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3 hours ago, cobblers said:

I know a bus company that runs 14 little old merc buses. The air pressure / abs warning on those is on an LCD screen in the instrument cluster, but the clusters are NLA and if the LCD goes, they're not repairable.

They have one good dash that they keep in a locked cupboard which gets fitted for the MOT and then immediately removed.. They even rent this good dash out to another local operator,

I don't know what they'll do when the LCD finally gives up on the cherished MOTĀ dash, presumably just scrap the buses and shut up shop!šŸ˜…

When I ran two Saab 9000s I absolutely never swapped headlights and relays between cars to ensure an MoT passā€¦ that would be very irresponsibleā€¦Ā 

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2 minutes ago, brownnova said:

When I ran two Saab 9000s I absolutely never swapped headlights and relays between cars to ensure an MoT passā€¦ that would be very irresponsibleā€¦Ā 

A truly smart man would have left the headlights where they are and just swapped the number plates

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55 minutes ago, cobblers said:

A truly smart man would have left the headlights where they are and just swapped the number plates

There is a story about a bus company who would do exactly this with a number of 'identical' vehicles, the number plates and fleet numbers would be swopped around so the 'good' bus was being MoTd several times per year. Supposedly this was found out when a tester who was a bus spotter noticed that each vehicle had subtle differences,Ā or something like that. Whether true or not I know not.

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5 hours ago, cobblers said:

I know a bus company that runs 14 little old merc buses. The air pressure / abs warning on those is on an LCD screen in the instrument cluster, but the clusters are NLA and if the LCD goes, they're not repairable.

They have one good dash that they keep in a locked cupboard which gets fitted for the MOT and then immediately removed.. They even rent this good dash out to another local operator,

I don't know what they'll do when the LCD finally gives up on the cherished MOTĀ dash, presumably just scrap the buses and shut up shop!šŸ˜…

17 minutes ago, N19 said:

There is a story about a bus company who would do exactly this with a number of 'identical' vehicles, the number plates and fleet numbers would be swopped around so the 'good' bus was being MoTd several times per year. Supposedly this was found out when a tester who was a bus spotter noticed that each vehicle had subtle differences,Ā or something like that. Whether true or not I know not.

I think @busmansholidayhas a few stories just like that which he could tell! :)Ā the one your referringĀ to I think only got busted because they stuck the plates on a bus of a similar type but different length!

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3 hours ago, cobblers said:

A truly smart man would have left the headlights where they are and just swapped the number plates

That was for the drive home when one was rescued off a drive after having sat for a number of yearsā€¦ allegedlyā€¦Ā 

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On 2/2/2023 at 9:16 PM, LightBulbFun said:

fuck thats proper shit!Ā 

It was only the other day I was looking at it in the picture you put up of the other one you helped collect for a friend and thinking it was a nice car (and had to me a nice registration mark LOL, Surrey registered FTW)

it it is interesting to see how its gotten bent out of shape (ahead of the rear wheel) but not even rear hatch glass has popped

Ā 

but regardless of all thatĀ I hope you have come out of it intact at least?! and I hope insurance pays out a suitably healthy amount at least!

Yep - Guildford plate, had a few cars registered there.
The glass hasn't broken because the tailgate aperture is quite high up on these and the bumper protrudes out so (I think) the crashbar takes the impact and distributes the shock into the car low down around the chassis rails and bypasses the tailgate - as a resultĀ  the rear slam panel is stoved in, and the boot floor has creased on the o/s. The rear wing has buckled and been pushed forward so much that the door is overlapping it, barely closes and won't lock. The rear windows aren't bonded in, they pop out on a hinge, which probably saved them from shattering.Ā 

Filled in the claim online and Admiral's web thing immediately surmised total loss. Just need to argue the toss for the payout, but given recent values of these that won't be too hard as I've got decent evidence and I've facilitated two purchases of similar Civics in excess of Ā£3000 each lately.

Ā 

My mid back and the right side of my neck are still aching severely a day later, I'm going to see my GP, or see if I can get work's private healthcare to check me out, as something's not right. I'm unscathed on the outside and I can work though.

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You should claim for personal injury. I didnā€™t want to after an accident but in reality my lower Ā back hasnā€™t been right since. Years later I was told that driving an automatic probably made it worse as I was stationary, foot on brake when hit and this transfers a lot of force up through your pelvis to your lower back. A paramedic told me itā€™s a common cause of broken pelvis. This was my car after impact:

5BD8F99B-13AF-4532-8D00-87CDBF7D0C7F.thumb.jpeg.b2c38449b956eb63588f11b43cd5b0df.jpeg

There was no dispute and the settlement for injury was only a couple of grand, no where near enough the problems it still causes me. Best of luck!

Ā 

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31 minutes ago, Wibble said:

You should claim for personal injury. I didnā€™t want to after an accident but in reality my lower Ā back hasnā€™t been right since. Years later I was told that driving an automatic probably made it worse

I have every intention to, my back was iffy anyway but fuck me it's rough now.

This was an auto too. :(

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After what was possibly one of the shortest collection missions of my shiteing career (0.8 miles) Iā€™ve collected a car which Iā€™ve possibly waited longer between agreeing to buy and picking it up (3 months!) than any other purchase. I reckon it was worth it though, itā€™s the tidiestĀ car Iā€™ve brought home in a long time.

3580C81B-1660-4C63-8B8F-1C610528D13D.thumb.jpeg.3aac528f05a534184e6e03ce4d35089a.jpeg

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39 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

After what was possibly one of the shortest collection missions of my shiteing career (0.8 miles) Iā€™ve collected a car which Iā€™ve possibly waited longer between agreeing to buy and picking it up (3 months!) than any other purchase. I reckon it was worth it though, itā€™s the tidiestĀ car Iā€™ve brought home in a long time.

Nice! 1 local owner?

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17 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Nice! 1 local owner?

One owner from new, who ran it until he gave up driving in his mid 80ā€™s! Locally supplied as well, and spent its whole life in Seaford going by the service records:

ADC6A70A-58B5-4E7F-A90A-DD50C766C035.thumb.jpeg.17c08702497a64403c4474783d6b2eae.jpeg

03587F15-BB3D-4A2A-86A7-BA5CB5BCDF01.thumb.jpeg.b53a67de0a89d8dff465e6ba6cf79f2a.jpeg

I havenā€™t had a proper leafĀ through, but I appear to have every bit of service paperwork going back to the eighties šŸ˜…

5537E960-9F2F-40CC-BD03-5D9E1D00CD70.thumb.jpeg.e6d52f3f9777dfdc018d74993441f5ed.jpeg

I couldnā€™t pass it up once I knew about it!

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2 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

After what was possibly one of the shortest collection missions of my shiteing career (0.8 miles) Iā€™ve collected a car which Iā€™ve possibly waited longer between agreeing to buy and picking it up (3 months!) than any other purchase. I reckon it was worth it though, itā€™s the tidiestĀ car Iā€™ve brought home in a long time.

3580C81B-1660-4C63-8B8F-1C610528D13D.thumb.jpeg.3aac528f05a534184e6e03ce4d35089a.jpeg

Good God that's clean!

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202302-GardenFront02.thumb.jpg.37416fdb95e0b84e0b421db7f5aba421.jpg

202302-GardenFront01.thumb.jpg.018e8bf059cc221b01a1f5075e1ac0c7.jpg

Last bit of paving to jetwash and I've been really enjoying it.Ā  The plan was never to have this down long enough for it to warrant getting jetwashed, let alone repaired and the flagstone reseated/replaced.Ā  Fact is, things being what they are lately, we simply haven't got the funds for even the materials to redo all this properly in a decent concrete slab so we'll have to make do and mend.Ā  It likely would have lasted better had we not told the skip lorry it was okay to park there to un/load, but at the time it didn't matter since we only expected these flags to be down for six months, a year tops.Ā  Ah well, get it all clean and then we can see what we're dealing with a bit better and sort it all out with what we've got about the place and it'll do for another six months to a year by which time we can hopefully redo it properly.

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3 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

After what was possibly one of the shortest collection missions of my shiteing career (0.8 miles) Iā€™ve collected a car which Iā€™ve possibly waited longer between agreeing to buy and picking it up (3 months!) than any other purchase. I reckon it was worth it though, itā€™s the tidiestĀ car Iā€™ve brought home in a long time.

3580C81B-1660-4C63-8B8F-1C610528D13D.thumb.jpeg.3aac528f05a534184e6e03ce4d35089a.jpeg

That's looks brilliant, and the bodywork is very much "DO NOT IMPROVE"Ā 

The grime and faded bumper really adds to it in my opinion :)

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Today I finally got 4 minutes of free time to scooch on up to my unit and fit the newly cleaned Monza Recaros to the manta.

Ā 

I pulled the base off and swapped it for the manta one. Perfect fit. Dropped it into the car, bolted it up and had a sit inā€¦.Ā 
Ā 

ā€¦..ouch!! Ooooo!!! This isnā€™t right!

Ā 

scrunched up behind the backing foam on the back rest was this!Ā 
Ā 

48AD7D1C-D327-4768-8BE9-1118F168ED9A.thumb.jpeg.5ee737ae9dc64d01437bd243ec418344.jpeg

Ā 

107% part of an old curtain from the 70s. That material is THICK.Ā 
Ā 

Ā 

62223CD7-FC5C-4CBF-BEC8-783AF70099EB.thumb.jpeg.6264d1628be33d9a9e06542e2e0b25ef.jpeg

Ā 

I love it already. Mmmmmm comfort.

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First walk I planned this morning didnā€™t work out as the parking area was full with no alternative, so eventually ended up walking from work including the mclaren site, horsell common and back. On the way back passed several branded Alan Mann racing vehicles and trailers at fairoaks airfield. Perhaps theyā€™re stored, but thought they were Ā in by fleet?

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On 12/26/2022 at 7:14 PM, Soundwave said:

Couple of closed down shops in Nuneaton are being refitted, the signage being taken down reveals some high-street names from the past...Ā 

The recently closed Poundland was Woolies in a past life...Ā 

20221226_165612.thumb.jpg.1a07081d73d25ff26544f77499449146.jpg

The now-former O2 shop still carried the name of its distant predecessor under its signage...Ā 

20221226_154006.thumb.jpg.750451f892a2856477f492d72c9751f0.jpg

Ā 

Love seeing stuff like this. :)

Since this went down pretty well, another bit of high-street past revealed by the Nuneaton redevelopment project... wonder how old this optician signage is?Ā 

Ā 

20230204_145935.jpg

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1 hour ago, sutty2006 said:

Today I finally got 4 minutes of free time to scooch on up to my unit and fit the newly cleaned Monza Recaros to the manta.

Ā 

I pulled the base off and swapped it for the manta one. Perfect fit. Dropped it into the car, bolted it up and had a sit inā€¦.Ā 
Ā 

ā€¦..ouch!! Ooooo!!! This isnā€™t right!

Ā 

scrunched up behind the backing foam on the back rest was this!Ā 
Ā 

48AD7D1C-D327-4768-8BE9-1118F168ED9A.thumb.jpeg.5ee737ae9dc64d01437bd243ec418344.jpeg

Ā 

107% part of an old curtain from the 70s. That material is THICK.Ā 
Ā 

Ā 

62223CD7-FC5C-4CBF-BEC8-783AF70099EB.thumb.jpeg.6264d1628be33d9a9e06542e2e0b25ef.jpeg

Ā 

I love it already. Mmmmmm comfort.

Are those Monza Recaros the ones with the extendable bases ?Ā 

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@SpeedyĀ came by again today for an oil change and a fettle of his Civic.Ā 

Did loads of small jobs and checks on it, seeing as I had a load of spare parts lying around that both Speedy and my mum's cars could benefit from.Ā 

New tyres and backbox for my mum's car first off, and some genuine floor mats and such to make it pretty much perfect.Ā 

I decided to check the spark plugs on Speedy's car - the HT leads were knackered, the rubber ends all fell off, and the plugs and bores were all doused in oil - well that explains why it smoked on load, the seals had gone dry on the rocker cover, causing the head to leak all the oil down the plug bores and into the cylinders, glad I found that, as it's not every day you just have spare rocker covers and HT leads for 30 year old cars lying around.Ā 

Changed the oil and filter - the oil was a litre underfilled from burning off šŸ˜¬Ā 

Speedy's car is transformed with the change, it feels significantly more healthy now, and it was good to start with. There's not much that compares to a D-Series in fine fettle.Ā 

It needs a brake bleed and the clutch cable adjusting at some point, but I'll get round to that - I think the car might be holidaying here this week.Ā 

Ā 

Ā 

PXL_20230204_150832289.jpg

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7 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

@SpeedyĀ came by again today for an oil change and a fettle of his Civic.Ā 

Did loads of small jobs and checks on it, seeing as I had a load of spare parts lying around that both Speedy and my mum's cars could benefit from.Ā 

New tyres and backbox for my mum's car first off, and some genuine floor mats and such to make it pretty much perfect.Ā 

I decided to check the spark plugs on Speedy's car - the HT leads were knackered, the rubber ends all fell off, and the plugs and bores were all doused in oil - well that explains why it smoked on load, the seals had gone dry on the rocker cover, causing the head to leak all the oil down the plug bores and into the cylinders, glad I found that, as it's not every day you just have spare rocker covers and HT leads for 30 year old cars lying around.Ā 

Changed the oil and filter - the oil was a litre underfilled from burning off šŸ˜¬Ā 

Speedy's car is transformed with the change, it feels significantly more healthy now, and it was good to start with. There's not much that compares to a D-Series in fine fettle.Ā 

It needs a brake bleed and the clutch cable adjusting at some point, but I'll get round to that - I think the car might be holidaying here this week.Ā 

Ā 

Ā 

PXL_20230204_150832289.jpg

I had a G reg civic hatch about 18 years ago. That was a brilliant car! 1.4 twin Weber with electric everything! It was ace!Ā 

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