The new news 24 thread

[HMC]

Back in the earlier episodes Henry aka Craig McLoughlin had an old estate car called “Bertha” and kylie as an aspiring mechanic had a green mini as a project when they were old cars rather than appreciating classics, shiters the lot of them; I probably watched most episodes from about 1988-2002 when I graduated and had to pump in solid working hours.

[Bear]

Injured crow found on lawn. Crow sheltered, help sought. Help found, crow kept safe and checked on until transport possible... help deemed crow sadly too injured to help but saved it from suffering.

Worst Nick Cave song ever.

Poor thing, such a beautiful animal, could move its head and beak fine and was so alert, but did not try to attack me. 

[trigger]

6 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Will it be appearing at future ECR meets then if it's staying local?  I'd like to see it in the metal at some point.

Yes it will be, he lad who bought to also owns a Mk2 Astra and brings it down each month and said he will be bringing it to Shotley. 

A friend who does graphics came over today with some stickers for the Volvo, I'm well pleased with how they came out, he also repucated the Torslanda badges too, it looks more finished now! 

Not bad for £30! I've also spent the day flatting with 1500 & 2500 wet and dry the whole of the Dolomite as the paint was very dull and dirty, then spend ages mopping it up, it still needs a wax but I'm so happy with how it's come up, I don't think it's ever been polished before. 

It smells a lot less fusty now inside too since I have it a clean, look how good the sills are too, it's all orginial paint, there's not even a scab on them! 

[Fumbler]

I'm in the US for two weeks. Rust has been achieved

Which was soon eclipsed by a Chrysler Grand Voyager with no door bottoms, wings of sills.

[schonker]

Cracking job on that Volvo Trig

[grogee]

10 hours ago, RichardK said:

Injured crow found on lawn. Crow sheltered, help sought. Help found, crow kept safe and checked on until transport possible... help deemed crow sadly too injured to help but saved it from suffering.

Worst Nick Cave song ever.

Poor thing, such a beautiful animal, could move its head and beak fine and was so alert, but did not try to attack me. 

Well done trying to save it. They are lovely birds and very intelligent. I am also a fan of the Magpie sports crow

[Bear]

34 minutes ago, grogee said:

Well done trying to save it. They are lovely birds and very intelligent. I am also a fan of the Magpie sports crow

One of my colleagues has a rescue Magpie called Morris. He's delightful.

Morris, I mean. Alan's alright too.

(Alan also had advice for helping the crow and would probably have taken it in himself if it we were nearer)

[ProgRocker]

Took my i10 into Hyundai this morning for what I thought was a routine replacement of a Daytime Running Light. Turns out that the bulb has melted and so some parts are needed, so it won't be fixed until Tuesday at the earliest. I'll be getting the bus to work for the first few days of next week. Hopefully it will actually get me there on time.

[grogee]

17 minutes ago, ProgRocker said:

Took my i10 into Hyundai this morning for what I thought was a routine replacement of a Daytime Running Light. Turns out that the bulb has melted and so some parts are needed, so it won't be fixed until Tuesday at the earliest. I'll be getting the bus to work for the first few days of next week. Hopefully it will actually get me there on time.

What a PITA just for a light! In the good old days it would have been a bulb swap and away

[ProgRocker]

1 minute ago, grogee said:

What a PITA just for a light! In the good old days it would have been a bulb swap and away

I watched a YouTube video to see if I could have replaced the bulb myself (obviously wouldn't have sold the newer issue) and it looks like a faff for someone with normal adult sized hands.. Probably a wheel off jobbie too. I didn't fancy wriggling around on a filthy residential car park.

In this day and age of high inflation and soaring costs there ought to be a comeback of 'low tech' new cars that are reasonably DIY-able like the Anglias, Cortinas, Marinas and Hunters of the 1960s and 1970s. Cars with the safety kit you expect and I'd also add in air conditioning but wind up windows but no touchscreens. And the ability to change the bulbs and fuses .

[grogee]

13 minutes ago, ProgRocker said:

I watched a YouTube video to see if I could have replaced the bulb myself (obviously wouldn't have sold the newer issue) and it looks like a faff for someone with normal adult sized hands.. Probably a wheel off jobbie too. I didn't fancy wriggling around on a filthy residential car park.

In this day and age of high inflation and soaring costs there ought to be a comeback of 'low tech' new cars that are reasonably DIY-able like the Anglias, Cortinas, Marinas and Hunters of the 1960s and 1970s. Cars with the safety kit you expect and I'd also add in air conditioning but wind up windows but no touchscreens. And the ability to change the bulbs and fuses .

I have often fantasised about an 'easy maintenance' car with exposed screws all over the interior instead of stupid hidden clips, loads of room in the engine bay etc.

It would be a small low tech petrol engine or electric, halogen lights, terrible aerodynamics with a boxy shape for good access to everything. The 'daytime running lights' would just be the normal sidelights with no stupid LED fairy lights. 

A/C the only mod con with a range of useful phone holders, nobody needs the tech now because it's all on your phone. Hole in dash with ISO connector for stereo of your choice, 4 big but simple speakers in doors.

Steel wheels, high profile tyres, simple torsion beam at the rear, MacPherson struts up front. 

In my head it would look like the original Transit Connect, there would be a 5-seater or van options. 

Bumper panels, wheelarches and side rubbing strips all screw on and off without need for any special tools. 

[stuboy]

Anyone else get the sand rain earlier this week?

I thought as its behaving I'd treat it too a wash at work..

[Jamie]

One of my (many) old TTs. Sadly looks like it's ready for the bridge now 😢

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/414218877330551/?ref=facebook_story_share

 

When I had it in 2018

[Dyslexic Viking]

3 hours ago, ProgRocker said:

Took my i10 into Hyundai this morning for what I thought was a routine replacement of a Daytime Running Light. Turns out that the bulb has melted and so some parts are needed, so it won't be fixed until Tuesday at the earliest. I'll be getting the bus to work for the first few days of next week. Hopefully it will actually get me there on time.

 

2 hours ago, ProgRocker said:

I watched a YouTube video to see if I could have replaced the bulb myself (obviously wouldn't have sold the newer issue) and it looks like a faff for someone with normal adult sized hands.. Probably a wheel off jobbie too. I didn't fancy wriggling around on a filthy residential car park.

In this day and age of high inflation and soaring costs there ought to be a comeback of 'low tech' new cars that are reasonably DIY-able like the Anglias, Cortinas, Marinas and Hunters of the 1960s and 1970s. Cars with the safety kit you expect and I'd also add in air conditioning but wind up windows but no touchscreens. And the ability to change the bulbs and fuses .

This must be among the few difficult jobs on these. I maintain and fix mine myself and find these very easy to work on.

[Split_Pin]

This just fell down on the 75, it has disintegrated underneath.  Arses.

[Yoss]

16 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Just watched the last ever episode of Neighbours.  I've not really watched it for over 20 years now and I didn't know who half the people were but was fun seeing all the characters I remember from when I first watched it in the late '80s.  And Kylie Minogue still looks amazing for her age.  Mind you Harold hadn't really aged at all either despite the actor now being in his mid 80s.

Kylie is two months older than me and she looks a damn site better than I do! 

[D.E]

Today I drove through a village where these giant pencils are used to warn passing traffic that there's a school nearby! Very creative, I think.

 

[High Jetter]

18 minutes ago, D.E said:

Today I drove through a village where these giant pencils are used to warn passing traffic that there's a school nearby! Very creative, I think.

 

What is the significance of the lines before and after the pedestrian crossing? The 'horizontal' one with 9 'verticals' of different lengths, I mean.

[D.E]

1 minute ago, High Jetter said:

What is the significance of the lines before and after the pedestrian crossing? The 'horizontal' one with 9 'verticals' of different lengths, I mean.

They mark the speed bumps.

[Split_Pin]

The coolant reservoir was annoying me in the Cavaliers otherwise very clean engine bay.  Very discoloured.

Much better

[High Jetter]

5 minutes ago, D.E said:

They mark the speed bumps.

Oh, OK. Road surface looks flat to me, must be due to the angle.

[stuboy]

Popped round to collect some timber and gave missus brother and dad a hand loading up some more stuff from deceased uncles house, bloody compressor was hooge.. to stop more stuff going to there house the brother gave me these axle stands. Anyone identify them?

[Yoss]

1 hour ago, D.E said:

Today I drove through a village where these giant pencils are used to warn passing traffic that there's a school nearby! Very creative, I think.

 

Round our way they have creepy fibreglass children. I think the idea is you think they are real, very briefly, but long enough to make you slow down. Some of them once had there faces painted silver and looked like mini cybermen in school uniform. 

 

Edit:

Like so, 

[AnnoyingPentium]

(@RoverFolkUs will be delighted to know that I...) Finally replaced MAP sensor in the Fabia. Took me long enough. 😂

[Andyrew]

Had a call from a friend asking if i could weld up a 2004 clio door as its just fell off!

Seems the top hinge ripped out. Its a 3 door and fuck me the doors heavy,  But i cant see anything online about this being common. 

Not the prettiest but meh.

Anyone else heard of this happening? 

Its a low miles car so maybe an older person pulling them self up by the door?

[Spurious]

2 minutes ago, Andyrew said:

fuck me the doors heavy

They're massive, typical 3 door, doors like sails. 

 

Looks a neat job, handy being able to use the metal glue gun, hope a few beers were acquired 

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 hour ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

(@RoverFolkUs will be delighted to know that I...) Finally replaced MAP sensor in the Fabia. Took me long enough. 😂

Well fuck me. EML on because of new sensor. I canny fuckin win.

[wuvvum]

6 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

This just fell down on the 75, it has disintegrated underneath.  Arses.

Amusingly*, my 75 has just done the exact opposite - the light is still in place but the headlining has come unstuck from around it and fallen down.

[JJ0063]

3 years today since I found my old man passed. 

Don’t want this to come across as a beg for sympathy as I’m very much at peace with it all but it always comes to the front of my mind around now. I just find it easy to talk about on here as almost anonymous, but it’s a release to write it so feel free to ignore, this’ll be a long one and not a very nice story.
 

The old man had a brain aneurysm probably 18-20 years ago now, I remember it vividly - he was a senior sales manager at the time and it was a red hot day, he came home from work and complained of a terrible headache, blaming it on the sun/heat. Kept throwing up etc so his GF at the time took him to the docs who rushed him to Addenbrookes with suspected Meningitis… quickly turned out to be a brain aneurysm which they said would be a 50/50 chance of survival so be prepared. 
 

It was a success and he came home a week or so later and we thanked our lucky stars.. little did we know that the dad we took into the hospital never came home. In fact I’d go as far as to say I lost my ‘dad’ back then. 
 

For the rest of his life he just went down hill, I believe he was let down by the system -

0 aftercare, no support at all - he was a completely different person. Couldn’t hold down a job for more than a few weeks, didn’t look after himself both in health or hygiene, relationship with his gf dwindled within a year, his house got repossessed, ended up in a rented flat that between my brother and I paying managed to keep him going as what little benefits he got didn’t cover anything.

Fast forward to July 2019, I was working at Silverstone Classic.. 4 or 5 nights away.

Our routine was that the old man would email me his food shopping list on the Thursday/Friday, I’d then pick it up over the weekend and drop it at his on the Sunday/Monday.

After driving home from the show on the Sunday evening I’d planned to have the week off work but it was manic so I worked the Monday. 
 

Tuesday morning I said to Amber that id not heard from Dad re his shopping so I emailed him to chase it - this was probably 9am. I didn’t think much of it and popped into town  to the bakery, weirdly remember so vividly whilst in the queue I suddenly thought hang on I’ve heard nothing at all from him since before I’d gone away the week before so I best give him a ring. Nothing.. I think I subconsciously knew then.. When I looked back, I’d called his house phone 8 times in 12 mins to no avail. I drove straight to his, he never locked the door so I let myself in and there was post on the floor.. I said out loud I can remember it “he’s fucking dead isn’t he” -  legged it up the stairs, no one in the lounge, walked through the kitchen shouting dad? To nothing, opened his bedroom door and he’s laid sideways on his bed - as if he’d sat on the side of the bed then collapsed backwards.

It was quite obvious what the outcome was -

we’re way past checking for a pulse.

Did the standard 999 call, ambulance/police turn up as it’s an unexplained death, 

Post mortem comes back and I can’t remember the official wording but basically a heart attack and previously undiagnosed heart disease. They put the date as 30th July but said he’d been there probably 3-4 days. 
 

He was constantly on his PC so I checked the browsing history and the last entry was about 4:30pm on the Friday - I found him around 12pm on the Tuesday.

It’s a weird feeling, I still don’t think to this day I’ve ever really cried. I was very numb and for a long time had terrible flashbacks and nightmares of finding him. That stuck with me for over a year. 
 

Finding it ‘easy’ to cope with the loss of a parent I think is the wrong term but because of what happened years ago with the illness, I’d almost had to come to terms with losing my dad many years ago - so I was really coping with the death itself now and the circumstances. 
 

Luckily I’ve never had any prior dealings with finding anyone who has passed and I obviously hope to never again but finding my own dad having been passed for some time was fucking horrific and ruined my mental health, anxiety is still a huge issue even 3 years later and I really should have sought some professional help/counselling for probably borderline PTSD but I get by now. 
 

Anyway, really sorry to spill all that but thank you for anyone that managed to read it all! 
 

RIP old man,  9/11/55 - 30/07/19

[High Jetter]

13 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

Luckily I’ve never had any prior dealings with finding anyone who has passed

Nor me, but some years after my Dad died, aged 60, his older brother told me he had an aneurism that could trigger at any time. Some years later he was found dead, by a friend. We were never that close, and 70 miles apart, but it did affect me. It's not too late to seek help.