The new news 24 thread

[coalnotdole]

I'm secretly of the opinion that old cars need so be greased with TECALEMIT grease guns - because pedantry! They should preferably be bought from car boot sales for a £1

 

[coalnotdole]

I've got the week off work (well actually our factory is on shutdown for 4 days so its mandatory time off...)

 

I've been getting on with odd jobs, cleared the shed out yesterday and intended to do the same to the garage today, instead I've been distracted by the Rebel van. For the last month or so I've mostly been used as a shed for storing surplus tat from the garage Its only really been driven round the block and to the petrol station.

 

I've recently been considering selling it as its one of my most sale-able vehicles and I'm not using it enough. Having emptied the junk out of the back of it I took a spin round the block and discovered that the irritating exhaust rattle had cured itself... Seemingly having responded well to the lightening of its load I decided to spend the rest of the afternoon doing some long overdue work to the interior.

 

I've touched up the speckle paint, which involved lots of scraping old paint and contact adhesive. I've fitted some modern style anti vibration dampening. Hopefully tomorrow I'll begin fitting carpets and insulation. I've just ordered some new rubber matting to cover the load area and I've got a headlining which was bought ages ago but never fitted.

 

No pictures of the work so far but I'll try and get some tomorrow....

[RobT]

All this grease gun talk reminds me the Metro radius arms need doing. My gun is cheap shite and doesn't work that well, so I might try and get a decent old one from an autojumble next time I go.

 

Just fitted a new ICV to the Cavalier and it seems better, not perfect but I can live with it. There's also an annoying exhaust rattle I need to sort, and possibly the PAS pump needs replacing as the steering is bit heavy at parking speeds and it makes a bit of a racket, which otherwise ruins a nice quiet runner. I'm off outside to do an oil change in a minute. Being a bit of a night owl I like these milder nights as I can spend time out in the garage when everyone else around here is asleep.

[xtriple]

'Cos I've been feeling rough this last few days, I have not been venturing toooooo far from home. Consequently spring cleaning fever has come over me and I have been wandering round the flat with a cloth in one hand and a bottle of 'Mr Muscle' in t'other.

 

Having cleaned everything cleanable that is fixed to walls/floors/windows/carpets etc, I turned my attention to the car radiator shells I have adorning my walls. These used to live on the garage walls and though I gave them what I considered, a decent clean when I moved in here, they didn't exactly sparkle.

 

So, off the wall came (slightly bent) Daimler 250 V8 grille, Merc 'S' class grille (that came off my own car when some knob backed into it and dented it very VERY slightly) and the Austin A35 grill that is actually really good.

 

A few minutes under the care of Mr Muscle and fook me, these buggers all sparkle and shine and dazzle! They have increased the light in the front room by about 30%!

[fred]

I need a cleaner - xtiple - my arse and motivation is lagging badly in this area

[dave21478]

I thought our one was just shite to be fair! Ours felt underpowered and seemed to struggle the majority of the time.

I think its just a case of They All Do That...... It needs worked hard to keep momentum up hills, but reasonably often I catch myself easily over the speed limit in it too.....

meh, its a €200 Escort runnabout - cant be expecting miracles from it.

[Mr Lobster]

 

 

Engine management light glowing 

 

 

 

Disconnect battery for half an hour or so then reconnect, should stick the light out. Occasionally EML comes on on my Toledo due to some cold start device that is unnecessary apparently. I do the above when the light comes on and it goes out and stays out for anything upto about six months.

 

Anyway, fleet update.

 

Toledo got thrown in for an MOT last week and aside from the osf wheel bearing that they changed at the same time passed without a single advisory. Result.

 

R4 has awoken from winter lay up and getting a bit of use. Its going to France in summer so needs a thorough service (ie not one that I do) and probably the slight leak from the water pump sorting before then. Going to have to have four tyres to replace the eighteen year old Pirellis that it currently wears too.

 

Mazda. Zzzzzzzz. Just does what its supposed to really.

[Skoze]

I love my new badge. 

 

[Six-cylinder]

I collected 4 new tyres for our boat trailer this morning.

 

[cms206]

We use Doublestar tyres on our coaches now, have taken over from GT Radial as my gaffer's "shite tyre of choice".

[castros_bro]

So there is a discovery of 100 000 000 000 barrels of oil under Gatwick !!

 

1, Why didn't I but shares in that company last week?

2. The future of my moped's fuel supply has been found so no more converting it to run on chicken shit.

3 Anyone want a lifetime supplt of chicken shit?

[Craig the Princess]

Last Sunday we finally got round to looking at our Nuffield DM4 tractor. We bought this back in 2011 after moving a Triumph Herlad for tonedepear of this parish. The chap we picked the car up from also had this for sale. We had moved to Norfolk and had a small paddock that needed to have the grass kept down, Autoshite logic = buy a 1950s tractor.

 

It had been bodged about a bit but the chap showed us how to make it start and we loaded it up and had a few joy-rides at home.

 

It was parked up as we didn't have any impliments and even the cheapest ones cost more than the tractor.

 

Anyway we decided to start it up as it had stopped doing so in the time laid up. The original starting bodge bypassed the solenoid and needed the negative lead touched to the battery to make it start. This wore away the negative terminal so first thing was a new battery and an Austin 1100 starter solenoid wired into the lead.

 

The new battery was as flat as a pancake so needed to be charged, still nothing at all at the starter. A bit stumped on old-school technology we asked our very friendly neighbour farmer who grew up with tractors of this age and has a few dotted around the field behind our house. He explained the proper starting system, that the big leaver we had to put to engage the starter motor also has a switch that provides the power to it. This switch was taken apart and cleaned up. That is more like it, now push in the cold start button and a very rough tickover, result!

 

We then checked the clutch wasn't siezed so it moved forward and back. Some cleaning was also done at this stage, the wire filled oil bath air filter was cleaned up and refilled with oil. PTO has power to it so the search for a topper has started again.

 

 

[Keymaster]

Drive from Liverpool to Silverstone for WEC going well*

 

[Skizzer]

^ Oops.  Nothing too serious I hope.

 

Love the tractor resurrection Craig man, we need more on this.

[vulgalour]

Autoshite Calendar material both with tractor and camper!

 

 

A little while ago I repainted two of the Synergie trims the Xantia wears and used a can of silver I had that was originally destined for Dad's Omega bumpers.  Once I'd painted them I really didn't like the silver at all and knew I should have painted them white so bought myself some generic white from Wilkinsons at a mere £3.95 for a tin big enough to do all four.  Initial coats look promising, just got to find the tin of Wilkinsons generic satin black paint I've got somewhere to do the 'vents' and possibly the chevrons.  If the paint is a good match I might even use it for that rear arch, the Xantia is practically Appliance White anyway so it could be a cheaper alternative to Halfords cans.

[Keymaster]

^ Oops. Nothing too serious I hope.

 

Love the tractor resurrection Craig man, we need more on this.

Cheers.

 

Just a bit of Kangarooing and no power. Now at garage with 2 mechanics who are arguing the toss about the cause. One says electrical, the other says fucked carb.

 

Meanwhile I reckon it's a manifold issue as Talbot vans are known for it and kangarooing is the usual symptom.

[Keymaster]

Camper has broken down again on test drive! Mrs kgb is happy as it happened out front of a stables. Electrical theory has now been disproven. Sitting in garage waiting for them to be towed back.

[oldcars]

Autoshite Calendar material both with tractor and camper!

 

 

A little while ago I repainted two of the Synergie trims the Xantia wears and used a can of silver I had that was originally destined for Dad's Omega bumpers.  Once I'd painted them I really didn't like the silver at all and knew I should have painted them white so bought myself some generic white from Wilkinsons at a mere £3.95 for a tin big enough to do all four.  Initial coats look promising, just got to find the tin of Wilkinsons generic satin black paint I've got somewhere to do the 'vents' and possibly the chevrons.  If the paint is a good match I might even use it for that rear arch, the Xantia is practically Appliance White anyway so it could be a cheaper alternative to Halfords cans.

I painted my trims in ford moondust silver, it was the nearest match i could get. Must have looked a clown carrying my wheel trim around trying to match the silver. Did you use plastic primer first? I forgot on one and had to re paint it.

[vulgalour]

Sometimes I bother with plastic primer, sometimes I don't.  I haven't with these.  I've found in the past that the Wilkinsons paints bond really well providing surfaces are clean.  Rather brilliantly, the dog walked past the last two I painted so I need to flat those back, he's a walking fur factory at the moment.

[Bren]

So there is a discovery of 100 000 000 000 barrels of oil under Gatwick !!

 

1, Why didn't I but shares in that company last week?

2. The future of my moped's fuel supply has been found so no more converting it to run on chicken shit.

3 Anyone want a lifetime supplt of chicken shit?

As it has been discovered in the South queue much legal wrangling which will take years.

 

However, it had been discovered north of Watford the wells would have been drilled last night.

[Skizzer]

However, it had been discovered north of Watford the wells would have been drilled last night.

 

You mean like, say, the M6 toll road?

 

Announced in 1980, opened in 2003 after a six year initial consultation, two public enquiries and God knows how many lawyers.

[EssDeeWon]

^Yeah but Tories hate all northerners and everything north of Tottenham

[Coprolalia]

Scirocco will have it's MOT tomorrow as finally sourced a non-fucked distributor to fit. This being an ongoing saga which has relegated number 1 vehicle to the local garage for three weeks:

 

Began as an emissions fail - fix the Pierburg carb (vacuum and wax operated automatic choke... ooh the wonder!). Get the idle good, get the cold start good. Oh, the second butterfly isn't working, no problems, that's fixed.

 

Still failing emissions.

 

Ok let's check the spark.

Plugs... ok.

Leads... ok.

Rotor arm... 1/2mm of contact left. Contacts on the points all rusted. Worst of all, the contact bearing in the bastards worn and the whole distributor shaft is waggling about like mad, meaning it only makes contact every now and then. 

Speak to VW - "new dizzy? that'll be £260 sir, it'll arrive in three weeks." Bugger off.

Speak to Bosch direct - "new dizzy sir? that'll be £230, and arrive in two weeks." Bugger off.

Speak to GSF/ECP/local smaller chains - new dizzy sir? 1989 Scirocco sir? Oh, you want the whole dizzy, not just the cap? Computer says no.

Check the forums - none being broken with an intact dizzy.

Bollocks.

 

Then I get a call off a nice local bloke who know's his Sciroccos - "oh yeah, common problem, the bearings fed by engine oil via a capillary, if it blocks up they wear out. Just stick any distributor on off an 80s VW 8v engine and time it up until it pinks, then back it off a bit."

Win.

 

Call GSF - distributor in stock for a 1989 1.6 Scirocco. £47.50.

DONE!

[HillmanImp]

You won't believe this. The lock on the drivers door on the GT6 has broken and I am locked in the car. The other door is against the wall with crap up against it so i am going to have to find a way out of the rear window.

 

*edit* out now. As if that would happen twice in a month. Its the handle on the inside I need to sort.

[dollywobbler]

As Elly the 2CV heads for retirement, she's been having some fun. First, she went train spotting, but was disappointed to find a diesel replacing a steam service.

 

Then she did a spot of gardening. The other Dollywobbler vehicles wouldn't be much use transporting will of this length.

 

I really am beginning to feel a bit down. Elly is starting absolutely beautifully at the moment, and driving very nicely. I need to find some money and get planning this restoration. 2CVs are ESSENTIAL to my health.

[jonathan_dyane]

On the tyres front the other day I had a couple of Kingpin remoulds supplied and fitted for £25 per corner by a very nice Polish gentlemen in Wrexham. I very much liked the way he happily jacked the car where I asked him and generally did a careful and meticulous job handling everything with care and mechanical sympathy which isn't always the case with tyre fitters.

 

This was the chap for anyone in the area, he doesn't just do remoulds: https://www.facebook.com/tyreswmgarage

[Tayne]

I love my new badge. 

 

 

 

Is that "the camping and caravan club" from The Simpsons?

[HillmanImp]

Anyhoooo the reason I was in the GT6 was that I was popping the new rear leaf spring in. I had started this on Sunday after the shops were all shut and soon realised that the bolts that were holding the spring down against the diff were rusty as fook and I was going to have problems.

 

 

There were obviously no shops open to get some more so I had a dig around and found some bolts of the correct thread

 

 

Wanged a longer thread on them:

 

 

and lopped off the top. 

 

 

I managed two of these before I realised that I only had one nut of the correct thread so this was a totally pointless exercise and I may as well have waited and got some of the right bolts from the shop. I spent about an hour trying to find some suitable nuts to rob off another car/bike/golf trolley etc until I gave up. 

 

So on Tuesday I went to nuts and bolts in Pudsey to get some bolts. Whilst I was there I picked up this:

 

 

Which I just cut down to the approx. size for the other four bolts......

 

 

.....and behold, the GT6 is rolling again!

 

And how does it repay me for all my hard work, by locking me in. I went for a jog yesterday and my limbs hurt so maneuvering myself out was pretty painful.

 

I was going to clean off all that old paint round the edge there as it looks cruddy (its solid, just looks gash) but I am in a sulk with it now so will maybe look at that tomorrow.

 

Obviously I could have bought some of these bolts from Rimming Bros. but that would have taken some foresight, planning and more money to achieve the same result so all in all its not bad. 

[gordonbennet]

Daughters Civic failed the MOT on airbag...what she didn't tell me was that the bloody thing failed last year and after waggling a few wires which extinguished the light,it passed, but came back on the next day...364 days ago that is...and she just ignored it...bloody females i'm surrounded by the sods and they're all bloody bonkers and sending me the same way.

Also the bloody MOT had run out three weeks ago....where's the double facepalm smiley.

 

How i've still got hair i have no bloody idea.

 

Anyway, i don't go anywhere near airbags cos i value me empty head, so she took it to the Honda dealer for diagnosis...are you sitting comfortably...needs new NS airbag madam, that'll be £1200 please...fuck off.

 

So, i'm at work and my scatty but brilliant mrs has a chat with the little auto electrical place round the corner that i never knew existed (be using him again)...he's cleaned up the contacts and reconnected and it's working OK, well for the time being,  the bill was £36, that's more like it, and what passes for my brains arn't splattered up the rear hatch so that's even better.

 

MOT passed today, and the car being on our drive i was able to give the poor thrashed bloody Honda a quick service.

 

To be fair, these up to 05 plate Honda S types (slighty derated type R but with springs and proper tyres) are damn good cars, this is her second, she thrashes the thing mercilessly and her mileage is huge, but the engines and boxes are virtually unbreakable, Christ knows where i'm gunna find another bugger when she wrecks this one, a modern piece of crap would last about a month in her hands..

[twosmoke300]

Are you using threaded rod for spring mounts ? Most thread rod is only 4.8 low tensile so I would be a bit wary of using it tbh .