The new news 24 thread

[phil_lihp]

Oh I'm not disagreeing that the significant extra charge is very odd, I checked both Royal Mail and the couriers and they were all expensive.  Seems very daft but it is not exactly my fault.  Hopefully the PO can offer something more sensible.

 

Edit: they did, £3 1st class.  Why couriers (including Royal Mail) charge so much more for NI is bizzare.

[dollywobbler]

Just got back from our Sirion-to-Scotland mission. The weather report for this weekend was rubbish, so we ended up driving all the way home today - 560 miles. Clocked up 1577 in total over the week. Fab little car! No problems until it started misfiring around left-handers about 30 miles from home. Fuel filter perhaps? Struggling to think what else would cause that. Bloody knackered though.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Is anyone going to the blue forum meet-up just outside Mansfield tomorrow morning?? I am going to show my face.

[skattrd]

Do you mean the FUCEM breakfast meet @ Limes cafe?

I've been a few times before and it can be quite good, other times quite dismal. I've not been for a while though.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Yes thats the one, seemingly theres going to be a pretty big turnout this time, its been getting pimped round facebook

[cobblers]

Yeah I'm up for that, could do with giving the van a bit of a run and the food at the limes is pretty appealing. I'll wear a red rose, give me a wink

[vulgalour]

Well I know I won't be up early enough to attend that tomorrow.  It's 30 minutes away from me and I've never managed to make it there, mainly because I'm not a morning person at all.  In the very unlikely event that I am awake, I'll womble over.

[skattrd]

https://www.facebook.com/EastMidsFryUp

I've just been having a browse through the pics on there and spotted 4 of my motors (155, Galant Sapporo, XT & SVX).

After seeing the pics I may pop over tomorrow, I'll see how I feel in the morning.

 

Vulgalour: It generally starts around 09:30-10:00, but there can be people there until after mid-day.

[vulgalour]

We shall see... I have to be up in the morning on Monday to help Dad out anyway so my bodyclock might decide I need to be awake early/not go to bed tonight.  I'm a little too adept at turning off alarms without waking up, which doesn't help.

[beko1987]

Halfords has been visited. Car is cooling then bodgery can commence

[vulgalour]

Didn't make it to the Limes meet because I'm useless and was working until 5am.  But, I'm off out to get some petrol in a minute so that I can fire up the red Princess.  With a bit of luck, it'll actually happen today.

[dollywobbler]

I have written up my Scottish adventures.

http://classichub.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/the-expedition-to-the-north/

 

The report includes highlights such as this.

[beko1987]

Well sort of fixed, but not by using any of the above stuff! Had aimed to wrap the tin around then clamp it firmly with the clamps but they ain't big enough. Refitted the original clamp a bit better, which has all but killed the blow for now, little bit where the clamp doesn't fully tighter. Will obtain bigger clamps and have another go

[vulgalour]

For a brief GLORIOUS moment, the red Princess ran today.  Then the carb decided it wanted to be rebuilt and I sacked it off as a bad job because the weather is rubbish today and I've had enough of being cold and wet.

[dollywobbler]

So, I have reluctantly lobbed the Disco on Ebay. This depresses me though it is the sensible course of action. Just took it for a drive for the hell of it. Stupid economics.

 

Amusingly, I almost drove into the back of my old Maverick as my mate was forced to emergency stop to avoid a Red Kite! Fortunately, I maintain a safe distance and Discovery brakes are excellent. I really must face the facts - I cannot afford to run a 4x4. I should stop trying really.

 

The Sirion is likely to be next out of the door. Anyone fancy it? £350 for a cheap and fun motor that'll no doubt need a tickle with a welding stick before the next MOT (July). Still can't decide what to do with the 2CV but common sense says that should be sold too...

[plasticvandan]

ive been looking at 2cvs on the bay etc,and being totally gutted at how much they are now the peasants car has become an investors toy

[dollywobbler]

This is my great dilemma. If I sell mine as a project for a few hundred quid, I'll never be able to afford another one. Plan might just be to stash her away in my garage at MOT time and spend a bit longer pondering my next move. 

[plasticvandan]

my first (and only) 2cv was an 87 bamboo with charleston rear doors bought for £600 in 2007,strangely enough round the corner from where i now live.i sold it after the high pressure oil feed pipe to the heads split,and accessing it meant removing the wings,which took part of the sills out with it. i got the pipe (£40 and it wasnt even pre shaped!) and even the sill sections,but back then my contacts list and skills werent quite there so it sat for 6 months before being sold for £200,i saw it on ebay a couple of years ago in completely stripped down form,and it sold for more than i paid for it originally!

i am fairly desperate to own one again,more so than a mini or trabbi (both of which ive had a few of,tho never had the trabbi on the road) but the pretty universal starting price of 2500 upwards makes it prohibitive.

[vulgalour]

Earlier today when collecting fuel for the recalcitrant red Princess I found myself behind a car with almost completely invisible rear lights.  I have to share the joy* of the White Imperial, the MPV of the shit wedding car world.

 

 

It may even have been this car, it was all decked out in ribbons and I distinctly remember the whitewall tyres.  Of course I made rash and probably unfounded judgements about the big fat gypsy nature of the bride and groom it was destined for, who wouldn't?

[Lord Sterling]

A lot of running about today with Ma_Sterling falling sick again. Went up to to Woolaton in Nottingham today to pick up an original exhaust system for the Micra I won off eBay fir £25 a few weeks ago. Yesterday at the scrappy in Sussex I managed to grab a wiper motor for the Micra too, so it just needs booking for the work to commence and hopefully we'll have a nicely working Micra again.

[TimothyClaypole]

Broke down on the M1 in my Astra, fiddlesticks.

 

 

Is the 1.7 diesel engine circa 2003 a "scrap job" as I suspect the timing belt has knackered up seeing as there's a hole ripped/burnt through the bottom of the plastic cover?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Spent most of today travelling to/from the blue forum Limes Café meet. Froze my bollocks off but spent a very enjoyable couple of hours slurping tea (80p/cup!) and chatting with mr & mrs Ratdat, a couple of other R-R dudes and elusive shiter Donald_Hirst!!!! That's time spent chatting not reassembling my Rover 25, but there we are.

[beko1987]

Earlier today when collecting fuel for the recalcitrant red Princess I found myself behind a car with almost completely invisible rear lights.  I have to share the joy* of the White Imperial, the MPV of the shit wedding car world.

 

 

It may even have been this car, it was all decked out in ribbons and I distinctly remember the whitewall tyres.  Of course I made rash and probably unfounded judgements about the big fat gypsy nature of the bride and groom it was destined for, who wouldn't?

 

There's a black wedding car in that sort of style in Marlow, and I was walking home one night absolutly shitfaced, and saw a ghost car coming in the distance. I ran into someones drive and hid, and it came trundling past, ancient headlamps barely emitting a glow, hence why I thought it was a ghost.

 

Shaken up but certain it wasnt a ghost I ran home and had another beer then fell asleep. Followed it in the car since, it drives very slowly

[mercrocker]

^^The only thing utterable about the above dross is that at least these wedding hire turkeys are not slapping white paint on a Shadow and sticking crap Irish number plates on to hide the age of their three grand limos.    Other than that I can not even begin to see the point of this rubbish...

[vulgalour]

It seems the same company that makes the Imperial also makes a car called the Royale.  Whether or not the company name is White I'm not 100% sure because I've failed to find a definitive answer, but the Royale is actually not too appalling.  Modern tyres and seats are a bit of a give away all is not as it appears, but overall it's not too bad and looks more 'right' than some of the other offerings.

 

 

 

Edit:  hang on, are these actually all just Beaufords?  Am I being a spoon?

[dollywobbler]

No. Booforts are even worse.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

That white imperial thing is so unutterably shit, it looks like a fucking 'Mattel' product for some kind of fairy princess wedding toy range designed to appeal to 9 yr old girls. I would say that even if the bride and groom are totally clueless themselves about cars, there'll defo be a best man or a bridesmaid in every wedding party who will take one look and say 'what in gods name is that ridiculous contraption'

[vulgalour]

Captain Slow to the rescue on identifying stuff.  The White Imperial is actually a white Imperial and based on, of all things, a London Taxi.  More info on that here: http://www.imperialmotorco.co.uk/

 

The Royale is a kit car from the company of the same name who have a range of different vehicles of which the four door Windsor is apparently better known.  The Royale is also based mostly on Granada bits.  Having had a bit of a Google about, I reckon I quite like Royale kits as it happens, they seem to have some quite nicely proportioned things for what is often a very horrible sect of car design.

 

So now I, and by extension you, know.

[purplebargeken]

I scraped a lot of mayo out of the clutch casing of a Yam 250cc cruiser. Knackered gasket letting water in. Luckily it isn't a K series engine.

 

It then rained and I drowned. Several times.

 

I am officially bored. I hate work and I really fancy a glass of cider. That was the news.

[rml2345]

I saw one of those Royales at a car show over the summer and actually quite fancied it. For a kit they're not bad looking at all and manage to carry off the "Prewar" styling pretty well.

Bokefords should be banned on grounds of indecency.