The new news 24 thread

[reb]

On Friday I went to the funeral of my dad's lifelong best friend. We'd lost touch over the last couple of years, I'm feeling a certain amount of regret over not staying in contact. The attendance was good, and we completely filled the hotel the wake was held at. His family owned said hotel back in the day.

Dad was mentioned by name during the eulogy, which surprised my mum for some reason.

The floral arrangement on the coffin was in the shape of a Talbot Sunbeam. There was a Class 43 on the cover of the programme.

He had almost as much influence on me growing up as dad did. Some of my earliest memories are hanging out with the two of them at his cottage fucking around with cars. He's probably a big part of why I live on a farm today.

 

I don't know how to wrap this up, other than to quote his Instagram bio:

"You only live once. If you do it right, once is enough."

[High Jetter]

^^^ Liked for the sentiments, and your memories, not his passing or your regrets. Sounds like he was a smashing bloke.

[lesapandre]

2 hours ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

VW Amarok pickups are massive.

Big folk those Vikings too...

[grogee]

On 06/02/2026 at 17:43, Lord Sterling said:

Jag XJ has now been dropped off for welding work. As I'm in the middle of a working week, it was bloody cold and rainy going home this morning whereas I'm usually in the warm comfortable armchair of a Jag. 

Journey home was very straightforward though. 

Annoyingly though, the Jag XJ has developed an annoying fault. It thinks one of the passenger doors is open, and thus this morning, I had the interior light on all the way to Stourbridge. I also cannot lock the car on the fob and the interior light stays on ALL.OF.THE.BLOODY.TIME 😡

If I lock the car by key, the alarm will go off, which is what caused the issue I had last week with the local residents around where I parked it.

Its also a door card off job. 🙁

X351? @Cluffy has had similar issues 

[Gaffer]

On 30/01/2026 at 19:30, Gaffer said:

Here we go again…

Aaaaaand here’s the willing recipient finally back in the room after 11 months of storage. Just got to re-bearing the donor engine, clear some other workshop jobs (that actually make me money) and get over this fucking chest infection then she goes under the knife.

It’s a good job I love it, the bastard thing🤣

[Cluffy]

2 hours ago, grogee said:

X351? @Cluffy has had similar issues 

If it's a 351 the door card isn't difficult, thankfully. But it does sound like you need a new door actuator. Mine was different in that the drivers wouldn't lock off the fob, so had to go round the passenger side and reach across to push the handle. A pain in the backside, but more manageable than your situation I guess...

New actuator was about £220. A lot, but then it does a lot... If it's not the drivers one, it may be cheaper as the passenger ones are less complex... I wouldn't get a second hand one as they are vulnerable ... Just my two penneth...

[stuboy]

Popped to our Gillingham base to take out a driver for assessment,  how lovely the river medway is.... umm I do like to see they kept the gasometer thingy and this old wall.. sorry not really exciting 

[stuboy]

8 minutes ago, stuboy said:

Popped to our Gillingham base to take out a driver for assessment,  how lovely the river medway is.... umm I do like to see they kept the gasometer thingy and this old wall.. sorry not really exciting 

australian filter on.................. ffs

[ruffgeezer]

12 hours ago, stuboy said:

australian filter on.................. ffs

I was going to say, did they fail the assessment for flipping the Ambulance?  😄 

[New POD]

Spoke to my mother yesterday.  She informed me that last week she went to the funeral of an old friend.  Said the funny* thing was that it was exactly a year ago we buried your father. Same day. 

Ah... well I remembered the anniversary of his death 3 weeks before, but do we need to remember the anniversary of his funeral too ?  

[Split_Pin]

On 05/02/2026 at 20:04, Split_Pin said:

Hit and run on the Audi today.

The bumper was pulled forward so its worse than it looks, wing is pushed in and the mounts behind are all twisted so it won't push back on.

Thankfully there were several witnesses who took the reg so I called the police. Funnily enough the driver then surfaced, made a flimsy excuse and has agreed to pay me outside of insurance when she gets paid next week. I wish I'd asked for more now Ivl've seen the extent of the damage. Insurance will just put all 4 of my premiums up and write a good car off. She was keen to tell me there was 'thankfully' no damage to her car and that her excess was minimal should I decide to go down the route of insurance. 

I contacted the police again and extinguished the complaint.

I don't have a great deal of hope that the money will surface but what else can I do 😐

I am very surprised to say that £200 appeared in my bank account today. Can't say fairer than that.

[barefoot]

Watching episode 5 of Smiley's People last night - spotted an Audi 200 and a VW Fridolin in the same shot!

[ruffgeezer]

3 hours ago, New POD said:

Spoke to my mother yesterday.  She informed me that last week she went to the funeral of an old friend.  Said the funny* thing was that it was exactly a year ago we buried your father. Same day. 

Ah... well I remembered the anniversary of his death 3 weeks before, but do we need to remember the anniversary of his funeral too ?  

To quote Kae Tempest:-

"It’s true if you believe it
The world is the world
But it’s all how you see it
One man’s flash of lightning ripping through the air
Is another’s passing glare, hardly there"

Edited February 12 by ruffgeezer

[comfortablynumb]

On 11/02/2026 at 11:25, reb said:

On Friday I went to the funeral of my dad's lifelong best friend. We'd lost touch over the last couple of years, I'm feeling a certain amount of regret over not staying in contact. The attendance was good, and we completely filled the hotel the wake was held at. His family owned said hotel back in the day.

Dad was mentioned by name during the eulogy, which surprised my mum for some reason.

The floral arrangement on the coffin was in the shape of a Talbot Sunbeam. There was a Class 43 on the cover of the programme.

He had almost as much influence on me growing up as dad did. Some of my earliest memories are hanging out with the two of them at his cottage fucking around with cars. He's probably a big part of why I live on a farm today.

 

I don't know how to wrap this up, other than to quote his Instagram bio:

"You only live once. If you do it right, once is enough."

I went to my Godfathers funeral, who was my dad's best friend, about 6 months after dad died.

They were a pair of jokers

During the service, which had a screen in the church with the words of the hymn scrolling past, it suddenly froze, went blank,and then a grinning pic of my Godfather appeared!

My mum and dad were both mentioned in the eulogy too..

After the service, I was chatting to his daughter, about how they were playing tricks, and she told me that wasn't half of it. When they were putting together the order of service, they'd put a pic of my Godfather on the front, and once they'd completed it, and gone back to the front page, his pic had disappeared, and been replaced with one of my dad!

Thing was, she didn't have that pic on that computer...😱😁

[Fat_Pirate]

Remember that time we all missed the Supreme Cat Show?  Bad times.

[bunglebus]

Saab weld-a-thon continues. NSR needed a patch on the bottom of the sill and in the adjacent area under the floor near the suspension mount. There was already a patch at the sill end and in the inner arch, had to put a small plate in there I forgot to photograph. The patch was an omen...

That was last week. All I had to do today was fix a 50p size hole in the OSR inner arch. Of course that grew to a big hole that needed a two stage repair

That looks quite flat in the pic but it curves in multiple directions and was a pain to make the repair piece for. Unfortunately this fix revealed the end of the sill where it joins the inner arch to be a bit crumbly, so I gave it a tickle with the clean up disc

Oh, that's a quarter inch of filler over another patch

Oh dear

Oh dear oh dear

Cutting the "easy to repair" section out revealed the inner arch is rotten too

All fixable but the corn flakes inside the sill indicate there's more to come, only the centre of the sill is available and the end looks like a right bastard to make, I'm no metal worker and only have basic tools to try and shape stuff 

[beko1987]

On 09/02/2026 at 08:15, beko1987 said:

We have a teaspoon shortage in the house. I'm 96% sure the kids are throwing them in the bin whilst scraping plates or eating them but either way we're down to 3 and their shit ones.

After a beer or 2 I went onto ebay and found the perfect replacement set

Should last for a while, their all different places in the uk apparently (seller has tons of listing for different countries of spoon in job lots too. I assume someone's undiagnosed adhd gran sadly passed not long ago...)

They came! Their a bit smaller than I'd like, but they'll all be lost by the summer so 🤷

I used the Arundel spoon to stir my coffee tonight, will let Charlie open them all up and see what there is tomorrow 

[Snake Charmer]

2 hours ago, bunglebus said:

All I had to do today was fix a 50p size hole in the OSR inner arch. Of course that grew to a big hole

Ten Bob soon grows to £200 today in welding terms! 

[barefoot]

My Rover failed to start about a week ago. Ignition lights but nothing more. I spoke to my man with the Rover shaped spanners who said he'd pop round when he was in the area. Lovely chap, he nipped round last night on his way home from work, moved the gear selector from R to P, fired it up and went home laughing his fucking socks off. I suspect that a bottle of nice wine may well be in order.

[stuboy]

 

 

 

Decided id check the hose from Tb to airbox as içx̌ts known too split , fiddly to get as , mines thankfully ok. Notice tb butterfly was dirty, gave that a clean.. and replaced  headlight bulbs too.. oh yeah used some mer trim for bumper. Arches etc etc

[Split_Pin]

A Grinder And Paint Make Me the Welder I Am Not.

Rotten drain hole on the 75:

Cut it out and painted the inside.

Made a patch and welded it in.

I haven't used my welder for almost 10 months but after a bit of fucking about trying to get a good ground point, it went OK.

[4wheeledstool]

After a couple of weeks glueing rusty Transits back together, something more interesting to work on comes as a welcome relief. 😃

[IronStar]

32 minutes ago, 4wheeledstool said:

After a couple of weeks glueing rusty Transits back together, something more interesting to work on comes as a welcome relief. 😃

I love the rear window louvers!!!

[stuboy]

6 hours ago, stuboy said:

 

 

 

Decided id check the hose from Tb to airbox as içx̌ts known too split , fiddly to get as , mines thankfully ok. Notice tb butterfly was dirty, gave that a clean.. and replaced  headlight bulbs too.. oh yeah used some mer trim for bumper. Arches etc etc

So far bulbs brighter..

[Joey spud]

Live band in the local.

[High Jetter]

Drummer's hiding...or at the bar 😀

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, IronStar said:

I love the rear window louvers!!!

Autoplas, IIRC. Maybe Richard Grant.

[Joey spud]

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

Drummer's hiding...or at the bar 😀

No he is behind the bass player honest.

[richardmorris]

Pierrepont farm, Frensham this morning.

[grogee]

 

I fitted these to my Mondeo. 

I'm sure you would all agree that 'Beamfly' has a proud history of LED manufacturing and is a name to be trusted. 

They have a little fan on the back so I'm debating whether to drill some vent holes in the plastic lid that sits on the back of the headlamp assembly. 

So far, would strongly recommend. Excellent penetration and I'm no longer left guessing where the road goes when a modern comes towards me.