The new news 24 thread

[barefoot]

Following on from my 'I'm a skint old bastard, how do I put off taxing the scirocco a bit' thread.

I nipped up to the post office this morning with my reminder, my mot, my certificate of insurance 

- not the schedule, that won't do at all - and a slightly crumpled cheque, dated the first of the month 

and do you know what?

Weren't remotely interested in checking my paperwork, the idle pair of bints.

I'll sort 'em

I got a complaint form to fill in for both of them

Don't want my last tax disc to turn out to be a dodgy one.

 

etc

 

I'll do the bloody van on Monday then update my horrendous spend thread

That's the best part of five hundred quid in a couple of days & for what?

 

To break my springs clattering along horrible horrible roads, 

there's an island near hear that's like driving across a ploughed field

 

and moreover...

[fordperv]

They don't check documents any more when taxing, it all flags up on the computer that your cars legal

[ruffgeezer]

Some shite spots in Somerset:

http://www.itv.com/news/update/2014-04-04/eight-cars-recovered-from-somerset-river/

 

What is the van?

[vulgalour]

Probably a Fiat Fiorino.  How long before they appear on eBay as a River Find?

[phil_lihp]

BBC coverage here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-26864254

 

Not sure what the big saloon is - Mk3 Granada?

[Ratdat]

Mazda 626 GT I reckon.

[Craig the Princess]

Alfa 164?

[dollywobbler]

Ratdat is right. Two door 626 thing.

 

In 2CV news, we keep finding more rot.

[phil_lihp]

Mazda 626 GT I reckon.

 

Now that's an obscure spotting but I think you're right:

 

[Ratdat]

It actually looks quite solid. I'd love to bust out the pressure washer on that and see how it looks under all that shit. Being and old Mazda, I expect it'd still go with a little fettling 

 

[beko1987]

Eels with teeth living in it though... no ta

[Junkman]

What on earth is the shite they used to pull them out with?

 

 

Reminds me of a Kramer Allrad.

 

[Skizzer]

I'm with Ratdat on this, get the pressure washer on them and they'll be good as new.  If not, stick 'em on the Bay.  Might even keep the Fiorino.

 

 

I also liked the bit where the Environment Agency guy says "[the cars] range from a Ford Escort to a Ford Fiesta.  Wow, that wide a range, eh?

 

Suggests the Environment Agency knows almost as much about cars as it does about managing drainage on the Somerset Levels.

[vulgalour]

I don't think the eels were literally crawling out of the cars, that would imply they had limbs and then they wouldn't be eels.  There is something very satisfying about dumped cars improving a wildlife habitat.

[Junkman]

The haunted Rover has a fresh ticket for the next 12 Months, however, it of c(o)urse did not go down without a fight.

I guess my resident tester had a hangover, since this time he failed it on the grounds, that the front passenger door can't be opened from the inside, which was the case for the last four MoTs as well, but never mentioned. Anyway, some latch adjustage did the trick and it now opens and closes like a vault door.

 

Other reasons for failure were a suddenly inoperative numberplate light (it worked as recently as yesterday evening) and - get this - emission, for crying out loud!

 

Not entirely sure, whether I fully comprehend, what exactly the latter matters in a car, that gulps the Planet's resources at a 14 mpg rate, burns a hole into the bloody ozone layer every time it's fired up, allegedly helps everyone save on his heating bill, is powered by dead Iraqi children, has killed countless kittens, nuns and butterflies, and is determined to do likewise with its current proprietor.

 

I just noticed, that I wrestle with this evil spirit for five years now, how is this for living on the edge? Nobody can accuse me of not being persistent.

It's the second longest I ever owned a car. Oh, and it's not for sale. Not for any money.

[Asimo]

464,824 new cars sold last month in UK.

That should release a flood of shit and a trickle of shite onto the market. That is more new cars than everything for sale on Autotrader.

[Ghosty]

Old Man's decided he doesn't want an 01-03 Civic Coupé, he wants the cheaper, faster 97-00 Civic 1.8 VTi 5dr.

[Richard]

Another annoying noise eliminated in the Volvo today, squeaky heater fan this time. I didn't get any pictures so I'll let Robert show you how I did it.

 

[Lacquer Peel]

Y U SO FULL OF SHITTY DESIGN VAG SHIT?

[Vin]

What on earth is the shite they used to pull them out with?

 

 

 

 

 

WOW!! It's a Unipower timber tractor, a 'Forester' maybe...not sure but...   Government Agencies should use them more often.

[Junkman]

I had to google this, and yes, it looks like you are right.

 

This is a Unipower Hannibal:

 

 

And it looks damn close to what is pictured in the article.

You mustard mitt though, that the Kramer is similarly shite, what with an air cooled Magirus Deutz engine and stuff.

[dollywobbler]

2CV back together again. It's slowly turning grey as I've been slapping zinc primer everywhere. What turned out as a small patch on the rear floor turned into rebuilding one side of the rear seat box, patching the floor and rebuilding the C post. To improve access, the rear suspension arm had to be removed. More pics tomorrow. Possibly. Bill in the end came to £220, for a heavy two days of solid work. I could throw a lot of money at this car. If I had it. A couple of grand would see it looking almost healthy.

[barefoot]

Frightening isn't it?

[derskine]

2CV back together again. It's slowly turning grey as I've been slapping zinc primer everywhere. What turned out as a small patch on the rear floor turned into rebuilding one side of the rear seat box, patching the floor and rebuilding the C post. To improve access, the rear suspension arm had to be removed. More pics tomorrow. Possibly. Bill in the end came to £220, for a heavy two days of solid work. I could throw a lot of money at this car. If I had it. A couple of grand would see it looking almost healthy.

 

You could, but that wouldn't be right.

Spend what's required, and anything left over spend on further shite vehicles.

[vulgalour]

I have developed a really strange problem with the beige Princess, it's one that I hope an Italian tune-up can resolve as I've not been using the car a lot over the last fortnight or so and have mainly been pottering which the car doesn't really like.

 

First engine start of the day it can take a while for the car to 'wake up' being quite sluggish and sometimes bogging down quite badly.  Then, all at once, it'll set off like a scalded cat and be fine for the rest of the journey.

 

Start the car after it's been parked for 15-60 minutes and usually it's fine.  Sometimes - especially if someone else has driven it, say at a garage in my absence - it runs on three, intermittently on four, won't idle, and cuts out.  Restart, give it some revs and it sort of clears its throat and you have to be a little heavier than usual on the throttle until once again it clears up and is fine.

 

Strangest of all, if I park the car at home on the drive or street, no matter for how long or short a time, it doesn't do this bizarre stubborn restarting and stalling thing.

 

The coolant smells like it should, there's no contamination.  The oil is oil coloured except for a tiny amount of what looks like very thin condensation contamination under the filler cap.  I can't recreate the problem reliably, sometimes the car does it for a few days in a row, sometimes it does it after a long run, sometimes it'll go weeks without offering any issues at all.

 

I'm absolutely stumped with this one and it's quite irritating.

[dollywobbler]

Pull the plugs out and see what they tell you. If they're all sooty, it's choking up.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I am sick to the back teeth of CRAP electrical tape. I bought a roll from B&Q for about £1.49 and it was stiff as hell and had absolutley ZERO adhesive properties. It was genuinely completely useless. They must shift hundreds of thousands of rolls of a product which is utterly unusable, the bastards. Then I just tried a few coloured rolls of tape that were lying around the unit, which were slightly better but were still toss. You know the stuff I mean, as when you take the radio out of your shite you find that some doofus has used loads of this stiff, unsticky tape for making the various crummy twisted wiring joints that are popular with bodgers. Inevitably it comes unstuck and unwinds itself. Wel this time I have spent SIX WHOLE QUID on a roll of 3M 'Super 88' electrical tape which actually seems to be very sticky, quite stretchy and not ridiculously stiff. I'm almost looking forward to investigating my Seat's door wiring AGAIN with this stuff in my hand.

[twosmoke300]

Scotch insulating tape is good stuff.

[philibusmo]

I may* have just bought another car.

 

* almost certainly have.

[Mr Livered]

Well?