The new news 24 thread

[scruff]

What a difference no windows and some decent boots make. Splendid!

[vulgalour]

Agreed, it looks like it can actually do stuff now.

[Mike D]

Billy you are bang on about the mighty vision, it goes like hell* up to 28, but then fizzles out. It did manage 32 down hill though!

 

I might look at giving it a little more pep, 40 mph would be nice, I could use it for work then!

[Noel Tidybeard]

Sort of.  It's a bit lower and more flared around the back arches than a 3 series, and it's a hatchback so the roof slopes down more gently to a bustle at the back like the one on a Mk3 Escort.  There are side windows in the C-pillar too, unlike a 3.  This probably sounds like the (equally obscure) 3-series GT, but that's got horrid ugly fat-arsed/topheavy proportions and the 4GC (IMHO) doesn't.

 

I've never bothered taking a picture of it, so here's someone else's.  (Mine's dark blue, btw.)

 

 

Funnily enough, it's almost exactly the same length and height as a Rover SD1, and only a couple of inches wider.  Feels MUCH smaller inside though.

maybe you could badge it up as a rover like a 4300 or summat

[ruffgeezer]

Mulling over then non running Daimler this evening. There is a short from or two the distributor from the back of the accelerator pedal via the copper vacuum advance tube.

 

I'm thinking next time, once I have put the points back in with the correct fibre washers and points insulators.

 

I also think due to the extended layup might have causes some dramas in the SU department, which is a bit scary as I know nothing about them.

[vulgalour]

SUs are so easy I can work on them.  Since you're well versed in most things Citroen, you won't have a problem.

[DS20]

Today has been spent fiddling with tyres

 

 

I use the Bollox method, as well detailed by the man himself in a thread elsewhere, but without the faff of breaking the bead as I have my home-made bead breaker.

 

I am dyslexic, which might explain why I spent a moment or two wondering why you'd need to bake some bread in order to change wheels. I'd like to try to build a home-made bread-maker, though (that being the second hit of OMGDYSLEXIA)

[wuvvum]

I took the wee Subaru van for its first proper run this evening (i.e. out onto a NSL road).  Ye Gods is it slow.  It manages to make the Innocenti feel like a dragster, which is no mean feat, and which is also slightly odd, given that the van has 6 more cc, one more horsepower and weighs less.  It is down a cylinder and a gear though, which probably works against it.  Despite the mahoosive gap between third and fourth, fourth is still comically low - I've worked out that 6,000 rpm will equate to around 65mph.  Although being as breezy as it was this evening, and with the roads being wet, I didn't take it much over 50.

 

The steering is heavy, vague, low geared and has almost no self-centring, and with its light weight, narrow track and tiny wheelbase the van does get thrown around a bit by bumps, so piloting it at speed down a narrow back road is an interesting experience.  I did have the back end sliding a bit a couple of times when flooring it out of junctions, and it actually felt like it'd be quite controllable by rear-engined standards if I did get it out of shape.

 

Some bits of it are surprisingly adequate.  The main beam headlights are plenty good enough for the speeds it's likely to attain, the wipers do a decent, if noisy, job of clearing the screen and really do get moving on the faster setting, and the heater is actually bloody good, and warms up quickly too.  Unfortunately at idle the alternator can't keep up, and the battery isn't in the first flush of youth, so when stopping at a junction the lights go dim and the wipers slow right down.

 

So it's definitely got character.  I do actually rather like it - the only thing I would change is the horrible steering, which does spoil the drive a bit; other than that it's just amusingly rubbish.

[Cavcraft]

Billy you are bang on about the mighty vision, it goes like hell* up to 28, but then fizzles out. It did manage 32 down hill though!

 

I might look at giving it a little more pep, 40 mph would be nice, I could use it for work then!

 

 

I did look in to derestricting mine at the time, but I have a feeling they were supposedly 'un-tuneable' though can't remember why, sorry. I seem to recall some 'peds could be made to go faster by removing a washer where the exhaust met the barrel.

 

Anyhow, I also had a Yamaha Passola not long after the Vision, which was painfully, painfully slow on acceleration then would sort of sit at about 32mph for ages then decide it wanted to go faster and would hit late thirties no problem at all, and once saw 45mph I think.

If I let my job before 5.30pm, or on Chester races day, the 6.5 mile journey could sometimes take over and hour and fifteen minutes in the car. On the 'peds it could be done in no time at all, as I'd weave around/between the cars, jump off at red lights and push it on the pavement, or to the great annoyance of a local Shell garage I'd ride it through their forecourt full tilt, then rejoin the road past the traffic lights.

[Cavcraft]

I was reading today that Audi are going to make a 4 door TT. Seems massively pointless to me but it seems the germans have got really keen on making pointless niche models in an exercise to persuade people who were already going to buy a car from them to buy a car from them.

 

BMW

 

X1, X3, X4, X5, X6, X7 on it's way later in the year

i3, i8

1 series, 2 series, 3 series, 4 series, 5 series, 5 Series GT, 6 Series, 6 Series GT, 7 Series

 

In 1998

3 series Compact, 3 series, 3 series coupe, 5 series, 7 series, 8 Series

 

Audi

A1, A3, A3 Sports Hatch,A3 Saloon, TT, TT Sports Hatch, , A4, A4 Allroad, A5, A5 Sports Hatch, A6, A6 Allroad, A7, A8

Q3, Q5, Q7

 

In 1998

A2, A3, A4, A6, A8, TT (maybe)

 

There's no point to this post really I just wonder why the ranges have have gone from 7-8 to nearly 20 models. Is it so you can drive a well spec'd A4 rather than a povo A6.

They all look the same anyway so it seems pretty pointless and expensive. i mean how many 4 dr TT's are they really going to sell?

 

 

I saw what looked like a BMW Scenic the other day, and just went on line to find out it's a '2 Series Active Tourer.'  Without even needing to look, I can just visualise the window of my local BMW dealer plastered with '£199 deposit, £199 a month' deals to attract the mothers of sticky sweet feet-ed, crayon wielding little bastards. I actually think they'll probably offload loads of the horrible looking things. 

[worldofceri]

My Mercedes E280 finally sold this morning to Lord Sterling of this parish.  What a pleasant and painless transaction.  Much more straightforward than dealing with Ebay numpties.  Hopefully LS will be able to deal with it's most pressing issues and get many miles of non-Rover800 motoring from it.

 

Here's a farewell shot from the bedroom window:

 

 

Which brings me to the rest of the 'fleet'.  The Beetle has been garaged until funds and/or time allow me to investigate the broken engine - probably won't be until the spring now.  The Lupo is on loan from my sister-in-law who kindly lent it to Mrs_WoC after the Beetle blew up.  In the meantime we're bought a Golf that will replace both the Merc and the Beetle in that it'll be Mrs_WoC's commuter hack and our main family ride.

 

 

Which all means that I'm in the market for something very cheap and potentially a little bit silly.  No rush, as I have use of the Lupo til February, but I'm currently hitting Ebay hard, although the rate at which something I fancy comes up on this forum it won't be Christmas before I have something new to post about.

[Skizzer]

Eh?  Lord Sterling in a Mercedes?   

 

Tune in next time folks, when Paykanhunter gets a Cortina, Junkman likes a manual gearbox and Corsaviour buys a brand new diesel Touareg on finance.

[skattrd]

Ceri - I think bol has a Rover van shite-hire on offer, or with winter approaching it's a good time to buy a convertible, MG-TF or MX5 should be pretty cheap.

[320touring]

I can haz duun a drawding ov my tooring onna blackboard wall inna kitchun:)

[worldofceri]

Ceri - I think bol has a Rover van shite-hire on offer, or with winter approaching it's a good time to buy a convertible, MG-TF or MX5 should be pretty cheap.

I RLY!? As a former customer of Bo11ox Shite Hire, this is intriguing news.

 

Although I need four seats, so probably out.

[Jim Bergerac]

It's a 25 GTI, not a van, so it will have four seats.

[fordperv]

Spent an hour or so today stripping a set of Capri suspension legs down then cutting the suspension cups off and removed the weld with a flap disc ready to convert them into coilovers when I get the threaded tubes to weld on.

[doobietoo]

Took a break from 1100 rust removal to fit metro vented discs and clio calipers to the front of it....

 

 

[stilo_active]

Not how I imagined this morning would begin:

 

[drum]

So having spent a couple of evenings grinding, fabricating and welding the 88's exhaust and almost cutting my thumb off in the process, I put it into action today on a pheasant shoot and what happens? Diesel is pissing out a split in the tank.

 

Ever feel like sacking off the old chod and getting something reliable...?

[mat_the_cat]

Tomorrow will be a slightly sad day - helping my Dad strip out their old caravan before it's scrapped. They've had it since the early 80s so just about all the family holidays I remember have been in it, and for the last 5 years or so it's been parked up not too far from here as a place to stay when they come over to visit. It's failing structurally though, and suffering from the Welsh weather. I'm wondering what I can take as a souvenir from it for old times sake!

[trigger]

I collected my 190E from the welders this morning, I'm really pleased, a patch on the rear of the sill, one on the floor were a drain hole had gone, a rattling exhaust heat shied (that's not needed) removed, a hole in the exhaust welded and two hangers reattached, all for £40, I can't say fairer than that.

 

 

Rubbish photo but you get the idea, so I reattached all the plastic side trims, gave the car a good clean and hoover and it looks and sounds much better now.

 

[EssDeeWon]

My winter hack (1998 BMW 318is Coupe) appears to be leaking oil from the rear diff, I don't do loads of miles and I don't really intend on chucking good money at it, its MOT'd until next April and runs lovely. Its a proper straight and well looked after car, do I get the rear diff sorted or just keep sticking pez in it and running about in it until such time when something costing ££££ goes?

 

I know I should get it done asap, but you know what its like once you start paying bills on cars, you feel inclined to keep paying em and so on and so on...

[AlabamaShrimp]

As winter is approaching I'm stupidly thinking about recommissioning my beige fiesta mk1 I want the space in the garage to work on other cars but also I don't want it parked outside. What I need (like a lot of others) is a shed/unit or something to put them all in

[vulgalour]

It is a truth universally accepted that the number of vehicles one possesses shall exceed the covered space in which they can live by at least a number of two.

 

Anyone who says they have enough space to keep their vehicles under cover at all times is either lying - and therefore a cad and a bounder and not to be trusted - or has not yet spent enough money on obtaining the optimum number of inoperable vehicles.

[dugong]

Fleet cull maintenance imminent. 

[spike60]

I alternate between 2 cars, which is manageable, or 3 cars, much more practically and financially stretching. I have sold the old 924 pending collection today mainly because there is no money in the pot to put tyres on the daily with winter approaching. Or do anything to any of 'em it comes to that!

[HillmanImp]

regqrding fleet reduction, I am in a position where I need to finish the GT6 and sell that but really can't be bothered. Thing is, once i do that I will be able to finish the Imp which I really want to do.

 

My mojo is really low I think as I don't have any "car buddies' at the mo. 205gti seems to have gone off cars and has bought a modern Golf Gti (with a pedal missing!) and Volksy has moved to Sheffield and works weekends. Other less regular car friends seem to have fallen off somewhere along the way.

 

I used to enjoy working on cars with my mates. The thought of spending hours in the garage on my own is no fun. Plus, when there are two of you, one always spots silly mistakes the other is making, 'wouldn't it be easier to do that like this.....' etc and the can help by wiggling it a bit whilst you force it in and other double entendres you regularly make when working on cars.

 

Think I am going to force myself to do the welding in a few weeks hopefully as that is solo work. Will see if I can summon up the mojo. Its only a couple of days worth FFS.

[ruffgeezer]

I'm stuck on 3 for the time being, realistically 2 borings and a broken Ax.

 

@Merlin cat now has taken keys & custody of the C15, and in it's place, a much more interesting steed;

 

Older than the C15, nearly double the mileage and probably a lot duller, however this could be the thing required to coax Mrs Ruff into the driving seat and so, needs must.

 

The Ax is still sitting at work waiting on me finding a new rear beam as this one is utterly utterly knackered.

[richardmorris]

Some scrapyard photos from my ramble this morning. Something for everyone I think. Lots of old trucks too, but the battery went in the camera.