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Posted
24 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Well £3million of a plastic kit I suppose.

I see these supercars and always think kit car.

Always good to say that in earshot of the owners too...😂

I'm more impressed by a Standard Vanguard myself 😂

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Posted
3 hours ago, sdkrc said:

You often see cheap shite trying to pass off as fancy shite e.g. a metro trying to look like a TT. When are we going to see the reverse? A Ferrari 355 with a body kit that looks like a Pontiac Fiero?

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I quite like that little Metro kit. Banham did what Longbridge should have done.

These things are only naff if badged Audi. 

Like Cobra copiers - they are great but not a Cobra.

Though nobody has made a  copy Standard Vanguard kit where you use old parts from a Bentley alas. 😂

Posted
On 19/02/2025 at 20:47, wuvvum said:

Well this just keeps getting better.  I had another message from the management company earlier saying that there was an update on my claim.  Logged into their website and it's now saying that the repairs have been completed and the car is ready for collection.

So I have no fucking idea what's going on.  I'm going to have to ring the garage first thing in the morning and see if they can shed any light...

The hilarity* continues.

The garage confirmed that the car is indeed a total loss, the paperwork has been passed to the insurer and they definitely haven't carried out any repairs.

Then a short while ago I received a text from the first garage that had been nominated to repair the car (Autodoc) saying that they hadn't received the photos of the damage (which I sent them on 29th January) and they were unable to proceed with my claim until they got them.

Meanwhile I've heard absolutely nowt from the insurer.

It really is a bit of a clusterfuck.

Posted

That does look nice, although I'm hoping to buy back the salvage on mine and repair it with a secondhand bumper off eBay...

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Posted
34 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

The hilarity* continues.

The garage confirmed that the car is indeed a total loss, the paperwork has been passed to the insurer and they definitely haven't carried out any repairs.

Then a short while ago I received a text from the first garage that had been nominated to repair the car (Autodoc) saying that they hadn't received the photos of the damage (which I sent them on 29th January) and they were unable to proceed with my claim until they got them.

Meanwhile I've heard absolutely nowt from the insurer.

It really is a bit of a clusterfuck.

Welcome to modern Britain - the country with over over-complex systems that only work sporadically.

Posted
1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

I've always said that when I win the Euromillions one of the first things I will do will be to buy a Bentley Flying Spur and stick Chrysler 300C badges on it.

I want to get a Honda NSX and Rover 800 V6 and swap the engines

Posted
1 hour ago, lesapandre said:

I see these supercars and always think kit car.

Always good to say that in earshot of the owners too...😂

I'm more impressed by a Standard Vanguard myself 😂

As *smallboy, in South Shields, our two neighbours [either side] had a black S.V saloon and the other a two tone S.V saloon, in cream body/caramel top.... 😐

Dad had a Minx RBR991..[flat battery, sir? handle oot!] latterly an Oxford DBB403B.

A$ credentials*early starter 🤣

🚙💨

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Posted

Had a bizarre experience while car hunting. I was perusing Fartbook Marketplace and Craigslist when I came across this very nice, very teal Ranger from a stealership 3 hours from me:
https://appleton.craigslist.org/ctd/d/oshkosh-1994-ford-ranger-splash-177k/7823221119.html

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Complete with the official dealer-completed condition report
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Looks a million bucks. Absolutely perfect for what I need. It has a clean title (no markers for scrap, export or write-off), it's supposedly from California, is rust-free (the holy grail in the Midwest), rear-wheel drive and has a "good shifting" manual according to the friendly salesman I spoke to. Nothing to hide, right? I sent this to a good friend of mine and he, very kindly, checked the VIN:

Red flag 1: The vehicle was sold 6 times between August 2022 and April 2023, 4 of those times were within a couple days of each other, the last time was a Copart auction local to the dealership.
Red flag 2: The vehicle is a RWD, manual truck. The VIN corresponds to a Ranger 4x4 with a 4-speed automatic and completely different front end. Uh oh!

Verdict: Very glossy lemon.

Posted

IMG_4832.thumb.jpeg.a7026ff18aaa35cdd0217207972f7c49.jpegIMG_4833.thumb.jpeg.274a19423f698ca04f8429b7cbcffec9.jpegIMG_4831.thumb.jpeg.9905b741cd414736e748c3aa925fa7a0.jpeg

new rear discs, pads and a jacking point for the wife’s car yesterday, all done in the rain 🙄

used APEC parts and they seem decent quality 

Posted
21 hours ago, lesapandre said:

Kit car?

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I do like a good colouring in book ...

Posted
On 17/02/2025 at 10:45, Metal Guru said:

Now the silly bitch has found something on the internet that says beneficiaries can sue executors (me) if they don’t get the best price for a property. The best price to me , is a quick sale anywhere  near the valuation not waiting two or three years for a mug punter to turn up.

Tell her to fuck off and wind her neck in, or you'll divest yourself of executorship and a solicitor will then do a worse job and charge several thousand £ for the privilege. Or maybe just do that anyway.

Posted
7 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Now the silly bitch has found something on the internet that says beneficiaries can sue executors (me) if they don’t get the best price for a property. The best price to me , is a quick sale anywhere  near the valuation not waiting two or three years for a mug punter to turn up.

In my experience of being an executor in that situation - it is best to ignore any relatives (usually the female ones for some reason) who think they know it all.    You are the appointed executor, not them, just get on with it.  You do not have to keep them informed of every move.  The property is only worth what someone will pay for it, and it might be worth less if you wait in the hope of a better price.  If it's somewhere near the valuation, nobody can realistically challenge it.

 

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Posted
22 minutes ago, barefoot said:

Mine never smoked like that.

Brand new engine.  I was taking no chances with it being run dry.  There was a decent amount of oil both in the bores and into the intake before the first start - biblical amounts of smoke for the first few minutes were to be expected.

Posted
On 21/02/2025 at 15:37, wuvvum said:

The hilarity* continues.

The garage confirmed that the car is indeed a total loss, the paperwork has been passed to the insurer and they definitely haven't carried out any repairs.

Then a short while ago I received a text from the first garage that had been nominated to repair the car (Autodoc) saying that they hadn't received the photos of the damage (which I sent them on 29th January) and they were unable to proceed with my claim until they got them.

Meanwhile I've heard absolutely nowt from the insurer.

It really is a bit of a clusterfuck.

Seeing as your insurance company seem so organised, make sure the car isn't shipped off to Copart before you get a chance to get it back

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Posted
23 hours ago, D.E said:

Lol

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The F Team...

Posted
1 hour ago, dave j said:

Seeing as your insurance company seem so organised, make sure the car isn't shipped off to Copart before you get a chance to get it back

It's not my insurance company, it's the third party's insurers who have organised everything.  They can't actually write the car off themselves so it shouldn't be sent to Copart or any other breaker.

Posted

33 miles per year in an old Rover is the way forward to ensure WIN. 4 new tyres and battle with rusty nuts happening sometime never

 

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Posted

What an absolute day Saturday was. My most busy I've been on a day off for a long time.

I work nights so my sleeping pattern is all over the shop. I finished work on Friday morning but for some reason, I slept literally all day Friday right through until Saturday morning 1am when I decided enough was enough and got out of bed.

Come 9am after a nice shower,  a shave and some fresh clothes, I was out the door. Firstly to Walsall to pick up parts for @AnnoyingPentium from Steve, a Vectra B whisperer where I spotted a nice early Vectra that was being recommissioned:

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Steve here specialises in Vectra Bs but also other Vauxhall products and has people coming from all over the country to have work done to their Vectras. I am hopefully going to see him about having my Vectra oil-tight as its leaking quite badly.

Popped over to Cannock for the meet and to say goodbye and good luck to @Inspector Morose who is heading up Scotland way. A handover to Scotoshite recipient @davidfowler2000 was done as were the Vectra parts. 

Had a drive of @Imhotep MG ZS 2.5 KV6. Wow, what a car, it sounded amazing too. I'm glad you got the car you always wanted. From the dark days of the HGF Mondeo to this, life can sometimes just work out.

Then it was over to Mum's in Birmingham to pick up some rubbish to take to the tip, got there in time before the shut. Then over to the car wash #1 which was closed before they advertised to close, so then it was over to car wash #2 as my car looked depressingly dirty. Then I needed to pop shopping and re-top up the petrol.

Before I got home, I received a call from the local restaurant. Some may remember a couple of years ago I replaced a wing, headlight and secured their front bumper of the restaurants' Clio. Now one of the gaffers had his car driven into in what appears to be a hit and run.

The front bumper on his modernz BMW had popped out and a headlamp was damaged. I managed to get the side back in and secure:

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Not the best job in the world but certainly a lot less noticeable compared to how it was hanging off previously. Bearing in mind also, I was working in a very dark carpark with no lights and having to balance my phones' torch so I could see what I was doing.

The chef, now driving a Focus after the Clios engine imploded, had an issue with an insecure rear bumper, it was hanging off, so I unscrewed a bolt and repositioned it. Not the best job but better and a bit more secure than before. I'll tackle it at a later date to secure it on properly.

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For my efforts I got a free curry, naan bread and a couple of poppadoms.

By 10pm, I decided enough was enough and the day was done.

Posted

So after renewing the parts on the rear brakes of the wife’s car, the front offside caliper must of felt left out so decided to start sticking onIMG_4836.thumb.jpeg.ac77ec1b653a2cea9d4650dc7deffa37.jpeg

refurbished caliper ordered so hopefully the wife only has to use our spare car for just a couple of days 🤞

anyone know what the number 48 means on the caliper ? 

Posted
17 minutes ago, goosey said:

anyone know what the number 48 means on the caliper ?

Number of times it's been on and off the car? 😁

Posted
3 hours ago, goosey said:

So after renewing the parts on the rear brakes of the wife’s car, the front offside caliper must of felt left out so decided to start sticking onIMG_4836.thumb.jpeg.ac77ec1b653a2cea9d4650dc7deffa37.jpeg

refurbished caliper ordered so hopefully the wife only has to use our spare car for just a couple of days 🤞

anyone know what the number 48 means on the caliper ? 

 

Posted
Just now, Shoysty said:

Possibly piston size ?

 

 

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Posted

Didn't really get anything done in the way of fettling this weekend.  I did start to have a look at getting the front strut off the Eos to change the spring, but both the pinch bolt and the drop link ball joint need those weird 12-sided spline bits which only German cars seem to use and which I don't have any of.  So I need to order a set of those in, and probably also borrow my mate's rattle gun to get the pinch bolt undone.  I've left everything marinating in Plus Gas in the meantime.

Today I have mostly been test driving electric cars.  First up was this:

s-l1600.webp

s-l1600.webp

s-l1600.webp

Someone posted a link to the ad on the modern forum and as it was only half an hour or so from Norwich I thought I'd have a look.  It's a JiaYuan JY7222-ZQR.  No, me neither.  It's an electric quadricycle (like a Citroën Ami or Renault Twizy), powered by a 72v 10bhp electric motor driving the rear wheels.  Electricity is provided by half a dozen lead acid leisure batteries under the seats, which are not exactly lightweight but are a lot cheaper than lithium.

It's, objectively speaking, thunderously shit - cramped, noisy and cheaply made.  It also looks very silly indeed.  It's not without its charm though, it's quite well equipped for what it is (alloy wheels, disc brakes all round, aircon, panoramic roof, built in sat nav) and it's actually quite nippy off the line.  Top speed with fresh batteries would be about 45 - the batteries in the car at the moment are rather tired but it still got up to 30 quickly enough, although the range is crap.

Since I arranged to view it someone has clicked the Buy It Now button on the eBay listing, which saves me the trouble of having to decide what to do about it - I probably wouldn't have paid the 750 quid the chap was asking, given that it'd need transporting home and then another 500 quid spending on batteries, but if I could have got it for 500 quid I might have been tempted.

This was the last one I drove:

s-l1600.webp

It came up on eBay about 10 minutes up the road from me so I though it was worth a look even though the chap was asking too much for it.  It's actually a very nice example and it's in a proper colour too - most of them are silver or white.  I was impressed with how it drove and the seller was willing to come down on the price so I may well go for it.

I also drove a Leapmotor T03, which I was quite impressed by, but that doesn't really count as shite.  It's so new that they can't even register them yet - I had to take the test drive on trade plates.

Posted
1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

..........

This was the last one I drove:

It came up on eBay about 10 minutes up the road from me so I thought it was worth a look even though the chap was asking too much for it.  It's actually a very nice example and it's in a proper colour too - most of them are silver or white.  I was impressed with how it drove and the seller was willing to come down on the price so I may well go for it.

.........

I bought the earlier petrol automatic version of the Mitsubishi in 2007, keeping it until 2014 after 83K miles. It was an ex-demo purchase with 695 miles on the clock when bought.  It was a remarkably practical car, capable of seating 4 normal sized adults without feeling at all cramped. 70mph could easily be held on motorways.  I took my daughter and her husband to Fort William in it, touring the Isle of Mull whilst up there.  It had adequate luggage space for shopping trips and was fine for our holiday just three-up with extra space yielded by one rear seat folded down. I liked it a lot.   The 'i Miev' electric version which you tested was pretty much identical inside to the petrol version but its small battery limited its range somewhat, making it better suited to city/local  trips after home charging.  Mitsubishi and Peugeot Citroen which also sold rebadged versions of the i Miev tended to give poor to lukewarm support for the model which now is even worse or non-existent.  Range now, with old batteries, is apparently around 30-40  miles if you are lucky.  Photo: my petrol version in Wales. 

Screenshot 2025-02-24 at 01.04.19.png

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