The new news 24 thread

[Ghosty]

 

5 hours ago, AnthonyG said:

2002 1.8 ‘VT’ with all the goodies 😀

That's lovely, and looks remarkably devoid of rust for an NB - admittedly, as time went on they became a lot less rot prone. 
Bonus points for the Enkei alloy wheels, one of the more desirable standard wheels they come on. 

@hairnet is a terrible influence isn't he? Nosing about his at the Field of Dreams pushed me over the edge, I knew I had to get another, and early ones really aren't staying cheap any more. 

Enjoy it! 
 

[hairnet]

5 hours ago, AnthonyG said:

I finally stopped buying old magazines on EBay and purchased something a little more useful: 

 

2002 1.8 ‘VT’ with all the goodies 😀

yay no jaaaaaaag

you da man

 

[tooSavvy]

8 hours ago, Burnside said:

Was feeling bored this afternoon, so jumped in the Punto and drove 236 miles to Tywyn and back.

First time I'd seen the sea in 2 year's. Was good to get away, even it was only a brief visit. 

 

I did something  simular.... More of a 'test drive' tho 

Livvin on the edge, me! *HeatherMills was spectacular

Nice smart motor there.....

[BorniteIdentity]

Clio still out on loan with my mate.  Cycled past yesterday and it looked absolutely resplendent sat outside his cottage. 

[New POD]

On 17/10/2020 at 16:04, egg said:

Plenty of pheasants getting rounded up this week on the school run, not sure if is a better end then being squashed by a car.

@richardmorris

This time of year don't follow other cars too closely on country roads.  Some people emergency brake for pheasants. 

[N19]

22 minutes ago, New POD said:

This time of year don't follow other cars too closely on country roads.  Some people emergency brake for pheasants. 

The results could be very unphleasent. 

I'll see myself out. 

[LabRat]

The wife's ssangyong has decided that it doesn't like all the attention being focused on the mg6 and shat out it's rear wheel bearing... Wonderful!

So out of 2 cars, we have one off road waiting on a suspension arm and mot retest, and one with a wheel that sounds like John Bonham on speed.

[MarvinsMom]

dug Rodney Mini out of the lockup yesterday, the first time its been out in weeks (shit weather) for what will be i think the last run of this year.

went from the lockup to kerrys.

more cable ties on the front hubcaps,  then washed and dried, and back to the garage.

all so we could get this, and take it back to the garage.

this too has done maybe 100 miles this year, though it has lost its shrieking chicken badge off the sissy bar thing. 

another one is about £20 from Harley Davidson, and as the bike is 30 years old, and still in stock condition, Kerry has ordered one.

and what of the other cars? well the orange mini, still needing donuts, knuckle joints and tyres, now needs an MOT too.  its still in the garage, i know it is cos i opened the door! Same on Marvin the metro, still in the garage, still needs its suspension pumping up and it too needs an MOT. I've let them both lapse, well i have not really looked at them, never mined use them this year, which has been a total bust.

The Rover continues on as a daily shed. that did get an MOT, and remains in daily service and currently has covered just under 199,000 miles. which is nice.

[wuvvum]

1 hour ago, New POD said:

This time of year don't follow other cars too closely on country roads.  Some people emergency brake for pheasants. 

I stopped doing that when I realised that whatever you do to try and avoid them, the stupid bastard things will still end up right in front of you.

They genuinely are the stupidest creatures out there.  With that and being fat and clumsy with it I really don't see the appeal in shooting them - it's like fish in a barrel.  Surely if you're looking for a "sport" that involves killing critters, you should be pitting your shotgun against some kind of vicious hawk that will have your eyes out if you miss, even the odds up a bit?

[Tenmil Socket]

11 hours ago, Burnside said:

Was feeling bored this afternoon, so jumped in the Punto and drove 236 miles to Tywyn and back.

First time I'd seen the sea in 2 year's. Was good to get away, even it was only a brief visit. 

 

You can't beat popping to the coast now and again. I'm lucky in that I'm not too far away. I normally drive to Crosby or Southport or occasionally North Wales.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

That black Mini looks absolutely GR9

[New POD]

1 hour ago, Tenmil Socket said:

You can't beat popping to the coast now and again. I'm lucky in that I'm not too far away. I normally drive to Crosby or Southport or occasionally North Wales.

I'm in Formby, but occassionally drive to Crosby, because I can pretend to be retired and sit watching the sea, whilst drinking tea from my flask, with the windows up and the rain pissing down.  I prefer to go at high tide and see the waves crashing over the sea wall. 

If you go to Formby, park here, go up the alley, turn left  and it's about 3/4 mile.

Picture shows post code.  You avoid having to pay £6. And get a nice walk too. 

[New POD]

3 hours ago, N19 said:

The results could be very unphleasent. 

I'll see myself out. 

Also the peasants are revolting. 

 

Well buy them some soap. 

 

 

[BorniteIdentity]

On the way to the garage to get my Van gearbox looked at - and it’s dead. 
 

End of the road little soldier. Thanks for the endless days out filled with fun and laughter. May your cabin always be filled with sand from the beach and my old shit that I haven’t space for in the house. ☹️ 

[SmokinWaffle]

4 minutes ago, BorniteIdentity said:

On the way to the garage to get my Van gearbox looked at - and it’s dead. 
 

End of the road little soldier. Thanks for the endless days out filled with fun and laughter. May your cabin always be filled with sand from the beach and my old shit that I haven’t space for in the house. ☹️ 

What happened/is wrong?

[Lord Sterling]

On 10/17/2020 at 4:03 PM, RobT said:

Anyone fancy taking this on? It's the ex-clayts and Moog Rover 820.  Ideally needs two new rear calipers in order to sort out the lack of handbrake.  Or you could try a refurb of the current ones.  Other time and money commitments (or rather lack of both) means I'm struggling to justify the expense.  Best I can find is two separate eBay listings, totalling £138 for the pair.

I tried a session on them today, but bolts are seized and look very rusty, so I couldn't be arsed with a war on brakes.  Had enough of that with the Morris.  To add to the fun, the handbrake lever button has shrunk in on itself.  Must be the cold...

MoT is due 16th December.  Might need a thud from the rear looking at (could just be exhaust fouling) but apart from that 'should pass no problem m8' cliche applies. Lovely car overall.  If there's no interest I'll just pucker up and get it sorted.

£275 would be nice.  Cheers!

OS offending caliper.  No pic of the other.

Uh oh. @RobT wrong time for me.

Something in my life has changed recently which frees up a tad more cash as I've not been able to save for years.

I've yet to pay for my Vectra and chuck the Peugeot 407 through an MoT and try and get shot of it. If you still have this say by end of December or early January I will buy it off you and run it as as a classic.

[wuvvum]

Not much to report on the fleet this weekend.  The Škoda now has choonz - the original Blaupunkt stereo is broken beyond repair, but I found an old Kenwood radio cassette in the airing cupboard which is roughly period correct, so a £2.79 eBay Kenwood-to-ISO adaptor later and it's plugged in and making suitably tinny sounds through at least one of the original speakers.

I had a quick poke around the Punto to see if I could spot what is causing the third gear issues.  The gear is still there, and if I can get it to engage it's fine - it doesn't make any nasty noises or pop out on the overrun or anything like that.  It's just a twat to get it to engage in the first place.  I don't think it's a synchromesh issue as it doesn't crunch when I'm trying to engage it.  It occurred to me that the gear lever looks like it sits further forward than it should - it's only just aft of vertical when it's in fourth - so I had a look under the bonnet to see if there's any adjustment on the cable.  There is a threaded adjuster on the gearbox end of the cable, but it can't be wound in or out without taking the cable end off the gearbox, and I couldn't get anything in there big enough to prise the end of the cable off its ball joint.  So I've left it for now - the car is perfectly usable going from second to fourth.  It also had a bit of an exhaust blow from the join 'twixt downpipe and centre section - I didn't fancy taking the exhaust apart so I've shovelled some Gun Gum into the gap as a temporary* solution.

Taking advantage of the dry weather on Saturday, I put the Spacy back together, jump started it and took it for a cheeky run around the block.  This was the first time it's moved under its own power for a good couple of years.  The front brake cable is partially seized so I had to use the back brake to slow down, and the exhaust is blowing badly, but it was still enough to remind me what an enjoyable old thing it is to ride.  It's not running 100% right as it has quite a bad flat spot at half throttle, although that might be linked to the fact that when I was tidying the dining room table the other day I found part of the carburettor - but it goes, and that has made me happy.

Other than that I mostly spent my fettling time clearing water out of the Carina and the Renault 6.  I've also bought a large tarpaulin which I've put over the centre section of the Volvo to stop that getting wet inside again - ideally I need to splash out on a proper car cover seeing as it's probably going to be spending the winter outside again.  Oh, and I replaced the bulb in the boot light of the Freelander.  High level shiz...

[phil_lihp]

2 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

On the way to the garage to get my Van gearbox looked at - and it’s dead. 
End of the road little soldier. Thanks for the endless days out filled with fun and laughter. May your cabin always be filled with sand from the beach and my old shit that I haven’t space for in the house. ☹️ 

Oh no!  What's happened?  That's very sad news, gutted for you.

And here was me just about to post up an update saying thanks to @Arthur Foxhake and Ms Foxhake for a really simple, hassle-free and pleasant collection mission which saw them drive off into the sunset* with my Granvia camper yesterday morning.  A thoroughly decent couple of people, adding to my 100% success rate for dealing with Autoshite folk.  I hope it gives you many happy holidays!

*It was actually mid morning, some artistic licence was used in the creation of this post.

[Arthur Foxhake]

5 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

On the way to the garage to get my Van gearbox looked at - and it’s dead. 
 

End of the road little soldier. Thanks for the endless days out filled with fun and laughter. May your cabin always be filled with sand from the beach and my old shit that I haven’t space for in the house. ☹️ 

The vultures are circling...

 

What's happened man? You aren't too far away from me, in the grand scheme of things.

I'd like you to fix it and keep it but, if it's fucking fucked mate, big time, tell me about it and where it is please.

I may be able to smooth over some of the inconsistency with the arse of my new one.

[plasticvandan]

I found a twin!

[SiC]

Night night

 

I must remember to SORN it... 

[Angrydicky]

I've bought another Rover.

It's an R reg 620 manual in JWG. To be honest I haven't even heard it run as it was an executors sale and the keys weren't present at that time, but it was cheap, has a good MoT history and is very clean and tidy with a set of new Firestones on it (which would have cost more than the purchase price) and new discs and pads (possibly calipers too) on the back. It's got a grey, rather than beige, interior sadly, but it looked immaculate with lovely clean seats. 96k on the clock. MoT March, but it's just been sat on a driveway since the last one.

Did I mention it was cheap?

Only thing that lets it down really is very bad lacquer peel on the bootlid and, to a lesser extent, the roof and bonnet. One tiny rust bleb at the bottom of one rear arch where they all go. No other rust on it and, surprisingly for a Rover, no scuffs on the bumper corners. There's a small dent in one front wing which is a shame. I'll be on the lookout for a gold bootlid for it as that'll be much cheaper than having the existing one painted.

Yes, it was cheap.

Reliable Honda running gear on this one so hopefully no repeat of the grief I had with the 45.

[BorniteIdentity]

14 hours ago, Arthur Foxhake said:

The vultures are circling...

 

What's happened man? You aren't too far away from me, in the grand scheme of things.

I'd like you to fix it and keep it but, if it's fucking fucked mate, big time, tell me about it and where it is please.

I may be able to smooth over some of the inconsistency with the arse of my new one.

Details over in my thread. I doubt very much that it’s TFFmate - it’s a Hilux/Landcruiser love child after all. 

Will probably stick up a FS thread later. 

[lesapandre]

Metro at 40. 

Poor article on the car from the BBC - I don't recall it being designed in 6 weeks or derided -they sold over 2M FFS. They were always a useful little work-a-day thing that took a lot of development - and citing rust on cars decades old seem pretty naff. At least these cars could be fixed unlike a lot of stuff these days. Some - the MG and GTA were a bit aspirational I recall - and even Princess Di had a Metro. 

Sometimes I feel the BBC are very out of touch.  

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-54423328

[richardmorris]

Peak 1980s in the drizzle this morning.

[wuvvum]

3 hours ago, Angrydicky said:

Reliable Honda running gear on this one so hopefully no repeat of the grief I had with the 45.

I thought it was only the auto 620s that used the Honda engine?

[MarvinsMom]

i thought that the 618 and the 623 both ones with Honda engines?

and  that 620 used a T16 and the diesel was the L-series derived from the perkins prima, both of them been Rovers own engines, with a Rover gearbox.

the honda engine is the wrong way round, Rovers, and just about everyone else's end-on transverse engine, sits on the left hand side of the engine bay, Honda at that time, for some reason best known to themselves were the other way round, with the engine sitting on the right hand side of the engine bay.

or did i dream it?

[barefoot]

It appears that my job has gone down the pan.  For anyone interested, I was assistant editor of a popular, or as it turns out, not popular enough, aircooled VW magazine. The publisher has pulled the plug. However, it appears that I've been scooped up as part of a consortium who've bought the rights & will be publishing it themselves...

Hmmm, we'll see how that pans out.

In the meantime I've managed to land myself the plum position of  Transport Supremo by the local volunteer mob, and I now have full responsibility for cleaning and checking the oil & water on a fleet of mini buses.

The bright spot amonst this lot is the Renault with its special comedy gearbox

- it is totally fucking deadful to drive & changes gear at all the rong times!

[lesapandre]

Sorry to hear that BF - the job not the gearbox. Hope the new crew can make something of it.

Which mag was it?

[puddlethumper]

My heap earning me a living carrying tower scaffolding to a warehouse to change dead strip light tubes.