The new news 24 thread

[Borsuq]

3 hours ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Shame, though. They could have had a lot going for them.

You only got the 1.3/1.5/1.6 OHV and the XUD in the UK, didn't you? Bit of a shame Rover didn't allow sale of K-series Poldis in the UK. They were considered a bit of a Polonez GTI back in the day. Didn't have a brilliant reputation for particularly long lasting head gaskets tho. ;D

[chaseracer]

4 hours ago, Borsuq said:

Didn't have a brilliant reputation for particularly long lasting head gaskets tho...

Really?  We never* had the OMGHGF thing here... ??

[Borsuq]

1 minute ago, chaseracer said:

Really?  We never* had the OMGHGF thing here... ??

Yeah. I bet a Rover K-series engine is a completely unknown quantity on these forums. ;D

[dollywobbler]

I think we did get kettle Caros here. Or did I dream that? Would have been very briefly I suspect.

 

[wuvvum]

I don't recall ever seeing a RHD Kettlecaro.  I thought we only got the injected FSO petrol engine and the XUD9.  I've seen a few about but they've been imports.

[eddyramrod]

Traffic news today: this afternoon on the A590 at Grange over Sands someone lost the back end of their BMW coming off the roundabout and finished up across the fast lane with the boot in the Armco.  It must have happened just before I came round because they were all still sitting in the car and two or three had stopped.  So I did too and stood in the road waving traffic down so that nobody charged off the roundabout and ran into the wreck.  When the rozzers turned up one of them thanked me for my help, which was nice of him.  Sorry no pics, I was a bit busy.

[MorrisItalSLX]

Hot tip for anyone who watches Benny’s Custom Works on YouTube, I just saw him driving past towing another Mitsubishi Sigma, it was a white saloon that looks to be only fit for parts.

His workshop is based out of Mittagong, which is only up the road from me.

[holbeck]

9 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

I think we did get kettle Caros here. Or did I dream that? Would have been very briefly I suspect.

 

I saw one in the Flight shed at Longbridge of all places.  Although I did have a nose under the bonnet I can't remember if it was RHD.

[Split_Pin]

Waxed the 75 again yesterday and got some nice beading this morning during the showers.

The Audi's fuel and temp gauges have always been correspondingly erratic and it's only taken me over a year after buying the new voltage regulator to get around to fixing it.

Instrument cluster out.

Here is the voltage regulator which controls the temp and fuel gauges and has gone a bit senile with age.

 

The one on the left of the picture is the standard one and the one on the right is rated at a much higher level of mA. Input and output are reversed but this was apparently the one I needed. I sound like I know what am talking about.

Some delicate bending of the pins was required but otherwise an easy fit in.

Back together and went for a drive. Now I have a working temperature guage and a hopefully realistic fuel guage!

 

[320touring]

Ace beading and glad the gauges work now!

[wuvvum]

One rotten subframe safely removed. 

Tea break now.  Hopefully refitting will indeed be the reverse of removal. 

 

[taxi paul]

Giffer Olympic level. 

[wuvvum]

Well I was wrong.  Refitting was a metric f*cktonne easier than removal, thanks to the absence of random rusty blobs of weld preventing the bottom arm from coming out of its hole.

Mmm, shiny. 

[Timewaster]

1 hour ago, taxi paul said:

Giffer Olympic level. 

I'd love to see a traffic warden write all that on a ticket. 

 

(can you tell one got me last week? I'm not bitter.  Bastards.) 

[HillmanImp]

Mate came round in his Porsche to watch the F1......where it immediately ran out of electricity. 

I was going to take a photo anyway but this one will probably be a winner on the 944 owners group page. 

[bramz7]

I've been taking out the Laguna every so often lately and it's an utter joy to drive. I also managed to get the seat perfectly adjusted, which has made a ton of difference. 

The exhaust blow isn't getting any better so I've enquired for a quote on a stainless steel one. 

Next will have to be tyres, whilst the Michelin's grip well they certainly do not generate confidence in the way they've perished. 

In the mid 90s, CAR magazine used the Laguna as the family car yardstick for handling, which surprised me but it does handle and ride amazingly well. 

[wuvvum]

It is a lovely car that Laguna.

[ruffgeezer]

Collected a rare Fiat today... 

Switchable 4wd and not a bad steer 

[stuboy]

On 7/3/2020 at 11:05 AM, Tadhg Tiogar said:

British Polonez customers were never given the option of the 2-litre twin-cam, which might have helped sales a bit. They had to make do with 0-60 in 17 seconds instead. 

I vaguely remember a family friend having a Polonez and always thought it could do with a bigger engine to haul that weight around. 

when the 2nd engine started to fail on my 1.6 sle, i eye up fitting the 2.0 twincam from a fiat mirafiori ... only stopped me was a cheap mk2 cavalier i was offered

[cobblers]

I decided, for some reason that today was the day to clean the roof on the camper, it was absolutely fucking minging to the point where even on google earth I could see it needed a wash.

A few months ago I'd tried caravan cleaner to no avail, neat TFR which will clean anything, and it didn't touch it:

 

On the recommendation of the bloke across he carpark with the sprinter camper, I tried "fenwicks caravan cleaner" again but used it neat, despite the instructions saying "FFS MAN DON'T USE IT NEAT YOU'LL MELT YOUR FUCKING ROOF OFF"

 

A few doses, an hour stood up a slippery ladder in the rain scrubbing the whole thing with a dishwashing brush and then pressure washed off (with the pressure washer hooked on to the hot tap)

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsisigma01]

Needs a good lacquer or waxing to stop the shit getting into it again ASAP 

[Ghosty]

3 hours ago, ruffgeezer said:

Collected a rare Fiat today... 

Switchable 4wd and not a bad steer 

Nice Suzuki Sedici.

[64A60]

On a local Classic Car page a request was placed at short notice inviting older cars to partake in a display for the residents of a Care Home. The residents had been at the home without many visitors due to the current pandemic, so the carers organised a day where they could be involved in something which could bring back memories and also liven their spirits.

With the Farina being one of the most recognisable British cars of the 1960's I volunteered to bring my 1964 A60 Cambridge and after a word with a mate the 1950's were represented with his very nice 1956 A40. We were welcomed with open arms by the staff at the home and brought many smiles and much nostalgia to the residents with plenty of photos of them taken with both cars during the couple of hours we were there.

[wuvvum]

Got a few bits done on the fleet this weekend.  Apart from the aforementioned subframe swap on the Innocenti, I got my welding mate to reattach the V70's rear silencer, so that's another step closer to an MOT as well - although I do miss the noise it made at full chat with only half an exhaust.  While he was at it he welded up the frame of my old Raleigh Yukon bike, so I can crack on with refurbishing that too.  I actually impulse-bought a (very) cheap MIG welder off eBay last week so I took it along to welding mate's to see what he thought of it.  He was slightly annoyed (and I was quite smug) that it actually welds better than his which he paid more for.  Only drawback is it has a live torch, which wasn't mentioned in the listing and which is going to take some getting used to.

Gave the Renault 6 a long overdue wash and took it for a run round the block.  The £15 ECP special battery is still behaving fine.  I haven't had a chance to look at the binding front brake yet - that will be a job for another weekend.

Got the new pollen filter fitted to the Mondeo - a bit of an awkward job but not too bad compared to some.  Also gave the cruise control buttons a proper rinsing in contact cleaner whilst repeatedly pressing them, which so far seems to have done the trick as the cruise has come on instantly every time I've used it.  I also took the engine cover off to see if I could ascertain where the buzzing noise at idle is coming from, but that wasn't entirely successful - I've ascertained that it almost certainly isn't the DMF as the noise is (as far as I can tell in a relatively crowded engine bay) coming from the ancilliaries end of the engine.  I'm wondering if it might be the PAS pump cavitating or something - it did run with a badly blocked filter for quite some time which won't have done it a great deal of good.  It's not a dry bearing as it's not that kind of noise and it disappears as soon as the revs rise above idle.

I've had a few flat batteries this weekend.  The Tempra was nearly dead and had to be jump started from the V70.  Then both the Carina and the 75 were dead, which was awkward as they were parked next to each other nose in to the fence, and surrounded by other people's cars so I couldn't get to the batteries to jump them.  In the end I had to push the Carina backwards out of its space, jump it off the Innocenti, then drive it back in and use it to jump the 75.  I was slightly surprised that the 75 was dead given that it's only a couple of weeks since its 550-mile Somerset trip, but it seems like it's the towbar relay that's draining the power - I'm not sure why, but when I fiddled with the live feed there was a definite spark when the wires were joined, so it's somehow drawing current even when the trailer electrics aren't in use.  For now I've pulled the fuse out of the inline fuse holder I'd put in when I originally wired it up - I really can't be bothered to try and trace the fault, and it's a 30-second job to stick the fuse back in if I need to tow something.  The car is SORN at the moment anyway as I try to keep my VED bill to a minimum - I'm using the Mondeo as my "daily" at the moment (not that I'm driving daily) as it's a lot cheaper to tax, and also has vaguely functional aircon.

[Mrcento]

Genuinely considering mot'ing then selling the Cinquecento, i've pretty much done what i wanted with it and can't be arsed with the hassle of the lockup any more and seems a total waste continually paying for it when it's far too small to do any work in on anything bigger than the cinq even if it does go.

but last time i floated the idea of selling, it was all folk down south making derisory offers of £300 'Because it would cost me to get up to you' and i can't be arsed with that either, which is why i still have it years later ?

[somewhatfoolish]

Roffle.

[New POD]

17 hours ago, taxi paul said:

Giffer Olympic level. 

Reminds me of the time I replaced the Vauxhall Cavalier SRi badges on my mk2 cavalier will Opel Ascona GTe badges, and MikeR's wife told me that it was illegal to do that because the police would be confused. 

 

[richardmorris]

The Maybach has a PA system - so you can tell peasants to get out of your way presumably.

[richardmorris]

[Six-cylinder]

27 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

The Maybach has a PA system - so you can tell peasants to get out of your way presumably.

More like the depreciation on this thing has bankrupted me do you have a cardboard box I can live in!