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Father Ted

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20 minutes ago, egg said:

Don't be. Ford are OK, but I've found local Mazda and High and Dry kind of defensive when you ring up, almost as though unless you are buying an OEM battery for 3 year old car they don't want to know. My Dad worked on OEM and independent parts desks for decades, so find this attitude kind of odd.

Do you have the 'old' one to hand? Could you go to a fixings & fasteners place and say 'I want another one of these please'?

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5 minutes ago, Stanky said:

Do you have the 'old' one to hand? Could you go to a fixings & fasteners place and say 'I want another one of these please'?

yes, could do that thanks, it's just rounded off a bit making it hard to undo when I needed to charge the battery today (I need to remove the battery to charge it because we don't have a drive/garage)

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The days, or rather years, 23 to be precise, of 305 van ownership may be coming to an end. I have come to the conclusion that the body work, to tidy it up, is going to be in the region of £1500.  I was having a chat with the guys at the garage about another small van within budget, 2 bags, but anything at that price is basically tired and shagged out. It then turned to estates and I said something the size of your Mazda estate would do. To which he said, well that might be up for sale as we don't really use it now. My lugholes twitched a bit so I asked what they might want for it. They hadn't got as far as that because they aren't in a hurry to sell. I know this Mazda has been well looked after as they have service record and receipts for everything going back years. This is not an unknown car on the forum. Hubnut either did a review or it was on a vid from the FoTU. I'll have to have a rummage on da toob. It's a 94, K reg, Mazda 323 in excellent condition and well looked after. So I'm thinking this is going to be over my budget. So I was asked what  I would pay for it. So I said it's got to be worth 2 bags any day of the week. Personally I thought it would Ebay for more than that, 2.5 to 3 grand. Anyhoo, so I said my budget is 1500 so that's all I could do to which he said the immortal words ok it's yours. Fuck me, you could have knocked me down with a one ton feather. It's ideal for me as it's old enough not to have shit loads of, in my view, unnecessary electronics to go wrong. It is a step up for me as it has lecky windows and powah steering which I have never had on a car or small van. 

So my plan is to take this on in May. Meanwhile I'll get a new wing on the 305 and think what I'm going to do with it as I can't keep two cars, but what is a tatty Lhd 305 van worth ?  500 ? Can't see many people wanting it. The other thing I might be able to do is, while I'm running around Britain with the circus, get the guys at the garage to do the body work when they feel like it and then sell the Mazda back to them when it's done. I think  they are selling me the Maz because they said they would like somebody to look after it and they have seen over the years that I get my van serviced and any other work that I can't do at the side of the road they have the pleasure* of doing. I like the Maz coz there aren't many of them around but I like my van coz there are even less of them and it starts some conversations, some good some boring. Blimey! That was a bit long. I hope not boring.

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I did a car thing for the first time in months. Get me. 

The fuel gauge was suddenly reading zero the other day. I immediately assumed that someone had robbed my fuel but I couldn't see any spillage or damage so drove the car for a bit and it was fine. 

Went to the garage, lobbed a few liters of fuel in and it still registered nil. 

So today I took the rear seat out and swept out several years of crap. 

20230128_104451.thumb.jpg.d40e4a64c2e7b4118224cc573a491a6f.jpg

Yuk. 

There was a warning that I needed to ensure the fuel was below half level before opening. Unfortunately the only reason I'd be opening this is surely because the fuel sender wasn't working. So I've no idea. Is there another way to tell? 

20230128_104933.thumb.jpg.d10c4f8ab90c981ad3d1110ebd56b17a.jpg

Anyhow, it turns out I didn't need to open them as I gave both of them a firm THWACK with a lump of wood and a hammer and the fuel gauge started working again. 

So thats it. Thats my car thing. Back to shitposting and arguing with strangers it is. 

 

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PXL_20230128_154334697.thumb.jpg.cb676ae054ea62d993eb9a10ab324560.jpg

 

Been down to Bridgwater to pick up this blue Civic for my mate. He's chuffed. Manual! 

102k, was owned by a giffer until the mid teens when she left it in her will to her mechanic, who sold it on to prevent his son ruining it. 

A bloke bought it, kept it four years then his 23 year old son ran it for a bit. He's now upgraded to an E46 328ci so the Civic was up for sale. Top notch seller tbh. 

 

Saw the ex-HMC Chevy pickup going up the M5, as well as some legend A-framing an MG Metro with a Rover 45 😁

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On 1/27/2023 at 4:21 PM, egg said:

Yes, I find OEM parts desks (mostly) catastrophically unhelpful when asking for small bits in recent years, but maybe that's just me! It's a very generic Kia/Hyundai part, so think this Kia Sportage one will fit (new clamp and bolt).

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274096842522

I asked Kia for a flasher relay recently 

Their helpful answer - 

"Nope, it's obsolete, infinite back order and it's highly unlikely it will come back in to stock. You probably won't find one anywhere else m8 either because I know what they're like to get bits for" 

🤦

He must have been having a bad day, or just being a typical parts advisor. One was duly found and bought from eBay 5 minutes later!

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54 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

Oh God.

Escaped unscathed, and both cars have made it home. That manual Civic is a real gem and isn't going to need much to be a cracker. It's had a series of caring owners with no intention to modify it at all - even has the original radio.

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7 hours ago, Ghosty said:

PXL_20230128_154334697.thumb.jpg.cb676ae054ea62d993eb9a10ab324560.jpg

 

Been down to Bridgwater to pick up this blue Civic for my mate. He's chuffed. Manual! 

102k, was owned by a giffer until the mid teens when she left it in her will to her mechanic, who sold it on to prevent his son ruining it. 

A bloke bought it, kept it four years then his 23 year old son ran it for a bit. He's now upgraded to an E46 328ci so the Civic was up for sale. Top notch seller tbh. 

 

Saw the ex-HMC Chevy pickup going up the M5, as well as some legend A-framing an MG Metro with a Rover 45 😁

Hello, this is me!

Been determined to find a  4G Civic since experiencing the joy of driving Ghosty's sedan quite a few times last year for various events and road trips.

Ghosty saw it on Marketplace earlier this week, I was calm and considered with the seller who couldn't have been nicer, and actually ignored the 'I'll give you an insulting amount cash today mate' brigade because he clocked I was coming down from Manchestoh to view it. It would've been wrong to haggle him down even for a couple of hundred pounds given how positive the entire experience was.

Other than a few small items which need some attention (non-oily, but I'll do  filters, belts, fluids, water pump too) it's absolutely spot-on. It's in rude health and drives just like a happy one should. I'm absolutely over the moon with it.

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