The new news 24 thread

[New POD]

8 hours ago, robinmasters said:

I've just had a look at the government's 'idiots guide to IR35' page, and the focus is on ensuring that a self-employed contractor is paying roughly the same tax & NI as they would it they were a direct employee. 

It doesn't really go into any detail about who should be considered an employee so I'm probably looking at the wrong source, but I would imagine the test would be similar. 

The only difference would be that lots of delivery drivers would rather be employed, with holidays, sick pay, employment law and someone else maintaining and insuring the vehicles, because the rates they are paid means if something goes wrong they barely achieve minimum wage, and the ease of being fired whereas most contractors are desperate not be employees because NiC/PAYE would take £££££ off thier net income.  

[New POD]

8 hours ago, robinmasters said:

I worked in employers liability insurance, so was mainly interested in what training and PPE was provided. IR35 is to stop self-employed individuals setting themselves up as a limited company just to avoid tax/NI isn't it? 

I've read that again.  Most places I've worked have had a "safety" presentation for contractors, which basically made them aware of their obligations whilst on site.  But they were supposed to provide thier own PPE

 

[barefoot]

19 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Rover 75s have about eleventy twelve courtesy lights, thankyouverymuch.

And about double that number of other examples of clever electrickery that could cause a ludicrously difficult to find battery drain. Luckily, the problem has been resolved almost instantly with the diagnosis revealing a brand new, yet faulty battery - with a five year guarantee - which has been replaced and all is apparently good with the world. The Rover will be delivered back to me here at the towers later on today.

In other equally exciting news, I've been forced to admit defeat with the Scirocco. Constant fiddling & re-tuning just won't make this little bastard consistantly reliable enough for me to send the fair wife out in it. The £50 Webber that I bought to replace the original Pierburg was long since past its best when I had it. Another ten years have done it no favours and I've been obliged to cough up £375 for a brand new twin choke Webber to put on my £400 car. Not only that, but its being fitted for me, as we speak, by a renowned local VW specialist. The Scirocco will sadly not be delivered & I shall have to walk down & fetch it.

What a shit couple of months that has been. Pre-xmas, two lovely functioning motor cars & then two months of crap unreliable ones. The wife pointed out  that we had five motor cars in the grounds and there wasn't a single one she could use to get to work & back. I was obliged for a moment to seriously think about buying a newish used Dacia/Toyota/Honda.

[Cavcraft]

Pile of shit even put up a fight getting rid of it. It started throwing fluid out (brake or hydraulic, I think) but at least the bastard managed to drive on to the truck...

 

[Spurious]

26 minutes ago, barefoot said:

What a shit couple of months that has been. Pre-xmas, two lovely functioning motor cars & then two months of crap unreliable ones. The wife pointed out  that we had five motor cars in the grounds and there wasn't a single one she could use to get to work & back. I was obliged for a moment to seriously think about buying a newish used Dacia/Toyota/Honda.

I know the feeling.  I keep threatening to sell the Jimny.  It's a 2011 so modern enough but it's never put a foot wrong and always starts (except the time I forgot about the lights, my fault really, I needed a new battery).

I work such odd shifts and it's off a bus route (or a £20 each way taxi) so I can't really rely full time on a £250 "it's got one MOT left in it" type car, so I understand the ethos of driving fun old cars but sometimes, something that just works is a keeper.

[Tickman]

41 minutes ago, barefoot said:

The wife pointed out  that we had five motor cars in the grounds and there wasn't a single one she could use to get to work & back. 

Think we have all been there at some point. My best was when out of all the cars available a 1968 Morris Minor was the most trusted

[brownnova]

Mrs_brownnova in a sudden impulsive moment decided she wanted to take her 2CV for a spin... it hasn’t run since before Christmas.... WCPGW.... 

In other news I just spent a few quid on new rear wings (and a few other bits) for it as my half term project. Mrs_b had declared she wants to drive it to work on her first day post maternity leave. So it needs fixing! 

[brownnova]

Good news... the journey passed without incident and she remembered why she loves the 2CV so much! 

[hairnet]

1 hour ago, brownnova said:

Mrs_brownnova in a sudden impulsive moment decided she wanted to take her 2CV for a spin... it hasn’t run since before Christmas.... WCPGW.... 

In other news I just spent a few quid on new rear wings (and a few other bits) for it as my half term project. Mrs_b had declared she wants to drive it to work on her first day post maternity leave. So it needs fixing! 

Finger out - been told

[Zelandeth]

This afternoon involved hauling about a significant number of extremely bloody heavy paving slabs.

Has made my temporary (two years and counting...) parking space look a bit less shonky at least!

Was going to flip the van around so everything is facing the same way...however the Jag's battery decided to show it's opinion of the ambient temperature being below freezing...so that's now on charge.

To be fair... churning over 5.3 litres of V12 filled with 20W50 oil in -3C is no small ask!  Especially when it's not been started in a couple of weeks and I know the charging system has been playing up.

[Tubbo]

So I took delivery of this beauty today, thanks again to @Joey spud for the super smooth transaction.

 

[Tubbo]

Separated at birth

 

[wuvvum]

11/10 shite points for having it delivered on the back of a scruffy LDV Maxus with broken tail lights.

[Tubbo]

With 2 still on the naughty step.

 

[doobietoo]

Braking really really hard  from 70ish and taking avoiding action to avoid a twunt in front of you who decides to emergency stop on a straight road for no apparent reason activates the 406s hazard lights.  The easiest way to remove 20 litres of petrol mixed with 50 litres of diesel from said 406 is to disconnect the fuel return hose at the engine fuel pump, connect a piece of hose to several large barrels and turn the ignition on and off to activate the in tank lifter pump repeatedly until the tank is empty. It has not been a good day. 

edited to add... On the bright side I adjusted the accelerator cable as there was rather a lot of nothing before anything happened. It is just a clip that sits in a grooved rod so took about a nanosecond to adjust. On a short test run it seems to be 'considerably ' quicker which may be due to actually having a car that is using full throttle now.

[davidfowler2000]

A sleepy SVM Industries in ZOMGSNOKAOS!!!

[Cavcraft]

Save money on expensive fuel cans by simply finding an empty, discarded 10litre Adblue container, rinsing it out and then filling it with petrol.

[Cavcraft]

Make your VW Touran smell of petrol by  simply finding an empty, discarded 10litre Adblue container, rinsing it out and then filling it with petrol.

And then discovering there's a little hole in the top. 

[N19]

1 hour ago, Cavcraft said:

Save money on expensive fuel cans by simply finding an empty, discarded 10litre Adblue container, rinsing it out and then filling it with petrol.

They're at least very useful for having around for used oil, water etc around the garage... Normally a few hanging around at petrol filling stations. 

[Cavcraft]

12 minutes ago, N19 said:

They're at least very useful for having around for used oil, water etc around the garage... Normally a few hanging around at petrol filling stations. 

To be fair, little holes aside (probably a small vent cover that can be poked open) they will be useful and I should be able to get a few here and there. Trying to get at least one or two to make pre-mix fuel for the Lambretta and a couple of the  older bikes with no oil pump.

[Split_Pin]

Finally saying goodbye to the old Corsa engine. Scrap man coming later today.

Thank you for not breaking down during the years when my wife and I were skint.

GUD NITE SWEET PRINCE

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, N19 said:

They're at least very useful for having around for used oil, water etc around the garage... Normally a few hanging around at petrol filling stations. 

Hadn't thought of that...will keep my eyes open for them now...

With getting to the tip being such an absolutely gigantic pain in the proverbial rear at the moment I'm suffering a severe issue with storing used engine oil etc at the moment!  The van taking eight litres and the Jag twelve of the stuff doesn't help!

[SiC]

On 2/11/2021 at 12:10 PM, barefoot said:

In other equally exciting news, I've been forced to admit defeat with the Scirocco. Constant fiddling & re-tuning just won't make this little bastard consistantly reliable enough for me to send the fair wife out in it. The £50 Webber that I bought to replace the original Pierburg was long since past its best when I had it. Another ten years have done it no favours and I've been obliged to cough up £375 for a brand new twin choke Webber to put on my £400 car. Not only that, but its being fitted for me, as we speak, by a renowned local VW specialist. The Scirocco will sadly not be delivered & I shall have to walk down & fetch it.

Surely a classic Scirocco is worth way more than 400 quid nowadays?

[Coprolalia]

1 hour ago, SiC said:

Surely a classic Scirocco is worth way more than 400 quid nowadays?

You'd think so, but no. They've been completely missed by the VAG scene tax.

That's why we're here, not driving up and down outside a parade of fast-food restaurants, bedecked in pineapples and shiny rims with death rings, blasting trap.

[Coprolalia]

On 2/11/2021 at 12:10 PM, barefoot said:

In other equally exciting news, I've been forced to admit defeat with the Scirocco. Constant fiddling & re-tuning just won't make this little bastard consistantly reliable enough for me to send the fair wife out in it. The £50 Webber that I bought to replace the original Pierburg was long since past its best when I had it. Another ten years have done it no favours and I've been obliged to cough up £375 for a brand new twin choke Webber to put on my £400 car. Not only that, but its being fitted for me, as we speak, by a renowned local VW specialist. The Scirocco will sadly not be delivered & I shall have to walk down & fetch it.

Bad luck. I think it was the Pooberg that did my old engine, never being 100% tuned correctly, running lean, pinking, hastening OMGHGF. I think 10 years out of a £50 Weber isn't bad though. Everything wears out eventually.

Is now when I tell you about the as-new twin-choke Weber jetted for a 1.8 sat on top of my spare engine that's only done 500 miles?

[MikeR]

not something you see everyday

somebody else having a shite day !!

[barefoot]

4 minutes ago, Coprolalia said:

Is now when I tell you about the as-new twin-choke Weber jetted for a 1.8 sat on top of my spare engine that's only done 500 miles?

You're more than welcome - mine's a 1600.

My Scirocco is very odd, it's a two owner from new, same family & then Hillman Imp on here who I bought it from. You'd expect it to be quite nice, but at some point before either Scotty or I had it, it has had the very fucking worst respray in the world ever. It is astonishingly scruffy looking, but it's a nice drive, a good runner and has P-slots. I have five centre caps that I keep locked away in the garage, because they're probably still worth more than the car. 

[Coprolalia]

1 minute ago, barefoot said:

You're more than welcome - mine's a 1600.

My Scirocco is very odd, it's a two owner from new, same family & then Hillman Imp on here who I bought it from. You'd expect it to be quite nice, but at some point before either Scotty or I had it, it has had the very fucking worst respray in the world ever. It is astonishingly scruffy looking, but it's a nice drive, a good runner and has P-slots. I have five centre caps that I keep locked away in the garage, because they're probably still worth more than the car. 

I feel less bad now! Really need to get round to selling it.

Probably the best way - scruffy but been looked after, kept running and on the road. The young guy I bought mine off had got it from an old boy, and I think it spent about 8 years off the road. All of the hoses, lines, and rubber bushings had decayed, and it's taken a lot of time, money and effort to get it roadworthy.

Love a set of P-slots!

[SiC]

1 hour ago, Coprolalia said:

You'd think so, but no. They've been completely missed by the VAG scene tax.

Really? If you know of a sub-500 quid Sirocco I'll be all over it! Even a sub-1k I'd give serious consideration too. 

Edit: maybe because Scirocco is difficult one to spell? Seriously! Took me a few attempts...

[dave j]

13 minutes ago, SiC said:

Really? If you know of a sub-500 quid Sirocco I'll be all over it! Even a sub-1k I'd give serious consideration too. 

Edit: maybe because Scirocco is difficult one to spell? Seriously! Took me a few attempts...

Anyone else just been looking on ebay at Sciroccos after reading this?! 🤣