The new news 24 thread

[brownnova]

7 hours ago, dozeydustman said:

I have been a little secretive about my week away. I come home late Saturday.

I am currently abroad. Not for a holiday nor for work purposes.

In 1984 my maternal grandparents moved to Spain but ran their garage business remotely until 1987 when they sold up. My maternal grandmother passed away last year and we’ve carried out their wishes as per their wills and testaments. Where they moved to was part of the Graham Maynard timeshare scandal of the 1980s and was featured on The Cook Report.

basically the place they moved to was largely incomplete and granddad finished off his apartamento and those of his neighbours and landscaped the barren ground which became the common gardens for all the resident.

My mum, my aunt, me, my brother and my 4.5y/o niece scattered their ashes this morning in the gardens they created.

I am willing to put money on a number of you saying that I’ve been totally irresponsible by travelling abroad during a pandemic. This was booked on nan’s passing last April as we thought C-19 would have been over. If it was a normal holiday I would agree; This time I think not. (Aside from the church service and the interment of my grandparents ashes we’ve remained isolated in our villa save the occasional trip to a Mercadona and taken LF tests daily.)

Descanse en paz abuela y abuelo.  Estás descansando en la casa de tus sueños y te extrañamos mucho.

On the plus side I spotted this in the car park on the way back from the church.

If anything the last 18 months make this journey even more meaningful I’d wager. Sounds like a lovely way to mark their passing and very fitting. 

[chaseracer]

Thanks for sharing that, @dozeydustman - Maureen & Jack sound like top folks.

[wuvvum]

1 hour ago, dozeydustman said:

This thing is rather horrid.

😐 <-- unsurprised emoji

[Spurious]

1 hour ago, dozeydustman said:

 

This thing is rather horrid. It’s huge outside but cramped inside, drinks diesel because it has no power or torque therefore requires thrashing, has the turning circle of an Atkinson Borderer, dead steering, rubbery gearshift, no feel through the pedals and catastrophically bad visibility. All great fun when you’re in an isolated villa up twisty-turny roads with a steep incline in a country where the rules of the road are still very much optional.

We've a colleague at work with one. 

Whilst having lunch we got up to a bit of mischief. We got a little strip of chrome plastic off a broken telly in the yard, snipped it to size and stuck it to the top of the U in the JUKE badge so it said JOKE instead. Rather funny and it lasted a week before he noticed. 

[dozeydustman]

1 hour ago, chaseracer said:

Thanks for sharing that, @dozeydustman - Maureen & Jack sound like top folks.

Granddad was the owner of the service station I have posted on here previously. I’ve asked my parents and aunt to scan in more photos of the Place so I can do a thread on here about it

[Split_Pin]

Cavaliers gear shift was a little better this morning whilst out an about between work meetings. 

Pushing the pedal all the way to the floor improved things even more.......

In my 6 days of ownership  I've had more nice comments and caused more incidences of pencilnecking than in the 11 years I owned the Corsa B.

I'm going to have a crack at welding the 5p hole in the sill tomorrow if the weather holds up.

[Tickman]

3 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

I'm going to have a crack at welding the fist sized hole in the sill tomorrow if the weather holds up.

I've corrected that for you.

[Fumbler]

Booked my vaccines. I look forward to being able to access TOR browser with my brain😁

[DeeJay]

24 minutes ago, Tickman said:

I've corrected that for you.

b

29 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

 

I'm going to have a crack at welding a new sill on tomorrow if the weather holds up.

Fixed it a bit more.

[bunglebus]

Here's a strange coincidence. My partner has been telling me for years about a MK1 Fiesta her mum used to own. Finally found a picture of it:

And here's mine, that I owned at the same time, over 20 years ago

Even stranger, they were registered in Cumbria, yet both were within a few miles of each other here in Chelmsford when we owned them.

Sorry for scan of a crap pic/video still, best I've got at the moment.

[SRi05]

Took the new (to me) Outback for a valet this morning, it's been sat outside the house since being delivered by Ceri on Tuesday, been dying to get out a proper run in it, it's my day off and the sun is shining. Perfect! 

[loserone]

An auto Outback with no rust (HA!) and a free fuel card would be a nice way to drive around.

[Supernaut]

My parents had a very similar looking one as a farm hack for a few years. 2.5 manual, too.

Even with it encrusted in mud and with several years' worth of towing duties under its belt, it was still lovely to drive. Surprisingly sporty handling through that small steering wheel, considering it's jacked up and on balloon tyres. The pedals were just right for a bit of heel-toe action too.

[SRi05]

10 minutes ago, loserone said:

An auto Outback with no rust (HA!) and a free fuel card would be a nice way to drive around.

I'm a big auto fan, but dropping a gear, putting the foot down and listening to the bwaaaaaaaahhh is bloody nice in this. Unsure if it's the factory exhaust but it sounds great 

[loserone]

Mine was a spec B, so 6 speed manual and the H6.  It was amazing on paper but just not quite great IRL

[barefoot]

Insurance renewal - 944 (agreed value) 75 & Scirocco - £328 - A chap can't grumble at that.

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, dozeydustman said:

Granddad was the owner of the service station I have posted on here previously. I’ve asked my parents and aunt to scan in more photos of the Place so I can do a thread on here about it

I think that's a great idea. They obviously turned adversity into triumph at the timeshare site which must have been very traumatic to go through. Sounds like they were special people, DD.

[320touring]

Watchin' in slow motion as you turn around and say

It made me laugh anyway...

 

was an advert on mugjotter for scrap removal

[richardmorris]

No pics as I was busy but the people across the way at work dropped a db5 on their hydraulic lift today. Twice! Looked out of the window to see what the bang was to see them trying to load the silver birch car into one of their huge transporters. Watched as they tried again, but hydraulics not up to it after a foot and dropped to earth again.   Huge bang. Unloaded, turned the car around ( pushed in the rain) and got it back on the lift engine first this time. Lifted ok and pushed it onto the top deck. I can only think the extended weight engine out on the edge of the lift put too much strain on it. A bit keystone cops- must have been the weather, they’re usually better than that at it.

There was also a rather nice Bentley Continental on the truck too.

 

[wuvvum]

Speaking of nice old British cars, I was going round a roundabout in the centre of Norwich this morning and waiting to pull out, looking massive even amongst the bloated modernz, was a rather lovely Silver Cloud III.

The purpose of my visit to Norwich was to test drive this:

My disenchantment with spending much of my free time chasing faults on a fleet of old heaps has reached the point where I'm seriously considering jacking it all in and getting a shiny new car with a warranty.  The one I drove was a posh one but the monthly PCP payments on the more basic model I was looking at are roughly the same as what I'm bunging out every month on VED at the moment, which negates the "oh, it's just money down the drain" argument against having a brand new car.  I'd probably keep just the Renault 6 and the Toyota (the Innocenti had been on the "keep" list too, but that's pissing me off at the moment), and I might then actually have the time and money to give them the attention they deserve.

The Dacia drove quite well, and certainly feels a lot more of a grown-up concept than the previous model.  It's spacious, it's comfortable enough, the gear shift is nice and crisp and the switches don't flop about.  The plastics are hard and the engine is a bit growly on the dual carriageway, but nothing I couldn't live with.  I haven't made a decision yet but I'm giving it some serious thought.

[chadders]

I guess that you could always fix things at your relative leisure on the other cars as you'd have this as a reliable daily.

It seems a sensible plan to me, especially as the pressure to get something fixed so that you could go to work would be gone.

[stuboy]

If u like the smell of old engineering workshops then got to asda and buy a can of this, reminded me of skool daze metalwork room and college engineering room with the lathes

[brownnova]

47 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Speaking of nice old British cars, I was going round a roundabout in the centre of Norwich this morning and waiting to pull out, looking massive even amongst the bloated modernz, was a rather lovely Silver Cloud III.

The purpose of my visit to Norwich was to test drive this:

My disenchantment with spending much of my free time chasing faults on a fleet of old heaps has reached the point where I'm seriously considering jacking it all in and getting a shiny new car with a warranty.  The one I drove was a posh one but the monthly PCP payments on the more basic model I was looking at are roughly the same as what I'm bunging out every month on VED at the moment, which negates the "oh, it's just money down the drain" argument against having a brand new car.  I'd probably keep just the Renault 6 and the Toyota (the Innocenti had been on the "keep" list too, but that's pissing me off at the moment), and I might then actually have the time and money to give them the attention they deserve.

The Dacia drove quite well, and certainly feels a lot more of a grown-up concept than the previous model.  It's spacious, it's comfortable enough, the gear shift is nice and crisp and the switches don't flop about.  The plastics are hard and the engine is a bit growly on the dual carriageway, but nothing I couldn't live with.  I haven't made a decision yet but I'm giving it some serious thought.

I’ve been feeling this a bit lately… A Duster or an MG ZS are on my radar as a family wagon. But then I’m struggling to cull the fleet! 

[Jerzy Woking]

11 hours ago, dozeydustman said:

 

Tat is very thin on the ground out here now. The era of the Barreiros diesel powered Chrysler 180 and various Seat badged Fiats are well and truly gone. I’ve only seen 3 other bits of rammel and was unable to snap because driving. Very few cars registered with provincial plates here.

Scattering ashes was very nice gesture and very meaningful.

I'm down near Alicante and its rare to see anything more than about 15 to 20 years old, except for Berlingo's (and similar). The scrap yards I pass all seem to have what I deem as new cars in them. Mechanical failures rather than rust related I think.

Only place I see old stuff is on the N332 between Benidorm and Alicante. There is a garage yard full of half scrapped Citroen's (mostly aircooled), and next door an Alfa specialist who has some fantastic 60's rally cars in. He showed us around a couple of year ago-his office was full of trophies he had won racing.

[Fumbler]

I'm struggling to understand some paint vendors' descriptions on eBay. This is my last attempt at finding anything before I turn to local paint shops (who will probably have what I'm looking for).

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/193930821417?var=494129833170&hash=item2d272d7f29:g:3LwAAOSwATZgPrwy

The above link is Rouge Furio, available in a solvent basecoat or aerosol. The paint finish for aerosol is... aerosol. Not very helpful.

What do you people think, will this just be an aerosol basecoat requiring a lacquer, or will it be a high-gloss finish aerosol I've been wasting too much time trying to find?

 

[dozeydustman]

1 hour ago, Jerzy Woking said:

Scattering ashes was very nice gesture and very meaningful.

I'm down near Alicante and its rare to see anything more than about 15 to 20 years old, except for Berlingo's (and similar). The scrap yards I pass all seem to have what I deem as new cars in them. Mechanical failures rather than rust related I think.

Only place I see old stuff is on the N332 between Benidorm and Alicante. There is a garage yard full of half scrapped Citroen's (mostly aircooled), and next door an Alfa specialist who has some fantastic 60's rally cars in. He showed us around a couple of year ago-his office was full of trophies he had won racing.

Aside from the R8, I’ve seen two quatras latas and a very pogweaseled Visa

[Jerzy Woking]

I saw a Granada 2.8 Ghia X last weekend in a village not far from me. Giffer trinketed to death with grill bages and chrome strips. On my bike so no photo, but will be going to the village again this week so will have a scout around for it.

Very dissapointing levels of shite....

[doug]

Spotted these 2 beauties today. Looks like they have not moved in years

Sent from my SM-J330FN using Tapatalk

[captain_70s]

Some sporting event I don't care about is occurring. That means quiet roads...

[chaseracer]

@Talbot visited Chaseracer Towers today, and kindly replaced the EGR valve on the Blingo.  I cleaned stuff and made tea...