The new news 24 thread

[wuvvum]

Picked the Vectra up from the menders this evening - it's in for a retest tomorrow morning, so fingers crossed the headlights won't decide to play up...

 

I asked about the Vel Satis they have sat there - it suffered major OMGHGF and the head is warped to buggery - they reckon easiest way would be to drop a replacement engine in, but they don't have time (and, I suspect, don't necessarily want the fun* of pissing around with 11-year-old Renault electronics) so it's probably going to get scrapped.  Which is a shame, but a Vel Satis is so far beyond my mediocre mechanical capabilities that I wouldn't even contemplate trying to take it on.

[cort16]

You'd have to have some kind of garlic death wish to take a borked Vel Satis on when you can get niceish looking ones for sub £1000. There was a top spec v6 for sale near me recently with low mileage for £1500.

[Lord Sterling]

My mate Brad recently bought a 3.5 Vel Satis with shares the same engine as the Nissan 350Z. Not seen it in the metal yet but it looks nice, though it does look like a Renault Megane on steriods in the same way a Peugeot 605 looks like a larger 405.

[dugong]

Went to blast the cobwebs off the 460 this evening. It also meant I got out of the house.

 

Gone through the list of things it needs for the MOT with SCTSH. Everything will be done properly except for the back box - which will be blobbed up with some weld if it indeed needs doing at all. JP in Macclesfield are fitting a new stainless system on it when I pay the other half of the balance off.

 

I got so far and then work hit the skids big time.

 

It's going to need a new O/S driveshaft because of the the OMGROLLPINSTARTER drama earlier in the year. Looks like that's going to be coming from Germany because I can't find anyone in the UK who stocks them. Othet than basic service parts (shared with LP's Renault 19 among others) it's easier to get parts for my Amazon.

Finding bits for the 460 has required a great deal more leg-work.

 

Priced up the new rear discs, calipers, handbrake cables and driveshafts and got a bit of a shock. I'm looking at the thick end of £280. Also, it could do with a pair of new tyres and Goodyear have decided to discontinue its Eagle F1 in 195 50 15 flavour.

 

It's also taken to running on three from cold, so I'll be chasing round the usual suspects - ICV, HT leads, plugs and coil pack.

 

Arrrrrgh.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

can you not get a secondhand driveshaft Wat? There must be plenty of dead 440/60/80's knocking about that could donate one. Whats up with the old one?

[Shep Shepherd]

Gave The Volvo a wash and hose down this afternoon, in order to remove the winter muck of four countries from its bodywork and underbody:

 

 

Must say that rear wheel drive Volvos lend themselves to the raffish country/lord of the manor look really well when they are dirty at this time of year, though:

 

 

[wuvvum]

The Rover 400 went today.  A scrappy from Newmarket bought it in the end - he seemed interested in the engine so hopefully that will live on in a Freeloader or something.  Kind of sad to see it go as it's served me faithfully for well over a year, but I never really gelled with it in the way I did with the 200, and it was going to need a fair bit of money slinging at it to pass a test (weldage and ABS problems, plus whatever else the tester found).  Also it could be a bit of a PITA to start in very cold weather (battery and glowplugs had all seen better days) and the demisting was utterly useless.  So I decided to let it go. 

 

Once Christmas is over with and I have a little bit of spare cash to play with, I'm going to run the 200 up to my usual garage and ask them to investigate / fix whatever is causing the loss of power - apart from a couple of headlights I can't see it needing a huge amount for an MoT, and it always did drive better than the 400.  Once it's road legal again I can refit the tuning bits and go out terrorising TDI's.

 

Also ordered an OBD2 scanner and one of those dashboard cameras all the Russians have - at a tenner each I don't think I'll go far wrong, as long as they both turn up.

 

The Vectra passed its MoT this morning, so will be going up for sale shortly - although whether I'll have any luck selling it this side of Christmas remains to be seen.  It did at least have the courtesy to not put the headlamp levelling warning light on during the test - although it's done so every time I've started it since then.  With the money I've spent putting it through the test it now owes me almost £800 (although to be fair it did have five months' rent when I bought it, which has now expired), so will be interesting to see if I manage to break even...

[dollywobbler]

Just back home after a 300-mile round-trip in the 2CV - over the course of two days. I'm knackered, the 2CV isn't. Nice of someone to crash on Birmingham's Aston Expressway just as I was leaving. Backed up all over town. Managed to escape onto the M5 in the end.

 

This morning I drove from Bromsgrove to Brum on the A38 - a trip which left me questioning my desire to live. Can't believe I used to live in south Brum. It's just a horrible sea of endless traffic lights and jams!

[Shep Shepherd]

^

 

Cla$$ic car superhero

[dollywobbler]

Well, I used to do this sort of thing all of the time, but then got soft and started buying cars that are actually quite capable at motorway speeds. Was good to get back in the saddle. It was hurtling along the M6 at a Sat-Nav 70mph (which is pretty much flat out) for a goodly while yesterday. Didn't feel as brisk on the way back home, so I must have had favourable wind conditions yesterday...

 

I still find it astonishing that these little cars lap up such abuse. There aren't many old crocks that put up with that sort of treatment.

[ShiteRider]

Don't know if this is a grin or a grump so i'll lash it in here. It seems i'm been being set up on a date with the niece of someone i know, dating isn't something i do........ever. Infact i can't remember the last time i had sex which actually involved another person.

Anyway, i've been described to her as "a nice, well mannered lad, who just needs someone to mother him", i know, way to make me sound like a twat, it's blatant lies aswell. And she's been described to me as a lovely girl who wants a nice lad to take her out. So i naturally assumed, she must be fat with a face like a clog.

I was shown her facebook profile today.......she.....is.....stunning! her social life seems to be very vibant and active, involving dancing and friends as shit like that.

Mine consists of smoking, drinking tea, and fucking about with old shit cars, what also goes against me apart from a lack of conversation is the fact i look like Alvin Stardusts' fat retard son.

I know for a fact this is going to be a cringe worthy night, which i'll know doubt fuck up early doors but i do have a secret weapon.....i've swapped the insurance from the departed BMW to the ebay Cortina, in the vain hope the sight of dagenhams finest will arouse "stirrings" and gloss over my many faults.......it can't just work on men can it?

[dollywobbler]

Offer to go dancing with her. I've done a fair bit of folk dancing (other forms are available). In my experience, there are never enough men. If you don't get on with this girl, you might find another! Don't tell anyone but it's good fun too...

[cobblers]

Ah sodit man, it might go alright, who knows? I'm a mardy cynical fucker who only really likes drinking beer, dicking about with cars and moaning, and I'm not exactly an oil painting, but on a total random off chance setup like that I ended up noshing off a gorgeous 18 year old bird with 32GG knockers for about a year a while ago. We were like chalk and cheese really but in reality got on pretty well.

 

Yeah, it might go to bollocks, but then again you might get your leg over at least once.

[Pillock]

Pictures, or it didn't happen.

 

(The 32GGs, not the noshing)

[Wilko220]

Love the story about the 90-year-old with the 820, Sterlsworth. That's just the sort of uplifting tale I come here for.

[cobblers]

I "just needed an SD card to test something" a few years ago, something I regret more and more as time passes.

[scruff]

Good luck Shiterider

[Cavcraft]

My 306 n/a has done a Peugeot this evening whereby the speedo and fuel gauge have taken an early bath. According to the internet (and we all know if it's on the internet, it must be true) there's a large fuse which suffers from static build up. It needs to be taken out for 10 seconds then refitted, apparently. Sounds like a right loads of bollocks, but tomorrow I will try and find out!

[cobblers]

The static build up stuff is likely total bollocks, but the clocks and stuff can generally shit themselves and pulling the fuse out for a bit will make them do a proper reset which could well sort the problem.

[vulgalour]

I just a few minutes ago discovered this.

 

At first I thought it might be from some random '70s film and was a prop car but no... it's more interesting than that.

 

 

 

I quite fancy building one myself having seen this.  How hard could it be?

[Sloth in a bowl]

Just back home after a 300-mile round-trip in the 2CV - over the course of two days. I'm knackered, the 2CV isn't. Nice of someone to crash on Birmingham's Aston Expressway just as I was leaving. Backed up all over town. Managed to escape onto the M5 in the end.

 

This morning I drove from Bromsgrove to Brum on the A38 - a trip which left me questioning my desire to live. Can't believe I used to live in south Brum. It's just a horrible sea of endless traffic lights and jams!

 

This is why I drive out of Brum at 7 o'clock every morning and wait until the working day is done and it is safe to return.

[cort16]

I'm currently have a furious internal mas-debate about what one of my cars I should keep. An upcoming life changing event means I'll have less time to knob around with cars so I need to choose one of them

I have the SD1 and the XJR. The XJR is a pleasure to drive, is extremely, fast and and atune to a man of my upcoming vintage. The SD1 is slow, noisy poisoness but very cool and includes a lot of my blood and toil in it. At 40 do I look like a fud driving a slammed car with JDM arches?  The questions is what one do I want to own and look after for the next couple of years? I kind of think I might want to drive the SD1 less and less as time goes by but the XJR you could never get bored of. On the other hand the SD1 is very simple and I can look after most of it's wobblies on my own but the XJR is a complex and expensive beast if things start to go wrong with it.

 

Maybe I'd be better selling them both, raising a few grand and getting one really good car for the next couple of years. Something like  Mk4 Cortina or a nice v8 SD1. Difficult

[Angrydicky]

I've never been there, but Birmingham sounds really depressing from what I've heard on here. The only good points seem to be the remaining parts of Longbridge and the decent amount of quality tat in the city, if Lord Sterling's spotted thread is anything to go by.

[rml2345]

^ I changed trains there once. The bit around New Street does look a bit depressing.

[dollywobbler]

The City Centre is quite smart these days, though I'm utterly used to seeing that many people. Most of my hatred of Brum is just hatred of cities in general. They're soul-destroying places. Nice to visit but to live there? No, not at all interested. I'd rather be skint. Pretty views are free.

[cort16]

Shiterider, you've got nothing to lose. Nothing to fear but fear itself and all that bollocks although it's easy to say that when you're not the one doing it!

If she's impressed by your Cortina then I'd say she's a keeper. Most women I've met have an abject fear of shitey old cars (omg can you not afford a new one) so if you find someone who doesn't think like that she's probably a good un. I remember taking a girl out in my BX and I know you'll never believe this but she WASN'T impressed by suspension goes up, suspension goes down, suspension goes up, suspension goes down.  Pff, women.

[MrDuke]

The XJR is a pleasure to drive, is extremely, fast and and atune to a man of my upcoming vintage. The SD1 is slow, noisy poisoness but very cool and includes a lot of my blood and toil in it ... I kind of think I might want to drive the SD1 less and less as time goes by but the XJR you could never get bored of. On the other hand the SD1 is very simple and I can look after most of it's wobblies on my own but the XJR is a complex and expensive beast if things start to go wrong with it.

I suspect that you'd bitterly regret selling the SD1 simply because there's so much of 'you' in it. There's always a possibility that you could get another XJR in the future, but you'd never get your SD1 back (even if you tracked it down in future years, I doubt it would be the same). Don't underestimate the enjoyment to be derived from fettling, however annoying it might be when it's necessary rather than chosen. Also, you can't sell the SD1 yet, as I don't have the money to buy it.

 

 

 

At 40 do I look like a fud driving a slammed car with JDM arches?

Considering I'm only 5 years away, I would really really hope not.

[HillmanImp]

WHS^^

[ShiteRider]

RIP Lewis Collins

I shall broadside around a roundabout in the cortina in memory of my childhood hero.

[Junkman]

 

A macho in a car made by machos for machos.

Losing Bodie is just another step towards a world for weepy wussies.

It will never be the same again.