The new news 24 thread

[junkyarddog]

This is nearly ready to go back on the road,a very early 4th generation Prelude. 

One of the first 300 built,launched in Japan on the 19th of September 1991,this one was registered on the 30th of the same month.

2.2 vtec,manual.

Unusual in the fact it's only 2 wheel steer,and no ABS,which was standard on the European market Vtec Prelude,but it's probably a better car for not having those in reliability terms.

Original and unmodified. 

Not mint by any standard,but a nice tidy example of a car that were mostly badly modified and thrashed to death,looking forward to using it again. 

I've owned this since 2002.

 

[Agila]

4 hours ago, wuvvum said:

I would have expected a 12-tonner to have 8-stud wheels, or is it not that straightforward?

Honestly no idea i passed my class 2 in an 18t thing and drove 26t for a year before going class1.

It just looked small, I did drive a 14t gas truck for boc gases that was the size of a 7.5t for a short while. (Too much hard work doing 120kg cylinders)

I just think there is a lot to be said for train hard, fight easy. It will pay off when you just get given some keys on the first day. There will be zero help or allowances from a transport office, they just want an arse on a seat.

 

[wuvvum]

Not much to report on the fleet front.  My attempt to replace the exhaust front section on the Swift was aborted when one of the manifold-to-downpipe bolts snapped whilst I was trying to undo it.  It's an M8 bolt and I was just using a ratchet so it must have been pretty fucked.  I didn't dare attempt the second bolt as if that let go I would then have nothing to hold the pipe onto the manifold.  There's no nut, the bolt screws into a threaded hole in the manifold, so it's not going to be easy to get the stuck remains out.  In theory it could be drilled out but there's a heat shield in the way, and the bolts holding that on have disintegrated into little blobs of rust.  So I've trowelled vast quantities of Gun Gum onto the area where the exhaust was blowing, and I've just resigned myself to the fact that I'm going to have to get back under the car every so often to redo it.

Other than that I did a bit more pottering around on the Volvo, digging out bits of trim and generally trying to make it look a bit more presentable.  It now has an LED bulb in the nearside rear indicator - the contacts in the light cluster are a bit dodgy and the LED bulb seems to be more tolerant of a slightly weak flow of current.  The flasher unit is electronic and so unaffected by the reduced wattage.  Annoyingly I have so far only been able to find three out of the four bolts that hold the hub caps on, but I'm sure the remaining bolt will turn up at some point.

The Merc and the Ypsilon have now been collected and gone off to start their new lives, so the fleet is officially back into single figures for the first time in a very long while.  I'm still debating what to do with the Caliber - I do quite enjoy driving it but it needs a fair bit spending on it to get through a test.  It's guzzling diesel at the moment but that's probably due to the MAF being unplugged - I've ordered a secondhand-but-genuine MAF and will see if that helps.

I'm also trying to pluck up the courage to book the Innocenti in for an MOT.  The garage that MOT'd it last time, which tends to be, shall we say, very sympathetic towards older cars, has now been subject to a slap on the wrist from VOSA and is consequently now strict AF.  My usual place I use in the village is fair and doesn't go looking for failures but doesn't overlook obvious issues either.  With all the money I've spent on the car so far I would be most irritated if it fails on some small but NLA suspension bush or something.  I'm going to have to do it at some point though - at the moment I can't use it anyway and it's taking up a space in the garage that will be needed this winter to stop the Renault 6 deteriorating any further.

[Spurious]

7 hours ago, Spurious said:

Bad bad bastards. Nothing taken but nevertheless annoying as it's unsecured. Fuckers used a brick 

It's sorted! 

A nice chap off the Jimny Facebook group sorted me out at short notice. A bit of a clean and all will be fine I'm sure. 

 

[stuboy]

20 hours ago, adw1977 said:

six inches longer would have been handier

us men just dream of such length............

[Dyslexic Viking]

I have realized that I have spent much of the evening looking and drooling over ads on 80's vag products for sale. Do not know if this is good or bad.

[TheOtherStu]

12 hours ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

I have realized that I have spent much of the evening looking and drooling over ads on 80's vag products for sale. Do not know if this is good or bad.

80s Scirocco or Jetta for me.
Although I'd love a Mk1 Golf GTi Cab.

Or indeed a Polo G40, although I probably can't afford one of those and they're LHD rocking horse shit.

[Split_Pin]

A pass for the Cavalier.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

2 hours ago, TheOtherStu said:

....Or indeed a Polo G40, although I probably can't afford one of those and they're LHD rocking horse shit.

Polo G40s were produced in RHD, as was the Corrado G60.

You may have been thinking of the Golf G60 which was LHD only.

[TheOtherStu]

35 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Polo G40s were produced in RHD, as was the Corrado G60.

You may have been thinking of the Golf G60 which was LHD only.

I was thinking of the Mk2 Polo G40 that came out in '87.
The RHD ones were the Mk3 in 1991 or 2 (I think?).

Always preferred the Mk2 Polo.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

2 minutes ago, TheOtherStu said:

....The RHD ones were the Mk3 in 1991 or 2 (I think?).....

Yes, the Mk.3 were RHD, and available from the end of 1990.

I thought you were thinking of the Mk.3, but it turns out that you were thinking of something different to what I thought you were thinking....errm...

[Dyslexic Viking]

4 hours ago, TheOtherStu said:

80s Scirocco or Jetta for me.
Although I'd love a Mk1 Golf GTi Cab.

Or indeed a Polo G40, although I probably can't afford one of those and they're LHD rocking horse shit.

I'm pretty boring so the Scirocco or Golf cab is not for me. I mostly looked at the Audi 80 B2 as I have the Passat B2 and Golf 2 and Jetta. Was surprised at how many 80 B2 were for sale on  www.mobile.de  and even more that the prices were often higher than here in Norway.

[Split_Pin]

2 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

A pass for the Cavalier.

Just picked it up, the tester said he was really impressed at how solid it was underneath,  especially the rear inner arches.

I had already had a look in there back when I bought it so I had an idea of it's condition but it's great to know that the tester was able to confirm this 100%.

Once it cools down I'll see where we are at with the coolant situation. 

[andy18s]

6 hours ago, TheOtherStu said:

80s Scirocco or Jetta for me.
Although I'd love a Mk1 Golf GTi Cab.

Or indeed a Polo G40, although I probably can't afford one of those and they're LHD rocking horse shit.

Just finished watching these as it sounds like a marriage made in heaven

[mintwth]

4 hours ago, TheOtherStu said:

I was thinking of the Mk2 Polo G40 that came out in '87.

Pretty sure one of the staff at Loomies had a RHD Mk2 Polo G40. I remember it being parked outside for a year or so whenever the place was open.

I always lusted after a G40 when I had a povvo spec 1.0 Fox breadvan

[JJ0063]

This is my day every day at the moment!

 

Mod 4 passed today 

[puddlethumper]

I had a slight accident earlier this evening. Urban dual carriageway, Dudley by pass, where they are doing some resurfacing. Right lane coned off coming up to a round about. I was in the left lane behind a line of cars waiting to get to the round about and numpty comes up the right lane and decides there is enough room between the cones and me to barge in. Unfortunately there wasn't enough room and my offside corner met his rear arch. Big shaven headed guy jumps out and starts shouting and generally being aggressive. I thought, look out road rage. He tried to open the passenger door, mines lhd, which was locked, coz I don't have any friends and therefore don't carry passengers. Starts to come round the other side so I locked the door. I thought he was going to attack me. After a bit he calmed down enough that I got out, keeping my distance just in case. He had a minor scrape on his rear arch area and I had no damage. Can't beat a 305 steel bumper. I took photos and exchanged details. I have never made a claim or had one against me in 50 years of driving so I was well pissed off. 

I'll give everyone one guess what make of car he was driving.

[HMC]

Ronnie Pickering?

[richardmorris]

11 minutes ago, HMC said:

Ronnie Pickering?

Audi.

[puddlethumper]

4 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Audi.

Yep an Audi and one of those fast things. I don't know, RS ? or something.

[richardmorris]

8 minutes ago, puddlethumper said:

Yep an Audi and one of those fast things. I don't know, RS ? or something.

Hope you can sort it ok.

[MarvinsMom]

the recommissioning of Cocopop is continuing.

the front cones are done, and the front wheels are back on.

it is proving to be one hell of a job to do, turns out the top arm on the drinkers side has been off before, and who ever put it back on fitted  the bolts in the WRONG way round. which then made getting it back apart close on impossible due the clearance in the subframe. in fact who ever was responsible for this "kwaliti" repair had bent one side of the subframe to make it fit.

idiot.

well George has put that right, and has moved onto the back, though we need a new gaiter thing on the steering rack putting on, cos guess what, its been rubbing on that wrong way round bolt.

George thinks that while the back subframe isn't very clever, there is still some life left in it before it needs changing, not  that its a problem as i have a brand new heritage one upstairs i got for that car, several years ago!

oh and  i hope the suspension will settle on the car, cos currently its like the front axel on a gasser!

though i have definitely had my moneys worth out of the original cones.

 

[puddlethumper]

1 minute ago, richardmorris said:

Hope you can sort it ok.

Leaving it up to the  insurance. I'm sure he is going to try and blame me. We'll see. There goes the no claims. Bastard !

[vulgalour]

I wonder how the insurance company will view it.  If there's no damage to your elderly fragile old classic and a gurt big scrape on his fancy new car, it might look a bit insurance fraudy so it's anybody's guess what the outcome would be.  If you've nothing to repair on your car and aren't making a claim yourself, then it's going to look very odd that the bigger, modern car needs to make a claim for damage.  I suppose all you can do is be honest and see what happens.

[wuvvum]

The replacement MAF sensor I ordered for the Caliber turned up so this evening I fitted it and plugged the wiring back in.  It's back to running how it was before, overfuelling and kangarooing.  So that was a waste of time and money.  It's obviously MAF-related as it runs fine with it unplugged, but the fault must lie elsewhere than the sensor itself.  I'm not about to try and track it down though.

So that's the car's fate sealed.  Once the MOT runs out it'll be going, probably to the great Mopar dealer in the sky.

[Split_Pin]

Do they have a coolant temperature sensor?

[puddlethumper]

10 hours ago, puddlethumper said:

I had a slight accident earlier this evening. Urban dual carriageway, Dudley by pass, where they are doing some resurfacing. Right lane coned off coming up to a round about. I was in the left lane behind a line of cars waiting to get to the round about and numpty comes up the right lane and decides there is enough room between the cones and me to barge in. Unfortunately there wasn't enough room and my offside corner met his rear arch. Big shaven headed guy jumps out and starts shouting and generally being aggressive. I thought, look out road rage. He tried to open the passenger door, mines lhd, which was locked, coz I don't have any friends and therefore don't carry passengers. Starts to come round the other side so I locked the door. I thought he was going to attack me. After a bit he calmed down enough that I got out, keeping my distance just in case. He had a minor scrape on his rear arch area and I had no damage. Can't beat a 305 steel bumper. I took photos and exchanged details. I have never made a claim or had one against me in 50 years of driving so I was well pissed off. 

I'll give everyone one guess what make of car he was driving.

Further to the above here is his number plate which is actually BO56 not BO55 which does indicate a certain type of Audi driver I think.

[Amishtat]

Stereotype confirmed 

[w00dy]

Said goodbye to my E39 last night. I'm going to miss it.

[puddlethumper]

What is it with Audi drivers. Are they bought by aggressive drivers or do they become aggressive after buying one ?