The new news 24 thread

[JakeT]

7 minutes ago, adw1977 said:

At first glance, I thought why does a stretcher need a rear number plate?

And a private plate too, FO07 END!

[richardmorris]

10 minutes ago, adw1977 said:

At first glance, I thought why does a stretcher need a rear number plate?

Frank Spencer or carry on nurse spring to mind.

[goosey]

On 23/02/2025 at 17:01, 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 on

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 ? 

Got back from SouthEnd late so fitted the Recon caliper and new brake hose in the dark and cold of course 

[chaseracer]

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

I’ve not got a car to 200k yet. 174 on my CX DTR on the original clutch, 124 on the merc and the 2cv is on 160.

Same.  I'm now over 186k on the ex- @Talbot Merc, which means The Big 200 should happen around this time next year if current mileage continues.  The Blingo is currently stalled on 181k.

The Dyane's on 130k, but it's taken 43 years to get there!

[stuboy]

2 hours ago, Snake Charmer said:

A man can never have too many welders, l cut down to 3 a while back from 5 by selling a lovely old Oxford arc welder and returning my oxy-acetyle bottles but kept the gear. 👍

true.. i got a parkside arc welder,  mig welder i found in in an alleyway near my house covered in snails ( seems too work ) and one i actually purchased new, a gasless type...

[Ghosty]

Hello, I'm not dead. Somehow.

Life's been fucking shit, but I'm on the mend.

Without going into much depth, the nightmare from last year is over, the knife was twisted at every opportunity, but I'm finally free to heal. My mental health is simultaneously the best and worst it's ever been. I'm still not drinking - 14 months now. I've been compleletly teetotal since December. Just 0% beers keep me going.

The sedan is gone. Most of my friends are gone.

But there are positives.

After six months on my arse I got a job at an e-waste recycler in September. Minimum wage and shit conditions, but I'd managed to cobble the Golf together well enough to cart me across Manchester daily for it.
It just about got me out of the shit, it was a job. The conditions were so bad that in November I got an RSI in my back, and went on the sick. I started looking for other jobs as I didn't want to go back there.

I got a phone call from a recruiter. I got a lot of these, and often it was just MSPs hiring for field tech roles - I've done this before  and it's an awful job. However my ears pricked up when the recruiter named her client - a rather big name in Manchester property was looking for a service engineer. After a chat, the first stage interview was handled by the recruiter, and forwarded to the company.

The company called me in for an interview later that week, and offered me the job the next day.
I count my blessings every single day as I look out of my office window, with a view across the entirety of Greater Manchester. In my previous job, there weren't any windows and it felt like slave labour.

The silver Civic is still here, looking a bit different.

I'm dailying a 2003 Civic Coupe, but it's naff, and I'm looking for something to replace it - viewing a potential car on Thursday, in fucking Ipswich.

The Golf is gone, it wasn't useable as a daily any more, not with my new job, and because it leaked rainwater like absolute fuck through the blower motor. I'd done all I could with it, and I didn't have the time or inclination to keep throwing money at it. I didn't need a second project, and it had a rather embarrassing battery drain/hot start issue.
I didn't have a use for it, so I put it up for sale. The same day, in the small hours, the chapter of the red Civic sedan had finally closed for good - the £1k garage find survivor, with full service history and everything down to the PDI sheet.

Half an hour after I listed the Golf, I got an offer of a swap from an FB friend. He'd received it as a PX against a car he'd sold, and said it was 'too clean' for him - the scruffier Golf suited him better, and he wanted to engine swap it.

As soon as he sent me a photo of it I knew I couldn't say no.



When one door closes, another one opens.

53k. One owner until 2019.
It even has the PDI sheet. 

Second chances are rare.

Always count your blessings.


I'll be alright. 


👻...

[andyberg]

6 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

Hello, I'm not dead. Somehow.

Life's been fucking shit, but I'm on the mend.

Without going into much depth, the nightmare from last year is over, the knife was twisted at every opportunity, but I'm finally free to heal. My mental health is simultaneously the best and worst it's ever been. I'm still not drinking - 14 months now. I've been compleletly teetotal since December. Just 0% beers keep me going.

The sedan is gone. Most of my friends are gone.

But there are positives.

After six months on my arse I got a job at an e-waste recycler in September. Minimum wage and shit conditions, but I'd managed to cobble the Golf together well enough to cart me across Manchester daily for it.
It just about got me out of the shit, it was a job. The conditions were so bad that in November I got an RSI in my back, and went on the sick. I started looking for other jobs as I didn't want to go back there.

I got a phone call from a recruiter. I got a lot of these, and often it was just MSPs hiring for field tech roles - I've done this before  and it's an awful job. However my ears pricked up when the recruiter named her client - a rather big name in Manchester property was looking for a service engineer. After a chat, the first stage interview was handled by the recruiter, and forwarded to the company.

The company called me in for an interview later that week, and offered me the job the next day.
I count my blessings every single day as I look out of my office window, with a view across the entirety of Greater Manchester. In my previous job, there weren't any windows and it felt like slave labour.

The silver Civic is still here, looking a bit different.

I'm dailying a 2003 Civic Coupe, but it's naff, and I'm looking for something to replace it - viewing a potential car on Thursday, in fucking Ipswich.

The Golf is gone, it wasn't useable as a daily any more, not with my new job, and because it leaked rainwater like absolute fuck through the blower motor. I'd done all I could with it, and I didn't have the time or inclination to keep throwing money at it. I didn't need a second project, and it had a rather embarrassing battery drain/hot start issue.
I didn't have a use for it, so I put it up for sale. The same day, in the small hours, the chapter of the red Civic sedan had finally closed for good - the £1k garage find survivor, with full service history and everything down to the PDI sheet.

Half an hour after I listed the Golf, I got an offer of a swap from an FB friend. He'd received it as a PX against a car he'd sold, and said it was 'too clean' for him - the scruffier Golf suited him better, and he wanted to engine swap it.

As soon as he sent me a photo of it I knew I couldn't say no.



When one door closes, another one opens.

53k. One owner until 2019.
It even has the PDI sheet. 

Second chances are rare.

Always count your blessings.


I'll be alright. 


👻...

Well done on getting through last year. I’m glad you can be positive again, there’s a lesson there for everyone. Don’t give up, I wish you the very best for this year. And your new car is bloody brilliant, well swapped. 

[reb]

11 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

When one door closes, another one opens.


Second chances are rare.

These two seem to contradict eachother.

[High Jetter]

40 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

Hello, I'm not dead. Somehow.

Life's been fucking shit, but I'm on the mend.

Without going into much depth, the nightmare from last year is over, the knife was twisted at every opportunity, but I'm finally free to heal. My mental health is simultaneously the best and worst it's ever been. I'm still not drinking - 14 months now. I've been compleletly teetotal since December. Just 0% beers keep me going.

The sedan is gone. Most of my friends are gone.

But there are positives.

After six months on my arse I got a job at an e-waste recycler in September. Minimum wage and shit conditions, but I'd managed to cobble the Golf together well enough to cart me across Manchester daily for it.
It just about got me out of the shit, it was a job. The conditions were so bad that in November I got an RSI in my back, and went on the sick. I started looking for other jobs as I didn't want to go back there.

I got a phone call from a recruiter. I got a lot of these, and often it was just MSPs hiring for field tech roles - I've done this before  and it's an awful job. However my ears pricked up when the recruiter named her client - a rather big name in Manchester property was looking for a service engineer. After a chat, the first stage interview was handled by the recruiter, and forwarded to the company.

The company called me in for an interview later that week, and offered me the job the next day.
I count my blessings every single day as I look out of my office window, with a view across the entirety of Greater Manchester. In my previous job, there weren't any windows and it felt like slave labour.

The silver Civic is still here, looking a bit different.

I'm dailying a 2003 Civic Coupe, but it's naff, and I'm looking for something to replace it - viewing a potential car on Thursday, in fucking Ipswich.

The Golf is gone, it wasn't useable as a daily any more, not with my new job, and because it leaked rainwater like absolute fuck through the blower motor. I'd done all I could with it, and I didn't have the time or inclination to keep throwing money at it. I didn't need a second project, and it had a rather embarrassing battery drain/hot start issue.
I didn't have a use for it, so I put it up for sale. The same day, in the small hours, the chapter of the red Civic sedan had finally closed for good - the £1k garage find survivor, with full service history and everything down to the PDI sheet.

Half an hour after I listed the Golf, I got an offer of a swap from an FB friend. He'd received it as a PX against a car he'd sold, and said it was 'too clean' for him - the scruffier Golf suited him better, and he wanted to engine swap it.

As soon as he sent me a photo of it I knew I couldn't say no.



When one door closes, another one opens.

53k. One owner until 2019.
It even has the PDI sheet. 

Second chances are rare.

Always count your blessings.


I'll be alright. 


👻...

OOF! Shuttles are for winners, great to have you back.

[Coprolalia]

Currently on annual leave. Had a nice day planned doing DIY and other bits.

Got a call from my wife as she entered the station to go to work... "My wheel is pointing the wrong way".

[lesapandre]

Fleamarket find this morning. US printed 1981.

[lesapandre]

Another fleamarket find - (I did not buy this one there is a limit to the crap I can accommodate) - but interesting historically as one of the (probably many) small oil companies supplying the UK vehicle market at one time.

A quick look on t'web threw up an old ad. Thought the area remains industrial company appears long gone. 

[Coprolalia]

32 minutes ago, Coprolalia said:

Currently on annual leave. Had a nice day planned doing DIY and other bits.

Got a call from my wife as she entered the station to go to work... "My wheel is pointing the wrong way".

 

 

Ruh roh

[SiC]

Just come back from Iceland. Not as cold as I expected - apparently they're getting a warmer winter at the moment and it's been sitting above freezing a lot. 

Very expensive. For example this bland tasting supermarket sandwich was £7.60

But I still ate a bit too much.

Saw some incredible scenery.

The peak was seeing the Northern Lights. At first it was really weak - only visible through a phone on long exposure. Pretty much gave up as the conditions weren't good. As the bus tour driver saying that it is just unfortunate and down to luck, he paused and told us to "all get off the bus NOW". 

Sky absolutely lit up for a good 5 minutes. Photos don't really do it justice. I always thought the dancing aurora was from time lapse trickery. However it really does dance in front of your eyes in realtime.

Even managed a quick selfie. My startled expression is the concentration trying to keep the phone still for 3 seconds as the night mode capture counted down. Not a type of photo you get time to mess up and redo!

Anyway vehicular reports. 

Firstly one of the tour buses had a great novel repair* going on. 

There wasn't too much old stuff about. Not actually that much salt and grit about but I guess when you're in the middle of nowhere, you really want something reliable. Albeit doesn't explain the amount of JLR products I saw about.

There was a lot of tour specific vehicles about that were jacked up busses and vans.

 

The oldest vehicle was this inside the airport as a display.

The rest were mostly jacked up normal vehicles. This Jimny is kinda cute 

Not as much Yank stuff about - I guess fuel is too expensive. But the odd bits. These are the older Yank stuff I saw out and about.

Probably the only G-Wagon now that actually gets used for it's intended purposes.

Loads of modern Land Cruiser. This was the only old one I saw.

 

Was a great trip, albeit I'm knackered and need another holiday to rest. My credit card is also very much feeling the pain.

[lesapandre]

BEIKON 😂 and that coach 😂

[SiC]

Oh and yes, there is an Iceland in Iceland.

[wuvvum]

That coach body grafted onto the 8x8 truck chassis is so shit it's brilliant!

[wuvvum]

Just spoken to the insurance re the Ampera.  They've had the engineer's report back and they've made an offer - it's on the low side but not £pisstake as I was expecting.  The offer involving me keeping the car is more attractive as they've valued the salvage at £855, which given that it's Cat N makes it well worth repairing with secondhand bits.

Now all I need is for the accident management company to tell me where they've put the car!

[plasticvandan]

Not car related,but some will appreciate,due to a sudden strong bout of the tisms,childhood nostalgia and the need for such a thing to actually use,I've just finished lightly refurbishing my recently acquired 1970 Hoover Junior Dirtsearcher (with light) I consider this to be the Morris Minor of vaccum cleaners..in fact I think the Minor and the Junior are probably two of the best things Britain ever made😅

[BorniteIdentity]

13 minutes ago, plasticvandan said:

Not car related,but some will appreciate,due to a sudden strong bout of the tisms,childhood nostalgia and the need for such a thing to actually use,I've just finished lightly refurbishing my recently acquired 1970 Hoover Junior Dirtsearcher (with light) I consider this to be the Morris Minor of vaccum cleaners..in fact I think the Minor and the Junior are probably two of the best things Britain ever made😅

What a lovely old thing. I know it’ll be terrible (and, deep down, you’d probably privately agree) but just how terrible is it? My memory of these things is they generate a lot of heat and not a lot of light. All noise and no suck. 

So?! Tell me it’s shit so I don’t get one… 

[plasticvandan]

25 minutes ago, BorniteIdentity said:

What a lovely old thing. I know it’ll be terrible (and, deep down, you’d probably privately agree) but just how terrible is it? My memory of these things is they generate a lot of heat and not a lot of light. All noise and no suck. 

So?! Tell me it’s shit so I don’t get one… 

That the big secret,they are,for carpet at least,pretty amazing,and only 250w. The brush roller has beater bars as well,so it "beats as it sweeps as it cleans" as the old adverts used to say. For normal carpet cleaning they more than hold their own with modern machines,but are designed to be repaired,and extremely reliable.a 21st century twist is modding modern hypo alergenic fleece bags from modern cleaners to go on which improves  air flow and cleanliness a lot.They were in production in various guises from the mid 30s to the late 80s, Hoover even paid Currys to scrap any that were brought in as part of a get a discount off a new cleaner if you bring your old one,as people just had them repaired rather than buy new. Plenty of info on YouTube,Inc from Mr Beko of course.

Personally it's memories of my grandparents having one identical for upstairs,and a two tone brown one for down stairs,and my dad always having them as well. Interestingly he has just got a Senior (juniors big brother) for his house,having finally had enough of the modern crap his partner kept buying breaking.

[stuboy]

9 hours ago, SiC said:

much want

[wuvvum]

22 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Now all I need is for the accident management company to tell me where they've put the car!

Just heard back from the accident management company.  According to them, I have the car.

Epic.

[wuvvum]

The garage doesn't know either. 🤪

[Spottedlaurel]

Dare I suggest it got taken away with a load of other write-offs to avoid storage costs?

[wuvvum]

The garage still has it.  Phew.  They just hadn't updated the record properly.

[wuvvum]

Right then.

Now that I know where the car is, I've emailed the third party insurer to say I'm accepting their offer with the salvage deducted.

The garage said that they would need an email from the insurer confirming that they can release the car to me, which is fair enough.  @JJ0063, as our resident motor claims expert - is that something the insurer would send as a matter of course, or will I need to bug them to do it?

[JJ0063]

12 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Right then.

Now that I know where the car is, I've emailed the third party insurer to say I'm accepting their offer with the salvage deducted.

The garage said that they would need an email from the insurer confirming that they can release the car to me, which is fair enough.  @JJ0063, as our resident motor claims expert - is that something the insurer would send as a matter of course, or will I need to bug them to do it?

I hope you declined the first offer? They’ll usually send one improved/final offer before saying that’s all they’ll do.

Re the notification of release, I’ll be honest it’s not my area as I’m based in new business,  I’d pressure them although I imagine they’ll be relatively quick on it as they may end up incurring storage charges if not. Depends on the arrangement they have I suppose! Knowing how useless some can be, I’d definitely bug them about it. 

[JakeT]

On 26/02/2025 at 11:54, SiC said:

Just come back from Iceland. Not as cold as I expected - apparently they're getting a warmer winter at the moment and it's been sitting above freezing a lot. 

Was a great trip, albeit I'm knackered and need another holiday to rest. My credit card is also very much feeling the pain.

Gosh, funny you should say about the cost. My Mrs booked us a surprise trip a couple of years ago for my birthday, in the middle of December. We were lucky and got lots of cold. Example…

But the cost of stuff was high. An example being, my suitcase got stuck locked shut. I mean nothing would unlock it. After resorting to destructive methods to get it open, I needed a new bag. Finding a samsonite shop was proving difficult, so I looked for the next next thing. A sports shop, an Icelandic company called 66° north. They had a nice little duffel bag which I bought. Not caring about the exchange rate I didn’t check until I saw on the bank statement it was £110…

The worst bit being their stuff is great, and Ive bought a couple of jackets. On sale mind, else I’d need to sell a kidney.

 

Gorgeous country though, and I’d like to go back again.

[wuvvum]

2 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

I hope you declined the first offer? They’ll usually send one improved/final offer before saying that’s all they’ll do.

Nope.  Their first offer was significantly better than I was expecting and to be honest I'm fed up with the whole bloody thing now - I'd rather get the whole thing finalised than drag it out for the sake of maybe a couple of hundred quid more.  As it is I should be able to repair the car using secondhand bits from a scrappy and still end up with a 4-figure sum in my pocket, that's good enough for me.