The new news 24 thread

[cort16]

That pony pickup is fanstastic I'd have loved it myself. Looking forward to the pics.

[cort16]

I had a busy day today. I fitted new washer jets to the ZX  and gave it a quick run over with the mop.

It's actually very clean. It rewarded me by conking out and causing a massive traffic jam as discussed in the stupid question thread.

 

It's like flippin detailingworld

 

IMG_0414 by cort16, on Flickr

 

I got to the van hire place and they presented me with this. They always look at you like they're doing you a massive favour by giving you a bigger van but in my case I wanted a normal transit as one of these things won't fit down the lane to my lockup! Anyway they didn't have anything else so I had to go with it.

As everyone knows driving a big van is magic and they always surprise me how quick they are. This thing was pretty shagged and had a totally psychotic door locking system that took me half an hour to get the back doors open (there's only one lock and it's on the door). At one point it totally froze the drivers door so the the key didn't work at all and I could only get in it by jiggling the central locking button on the passenger door. Annoying.

 

IMG_0415 by cort16, on Flickr

 

 

I got to the breakers and it was a massive yard. They loaded the seats on a pallet right into the back of the van. They pointed me an XJS that had a nice interior that had came in from the feds and wasn't allowed to be put back on the road. A waste. I couldn't see any rust on it and it was a v12. The interior was nice but soaking wet so I didn't bother.

 

IMG_0416 by cort16, on Flickr

 

Sierra Corner

 

IMG_0418 by cort16, on Flickr

 

All the old stuff had bubbled to the top.

 

IMG_0419 by cort16, on Flickr

 

They must be waiting until steel hits 700 quid a ton before weighing this lot in.

 

IMG_0420 by cort16, on Flickr

 

That was it. I got home at six and now have to nip down the street early tomorrow morning while it's quiet so I can unload it all without causing traffix kaos.

[Richard]

 

I got to the van hire place and they presented me with this. They always look at you like they're doing you a massive favour by giving you a bigger van but in my case I wanted a normal transit as one of these things won't fit down the lane to my lockup! Anyway they didn't have anything else so I had to go with it.

As everyone knows driving a big van is magic and they always surprise me how quick they are. This thing was pretty shagged and had a totally psychotic door locking system that took me half an hour to get the back doors open (there's only one lock and it's on the door). At one point it totally froze the drivers door so the the key didn't work at all and I could only get in it by jiggling the central locking button on the passenger door. Annoying.

 

IMG_0415 by cort16, on Flickr

 

 

 

That used to belong to my work. It's had a really hard life, it was always loaded up close to capacity and the driver got about five speeding tickets in it. For reasons best known to himself he power hosed the interior just before Clarksons collected it, which caused all sorts of clicks and buzzes from behind the dashboard, sounds like the locking hasn't got over it. It always did lock the doors as soon as you moved off. It was forever stalling too, which seems to be a standard Transit feature.

[cort16]

It's currently being ran by discount car hire in Irvine. It went okay given it's got 125k on it but the side door was stuck and I was just generally pissed off with its ill behaviour.

When I hire a van I don't expect it to be perfect but one of the mandatory things is the back doors need open.

 

This van hire thing seems like a good scam if you're renting out shagged out 2nd had vans for 45 quid a day.

[Ratdat]

Mission accomplished! Pretty much no bother apart from on the way back the Prairies misfire re-appeared and no amount of Damp Start would fix it. It would do it at anything below about 2500rpm under load which made pulling away up hill very tricky. I think I just took a few years of life out of the Prairies clutch.

 

Once it was up and rolling though, you'd hardly know it was even towing anything. The joy of A-frames over trailers. It had no bother hauling it up either. I reckon the Pony must be pretty light. I'll give it a was tomorrow and snap some pics before I shove it in the workshop. I don't think I'll get anything done on it before next week as I have a pretty busy week ahead but I'll have a bit of a tinker tomorrow I reckon.

 

At chez Glover hooked up ready to go. Angular late 80's overload...

 

Didn't get a petrol station shot but I hereby make up for it with a dismal Little Chef shot...

 

Big thanks to Sam for the guided tour! So much want in one building!

[dollywobbler]

Fabulous. We have yet another contender for calendar picture of the month.

 

Prairie doesn't have anything as ancient as a condenser does it? When that went on our old Mini, the only way to drive it was high revs. 

[Ratdat]

Fabulous. We have yet another contender for calendar picture of the month.

 

Prairie doesn't have anything as ancient as a condenser does it? When that went on our old Mini, the only way to drive it was high revs. 

Amazingly it's electronic ignition but I'm pretty sure it's the leads. It was behaving itself fine with a set of old Ford leads on it but in my wisdom I thought I'd swap the original leads back on as the ford ones didn't fit to well. I'd swap them due to the misfire originally but having fitted a new cap and rotor this morning I popped them back on hoping that they'd be okay. After a good coating of damp start they were fine all the way there but it started pissing down while I was there and I guess the damp didn't help. I'll get a new set for it.

 

I don't really want to fork out much on this engine as it'll be getting replaced at the end of the month anyway.

[Ratdat]

I must say Ratdat, It's nice to see you back here again!

 

Yeah, it's been a while... must be a few years now. I did the off when the place seemed to be going into self destruct with lots of whining and bickering but glad to see things seem to have recovered somewhat!

[vulgalour]

I do not have any photographs, so you'll have to just believe me, but this is my haul from today:

1 stainless sill trim and seal

1 door latch (the only one I managed to remove, will return at some point for the rest)

1 gutter trim

2 boot rams and correct boot light trigger

2 good wiper arms

1 complete tool kit including never-before-seen wheel chock

1 rear wing aerial (manual) and extension

4 wheel trims with logos intact

2 NOS brake discs

3 number plates - 2 pressed metal, 1 raised digits

2 complete rear light clusters and interior covers

1 very good boot mat

2 seatbelt stalks

2 indicator-sidelight units

2 side repeaters

2 under bonnet fresh air vent grilles

1 black Tex door mirror

1 fuzzy lined glovebox

4 halogen headlights, direct swap for sealed beams

1 repair sill, almost complete

1 handbrake gaiter

1 original wooden radio blanking plate

1 almost complete dashboard, all the bits needed for current repairs

1 NOS Unipart fan belt

1 sealed beam headlight (untested)

2 boot badges, two-pin version

1 enamel bonnet badge

1 battery securing strap in perfect condition

Veng brand gold thick-and-thin vinyl coachstripe

1 handbrake warning light wire - useful, the one on the HLS is broken

1 carb float, full of water or petrol or something so probably fubarred.

2 NOS door hinge pins

1 NOS Lucas contact breaker points still shrink wrapped in packet

2 courtesy light switches

1 boot interior light

1 relay, unknown type and condition

4 used spark plugs, reasonable condition

2 wire clips, possibly for brake calipers

 

I'd say that's something of a result.

[Skizzer]

^ That's a very fine haul.  Double points if they're all for cars you don't own yet, but think you might one day.

[Ghosty]

^ That's a very fine haul.  Double points if they're all for cars you don't own yet, but think you might one day.

All Princess bits.

[theorganist]

Handed £300 sheets over yesterday for a white Princess owned by a certain Mr Glover.

 

Hopefully the car will be with me in a few weeks.

 

He has an amazing collection including many cars I've never heard of!

 

I can almost feel a Polish road trip coming on!

[Ratdat]

Handed £300 sheets over yesterday for a white Princess owned by a certain Mr Glover.

 

Hopefully the car will be with me in a few weeks.

 

He has an amazing collection including many cars I've never heard of!

 

I can almost feel a Polish road trip coming on!

 

Was that you arriving as I was leaving?

[Angrydicky]

Nice one Organist, that Princess really couldn't have gone to a better home! I was eyeing it up myself actually but it would have been quite expensive to get down here.

[Micrashed]

Spent the afternoon/evening helping my garage marra install a new clutch in his Transit van. 

Outside of the west Cumbrian coast (specifically Maryport & Workington area) I have never heard anyone refer to a mate as marra before.

[brickwall]

You know life is unfair when that V12 XJS is not allowed back on the road.

[wuvvum]

Put the Kalos on Gumtree last night.  So far I've had six people send me offers already, none of whom have seen the car.    Obviously I'm not accepting as this will then mean they'll take their offer as a starting price and try to chip even more off, but I still don't get how people can make offers on a used car going on nothing more than a short advert and a crap phone picture.

 

Still, at least the offers aren't as insulting as the ones I was getting on the Saab.  Yet.

[overrun]

Outside of the west Cumbrian coast (specifically Maryport & Workington area) I have never heard anyone refer to a mate as marra before.

 

It's a North Eastern (pit) term, as well. We say it all the time. "Areet, marra."

Folk in Newcastle don't, though.

[theorganist]

Was that you arriving as I was leaving?

It was, it was an amazing sight the Prarie towing a Hyundai pick-up! Nice work.

[theorganist]

Nice one Organist, that Princess really couldn't have gone to a better home! I was eyeing it up myself actually but it would have been quite expensive to get down here.

 

Thanks, it's definately a keeper as I have wanted one for ages. Its pushed the Maxi's return to the road back a few months however.

[Ratdat]

I would have been amazed had you not bought it. I only gave it a cursory once over but that was enough to suggest it was well worth £300.

[hairnet]

Outside of the west Cumbrian coast (specifically Maryport & Workington area) I have never heard anyone refer to a mate as marra before.

 

common in the naaath east like

[stilo_active]

Am quite happy that on Friday I arrived home with a fresh MoT certificate for the 205. Only thing that needed attention for the MoT was the mixture as it was running too rich, and two advisories reported - one of which was the child seat fitted in the back and a slight oil leak. And all because OMGALLFRENCHCARSISSHIT

[Geep]

Damn near had a failure to proceed in the Fronty sport* this morning. Managed to get it to perform a loitering get away and kept the revs high for a while just in case. When pressing throttle pedal engine dies, let off quick enough and it will manage to stay running. Increasing revs at very gentle rate means when high enough, clutch out and go. Prodding of throttle for instant increase results in dieing or spluttering if already revving above about 2000rpm.

 

Had it before and read codes, said lambda too lean so money is on the maf being on the wonk. It's returned to being usable again now so plenty of time to peruse the internetz for bosch goodness.

[theorganist]

I would have been amazed had you not bought it. I only gave it a cursory once over but that was enough to suggest it was well worth £300.

Indeed, to be honest I think I probably have bagged a bargain.

[vulgalour]

You've definitely bagged a bargain, and being a later car it should be really good.  Doesn't appear to have much if anything by the way of rust and has everything it should have still on it.  Now I know which Princess you've bought I daresay there will be very little indeed I have of use, though I will have most of the parts of a matching interior if anything in the cabin is need since I swapped the late brown out in mine for earlier mink.

[MrDuke]

Heads up Y0 - the Xantia will be up for grabs in the next few days. Still haven't decided how much work to do on it first (not that it's desperately in need of much) or whether to chop in the tax disc. I expect it'll be around £400 max though. [insert scrapping-based joke here]

[dollywobbler]

Have driven 170 miles in the 2CV today. I'm absolutely exhausted. That was (nearly) all Welsh miles too, so if we weren't going uphill, we were going down, and rarely saw a straight section of road much longer than the car. My shoulders actually ache - the Sirion has turned me into a right softie.

 

Here's a really crap picture, including my shadow. I R OFF DUTY

 

Flooding livened up the trip - got drenched when a car came the other way too quickly through a deep section. Thanks for that! Then on the main convoy route, we had a scenic detour because of a bad car accident - air ambulance landed while we were parked up plotting the diversion.

 

A jolly good time was had though. It's incredible how the sight of 21 2CVs blows people's minds.

[HMC]

Stooping to new lows in a hurry to sort any obvious mot fails out for the impending pug 504 MOT on Tuesday

 

Lob on a new wiper blade, cleaning contacts for the lights etc, standard stuff.

 

Shameful Bodge alert! I bought some white colour matched duck tape to cover the rough edges of the front slam panel, and whilst I had the roll, on a roll I fashioned a bit of roof guttering/ covered the rough bit where part of the old guttering had fallen off. The front indicator lenses had faded away, so I found some yellow paint, thinned it and smeared it on the lens inner surface. The ligh output is still good and I have amber front indicators again.

 

Found some diesel fuel system cleaner in the garage, added a bit and this plus use has made it run much more smoothly from cold, and thanks to a cracking heater and some airing out the interior is less damp ( ok not an mot fail but didn't make a particularly good impression) Reminds me, better wash the moss off the bodywork!

[twosmoke300]

Geep . It's not water in the fuel is it ? Iirc they like to rust out the filler tube and contaminate the fuel