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Father Ted

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More than a year ago, the floormats that I should’ve binned when I got the car finally fell apart in car wash, foam backing failing and them being vacummed in pieces. The guy in the carwash provided a “we have this in bin, but it’s better than fucking your freshly washed carpet” replacement. I said thanks, I’ll buy it tomorrow, and promptly forgot about it, just to get mildly annoyed every time I get in the car because it’s looking really shit, then promptly remember once again when I get out. 
Well, I finally remembered 😅

Out with the old (yes, Astra in Alfa 159, I know)

IMG_3748.jpeg.b9540ff15deda3a2458baf3db87538b4.jpeg
 

In with the new

IMG_3749.jpeg.fa8e585261720e427040b6f8e3ac167a.jpeg


Much better! It’s the small things, etc, etc.

Now maybe I’ll remember to book that driver’s seat bolster replacement! Next year? 😄

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4 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Sold at sothebys yesterday for £110,000 with recent invoices of £300,000!

20240613_104406.jpg

Wow and it's nothing special really (relatively). 300k - they must have been mad.

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Helped Dad have a shift around and put the guzzi away. Got the old merc ready for some use. Looking nice with added wolfhound action

20240613_110200.jpg.1542e65dc01aba074b51102412e59d0c.jpg20240613_105958.jpg.13705c63f556e1f6d9d46ea06f4bc6d6.jpg

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There's some photos of some extremely fancy cars in this thread - I'm going to bring it back to the gutter with news of the 206K-miles ex-@loserone roffle E220CDI .  I had to spaff almost 50% of the car's purchase price on replacement number plate LEDs (£17.99), what an outrage!  Fitting them was an almighty faff too - all the trim had to be removed from the inside of the bootlid, then the plastic external trim panel had to come off too, which meant removing the number plate where all the screws had rusted to buggery - took 90 mins.   It was then ready for an MOT, which it passed with a few advisories.

Benz_LED.jpg.8436f5eb1e1260515077972381ac7143.jpg

The garage also found the cause of the lack of performance - the gearbox ECU is not communicating with the rest of the car, so it's going into a failsafe mode where kickdown doesn't work and it very quickly shifts up into top.  He advised just using the tiptronic thing, which does work and I can't believe it didn't occur to me to try that, but I've been happy to drive it about on the torque and enjoy the 45-50MPG relaxed driving brings.  Googling the gearbox ECU location (under the passenger side dash, apparently), I watched a YouTube vid where a guy finds oil has wicked up the cable into the ECU plug - given the mileage, I reckon that's a distinct possibility here.

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2 hours ago, richardmorris said:

Not much original there - but very nice notwithstanding.

"The car was examined in prior ownership by the noted Bentley specialist Tim Houlding, who noted his belief that the cross members and side rails of the chassis are reproduction parts, as is the rear axle casing and aluminium differential casing, steering column, rear shock absorbers, gearbox, and firewall. The engine crankcase is stamped “FR2634” but is likely a reproduction component, as well as the sump, valve chest, and its cover, while the intake manifold is an original Speed Six piece, as are the genuine and numbered SU HVG 5 carburettor, magneto, Delco-Remy distributor, and starter. The front axle is stamped “VA 4090”, believed to be from a later 4-Litre, while the stub axles appear to be genuine components"

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52 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

Not much original there - but very nice notwithstanding.

"The car was examined in prior ownership by the noted Bentley specialist Tim Houlding, who noted his belief that the cross members and side rails of the chassis are reproduction parts, as is the rear axle casing and aluminium differential casing, steering column, rear shock absorbers, gearbox, and firewall. The engine crankcase is stamped “FR2634” but is likely a reproduction component, as well as the sump, valve chest, and its cover, while the intake manifold is an original Speed Six piece, as are the genuine and numbered SU HVG 5 carburettor, magneto, Delco-Remy distributor, and starter. The front axle is stamped “VA 4090”, believed to be from a later 4-Litre, while the stub axles appear to be genuine components"

I also wonder about the chassis if the cross beams and side members aren’t original- what else is there on a ladder-chassis? Plus engine and other parts it’s a bit of a bitsa. Wonder how many other cars are driving around with the same original bits?

wasn’t a big Bentley dealer jailed for passing off cars as original in recent memory?

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4 hours ago, richardmorris said:

17182825013904367410256358933481.jpg

Prince Of Wales spec Volante by the look of it.

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5 minutes ago, Snake Charmer said:

Prince Of Wales spec Volante by the look of it.

X-pack it says. Is that pow spec in another name? Didn’t sell at £290,000.

https://rmsothebys.com/auctions/ch24/lots/r0059-1989-aston-martin-v8-vantage-volante-xpack/


 

the 1998 seems decent value at £80,000 sold.

https://rmsothebys.com/auctions/ch24/lots/r0033-1998-aston-martin-v8-volante-lwb/

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39 minutes ago, Snake Charmer said:

My mistake, should have noticed the side skirt, arches didn't look so pronounced at first glance in the photo.

It looked good, and unlike modern mclaren and koeniggsegg etc can get off the transporters without needing the ramps blocked to stop the spoilers being ripped off.

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Doing most of the work on my own cars, and friends too - as well as being on here - has clearly skewed my perceptions of reality, and particularly price of mechanical work.

A colleague asked me a good few weeks ago about where I take my cars for servicing, as his 2018 Infiniti Q30 was due a service. I said that I couldn't help because I did my own servicing, but that Nissan ought to be able to help him out and keep the main dealer stamps up for maximum resale value. I did also suggest that a 2nd option would be to use a website called https://bookmygarage.com/secret-service/ who I've heard others using too. I promptly forgot all about it.

Fast forward to today and another colleague was muttering about his MOT being due soon and this prompted me to ask colleague #1 if he'd managed to get the Infiniti serviced yet. He immediately began extolling the wonderful experience he had at Kwikfit who'd done the service for him, provided pics and allsorts for what they had done and it had only cost £900 (!). I politely enquired what they'd done and it turned out that it was oil & filters, front pads and discs, a front tyre and a pair of droplinks. If the pics were indeed of his car then the work was definitely needed. The droplink boots were both torn, the tyre had a nail in it, the discs were scored and pads were low, but I was still rather startled that having those bits done at a garage was quite as expensive as that.

He's not at all hands-on, and earns a decent wage so was happy to pay for it all but it certainly made me re-assess how valuable it has been to learn how to do these things myself. If it were my car, then the only thing I couldn't have done on that list would have been the tyre, and I'd have probably spent £200 in total on parts plus an afternoon of my time. Net saving of £700 though.

I'm not saying he was robbed, but it has certainly helped put into perspective how much I save by DIYMFS mechanic'ing. 

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On 12/06/2024 at 14:50, Honey Badger said:

Nice shiny new 12 month MOT for the Legend today, only a couple of minors for rusty rear springs, not bad for a 16 year old motor.

 

Now who wants to buy it off me 😄

Always depends on the price!😄

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19 minutes ago, Stanky said:

Doing most of the work on my own cars, and friends too - as well as being on here - has clearly skewed my perceptions of reality, and particularly price of mechanical work.

A colleague asked me a good few weeks ago about where I take my cars for servicing, as his 2018 Infiniti Q30 was due a service. I said that I couldn't help because I did my own servicing, but that Nissan ought to be able to help him out and keep the main dealer stamps up for maximum resale value. I did also suggest that a 2nd option would be to use a website called https://bookmygarage.com/secret-service/ who I've heard others using too. I promptly forgot all about it.

Fast forward to today and another colleague was muttering about his MOT being due soon and this prompted me to ask colleague #1 if he'd managed to get the Infiniti serviced yet. He immediately began extolling the wonderful experience he had at Kwikfit who'd done the service for him, provided pics and allsorts for what they had done and it had only cost £900 (!). I politely enquired what they'd done and it turned out that it was oil & filters, front pads and discs, a front tyre and a pair of droplinks. If the pics were indeed of his car then the work was definitely needed. The droplink boots were both torn, the tyre had a nail in it, the discs were scored and pads were low, but I was still rather startled that having those bits done at a garage was quite as expensive as that.

He's not at all hands-on, and earns a decent wage so was happy to pay for it all but it certainly made me re-assess how valuable it has been to learn how to do these things myself. If it were my car, then the only thing I couldn't have done on that list would have been the tyre, and I'd have probably spent £200 in total on parts plus an afternoon of my time. Net saving of £700 though.

I'm not saying he was robbed, but it has certainly helped put into perspective how much I save by DIYMFS mechanic'ing. 

Agreed. The only downside being that I resent paying for things I'm not sure I have the tackle to do properly.

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On 09/06/2024 at 21:07, stuboy said:

.... screw it.... grrrr...

 

20240609_151846.jpg

 

according to the bloke at halfords/national tyre 2 weeks ago doing this renders the tyre pump fcuked as the goo runs through it!

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20 minutes ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

according to the bloke at halfords/national tyre 2 weeks ago doing this renders the tyre pump fcuked as the goo runs through it!

Doubt that. Single use pump?

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39 minutes ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

according to the bloke at halfords/national tyre 2 weeks ago doing this renders the tyre pump fcuked as the goo runs through it!

ill have too check the pump

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Just now, stuboy said:

ill have too check the pump

will be interesting to find out one way or the other

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5 hours ago, richardmorris said:

I also wonder about the chassis if the cross beams and side members aren’t original- what else is there on a ladder-chassis? Plus engine and other parts it’s a bit of a bitsa. Wonder how many other cars are driving around with the same original bits?

wasn’t a big Bentley dealer jailed for passing off cars as original in recent memory?

Loads of nice saloons and other less glamorous cars have been chopped about to make fake Le Mans style VDP tourers.

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