The new news 24 thread

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

How about ones where one arm is too long so the blade jams against the windscreen frame, meaning you have to drive with the hood down reaching over the top of the windscreen to free them for every return sweep?

[Sigmund Fraud]

Managed to do a bit of work on the 760 today, tackling the MoT failure points :

 

-Non-functioning brake light : a rather embarrassing failure, fixed with a quality* Lucas P21/5W bulb.

 

-Insecure battery : I found a receipt suggesting the battery was 'professionally replaced' earlier this year. The idiot who did it hadn't bothered to replace the clamp and just left it loose in the battery tray. Easy fix.

 

-Main beam doesn't stay on : after consulting the Haynes BOL, I concluded that it's the fault of either the headlight relay or the stalk. The former part is NLA, the latter is £20 off ebay. I'm a cheapskate, so I decided to marinate the existing stalk in WD40 until tomorrow and try again.

 

 

No pics for now, as none of the above was very exciting. Will start a proper 'garage blog' topic in the near future, so you can all admire my beautiful* collection* of classic* cars and my expert* restoration* work.

[meshking]

It's the way the top of the passenger wiper arc doesn't meet the driver's wiper arc, so you get an annoying dribble. My Peugeot 306 was the same and I spent 40,000 miles hating it. It's just not neat! May have to adjust the Disco's wipers slightly as it does the same to a much lesser degree.

I've not really noticed that, but what annoys me is that despite the drivers wiper being longer than the passenger side wiper, the top of the passenger arc is higher that the drivers.

[Micrashed]

Spotted some weapons grade shite on the M6 near Forton today as I was carting the spawn home from Capernwray castle including this (apologies to Mk4-4door for nicking your photo) being tailed by a lovely beige minimetro L

[wuvvum]

Well I did manage to get a few bits done today - not as much as I'd have liked, but I wanted to try and take some advantage of the sun too so I drove up to the coast for a walk along the beach this morning, and also went for a wander up to the next village this afternoon.

 

Shite-related activities began with trying (and failing) to get the Bali to start (I think I need a more powerful drill as mine starts smoking after about 15 seconds of spinning the engine over).  Then I made a temporary fuel tank for the Spacy by drilling a hole through the cap of a spare jerry can just big enough to push a 3/16" fuel hose through.  This worked as intended, and the bike started first push of the button and sat there idling happily.  I took it for a quick ride round the garden perched on the petrol can, then left it idling for 30 minutes while I tried to get the headlight to work (it's got sidelights only at the moment).  No luck there - the bulb's fine but it's not getting any power.  Not the fuse and I can't see any unplugged connectors, so further investigation is required.  The engine got up to temperature OK and, as an added bonus, once the alternator had stuck some charge back into the battery the indicators started flashing - previously they've just stayed on.

 

Buoyed by my success, I grabbed my helmet and took the bike for a (highly illegal) blat down the road, sat on the petrol can again.  It actually seems to be in pretty good health - pulls well (although I didn't take it over 30), engine purrs and the brakes are more than adequate considering they're piddly little drums front & rear.  I really do need to get a proper fuel tank sorted - I don't think it'll be far off an MoT then.

 

I then made a futile attempt at bleeding the back brakes on the 164, using my patented bleeding kit of an old mug with some brake fluid in it and a length of radiator overflow hose from a Skoda Estelle.  I managed to get the air out of the rear calipers, but it seems that the dual-circuit system is a diagonal split (I'd been hoping it'd be front / rear) so the knackered fronts are preventing the rears from doing anything constructive.  I did get something of a pedal by pumping frantically, but I wouldn't want to try stopping the car from anything above walking pace at the moment.

 

Then I had a brief play with the Mobylette, pumping up the tyres and repairing some broken ignition wiring.  It now has a healthy spark, so next time I get a free couple of hours I'll whip the carb off and clean it out and then see if I can get the old girl running again.

 

After that I fitted some new wiper blades to my latest purchase, £112-'orth of Ford Puma, which I picked up from Fordham (between Ely and Newmarket) earlier in the week.  It was a fairly uneventful collection - I was slightly annoyed when the bus from Newmarket to Fordham failed to turn up and I had to fork out £15 for a cab (a knackered diesel Xantia driven by a Romanian), but then when I got to the bloke's house I found the car had nearly half a tank of pez in it, so swings and roundabouts and all that.

 

Anyway, it's great fun to drive - it's a 1.7, so quite zippy, and it corners well despite the Arrowspeed tyres.  Rear arches are rusty, rear axle bushes need doing and I think the tracking is out, but for £112 with a month's ticket I couldn't complain.  It's got shiteloads of history with it too, and seems to have been pretty well looked after until fairly recently - the wiper blades that were on it, although fcuked, were proper Ford-branded ones.

 

Here's a pitcher:

 

[warren t claim]

Clutch is dying on C4. DMF FTL for extra wallet raping insanity. And I need it for my placement next week. PRACE BETS WHEN CRUTCH LIKELY DIE. ON M60? ON A66666666? In placement car park?

 

Andy's shit is broken and he's using the 460 as transport although he drilled the roll pins out of the driveshaft so the box is likely to explode.

 

 

Repo the 460. You're not in the courtesy car business.

[Mike D]

I finally got the MX5 seats fitted into my bug, what an improvement! Also changed the passenger side window winder mechanism, and looked it over for a test, balljoint boot, new battery and some wiper blades should see it ready for Bugjam

 

[Negative Creep]

Corolla in for the MOT tomorrow. I'm so confident* I haven't done any preparatory work

[warren t claim]

The gearbox will explode?

It's only the rolling pins, you're not Mister fucking Kipling and need to do some baking.

[vulgalour]

Finally got a full tank of fuel in the Princess today in readiness for my 400 mile trip next weekend, have to do it while the cash is in the bank so I don't spend it all on candy cigarettes and pandapops.  Gods was it hot though, made me wish I could remove the roof because with all the windows open and the blowers on maximum speed and coldness I just couldn't get the cabin to cool down at all.

 

Then I remembered I am getting a car I can take the roof off on Tuesday.  That then made me realise how not excited I am about this Golf I'm getting.  It's a sensible purchase, a car that holds its value, could deliver back what I pay for it without any effort on my part, that will probably sail through an MoT with a minimum of effort and that will serve me for years if I so choose.  Okay, so it's a bit like my old Polo which I loved to bits and pieces, but I don't think it'll be the same.  Usually, when I'm thinking of getting a new car by the time I'm a few days away I'm hopping around like a squirrel with ADHD but I'm just not with this one.  I can't decide if I'm just being blasé about the build quality of mid-eighties VWs or if I'm just not really that interested in it or a bit of both.  Perhaps my mind will be changed when I get to drive it properly, or when it breaks in a spectacularly terminal fashion or something.  Or perhaps it's just that I've owned some much more interesting and characterful cars and the Golf doesn't measure up to them.  It's probably that last thing.

[Cavcraft]

I think I might have bought a motorbike.

[dollywobbler]

I could get used to this hot weather. I'm bodging up the 2CV today, rattle-canning a front wing in a desperate bit to make it look less sh*t. It's a sign of how bad things were that it looks better after my bodge-it paint job. My preparation was clearly crap, but at least the wing is all the same colour now. It's Fiat Racing Red as Halfrauds didn't stock 2CV Sunrise Red. Does it match? Doesn't really matter as the other panels are all at different levels of Pogweasel Pink.

 

Anyway, the paint is drying nice and quickly, which is nice. I'll get some photos up once the wing is back on the car.

[vulgalour]

Goodbye brooding black GTi interior, hello lovely grey houndstooth.

 

Goodbye horrible Black Stallion brand alloys with knackered tyres - the guy I'm buying from had 13 alloys and some other car parts stolen, including the alloys from my car! - hello nice standard Golf steels with MoT friendly rubber.

 

I pick this thing up tomorrow afternoon and can get on with cleaning it.  I'm not sticking a thread on here as I don't think a Mk1 Golf Cabrio is shitey enough, even though I am going to be returning it to something like stock again.

[Junkman]

I'm not sticking a thread on here as I don't think a Mk1 Golf Cabrio is shitey enough, even though I am going to be returning it to something like stock again.

 

OK, I might get beaten up for this, but IMO a Golf 1 Cabrio is meanwhile firmly in Autoshite territory. I think every non-GTI MK1 is.

[vulgalour]

I suppose it might, I am undoing the barrying after all.  If people fancy reading about it let me know and I'll post about it by PM or something so it doesn't clutter the place up.

[trigger]

You might as well stick a thread up, it has more relevance than some of the stuff that gets posted on here.

[cort16]

POST IT POST IT

[Lord Sterling]

I am undoing the barrying after all.  If people fancy reading about it let me know and I'll post about it by PM or something so it doesn't clutter the place up.

Yes, I want to read about it as I have always enjoyed reading your detailed threads about what improvements/de-barrying etc... you do. I don't see how or why this would "clutter" the place up. This is what autoshite is all about isn't it? People with terrible cars sticking threads up about them.

[dollywobbler]

2CV Emo-look.

 

Like one of those clubbing girl types caked in foundation.

 

Too dark a shade I think, and the bubbling rather spoils the effect, but this really was just a make-over. I have a pair of genuine front wings that need a little welding and a PROPER coat of paint.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Volks, do a thread.

[Junkman]

I have a pair of genuine front wings that need a little welding and a PROPER coat of paint.

 

Why?

[dollywobbler]

Good question. Maybe I'll paint them with a brush instead. I used two 300ml aerosols on one front wing (no idea if this is an appropriate amount!) so repainting the whole car that way isn't very appealing.

[meshking]

If you've got patience and time, roller and Rustoleum seemed to come out nicely on my 89.

[Spiny Norman]

Volks, do a thread.

 

 

THIS. Your threads are always a good read, let's see the Glof prettification.

[Micrashed]

I think I might have bought a motorbike.

Get it done my son and if you dont do it, let me

I keep badgering one of the officers at our place to let me buy his unused Bandit off him, its been sat for 2 years and nery turned a wheel.

[phil_lihp]

Today I went and viewed the best ebay purchase anyone has ever made, ever.

 

 

It's been decaying in the front garden of an equally dilapidated victorian mansion house for decades and now that the house and gardens are being renovated, Victor needed to go.

 

I won it for the princely sum of £15 last week, organised a recycling firm to come and get it on Tuesday and agreed with the owner to come and pick some bits off it this evening as I have been away all weekend.

 

I turned up this evening to find a very amiable, friendly chap who greeted me at the house gates with "I'm so sorry, there's been a cockup, ebay have charged me £20 for listing the car, you can still have it if you want but would you mind if I cancelled the auction?  But you don't have to go through with it, you can walk away now and I won't mind".  I said I'd take a look anyway and when we rounded the corner and I saw the Victor I just burst out laughing.

 

The weeds had been hacked back to reveal the whole car and let me tell you, the above picture is very, very flattering.  The bonnet was tissue paper thin, the front wings came off in my hands, the rear end was completely gone and the doors had fallen off.  I suggested chucking him a tenner for whatever parts I could pull off it and then he could dispose of it himself via a scrapyard which he was more than happy with.

 

In the end I managed to rescue 3 decent hubcaps, the grill and one wing badge.  Yes, there really was nothing else.  The headlamps fell out and then fell to bits when I touched them, the interior was wrecked and the remains of the bonnet opened 3 inches to reveal a very large amount of rusty engine and giant cobwebs so we left it alone (still had the battery connected!).  I removed the grill with a hammer (four rotten screws along the top held it to the remains of the slam panel, the front valance was completely gone). 

 

Had it been a desirable model, I might have bothered rescued the glass and stainless steel window trims but these FEs seem pretty unloved and the bloke was very patient with me for an hour while I went over it so I didn't push my luck.

 

I've never seen such a rotten car, I cancelled the company who I had booked to retrieve it as they wanted to winch it on to a flatbed - I quickly discovered the car had no significant floors or chassis (I'd optimistically put a trolley jack in the car thinking I could at least get some air in the tyres and get it in a better state for recovery) - the sills and floor I could find were like ryvita crackers and turned to powder under my boot.  Rather incredibly, the remains of the bootlid opened easily on smooth hinges and two of the window winders I tried (including the one on the passenger door propped against the bootlid) still worked.

 

I left with a pile of trinkets for ebay, he got £10 cash in his hand and I advised him to get the local scrappy in with a hiab - the car will disintegrate when lifted but I see no other way to move it and then he'll get a few quid for whatever weight's left in it.  Everyone wins.

 

Moral of the story, some ebay sellers are really nice, honest, decent people and it was a fun and amusing hour pulling the poor thing apart!

[Negative Creep]

Corolla needs £200 of welding to pass the MOT. But hey, that will be offset by the increase in value when I sell it after wards right?

 

 

 

Right......?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

That FE is ace, you should have got some more snaps though!

[barrett]

I think I might have bought a motorbike.

I think I might have bought a car

[Cavcraft]

I think I might have bought a car

 

 

Oh, good lad, what is it?