The new news 24 thread

[Richard]

21 minutes ago, jonathan_dyane said:

Saab 9-5 water pump is a right ball ache. Done now though along with the urge to buy a new Dacia which I find accompanies all dreadful jobs.

It was a 9-5 that turned that urge into reality for us.

[somewhatfoolish]

9 hours ago, Shep Shepherd said:

Due to the holes, the remaining two bolts can be felt with my fingers and therefore should be easy enough to remove and refit. Quite what I'm going to use to cover the holes I have no idea. I'll work something out. 

Like SIC says wodge the removed bits back on with tigerwob, or for a less bodgy finish clean up the apertures after you remove the sump and make little closing plates from aluminium or steel sheet and drill and tap fixing holes.

[Cavcraft]

2 hours ago, LabRat said:

Would that be Cropper and Jones? I've dropped them an email, hopefully they can help. 

May still end up with a winter snotter for a few months at this rate, but at least it won't be quite so dire!

Yes, that's them. Decent outfit, been going for years.

[stuboy]

Popped round my sisters and joked to my nephew he could wash my shalaxy for 5 quid, he said ok... well I think my bill did most of the work... he did a fab job.. great value..lol

[dollywobbler]

Went for a walk, found this. Found out it's for sale for £1500. I can now think about nothing else.

 

Yes, it's that Holden that had the Nissan engine. Full RB30 goodness in this one. Bit too reliable really, so Holden made a complete hash of the cooling system to ensure Ford could still compete.  ?

[MorrisItalSLX]

On 11/27/2019 at 10:10 PM, MorrisItalSLX said:

Don’t drink and eBay kids!

FUCK.

To be fair, I did want it. But bugger me, that’s expensive.

It has arrived.

But all regret evaporated when I put it with the others.

Oh yeah.

[Angrydicky]

10 hours ago, egg said:

My Mondeo front plate is getting more and more delaminated. This is Feb 2016 when I first got it (it was much better then)

Now there's no DMB, I'm seeing A1 Show plates are recommended by Brownnova. Do you think it's ok?

Crap I’m afraid, that’s the post 2001 font! Having said that, I think the A1 guy on Facebook can do the correct font as I’m sure I’ve seen some of his work before. Needs a better script font and Ford logos too. Worth asking?

My Royale has its original plates and the front one is in really poor condition, cracked and delaminated! In the absence of DMB I’m not sure I trust anyone else to replicate exactly so I’m just ignoring it (it will be MoT exempt soon anyway). 

I think there’s also a company called Fancyplates that at least do three different old font styles that are the correct size. Would be worth forgoing the Ford logos etc for the correct font imo.

[paulplom]

Sold the t-5. It's going on Saturday and is staying in the fold. I'm just don't have the time to use it unfortunately.

 

[beko1987]

Seems the fuel cap on my zx freezes shut. I'll get fuel later... 

[dozeydustman]

Boss asked me to run a freighter up to Fernhurst as a crew is in trouble.

Oh dear.....

shat a conrod according to fitter. Much oil dropped

[dozeydustman]

Thunderbird 1 has arrived

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Love the whimsical sign.  Technical term that, 'gone pop'.

[egg]

6 hours ago, Angrydicky said:

Crap I’m afraid, that’s the post 2001 font! Having said that, I think the A1 guy on Facebook can do the correct font as I’m sure I’ve seen some of his work before. Needs a better script font and Ford logos too. Worth asking?

My Royale has its original plates and the front one is in really poor condition, cracked and delaminated! In the absence of DMB I’m not sure I trust anyone else to replicate exactly so I’m just ignoring it (it will be MoT exempt soon anyway). 

I think there’s also a company called Fancyplates that at least do three different old font styles that are the correct size. Would be worth forgoing the Ford logos etc for the correct font imo.

Cheers Dicky, that is supposed to be their pre-2000 (why not 2001?) font....I'll check them out on facebook.

I looked at Fancyplates fonts, and I'm not keen on any of theirs either.

I wish that I'd bought front and rear from DMB, rather than just rear. False economy, time has proven.

[dozeydustman]

36 minutes ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

Love the whimsical sign.  Technical term that, 'gone pop'.

Created by yours truly when needed to use the public facilities. Probably the best thing to happen to that engine, they normally turn diesel into noise

[Lankytim]

The V70 started showing signs that the in tank pump was about to die last week (ran out of fuel at half a tank) so I bit the bullet and bought a new one. It turned up today and I got to work fitting it.

The job went surprisingly well and the new pump was quickly fitted. With the tank totally empty the fuel gauge still shows just above the red instead of empty. I swapped over the passenger side sender for a spare and it’s still the same.  I’ll just have to live with it and fill up when it’s 1/4 full. 
 

Incidentally the araldite repair I did last time was still holding, turns out araldite can take immersion in diesel! 

[Shep Shepherd]

Managed to remove The Aero's remaining sump bolts via the holes I created when I got home from work today using a 13mm 1/4 inch drive socket augmented with a smol extension bar and an equally smol universal joint. The sump remains in situ though, due to some very tenacious gasket sealant holding it very firmly in place. I think that a judicious application of a rubber mallet, a big block of wood and some wooden wedges will set it free at the weekend ?

[anonymous user]

I really need to wake up a bit more before I set off for work. This morning was not a repeat of slippergate (looking down while driving to work to see that I have my carpet slippers on).

This time I nearly lost the car while de-icing it. It all started so well, I took some warm water out to pour over the screen, started the car but stupidly put the wipers on. Lovely smeared ice over the screen so I got out to pour some more water on the screen, at this point I noticed the car rolling down the drive, luckily I managed to get in and pull the handbrake on preventing the car going straight across the road into a neighbour's car. Unfortunately I also chucked the jug of water in the footwell in my panic. I have no recollection of releasing the handbrake so am now wondering if the car had sat there all night without rolling away.

[Angrydicky]

Hi @egg , I don’t think Fancyplates’ UK old font A and B look too bad. I reckon A is closest to your original (note the more rounded O)

Better than awful modern font anyway!

[rusty998]

31 minutes ago, anonymous user said:

now wondering if the car had sat there all night without rolling away.

I wonder if you did apply the brake enough to click on the handbrake handle and enough force to stop the car moving but when the brakes cooled over night it was just sitting there, then when you disturbed the car it was away ?

 

[egg]

@Angrydicky

Thanks, and here it is with a border and dealer name (note I had to type out 'and' as it wouldn't accept '&')

Or with a blue border

Or no border? Decisions, eh?

I've emailed them to see if they will do an 'exact' replica.

[Bucketeer]

The joys of winter. It's just after 7pm and icicles are forming on the ceiling of my home (AKA the inside of the roof of my van).

[richardmorris]

Stop breathing out!

[anonymous user]

1 hour ago, rusty998 said:

I wonder if you did apply the brake enough to click on the handbrake handle and enough force to stop the car moving but when the brakes cooled over night it was just sitting there, then when you disturbed the car it was away ?

 

No the handbrake was all the way down, I may have left it parked in reverse last night and taken it out of gear this morning when I pushed the clutch down to start it. I need to pay more attention. 

[wuvvum]

Been pottering around doing a few bits to the fleet during the few fleeting hours when it is both light enough to see and warm enough that my hands will function as intended.  I got the headlining out of the Scudo to see if the water ingress was indeed coming round the aerial as the previous owner suggested.  It was, so I've removed the aerial for now and stuck a bit of Gorilla Tape over the hole - I've ordered a new aerial base on eBay, but it's coming from Singapore so could be a while.  The coolant leakage into the cabin continues unabated sadly - I had a bit more of an attempt at trying to see where it's coming from and noticed water dripping out of the bottom of the blower housing.  So that's going to come out at some point soon - hopefully with it out I'll be able to see a bit more.  I don't fancy trying to take the whole dashboard out, especially as there doesn't appear to be a workshop manual available for these so I'd probably fuck it up.  I also fitted the £29 ECP Black Friday special Varta battery - it starts a lot better now, although I think the glow plugs have had it - and look a bit of a twat to get to, only two of them look even remotely accessible.  Also my cunning plan to keep the electrics live using my mini jump pack failed - apparently the bit of engine I clamped the earth lead onto wasn't actually an earth.  Fortunately I found the radio code in the paperwork, although with no aerial it doesn't work anyway.

Ordered some touch-up paint for the Alfa which arrived on Friday.  Disappointingly it's not a particularly good match - I've ordered paint from the same seller before and hitherto it's been fine, so I was slightly annoyed that they've missed the mark with this one, but I used it anyway to touch up some of the worse scuffs and it does look a bit better from a distance.  I've also found that my Raleigh Wayfarer bike will fit in the boot with the seats down, but it has to go in backwards and it's a bit of a faff so it might not be taking over daily commuting duties from the Elantra.

Took the back wheels off the 75, gave the trailing arms a clean and then smothered them with underseal.  Ideally I'd like to do the whole suspension but I didn't have time and the trailing arms are the bits that are pretty much unobtainium now, and hence the most important bits to protect.  I've done both subframes as well as I don't really fancy having to replace those.  I'm still going to try and avoid using it when there's salt on the roads as much as possible - that's what I've bought the Elantra for after all.  I'm fully reconciled to the fact that that is probably going to Hyundai heaven when the MOT runs out in March.

I've also put the Spacy away for the winter, which involved clearing numerous bicycles out of the garage to make room.  Every estate car I own now contains a bicycle, as does the Elantra.  The van has three, the Sonata has a folding bike in the boot, and even Exiled_Tat_Gatherer's Saab is providing refuge to my other folder.  I think I have too many bicycles.

[Bucketeer]

The joys of winter - an addendum.

I have my own Etch-a-Sketch. And Brandy doesn't freeze at these temps. So all is good.

[Mrcento]

Ahhhh just as i thought the whole "Modern" daily estate thing wasn't going to happen, the 406 seller has got back to me having had no bites at the "future classic m8, not many left m8, MOT tester says it's the cleanest one he'd ever seen m8" price and now at sensible money.....

And then 2 different vec 1.9 150 cdti estates come up, one sri, one elite.... all around the same mileage (not that it's the be all and end all) and price. 406 has the longest MOT, Elite the shortest but most toys.

Decisions decisions......

[loserone]

406, has to be

[Split_Pin]

8 minutes ago, Bucketeer said:

The joys of winter - an addendum.

I have my own Etch-a-Sketch. And Brandy doesn't freeze at these temps. So all is good.

Good to see you are still cracking on man

[Split_Pin]

Fancyplates, blue border, looks good IMO!

[MorrisItalSLX]

11 hours ago, egg said:

I wish that I'd bought front and rear from DMB, rather than just rear. False economy, time has proven.

As DMB possibly still has your plate design on file, is it worth asking if they could send you the digital rendering so you can provide it to another plate manufacturer?

Alternatively, you could ask for a cheeky under the table deal to make you a plate, hush hush of course.