The new news 24 thread

[Joey spud]

I've been looking for a cheap stool for use in my workshop but everything I like is either too expensive or too far away.

Then the other day I was walking past the pub and they had put outside a couple of tired bar stools.

This was the best one so carried it home tightened up the joints and gave it a really good clean.

There you go just what I needed although I might take an inch off the legs.

[Sunny Jim]

Today's office.

Looking after people going in here to survey a 2km long tunnel between reservoirs.

At least that was the plan...

You'll notice that there's still quite a lot of water for a tunnel that's supposed to be drained. Just behind my colleague in the picture there's a sump that was still chest deep in water; way too deep for the survey team who were only in waders to pass through. In someone's waders fill up and they fall over it's bloody difficult to get them back on their feet.

Cue much scratching of heads, the isolations had been checked as part of our RAMS and were in place. Someone then thought to check the valve that was supposed to have been opened a few days ago to allow the water to drain from the tunnel. 

Whoever had been sent to do it missed the dirty great drain valve and instead opened a tap on a piece of 15mm pipe that had been installed so contractors could have a hose pipe when mixing cement. What must have through their mind? How on earth did they think a 2km long 1.5m diameter tunnel would drain through a 15mm pipe?

Even with the proper valve opened it'll still take over 24 hours to drain. An expensive mistake given that the fourteen people involved will all now have to come back another day.

Worse places to be though.

[High Jetter]

30 minutes ago, Sunny Jim said:

Whoever had been sent to do it missed the dirty great drain valve and instead opened a tap on a piece of 15mm pipe that had been installed so contractors could have a hose pipe when mixing cement. What must have through their mind? How on earth did they think a 2km long 1.5m diameter tunnel would drain through a 15mm pipe?

That made me chuckle having drained an effing big commercial tank using a garden hosepipe - that took days.

[Split_Pin]

12 hours ago, Sunny Jim said:

Today's office.

Looking after people going in here to survey a 2km long tunnel between reservoirs.

At least that was the plan...

You'll notice that there's still quite a lot of water for a tunnel that's supposed to be drained. Just behind my colleague in the picture there's a sump that was still chest deep in water; way too deep for the survey team who were only in waders to pass through. In someone's waders fill up and they fall over it's bloody difficult to get them back on their feet.

Cue much scratching of heads, the isolations had been checked as part of our RAMS and were in place. Someone then thought to check the valve that was supposed to have been opened a few days ago to allow the water to drain from the tunnel. 

Whoever had been sent to do it missed the dirty great drain valve and instead opened a tap on a piece of 15mm pipe that had been installed so contractors could have a hose pipe when mixing cement. What must have through their mind? How on earth did they think a 2km long 1.5m diameter tunnel would drain through a 15mm pipe?

Even with the proper valve opened it'll still take over 24 hours to drain. An expensive mistake given that the fourteen people involved will all now have to come back another day.

Worse places to be though.

Looks like you have an ace job though!

[lesapandre]

[Datsuncog]

On 05/05/2026 at 19:59, Split_Pin said:

Did the Rockin' Rolla pass in the end?

I'm hoping they'll start giving me frequent flyer points... 

Hopefully this should only be a formality. 

Hopefully. 

[Split_Pin]

Rootin' for the 'Rolla!

[Datsuncog]

Yaaaaassss

That'll do. 

The tester made a point of telling me it's some of the best welding he's seen in a very long time! 

Just the Avensis to sort, now... 

[Split_Pin]

Yaas! No advisory items either!!

[stuboy]

Nowt exciting... washed the hondura with washing up liquid... shock horror.. if wasn't £445 road tax and have a cam tapping id keep it.. does brush up well...

[Snake Charmer]

11 hours ago, lesapandre said:

Poor old Attenborough having to share a front page with all the other tits.

[Popsicle]

D minus 7k and counting.

[trigger]

Recent car stuff. I entered the Ipswich to Felixstowe car run last Sunday with the Manta, it started off as a lovely day...

I didn't take many photos of the 800 odd vehicles on the run but theses were some of my favourites.

This Borgward Isabella was amazing, a real time capsule.

After this I joined in with the run and unfortunately that's when things went tits up, as you can imagine with 800 vehicles in a convoy through Ipswich things are very slow and the Manta wasn't living it's best life, it was suffering from vapour lock and was constantly cutting out, there's a crap design where the exhaust manifold is directly under the inlet manifold and the carb gets hot evaporating the fuel too quickly.

I made it about 8 miles before I gave up, randomly I pulled over next to a old work mate so I chatted to him for a bit until a Rover P6 V8 pulled up next to me with the same issue! After 30 mines both cars had cooled down enough but we both went home and called it a day

[trigger]

Also this week the Manta went in for a MOT, I know it's exempt but I think it's important to still get them checked over

Thankfully it went through with no advisories, it's in remarkably good condition this car but I'm probably going to eBay it over the weekend as I really don't like the automatic gearbox in it, there's nothing actually wrong with it, it's just a preference thing but I prefer changing gears with older cars.

I also got the MR2 booked in for some bodywork, £1800+vat, I must need my head testing.

Next I can't post too much at the moment but I have a mate who buys a lot of barn find cars and I'm always round helping getting them started or prepped for auction, it's pretty good fun as I get to piss about with them without the financial hit!

This week we worked on a Vitesse which had been in a wet garage since 1981 and is absolutely hanging

A Austin 1800 which was last taxed in 1995, which is a nice project but needs all new hydraulics, no brakes, no clutch etc, a bit of welding and the tyres had disintegrated. It still has the caravan club stickers over it!

And more interestingly this beautiful 1982 Escort 1.3L which has been in a dry garage since 1987 and only has 36000 miles which I'm seriously considering buying as my next project as I'm a weak idiot for that kind of stuff. It's immaculate under the dust.

[beko1987]

5 hours ago, trigger said:

Also this week the Manta went in for a MOT, I know it's exempt but I think it's important to still get them checked over

Thankfully it went through with no advisories, it's in remarkably good condition this car but I'm probably going to eBay it over the weekend as I really don't like the automatic gearbox in it, there's nothing actually wrong with it, it's just a preference thing but I prefer changing gears with older cars.

I also got the MR2 booked in for some bodywork, £1800+vat, I must need my head testing.

Next I can't post too much at the moment but I have a mate who buys a lot of barn find cars and I'm always round helping getting them started or prepped for auction, it's pretty good fun as I get to piss about with them without the financial hit!

This week we worked on a Vitesse which had been in a wet garage since 1981 and is absolutely hanging

A Austin 1800 which was last taxed in 1995, which is a nice project but needs all new hydraulics, no brakes, no clutch etc, a bit of welding and the tyres had disintegrated. It still has the caravan club stickers over it!

And more interestingly this beautiful 1982 Escort 1.3L which has been in a dry garage since 1987 and only has 36000 miles which I'm seriously considering buying as my next project as I'm a weak idiot for that kind of stuff. It's immaculate under the dust.

Its been off the road as long as i've been alive 😂 

Escort looks in far better condition... 

[artdjones]

8 hours ago, trigger said:

Also this week the Manta went in for a MOT, I know it's exempt but I think it's important to still get them checked over

Thankfully it went through with no advisories, it's in remarkably good condition this car but I'm probably going to eBay it over the weekend as I really don't like the automatic gearbox in it, there's nothing actually wrong with it, it's just a preference thing but I prefer changing gears with older cars.

I also got the MR2 booked in for some bodywork, £1800+vat, I must need my head testing.

Next I can't post too much at the moment but I have a mate who buys a lot of barn find cars and I'm always round helping getting them started or prepped for auction, it's pretty good fun as I get to piss about with them without the financial hit!

This week we worked on a Vitesse which had been in a wet garage since 1981 and is absolutely hanging

A Austin 1800 which was last taxed in 1995, which is a nice project but needs all new hydraulics, no brakes, no clutch etc, a bit of welding and the tyres had disintegrated. It still has the caravan club stickers over it!

And more interestingly this beautiful 1982 Escort 1.3L which has been in a dry garage since 1987 and only has 36000 miles which I'm seriously considering buying as my next project as I'm a weak idiot for that kind of stuff. It's immaculate under the dust.

Buy the Escort. This is just the kind of thing you are good at bringing back to showroom condition.

I don't like them much, but it's always good to have immaculate examples of every car around.

[beko1987]

Since one of our budgies passed a couple of weeks ago the remaining one has been very quiet and mopey. Picked her up a friend this morning from a lady in Thame 

I want to call her Windows 95 but Eva says no. 

The lady also had a tiny kitten, which Eva loved

But i said no 😂😺 

[loserone]

There's a bit of bargaining to do there Eva

[beko1987]

23 minutes ago, loserone said:

There's a bit of bargaining to do there Eva

She has a conure she'd inherited from her dad too but I made myself not ask. I miss my one I had but ive not got the household for one atm, I'd go back to letting it get tons of bad habits like Phoenix did 😂 

[trigger]

4 hours ago, artdjones said:

Buy the Escort. This is just the kind of thing you are good at bringing back to showroom condition.

I don't like them much, but it's always good to have immaculate examples of every car around.

I agree, it know I can make a nice car out of it which i find highly rewarding, even if the end result is still a miserable Mk3 Escort! 😂

I've chucked the Manta up on eBay so I can get it in the garage!

https://ebay.us/m/41vHDW

[artdjones]

26 minutes ago, trigger said:

I agree, it know I can make a nice car out of it which i find highly rewarding, even if the end result is still a miserable Mk3 Escort! 😂

I've chucked the Manta up on eBay so I can get it in the garage!

https://ebay.us/m/41vHDW

Someone will love the miserable thing when you have finished with it.

[chadders]

33 minutes ago, trigger said:

I agree, it know I can make a nice car out of it which i find highly rewarding, even if the end result is still a miserable Mk3 Escort! 😂

I've chucked the Manta up on eBay so I can get it in the garage!

https://ebay.us/m/41vHDW

I quite liked my 1.6GL which was my first company car, NGC207Y.

The main fault was it used to tramline on quite a bit of the A1 during my trips back North.

[trigger]

It's actually very similar to my last MK3 being a 1.3 L but that was a 5 door, and it was £500! Different times I guess!

[danthecapriman]

14 hours ago, trigger said:

Also this week the Manta went in for a MOT, I know it's exempt but I think it's important to still get them checked over

Thankfully it went through with no advisories, it's in remarkably good condition this car but I'm probably going to eBay it over the weekend as I really don't like the automatic gearbox in it, there's nothing actually wrong with it, it's just a preference thing but I prefer changing gears with older cars.

I also got the MR2 booked in for some bodywork, £1800+vat, I must need my head testing.

Next I can't post too much at the moment but I have a mate who buys a lot of barn find cars and I'm always round helping getting them started or prepped for auction, it's pretty good fun as I get to piss about with them without the financial hit!

This week we worked on a Vitesse which had been in a wet garage since 1981 and is absolutely hanging

A Austin 1800 which was last taxed in 1995, which is a nice project but needs all new hydraulics, no brakes, no clutch etc, a bit of welding and the tyres had disintegrated. It still has the caravan club stickers over it!

And more interestingly this beautiful 1982 Escort 1.3L which has been in a dry garage since 1987 and only has 36000 miles which I'm seriously considering buying as my next project as I'm a weak idiot for that kind of stuff. It's immaculate under the dust.

I wonder what the story is with that Escort?

Strange to put a 5 year old car in a garage and leave it there. It would have had quite a bit of financial value at 5 years old so there must have been a reason to keep it like that? 
Looks a great project car though👍

Someone I used to know had an A reg 1.3 L 3 door in Rio brown. He started restoring it but lost interest and sold it on eBay. It’s now yet another OMGCOSSIERSREPLICAYO!

[richardmorris]

15 hours ago, trigger said:

Also this week the Manta went in for a MOT, I know it's exempt but I think it's important to still get them checked over

Thankfully it went through with no advisories, it's in remarkably good condition this car but I'm probably going to eBay it over the weekend as I really don't like the automatic gearbox in it, there's nothing actually wrong with it, it's just a preference thing but I prefer changing gears with older cars.

I also got the MR2 booked in for some bodywork, £1800+vat, I must need my head testing.

Next I can't post too much at the moment but I have a mate who buys a lot of barn find cars and I'm always round helping getting them started or prepped for auction, it's pretty good fun as I get to piss about with them without the financial hit!

This week we worked on a Vitesse which had been in a wet garage since 1981 and is absolutely hanging

A Austin 1800 which was last taxed in 1995, which is a nice project but needs all new hydraulics, no brakes, no clutch etc, a bit of welding and the tyres had disintegrated. It still has the caravan club stickers over it!

And more interestingly this beautiful 1982 Escort 1.3L which has been in a dry garage since 1987 and only has 36000 miles which I'm seriously considering buying as my next project as I'm a weak idiot for that kind of stuff. It's immaculate under the dust.

 

[trigger]

10 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

I wonder what the story is with that Escort?

Strange to put a 5 year old car in a garage and leave it there. It would have had quite a bit of financial value at 5 years old so there must have been a reason to keep it like that? 
Looks a great project car though👍

So my mate got it of the original owner, he started changing the rear shocks in 1987, ballsed the job up and rather than getting help or taking it to the garage he just gave up with it and left it in his garage for the next 39 years, as you do.

I have some spoilers.

[danthecapriman]

19 minutes ago, trigger said:

So my mate got it of the original owner, he started changing the rear shocks in 1987, ballsed the job up and rather than getting help or taking it to the garage he just gave up with it and left it in his garage for the next 39 years, as you do.

I have some spoilers.

Bloody hell!😄 how strange a reason to lay a car up for so long!

Definitely looks well worth getting it though just to put it back on the road where it should be. It looks a very straight original car so once you’ve worked your magic on it it’ll be one of the best original surviving cars out there.

[goosey]

Jobs on my sons td5 110

it started with just replacing discs and pads…..

 

[artdjones]

1 hour ago, trigger said:

So my mate got it of the original owner, he started changing the rear shocks in 1987, ballsed the job up and rather than getting help or taking it to the garage he just gave up with it and left it in his garage for the next 39 years, as you do.

I have some spoilers.

There weren't many around from memory with that tan trim.

A 1.3 was a fair decent car for 1980, but the one I've driven most was a 1.1L, which I didn't like with it's tappety lower power Valencia engine. The MK3 was originally going to have a much more sophisticated rear suspension, but very late on the usual Ford bean counting lizards entered the development process and insisted on the cheap substitute that made it to production. So they had a pretty poor back seat ride.

[Six-cylinder]

When the MK3 Escort was launched I had a 1979 Granada 2.3GL manual. I pulled up behind a new Escort at a T junction knowing when we turned onto the main road there was a straight and thought I would take it with my 2.3 V6. It was some time before I even caught up with it!