The new news 24 thread

[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.

[AnnoyingPentium]

10 minutes ago, HarmonicCheeseburger said:

So, the K11 of unreliability is reliable.

Shocker I know.

The issue is basically the wires going to the IACV and TPS which when touched in ANY manner will go to random values and insane.  It's not the connectors, it's the damn loom itself, and I cannot find a single broken wire, I even wrapped each wire individually.  How I got it running was removing the air box.   When hot it would sink down due to expansion and get close to the wires, so removed that and run it minus a air cleaner and wham, reliable for the past month or so, just do not even fucking BREATH on those wires.

We plan to get rid once MOT runs out in January, it needs a LOT of work really, 121k miles and it shows, likely be WBAC when it happens, will see if I cba to part some of the choice bits out before hand though.

Likely choice is either a W203 1.8, Corolla, or MK IV Golf.

 

I'll PM you.

[GMcD]

@JJ0063 I'm sorry to hear about what happened to your dad.  You should be proud of what you did for him - looking after him when he fell on hard times with his condition. If only this world had a few more selfless good folk like yourself. 

As said by  @High Jetter It's never to late to get some help if you want it man. 

[Metal Guru]

8 hours 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.

It’s a graph of how many kids have been run over while drivers look at the giant pencils.

[Fumbler]

Pick of the day

Phwoarrrrr

[Jamie]

Personal favorite reg plate obscurification 

[paulplom]

20 hours ago, grogee said:

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. 

So a 107/aygo/c1 then?

[artdjones]

15 hours ago, stuboy said:

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?

I had an identical set, bought in the local Halfords back in the mid 80s. I think they were branded by one of the big accessory firms. Stadium, maybe.

[grogee]

39 minutes ago, paulplom said:

So a 107/aygo/c1 then?

Being small, the Cayg07 doesn't afford good access to many things. But I am a fan of small and basic. 

[scdan4]

10 hours ago, JJ0063 said:

3 years today since I found my old man passed. 

 it always comes to the front of my mind around now. I just find it easy to talk about on here as almost anonymous, 
 

The old man had a brain aneurysm probably 18-20 years ago now, I remember it vividly 
 

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. 

It was quite obvious what the outcome was 

 

 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. 

 

I’d almost had to come to terms with losing my dad many years ago -
 

 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
 

 

RIP old man,  9/11/55 - 30/07/19

That all sounds very stressful and traumatic to experience. 

Ring cruse. This is exactly what they exist for. 

https://www.cruse.org.uk/

Good luck. 

[Split_Pin]

Replacement rear courtesy lamps for the 75 are completely unavailable it seems.

Genius* solution:

 

I replicated the shape of the broken lugs with 2 nails using my vice as a shaper and glued them on.

Now setting in place, hopefully that works, even somewhat!

 

[paulplom]

1 hour ago, grogee said:

Being small, the Cayg07 doesn't afford good access to many things. But I am a fan of small and basic. 

I found it very easy to service. I also changed the front discs and pads. You can't really get more basic.

I even fitted a rev counter to the side of speedometer. Also fitted some speakers to the parcel shelf and wired them direct to the radio. Everything came apart dead easy and went back together no bother. The whole radio and top half of the dash from the white heater part up over is held in with one screw behind the fan speed knob. Brilliant simplistic design.

 

[Steve79]

If anyone is in Bristol today the Bristol Vintage and American vehicle show on siston common is well worth a visit.

Loads of cars up here and "Twix" (Buicks new nickname) is getting plenty of attention

 

[Steve79]

Some cock in a bright yellow Lamborghini YOUR-ANUS tried parking in the show field and got laughed right out again 😂😂😂

[grogee]

3 hours ago, paulplom said:

I found it very easy to service. I also changed the front discs and pads. You can't really get more basic.

I even fitted a rev counter to the side of speedometer. Also fitted some speakers to the parcel shelf and wired them direct to the radio. Everything came apart dead easy and went back together no bother. The whole radio and top half of the dash from the white heater part up over is held in with one screw behind the fan speed knob. Brilliant simplistic design.

 

Don't get me wrong I'm a big fan but this is the exception, not the norm. There isn't really a head unit to speak of on modernz.

Also there will be underbonnet jobs that are a PITA due to access, but most routine service items have been optimised for £running costs.

It's interesting how it's developed because doing the air filter on my Saab 9000 required moving the washer bottle (well only because one of the clips was fucked) but it's notably harder compared to most newer stuff. 

[Steve79]

2 hours ago, Steve79 said:

If anyone is in Bristol today the Bristol Vintage and American vehicle show on siston common is well worth a visit.

Loads of cars up here and "Twix" (Buicks new nickname) is getting plenty of attention

 

Some more pics of the show today. Only took a few of the non American stuff as everyone has seen an mgb/Capri/Cortina before 😂

 

[Steve79]

The Edsel Pacer induced a lot of "frothy knickers"

[Split_Pin]

6 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Replacement rear courtesy lamps for the 75 are completely unavailable it seems.

Genius* solution:

 

I replicated the shape of the broken lugs with 2 nails using my vice as a shaper and glued them on.

Now setting in place, hopefully that works, even somewhat!

 

Fixed 

[Jazoli]

Saw my childhood dream car today, I've never ever seen one in the flesh despite going to lots of events

It wouldn't be my choice of colour but what a car, it sounded a bit disappointing going up Clay Hill (at Oulton) on a demo lap but then it had some other exotica around it. 

F5000 cars sound awesome mind

[brownnova]

How about this for a rare spot today… 

[junkyarddog]

Picked up this scruffy Alfa Romeo mirror today at a boot sale. 

20 mins polishing with some autosol later....

Nice😎

[MJK 24]

36 minutes ago, junkyarddog said:

Picked up this scruffy Alfa Romeo mirror today at a boot sale. 

20 mins polishing with some autosol later....

Nice😎

Fits early Alfasud plus others from that era.

I imagine you’ll realise an easy £50 for that.

[J W Pepper]

1 hour ago, Jazoli said:

Saw my childhood dream car today, I've never ever seen one in the flesh despite going to lots of events

It wouldn't be my choice of colour but what a car, it sounded a bit disappointing going up Clay Hill (at Oulton) on a demo lap but then it had some other exotica around it. 

F5000 cars sound awesome mind

 

I saw a silver Miura in traffic the other week