The new news 24 thread

[dollywobbler]

I do like the way I look like I've been photoshopped into my own opening image.

[DodgeRover]

Just along the way from the wedding of the Hewitts was something much more entertaining....

 

IMG_20180519_153840.jpg

 

IMG_20180519_154429.jpg

 

IMG_20180519_154152.jpg

Was that the wedding where Dan was chauffeur in his Mercury? Full marks to him if he can pull a bridesmaid...

[Craig the Princess]

Isn't the high pitch noise bird song?

But it does sound like the microphone was a bit too close.

[dollywobbler]

Isn't the high pitch noise bird song?

But it does sound like the microphone was a bit too close.

 

I had turned the mic sensitivity up. I've now turned it down a little. Nice that you get the option.

[egg]

the Olfi seems a big improvement to me.

 

How big is your memory card?

[MarvinsMom]

both mini's have made it darn sarf.....

 

not quiet into Brighton yet (that is tommorrows "special stage" but have got to Aunty Monica's in Gravesend.

 

Rodney Mini hasn't missed a beat all the way here. we have found out that the petrol gauge tells complete lies. and that the thin little seats are suprisingly more comfortable that you would think.

 

only issues we have had is the alternator has worked itelf loose, so no horn for the last bit of the journey, but all tightened up and working now., and a sqeek coming from the exhaust. the exhaust is held on metall hangers which loop over the pipe bit and then fasten onto the rubber mounts, and its that which squeeks!! at least its nothing mechanical (i hope.....)

 

and what a journey, cross country via Wetwang to the Humber Bridge, then A15 to Lincoln. Sleaford and Peterborough, then A1, A14 M11 and M25 over the QE2 Bridge to Gravesend.

 

we know its the first time that the black mini that has been over that bridge (completed in 1991) and think it the first time over the Humber Bridge (completed 1981) - no pics though cos i was driving......

[egg]

Hope you paid the toll !

[trigger]

I collected my Rover from my welder this afternoon, I'm really pleased with his work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little bit of primer and paint and it will be fit for the MOT, he quoted £30 but I gave him £40 as I think he under charged me.

[dollywobbler]

the Olfi seems a big improvement to me.

 

How big is your memory card?

 

I've only got a 16Gb card in at the moment, as one of the 32GB cards I had has gone duff. I'll have to pinch the one out of my dashcam for the Bulgaria trip, and perhaps turn the quality down (above filmed in 1080p 60 frames per second). Or just buy more memory cards along the way...

[GrumpiusMaximus]

both mini's have made it darn sarf.....

DSCN7407.JPG

 

not quiet into Brighton yet (that is tommorrows "special stage" but have got to Aunty Monica's in Gravesend.

 

Rodney Mini hasn't missed a beat all the way here. we have found out that the petrol gauge tells complete lies. and that the thin little seats are suprisingly more comfortable that you would think.

 

only issues we have had is the alternator has worked itelf loose, so no horn for the last bit of the journey, but all tightened up and working now., and a sqeek coming from the exhaust. the exhaust is held on metall hangers which loop over the pipe bit and then fasten onto the rubber mounts, and its that which squeeks!! at least its nothing mechanical (i hope.....)

 

and what a journey, cross country via Wetwang to the Humber Bridge, then A15 to Lincoln. Sleaford and Peterborough, then A1, A14 M11 and M2 over the QE2 Bridge to Gravesend.

 

we know its the first time that the black mini that has been over that bridge (completed in 1991) and think it the first time over the Humber Bridge (completed 1981) - no pics though cos i was driving......

 

I think I recognise that road.  I grew up in Gravesend right near Windmill Hill and did a lot of walking about when I was bored...

 

Speaking of the Mini rally, my landlord's granddaughter turned up today for some help with her F-reg mini.  Needed a bit of fettling because of a dead spot on the accelerator and a bit of a tidy up.  So I spent half an hour or so chatting to them both about cars and the like.  Lovely woman and my landlord is a fantastic old chap.  If anyone sees an F-reg, white mini with a blue roof and a very happy looking lady driving it tomorrow they're very approachable and friendly.

 

Also managed to get the cabin filter done on my Golf.  By God it needed it:

 

IMG_1277

[MarvinsMom]

oh and Marvin the metro has decided to throw a wobbler, seems all this mini fodelling has put his nose out of joint....

 

as a dirty protest, the heater matrix is now leaking.

 

joy.

 

and with the metro been a mark 2, it has a proper dahboard, with the heater box buried deep within it. i have a new, spare matrix, but think some, most or all of the dash needs to come out to get at it.

 

bugger.....

[GrumpiusMaximus]

oh and Marvin the metro has decided to throw a wobbler, seems all this mini fodelling has put his nose out of joint....

 

as a dirty protest, the heater matrix is now leaking.

 

joy.

 

and with the metro been a mark 2, it has a proper dahboard, with the heater box buried deep within it. i have a new, spare matix, but think some, most or all of the dash needs to come out to get at it.

 

bugger.....

 

You've just got to love that kind of quality British engineering.

[dollywobbler]

You've just got to love that kind of quality British engineering.

 

To be fair, I think the British learnt that trick from the French.

[madrat]

You've just got to love that kind of quality British engineering.

Just like the passat, at least you don't have air bags to remove.

[stuboy]

Had an hour free from being up hospital so decided to cut open the original centre box and pull out the pubic hair and weld shut using the welder found in the street as it has low enough settings to weld thin metal

[johngarty]

Made a new video to test my OLFI action camera. I was recommended to try one by Jonny Smith no less. I like the footage (albeit camera placement needs to improve) but I've had some complain that there's a high-pitched noise throughout - one folk my age and older probably can't hear. Anyone else get that?

 

Good quality vid, I didn't hear any obvious high pitched sounds. A bit shaky though when hand held, might be worth getting one of those sticks or summat.

[stuboy]

While Mrs SiC was enjoying the sunshine and watching the wedding, I had plenty of time to get on with sorting the garage. This is an incredibly important thing I needed to do to prep ready to receive a certain Austin 1100. Both for storage and making it a lot easier to gather tools in and out of the back of the garage.

 

Originally the garage door was blocked by this shelving unit and other clutter. These shelving units are being replaced by a much more sturdy Clarke unit. This looks tidy, but I had already removed a lot of stuff that filled up all in front of this.

 

This is just some of the stuff that was in the way.

 

After most of this afternoon, I've got it to this stage. This leaves plenty of room in the front for storage on anything I strip off the car.

 

 

This is where I'll be doing the work. It's modest, compared to many peoples hobby spaces on here, but I'm very thankful for having what I've got.

 

The only thing is that I wish I had more room to the sides. Thankfully old cars are a fair bit narrower, so it's not totally unusable.

that drive is begging for a carport erection

[spike60]

My BMW which popped a rear air bag on the way back from the Nurburgring 24h on Monday lives again. After wisely* spending £39 last time on an Ebay special bag which lasted 6 months I got my hand down for a £158 ECP one. Same tat at 4x the price? Mebby. 

The plus side of this was the car was driven steadily for 200 miles and afterwards it claimed this 

 

 

Of course it's lying through it's Germanic teeth but it did a genuine 47.5 mpg over nearly 900 miles, about 1/3 local running. OK for an 1800kg 3L car with 260k miles on it.

[dollywobbler]

Good quality vid, I didn't hear any obvious high pitched sounds. A bit shaky though when hand held, might be worth getting one of those sticks or summat.

 

I have a stick. Didn't realise how crap it'd look with me holding it - so much arm! Will dig out the stick next time...

[SiC]

that drive is begging for a carport erection

I did look into it, but tbh I rather save my pennies and move to somewhere a bit bigger in a year or two hopefully.

[wuvvum]

Had a moderately successful day on the 205 today.  It now has a shiny new NSF wishbone

 

 

and a shiny new offside track rod end.

 

 

The wishbone was no more of a pain in the arse to fit than I had anticipated, although getting the ball joint to let go of the hub took rather more whacks with the hammer than the other 205 had done - it seems that lots of things on this one are rusted together.

 

The track rod end was also rusted together, but having pulled back the rack gaiter to investigate the possibility of removing the whole track rod meant I was able to get a 16mm spanner on the flats in the track rod and jam it against the wishbone to stop the thing turning, and having found my decent quality 19mm spanner in the boot of the Toyota (I'd been pissing around with a cheap drop forged job which wasn't rigid enough) I was able to twat it hard enough with a lump hammer to get the lock nut to come loose, and after that it was easy.  I think I've more or less got the tracking back where it was, but time will tell.

 

The rear brake proved to be a bit more of a PITA - I got the shoes out with no problem but the cylinder is proving to be a bit* more problematic, although I've had a couple of suggestions on the stupid question ask a shiter thread which I will be trying tomorrow.  I have a nice new cylinder and set of shoes ready to go on, although I'm not looking forward to having to refit all the poxy springs.

 

Whilst fitting the wishbone I was visited by a fairly large and rather odd-looking beige insect.

 

 

The body looked like a moth, but it didn't have any wings - I wondered whether it had somehow lost its wings in some mishap as it looked a bit tottery on its feet, but then it seemed unlikely that it would have lost them in such a symmetrical manner.  Anyway, came back round to the nearside of the car about half an hour later and it looked like this:

 

 

I'm no entomologist but I reckon it must have been a moth which had just come out of its chrysalis and was looking for somewhere to dry out its wings in the sun.  Looked again another half hour later and it had buggered off.

 

I also fired up the Renault 6, for the first time since last June - battery charged and a dribble of pez down the carb and it went first turn of the key; clutch is also free and brakes aren't any more stuck than they were when I put it away.  I love that car.  I might even take it for a sneaky run round the block tomorrow.  I'm going to have to do a coolant change though as there's mould growing in the expansion bottle...

[tooSavvy]

WW :-

 

Nope.... I think you might get a 'visitor lookin' option.. Dunno :/https://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/183521-1988-carina-2-for-sale/

100% UNBLEMISHED MOT record....

 

Err... Its White, folks :/

[catsinthewelder]

 

It looks properly nice

[vulgalour]

That insect looks rather like a hummingbird moth of some sort.

[Jim Bell]

 

It looks properly nice

 

Seller wears a top hat. +10pts

[Jim Bell]

 

It looks properly nice

 

Yeah. Agrees.

Id have that but couldn't manage Kent and back at the moment. My back is giving me some gip and its a lot of hours from here.

[Guest Hooli]

Had a moderately successful day on the 205 today.  It now has a shiny new NSF wishbone

 

IMG_20180519_135917.jpg

 

and a shiny new offside track rod end.

 

IMG_20180519_152418.jpg

 

The wishbone was no more of a pain in the arse to fit than I had anticipated, although getting the ball joint to let go of the hub took rather more whacks with the hammer than the other 205 had done - it seems that lots of things on this one are rusted together.

 

The track rod end was also rusted together, but having pulled back the rack gaiter to investigate the possibility of removing the whole track rod meant I was able to get a 16mm spanner on the flats in the track rod and jam it against the wishbone to stop the thing turning, and having found my decent quality 19mm spanner in the boot of the Toyota (I'd been pissing around with a cheap drop forged job which wasn't rigid enough) I was able to twat it hard enough with a lump hammer to get the lock nut to come loose, and after that it was easy.  I think I've more or less got the tracking back where it was, but time will tell.

 

The rear brake proved to be a bit more of a PITA - I got the shoes out with no problem but the cylinder is proving to be a bit* more problematic, although I've had a couple of suggestions on the stupid question ask a shiter thread which I will be trying tomorrow.  I have a nice new cylinder and set of shoes ready to go on, although I'm not looking forward to having to refit all the poxy springs.

 

Whilst fitting the wishbone I was visited by a fairly large and rather odd-looking beige insect.

 

IMG_20180519_142551.jpg

 

The body looked like a moth, but it didn't have any wings - I wondered whether it had somehow lost its wings in some mishap as it looked a bit tottery on its feet, but then it seemed unlikely that it would have lost them in such a symmetrical manner.  Anyway, came back round to the nearside of the car about half an hour later and it looked like this:

 

IMG_20180519_153148.jpg

 

I'm no entomologist but I reckon it must have been a moth which had just come out of its chrysalis and was looking for somewhere to dry out its wings in the sun.  Looked again another half hour later and it had buggered off.

 

I also fired up the Renault 6, for the first time since last June - battery charged and a dribble of pez down the carb and it went first turn of the key; clutch is also free and brakes aren't any more stuck than they were when I put it away.  I love that car.  I might even take it for a sneaky run round the block tomorrow.  I'm going to have to do a coolant change though as there's mould growing in the expansion bottle...

 

Why have you got two nuts on the trackrod end?

[wuvvum]

I put the old one back on as a locknut as the new one wasn't tightening up as well as I would have liked.

[tabact]

Quick collection this morning.

 

 

 

This was probably going to get scrapped due to my neighbour getting another car and letting the MOT run out on the Rover. The only thing I know it will fail an MOT on is the back door not shutting. First job is to get the tailgate trim off and give the locking mechanism a good clean then put it in for an MOT. Other obvious niggles are it's running a bit rough but that's probably down to the fact that most of the times it never gets warmed up only going down the shops and back. Face vents don't work, handbrake is bit high and there is a plaster covering up the drivers door window switch. I'll pop next door later and find out if the window works or not. Just spent 15 minutes getting the water out of the spare wheel well and noted the date code on the spare is way back in 2002.

 

To make room for this on the drive the ex-Beko Meriva has been sent to the breakers. It has sat on the drive since failing it's last MOT and I did briefly consider sorting it out and it wouldn't have cost that much to get another MOT but it would have needed a new set of tyres in the near future and that made it not worth spending the money. The clincher was I just didn't like it, worse car I've ever driven. I got nearly 10K miles out of it and £167 back scrapping it so had my moneys worth.

 

The ex-HMC £160 Mondeo I'm using at the moment has just rolled past 5K miles since buying it so all in all budget motoring going well..

[mercrocker]

 there is a plaster covering up the drivers door window switch. 

 

 

 

That's one of the best giffer solutions I have heard about for a long time.