The new news 24 thread

[Rod/b]

The evaporator on my SLK busted so after acquiring a new one from Slovenia of all places, I took it into my favourite workshop and told them to do the needful, which they did.

 

It was also looking a bit shabby so it's getting a full respray too. The clear coat had blown on the bonnet roof and bootlid and it had a few dinks and scratches so it's getting the works. Prep work underway...

 

 

[richardmorris]

21 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

The Manumatic Clutch. Sounds mildly terrifying but if it can be preserved it probably should be.

Sound like something from Wallace and gromit.

[richardmorris]

Saw my first 73 plate car this morning. Hideous all black Range Rover. Blacked out badges too.

[richardmorris]

2 hours ago, Rod/b said:

The evaporator on my SLK busted so after acquiring a new one from Slovenia of all places, I took it into my favourite workshop and told them to do the needful, which they did.

 

It was also looking a bit shabby so it's getting a full respray too. The clear coat had blown on the bonnet roof and bootlid and it had a few dinks and scratches so it's getting the works. Prep work underway...

 

 

Where is that?

[Wibble]

2 hours ago, Rod/b said:

The evaporator on my SLK busted so after acquiring a new one from Slovenia of all places, I took it into my favourite workshop and told them to do the needful, which they did.

 

It was also looking a bit shabby so it's getting a full respray too. The clear coat had blown on the bonnet roof and bootlid and it had a few dinks and scratches so it's getting the works. Prep work underway...

 

 

Wow! Are you willing to share what the ball park cost is for the paint job? I’ve just been given a ball park figure of £10k to strip and respray the Cortina😬

[stuboy]

ohh forgot... managed to reassemble, but still getting fueling issues..

 

 

[Rod/b]

28 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Where is that?

Abu Dhabi

[Rod/b]

16 minutes ago, Wibble said:

Wow! Are you willing to share what the ball park cost is for the paint job? I’ve just been given a ball park figure of £10k to strip and respray the Cortina😬

Equivalent of about £1200

[richardmorris]

1 minute ago, Rod/b said:

Abu Dhabi

Didn’t look like uk.

[Wibble]

Only noticing that now😆

[Rod/b]

Could probably ship it here, get it painted, and ship it back for less than 10 grand 😂

 

[stuboy]

34 minutes ago, Wibble said:

Wow! Are you willing to share what the ball park cost is for the paint job? I’ve just been given a ball park figure of £10k to strip and respray the Cortina😬

 

7 minutes ago, Rod/b said:

Could probably ship it here, get it painted, and ship it back for less than 10 grand 😂

 

was gonna suggest that

[Wibble]

10 minutes ago, stuboy said:

 

was gonna suggest that

Was thinking the same!

[wuvvum]

Flushed with success from my recent mess-free oil and filter change on the Toyota, I decided to do the same on the LDV today.  It was a fucking disaster.  Started off OK - weather was dry, wind had died down and the sump plug came undone with little difficulty - but then whilst the oil was draining into the pan, an almighty gust of wind came out of nowhere, upended the funnel and sprayed oil absolutely fucking everywhere.  I was covered in it from head to toe and there was a fair bit chucked over the car park as well, so I've got to go out there tomorrow with the Gunk and a wire brush and clean that up, which is great.

It's ruined two T-shirts (I put a clean one on not realising that I had oil all up my upper arm so that one's now covered in oil as well - they were scruffy T-shirts but now they're literally only fit for working on cars), and I've also lost my watch - I took it off to avoid it getting covered and left it in the van, but it's now disappeared - I can only think that someone came along while I was getting cleaned up, saw it on the seat and nicked it - although that kind of thing would be completely unprecedented round here, and it's not as if someone walking past casually would have seen it as the van was right in the corner of the car park so someone must have walked up to have a look, which is quite worrying.  It wasn't an expensive watch, a 40 quid Timex out of the Argos catalogue, but that's not the point.

Also the oil filter was a complete pain in the arse to get at, and I've now chucked my entire remaining stock (5 litres) of 10W40 into the engine and it's still barely registering on the dipstick - total capacity is 6.5 litres but I rarely get 100% of it out so would have thought 5 litres would be enough to at least get to the minimum mark.  So either I did manage to fully drain the engine and I need to go and buy another litre of oil, or the dipstick isn't reading properly for some reason in which case I might already have overfilled it...

In other news, neither of the garages I contacted seemed interested in looking at the aircon on the Rover 75.  One didn't get back to me at all and the other said that they would struggle to get bits so didn't really want to get involved.  Not that aircon is going to be a necessity now until next summer, but it's useful in the winter for demisting purposes and after all the faff I went through getting the aircon belt fitted I'd quite like to get the system working.

It wasn't all bad though, I got a £50 lifestyle voucher through work so this evening I went to Halfords and treated myself to a low profile trolley jack - £55 so net cost to me was a fiver.  Should make jacking the Ampera up less of a faff - I need to do an oil change on that soon, the oil is pretty black and the filter is going rusty so evidently hasn't been done for a few years...

[High Jetter]

Sorry, you put an image of Frank Spencer in my mind for the first 3 paras!

[Split_Pin]

I'm not going to lie, I am a bit gutted that I'm not going to get custody of the TT. The SLK is nice but I hadn't planned it to be one of 'my' cars. I had my heart set in the Audi.

Going by the fact it remained unsold for nearly 3 months on here I'm going to have to throw myself into the Thunderdome of Marketplace and Gumtree. Hopefully I can get my money back for it which should just about get me my own TT, even if it isn't a 225 at that money.

[grogee]

On 9/19/2023 at 5:56 PM, Barry Cade said:

A good mate just bought a Wolseley 15/50, turns out it's a manumatic... I've been doing a lot of reading and learning,  but looks like the engine and box have to come out..😕 I've told him just to make it a normal manual, but am intrigued.  I need to stop volunteering for shit..

Is this the witchcraft where you 'pre-select' a gear? It makes absolutely no sense to me. 

[grogee]

16 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Flushed with success from my recent mess-free oil and filter change on the Toyota, I decided to do the same on the LDV today.  It was a fucking disaster.  Started off OK - weather was dry, wind had died down and the sump plug came undone with little difficulty - but then whilst the oil was draining into the pan, an almighty gust of wind came out of nowhere, upended the funnel and sprayed oil absolutely fucking everywhere.  I was covered in it from head to toe and there was a fair bit chucked over the car park as well, so I've got to go out there tomorrow with the Gunk and a wire brush and clean that up, which is great.

It's ruined two T-shirts (I put a clean one on not realising that I had oil all up my upper arm so that one's now covered in oil as well - they were scruffy T-shirts but now they're literally only fit for working on cars), and I've also lost my watch - I took it off to avoid it getting covered and left it in the van, but it's now disappeared - I can only think that someone came along while I was getting cleaned up, saw it on the seat and nicked it - although that kind of thing would be completely unprecedented round here, and it's not as if someone walking past casually would have seen it as the van was right in the corner of the car park so someone must have walked up to have a look, which is quite worrying.  It wasn't an expensive watch, a 40 quid Timex out of the Argos catalogue, but that's not the point.

Also the oil filter was a complete pain in the arse to get at, and I've now chucked my entire remaining stock (5 litres) of 10W40 into the engine and it's still barely registering on the dipstick - total capacity is 6.5 litres but I rarely get 100% of it out so would have thought 5 litres would be enough to at least get to the minimum mark.  So either I did manage to fully drain the engine and I need to go and buy another litre of oil, or the dipstick isn't reading properly for some reason in which case I might already have overfilled it...

In other news, neither of the garages I contacted seemed interested in looking at the aircon on the Rover 75.  One didn't get back to me at all and the other said that they would struggle to get bits so didn't really want to get involved.  Not that aircon is going to be a necessity now until next summer, but it's useful in the winter for demisting purposes and after all the faff I went through getting the aircon belt fitted I'd quite like to get the system working.

It wasn't all bad though, I got a £50 lifestyle voucher through work so this evening I went to Halfords and treated myself to a low profile trolley jack - £55 so net cost to me was a fiver.  Should make jacking the Ampera up less of a faff - I need to do an oil change on that soon, the oil is pretty black and the filter is going rusty so evidently hasn't been done for a few years...

Had a similar experience doing the gearbox oil on my bmw. Absolutely slathered in ATF, and the drive too. I've not bothered cleaning the drive. Sometimes it's just impossible to be mess-free despite your best efforts. 

I'd have thought 5 litres in the LDV is enough to drive to Halfords and get a 1 litre bottle? 

[stuboy]

Me doing driving assessments for newbies and got this renault thingy and the Morris that's always here..

[Barry Cade]

1 hour ago, grogee said:

Is this the witchcraft where you 'pre-select' a gear? It makes absolutely no sense to me. 

No, it's a normal manual gearbox, but has no clutch. The clutch is operated automatically when you change gear with a normal gearlever.

[Barry Cade]

Little Mii passed its MOT this morning. Still love driving the wee thing, and apart from a rattly heatshield and the rust round the petrol flap, it's been absolutely faultless for the past year. I keep looking at Up! GTi's, but the prices are obscene.. 

[egg]

Another great spot by ardech auto. I like the commentary

Quote

an 82’ R9 still used by a doctor to visit patients

https://www.instagram.com/p/CxcvvQpIUR

Seems like seeing a car on old style black and white French number plates is like us seeing a car on Sercks or something. 

[egg]

Cool new band t-shirt arrival

[wuvvum]

18 hours ago, wuvvum said:

I've also lost my watch - I took it off to avoid it getting covered and left it in the van, but it's now disappeared - I can only think that someone came along while I was getting cleaned up, saw it on the seat and nicked it - although that kind of thing would be completely unprecedented round here, and it's not as if someone walking past casually would have seen it as the van was right in the corner of the car park so someone must have walked up to have a look, which is quite worrying.  It wasn't an expensive watch, a 40 quid Timex out of the Argos catalogue, but that's not the point.

Found my watch.  I didn't put it in the van, I put it in the Renault 4 for some reason.  I R twat.

[Sh'Eds]

2 hours ago, Barry Cade said:

No, it's a normal manual gearbox, but has no clutch. The clutch is operated automatically when you change gear with a normal gearlever.

I recall Mercedes A Classes being offered with a semi-auto box as I distinctly remember test driving one for / with my grandmother who was a serial car buyer, though decisions to buy or not were usually based upon the salesman's attitude rather than the merits of the particular vehicle. 

[barefoot]

And 1500 Beetles used to come with a semi-auto, although I seem to recall that ratios 2,3 & 4 from the manual box were marked L, 1 & 2 and you were supposed to set off in 1 & shift into 2, with L just used for silly steep hills. To make that work, I assume that there must have been a torque convertor involved as well somehow.

[somewhatfoolish]

6 hours ago, grogee said:

Is this the witchcraft where you 'pre-select' a gear? It makes absolutely no sense to me. 

There's a switch on the gearstick which you press when changing gear; the box of tricks declutches while you do that, then re-engages it afterward. A bit complicated for what it does given it's all electromechanical and pneumatic, the boffins at AP were obviously starved of interesting things to do with relays and vacuum servos and went a bit tonto.

[brownnova]

Done a multi car policy on the 2CVs… all four insured for just over £300.  Weirdly it cost more if I had zero miles on any of them… so I can do 1500 miles in the one with holes in the floor if I can get it to run seeing as it’s Mot exempt!

Also should serve as motivation to get the others back on the road! 

[Wibble]

Finally concluded my late Aunt’s estate today. It’s been 4.5 years of grief and our solicitor yesterday asked for an updated electronic  transfer form to be sent. I threw my toys out of the pram at this.

They’d been sent one a month ago and acknowledged receipt. So I asked why? They just said our accounts dept have requested it. Advised them this meant printing it, posting to Scotland, taxi to post office and another 3 weeks delay for something they already had.
 

I advised nothing had changed since the last one was submitted and I was tired of their constant delays, mistakes and frankly stalling tactics and was now concerned about where the money actually was. Suggested I may now have to speak to the Police.

Low and behold,  no need for new form, funds transferred to mum this afternoon. Cunts! Sister is adamant she is now going to the Irish law society to complain about the utter incompetence of this shower of shit law firm. 
 

Mum is in shock and can’t quite believe it’s finally over. She was in good health when it started and is now wheelchair bound. Pisses me off they’ve robbed her the chance to enjoy it, as her sister would have wanted.

[MikeR]

Wow.   8 years ..