s bent back slightly so the old dear who I bought it off had clearly bumped something. No big deal. Small list of stuff to do, including a full service this weekend and demisting the headlamps etc. After a full wet vac inside it should be a nicer place to be.

My mate rang me the other day saying his will be ready for me by the end of the week. I'm not holding my breath though.

[reb]

20 hours ago, reb said:

Happiest I've ever been. I'm home and safe.

I'll give a proper update in a few days.

In the mean time I have 20 Marlboro and a tub of players to enjoy.

I got to my fourth cigarette and was calmly instructed to get in the van.

Nicotine gum it is.

[davehedgehog31]

10 hours ago, SRi05 said:

They look smart as fuck. That motor does not look like an almost 20 year old design, they really smashed it with that Accord Estate 

Sadly the last thing to smash that particular one was the big claw at Copart. 

Goodnight sweet prince. 

[SRi05]

2 minutes ago, davehedgehog31 said:

Sadly the last thing to smash that particular one was the big claw at Copart. 

Goodnight sweet prince.