The new news 24 thread

[barefoot]

Landsail, Evergreen and Goodride - there’s a story there, and I’ve read the first chapter.

[andy18s]

9 hours ago, barefoot said:

Landsail, Evergreen and Goodride - there’s a story there, and I’ve read the first chapter.

All on the same car at the same time? 

Oof..

[andyberg]

Son @BerginJR collected his new scooter today. Thanks to @S2000 for being a true gent in the autoshite tradition. He rode it home the last few miles and declared it 'very very good' bare in mind he has just come from a modern* Chinese scooter.

 

[S2000]

4 hours ago, andyberg said:

Son @BerginJR collected his new scooter today. Thanks to @S2000 for being a true gent in the autoshite tradition. He rode it home the last few miles and declared it 'very very good' bare in mind he has just come from a modern* Chinese scooter.

 

Great to meet you both today, take care…..

[reb]

I've stopped smoking cigarettes, but have a touch under 100g of Duty Free Drum left.

So...

Who's to say I can't have a sunday morning pipe?

[Bren]

We closed our static caravan down today. The winds in North Wales were horrendous overnight.

When I got back I fitted the ring doorbell we have had for a couple of weeks.

Remember when I had to get the AA out for the insignias's clutch? I stuck my head under the fascia and noticed the return spring on the pedal looked a bit wonky.

After twenty minutes of tantric stretching I managed to get under and hook the side of the spring that was loose back into the tab on the pedal.

I cannot see how it has come loose which is a bit concerning - the car has had a clutch 10k ago - but I cannot see why they would need to piss about with the pedal.

[andy18s]

I'm guessing a bit of over zealous pumping whilst being bled?

I'm assuming hydraulic btw...

[Bren]

41 minutes ago, andy18s said:

I'm guessing a bit of over zealous pumping whilst being bled?

I'm assuming hydraulic btw...

Yes. It's a possibility.

You can just about see where the spring locates on the pedal - this is where it had come adrift.

[brownnova]

Turns out… Santa’s a shiter!! 

 

What a machine… 

On 13/12/2023 at 19:04, stuboy said:

Took kids too see santa... he rolls on the finest British machinery..

He must have a thing for burgundy 4x4s! 

[brownnova]

5 hours ago, Bren said:

We closed our static caravan down today. The winds in North Wales were horrendous overnight

It’s been fairly constant for the last week! We had a silver birch tree down last weekend, I was out trying to chop it up today… been so nervous about the other birch, and the rest of the trees ever since as some of the others might hit a neighbours house!!

Blowing a hoolie again tonight… worse to come midweek apparently 😫

[EyesWeldedShut]

2 minutes ago, brownnova said:

It’s been fairly constant for the last week! We had a silver birch tree down last weekend, I was out trying to chop it up today… been so nervous about the other birch, and the rest of the trees ever since as some of the others might hit a neighbours house!!

Blowing a hoolie again tonight… worse to come midweek apparently 😫

Thursday's forecast down here in sunny* Ceredigion
You need to add a wee bit extra on for here as it's on a very exposed hillside.
Fun*

[Bren]

10 minutes ago, brownnova said:

It’s been fairly constant for the last week! We had a silver birch tree down last weekend, I was out trying to chop it up today… been so nervous about the other birch, and the rest of the trees ever since as some of the others might hit a neighbours house!!

Blowing a hoolie again tonight… worse to come midweek apparently 😫

We have been there for seven years - the last seven days have been the worst we have seen.

[Saabnut]

Forecast here (North Sea) for Friday is 70 knot (77 mph) winds with a significant sea of 9m and a max wave height of 15m. Should be fun if I am still here 😀

[stuboy]

Replaced reversing camera,  and numberplate ( old camera had a surround and plate was taped on and it had lifted the yellow backing ) I've wedged the camera bracket after bending it so it looks down at the rear bumper so I get Better idea when I'm near something. Probably fall out knowing my luck...

[GMcD]

My cousin sent me a photo from her local supermarket in NZ.

That's £45 for a watermelon 😂. 

[loserone]

He's put those stickers on, as well you know. It's a matter of taste.

 

A bit like, you know, your taste in footwear 

[wuvvum]

Weather was lovely this weekend but I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, partly because Friday night was my works Christmas do so I was feeling slightly* jaded on Saturday morning, and partly because the replacement front hub I ordered for the Z4 hasn't turned up yet.

Saturday I didn't get up and running until about 2pm, and even then I didn't do much more than get the Renault 4 and the  Visa fired up and take them for a spin.  I then attempted to ride the folding electric scooter in to Norwich, to pick up the Getz that I'd left there the night before because too pissed to drive home.  It nearly made it - it got as far as the Norwich northern bypass, but then pulling up the long hill after the bypass it overheated (I'm assuming) and cut out.  This was less than ideal as I was on a busy unlit A-road in the dark and it didn't cut just the motor, it shut the bike down completely so I had no lights.  Fortunately the indicators are powered off their own internal batteries so I was able to keep one of those flashing. 

After a bit of buggering about I found that if I unplugged and reconnected the battery, it'd reset and the bike would work again, but only for about half a mile before it conked out.  I made it to the outskirts of Norwich with another few stops but after that I gave up and pushed it to where the car was parked - fortunately it's no heavier to push than a bicycle.  So I've discovered its limitations - Hoveton / Wroxham is fine but Norwich is too far.  To be fair there was quite a headwind which probably didn't help.

Today I fitted a new stereo to the Getz.  The original stereo still works but I was browsing eBay a week or two ago and found a stereo in a spec that I'd been wanting for a while but not seen before - a single DIN Android touch-screen radio but with a single DIN-sized screen - most of them seem to have a massive great screen tacked on the front which gets in the way of switches and vents.  Installation was actually pretty easy - it came without ISO plugs fitted but I found a wiring harness in my stash which had the correct plug at the stereo end, ISO plugs at the other and the wires more or less in the right place - I just had to snip one wire which had a different function on the new radio (reversing lights - I'm not using that wire as there's no point fitting a reversing camera to a tiny car with a vertical tailgate).  The GPS antenna isn't quite as neatly fitted as I would have liked but it'll do, and it all works fine.

[Tenmil Socket]

A colleague has just mentioned that he picked up a full english Fray Bentos pie from B&M!

[Split_Pin]

2 hours ago, Tenmil Socket said:

A colleague has just mentioned that he picked up a full english Fray Bentos pie from B&M!

I have seen those. Also the full English in a can.

[Tenmil Socket]

13 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

I have seen those. Also the full English in a can.

Yeah I’ve seen that but don’t fancy it!

There’s one with chips in too 🤮

I’ve also seen Christmas dinner in a can but don’t think it’s real. 

[Stinkwheel]

4 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Bicester heritage site?

[Six-cylinder]

3 minutes ago, Stinkwheel said:

Bicester heritage site?

No this is Richardmorris's personal parade so he doesn't get bored at work!

[Zelandeth]

11 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Yes please.  I'd happily daily that in the summer.

[richardmorris]

3 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Yes please.  I'd happily daily that in the summer.

It sounded very impressive. In the single figure mpg impressive. 

[richardmorris]

20 hours ago, GMcD said:

My cousin sent me a photo from her local supermarket in NZ.

That's £45 for a watermelon 😂. 

9kg though!

[vulgalour]

Postal services continue to baffle.  Ordered some replacement mirrors for the Princess from Thailand not expecting them to arrive until January and they got here last week.  This is the peril of buying aftermarket parts and having to remember what you searched for when you bought them a decade ago.  I'm astonished I could find exact replacements so easily.

Today the replacement rear light lenses arrived from America, again an item I wasn't expecting until the new year.  An acquaintance in the States had to help out with this one because while I could find plenty of '64 Galaxie rear lights, hardly anyone would post them even within the States, let alone to the UK.  There's also about as many variants of '64 Galaxie rear lights as there are Mazda 323s so these have a different chrome trim to the ones on the car.  Modular units though, so I can chop and change as I wish.  The little bonus Lego* car was a surprise.

Not going to disturb anything on the Princess that might disable it in any way before the house move now for fear of opening cans of worms all over the place.  Still undecided about driving it or having it transported, it'll come down to funds in the end I think.  I'm just paranoid it's going to break down on the 200 mile drive and I'll be stranded at the side of a smart motorway in the rain/snow/sleet/dark for six hours waiting for recovery and you don't need that on top of a house move as well.

[Ghosty]

I've gone to visit Reb in Fife, I got here late last night. 

Late, because I came up in the Cav - which got six miles short of Reb's after driving all day, then seized the nsf caliper on. Car would reverse most of the time, but not drive.

Fuck.

Managed to get the 6 miles done in about an hour by rocking it back and forth and neutral dropping it to twat the pads off, combined with engine braking and the limited travel on the handbrake (needs adjusting).

We have no car, hardly any tools, and the Cav is dumped on a verge on the farm track. I don't know if it'll move, going to find out shortly.

Need to go back to Manchester by the end of the week. We're going to try and source a caliper but I'm not sure how easy that'll be given proximity to Christmas and location - and about £100. ECP have them but I can't get to Kirkcaldy to collect, and I don't know if Brakes International's next day shipping will get up here next day. There's a factors in Cupar that I could try, but who knows what they'll say, and I've still got to get there somehow.

If anyone has any ideas, chuck me a message.

[Ghosty]

Yeah, it won't move. 

[Metal Guru]

16 hours ago, richardmorris said:

9kg though!

Asda would send you that as a substitute if they didn’t have water cress!

[Mr Pastry]

20 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

Yeah, it won't move. 

Lever between caliper and disc to force the pistons back?