The new news 24 thread

[juular]

Well, bugger.

That's the solar cable entry box on top of my van. It looks like the sikaflex and the plastic don't agree with each other. It was stuck down almost exactly a year ago.

The solar panel seems stuck pretty soundly but I will be keeping a close eye on it.

[Leyland Worldmaster]

Country life is brilliant... 👍 👍 👍 😎 😎 😎 

[Fumbler]

I wanted to do welding but it's too hot and I'm too knackered to want to cut stuff out. It can wait until Friday just fine. I'e got other bodywork jobs I can do in the meantime.

What's of slight concern is that the car won't start from hot if I leave it a few minutes. If I shut it off and immediately start the engine, it catches just fine. I'm changing the ignition module as a precaution but I'm wondering if this is fuel vapourisation/ poor fuel flow due to a bad pump. What you you people think might be the culprit?

[dozeydustman]

My parents visited yesterday. Our big family holiday and memorial for my grandparents which was booked a year ago and had been postponed, cancelled, remade, postponed again is now definitely going ahead.

In 12 days time I shall be off elsewhere for a week.

[tommotech]

This afternoon I’ll be mainly refurbishing a Zenith carb........

 

[brownnova]

First proper car show of 2021 today! Over at Capesthorne Hall near Macclesfield. A great selection of cars on show. 

Took Bonk the magic wagon and duly made my way into the ring for the 90s section and the Les (from Chumley) replacement actually interviewed me about it (even if he did think it was a Pontiac Aztek). 

I didn’t win, an MR2 got the prize, must have been a mate of the judges or something. There were far better in the ring.

 Anyway a selection of the best there. 

The only Scoupe turbo SE on the road apparently! 

and of course... 

[Fumbler]

Ignition module fitted. Looking promising

[3VOM]

4 hours ago, juular said:

Well, bugger.

That's the solar cable entry box on top of my van. It looks like the sikaflex and the plastic don't agree with each other. It was stuck down almost exactly a year ago.

The solar panel seems stuck pretty soundly but I will be keeping a close eye on it.

Which Sikaflex, there's dozens of them?  One of the caravan/motorhome ones requires a minimum thickness to work properly.

[MarvinsMom]

been out to Ripley Castle today for their classic car show, with Rodney Mini. who ran all the way there and back, a distance of around 120-oddmiles without issue.

which was nice. so all is looking promising for next week and driving to Gaydon. unfortunately we had to park up in the general carpark cos we had not considered chinese fuckin' bat flu,  but even so a run out was a pleasant change.

it was hot. very hot, even though it was overcast when we got there. and i got burnt to a crisp.

oops!

 

i found some treasures too, this book of BMC Cars, which while its been well thumbed its complete and unmolested. and it was £3. the last one i saw for sale was something like £50, so i'm well pleased with that, and i also found this Dinky P1B Lightening. Again, another thing i have been looking for, the guy selling it had quiet a range of Classic" diecast tat that if i had bought it all would have weighed the car right down, and cleaned out my bank! ah well,maybe next time.

there was a  range of  vehicles on show, including these.

 

[Low Horatio gearbox]

Continued moving of crap possessions into the house and garage..

 

[juular]

38 minutes ago, 3VOM said:

Which Sikaflex, there's dozens of them?  One of the caravan/motorhome ones requires a minimum thickness to work properly.

221, as recommended by Sika and the panel supplier.

The bead size was whatever the instructions recommended, I took my time over the whole thing.

The cable box has separated from the mastic cleanly, it doesn't look like any of it has bonded to it. The stuff still on the van is going nowhere, I think I'd need to chisel it off.

 

 

[3VOM]

Interesting. I would have thought 512 or 522 could be alternatives. I think my go to was 512 for the motorhome I used to have. Might be worth asking Sika about what could have gone wrong as 221 looks perfectly reasonable for the job.

[tommotech]

New jet, new float valve, new diaphragm and a good clean up. Auto choke checked and set up. Basic settings done and job bobbed, ready to go back on the Panther Lima project (not my car but a project for a friend). 

[Bren]

Had the karcher out sk gave the vectra a clean. For a 14 year old car it scrubs up well.

[Mr Pastry]

Well, I have just sold my house.  Actually it is the third time I have sold it this year, because  there are an awful lot of time wasters in the property market.

Anyway, Mr. Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells (not his real name, but he is from TW) has made a reasonable offer,  has mortgage arranged in principle, cash balance, nothing to sell, and isn't in a hurry.  He is a buy- to- let investor.  OK, jolly good, offer accepted, but he probably will be disgusted when he sees it.

However, he has not viewed the property, and doesn't want to.  He has seen it on the video tour and streetview, and it's all fine and he definitely wants it.  He has no local knowledge or connections AFAIK, and he is about 200 miles away. 

So I am not holding my breath, but apparently this is now a thing.  People do buy houses online.  WTF? 

 

 

 

[Amishtat]

Made the most of a lazy sunny afternoon to give the Singer a rare glimpse of daylight and a wash. 

[Fumbler]

23 minutes ago, Mr Pastry said:

Well, I have just sold my house.  Actually it is the third time I have sold it this year, because  there are an awful lot of time wasters in the property market.

Anyway, Mr. Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells (not his real name, but he is from TW) has made a reasonable offer,  has mortgage arranged in principle, cash balance, nothing to sell, and isn't in a hurry.  He is a buy- to- let investor.  OK, jolly good, offer accepted, but he probably will be disgusted when he sees it.

However, he has not viewed the property, and doesn't want to.  He has seen it on the video tour and streetview, and it's all fine and he definitely wants it.  He has no local knowledge or connections AFAIK, and he is about 200 miles away. 

So I am not holding my breath, but apparently this is now a thing.  People do buy houses online.  WTF? 

 

 

 

Mr. Disgusted seems to be of the TW type. I have a feeling I know which district he'll be in as well.

[SiC]

9 hours ago, HMC said:

Dartmoor version of “man with a van” making a drop 

I bet they parp and bang as they go along on their cruise. 

[Skizzer]

My E30 is mobile again after a new ignition lock and some minor fettling, which is good, as it means I can get out the other cars that were stuck behind it in the shed.

First to emerge into the sunlight is the Vauxhall 2300S, seen here with its delinquent slant four second cousin.

It fired straight up once the fuel pump had had a chance and is running very sweetly. Just needed a couple of PSI in the tyres, and the wiper blades have mysteriously disintegrated. I’ll give it an oil change soon too, just as a treat, and daily it for a spell.

The BMW needs more attention if it’s to get an MOT though. Perhaps surprisingly, not because of rust — details here:

 

[Split_Pin]

Sorry if I'm oversharing this, but STRIKE ME FLAMIN' RONE AILSA the paint on this looks fair dinkum in the strong sunshine (sorry about the shadows).

I even felt compelled to break out my mouth organ and tootle out 'The Cup of Tea' in celebration.

 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Completed a CX parts run but the traffic was so bad in both directions that I was ages behind schedule, so had to give the FoD a miss.

[wuvvum]

Well what a frustratingly unproductive couple of days those turned out to be.

As mentioned previously I replaced the head gasket on the Škoda yesterday.  I'm far from convinced that I've fixed it though.  For one thing one of the head bolts snapped on removal - it's snapped just proud of the block, with about 5mm or so sticking out so not enough to get a meaningful grip on with either bolt removers or mole grips (I tried).  Although given that it's stuck in there well enough that an M12 bolt snapped rather than coming undone, the chances of getting the remains out with any normal tool are slim to none.  There is enough sticking up to locate the head gasket and indeed the head itself, but the head isn't held down in that particular area, and I'm going to assume that Škoda put a bolt there for a reason and not just for lolz - being an alloy head I'd imagine it probably needs to be held down properly. 

Secondly the tightening sequence in the HBOL says to tighten to 20 lb-ft and then twice through a further 90 degrees - it doesn't give an actual torque setting for the "final result".  One of the bolts was so stiff in its threads that it took more than 20 lb-ft just to wind it in, so I ended up just cramming that one down as hard as I could, which probably means I've overtightened it.

To add to the fun, whilst doing up the head bolts after replacing the head, I managed to drop my 10mm Allen bit down one of the pushrod tubes, where it immediately vanished into the emulsified oil which was sat in the tube.  So the head had to come off again - I panicked momentarily as that was my only 10mm Allen bit so I was wondering how the heck I was going to undo the head bolts to get the head off, until it finally occurred to my sleep-deprived brain that all the bits in the set are designed to be turned with a 10mm socket, and therefore any one of them turned upside down effectively becomes a 10mm bit - so I used the 12mm bit upside down and wound the bolts out with a 12mm socket.  After fishing around in the pushrod tube for a while, one of my big screwdrivers finally had just enough magnetism to fish the bit out and everything could go back together again - carefully this time.  Also, trying to get all eight pushrods to simultaneously engage with their respective rocker arms is like herding cats.

I've been driving it around a bit yesterday and today and, although it's running fine, the (new) oil is still clean and it isn't getting hot, I still think the coolant level is dropping and there's a lot more water droplets on the inside of the oil filler cap than I'd like.  I'm going to run it round for a bit longer; if it is still losing coolant I'm going to tip in the bottle of Holts Seal-it (K-Seal equivalent) I've had on the shelf for ages.  If that doesn't cure it then Cartakeback beckons.

 

Today's main job was to do the front brakes on the Innocenti.  I assembled the new calipers with the new pads and the fitting kit I'd bought, then went to fit them to the car.  The flexis took a bit of persuasion to part company with the old calipers, but eventually they let go and I was able to fit the new calipers to the car.  Look, shiny!

Then I got in and pressed the brake pedal to pump the pads out.  First press of the pedal was a bit spongy, as expected.  Second press the pedal went straight to the floor with no resistance at all.  I feared the worst but I vacuum-bled the new calipers anyway - no difference.  So I think the master cylinder has now shat itself.  This car really is fighting me every step of the way.  I'm hoping the master cylinder is standard Mini as the calipers were - it looks similar to a pre-1990 (no servo) Mini (vertically mounted) but not identical, although that could just be differences between manufacturers - the MC on the Innocenti is Bendix made.  Either way it's more hassle and expense that I could do without at the moment.

 

I was supposed to be looking at the rear brakes on the Toyota as well, but I had completely run out of mojo by then so I just went for a drive in the Renault 6 instead.  What a waste of a bank holiday weekend - I wish I'd just stayed at the FOD...

 

[wuvvum]

Oh yeah, and after spending several hours leant over the Felicia's engine bay my lower back is now f***ed.

[Leyland Worldmaster]

I may have got a bit carried away cleaning yesterday... 

[cobblers]

My mate has just turned up with this:

and I would say it's one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. 

[barefoot]

I saw a couple of Karmann Gypsy's drag racing at Santa Pod.

[cobblers]

have they got to the end yet?

[Split_Pin]

15 hours ago, Skizzer said:

My E30 is mobile again after a new ignition lock and some minor fettling, which is good, as it means I can get out the other cars that were stuck behind it in the shed.

First to emerge into the sunlight is the Vauxhall 2300S, seen here with its delinquent slant four second cousin.

It fired straight up once the fuel pump had had a chance and is running very sweetly. Just needed a couple of PSI in the tyres, and the wiper blades have mysteriously disintegrated. I’ll give it an oil change soon too, just as a treat, and daily it for a spell.

The BMW needs more attention if it’s to get an MOT though. Perhaps surprisingly, not because of rust — details here:

 

That VX is absolutely lovely.

[richardmorris]

1 hour ago, cobblers said:

My mate has just turned up with this:

and I would say it's one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. 

My first thought was that has "sex offender's register" written all over it

[BorniteIdentity]

1 hour ago, cobblers said:

My mate has just turned up with this:

and I would say it's one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. 

Splendid. What a joyous little thing.