The new news 24 thread

[Fumbler]

34 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

...but only after the car has left the garage.....

Indeed. Because of this, brother has elected to leave it there for a whole week to atone for its sins. No doubt it'll be more angry than before.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

32 minutes ago, New POD said:

....best description is bingo meets beer Keller meets acid house rave. 

(All the) threes are good

Three's a-good

It's Threebeneezer Goode

[New POD]

3 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

(All the) threes are good

Three's a-good

It's Threebeneezer Goode

Terty tree 

Three Nelson Mandela 

[Kiltox]

That’ll do.  Back garden, cheap lager, living the dream*

[andy18s]

Yeah......about that

[beko1987]

My balls have been united all day... With each other and my legs 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

20 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

My balls have been united all day... With each other and my legs 

I really wanted* to know this......

[dozeydustman]

Thanks for the image I now have in my head, Beko.

[dollywobbler]

It's been 20 degrees and hazy here today. Lovely.

Sadly, an eagle-eyed viewer spotted that the 2CV has shredded the inside of its LH front tyre. Tracking might need a look-at then...

[Fumbler]

Being 31 here it was horrible. Still decided to replace car radio but it was not pleasant. At least we're having a barbeque so all can be forgiven.

[SiC]

32c here around mid day to 3pm ish. Didn't quite believe the car was reading right at first. 

[Ghosty]

So, today was the first proper day with it. Took my mum out for a drive in it, she likes it. Went over to Holmfirth, found a copy of Blue Monday in a charity shop for £2. Already got a first pressing, but for £2 you can't go wrong.

Fucked off work as it's too hot to function properly, let's look at things on the car instead. 

First, wanky DRLs. It turns out the little mesh grille in the bumper is actually pretty alright looking, so I'm just going to leave it be. I looked at the DRLs. They have threaded rods on the back that should have nuts on, but there weren't any, they were just shoved through the holes in the grille in hopes of an interference fit. The wires for them went down the centre of one of said posts, so it was out with the grille to remove them. Easy, two bolts. 

This revealed some excessively long wire, held together with spade connectors, chocoblocks and cable ties. All just sitting in the bumper, going off up into the engine bay somewhere. I followed it... 

(oops, blurry). The long red wire was spliced into a wire that seemed to be a sensor for the washer fluid bottle or something, and the other one was the earth - a female spade connector just shoved under one of the wing bolts. Once the cable ties were gone it all just pulled out. I'll have to reconnect the spliced wire at some point. 

I noticed the factory wiring for some driving lights just hanging around in the grille doing nothing.

Gave the interior a cursory wipe down, but it really didn't need it, it was super clean already. I knocked one of the speaker covers off the doors as it wasn't clipped in properly and it revealed a replacement JVC speaker, which was another nice surprise. I thought it sounded good.

Then, after going over the car with a toothbrush and a damp cloth to get rid of all the polish residue it was caked in, it was time to remove some polish residue (bear with me).

I noticed the GB sticker on the rear bumper was hiding something:

also below it the bumper has a hole drilled for a previous foglight, but a better positioned one has since been added, under the bumper by the exhaust. Can't see the hole except from underneath the car so I'll ignore it.

See? Polish residue. Turns out the GB sticker was plonked there unceremoniously to hide an older sticker someone had failed to remove. There was also adhesive residue on all the free space on the numberplate (there was still a Brick Lane Bikes sticker on the plate on purchase), and some above the Eunos badge, that I cleaned over with some nail polish remover. This Polish sticker seemed to be made of vinyl that had dried out or something: nail polish remover started to dissolve it and made it easy to chip away if it got around the edges. 

This was all cleaned off and it revealed the sticker was merely hiding a bit of minor paint damage where it looks like someone reversed into a wall or something. I just touched it up with some red nail varnish that was knocking about, and a fine brush (picture taken before I did).

In the above picture you can see all the polish dust around the brake light, every conceivable gap like that on the car was full of the stuff. I can't stand cars like that. 

As I was there and with the nail polish and remover out, I also set to work on the Eunos badge. (The 'Roadster' badge is missing, but I don't mind, I like it better with just the one - I also prefer the Eunos rear plate surround to the UK one, which looks like an afterthought, especially with the badge placement along the top). 

As you can see here the red lettering has completely faded (the badge was full of polish residue too). I cleaned it out and painted it with nail varnish, then wiped over the raised surface of the badge with nail polish remover to remove the excess colour, however I noticed this made the badge lose its shine - eh? Turns out there was some sort of coating on the main face of the badge, I've no idea what it was but a solvent-based cleaner (intended for uPVC window frames) thinned it, and it just scraped off. 

It came out as well as you could expect:

I also changed the wheels. The wheels on the car when I bought it were 15x6" Enkei manufactured Mazda branded five-spoke wheels from an MX-3, that'd had a blowover in wheel paint to shine them up. The 205/55 tyres were too big though, as well as being cheap Chinese 'Westlake' brand, with date codes ranging from 2005 to 2007, and starting to crack up a bit. The tread looked ok, but they were worn smooth in the middle (?). I didn't trust 12 year old Chinese tyres at all, even if they did grip well it's been bone dry, I'd hate to use them in the wet. The wheels in general looked slightly awkward, so for the time being, until I can get the original daisies refurbished, I put my Panasport Pro Rallies on, as they aren't going with the Civic. In doing so I discovered the brake pads are EBC Green Stuff, but they need replacing. 

I'm going to paint the wheel faces silver, I'm not too keen on the black. 

While I was outside a fella that lives further up the street dropped by and told me he was an ex-Eunos owner and may have some spares knocking about that he'll drop by if he can find them. Also found out it's had a replacement cambelt fairly recently. The gift that keeps on giving!

Good day all in all, I can see a good future with this little car.

[richardmorris]

32 here, and the ac in the Mercedes has stopped working. I wasn’t sure it was ok  last Sunday which was the last time it went out. Grr. Just when I want it to go to goodwood. I’ve emailed the guy who services it and hope he can come and fix it. Filled up with petrol. 

in other hot news, I went out in the fiat to work and then laithwaites  to collect an urgent delivery. Filled up at a different garage with v power, 210 miles and 22 litres, which I think is pretty good- and a lot better than the period reports said. Sadly it sounds very, very rattly at idle which clears instantly with a little throttle, so I think it’s lost a baffle in the silencer. I do have a handbuilt stainless exhaust for it, handily in my parent’s garage in north wales. It also got a bit uneven in slow stop/start  traffic and I had to blip the throttle to keep the revs up. Back at home it’s idling perfectly with no fluffing at all. 

Just when I wanted a nice reliable car to be able to sit in hot traffic for an hour!

[Noel Tidybeard]

20 hours ago, Ghosty said:

mycarcheck claims the Mazda has 120bhp...

1.6 L (1,597 cc) B6ZE(RS) - (78x83.6 mm) - Developed for the Mazda MX-5/Miata (1989–05) and Mazda Familia sedan GS/LS Full Time 4WD(JP Only,1994-1998). The engine uses a DOHC 16-valve alloy head with a lightened crankshaft and flywheel to allow a 7,200 rpm redline. An aluminium sump with cooling fins is an unusual feature of this engine. The US version (1990-1993) had a 9.4:1 compression ratio and produced 86 kW (115 bhp) at 6500 rpm, and 136 N⋅m (100 lbf⋅ft) of torque at 5500 rpm. The Japanese version of the engine had a 9.4:1 compression ratio and produced 120 hp (90 kW) and 100 lb·ft (136 N·m). The power figures for the European version from 1989-93 were 115 hp (85 kW) @6,500 rpm, and 100 ft·lbf (136 N·m) @5,500 rpm. From 1994 it had 90 hp (66 kW) and 95 lb·ft (129 N·m) due to stronger emission controls and was used until 1997. It was then updated to 110 hp (82 kW) and 99 lb·ft (134 N·m) for the models from 1999-2005.

[Spottedlaurel]

Went to local car shop, bought 6x Bosch wiper blades for Lexus and Sunny, primer, wheel paint and some cleaning stuff all for under £50. Also picked up some of that £7 antifreeze at Tesco.

Wiper blades all replaced, then started on list of jobs I would like to do on the Sunny before FOTU:

Swap chipped headlamp Done thanks to parts off a car that was going to be raced, but not as easy as it could have been as some odd captive fixing thing came loose and spun round, rectified by hammer and chisel action.

Paint wheels (again, after last year's rubbish effort).

Four new tyres to replace ancient Vredesteins.

Mega clean-up, possibly including engine bay.

However, priority car job for this weekend (when it's hopefully a little cooler tomorrow) is to clean and polish the Laurel in preparation for taking daughter and friends to their prom thing on Monday evening.

[busmansholiday]

My newly arrived copy of the MGOC mag informs me that MG Motors have recently sold their 15,000 MG3 in the UK. 

Appropriately in Lincolnshire, where's Junkman when you need him !

[omegod]

5 hours ago, New POD said:

Bongos bingo. My tinnitus is rampaging this morning. 

Prizes included a cardboard Philip Scowfield, £50 of food from Mcd's, a motibility scooter and £2000 

One round of drinks for 6 people came to £40. 

The best description is bingo meets beer Keller meets acid house rave. 

Christ, one place I wouldn't expect you to go would be Bongo's Podster ? , my mate won a mobility scooter there last year and his Nan loves it !

[Lord Sterling]

Vectra now has working air-con. Cool. Cost me £10 instead of £50 as there is a leak so it may not last very long. As long as it keeps me cool during this heat, I'm happy.

[brownnova]

Bloody Wales... Brrrrr....

[gm]

3 hours ago, Ghosty said:

(oops, blurry). The long red wire was spliced into a wire that seemed to be a sensor for the washer fluid bottle or something, and the other one was the earth - a female spade connector just shoved under one of the wing bolts. Once the cable ties were gone it all just pulled out. I'll have to reconnect the spliced wire at some point. 

why on earth would they be splicing into the washer pump ? you'll need to reconnect that one or your scooshers won't work (which is great fun when you have a passenger with the top down)

good progress so far, you could tidy up the rear end further by fitting a red led bulb into the offside reverse light and swapping the fog light feed to it - get rid of the ugly one hanging off the bottom of the bumper ?

 

[dome]

Nice motah Ghosty!

One thing to be aware of, your roll bar is just for show, it's called a style bar and has no safety features. I sold mine straight away and fitted a brace in its place that went across the back of the seats. Lots of MX-5 love on here so the guys will keep you right!

[Ghosty]

Noted, I did wonder how functional it was as a lot of cars seem to have the same one. The car seems to have a mix of quality parts and stick on tat, the latter of which I've binned most or all of. 

[Ghosty]

Oh, also, the headlamps seem to be aimed massively off to the right and flicker a lot on reflective surfaces like signs and numberplateds. TADTS?

[Shirley Knott]

29 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

Oh, also, the headlamps seem to be aimed massively off to the right and flicker a lot on reflective surfaces like signs and numberplateds. TADTS?

Adjust them using the small screws either side IIRC. TBH most get shot of the OEM lights and substitute with halogen replacements as they help to give you half a chance of seeing in the dark 

PadockSpares used to be the cheapest.

[Ghosty]

Ah, ok. 

 

I did think they were a bit shit.

 

[Cavcraft]

My lad rang me whilst we were away: 'do you want my car for what the dealer offered me as trade in?'  So that's an Ins*gnia parked outside, then. Got home after 4 and 3/4s hour straight drive, went on Facebook drove to Ellesmere Port and bought a shit Zafira.

 

When the fun stops, stop. 

[New POD]

9 hours ago, omegod said:

Christ, one place I wouldn't expect you to go would be Bongo's Podster ? , my mate won a mobility scooter there last year and his Nan loves it !

Whilst I might have preferred an evening at the Everyman, daughter arranged it to celebrate the end of her exams to become a pharmacist, and she'd managed to get her brother and his fiancee to come up from Birmingham. 

To be fair my future daughter in law was probably more out of her comfort zone.  Probably would have preferred to be at the opera.  

Son was also celebrating getting an offer from.PWC to train to be an auditor. 

So and but all of us had a bloody good time.  

Daughters boyfriend was concerned that i wasn't drinking and couldn't believe I could have a good time sober.  Yeah but at my age the hangover isn't ever worth it.  

[MondeoBlues]

Lovely shite acquired! Many thanks to Bramz for selling said lovely shite to me. Great to meet you mate

[Cavcraft]

[loserone]

Just veggin' at the allotment