The new news 24 thread

[MJK 24]

The Algarve climate is kind!

 

[PicantoJon]

Spotted an unfamiliar car in the car park at work this morning. Turns out Work* Mate has traded his trusty Ayego for a 66 plate Astra diesel. 

In short, debating whether or not to disown him... 

[New POD]

4 minutes ago, PicantoJon said:

Spotted an unfamiliar car in the car park at work this morning. Turns out Work* Mate has traded his trusty Ayego for a 66 plate Astra diesel. 

In short, debating whether or not to disown him... 

We need to know his logic before we can advise.  He may need to attend a disciplinary hearing. He can bring a friend 

[sierraman]

Driving an Astra Diesel is punishment enough I think.

[PicantoJon]

1 hour ago, New POD said:

We need to know his logic before we can advise.  He may need to attend a disciplinary hearing. He can bring a friend 

Says he couldn't fit a baby seat in the back of the Aygo... I disagree, surely with enough mechanical persuasion it will! 

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, PicantoJon said:

Spotted an unfamiliar car in the car park at work this morning. Turns out Work* Mate has traded his trusty Ayego for a 66 plate Astra diesel. 

In short, debating whether or not to disown him... 

His crime is also his punishment!

[artdjones]

1 hour ago, New POD said:

We need to know his logic before we can advise.  He may need to attend a disciplinary hearing. He can bring a friend 

Will he have any friends now?

[New POD]

23 minutes ago, artdjones said:

Will he have any friends now?

I don't know much about the Astra K but every other person I know with an Astra J has a manual diesel and not one has a bad thing to say, whereas me and the wife have petrol autos and her 1.6 is a little underpowered.  

The body styling only really changed in a subtle way from J to K.  

[Six-cylinder]

29 minutes ago, artdjones said:

Will he have any friends now?

Stop bullying us Astra Diesel drivers! 

[PicantoJon]

I shouldn't say anything really seeing as my dad drives an Astra... 🙊

[Pat Earrings]

So update on the Bluebird. Matrix is out and the radiator place can’t find a core for it. A lot of digging done by me and it seems it’s cross compatible with Audi 100 cores of the same era and the measurements are pretty much identical, and I believe the pipe work is too.

He said he’ll attempt a repair but it’s close to the metal fin so isn’t sure but fair play to him for wanting to try. I think, fingers crossed my digging and research will prove fruitful as I am fairly confident so long as the sizings are there or there about a it should be a good replacement. 
 

He’s advised to just get a new radiator which he’s sourced for around £90 which is good too as the core was too expensive. My garage have been absolutely sound. Just hoping it all comes together nicely as I’ve not seen it for a couple weeks!

[Surface Rust]

Festival of the Dead, 2nd July, Stamford, Lincs.

No, not the start scene from a Bond film, but a car show featuring only defunct car brands.

https://www.classiclineinsurance.co.uk/festival-of-the-dead/

 

 

[Pat Earrings]

1 hour ago, Pat Earrings said:

So update on the Bluebird. Matrix is out and the radiator place can’t find a core for it. A lot of digging done by me and it seems it’s cross compatible with Audi 100 cores of the same era and the measurements are pretty much identical, and I believe the pipe work is too.

He said he’ll attempt a repair but it’s close to the metal fin so isn’t sure but fair play to him for wanting to try. I think, fingers crossed my digging and research will prove fruitful as I am fairly confident so long as the sizings are there or there about a it should be a good replacement. 
 

He’s advised to just get a new radiator which he’s sourced for around £90 which is good too as the core was too expensive. My garage have been absolutely sound. Just hoping it all comes together nicely as I’ve not seen it for a couple weeks!

Well it isn’t lol. He’s just sent me the matrix and the pipe work is different entirely, pointing outwards.

fuck sake.

praying he can repair it.

 

I’ve stuck a thread on ask a shiter with the photos of it 

[Split_Pin]

I replaced the rotted aluminium/rubber trim on the 75. It's only taken me nearly 3 years. 

I sprayed the inside of the doors with silicone grease to try and stop freezing.

Couldn't get the button to stay in though.

Oh, well, it doesn't have one now!

While I was looking under the red 93 in case I'd dropped a clip, I noticed that here, where there was once metal, there is now only underseal. The brown bits could be pulled away in my hand.

No idea why the picture is upside down.

This was fine last summer so that's happened fast. The brown one went in exactly the same place too (that was fixed).

 

[GMcD]

Bloody cars! Sounds like you had a frustrating Saturday like me. 

[Split_Pin]

Yeah fairly so, old cars eh!

[GMcD]

I spent ages last weekend and now today footering with the rear brakes on the Cav.

What was supposed to be just drums ended up being shoes, fitting kit and the handbrake cables as the shoes fell to bits. With new shoes on I couldn't get a handbrake(Cable had no adjustment left). Cylinders fine so I left them. 

Never done drum brakes before. Don't think I want to again. What a palava. I had to mess about something awful with them to get the auto adjusters to play ball. I must have had them off about 4 times each side (including taking them off again to do the handbrake cables). 

Discs, pads and calipers for me please! 

[Split_Pin]

Aye, fuck drums, I'd be firing mine to the garage along the road so fair play.

Vauxhall discs are worse though, with those silly, bastardy, foutery wee handbrake shoes which never adjust even each side.

[wuvvum]

Drum brakes are indeed the work of Beelzebub.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Another drum brake hater here, they really are the work of the devil. And I own a 1960s car with drum brakes front and rear, I will do everything I can to avoid having to deal with them.

[richardmorris]

The rear drum brakes on the 2cv haven’t been apart yet. 159,000 miles. Squeaked a bit last year, but judicial use of the big hammer got rid of a lot of dirt / asbestos.

[Dyslexic Viking]

I knew there was a pretty insane engine in some WW2 US tanks and I've been reading up on it and it's very interesting. Chrysler took their reliable and proven flathead 6 also used in Dodge and Plymouth and bolted 5 of them together and so the Chrysler A57 multibank engine was born. 30 cylinders 20.5 liters and 276kw was the result.

 

[Andyrew]

9 hours ago, sierraman said:

Driving an Astra Diesel is punishment enough I think.

[Ghosty]

7 hours ago, Surface Rust said:

Festival of the Dead, 2nd July, Stamford, Lincs.

No, not the start scene from a Bond film, but a car show featuring only defunct car brands.

https://www.classiclineinsurance.co.uk/festival-of-the-dead/

 

 

festival of the_
Lincolnshire location
Run by a classic insurance company

Sounds familiar. 



Bet it ends up being full of Rover lickers. 

[RoverFolkUs]

Fuckin' hell, have Facebook finally got some sort of new algorithm for identifying and labelling imbeciles! 😂

[Metal Guru]

39 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Fuckin' hell, have Facebook finally got some sort of new algorithm for identifying and labelling imbeciles! 😂

They’ve had that from the  very start. You register  = imbecile.

[New POD]

17 hours ago, PicantoJon said:

Says he couldn't fit a baby seat in the back of the Aygo... I disagree, surely with enough mechanical persuasion it will! 

My son, has a W reg 1.6 mk4 Astra with just 65k on the clock. Less than 3k miles a year average.  He's saying he might have to move it on.

1) He works in Birmingham city centre and it's not emisions zone compatible.

2) It's not ISO fit child seat compatible. So ? 

3) His wife doesn't drive manuals.  

I have no use for a 3rd Astra, but its tempting. 

Except 4) I do 500 miles a week.

5) it doesn't have cruise control.

I kind of look back 18 years, to when I started going to the VBO show at billing aquadrone and think, well it would definitely have put all the 22 year old mk2 cavaliers to shame. Maybe I should get rid of the MX5 and replace it in the garage with my father in laws old car, and only bring it out for shows on sunny days 

[richardmorris]

Spotted around eversley and bramshill today. Fred and something that used to be a car- fiesta?

[Split_Pin]

Now that we have shitcanned the skateparks at weekends (my son has now joined 2 different basketball clubs which are currently on weekday evenings)  I have a bit more time on my hands. It was also a mild, dry and sunny day, very unlike mid January!

A slightly less frustrating day on the fleet today than yesterday.

I wanted to try one more time with fiddling with the airbag plugs on the 75 and I thought I would take the seat out to get better access to study them. I collected my Torx plus set from ECP yesterday and found today that they DONT FIT. It was a toss-up between those and Ribe bits but I chose the former after studying views on the 75 pages. Roverists eh?

Anyway, I risked it for a biscuit with a standard Torx as I knew the seats had been out before and the previous owner was a conscienceous sort. They were tight but came out without fuss.

With the seat tipped, I noticed a different plug (black/yellow, foremost in the below picture) that I had no way of seeing otherwise. I unplugged and plugged it and...success!

I still need to sort this properly so the connectors which are in the post won't go to waste.

I checked all the bulbs, horn, lights and washers and it's good to go for the MOT on Thursday.

I also took the NSR doorcard off again as it didn't fit very well and the missing button just made it look unloved. Turns out you need to rotate the green peg and it will then accept the rod with a bit of persuasion. I then moved the clips for the perimeter of the doorcard around so where the missing one should be is on the bottom rather than a top corner and it now all fits and looks like it should. Still a shame the interior handle bezel is held in with blue tack but nobody else will know.

I looked under the nearside of both 93s, the area that is/was rotten is completely intact there, no rust at all. Good news but how does that happen? Anyway that means the brown 93 is ready for a confident MOT presentation in a few weeks as the offside was all replaced by Gingernutzz last year.

 

[stuboy]

FiL still not sorted his c1 licence so funbus hasn't moved since I drove it home, so I said last week we'd take it out Saturday,  we'll monsoon and hurricance delayed it till today.. trip to New Romney, stroll on the stones and for a cup of tea in fun bus, up to the chippy for food, and eaten in a lay-by up the road..