The new news 24 thread

[Lankytim]

Went to a car show in Biddulph yesterday,  I didn’t manage to snap everything but I did take pics of a few…

The Mk2 Golf was found in the local Sainsburies!

[Cavcraft]

That JPS Capri is utterly amazing.

[LabRat]

After all the fuck about with our landlord selling the house out from under us, we've finally been accepted on another house, subject to appropriate references. (That won't be a problem!)

The relief is almost bloody palpable! 

In car news, the 500x is going back to Fiat on Thursday for a new key coding in under warranty (had to wait a month for the key to be shipped from Italy). The Ignis is still being boringly reliable in the way small Suzuki's are.

 

[Split_Pin]

Excellent  news.

[Lacquer Peel]

The Lancia's control arms were so fucked. How did this pass an MOT in late May?

https://youtu.be/I3XMNJMgeNM

[Ged]

Hit a fairly small pothole in the 305 recently disintegrating a 35 year old bushing on the offside causing the arm to clatter against the subframe making all kinds of horrible noises.

The pothole didnt do this but I paid someone to press in new bushings at the other end and they must have supported it by the aluminium shattering it. Got a replacement off DodgyBastard's parts 305 thankfully.

[PhilA]

3 hours ago, reb said:

The heat is long gone here, it's 18° today and that actually feels quite warm, it's been down around 13° over the past week. Also been pissing it down with rain.

Won't be as low as that until about December here.

 

Still, the drier air we had was pleasant. Once the days cool off a touch I'll finish up demolition of the garage. It's still too warm in the sunshine to do it.

[Split_Pin]

I repaired the corrosion on the black 93s OSR arch today. It was actually a bit worse than I thought, it had gone through in a few places however it was all on the lip rather than up top so I just ground it down, applied Vactan, pylon paint and top coat. It'll obviously come back but better than doing nothing. Welding it wouldn't make sense at this stage.

2 top coats applied:

You definitely* can't tell.

But as with all my fleet, the ten foot test is a pass:

Later on I gave it a coat of wax:

The subsequent rain let me take a gratuitous beading shot:

[richardmorris]

Dad has said the insurance renewal for the x1/9 came yesterday. No change in details but £40 cheaper. £9000 agreed value the same.

[Jazoli]

37 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

I repaired the corrosion on the black 93s OSR arch today. It was actually a bit worse than I thought, it had gone through in a few places however it was all on the lip rather than up top so I just ground it down, applied Vactan, pylon paint and top coat. It'll obviously come back but better than doing nothing. Welding it wouldn't make sense at this stage.

2 top coats applied:

You definitely* can't tell.

But as with all my fleet, the ten foot test is a pass:

Later on I gave it a coat of wax:

The subsequent rain let me take a gratuitous beading shot:

Nice to see it still getting some love, I've missed having a floppytop this year.

[Split_Pin]

Its been a great car for us. My wife absolutely loves it, well worth investing time in.  She's had a fair few nice comments on it when it's parked at the Pharmacy she works at. One of the pharmacists has a lime yellow one too!

[brownnova]

Local motoring venue had a classic tractor run departing from it today, so with my 2 year old loving tractors currently we couldn’t not go! Some great stuff there to be fair… 

One of the Marshalls had this to follow the run in… 

Which was epic!

Have a video of some of them leaving, longer video available at some point. 

Also spent some time washing and polishing the Saab! 

The paint looks nice on the photos, and from 10 feet… but close up its 210,000 miles are starting to show. The bonnet needs a re spray really, and there are a couple of deep scratches on the roof. 
The boot leaked in heavy rain yesterday and I think I’ve found one of the culprit places…

Shite… very rusty but under the boot lock, drains right into the spare wheel well. How does a bit like that even get rusty! Anyway, there are a couple more bits which are a little crusty too, it’s far from perfect, thankfully nothing structural. But… still the 9000 is the best all round car I’ve ever owned.

And… thanks to a tip off on the Hubnut fans group on Facebook (don’t judge me) I scored this piece of Citroen memorabilia for £2 from a local junk shop! 

Bargain! 

[hairnet]

enuff about the saab ffs

moar yank

[stuboy]

Whilst collecting a ottoman bed with this missus today and see this beauty hiding in the car park..

 

I'd love this beasty..

[Crackers]

Been thinking about selling both the MX5 and P6 recently to fund a nice luxury estate and release some spare cash. I'd probably take a loss on both, quite a big one on the P6 looking at where their values have gone lately. 

If anyone wants either of them...

[Yoss]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

 

But as with all my fleet, the ten foot test is a pass:

The ten foot test is all you want in a car you're using regularly. Good enough to look good but not too good that you're scared to use it. You're fleet all look good, on here at least. 

[richardmorris]

Good tractor display this morning at royal deeside as the hearse and cortège passed by

[Yoss]

5 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Good tractor display this morning at royal deeside as the hearse and cortège passed by

That's a nice touch. Beats a bunch of flowers. Wouldn't surprise me if Liz had driven a few of those, she seems to have driven most things. 

[richardmorris]

for anyone hoping to go to the kempton steam engine museum and car show on the 18th I’ve just heard that it is off as the Museum will be closed for mourning.

[SiC]

36 minutes ago, Crackers said:

Been thinking about selling both the MX5 and P6 recently to fund a nice luxury estate and release some spare cash. I'd probably take a loss on both, quite a big one on the P6 looking at where their values have gone lately. 

If anyone wants either of them...

What are P6 values like at the moment?

I've been keenly watching Frogeye Sprite values and they've taken a right beating. So much so, those that bought a few years ago are getting a bit shocked in disbelief on what they actually sold for. I suspect many told that they were "great investment pieces" and bought top price examples will get a battering. There are still many expensively priced examples but they just don't sell. 

E.g. 3 to 5 years ago a top notch Frogeye Sprite was £25k price point. Now you're looking at 15-18k absolute tops. With slightly scruffy cars going for under £10k at the big auctions. 

Looking at BGT prices, I suspect if I sold mine now, I'd get around what I paid 5 years ago for mine. 

[Cavcraft]

10 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

the Museum will be closed for mourning.

 

Go in the afternoon instead?

[stuboy]

4 minutes ago, Cavcraft said:

 

Go in the afternoon instead?

 

[Vantman]

51 minutes ago, stuboy said:

Whilst collecting a ottoman bed with this missus today and see this beauty hiding in the car park..

 

I'd love this beasty..

Somewhere on Romney Marsh?

[Fumbler]

Paint chip rectified. It's now the 2nd smoothest part of the car.

Also rerouted the breather pipework to the airbox. No more inflated glove when I do the breather test, but I'll monitor the car for a bit longer just in case I gum up the MAF sensor or something.

[Yoss]

24 minutes ago, SiC said:

What are P6 values like at the moment?

I've been keenly watching Frogeye Sprite values and they've taken a right beating. So much so, those that bought a few years ago are getting a bit shocked in disbelief on what they actually sold for. I suspect many told that they were "great investment pieces" and bought top price examples will get a battering. There are still many expensively priced examples but they just don't sell. 

E.g. 3 to 5 years ago a top notch Frogeye Sprite was £25k price point. Now you're looking at 15-18k absolute tops. With slightly scruffy cars going for under £10k at the big auctions. 

Looking at BGT prices, I suspect if I sold mine now, I'd get around what I paid 5 years ago for mine. 

Prices couldn't keep going up. Even mediocre cars were fetching stupid prices. I used to collect Landcrabs simply because they were cheap. They were never glamorous, just good sturdy family saloons. But never that popular in classic car car circles which meant you could pick up decent ones for a few hundred. But I keep seeing them now for £8k. That's just ridiculous and has to come down. Not down to the prices of twenty years ago obviously but a lot less than £8k.

People who buy classic cars as an investment deserve to get burnt anyway. That's not what they're for. 

[PhilA]

43 minutes ago, SiC said:

 Frogeye Sprite 

Funny you mention that, my neighbor told me that he's just purchased one in North Carolina, and shall be collecting it soon.

A '61 with a later 1275 fitted, in Iris Blue. Should be quite nice. I told him that he's now been inducted into the Baby Blue Classic club. Ha 

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

One of the pharmacists has a lime yellow one

Ewww, that sounds nasty!

[Lankytim]

Some more spots from today, including the black Reliant Regal that was at the Biddulph show. It’s a nippy little thing! 
 

EDIT Rialto, not Regal…

[junkyarddog]

My VW Golf had it's road worthiness test this morning at 9:30.

Happy to say it passed

[wuvvum]

Been doing some more tidying on the Maxus this weekend.  I finished undersealing the sills, and also tidied up the back doors with a lick of paint where needed, then painted the rear bumper in matt black.  I still need to touch up a few more bits of the white bodywork and even then it's never going to be perfect, but it should make it look a bit more respectable.  I've checked all the lights, fitted new wiper blades and refilled the screenwash, so it's as close to being ready for a test as it's going to get...

I also got the Spacy running.  I took the carb off last weekend, didn't get around to stripping it until Friday night though, it was actually fairly clean inside but the idle jet was blocked solid which might have had something to do with why it wasn't starting.  Cleared that out after soaking it overnight in carb cleaner, put everything back together and the bike would fire briefly but wouldn't run.  I actually seem to remember having the same problem last time I tried to start the bike which would have been last summer.  To check whether there was fuel getting to the float bowl I undid the drain screw, and a steady flow came out so there was plenty of petrol there.  Closed the screw, pressed the starter button again and the bike fired straight up.  Odd, but I wasn't going to complain.  Obviously the bike isn't MOT'd at the moment so I definitely didn't* put the bodywork back together and take it for a cheeky spin round the block.  Everything seemed to be working OK, although I did have to top the coolant up quite a bit which I haven't had to do before - maybe it's just evaporated in the heat of the summer.  Annoyingly the starter solenoid now seems to have packed up, after all the cranking yesterday - the only way I can start the bike now is to short across the terminals with a screwdriver.

Today was lovely and warm.  I went for a walk along the Bure Valley railway in the morning, then this afternoon I took the Mobylette and the 164 out for a spin up to the next village - in fact for both of them it was the longest run they'd had in many years, and both behaved absolutely fine.  I've sort of got the lights wired up on the Mobylette now - the sidelight switch doesn't seem to do anything but the rear light comes on when I switch on the headlights, so that's close enough.  I think it's the cheap Chinese switch pack I bought rather than my wiring.  Main and dipped beam work fine though.

I stuck the Carina up on the ramps this afternoon as there was an advisory for "underside corroded" on the MOT.  I think the tester was being a bit over-enthusiastic - there were a few smallish areas of surface rust on the floorpan and a little bit round the rear trailing arm mounts.  I'd bought half a litre of Hydrate 80 though so I grabbed a brush and splashed some onto the brown bits, which should hopefully keep them from getting any worse.

In fact the most interesting thing for me about this weekend is that over the course of the weekend I have driven / ridden every single vehicle I own, which is something that hasn't happened in a great many years - this is the first time that all the members of my fleet have been capable of moving under their own power at the same time for longer than I care to remember.  Obviously a lot of them still have issues, the Spacy and the van aren't road legal (although the van is still taxed) and I wouldn't trust the Spacy or the Volvo on a long run at the moment, but it's still nice to have a fully mobile fleet.