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Father Ted

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Day out with the family today to see friends and go to Alton Bus Rally which I can firmly recommend. Here are some of my pics. I'm not that clued up on busses, I know what a routemaster is, and I know Volvo B10M's are the best thing ever but hopefully someone who know more about these things can fill in some more detail. Hopefully my photos aren't the bus equivalent of a gigantic lineup of Vauxhall Insignias...

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Many routemasters.

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This looked amazingly shite - a sherpa front end on a minibus? I bet progress was glacial?

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Busses in the 50s and 60s had a lot of style.

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We used to get these to school in the mid 90s when they were presumably EOL and only fit for carting grotty schoolkids around before being fragged?

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Then onto slightly more familari ground. Cars

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The styling on these is superb, especially on BBS wheels.

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OOOF. are those original wheel trims? They look shit.

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Cadillac coupe de ville I think? A gigantic way to transport two people.

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Open Kadett 1.2 AUTOMATIC. I bet this gets outrun in traffic light grands prix by tectonic plates. Still lovely.

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Compulsory beige Allegro.

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I have a bit of a thing for Hillman Imps. Especially ones on minilites.

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Another OOOF - Vauxhall Viva GT with hand painted bonnet and front panel. Yes.

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I smiled to myself at the concept of 'Autoshite Corner' in the car show

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Another Vauxhall I'd actually want to own. A firenza? Or Magnum? I'm not too sure with droop snoots. Still very nice and no visible rust.

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The Panda on the right had an actual tent that folded out the back of it. It was stunning.

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Tercel. Yes.

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The absolute nadir of taste. a Tickford turbo mk3 capri. In full-on white supremacist colour scheme. If they could have specified white rubber for the tyres I bet they would have.

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First time I've seen one of these. A Matra Murena I think?

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3500 SD1 VDP. very tidy it was too.

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This Scrote was brilliant, mostly doom blue, but had a hand painted (in enamel black) 3/4 panel and a boot from a red XR3i. There needs to be more of this sort of thing at car shows.

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Shovel front Volvo 245 in AS yellow with rust.

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brilliant day out and I didn't get to see half of it because I had the kids with me. free to get in and loads to see and do. top marks, and well worth a visit.

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From the 'you couldn't make it up' department. This morning driving along the road from Wolverhampton to Bridgnorth, I caught up with two honda Jazzes, both hurtling* along at a heady 38mph in a 50 limit. However I wasn't delayed for too long, they both turned off into (different) garden centres. A full set of stereotypes and it was still only 10 o'clock in the morning :)

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1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

I imagine your driveway is looking rather empty after the departure of the 929 - that Sunny would fill the space nicely. :)

I remember having a drive of a saloon version of this many years ago.  Struck me as a very competent car, if not overly exciting, and it went well despite being hopelessly overgeared (would do 70 in second).  The coupe version always struck me as a bit of an afterthought on these.

If it got to the point of being super-cheap and needing a stay of execution then I'd probably be tempted....

I've had an A-reg coupe and a Y-reg 1.3 4-door. Latter didn't seem to be much slower, probably because of more sensible gearing. Handling is a bit tip-toey, my current next-gen model feels much more planted. Coupes look a bit dumpy to me - roof too tall and/or bonnet too short. Fastback estate is the best looker I reckon.

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2 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

During a busy few days of getting my car ready for FOTU, I went to see this last week:

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1985 Nissan Sunny 1.5 SGL Maxima Coupe by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

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1985 Nissan Sunny 1.5 SGL Maxima Coupe by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

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1985 Nissan Sunny 1.5 SGL Maxima Coupe by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

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1985 Nissan Sunny 1.5 SGL Maxima Coupe by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr...

..Sunny has been off-road for around 14 years, has done just under 70k. Will need some bodywork.

Actually doesn't look that bad on the outside, although that stain on the driver's seat makes me wonder if someone had a digestive crisis there.....

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The Tipo's clutch behaved strangely yesterday as I drove along our cul-de-sac on the way out to Stanford Hall.  It juddered quite severely a few times then settled down as if nothing had happened for the rest of the day, including going to my daughter's house near Leicester to water plants after Stanford Hall.  Today I was going to go to Buckingham Tesco to refuel but before Whittlebury the clutch pedal progressively stayed nearer the floor after each gear change.  I thought it might be a failing clutch master or slave cylinder so looped back home, using my walking stick to pull the pedal back up.  I've had a close look at the pedal and return spring - all looks clean, unbroken and in perfect condition. There is no trace of hydraulic fluid leakage anywhere.  I lubricated the clutch lever arm on the housing in case it had started binding, then went for another run round the block.  The clutch operated completely normally and smoothly until half way round then the pedal started to stay near the floor again for each change. I can't make the clutch or pedal do anything unusual by sitting in the car and repeatedly going through clutch and gear changes. Similarly, holding the clutch fully down or partially down for 15 seconds or more did not make it misbehave. I don't really know what else could cause the pedal to stay down but still allow the clutch to operate normally when pulled back up. There are no odd noises e.g. from a failing release bearing. Perhaps yesterday's temporary juddering is pointing to a problem with the springs or diaghagm in the clutch plate which, when rotating i.e. driving, starts to go out of position and jam up. Very odd. I'll have another look at it tomorrow.

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PS:  I went round the block again a few minutes ago and the clutch behaved perfectly.  How I love intermittant faults.  Some self curing problems I'll live with, but running out of clutch in busy traffic is not pleasant.  I had to judge engine revs and crash change this morning as I drove through town on the way back home.  It was very crunchy. I don't remember my MK1 Fiesta heap being that difficult to drive in the 1990s when its clutch cable snapped.  I must be out of practice.

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Dropped Princess head off with the machine shop.  Pressure test and skim if required.  I've also asked them to remove the paint from the casting if possible (something they weren't super keen on doing) and to see if they can install a pipe in place of the waxstat housing so I can change to an in-line thermostat.  They made no promises on the paint removal or the pipe, and would look into what was involved.  I felt like I was asking for something really complicated, I'm sure I wasn't.  It'll be a few days before I know what's what, they're always pretty busy, so the Princess will be out of action for a bit.  Got to wait for the new head gasket set to arrive anyway and make a trip over to Lincolnshire to see a friend with special O series locking tools and shims and stuff for the head rebuild.  It's all a bit of a faff really, all because I want to do the job right.

While out in the BX today I was getting an occasional whiff of coolant.  I can't find any leaks, there's plenty of coolant in the car, so I'm not sure what was causing it or if it was just a coincidental thing.  It also sometimes smells like chip fat for some reason, even though I don't run it on veg and nor, I believe, did Dean.  It's otherwise boringly reliable, it's great.

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Had (I think) a positive phone call from the garage... The second (project) 9000 had gone in for some MoT work... apparently it’s nearly ready... 

“Was hoping to get it back to you today, but just need to finish doing a brake pipe” 

No MoT on the system though, But he is the tester! I’m cautiously optimistic I might have both 9000s on the road tomorrow... and for a smaller bill than feared... 

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CX hopefully goes in for first fluid drain and change next week after the gearbox rebuild, after doing the first thousand miles.

Need to get the join between front and mid-exhaust sections looked at, as there is definitely a very visible blow there.

Bought pack of small female spade connectors and some cable numbering labels in the hope of replacing the fecked ones on the radiator fan switch without getting the leads mixed up.....

 

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2 hours ago, nigel bickle said:

M25, , Friday afternoon

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Yup, damned hot

 

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High priority, say AA. Really dangerous position.. So, a 5.5 hr wait, to move us to a “ place of safety”- then another 2 hr wait?

 

Useless, just sodding useless

 

well it does beat the 25 hours it took the RAC to get us and the Mini 1000 the 100 miles from Newark to Pickering, especially after the man from the RAC used a crowbar to pry the fuel pump off the back of the engine, breaking the end of the lever arm thing and it and the return spring then fell into the engine.

the RAC man i think thought it ery unreasonable that i didn't want him to just stick another fuel pump oon the car, given the big bits of metal floating around in the bowels of the engine and gearbox....

these are the broken bits of fuel pump we got back from inside the gearbox.

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so yes, they are all friggin' useless.

 

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Home time from Arran today. We've had a fantastic time.

It's been a year of losses though, my job and now, we have just found out that the holiday house that we have rented for the past 16 years is being taken offline for good as the owners are retiring and moving up from England and into the house. We knew it would happen eventually. 

So long, Eastwood.

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Time to try out the new buffer...

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It was quite clean anyway to be fair, but it's bought it to another level. There's more to do (didn't do roof properly and there's things like the tyres) but happy with the results.

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The Fiesta has been viewed and driven. It has the 1.25 Zetec S engine so it's quite nippy. It has some rust on the rear arches and some scrapes on the corners but it is only £150 . The deposit has been paid and collection will be Sunday morning. Now to sort out some insurance.  ?

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4 minutes ago, BL Bloke said:

The Fiesta has been viewed and driven. It has the 1.25 Zetec S engine so it's quite nippy. It has some rust on the rear arches and some scrapes on the corners but it is only £150 . The deposit has been paid and collection will be Sunday morning. Now to sort out some insurance.  ?

NICE MAZDA! Congratulations.

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Biked back to the car auctions this morning to collect my car. watched it go through Friday, was a farce to be honest. It went through right near the end (when most people had gone home) and the walls there must be made of nuclear bomb proof concrete as he'd bounced so many bids off them it's amazing the place still stands. It went through again the other night, CBA going to watch the inevitable so eBay here we come.

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Got the Princess head back from the machine shop.  Cleaned, pressure tested (all good), and a 6 thou skim.  £80 for that.  Not done yet.  Next is to find somewhere that both has in stock, and can fit, a pipe in place of the waxstat housing, then acquire an in-line/remote thermostat housing to install into the radiator top hose to future proof things.  Then I can get on with rebuilding the head, doing the spinning stick thing with the valves and rebuilding the head ready to install it back on the car.  Then fresh coolant, oil, oil filter, new washer on the sump plug, new O-ring on the Distributor and we should, all being well, be good to go again.

Then I save up to get the suspension regassed.

It never ends, does it?

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