The new news 24 thread

[N19]

Bluebird has had an electric wingmirror refitted after repair, at which point the electric window adjacent also sprung into action, odd. Must be grounded via the wingmirror circuit or something? 

The boot is now properly sealed and the trim that was held on with tape has been Tigersealed too, which doesn't look the best, but replacement trim seems to be unobtanium. 

Does make me realise how much having the Capri down the road (even just 5 minutes) reduces the time I spend on it. The garage is ideal in every other facet, but not being round the back of my flats seems to make the difference between me tinkering regularly and it seeming like a chore to go down. Anyway, popping down to try and sort the dash lamps later. 

[dozeydustman]

3 hours ago, Tim_E said:

Heck, that's impressive!

They take these little ones to rural properties in twisty little narrow roads, many of which are private and the residents won't fill in the potholes or ruts. 6 years of going where a Unimog would struggle has taken its toll

[brownnova]

You know you have too many cars when....

I knew the green 2CVs MoT was up tomorrow, so I thought I’d better book it in. I’m pretty sure it’ll be a fail on corrosion, but it’ll be good to see how bad a fail... and you never know it might just sneak through... (seatbelt mounts do need welding though...)

Thought “at least I’ve got a couple of months before the other one needs an MoT so I’ll have at least one Deux Chevaux on the road... hmmm when does it expire again... 

Oh shit it was Sunday... 

Both now booked in for next Saturday... brave or stupid? 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

1 hour ago, brownnova said:

....... Both now booked in for next Saturday... brave or stupid? 

Suicide?

[egg]

today's pic from the archives, my mum's 850 Mini and my dad's first Escort outside their house, all very period!

 They went to Mull of Kintyre in that mini (from Kent) which more or less killed it (synchro had gone I think)

[N19]

Capri clocks whipped out. A couple of the back lights are temperamental, and the circuit board connections are suspect in a couple of places, so going to give it a good clean up and any repairs or reflowing on the bench at home. 

[egg]

Love those simple 70's Ford dials. But it would be nice for a clearer marker for 30 mph - as it is the speed limit you most commonly have to 'check'.

[Steviemillar]

2 hours ago, egg said:

 

 They went to Mull of Kintyre in that mini (from Kent) which more or less killed it (synchro had gone I think)

 

That’s an impressive trek in a mini! 
My in laws used to drive their mini regularly between Dundee and Ipswich in the 70s/early 80s for holidays, usually in one go after my FIL came off nigh shift as he was in the Fire Service. My missus used to have to share the back seat of the Mini 1000 with the suitcase. Things did improve in the 80s though when FIL bought a 78 Russet Brown Clubman estate when it was three years old, suitcase was then moved to the load compartment. 

 

[richardmorris]

End of a figaro in a hit n run on the a3 tonight.

[artdjones]

3 hours ago, egg said:

today's pic from the archives, my mum's 850 Mini and my dad's first Escort outside their house, all very period!

 They went to Mull of Kintyre in that mini (from Kent) which more or less killed it (synchro had gone I think)

My brothers went from South Wales to Scotland in 1988 in a 1.3 Marina estate,and had a 2 week camping trip.They put 3000 miles on it and it was mot tested immediately after returning.

18 separate faults, curtains for the Marina.It was only 10 years old.

[wuvvum]

Ran the Scudo to the scrapyard at lunchtime.  It took a bit of starting and then I had to take one of the back wheels off to twat the drum with a mallet as the handbrake had stuck on, but once it was going it managed the 8 mile drive just fine despite its HGF.  

Also spotted this beauty parked up on the industrial estate. 

[mitsisigma01]

What's the poster in the osr window say? 

[somewhatfoolish]

8 hours ago, dozeydustman said:

They take these little ones to rural properties in twisty little narrow roads, many of which are private and the residents won't fill in the potholes or ruts. 6 years of going where a Unimog would struggle has taken its toll

It's an HGV,  surely it should be getting eyeballed regularly enough to spot that kind of thing before it does an impression of a dog being dragged to the vet for deknackering?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

1 hour ago, mitsisigma01 said:

What's the poster in the osr window say? 

Looks like a reproduction period advert for the 164...

[dozeydustman]

3 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

It's an HGV,  surely it should be getting eyeballed regularly enough to spot that kind of thing before it does an impression of a dog being dragged to the vet for deknackering?

Every 6 weeks. One of our fitters isn’t that good though and likes cable tie and gaffer tape repairs....

[Jim Bell]

On 11/4/2020 at 9:28 AM, dozeydustman said:

Taken a truck to a crew that has broken down.

 

IMG_3711.MOV 12.09 MB · 49 downloads

just a little bit broken 

It's just one of those wagons with a steering wheel at both sides.  

[wuvvum]

9 hours ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Looks like a reproduction period advert for the 164...

Yep, that's what it was.

[N19]

Just been poking around at the LEDs behind the Capri dash. I bought these and installed about a year / 3k miles ago... 

Hmm... All of them have gone this way. Not really what you want... Gone back to standard ones. Dash pod now illuminating beautifully on the bench! 

Perfect timing as the Mondeo fog lights arrived just as I finished that job! 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

49 minutes ago, N19 said:

Just been poking around at the LEDs behind the Capri dash. I bought these and installed about a year / 3k miles ago... 

Hmm... All of them have gone this way. Not really what you want...

The current ones based on rectangular SMD / square COB LEDs are supposedly longer-lasting and better able to cope with constant changes in temperature.

[Stanky]

Today has been incredibly quiet work-wise, so I took 45 minutes to get the mercedes on the lift and deal with two serious issues.

1. Remove the co-op 'bag for life' that had become melted to the catalytic converter about 4 weeks ago and stunk when I came to a stop in traffic or in the work carpark. I had hoped it would melt and fall off, or wash off in the rain we've had recently but no such luck. Robust action with a wire brush and a craft knife removed almost all of the remaining melted bits. I was sort of tempted to take it back to the coop and exchange a handful of extremely melted, but still legible remains for a nice new bag, but decided that my karma for doing that would be to pick up a new melted-on bag within a week.

2. Removed a rear wheel to release the small pebble that had become wedged between the inner edge of the brake disc and the backing plate which made a horrific screeching noise, pitch increasing as you got faster until about 50mph when it became so high pitched I couldn't hear it any more, but probably set dogs off barking like mad as I drove past. It came out without any fuss, somehow having managed to become trapped in a recessed dimple in the backing plate so it couldn't come out by itself. Its worn lovely and smooth and flat on one side.

Exciting stuff eh? I also noticed it badly needs a pressure wash in the arches to get the mud and grot out, and was able to look at the diff oil plugs. I've ordered a litre of 75w85 diff oil for that job which i hope might be here by the weekend.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

8 minutes ago, Stanky said:

Today has been incredibly quiet work-wise,.....

Same here. The client I most want to speak to is currently keeping a very low profile.

[wuvvum]

4 hours ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Same here. The client I most want to speak to is currently keeping a very low profile.

In your line of work, might that not mean that they have shuffled off this mortal coil?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Just now, wuvvum said:

In your line of work, might that not mean that they have shuffled off this mortal coil?

Entirely possible.....

[Vince70]

Today I put the misses Ford Ka into hibernation till spring and gave it a wax and put a cover over it.

It recently just passed its MOT with no advisory’s and the MOT tester thought he had gone back to 1998 as he hadn’t seen a rust free example before but It has only done 19000 so it’s not surprising I guess and the best £150 I’ve spent on a motor.

I was thinking of drilling a couple of holes in the  sills and filling them up with old engine oil to stop any rot but hopefully if it’s not going near any salt I think it should be ok.
 

But now it’s upside down I should be able to check the underside at least.

[SiC]

Someone had a bad day!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHNz2KPDNLc/

 

[egg]

36 minutes ago, Vince70 said:

Today I put the misses Ford Ka into hibernation till spring and gave it a wax and put a cover over it.

I harbour a little fantasy of finding the earliest Ka left and keeping it mint. Preferably a base model (even though no PAS on early ones) - apparently Richard Porter had one as his first car cos the reviewers said the non-PAS car handled better. 

[cobblers]

This got delivered today. 310bhp. I did one lap of the business park in it. Fucking terrifying. Absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with it.

[loserone]

you can't just give us one picture, we need a whole thread and ideally a test drive video.  Hell, I'd even film it myself it needed

[cobblers]

I need to get it insured first! The first two places I phoned had seen it on youtube, so they respectfully declined

[cort16]

11 minutes ago, cobblers said:

This got delivered today. 310bhp. I did one lap of the business park in it. Fucking terrifying. Absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with it.

Is that the darksides developments one? Did you win the raffle?

If so, well done!