The new news 24 thread

[auntiemaryscanary]

And we're home 

It did the 137 miles back perfectly. A fine example of a nice little well designed car. Nippy and fun. The comically huge blade on the single pantograph wiper makes me smile, in fact the whole car does.

We called in at the sis-in-law's and hubby's on the way back. They gave daughter a Dunlop pressure gauge in original 60's card box plus a tyre inflator and can of gloop from an Audi. They've just had a Build Ya Dreams Seal - not for me ta.

Daughter used a petrol pump and paid for the fuel for the 1st time - just a shame it was with dad's money

I'll get it fully insured in the week and in the meantime dtr and I will clean it inside and out and dtr can start learning how to check fluid levels and how to use the pressure gauge and inflator. She can also walk to the Post Office to get some magnetic L plates. She has to wait 51 days to legally drive it.

I might have to see if I can find a private road so dtr can make her 107 move under her control.

Didn't bother with a collection caper (abridged: Captur drove us all to @wuvvum's, Mrs amc and youngest came back in the Renault whilst eldest daughter and I returned in 107. Food and drink consumed. PC : N/A cuz family)

Further thanks to @wuvvum for being an all round good egg and leaving a half tank of 4* in it. PS he's got some lovely motors.

[gm]

59 minutes ago, auntiemaryscanary said:

magnetic L plates

good luck finding somewhere to stick them on at the back  

looks like a great wee car, we bought ours from Paulplom for my nephew to learn in, he loves it

 

[Brigsy]

Busy ish day today.

Blue dci oil change first thing. 20 min job.

Then checked pressures and fluids on the fleet. Gym for a quick push session.

Weather held out until mid afternoon so fitted a boost gauge and done a fuelling check on my mates Astra vxr. Dug out my old skool Innovate Lm-1 and sniffer clamp to do some logging/pulls. All good, quick at 320hp.

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

It’s not a Crayford conversion- any clues whose work it is?

Why do you say that? Most likely culprits, i'd have thought.

[wuvvum]

3 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Stop #1 achieved, probably their longest driving day from Calais down to The Loire near Saumur, avoiding the clean air zone in Rouen.....

Pain in the arse that clean air zone!  Did they end up having to head west to the Pont de Brotonne?  That's what I had to do last year in the Rover.

[alcyonecorporation]

5 hours ago, Sigmund Fraud said:

It's a bit more complicated that that...

The Polonez was actually based on the Fiat 125, which combined the cabin and Twin Cam engine from the Fiat 124 with the floorpan and running gear of the Fiat 1500. The 125 therefore had rear drum brakes, rather than the discs used in the 124.

Now, the comrades at FSO were keen to make their new car cheaper to build, so replaced the Twin Cam with the ancient OHV from the 1500, and also simplified quite a few design details of the 125. But they would not compromise on braking, so actually chose to install rear discs in their car, rather than the drums of the original !

 

[wuvvum]

Didn't tackle any major jobs this weekend but did some pottering type bits on the fleet.  First job was to sort the minor diesel leak on the Rover - appeared to be coming from the fuel line into the underbonnet pump.  Poking around revealed that the line had gone rather soft and the original crimp-type retaining clip wasn't holding it in position very tightly.  So I persuaded the old clip off with the aid of assorted screwdrivers, snipped the last couple of cm off the pipe and reattached it using a proper screw-type clip - so far it appears to be doing the job.

Next job was to try and sort the centre exhaust mounting on the Renault 6 - the "cotton reel" hanger had broken so I fitted a replacement, but the bracket on the exhaust was way out of line with the hanger.  I could lever it across but that was then putting way too much strain on the rear mount.  So I had a rummage around in my box of "useful bits" and found one of those crappy little spanners you get sometimes with cheap tat from eBay that needs assembling.  Two of the holes were exactly the right distance apart, one just needed drilling out slightly to fit an M6 bolt.  Quick bit of hacksaw action to chop off the bit that wasn't needed and hey presto I had a bracket - very bodgy but it works.

Then I had a go at adjusting the idle mixture.  It was managing to idle with the choke off purely by virtue of the fact that the idle screw was wound way in, which wasn't ideal, so I broke out the HBOL and had a go at doing it properly.  The 6 has separate air and fuel screws, and the idea is to wind the fuel screw until the engine reaches maximum rpm, then use the air screw to bring it down to idle speed, then repeat until the maximum and idle speeds are one and the same.  Unfortunately the 53-year-old carburettor didn't respond entirely by the book to the adjustments I was making, but it's better than it was and I've been able to back the idle screw right off.

The other job to do on the 6 was to try and find out where water is getting into the cabin, and I think I've sussed it - there's two possible points of entry, one of which I've sorted, the other will need further looking at - there was some ancient expanding foam in the gap in question which was no longer doing anything much, so I've dug it out and bought a can of foam to redo it (closed cell stuff so it shouldn't get waterlogged), but I'm going to wait until things dry out properly before attempting it.  Next door's cat came to assist, which was nice of it.

Then it started raining so I moved onto the two "indoor" jobs.  First was to make up a new brake pipe for the Volvo, but that stalled when I realised that the unions I have in the drawer are metric and the Volvo uses 3/8 UNF.  So I'm going to need to pop into the motor factors tomorrow. 

Second indoor job was to have a play with the broken headlight from the Leaf and attempt to extricate the DRL gubbins, as the DRL on the replacement headlight isn't working properly.  I've got the bottom LED out OK but the top one is going to require me to attack the headlight unit with a hacksaw, so that'll have to wait until a later date.

Then @auntiemaryscanary and family arrived to buy the 107 - the rain still hadn't let off by then though so I had to wait until after tea to do the last job of the evening, which was to clear out the boot of the Volvo - there was a lot of heavy crap in there (old brake discs, calipers, suspension bits etc) and it was making the back of the car sag somewhat.  It looks slightly happier now.  I might be taking it to a show (of sorts) next weekend, which will be the first time it's been to any kind of classic event in about 20 years.

[wuvvum]

2 hours ago, auntiemaryscanary said:

A fine example of a nice little well designed car. Nippy and fun.

I know I sound like a broken record but the Citybugs are a fantastic bit of design.  Far more competent as all round transport than a 1-litre city car has any right to be.  I took my last one to Devon and back in a weekend and apart from being slightly noisier it was no more effort than if I'd gone in the Carina.

Great to meet you all, sorry the weather was so dismal!

[BorniteIdentity]

32 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

I know I sound like a broken record but the Citybugs are a fantastic bit of design.  Far more competent as all round transport than a 1-litre city car has any right to be.  I took my last one to Devon and back in a weekend and apart from being slightly noisier it was no more effort than if I'd gone in the Carina.

Great to meet you all, sorry the weather was so dismal!

I’m still shocked that you actually managed to sell a car! I was banking on it still being available in December for me! 
 

Well done. 

[MrGTI6]

3 hours ago, auntiemaryscanary said:

And we're home 

It did the 137 miles back perfectly. A fine example of a nice little well designed car. Nippy and fun. The comically huge blade on the single pantograph wiper makes me smile, in fact the whole car does.

We called in at the sis-in-law's and hubby's on the way back. They gave daughter a Dunlop pressure gauge in original 60's card box plus a tyre inflator and can of gloop from an Audi. They've just had a Build Ya Dreams Seal - not for me ta.

Daughter used a petrol pump and paid for the fuel for the 1st time - just a shame it was with dad's money

I'll get it fully insured in the week and in the meantime dtr and I will clean it inside and out and dtr can start learning how to check fluid levels and how to use the pressure gauge and inflator. She can also walk to the Post Office to get some magnetic L plates. She has to wait 51 days to legally drive it.

I might have to see if I can find a private road so dtr can make her 107 move under her control.

Didn't bother with a collection caper (abridged: Captur drove us all to @wuvvum's, Mrs amc and youngest came back in the Renault whilst eldest daughter and I returned in 107. Food and drink consumed. PC : N/A cuz family)

Further thanks to @wuvvum for being an all round good egg and leaving a half tank of 4* in it. PS he's got some lovely motors.

Well bought. Fantastic little cars and about as expensive to run as a push bike! 

[DVee8]

8 hours ago, auntiemaryscanary said:

And we're home 

It did the 137 miles back perfectly. A fine example of a nice little well designed car. Nippy and fun. The comically huge blade on the single pantograph wiper makes me smile, in fact the whole car does.

We called in at the sis-in-law's and hubby's on the way back. They gave daughter a Dunlop pressure gauge in original 60's card box plus a tyre inflator and can of gloop from an Audi. They've just had a Build Ya Dreams Seal - not for me ta.

Daughter used a petrol pump and paid for the fuel for the 1st time - just a shame it was with dad's money

I'll get it fully insured in the week and in the meantime dtr and I will clean it inside and out and dtr can start learning how to check fluid levels and how to use the pressure gauge and inflator. She can also walk to the Post Office to get some magnetic L plates. She has to wait 51 days to legally drive it.

I might have to see if I can find a private road so dtr can make her 107 move under her control.

Didn't bother with a collection caper (abridged: Captur drove us all to @wuvvum's, Mrs amc and youngest came back in the Renault whilst eldest daughter and I returned in 107. Food and drink consumed. PC : N/A cuz family)

Further thanks to @wuvvum for being an all round good egg and leaving a half tank of 4* in it. PS he's got some lovely motors.

I got magnetic plates for N01 son when he was learning. Due to forward motion, they blew off a few times. We ended up circling back to collect them. We ended up with the laced ones around the grill, 

 

 

 

[Spottedlaurel]

6 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Pain in the arse that clean air zone!  Did they end up having to head west to the Pont de Brotonne?  That's what I had to do last year in the Rover.

They turned off before Rouen and headed through the countryside to the east, past the airport, then joined the A13 a bit earlier. I'd probably have done what you suggest, or even made a thing of it and turned off earlier and gone cross-country to the A28 (but that's because of the increased spotting potential, and I'd turn a 4hr journey into someting taking all day).

They're heading off to Ile-de-Ré today, I think avoiding the autoroutes from now on as they have a series of shorter journeys. Spending a couple of nights there, hopefuly not too rainy.....

[paulplom]

9 hours ago, gm said:

good luck finding somewhere to stick them on at the back  

looks like a great wee car, we bought ours from Paulplom for my nephew to learn in, he loves it

 

I cabled tied Owen's L plate to the rear wiper.

[chadders]

9 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Didn't tackle any major jobs this weekend but did some pottering type bits on the fleet.  First job was to sort the minor diesel leak on the Rover - appeared to be coming from the fuel line into the underbonnet pump.  Poking around revealed that the line had gone rather soft and the original crimp-type retaining clip wasn't holding it in position very tightly.  So I persuaded the old clip off with the aid of assorted screwdrivers, snipped the last couple of cm off the pipe and reattached it using a proper screw-type clip - so far it appears to be doing the job.

Next job was to try and sort the centre exhaust mounting on the Renault 6 - the "cotton reel" hanger had broken so I fitted a replacement, but the bracket on the exhaust was way out of line with the hanger.  I could lever it across but that was then putting way too much strain on the rear mount.  So I had a rummage around in my box of "useful bits" and found one of those crappy little spanners you get sometimes with cheap tat from eBay that needs assembling.  Two of the holes were exactly the right distance apart, one just needed drilling out slightly to fit an M6 bolt.  Quick bit of hacksaw action to chop off the bit that wasn't needed and hey presto I had a bracket - very bodgy but it works.

Then I had a go at adjusting the idle mixture.  It was managing to idle with the choke off purely by virtue of the fact that the idle screw was wound way in, which wasn't ideal, so I broke out the HBOL and had a go at doing it properly.  The 6 has separate air and fuel screws, and the idea is to wind the fuel screw until the engine reaches maximum rpm, then use the air screw to bring it down to idle speed, then repeat until the maximum and idle speeds are one and the same.  Unfortunately the 53-year-old carburettor didn't respond entirely by the book to the adjustments I was making, but it's better than it was and I've been able to back the idle screw right off.

The other job to do on the 6 was to try and find out where water is getting into the cabin, and I think I've sussed it - there's two possible points of entry, one of which I've sorted, the other will need further looking at - there was some ancient expanding foam in the gap in question which was no longer doing anything much, so I've dug it out and bought a can of foam to redo it (closed cell stuff so it shouldn't get waterlogged), but I'm going to wait until things dry out properly before attempting it.  Next door's cat came to assist, which was nice of it.

Then it started raining so I moved onto the two "indoor" jobs.  First was to make up a new brake pipe for the Volvo, but that stalled when I realised that the unions I have in the drawer are metric and the Volvo uses 3/8 UNF.  So I'm going to need to pop into the motor factors tomorrow. 

Second indoor job was to have a play with the broken headlight from the Leaf and attempt to extricate the DRL gubbins, as the DRL on the replacement headlight isn't working properly.  I've got the bottom LED out OK but the top one is going to require me to attack the headlight unit with a hacksaw, so that'll have to wait until a later date.

Then @auntiemaryscanary and family arrived to buy the 107 - the rain still hadn't let off by then though so I had to wait until after tea to do the last job of the evening, which was to clear out the boot of the Volvo - there was a lot of heavy crap in there (old brake discs, calipers, suspension bits etc) and it was making the back of the car sag somewhat.  It looks slightly happier now.  I might be taking it to a show (of sorts) next weekend, which will be the first time it's been to any kind of classic event in about 20 years.

Which show are you talking about?

[EyesWeldedShut]

10 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Why do you say that? Most likely culprits, i'd have thought.

A young lady of my acquaintance had one of the Crayford ones , boot was the standard Fiesta one, cut down then welded shut to help brace the car.

Not very convenient but, when you’re young and daddy was buying?

 Hers looked like this one

 

[adw1977]

Yes, there's pics of several of these Crayford Fiestas on Flickr and they all have the standard lights, I don't think Crayford were in the habit of introducing bits of other cars into their conversions.

The rear end of the one @stuboy posted here reminds me of a Peugeot 305.  Looks reasonably well done and appears to have a functioning boot, at the expense of rear seat space.

Crayford from a similar angle:

Original photo by Andrew 2.8i on Flickr

[JJ0063]

Had a random WhatsApp today from a wrong number but I replied, made me smile that there’s still decent people that will have a laugh nowadays. 

[Ghosty]

206 was bought by someone on my Instagram for £asking, and paid for me to deliver it to them. 

Train back left me a very convenient 61 minutes delayed, which means I should get a full refund on my ticket too

Shuttle is paid for in full and being collected on Wednesday. 

Paid off a fuckton of bills and levelled myself out financially  - with both my five door cars gone, and a little breathing room, I started looking for a replacement practical/no fucks given car as the 206 had proved to be incredibly handy, just a little too small. It's me, I need something for bikes, camping, moving irresponsible Marketplace purchases things around, taking some mileage off the MX5, just a general 'lifestyle vehicle'. 

Okay fine, I started looking last week.

I had something saved on Marketplace that looked reasonable for £1500, then the price dropped to £1250.

I was setting myself up to enquire about it, and while mulling it over, the price dropped again to £1k, so I've asked to go and view it as it's not massively far away.  
The spec is unusually generous for the body style, and it ticks all of my boxes. 
Low mileage, petrol, velour seats, a/c, and it's possible to add cruise. 11 months ticket! 

I'm going tomorrow after work, seller has even agreed to pick me up from the train station (4 miles away - very welcome).

[danthecapriman]

I’m staying at a cottage in Wales for the week just as a little break. 
While the place is alright (would make a lovely house to be honest!) it’s a bit grubby in places and in need of some decorating and a really good strip out and deep cleaning.

I was having a look around earlier in some of the cupboards (I’m nosey!) and so far found a bottle of Soy sauce which expired in 2013. A bottle of eye wash in the medical kit with an expiry date of 2010. A bottle of Dettol disinfectant expired in 1998. But then found this… 

Which was also in the medicine cupboard!😄 

Not good.

Just found this too.

Thats the only extinguisher in the building.

[Ghosty]

First train cancelled. 
 

I’m on split advance tickets so it’s time for a load of unnecessary bullshit explaining that to any ticket inspectors now - but it means Delay Repay and I know my rights so it’s all a laugh, right? 

[loserone]

6 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Not good.

What's wrong with old TCP? My bottle is used regularly and has a similar date on

[danthecapriman]

Just now, loserone said:

What's wrong with old TCP? My bottle is used regularly and has a similar date on

I’m sure it’s probably ok, but imagine if a guest had to use it then got an infection or something then it turned out the 30 year out of date was used it might not look great on the owner.

[richardmorris]

Next French Car meeting at Blackbushe Airport on Saturday.

Meeting @ Blackbushe Airport GU17 9LQ  this Saturday  26th July morning 08.00-1pm (French car Drivers)

last month had several tractions, 2cv, c6, ds, c5 etc.

[richardmorris]

48 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

I’m sure it’s probably ok, but imagine if a guest had to use it then got an infection or something then it turned out the 30 year out of date was used it might not look great on the owner.

That even beats the bottle of Worcestershire sauce I finished last year with a ‘99 expiry.

[danthecapriman]

Some nice old furniture here though. I’ve no idea what exactly it is, but it’s lovely. Maybe @Wibble might know?

 
The outer walls to the building are incredibly thick too, really old stone built building.

 

[catsinthewelder]

I was visiting my dad last year and stupidly tried to keep up with my 20 year old son climbing some rocks so inevitably arrived back covered in scrapes so a bottle of Dettol was dragged out of a cupboard which after using it I realised was the same bottle we used when I was growing up complete with a best before 1996.

Didn't die, its fine.

[Wibble]

5 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Some nice old furniture here though. I’ve no idea what exactly it is, but it’s lovely. Maybe @Wibble might know?

 
The outer walls to the building are incredibly thick too, really old stone built building.

 

French Empire chest of drawers/commode. Shame about the marble, potentially quite valuable.

[N19]

1 hour ago, danthecapriman said:

I’m staying at a cottage in Wales for the week just as a little break. 
While the place is alright (would make a lovely house to be honest!) it’s a bit grubby in places and in need of some decorating and a really good strip out and deep cleaning.

I was having a look around earlier in some of the cupboards (I’m nosey!) and so far found a bottle of Soy sauce which expired in 2013. A bottle of eye wash in the medical kit with an expiry date of 2010. A bottle of Dettol disinfectant expired in 1998. But then found this… 

Which was also in the medicine cupboard!😄 

Not good.

Just found this too.

Thats the only extinguisher in the building.

And it looks to either be water or foam! Powder would probably be more appropriate. 

 

As to TCP... I visited a nuclear bunker in Essex that's run as a cold war museum last year. They had little dishes of it everywhere in the mockup surgery area for appropriate smell!

[danthecapriman]

17 minutes ago, Wibble said:

French Empire chest of drawers/commode. Shame about the marble, potentially quite valuable.

I knew you’d know!😄

It’s lovely, that set of drawers. I’d just love to know exactly what’s under the marble top.

The place is full of old stuff though.

This is that little box thing on top of that chest of drawers,

 
That has a little manufacturer label inside.

 
The box under the cabinet is an old writing set with ink bottles inside.

 

[Wibble]

13 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

I knew you’d know!😄

It’s lovely, that set of drawers. I’d just love to know exactly what’s under the marble top.

The place is full of old stuff though.

This is that little box thing on top of that chest of drawers,

 
That has a little manufacturer label inside.

 
The box under the cabinet is an old writing set with ink bottles inside.

 

The box is a writing slope with stationery cabinet. Certainly some nice pieces there.

The damaged marble is a classic example of poor handling. When moving it, the marble should be slid forward so you can get your fingers under the front edge and lift it up, so it’s upright and then carried like that. This has clearly been lifted flat by someone at each end, so it’s broken through the middle. Always made sure any new guys working for me were taught this from the outset. Enjoy your break Dan!