The new news 24 thread

[Wibble]

1 hour ago, Snake Charmer said:

Thanks, all made from scratch with 2.5mm sheet steel, 4 sections in total Tig welded together.  Tried to make it look like a factory Ford pressing on the outside to confuse the purists. 😁

I reckon you’ve succeeded. 

[Angrydicky]

Another well known car returns to the AS fold, in the shape of the ex- @Spottedlaurel Carina E estate.

My mate who bought it off SL rang me the other day offering it to me. Basically he had decided that the fuel economy of a 2.0 petrol auto was killing him on his lengthy commute and that, combined with a worrying noise from the steering, that he thought was a CV joint, has prompted him to buy a smaller, more economical car. But he wanted me to have the Carina and offered it to me at a tempting price.

I had it transported up to me while I was at work today, and I gave it a wash when I got back, getting all the moss out from around the windows etc. Fortunately the interior is clean.

It starts and runs fine, I couldn’t detect any CV noise but there is a noisy power steering belt or pump. It also has a badly blowing exhaust, which fills the car with fumes very quickly. This was supposedly fixed by a local garage who fitted a new downpipe and an aftermarket cat, fortunately the original one is in the boot. The flanges on the original cat are quite corroded but will go again with a bit of attention from the sparkly stick.

Overall I’m quite pleased with it, it’s a tidy car for its age and extremely comfortable.

[Markeh]

The X-Trail nearly had a Partner-type van embedded in it this afternoon, as some absolute flute in a company van decided that no, he really did need to take the A50 exit of the M1 despite being in lane 2 and me being in his way in lane 1. He can't have been more than a couple of inches off my front bumper as he swerved across lane 1 and the hatched markings to make the exit. It was quick enough that the AEB or anything like that in the Nissan didn't even flinch.

I always said I'd never be one of those OpSnap dickheads but in the absence of a 'How's my driving' on the back, I think I'm making an exception this time.

[stuboy]

This many miles for £25.02.. of shell super unleaded from the hondurex, at £1.82.9 per litre.. is 16mpg right?

[stuboy]

This many miles for £25.02.. of shell super unleaded from the hondurex, at £1.82.9 per litre.. is 16mpg right?

[brownnova]

Went to watch the end of the 3 Castles Trial in Llandudno today. Great to see some amazing cars which have driven hard for 4 days! 
 

Including the inimitable Bron Burrell in her Maxi 

Lots of fun seeing the cars coming in at the end of this rally. 
 

Took some video footage too…

https://youtu.be/cgc9bSisH1U?si=iPb0YeffCuIgQGTB

 

[junkyarddog]

A friend works in a school kitchen,so I asked about the possibility of some waste veg oil.

She helpfully produced a drum of oil.

As I was filtering it I discovered a lone sausage at the bottom of the tub.

At least now I know what the exhaust will smell like!!🤣

🤣

[Momentary Lapse Of Reason]

In other culinary news ...

 

Two tested OK.

One stayed shut.

 

[Popsicle]

The Passat of many miles has been struggling to start just lately. It doesn't get used much, so it's not really surprising. Even after a good run it didn't quite have enough umph to fire up first time, even if just switched off for 10 minutes while nipping in to a shop. I'd got used to jumping it with my Topdon booster pack, but it was getting pretty obvious that a new battery was required.

Being a start/stop model it needed an AGM battery, £90ish off Ebay from Tanya, with a discount code, I thought it would be a lot more. After reading a few horror stories online about Tanya I was very impressed that it turned up the day after I ordered it.

So out with the old.

Whats that date code?

13th week of 2014, as the cars a 2014 model it was still on its original battery. Thats done well to last 12 years.

New battery popped on.

Fired up the computer to tell the car it had a new battery, make, serial number and Ah required and all seems good.

I must try and get more use out of the car or this new battery will probably get fucked pretty quickly.

[Dyslexic Viking]

My old taxi out doing ordinary car things.

[Mr Livered]

3 hours ago, junkyarddog said:

As I was filtering it I discovered a lone sausage at the bottom of the tub.

It's always nice to have a snack whilst you work

[24vdiamond]

3 hours ago, junkyarddog said:

A friend works in a school kitchen,so I asked about the possibility of some waste veg oil.

She helpfully produced a drum of oil.

As I was filtering it I discovered a lone sausage at the bottom of the tub.

At least now I know what the exhaust will smell like!!🤣

🤣

I thought that was some sort of barbecue marinade on first glance 😁

[Wibble]

54 minutes ago, 24vdiamond said:

I thought that was some sort of barbecue marinade on first glance 😁

Yes, glad my kids weren’t eating stuff from there.

[lesapandre]

News from Scotland: Are you covered against parrot damage?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c232dnkkd3po

[richardmorris]

Had a play with the big French toy this morning after a trip to lidl. Two boot tidies later... trolley jack and axle stands etc in the long one and oil's , spares etc in the other. Also cut some left over bathroom lino in a good matching colour to go in the lower boot floor to make it use able after fully lanoguarding it. 

Also whoever said that the likely accessory socket on the dash was probably live was correct.  6.44v .

Also used some Sugro to repair two cracks in the bakelite steering wheel.

And the 2cv had a 5am visit with a stupid pheasant who thought the wheeltrim wanted a fight!

 

[Metal Guru]

On 05/06/2026 at 19:10, stuboy said:

This many miles for £25.02.. of shell super unleaded from the hondurex, at £1.82.9 per litre.. is 16mpg right?

I thought I was getting ripped off at £1.74 for V Power.

[D.E]

At a local meet today:

 

Plymouth with primitive "airco":

1949 Split:

I don't think I've seen an MG with this hardtop before:

This 601 was sold new here in 1964! This was one of the few export markets for the Trabant, and export models apparently differ somewhat from the ones that were destined for the GDR domestic market. I assume export versions are marginally less bare bones maybe?

 

[High Jetter]

15 minutes ago, D.E said:

I don't think I've seen an MG with this hardtop before:

Bermuda hardtop, made by Classic Motor Crafts here in the UK.

[stuboy]

popped along too monthly meet.. sorry for many pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[barefoot]

7 hours ago, D.E said:

At a local meet today

Is that a massive ding in the Opel GT's wing?

[D.E]

1 hour ago, barefoot said:

Is that a massive ding in the Opel GT's wing?

I don't think it is.. the bodylines are distorted or, ehm, enhanced (opinions may vary...) by the 80s widebody kit.

[Wibble]

3 minutes ago, D.E said:

I don't think it is.. the bodylines are distorted or, ehm, enhanced (opinions may vary...) by the 80s widebody kit.

I think the word you’re looking for is, “ruined”.

[24vdiamond]

8 hours ago, D.E said:

At a local meet today:

 

Plymouth with primitive "airco":

1949 Split:

I don't think I've seen an MG with this hardtop before:

This 601 was sold new here in 1964! This was one of the few export markets for the Trabant, and export models apparently differ somewhat from the ones that were destined for the GDR domestic market. I assume export versions are marginally less bare bones maybe?

 

Whats the grey coloured Opel with the black stripes? Is it a Kapitan or Diplomat? 

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, barefoot said:

Is that a massive ding in the Opel GT's wing?

No, that's 'styling'...

[D.E]

29 minutes ago, 24vdiamond said:

Whats the grey coloured Opel with the black stripes? Is it a Kapitan or Diplomat? 

An Admiral B, 1970.

[Zelandeth]

10 hours ago, richardmorris said:

Had a play with the big French toy this morning after a trip to lidl. Two boot tidies later... trolley jack and axle stands etc in the long one and oil's , spares etc in the other. Also cut some left over bathroom lino in a good matching colour to go in the lower boot floor to make it use able after fully lanoguarding it. 

Also whoever said that the likely accessory socket on the dash was probably live was correct.  6.44v .

Also used some Sugro to repair two cracks in the bakelite steering wheel.

And the 2cv had a 5am visit with a stupid pheasant who thought the wheeltrim wanted a fight!

 

Thanks for reminding me Sugru exists.  I've got a couple of tiny cracks in the Rover's wheel that will be a perfect solution to.  Thanks!

That car is wonderful.  Having it as a companion to the 2CV is great too.

Know I'm going to wind up with a 2CV or Dyane or Ami at some point, just a question of when really!

[High Jetter]

21 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Thanks for reminding me Sugru exists

It's got chuffing expensive tho? 

[Joey spud]

I've been looking at fixing this. The owner who's had it forever says it's making a knocking noise from the front when driving and turning left.

It does make a noise but it's from the rear and sounds like it's coming from the diff or inner CV joint which has a split gaiter but there's no real loss of grease yet.

I know these CRV's need special Honda fluid in the diff that needs changing every now and then as it has a hydraulic pump/clutch system within it. The oil has never been changed as far as we know so I'm going to try that first and also replace the split gaiter. Weirdly if you do some full lock left/right turns the noise from the rear goes away but the front wheels when on lock feel like their binding (4x4 driveline wind up ?).

Anyone have any experience of early CRV's doing something similar?

[horriblemercedes]

On 06/06/2026 at 18:42, junkyarddog said:

A friend works in a school kitchen,so I asked about the possibility of some waste veg oil.

She helpfully produced a drum of oil.

As I was filtering it I discovered a lone sausage at the bottom of the tub.

At least now I know what the exhaust will smell like!!🤣

🤣

How did it taste?

[Joey spud]

I've also got a Stag to get back on the road. The owner thought it had been only been parked up for three years but its actually been since before COVID.

The last time it was started in 2020 it was found that the clutch wasn't working and the plate has probably got stuck to the flywheel so that's going to be the biggest job on it.

First job is to get it running so the stinky stale fuel needed draining which was easily done by removing a pipe under the bonnet and extending it into an empty can then just switching the ignition on (coil disconnected first) and letting the SU fuel pump tick away until the tank was emptied enough to not be a problem once 10 litres of good petrol was added.

The two sets of points needed removing cleaning and regapping to get a decent spark at the plugs. The fuel pipes have gone rock hard so will need  changing later.

With the fresh fuel at the carbs I tried a start up but didn't get even a cough out of it and one carb was pissing fuel out so it decided to pull the carbs to take home for a clean out and refresh.

I was struggling to undo the eight nuts that fix the carbs to the manifold before hitting Google and realising the stub that the carbs bolt to can be removed by undoing one nut and lifting the pair clear.

With the carbs back home I've given them a serious strip and clean as they were full of brown sticky residue of long gone fuel. Next time I go over I'll refit them and replace the fuel hoses and try again.