The new news 24 thread

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Awesome news! Well done!

[cort16]

Nice one VA. That's got to be a result?

[R9UKE]

Just caught somebody trying to break into the Clio in broad daylight! How shameful for them. Wearing a track suit as well.

[Shep Shepherd]

That's excellent new, Angyl. Gives me hope for next Friday, when TV2 goes in for its MOT. I can't see it failing, but you never know...

[vulgalour]

And now the Princess has a pass with a single advisory. Definitely a result, I'm well chufticated with that.

[MrDuke]

Just caught somebody trying to break into the Clio in broad daylight! How shameful for them. Wearing a track suit as well.

 

 

"You could use a new track-suit.

 

 

TYRE TRACKS!!!"

 

 

[Spiny Norman]

And now the Princess has a pass with a single advisory. Definitely a result, I'm well chufticated with that.

 

Hot diggety!

That calls for a celebration, I'd say.

[HMC]

Had a difficult start with the amazon with it having a tendancy to lose power and then cut out randomly. This from a car i'd billed to the wife would be a particularly hardy and reliable machine etc etc. This would usually happen just when I started to believe whatever i'd fiddled with or replaced had done the trick. My attempts at a cure had me chasing either spark or fuel related issues around the car.....

 

new points and condesnser (both long overdue by the looks for things)

new HT leads

new coil

new fuel pump

 

This seemed to do the trick but any improvement in reliability must have been a coincidence as the following week it started playing up again.

 

The tank had quite a bit of crud and sediment in it so after unsucessfully cleaning that out i replaced the tank and every bit of pipework from it to the carb.

 

Still no joy- I then overhauled the zenith carb and at last i think i've cracked it. In truth i've still no idea what the problem specifically was, but i can actually depend on it getting me to my destination now, which is a first! The dizzy was a bit worn anyway so i splashed out on a 123 electronic distributor which was suprisingly easy to fit. So it has been a frustrating time but now the amazon is reliable and is running better than ever!

 

The upshot is that i may not need the ongoing use of the w124 estate which was a distress purchase to tide me over during the worst of the unreliability woes- so let me know if you are on the look out for a keenly priced one

[vulgalour]

Stripey the BX estate is now up for sale. I'm doing it for the good of my health rather than my wallet, which makes a change. The Princess will therefore be my only car, not sure if it's brave or stupid, but it's certainly the result of rational thinking.

[dollywobbler]

Stripey the BX estate is now up for sale. I'm doing it for the good of my health rather than my wallet, which makes a change. The Princess will therefore be my only car, not sure if it's brave or stupid, but it's certainly the result of rational thinking.

 

Sounds very sensible. The BX still has issues (of a weldy type) but is a grand old motor. You've done it no end of good so I'd hope it'd fetch a bit more than you paid for it. You deserve it!

 

I let my fleet get out of hand so I'm also trying to reduce again. I truly am in awe of Mr Bickle and the way he has so many different projects on the go at the same time!

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Princess MOT must provide a significant mojo boost.

[Cavcraft]

The Vectra has just gone to its new home. CavCraft's Vauxhall department is now temporarily out of stock.

[trigger]

My work mates Audi A4 met a fortunate one in the works car park yesterday, pulling in at round 5mph the bottom TCA snaped and the front end collapsed!

 

 

It had snapped clean in half, we think it fractured from all the potholes about, luckily he was only going slow, if it happened on the A14 doing 80mph on the way home then the results could have been catastrophic! He was also lucky the only damage is a popped tyre and the track control arm, the wing never got hit.

 

[cort16]

I bought that slide hammer injector pulling kit for the Smart this week and here (finally) are the injectors. Every single one of them removed WITHOUT the tool.

For future reference it seems that if you slacken them off and stick some wd40 down next to them after a few days (a week in this case) they'll come out without a struggle. There were rock solid when I tried to take them out last week. If I hadn't bought the tool no doubt they would have been a right bastard.

 

inject-tors by cort16, on Flickr

[ShiteRider]

I've been trying to rein in my spending on the fleet......it's not worked these arrived this morning http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/borbet-a-allo ... true&rt=nc

also may have a fourth cortina turning up soon, mk5 ghia saloon in both brown and also many pieces.

[Lord Sterling]

Gave the KV6 a half arsed wash 'n' polish, it did look sorry for itself what with the mildly wet weather and hitting dirt filled potholes in Aston. Tried to scrub the holes in the alloys and got some of the almost baked in brake dust out so alloys look a bit cleaner.

 

Windows have started to play up so not best pleased about that, but I have just bought a new re-soldered fusebox so that should go in soon. I've also been told about a Grey mk2 800 saloon being broken up somwhere in Warwickshire, so hopefully ill be buying a new wing, boot lid and rear bumper to at least tiday the thing up without resorting to paying for resprays.

[Angrydicky]

Ages ago I bought an old Ekco valve radio off Ebay to go in my A55 Cambridge. It didn't work, and had no hope of ever working again due to the poor condition and the fact that a lot of the original components were missing. A guy from Young Guns Classics (the forum for younger classic car fans) is into working on old car radios and after talking to him, we decided it would be best to gut it completely and fit a modern amplifier inside the original 1950's casing, with an Ipod connection.

 

He's just posted this picture which makes me grin massively

 

 

Just got to get the car back on the road so I can get this baby fitted

[trigger]

That's a lovely looking piece of kit, plus with Ipod connection it means you can play your FM radio via your phone through it.

[Vin]

I am always impressed by the creation of new audio systems within old equipment. It is good work

 

Not old audio equipment, but the other week I installed DAB in the Marea. I'd always intended to do it - the intention was to purchase a Pure highway and get all the wiring installed discretely behind the dash...but, I saw a Kenwood DAB unit reduced to 1/3 of its price on Amazon. I bought it. This meant I then had to buy a loom extension to incorporate the Marea specific steering controls and the patch leads to suit the kenwood unit. I then also had to fit a 12v powered converter that turned my aerial to DAB. I also needed a surround (in this case a Fiat genuine article) to house the new unit.

 

To be honest, it took a bit of working out, one scotch clip and a bullet connector, but it all went together a treat

 

I have 6Music wherever I go now...

[Richard]

In-car DAB is for winners. My Blaupunkt DAB52 has been fitted to every car I've had since 2005. It plays MP3 from CD or SD too, which is nice. I could buy a 3.5mm AUX cable for it but I've never felt the need.

[skattrd]

This morning I went to do the final bits on the Lancia for the fresh MOT. Headlights sorted, new bulbs didn't fix it, so checked wiring and the n/s light was wired the wrong way round, changed, sorted, done.

Handbrake cable was easily tightened, so just the brake flexis to change. However some monkey (me) ordered the wrong flexis ... I thought he said I needed front ones, but what he said was the fronts were fine as they're steel braided, it's the rears that needed doing ... Arse. The cars still got MOT so I can play with it, but I wanted a fresh one to put it up for sale.

 

I then tried to fit the standard front seats I'd got for it, but it turns out they're missing a couple of bolts so I couldn't fit those either. Obviously the bolts that are missing are critical to the seat staying upright and a weird size/shape that can't be easily replaced ... fucksticks, I now need another pair of seats as I seriously doubt I'll be able to source the missing bits

 

At this rate it looks like I'll be collecting the Beta Spider's replacement before this one is sold, bugger.

[ruffgeezer]

Any idea what flavour bolts you need? I might be able to help?

[dollywobbler]

Clocked up around 210 miles in the 2CV today, driving to Longbridge and back. It's been a LONG time since I did that sort of mileage in the 2CV (July last year) and I'd forgotten how tiring it is. And noisy! Mind you, it buzzed merrily throughout, getting me the 123 miles from home to Birmingham in two and a half hours. That's an average of 49.2mph door-to-field. Not bad for 29bhp. (bloomin' trucks kept my speed down for the first hour).

 

Once cruising, it's not a particularly hard car to drive, but keeping your speed up is the challenge. Any steep motorway hill sees 'flat out' drop to about 55mph. I needed a proper jaunt in the 2CV though. Today delivered. No problems at all - it's running beautifully after its specialist attention.

 

Anyway. Good to meet the folk I did meet and sorry not to meet those I didn't. Saw Catsinthewelder's BX, but not the man himself. Shame it rained - ended up being a rather short event.

[Angrydicky]

 

Once cruising, it's not a particularly hard car to drive, but keeping your speed up is the challenge. Any steep motorway hill sees 'flat out' drop to about 55mph. I needed a proper jaunt in the 2CV though. Today delivered. No problems at all - it's running beautifully after its specialist attention.

 

 

I remember being on the motorway in my 2CV and attempting to reach 70. Never before has a car taken so long to gain 20 extra mph, although I didn't stay at that sort of speed for long as the wind noise around the flapping roof was unreal. The engine was a bit deafening as well!

[vulgalour]

Put the fake Vauxhall trims on my brother's Astra which now looks a bajillion times better for it. The BX looks marginally worse, but I thought it a wise course of action after it threw one trim off today for reasons I can't fathom. Here's a before and after shot, the old trims had an accident that involved my shoe and the bin.

 

[dollywobbler]

 

Once cruising, it's not a particularly hard car to drive, but keeping your speed up is the challenge. Any steep motorway hill sees 'flat out' drop to about 55mph. I needed a proper jaunt in the 2CV though. Today delivered. No problems at all - it's running beautifully after its specialist attention.

 

 

I remember being on the motorway in my 2CV and attempting to reach 70. Never before has a car taken so long to gain 20 extra mph, although I didn't stay at that sort of speed for long as the wind noise around the flapping roof was unreal. The engine was a bit deafening as well!

 

The roof on mine isn't bad, but the wind noise is horrific. It build speed quite readily now it has been tuned up properly. Gradient and wind direction permitting. It'll sit at an indicated 70 (so about 63mph actual) without needing the secondary choke now. A vast improvement on before! Fastest I hit today was about an indicated 77 (it only goes up to 75) which is near enough 70mph actual. Sums suggest that's equivalent to about 5000rpm, but the engine is surprisingly smooth at that! I'm having to relearn the momentum tricks - try not to stop for traffic lights, but crawl up to them to keep moving if you can, don't slow down much for bends etc.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Put the fake Vauxhall trims on my brother's Astra which now looks a bajillion times better for it. The BX looks marginally worse, but I thought it a wise course of action after it threw one trim off today for reasons I can't fathom. Here's a before and after shot, the old trims had an accident that involved my shoe and the bin.

 

You forgot to put the brick back on the bin lid! The old Poundlanders might climb out and spoil some innocent car.

[catsinthewelder]

DW was the blue 2cv anything to do with you? I was parked behind it accross the road from you, theres a photo with all 3 80's Citroens in shot but it's stuck on the camera till I get a new lead

[skattrd]

Any idea what flavour bolts you need? I might be able to help?

 

Cheers for the offer, tbh I'm not sure what they need, we reckoned they would be some odd tapered bolts with quite a large screw head on them .... If that makes any sense.

[dollywobbler]

DW was the blue 2cv anything to do with you? I was parked behind it accross the road from you, theres a photo with all 3 80's Citroens in shot but it's stuck on the camera till I get a new lead

 

No idea. Was there when I arrived, but seemed to have turned into your BX when I left.

 

In other 2CV news, I'm questioning the future I can offer the green 2CV project. I've got it running but it needs fairly serious bodywork attention (albeit only two or three points). Given that my other 2CV also needs fairly serious bodywork attention, I'm not sure I can fund both. I've decided learning to weld isn't a serious option. I think it might make more sense to punt the 2CV on, focus on getting the red/white one sorted as a rolling-resto and buy a little hatchback. Something with less than 60bhp ideally and that won't rot too readily.