The new news 24 thread

[reb]

Dramatic reconstruction of the fate of my old 850

[Wibble]

2 minutes ago, reb said:

Dramatic reconstruction of the fate of my old 850

I remember but you’re still with us, which is great and we can continue to enjoy your company.

[JJ0063]

8 hours ago, Popsicle said:

It says speed limited to 73mph, waste of money doing that on an sdi, they're on about 3.5k revs at 70😂.

Looks a tidy van though JJ, hope its a good un for you.

Woken up at 3am by Mrs JJ who couldn’t sleep as she didn’t like the colour of the van as her business logo is pink/purple and it would clash.

FFS. 
 

Viewing cancelled.

[SiC]

18 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

Woken up at 3am by Mrs JJ who couldn’t sleep as she didn’t like the colour of the van as her business logo is pink/purple and it would clash.

FFS. 
 

Viewing cancelled.

Wrap?

[comfortablynumb]

Anyone else get the feeling here that the main problem is the nut that holds the wheel?

I guess any amount of money can't make up for basic inability 

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/34487552/marcus-rashford-rolls-royce-crash-man-united-villa/

[JJ0063]

14 minutes ago, SiC said:

Wrap?

Too expensive to get a full wrap, cheaper to wait and get a plain white/silver/black van or spend the wrap money on a newer/better van of the right colour tbh! It did cross my mind though 

[chaseracer]

On 11/04/2025 at 18:46, Six-cylinder said:

Many years ago a young girl pulled out of a side road into the the n-s front wing on our brown Daimler Sovereign. Mrs6C was benevolent and allowed the girls father to obtain a replacement wing, have it painted and help fit it to avoid an insurance claim.

Trouble was the wing was smart and shiny and the rest of the car very orange peel. I had to wet flat and polish and rest of the car to match the new wing!

Chris, was that the day of your audition for the Village People? 😎

[Popsicle]

1 hour ago, JJ0063 said:

Woken up at 3am by Mrs JJ who couldn’t sleep as she didn’t like the colour of the van as her business logo is pink/purple and it would clash.

FFS. 
 

Viewing cancelled.

White vans are boring.

British gas blue goes with everything, MG even painted most of their HS's in the newer shade. I'm sure it would look fine, after all you want an advertising space to stand out from the crowd and attract attention.

[worldofceri]

On 11/04/2025 at 13:21, loserone said:

That's interesting, is it not the responsibility of the driver to ensure that they are legally insured?

 

On 11/04/2025 at 14:47, lesapandre said:

As the driver is responsible for the vehicle should they do a basic check before driving off?

 

On 11/04/2025 at 15:08, Yoss said:

everybody just assumes the company have got the insurance sorted.

 

On 11/04/2025 at 15:49, horriblemercedes said:

The thing is, how would you do it in practice?

 

On 11/04/2025 at 19:01, High Jetter said:

There's a copy of the page of the insurance in the van that my employee drives showing him as a named driver.

Bit late to this discussion, but if you’re employed by an established business or organisation to drive their vehicle you are not required to check that the vehicle is insured. This is because there’s a statutory defence (or whatever the legal term is) in law that you can reasonably suppose that the vehicle is insured for the purpose for which you are employed to use it.

[Zelandeth]

17 hours ago, stuboy said:

Firstly BiL is in Paris and spotted a sport R5.

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/alpine/a290

 

Secondly I spotted this bmw and thought police training vehicle for pursuit.  ???

Abnormal load escort vehicle rather than police would be my first thought with the graphics just being on the back.

[andyberg]

YES!!!

[Rustybullethole]

The only thing that was good about having to get shot of my Transit was the prospect of not welding it up every year. 

Should of sold it further away i guess as here I am making chassis rails out of an old shovel.

 

[Split_Pin]

21 minutes ago, Rustybullethole said:

The only thing that was good about having to get shot of my Transit was the prospect of not welding it up every year. 

Should of sold it further away i guess as here I am making chassis rails out of an old shovel.

 

Beats my trying to make a sill by using the head of a 3lb lump hammer as an anvil and a carpenters hammer to shape it 😂 (I failed)

[Zelandeth]

Glad to report that after some truly masterful reconstruction work on the front cross member and offside sill by our @Andyrew that this fine piece of automotive engineering is back in action.

Really do have to wonder why they make these parking spaces so big, seems a terrible waste of room...

Tax and MOT exemption was finally sorted out yesterday.  It's still going in for a test on Tuesday anyway so I'm less interested in that - it just made logistics simpler to get it done.  I'll definitely take the £18 a month saving on tax though!

[LightBulbFun]

12 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Glad to report that after some truly masterful reconstruction work on the front cross member and offside sill by our @Andyrew that this fine piece of automotive engineering is back in action.

Really do have to wonder why they make these parking spaces so big, seems a terrible waste of room...

Tax and MOT exemption was finally sorted out yesterday.  It's still going in for a test on Tuesday anyway so I'm less interested in that - it just made logistics simpler to get it done.  I'll definitely take the £18 a month saving on tax though!

Woop! great to see the Trabant back its probably the most well sorted Trabant out there after your and @Andyrew's work  the best kind of well sorted, not so shiny on top that your scared of using it, but super well sorted underneath where it counts  and I am glad to hear you where able to get it into the historic vehicle taxation class in the end  (and its now ULEZ exempt too )

[JJ0063]

So we’ve now arranged to go and see a 66 plate Combo on Saturday. Was originally a Siemens fleet van, now owned by a chimney sweep. 
 

Seeems a nice van, I’ve read good and bad about them and I know the little 1.3 CDTI can have injector issues so will make sure I give it a good look over but for Mrs JJ, I think it’s ideal. 
 

It’s going in next week to have the signwriting removed so at least that’s one less job!

[artdjones]

24 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

So we’ve now arranged to go and see a 66 plate Combo on Saturday. Was originally a Siemens fleet van, now owned by a chimney sweep. 
 

Seeems a nice van, I’ve read good and bad about them and I know the little 1.3 CDTI can have injector issues so will make sure I give it a good look over but for Mrs JJ, I think it’s ideal. 
 

It’s going in next week to have the signwriting removed so at least that’s one less job!

Hopefully it will be cold when started up for you. If so, listen for a rattle from the timing chain area, which would be the tensioner taking up slack in a worn chain. If it's warmed listen very carefully for timing chain noise. That's another weak point.

[Zelandeth]

3 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

Woop! great to see the Trabant back its probably the most well sorted Trabant out there after your and @Andyrew's work  the best kind of well sorted, not so shiny on top that your scared of using it, but super well sorted underneath where it counts  and I am glad to hear you where able to get it into the historic vehicle taxation class in the end  (and its now ULEZ exempt too )

There's still a fairly decent to do list in terms of bodywork, but these were by far the most pressing areas of concern in terms of both being quite crispy and major structural areas - especially the cross member as basically the whole front end hangs off that.  Plan now is just to enjoy the car for the rest of the year really, probably get another round of bodywork done this sort of time next year.  Most likely then will pull the Duroplast rear quarters off and tackle anything hidden behind them (which will need to happen to deal with the corner of the boot floor) - at least all the metalwork involved in that lot is readily available ready made which hopefully should save a whole bunch of fabrication time.  Especially when you're dealing with things like the door shuts, wheel tubs and bottom of the B pillar which are pretty complex shapes.

It's never going to be a pretty car and that's never going to be my aim.  It will hopefully end up being a well sorted example both structurally and mechanically - even if by this point I could probably have bought two or three of them in decent shape with what's been poured into this scruffy one!  That's really not the point with things like this though is it?

[JJ0063]

8 minutes ago, artdjones said:

Hopefully it will be cold when started up for you. If so, listen for a rattle from the timing chain area, which would be the tensioner taking up slack in a worn chain. If it's warmed listen very carefully for timing chain noise. That's another weak point.

Yeah I remember chains being a bit of a weak point on them but from vague memory I don’t recall them being a hugely awful / expensive job on that engine? Honestly can’t remember.

[New POD]

9 hours ago, comfortablynumb said:

Anyone else get the feeling here that the main problem is the nut that holds the wheel?

I guess any amount of money can't make up for basic inability 

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/34487552/marcus-rashford-rolls-royce-crash-man-united-villa/

Can we have a rule on AS that we don't link to the Sun.?  

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=ft1ihjIH1S4&si=UiXWCBJVXmZ4JDhN

 

 

[artdjones]

17 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

Yeah I remember chains being a bit of a weak point on them but from vague memory I don’t recall them being a hugely awful / expensive job on that engine? Honestly can’t remember.

I think it's 4-5 hours plus parts. 

[Markeh]

8 hours ago, Popsicle said:

White vans are boring.

British gas blue goes with everything, MG even painted most of their HS's in the newer shade. I'm sure it would look fine, after all you want an advertising space to stand out from the crowd and attract attention.

We have a running joke at work (company owned by and primarily doing work for BG) that the blue vans are following us whenever we're not doing anything work-related to keep us in check.

[BorniteIdentity]

19 hours ago, Wibble said:

Some of you may know that I’m on a course at the moment with WBAC. Young lad on the same course was chatting last night and his late Grandad was involved in the design of Concorde. He got a call from his mum today, she’s found original blue prints rolled up in the loft and still sealed and thought she’d drop them into a charity shop. FUCKING NO! I said, get them to auction, but the right auction. He was only asking us older guys last night about Concorde , as he’s never seen it flying.

Duxford will likely buy them.  They have Concorde 101 in residence there and I imagine they would pay handsomely for these.

[Wibble]

14 minutes ago, BorniteIdentity said:

Duxford will likely buy them.  They have Concorde 101 in residence there and I imagine they would pay handsomely for these.

Thank you, that’s a good shout.

[Snake Charmer]

2 minutes ago, Wibble said:

Thank you, that’s a good shout.

Brooklands too.  Was the lads father Russian by any chance? 😁

[Wibble]

Just now, Snake Charmer said:

Brooklands too. 

Of course, thanks. He’s from Bristol, they have one and there’s another in a museum near Edinburgh.

[Snake Charmer]

Bidding war!

[Wibble]

6 minutes ago, Snake Charmer said:

Bidding war!

Could be! Just got to figure out how the hell to contact him now😆

[Bmwdumptruck]

On 24/03/2025 at 17:08, trigger said:

I had an identical one, 1.6L, back in about 1992/3. I’d been living in Devon and moved back home bringing a much nicer 1.6GL in that reddy brown colour they did, and a Montego Mayfair in dark metallic blue. Both classic repmobiles.  The Cav was by fair the nicer to drive on the whole, but the Montego came into it’s own on the motorways.  
Having been in the trade whilst in Devon I managed to do a deal back home, trading both for a very nice BX 19RD which I then sold back in Devon on my next visit back there.  I got a lift home with a lorry driver mate and spent the next few days desperately looking for a van to work from.  Nothing found so I bought the pale blue 1.6L 4 door.  Far from ideal for work, but at £250 it left me most of my cash for a van when I found one.  One of my neighbours was a trafpol vehicle examiner who immediately declared it a ringer, but agreed it wasn’t worth enough to be bothered to report it…….  
Great find there…. Can’t wait to see and hear all about it. 

[sdkrc]

Get yourself down to Primark ASAP where you can buy this shirt