The new news 24 thread

[greengartside]

I went on a socially-distanced voyage to my local scrappers today and BUGGER ME IF THIS WAS HERE.

Mk2 Saloon, 1.8 GLX FLAVA. January 1998 registered. As far as I know, one owner from new - he bought it off the company he worked for.

Wait, what’s that?

YOU’VE GOTTA BE FUCKING KIDDING ME.

Rear seats seem to have never been sat in. 

Why, dear reader, I hear you cry - is this in here?

Galloping rot in the sills, which could have been done in a weekend.

I don’t think this engine has seen past 3000 RPM. The oil was golden. This would be a superb engine and box for anyone who needs one.

CHECKLIST:

Giffer-owned? Yep.

Every tax disc from new? Yep.

A fully-stamped service book, all at the same main Ford dealer, and all the bumpf including original delivery note? Yeppity Yep.

Double/treble matting in the footwells? Roger that.

An old 1980 Road Atlas shoved in the seat pocket? We’ve got you, we‘ve got you.

I had to get that. Scrapyard feller let me have it. 
 

@egg and @Slowsilver and any other Mk2 lickers need any parts? There are a few interchangeable Mk2 to Mk1 bits aren’t there? ABS pump is there but I feel it may be a completely different system.

[High Jetter]

6 minutes ago, greengartside said:

 BUGGER ME IF THIS WAS HERE.

Er, I'd rather not, thank you. Did you get the whole car or just the atlas?

[greengartside]

2 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Er, I'd rather not, thank you. Did you get the whole car or just the atlas?

Well the offer is there....

...nope just the atlas. The Mondeo has already been commissioned to death by means of Certificate of Destruction.

[schonker]

Greengartside,where is that scrappy?I have a mate with a mk 2 that needs a few bits

[Ghosty]

Lol ftp, starter seems to have carked it.

The seller is A-framing me to a petrol station, gonna bump start the thing and get home asap. 

 

[bramz7]

Just got in from collecting a burgundy Renault with six cylinders. 

 

Not bad eh? Admittedly I didn't thrash it, and had the cruise on more or less the entire way. I did make haste out of roundabouts and traffic lights on the A43 just to stay entertained. All good. 

[greengartside]

32 minutes ago, schonker said:

Greengartside,where is that scrappy?I have a mate with a mk 2 that needs a few bits

I’ll PM you bud.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

It turns out that the garage in Gipsy Hill had rather more leftover CX parts than I thought.

One box full of Pallas headrests in herringbone cloth, door cards and cappings, chrome trim, sun visors and God knows what else.

Another box filled with instrumentation, identical to what my CX has, including what looks like an intact 3xLCD display. Spare tail light units.

One brand new ignition coil. One hydraulic pump. Service history book (I've been on the lookout for this for ages).

Four of the correct 14" alloys with almost new tyres on them. Wasn't expecting those.

I'm just after lugging the whole lot back. Think I might have damaged my lower back. But it was worth it.

[Tickman]

Liked but not for the sore back

[Tadhg Tiogar]

The fella sez he has to bring the doors and roof skin back from Italy. Should be useful for someone. 

[jmsguzzi]

This Beemer makes it onto shiter #3, home without a hitch. Great to meet @prepace and his Rovers as well, top bloke!

 

[Ghosty]

I'm home! 

 

 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

2 hours ago, Tickman said:

Liked but not for the sore back

The tyres have turned out to be Chinese-made "Runway". More like Runaway. Think I'll bin those, even though the treads look to have done only a couple of hundred miles. I'd have kept them if they were Falkens or Nexens.

[Jazoli]

Runways despite my disdain for Chinese tyres are actually OK and grip better than I thought they would in the wet, give them a try. 

[prepace]

37 minutes ago, jmsguzzi said:

This Beemer makes it onto shiter #3, home without a hitch. Great to meet @prepace and his Rovers as well, top bloke!

 

Nice one @jmsguzzi, good to meet you. Hope you enjoyed the journey back home.

[camryv6]

33 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

I'm home! 

 

 

Oh Hi !!

[Lord Sterling]

6 hours ago, Kiltox said:

Had that before with Hertz - they delivered a Ford Kuga to my work instead of a Transit Connect  

They changed it out pretty quickly when I told them I’d be using it like a van regardless 

?

That reminds me an incident I had with Enterprise some years ago when my Mercedes E280 estate got slammed into. I got given an Insignia estate. I was very happy with it, they then tried to offload an "upgrade" me to an A-class. I refused as I needed the space of an estate and I felt the A-class would be too small. A proper upgrade would've been an E-class estate. 

[anonymous user]

My best upgrades were a delivery mileage Renault 25, instead of an Orion and a Mercedes 190 instead of a Metro (both with Godfrey Davis) This was because I had specified an automatic when booking and they couldn't supply them on the day. I do drive with a manual box, but was going to be in central London. I was once offered a 7.5 ton box van instead of the smaller Luton I'd booked, but had to decline as I needed to take it down a rear lane in Cardiff. They did supply the correct van in about half an hour, the bonnet was in primer and when I used the headlights found they were aimed at the sky.

[Lord Sterling]

Nice. I think the only time I had an upgrade was when I was trade plating. Normally our company would get us the cheapest option available such as Toyota Aygo or small van to get to another job if it was further than 30 miles away and/or other drivers needed picking up.

I got given a Focus Ghia to go home in one Friday up from an Aygo after the salesman saw how far I had to drive. Another instance I got given a Mercedes C-class as no other vehicle was available.

[Ghosty]

Story time: 

205s have always been in the back of my mind, but I didn't really want a low spec one, or an auto. I've known of the D Turbo for a while and I've always thought they'd be a cool thing to own, I've also been harbouring the idea of a five-door 205 GTI lookalike for a fair while. 

I'd been opening my mind to manuals recently since the C30 'box shat itself, and talks with Junkman and Cleon-Fonte about Renault 4s. I'd been using the C30 in manual mode since it slipped changes in auto, and it made me realise there's more to life than automatics. 
So I sent myself to south Wales and made myself get a manual car home, having not driven one on the road in six and a half years... 

~wavy lines~

I got bored one day and started looking for manuals on ebay, sort by recently listed, which is how I found this. I clocked it was a D Turbo from the spec and confirmed it with Cartell - knowing chances to own one were slim I jumped at it, and won the auction for £560. 

This 205 was at a guy's unit behind a farm shop halfway between Cwmbran and Newport. I got the train to Cwmbran (one three hour train direct from Manchester) and walked to the farm shop. When the seller realised I'd walked from the train station he said oh, you should have told me, I'd have come and picked you up! The seller was a lovely chap, very quiet yet cheerful and laid back.

He pulled it out and let me have a nose around, it's rock solid and exactly as he (very honestly) described it on ebay. I told him I was happy and 'I'm not gonna fuck about', did the paperwork and handed him the cash. As described, the car came with a spare tailgate in the right colour and a spare headlining, but it also came with a GTI rear bumper - flippin CA$HBACK. 
Anyway, it couldn't have gone better. I hop in, wondering how I'm gonna deal with a manual, but it all came back instantly. I had this weird feeling that I'd found the right car, as it responded perfectly to my driving style, and immediately put a massive grin on my face. I can do this! 
I admitted to the seller that I'd not driven a manual in a while, he was a bit puzzled by my address on the V5, and said 'you've not come all that way have you?!'. I said that was my parents' house and I was a bit further south (well I did live in Wolverhampton for a while). 


I got 2 miles then pulled into a layby to organise myself, take some pictures and what have you. But turning the key - nothing. The electric windows stopped working, as did the central locking (but I think that's down to bodgy wiring). No dead fuses and battery seemed healthy, but nothing at all from the starter. 

I called the seller and he was surprised, I told him where I was and about five minutes later he arrived in a careworn 406 HDi estate. He hit the starter with a hammer and chisel, to no avail, had a nose around the fuses and relays too but again found nothing. Somewhere in the midst of this the electric windows decided to work, so I closed the open window I'd been advised not to more than half open. The jury is out on whether the leccy windows are factory or bodged in, there are caps where there'd be window winders. Investigation needed. But whatever, they're closed which is the main thing. The factory sunroof is manual (and made by Britax it turns out), and works, so there's a small mercy. Also the fan's pretty decent. 

I digress, anyway. The battery was holding enough charge to run all the electrics that did work so it wasn't that, the seller was a bit confused, the car had been started 3-4 times in my presence just fine, and had never presented him an issue (though he hadn't used it much, I did trust his judgment, he wasn't one to fuck about either it seemed). He tried to push the 205 into a bumpstart but couldn't in the available space. 

Seller has a think and produces an a-frame out of the boot of his 406. We agree that the best course of action is to go to a petrol station (that I was already heading for), tank the thing, bump start it and for me to get home asap, non-stop. For context, the M4 was within two miles, and if I can get on to a motorway and stick it in 5th, I can get within three miles of my house with next to no potential for the car to stall. If it got that close I could sort it with my dad, the C30 and a tow rope.

I jokingly said to the seller, 'just watch, the 205 will bump start itself on the a-frame now' and he actually pondered using the a-frame to do so(?!). 

Anyway, petrol station. A full tank on a 205 diesel is apparently about 40 litres. I was sure that'd be enough diesel to get home, XUDs do silly MPG. 

With the tank brimmed with derv we got back in the 406. The seller admitted he prefers HDIs to XUDs. His wagon had 275k on it - he worked as an aeroplane mechanic and had driven the thing all over Europe. He was less bothered about XUDs and had friends into 205s, but wasn't so bothered himself, I wonder if he rescued it to see what the fuss was about, or just because he had the knowhow.  I should point out the 205 has a year's ticket, but the previous MOT and tax expired in 2011, and the car still wears its 2011 tax disc... not removing that. 

Anyway, seller has a think as to where there's a quiet hill, has an idea, and off we go. Hop out, unhitch the 205, and the car is rolled down the hill and coughs into life. The seller profusely apologises, we part ways, and I drive the thing home in one shot. The wipers are fucked and the wheels need balancing, but the car is supremely comfortable, pretty well refined, can hold its own on a motorway, etc etc. 

I got it home in one shot. No stalls, no issues. 
On a third of a tank of diesel. 

I get home, walk in, tell the parents hey I've bought a car. 
Mum asks where is it so I take her outside and she says 'is that a 205?' I knew I'd get it past her as she loves them. She was a bit miffed it's manual as I bet she wants a go, she has a dodgy knee so is restricted to autos. 
Even better, my dad had a nose about it and gave it a cursory thumbs up too. 

This one's a definite winner. I've already ordered it a couple of treats. 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

To be fair, I was very pleased with today's VW Caddy. Very easy to drive (once I'd adjusted the seat), and very quick off the mark, even with stop-start activated. Very sharp brakes. Visibility not bad, considering the back doors had no windows.

I'm keeping the Peter Tosh CD. It actually sounded appropriate while driving through South London.....

 

[Split_Pin]

1 hour ago, jmsguzzi said:

This Beemer makes it onto shiter #3, home without a hitch. Great to meet @prepace and his Rovers as well, top bloke!

 

Lovely example that.

[Split_Pin]

Still no brake caliper for the 75 but it's not all bad.

I received a refund for the non-existant one from the eBay seller Online_Automotive.

I ordered yesterday at 12:53 a new Pagid caliper from ECP and paid extra for next day delivery. However their terms are very grey. On one part of the site it says order before 3pm to receive the next day except Saturday (which will arrive Monday) but on another it says that anything ordered after 4pm on a Thursday won't come till Monday. Of course I waited in all day for nothing, like a fool.

The caliper was also £50 more than the eBay one with an additional surcharge of £50 added on top of that. But their perpetual weekend sale (HEAT50 if anyone's interested) got me £50 back off again. When I return the used caliper and get the surcharge back, I should hopefully not be out of pocket.

It better arrive on Monday, what a war.

[tommotech]

Ordered a thermostat housing with the ‘stat core simulation plate inside. I also ordered the modification PRT thermostat, but that didn’t arrive yet. However, that didn’t stop progress today by going in search of the water leak. Access gained by removal of the inlet manifold, which also had a modified, viton material, gasket installed on rebuild -

Housing accessed

Not all of that housing came out of the block

That’ll be the cause of the leak then. All rebuilt, just awaits the new thermostat mod.

 

[Ohdearme]

Can’t get my cig lighter to work and as only one car in the fleet now, when my tyre needed inflating I devised an elegant* solution to run the 12v Compressor I robbed from an old lease car years ago.

 

[Ghosty]

Posted on a 205 page on FB and I've found a previous owner. Bit lucky as the car has no history, and she's overjoyed that it's still on the road as it's not been used in ten years.

[Rod/b]

19 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

C15 parts scavenging is happening now!

I just had to zoom right in on this pic on my phone. I mistook what is actually your screwdriver set for some sort of red-top, inline-V formation engine cover. 
 

I R disappointed

[Tadhg Tiogar]

18 hours ago, greengartside said:

... The Mondeo has already been commissioned to death by means of Certificate of Destruction.

Some cars seem to reach the scrappers with very little mileage on them. Giffer Mondeo seems only to have been used for going to the shops, plus trips for servicing and MoT.

Criminal waste of a car, whichever way you look at it.

[Coprolalia]

@Ghosty

I'm really glad that 205 has gone to you. It was about 20 minutes from me, and I was pretty frustrated when I was outbid on it, but have little cash on hand.

The advert seemed honest, and it looked so clean that it should be a good one.

Definitely keep me in mind as second in the queue when it comes time to change.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Just about to hand back a Really Useful Van