The new news 24 thread

[chaseracer]

On 1/5/2020 at 1:54 PM, cms206 said:

In other news I may have bought a car on Friday night. WIFE_CMS is furious and she doesn't even know yet. It's out of test and I have nowhere to put it.

 

Situation normal.

607...? ?

[Parky]

On 1/6/2020 at 8:59 PM, Parky said:

Fuck it.

I can confirm that Halfords 50% brighter bulbs are, in fact, 50% brighter. Or at least they are on the drivers side of Mrs P’s Mini....

The passenger side has appeared to be misaligned and vibrates over bumps, unlike the drivers side so I thought the bulb was loose and moving around.  I was right, in fact the reason the bulb was moving was the entire inner light fitting was broken and held roughly together with cable ties. See this pic? All three adjuster lugs are kaput so a secondhand light is winging its way to me as we speak.  Or at least I hope it is as whilst the description was accurate (I think) the image was a library pic so fingers crossed whatever arrives is alright.  That said I have learned how to strip them with a hot air gun so I could still retain my own lens according to this lunatic - 

 

 

Ordered light Monday, arrived Tuesday and it’s a brand new TYC aftermarket.  Looks alright for £65 though.  Has to be a better bet than a busted OEM anyway as at least the light will now point vaguely where I want it to.  Weekend will see if the fucker fits or not but generally they have an OK reputation as a pattern part so we’ll see.

Other jobs are clean crap out of the ventilation fan to stop a flappy noise, change the pollen filter, and lube up the gearchange mechanism as it’s pretty stiff.  It’s certainly nowhere near as light and slick as it should be so something’s dried up somewhere.  Some Redline MTL wouldn’t be a bad shout either.  Gradually getting there....

[Kiltox]

Pretty sure the rear light i put on my van was TYC. Dirt cheap but works and fits fine 

Slightly different finish to the original though, if you’re looking for it you could notice they’re different (the whopping great dent that remains is a bigger clue)

[brownnova]

13 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

Last year’s event was the highlight of my year re: Motor Cars. I’ll be going - it’s only an hour or so from me again so I’m pleased. 

I hope another large AS contingent can make it - it was a great turn out last time. I’m happy to organise a convoy again! 

Absolutely still planning on being there. Was excellent fun last year! 

[Six-cylinder]

16 hours ago, egg said:

In bits on a trailer!

I don't think I'll be doing FoTU at that venue - I'll be focusing on ShitefestUK and hopefully a FoD visit...

Opening the FoD for camping during FoTU is no use this year and getting your Free breakfast at the Silvers isn't going to work either, so I am thinking we should find another event local to FoD (Buckingham) as a focus for opening the field for camping on a different date.

Any ideas?

[egg]

Are there going to be any Inva*** fettling days? I had maybe half a mind to help* out at one of those?

 

[Vince70]

I got into my lovely mint low mileage  Ti Compact today as I needed to move it as I am having some work done on the house  and haven’t started it in about 6 months and not  used it since the picture was taken  April last year.

After getting in it and starting it and hearing that lovely burbling noise from the exhaust I knew I should be using it so the insurance was put on through my multi car policy for 4 months for £24 so I’m over the moon with that.

Also I booked it in for an MOT tomorrow but the only problem it has each year is emissions issues as it just doesn’t get used enough but it feels like a Rolls-Royce compared to the mini on run flats and I didn’t realise how much poke it had compared to the Mini Cooper.

The irony of it was the compact was bought about 5 years ago as a winter car to keep my Z3 and my E36 cabriolet away from salty roads but it’s to good for a winter beater.

 

 

 

[loserone]

That's proper bonny, totes wud m8

[bramz7]

Definitely see an E36 Compact being in my fleet thread this year. Possibly.

[Vince70]

 

45 minutes ago, bramz7 said:

Definitely see an E36 Compact being in my fleet thread this year. Possibly.

Id say it’s getting harder to find a nice one now for reasonable money but they are about if you don’t mind travelling but even back then I had about a 200 mile journey to get a good example.

I think I paid 800 quid for mine but tatty high milers were about £500 back then and I think the drift scene and the compact cup championship has taken quite a few of the remaining examples.

It even went in to BMW last year for warranty work for a new steering joint/and airbag so that’s what I call service.

I was very lucky finding it as it had every bill from new and the previous owner who was a lovely guy  had owned the car since 1998 and I even had to be vetted before taking it away lol.

At the time I had an identical looking  316 which was also a beautiful car but my father kept pestering me for it so I thought I go one better and find the hot hatch version and it took about 6 months to find a nice one to replace it with.

This is the one it replaced and the only real difference from the outside is my Ti had alloys and front fog lamps.

 

 

[xtriple]

This is not accurate, just going from the onboard computer thing but since new plugs, doing the same pathetic little journeys, fuel consumption has decreased by 3 miles per gallon! At this rate, the plugs will have paid for themsellves by about 2030.

[Six-cylinder]

7 hours ago, egg said:

Are there going to be any Inva*** fettling days? I had maybe half a mind to help* out at one of those?

Yes is the answer, but no dates yet.

@LightBulbFun is keen to get a posse together as soon as the weather permits so we can remove his  Invacar fuel tank and get it repaired.

[LightBulbFun]

2 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

Yes is the answer, but no dates yet.

@LightBulbFun is keen to get a posse together as soon as the weather permits so we can remove his  Invacar fuel tank and get it repaired.

indeed! just keen in general to get some progress made on fixing REV  

as mentioned in my thread I luckily don't think she needs too much work to be road worthy

main road legality issues in order of most difficult to easiest are, Fuel tank needs repair or replacement, (as well as fuel lines, already got the hose and assorted clips and filters for that), the brakes need attention, she needs new tyres, and finally need to get all the lights and horn working!  (oh and a new windscreen wiper blade)

thankfully most of these sounds like a fairly easy to sort issues, so im hopeful it can be sorted in a day or 2 at the FoD with some help from the forum  especially as we got a nice parts haul with REV and Dolly so im hopeful it contains most of the replacement items we need to service the brakes etc

im even hopeful that we may have some spare time after sorting REV, to get some work done on Dolly  

 

I specifically mention the fuel tank as thats my biggest worry/unknown I don't want to get everything else sorted on REV and have her ready to hit the road, only for the fuel tank to still be an issue, as its the one potential issue we might not be able to sort at the FoD

im hoping its just a small hole we can patch with that stuff whose name escapes me atm, but @Mrs6C mentioned at one of the FoD gatherings last year  

but if its something more serious then ill have to get it repaired or a new one made up like @Zelandeth did for TPA, and id like to get started on that ahead of time if at all possible 

 

as a side note I was just checking the fuel tank removal procedure in the workshop manual, and its interesting to note that they do mention fuel hose clips! previously it was stated that the Model 70 employed a worrying lack of fuel hose clips, but it looks like that may be down to Approved repairers not doing things correctly, and not a fault of the Model 70 itself  

(the Fuel tank removal proceedure is a little bit different on REV as she has a newer fuel tank setup fitted for better crash protection/resistance, but the same general idea applies, undo a couple bolts and drop the tank out the bottom) 

[egg]

Here's a pic of me that's just surfaced from 1979 with my Granny, err...sitting on a Granny. I have no idea of context, but I don't remember anyone in my family being posh enough to run a Granada...

[wuvvum]

35 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

im hoping its just a small hole we can patch with that stuff whose name escapes me atm, but @Mrs6C mentioned at one of the FoD gatherings last year

I've used Plastic Padding Leak Fix to good effect on fuel tanks in the past.

[chaseracer]

59 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

im hoping its just a small hole we can patch with that stuff whose name escapes me atm, but @Mrs6C mentioned at one of the FoD gatherings last year  

Chewing gum.

?

[loserone]

20 minutes ago, chaseracer said:

Chewing gum.

?

I hope you brought enough for everybody

[Shep Shepherd]

The Aero has a new MOT, but to get it, it needed a new parking brake cable, as the old one had seized up, causing roadworthiness issues. Surprisingly, the rest of the car was okay:

The total cost of the repair, including the MOT was £205, which I believe was a small price to pay to keep an interesting car on the road for another year  

[barefoot]

On 1/4/2020 at 3:45 PM, barefoot said:

I've had half the dash board lights inexplicably missing for a week or two and I've been thinking about removing the cluster for a bit of a look. Today there were two magpies in the road chewing on a dead rabbit, I honked at them and the dashboard instantly lit up again like it should do.

Who says the magpie thing is an old wives tale?

And as if that wasn't cool enough, today I decided that I'd fix the display on the digital clock which has read 0:06 for about a month & wouldn't adjust. I disconnected the battery, counted to six and reconnected. Clock showed 0:00 and adjusted with ease. I IZ ELECTONIX XPURT innit!

[xtriple]

My car steamed up today. I was both surprised and disappointed as it's Mercedes Benz and this sort of thing just doesn't happen. I glanced to the left and where a red light should show the air con was on, there was not red light. Pressing it repeatedly did get me a red light of happiness, my distress and unhappiness increased. So did the fog on my windscreen.

It was some time before I realised that my car has a ghost and all the heater controls were turned off as was the fan, turning it back on gained me a red light and a rapidly demisting windscreen. So the car is either haunted by spirits of BL workers long passed or a fat arsed Chester in his desperation to get out and foot-stomp e in the bollocks has brushed passed and turned them with his ample rear.

My money is on the BL workers....

[HillmanImp]

Looks like it was a busy day for me 8 years ago. 

 

[beko1987]

3 hours ago, egg said:

Here's a pic of me that's just surfaced from 1979 with my Granny, err...sitting on a Granny. I have no idea of context, but I don't remember anyone in my family being posh enough to run a Granada...

Maybe they quickly snapped the photo and scrammed before the owner saw? 

[egg]

Apparently it belonged to a friend of the family. Photo was in Canterbury I'm told. I like my homemade clothes...

[Bren]

I have managed to obtain a new old stock glovebox handle for the SD1.

It's another part no longer available.

[richardmorris]

Just been watching White House Farm on itv. Lots of early eighties tat.

[Crackers]

I've been driving a Freelander. 

I've been really liking it. 

Uh oh. 

Does a high mileage early FL2 count as shite yet? 

[loserone]

Yes.  

[brownnova]

Yeah.. I think you’ll get away with it! 

[dollywobbler]

I'm seriously flip-flopping about what to do with my Ford Fairmont. Part of me wants to ship it back to the UK, because that's a stupid thing to do, the other part of me knows it's a stupid thing to do and is already busy spending the shipping fees on something else.

[Split_Pin]

The driver side door seal on the Audi is leaking again, in the same place as before. I replaced this with a good used one a few months ago and although it all looks fine, water is getting under a tiny lip which is designed to bridge the seal between the hood and the windscreen pillar. 

I have some gummy rubber reviver coming from Germany via Dublin (great* carbon footprint - thanks ebay) and I'll take it all off and put it back on again to see if that works. If not and because I thought this might happen, I bought 2 seals at the time so at least have that comfort.