The new news 24 thread

[DodgeRover]

Have you got a copy of the sun on the dash yet?

[richardmorris]

You do this anyway.

 

 

 

He does this anyway.

 

 

 

Something viral I think, as two of the four offspring are currently talking to God on the big white telephone.  Joy.

 

Tangentially relevant, but one of the speakers at my conference today was talking about bilharzia and malarial testing in schools in Uganda.

One of the problems is contamination of the schoolroom they are using. After two days everyone gives a positive test, even the doctors, because the entire room has a high background level. So the protocol now is to use one school room, empty it of desks etc and move to a new one each day. Disinfect the previous one ready to use again.

 

Basically with a highly infected population it is impossible to remain free of disease. So you need to treat the whole population/ village community at the same time. His talk was actually my favourite -origami analysis. Using preformed paper with wax covering to carry out testing. Then when you have the result just burn the paper to prevent contamination. Total cost about 5 cents.

A similarly useful test was being partly funded by the Manchester prisons to detect spice in prisoners also using the same paper form model.

This same conference ( which incidentally I chaired as head of the organising committee) covered silicate levels from diatoms in the southern ocean to changes in nitrate levels at high tide in tidal rivers. My favourite poster heading was colorectal cancer on a chip! And fun poster heading -using a Disney frozen phone to detect dengue fever.

 

Oh, and I parked the Mercedes in front of the noc building in the vip reserved only all day. It ran fine, but troubled me yesterday when it didn’t start first time -I think it’s the damp, I will check the fuse box and relays at the weekend.

[mercrocker]

Never had much trouble with my W124 but the 190E has been plagued with ignition damp.   Only sure cure has been brand new MB-sourced dizzy cap and leads - anything else just seems to exacerbate or merely delay the problem.   Having said that, I need new injectors and that is causing a lumpy start-up too.

[Ghosty]

Could have been French, their temporary plates are red.

 

They have green ones for something too.

[Ghosty]

Something is knocking pretty loudly on the passenger side of the Volvo. Don't know what is is and I can't quite tell it it's at the front or the back either, and it only happens if the car is moving at more than a few mph.

It's only been doing it since the last time I had the back seats folded down, and I've made sure they're properly latched, and tried moving my tools and tyre pump around in their cubby holes to no avail. Now I know it needs front ARB link bushes on that side and I'm intending to sort those this weekend, so it could be those (they're bad enough to affect the tracking), but I've no idea about this sort of thing.

 

I think I'll have to take Old Man out in it at some point to see what he thinks, alternatively consult the Northern Powerhouse lot on Tuesday.

[captain_70s]

Extinguished the Civic's check engine light by putting some oil in it. Turns out it didn't have any. Oops.

[twosmoke300]

Ghostly - check the wheel but torques !

[stuboy]

daddy bus im not touching..

 

mudflaps, wind deflectors, new wiper blades, 3d number plates and carbon effect numberplate surrounds delivered...opps

[egg]

New dad needs a treat cos of the sleep deprivation

[5speedracer]

No, I would not! I am a classic owner, and have I always had cars pass an MOT? I have not. Have I left jobs until just before the MOT because I know it needs doing before the test? Yes, I have. This idea that everyone who owns a classic car is familiar with every nut of their car is utter farce.

Wonder how many deathtraps that have been languishing in garages needing welding or just neglected will be brought out and polished up though.

"Not moved since dad passed away 12 years ago, it'll be fine though!"

 

Sent from my Redmi 4 using Tapatalk

[HillmanImp]

Topical, sort of.

 

Police in Pembrokeshire stop car driven without tyre:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-42917101

 

 

 

its MOT ran out in July 2016

 

[Talbot]

I know the demise of the SD3 is of no surprise to anyone, but I genuinely haven’t seen one on the road in a decade. What’s worse, it’s nearly impossible to buy one (good or bad). I know there was one floating about on here last year, but it’s probably time one entered the AS preservation scheme. I can really foresee them being all gone very soon.

Given the utterly astonishing rate at which they dissolve, I do genuinely believe the only way one will ever be preserved is if someone finds one that has been in a heated/dehumidified giffer garage for the past 30+ years, and it either stays there, or is moved to a heated/dehumidified museum or similar.

 

You couldn't actually drive it.

[Talbot]

Police in Pembrokeshire stop car driven without tyre:

This is the sort of offence that needs a lengthy, if not lifetime ban. I'm impressed it even moved.

[angle]

Ah, buying cars for other people. My girlfriend's sister's Fiesta had some sort of clutch related meltdown yesterday, so she needs / wants another car. Fair enough. Except her dad has drummed it into her that it needs to be a Fiesta (anything European that's not a Ford will break, anything Japanese has expensive parts, I refused to go and look at Kas), so cue a morning spent looking at increasingly hopeless ones. Highlight was the one that was on Gumtree for £650, pretty scruffy but seemed OK - would you take £600? 'No I've had a lot of calls so I want at least £900'. Yeah, good luck with that.

Anyway, we ran out of Fiestas in the greater Bristol area and I'd found a reasonable looking Civic about 45 minutes away, so with a skeptical look from her dad, I persuaded her to take a look. And it's decent - paint not great, but she liked it, one owner from new and the sort of history file you could use to bludgeon seals with. Done. Insurance sorted, taxed, and down the road to get petrol. Tank filled, go to get back on the M5, and... click. Nothing. Had to be bump started.

In fairness to the guy selling it, he offered a full refund including the tank of petrol, or getting it fixed next week and he'd deliver it back to her 35 miles away, which for a £600 car advertised as PX to clear, seems more than fair. Waiting for the call on Monday now...

Four weeks on, her other sister wants a car. Same budget, same requirements, same parade of depressing Fiestas. The only vaguely promising looking one is on eBay - not much information in the ad, but low mileage, not completely terrifying MOT history, looks clean and on a no reserve auction.

 

So, I send the seller a message. 'Hi, where in Bristol are you? Would viewing this weekend be possible? Also grateful if you could let me know what engine it has and whether there's any history.'

 

The response? 'NEAR WSW (no, me neither - Weston super Mare?) SOME HISTORY READ DESCRIPTION'

 

That description? In full, it is:

 

'FOR SALE NO LONGER REQUIRED NICE RUNAROUND'

 

Yeah, ta, might leave that one.

[Ghosty]

Something in the Volvo's rear suspension is knocking.

 

FFS, why does everything have to break at once?

[vulgalour]

Selected gears in the Princess today.  There's still something wrong with the clutch hydraulics so the process of elimination through parts purchase is now underway, starting with a clutch hose which I'm really hoping fixes the problem.  It's rather a large jump in costs from a £7 clutch hose to whatever the master and slave cylinders cost which, apparently, are hewn from blocks of pure unicorn poop because it's the 1700 and not the 2200.  GREAT JOY.

[Kiltox]

Four weeks on, her other sister wants a car. Same budget, same requirements, same parade of depressing Fiestas. The only vaguely promising looking one is on eBay - not much information in the ad, but low mileage, not completely terrifying MOT history, looks clean and on a no reserve auction.

So, I send the seller a message. 'Hi, where in Bristol are you? Would viewing this weekend be possible? Also grateful if you could let me know what engine it has and whether there's any history.'

The response? 'NEAR WSW (no, me neither - Weston super Mare?) SOME HISTORY READ DESCRIPTION'

That description? In full, it is:

'FOR SALE NO LONGER REQUIRED NICE RUNAROUND'

Yeah, ta, might leave that one.

I couldn’t help responding to that telling them how much of an absolute fucking cunt they are if it were me

[captain_70s]

Can you get rebuild kits for the cylinders, Vulg? I rebuilt the clutch master on the 1300 expecting it to fuck up entirely like everything else I attempt to do to the thing but it now holds pressure and no longer pisses brake fluid all over the driver's carpet...

 

Today I felt slightly bad for allowing the Civic to run out of oil and not servicing it in forever so I gave it a clean...

 

 

Still not sure what to do with it. The insurance is my biggest non-house bill (4x that of the Triumps!) and I worry about its longevity as it's a decade old and has 100,000 miles of quality Scottish road under its tyres. It is at the point essentially worthless as far as selling it goes, or at least any money generated from its sale would not be enough to replace it with anything better or get the Triumph up to scratch.

 

It needs new calipers at the back, I've fucked about with them before and it was a nightmare but at £100 for the parts alone I don't think I can afford to have the garage do it... I'm also concerned that the fact they are fucked may have warped the discs as it judders under braking. The PAS sometimes feels unreasonably heavy, the clutch biting point is steadily rising and it won't hold on a hill, the gearbox fluid is due a change, air-con is dead, front suspension creaks on bumps and the tyres will need to be replaced fairly soon.

 

On the flipside it is economical, safe, warm, easy to drive, fast enough to merge into 50mph+ traffic without getting me killed and can carry large loads, unlike the Doloshite.

 

 

I may end up doing work to it when the weather warms up but I'm never as motivated to work on it than the Triumph, it just utterly fails to hold my interest. Sadly we live in a world where an R8 Rover 216 would cost me £150 to buy and £800 to insure and a Triumph Acclaim would cost £150 to insure but £2000 to purchase so I don't think I'm going to find anything that is both reliable AND affordable.

[egg]

Re the PAS, don't these have steering rack problems? To add to your woes.

[angle]

I couldn’t help responding to that telling them how much of an absolute fucking cunt they are if it were me

I honestly don't think he'd understand.

 

Other than being hilariously yellow in a way that a 25 year old wouldn't necessarily appreciate, how terrible is a Hyundai Amica? Can thousands of Mumbai taxi drivers be that wrong?

[egg]

I couldn’t help responding to that telling them how much of an absolute fucking cunt they are if it were me

Be fair he's just testing teh water M9!

[vulgalour]

Sadly we live in a world where an R8 Rover 216 would cost me £150 to buy and £800 to insure and a Triumph Acclaim would cost £150 to insure but £2000 to purchase so I don't think I'm going to find anything that is both reliable AND affordable.

With that kind of maths, the R8 sounds like a sensible option. Unless it has OMGHGF, or galloping rot, or keyfob issues... they are superb when sorted though and the hatchbacks easily as practical as your Honda. Safety... let's not talk about that bit too much.

[Supernaut]

Captain_70s, you just need a mate like Tayne, who buys you raffle tickets for cars on here.

[captain_70s]

With that kind of maths, the R8 sounds like a sensible option. Unless it has OMGHGF, or galloping rot, or keyfob issues... they are superb when sorted though and the hatchbacks easily as practical as your Honda. Safety... let's not talk about that bit too much.

 

The appeal of an older car is mostly due to being able to get cheap insurance! An R8 is even more than the Civic, I remember checking when I was considering the AS bike example that I think FOAD ended up with?

 

Also a bit of nostalgia 'cause my Dad had one...

 

Captain_70s, you just need a mate like Tayne, who buys you raffle tickets for cars on here.

I don't think that'd solve my problem

[dollywobbler]

HOT NIPPA ACTION.

[SiC]

Looked at this today. A bonified Dolomite Sprint. Good price but needs work. Metal mostly fine. Paint flat though and stone chips (which have gone rusty). Interior needs some love too. Plus the drivers footwell is soaked.

 

I need some Trigger skills!

 

 

Reminds me a bit of the condition in the pictures of the 1500SE that Trig had.

[captain_70s]

Looked at this today. A bonified Dolomite Sprint. Good price but needs work. Metal mostly fine. Paint flat though and stone chips (which have gone rusty). Interior needs some love too. Plus the drivers footwell is soaked.

 

I need some Trigger skills!

 

 

Reminds me a bit of the condition in the pictures of the 1500SE that Trig had.

 

What colour is that, Pimento? Looks pretty good, the footwells fill with water when the drains down between the wing and A-pillar get blocked.

[SiC]

What colour is that, Pimento? Looks pretty good, the footwells fill with water when the drains down between the wing and A-pillar get blocked.

Pictures can lie a bit. But yeah I guess it's not too bad a thing. Chap reckoned it could be the windscreen seal. It was very perished.

 

I have to look over the fact it's a Sprint. I mean man, it's a Sprint ... A SPRINT.

 

Not quite as quick as I'd imagined it would be though. But then I'm used to modern powerful cars...

 

Hmm. I'm thinking on it. Just worried it could be a project too big for me to chew.

[Mally]

The engine would frighten me more than the body.

Seems you can get one rebuilt for around 3K though which sounds fine to me if the worst happened.

[captain_70s]

Could well be, the 1850's used to leak until I replaced it, you could see the water getting in on the inside on a rainy day! I'd also question the massive puddle under the front which looks a bit... Not watery?

 

The one thing is that they have a deserved reputation for being a bit arsey, the OHC motor can run hot and be a pain to keep cool (my 1850 was...), alloy wheels go porous and leak (used to have to pump mine up weekly), studs get stuck in the alloy cylinder head and snap when you try and removed them, water pumps are a pain in the arse to replace and requires the removal of the carbs/intake manifold for maximum banter.

I do fear with your slight perfectionist streak you may struggle to get out and enjoy the car while in pursuit of it being in satisfactory condition. It looks fine as a weekend toy to blat about in and see if you can restore the paint a bit but it being a proper project could end up a bit like painting the Forth Bridge...

 

Sprints are very cool though, 124bhp on a good day when new so not going to set any roads on fire in this day and age but is enough to have fun with. There was a chap local to me who had a Sprint auto and had it everywhere sideways all the time and ended up in a few verges/ditches... I've always wanted to try one! I found the 1850 fairly nippy, on paper it's the same sort of specs as my current Civic but felt faster due to the noise and vibration, taking it over 3.5k was always good fun with a good soundtrack, I imagine a Sprint would be an amplified version of that.