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Father Ted

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I doubt if many of you give a fuck, but have some news from me anyway....

 

The Ranger is doing nicely for now. Thats 500 miles done with no further kettling. I think I said previously that the rad had a wee leak from a crimped seam that I fixed with araldite? thats holding fine. I had a wee scare as it tended to get a bit hot up long hills which turned out to be the viscous fan hub. It would be ok for a while then suddenly start freewheeling....I could stop it by hand and spin it backwards with the engine ticking over. I would postulate that the fan hub failed first, it overheated and did the head gasket and the subsequent pressure buildup popped the radiator seam. I yanked it off and rather than piss about swapping the other from the Mazda I just drilled four holes right through the hub and fitted bolts and nyloc nuts which has locked it up and turned it into a fixed fan.  All sorted now apparently, as it seems to behave as it should. I will flush the coolant a couple more times though just to get it nice and clean.

 

Since it is officially the new Blues Mobile, I have swapped all my gubbins over from the Mazda....most noticeably the Carlos Fandango rims, which involved swapping some tyres about and a pair of new ones. I put the old Insa Turbo remoulds onto the fronts and fuck me, what a nightmare to balance. I rate them well as all terrain tyres grip-wise, but something is amiss when you spend an entire afternoon balancing them....get readings that cant possibly be right, unseat them and turn them 180 degrees, try again, no better, remove all together and swap direction, no better....in the end there is 250 grams on one and nearly 300 grams on the other and still not perfect so I chucked in a load of airsoft pellets too for dynamic balancing. When they wear out I will almost certainly pony up for a decent pair of BFGoodrichs instead of pissing about like that again.

 

I converted it to a flip key and remote central locking with a cheap ebay kit and binned off the remains of a shitty old Meta alarm that was under the dash. Swapped in my good Kenwood headunit and fitted a set of Alpine door speakers that I robbed from the Freelander. Ideally I would get a sub and amp in but there is literally nowhere to put a sub box unless I do without the back seat.....I am considering that tbh....I saw a Navara doublecab on the 'bay ages ago that had the rear seat removed and a plywood shelf/racking thing put in its place for tool storage etc.....I reckon that could work and give me room for a sub and somewhere to fit my big mains inverter etc and somewhere secure to leave chainsaws and shit like that when I am in town without worrying about stuff getting chogged from the loadbed......we will see. I also want to fit the big winch off the front of the Freelander, but that looks like it will be complicated due to intercooler and stuff being in the way.

 

Today was spent washing, clay bar-ing, rinsng, drying, polishing and extra gloss-ing the paint, polishing the glass etc etc. I also did my favourite cheap freshen-up trick of putting down a couple of sheets of newspaper as masking and spraying the wiper arms satin black instead of the faded grey colour they always are. It now looks fairly pimpin with the big wheels, but the chrome side step are going to have to go....fuck-all use as steps and I keep getting my trouser leg dirty getting in and out. The mazda has much less obtrusive black rock sliders so I will swap them over some time.

 

 

Nowt else to report really. I have been saying it for months, but I really do need to get rid of the Escort...fed up mowing around it, and the Freelander should go too, although I will probably strip that as since I am an idiot/Freelander enthusiast I may well own another in the future.....just need to decide if its better to strip this one and scrap the shell to free up space or just leave it at the bottom of the garden as an intact car. I will either shove the Mazda to the back of the old barn or dump it at the farm and that will be me back down to 4 cars and a garden that doesnt look like a scrapyard.

 

The MGF is doing fine....I will probably get rid of it at some point and get something else as its fuck-all use to me in a practical sense....I got some funny looks the other day on a foggy November day with the roof down and a flatpack wardrobe sticking up out the passenger side.

 

Neither the Metro or the Panda get much use now the weather is turning, although I am hoping for some proper OMGsnowKAOS as the wee panda on its skinny all-season tyres should be pretty much unstoppable.

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We had a collectors fair at the museum today. One of the stall-holders turned up in this (not my photo)

2638.jpg

 

I've never seen one in the flesh before, they are squatter than I thought but can still hold a lot. I want one (as did virtually everyone else :) )

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Went car hunting today. First on the list was a Volvo V50 which looked great on paper, but had sold about an hour before I arrived. Turns out that sometimes "I've got a couple of other people interested in it Sir" is sometimes true. Next up was a C5 estate, which seemed clean and drove well. Unfortunately the service light was on and neither the blower motor or horn worked, with the salesman's mentions of it probably just being a fuse not filling me with confidence. SO I left empty handed and the search continues.

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Think my auto gearbox is fecked in my camper. Sounds like a clutch is slipping. Does it in all gears. Could it just be the torque convertor? Tightened up the kickdown band and topped up the fluid and buggered about with the throttle pressure control linkage. Made it worse. So I washed it to cheer me up.

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https://viralsokmo.com/2017/11/19/pemuda-england-tertarik-dengan-proton-saga-dan-mengunakan-hampir-20-tahun-mengapa/

 

I think Ian is getting recognition again. The amount of exposure the Proton has got I keep expecting random Malaysian's to come up to me and try and talk about the thing.

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Got the dashboard all back together in the Stilo this morning - it actually went back in easier than it came out, which was good.  Gave up on the heater blower fittage though due to my inability to get the steering column clamp bolt undone - the 10mm socket wouldn't get a good enough grip on the bolt and, as I suspected, the little 3/8" 1/4" drive socket wasn't up to the job - the 3/8 to 1/4 adaptor snapped off.  So I'm ordering a set of proper Torx sockets and I'll have another bash on the next dry weekend.

 

I also gave up fitting the new glow plugs to the Rover 45.  I've done them a couple of times on the Rover of Doom and they're fiddly but doable, but the different injection setup on the later cars makes them a complete twat to get to, at least with my basic tools.  So I'm going to have to stick with cranking it over until it fires - good job it has a good battery.

 

I did get the rear wheel bearing changed though - that was a piece of piss, took about half an hour.  It makes things so much easier when the bearing comes as part of a whole replacement hub.  It's quieter now but there's still some bearing noise there, so I think the offside needs doing as well, which is a pain, but at 30 quid a pop not the end of the world.

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Ordered new tyres for the Volvo (again), and the mother's Bini is getting a set too (that cost over twice as much :shock: ). Dunlop SP Sport for her, and Avon ZT5 again for me. All being done at the same time so my mum might even pay the fitting! Different website this time but having them sent to the same place, let's see if they think it's non-existent too. 

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Can I have a 5 minute rant that's not about cars ?

 

Families, Old people and Families. Who'd have them.

 

I started typing about Mother in Law, Father in Law and there health issues, and the amount of support Mrs New POD and Mrs MikeR (sisters) have provided to them over the last 2 weeks, and how their oldest child (I shall call him Dick) has managed to undermine all the good work and make it all twice as stressful for them.

 

So much so that my wife has now had to take to bed with chronic fatigue, because sorting out her mother's issues has basically taken everything she's got and more (and Mrs MikeR looked like shit when I last saw her too).

On or other has stayed the night every night for nearly 2 weeks, and when MikeR is on Nights, that means that MRs New POD, has been staying over looking after his youngest (I have stayed the night twice at MikeR's house, whilst he was on nights and his wife was at her mother's)

Unfortunately money is not a bottomless pit and MikeR has to work nights and I have a job some 110 miles away so it's not possible to be there every night, to support.   

Not a long term problem because Dick would happily put them in a home if it meant he didn't have to do anything. Like answer the phone or reply to texts.

 

And NOW (as a last straw) they've cancelled a trip to seeing the solicitor about organising lasting power of attorney.FFS if you want someone to make sure you are looked after in your own home you'll need to actually give them permission to organise it and pay for it from the savings you've put aside for a rainy day. And you need to do it whilst you still have mental capacity. Why have they cancelled this ? Because it gives the people named the ability to handle your financial affairs (in your best interest) should this be needed (and it will one day be needed).

The final icing on the cake. Dick, has told Mrs New POD that him and his wife have sorted it out for themselves, and she (the youngest) needs to make sure they do it. So wait a minute, whilst you were doing that (and very sensible too), you never told your parents and never thought to persuade them to do it at the same time. I really want to punch him.

 

Rant over, no details mentioned of the mother in laws health issues, just why the fuck are some people so fucking selfish ? Probably tired after the walk home from Church

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New rear droplinks on RF51DHE  Honda hrv !! . Just cut   e'm off with an angle grinder , said mot man ..Even a 4" angle grinder didn't have enough access though..so i had to power file the old nuts off instead..Took ages, but much quieter now :-D  Or it could be , me ears are ringing  from the noise :-(

Top Tip. Just lever the bar bit off with a big lever,and hammer if need be. That leaves the ball(s) in place which you can grab with a decent pair of vice grips,jam them against something solid- watch out for hoses and ABS sensors...

then whip off the nut with a ratchet spanner, you may even be very lucky and the bolt will snap.

 

These are NOT my hands, nor is it my picture...... :o

 

Sway-Bar-Linkage-Broken-Ford-Focus-2002.

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I'm sure* you're all dying* to see what I've accidentally bought.

 

post-190-0-76473600-1511221028_thumb.jpg

 

That's right, it's a battered 14-year-old Berlingo van.  Told you it was nowt to get excited about.  It's a boggo model in doom blue, powered* by 1868cc of PSA's finest NA diesel.  To be fair, the poor old DW8 is rather less overwhelmed in this than it is in a Partner / Dispatch / Scudo, and it'll cruise quite happily at 75 with a bit left in reserve.  I picked it up from Duxford and it made it from there to Norwich on less than a tenner of diesel, which isn't too bad for an old van with a BFO roof rack. 

 

It has some issues - horn doesn't work, screen wash jets are shagged, the aerial is MIA and the doors don't seem particularly keen to lock from the outside.  Also one of the dipped beams went, but I've got a spare H4 and they're not a difficult job to fit so that's not a problem.  It's got plenty of test, runs well enough and the heater is good, and that's all you need in a van really.  I'm not sure how long it's going to be staying given that, as previously mentioned, I don't have any real use for it, but I might keep it until after Christmas when selling it might be a bit easier.

 

The journey down was slightly traumatic.  Train from Norwich left on time, but the connection from Ely to Cambridge was late and then proceeded to trundle down to Cambridge at about 25mph, so we got into Cambridge 5 minutes after my connection was due to leave.  Except that the connection was delayed as well due to an earlier train being held up because of a leaf on the line.  So the train eventually left, and as we pulled out of the station the driver announced that because it was running so late it'd be non-stop to Bishops Stortford.  Cue lots of pissed-off passengers.  We tried banging on the windows to attract the attention of the platform staff, but to no avail.  I then went down to the front of the train to try and either find a guard or bang on the door of the cab, but there was no guard to be found and the front two coaches were closed off. 

 

Eventually someone pressed the alarm and spoke to the driver, who had understood that we'd been told by the platform staff that the train would be fast to BS (nobody had, and the destination board in the train still had it stopping at all stops).  In the end he stopped at Whittlesford (which was my stop anyway) to allow all the passengers who wanted intermediate stations to get off and wait for the next train.  It got me thinking, and I honestly can't remember the last journey I took on that line which went without a hitch.  Something always fucks up somewhere, it's uncanny.  Still, all's well that ends well.

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