The new news 24 thread

[dollywobbler]

I have never been. Looks like this year is no exception. 

[barefoot]

I'm going to look at a Trabant today with a view to buying.

All I know is that it belongs to a guy who runs a village train station nearby and it's 'cheap'.

Oh and I bloody hate Trabants.

That '54 VW pick up I borrowed yesterday was the only thing I hav ever driven that was actually worse than a Trabby. Good luck, and see you in it at the festival of shite next month.

[trigger]

I've been to my dad's this evening to get the Mk1 finished, it's all back together now with fresh oil and touch wood it seems much better for now, I'll collect it tomorrow and give it a proper road test but hopefully the carb problems are over.

Whilst I was there a old friend who I used to work for when I was 15 rang and said he was up his works if I wanted to nip up and show him the Cortina, he's a lovely old boy but a bit of a horder, he showed be round some of his cars.





He tried to sell me this but I was having none of it, it's only done 47k but I needs new brake pipes, apparently it's seriously underpowered and has a awful towing capacity, he also tried to sell me a J reg Sierra 1.8 LX for £250 which needs some work, it's worth that for the gearbox and shell but hopefully i can find a home for that, it's also blocking in his Ital van which I've expressed an interest in.

Next was his old Transit 2.5d Custom.



He bought this new and when I started working for him it was only a year old, it has the one piece tailgate and a really smart interior, he works as a agricultural engineering and during the foot and mouth outbreak it was washed with detergent which he believes rotted out the chassis, it's been sat here since 2005.

And last but not least was his old Orion 1.6i Ghia.









He's had this since 1989 and it's been in his barn since 2000, it's still only done 35000 miles, I used to go to a lot of shows and race days with him in it so it was like a step back 20 years looking at it again. I've got first refusal on it but it's so buried in his barn it could take a while to get out

[Ghosty]

On a car like that Musso it means absolutely nothing, but M plate is very early for one of those - the press photos show N and P reg ones! 

[trigger]

I thought M sounded early!

[trigger]

I've just looked into that Musso, it's registered 13th April 1995 yet I've read that they weren't released until May 1995?

[STUNO]

1951 news for me.

I have been going through some old letters sent by my Grandmother to my parents between 1938 and 1951, all sent while travelling various parts of the world, I.E. touring places like Germany in 1938.

I knew they had bought 2 new cars in England in 1951, and a letter dated 23/7/1951 confirms this.

43 Eaton Mews South

London S.W.1.

Went out at 10am to pick up the new Vauxhall Velox, got an AA man to drive us home. Going down to Guildford on Wednesday, dad is parking the Javelin down there for 10 shillings a week.

 

and in a later letter...Vauxhall is very poorly finished and paint is poorly done, but dad likes the engine.

 

The reason for 2 cars, NZ import regs. A resident could purchase a car while in UK and take it to NZ as baggage, if they had owned and driven it for some time before returning.

BUT they could not sell it for about a year after returning so that meant the ownership docs could not be updated for a year after it was "sold" which was quite common. I remember my father having a Zephyr which was "owned" by a local farmer in about 1958. Cars were hard to get new so there was money to be made!

Grandfather bought a Humber Snipe after he got back to NZ and the other two were disposed of Via the family Rootes/Chrysler agency, probably at a good profit !

[Bren]

Going to look at a focus estate.

 

Watch this space.

[richardmorris]

1951 news for me.I have been going through some old letters sent by my Grandmother to my parents between 1938 and 1951, all sent while travelling various parts of the world, I.E. touring places like Germany in 1938.I knew they had bought 2 new cars in England in 1951, and a letter dated 23/7/1951 confirms this.43 Eaton Mews SouthLondon S.W.1.

Belgravia!

[oldcars]

I have been wanting a sales brochure with my Rialto in it since i got one, but they have been expensive until now. Ebay bargain!

Even has the same colour model as mine, well chuffed!

 

[danthecapriman]

I was bored this morning so I uncovered my Capri, it's been sat unused since September. Reconnected the battery and it fired straight up.

Gave it a good look over and everything seems fine, so I went for a drive out on the back roads around Clanfield and across towards Fareham then back up the M27 and A3 home. The thing didn't miss a beat! I'd actually forgotten how good it is to drive, it's been a bit forgotten since I got the Mercury.

 

 

Just needs a good wash and polish now then I'll stick it in for MOT. Hopefully it'll be fine!

[dollywobbler]

Internet boffins and some experimentation leads me to believe that it's the anti-roll bar drop links clonking merrily on the XM. A pair have been ordered. After clocking up 600 miles in the XM, I've been using the Nippa a fair bit over the past few days. Jumping back into the XM, I start wondering if the spheres aren't so bad after all! It rides like it's hovering by comparison with the Malaysian Bounce Fest (which sounds like an event I'd like to attend).

 

The Nippa has been creaking a fair bit from the back end over axle-twisting undulations (like you find on my driveway). I'm wondering if the dampers are shot. 

[richardmorris]

One of my neighbours has a Peugeot 307 coupe cabriolet thing. It's started making the most awful knocking noise on cold starting - a sort of Gurr-Kuk, gurr-Kuk regular noise that increases with revs. It's fine when she returns, no noise at all.

 

Any ideas I can tell her?

[richardmorris]

She probably knows that it's a diesel.

Ha!

No, it's petrol. And was quiet until a week or so ago.

[Ghosty]

Something going on in the Peak District today? On the way back from Buxton we passed:

• MGA
• Mk1 Golf GTi
• Imp
• Alfa GTV ('90s one)
• MG RV8
• very tidy blue F-reg Maestro
• P6
• two Minor Travellers
• white 3dr Allegro
• an early T25 
• Lotus Motorsport Elise
  all driving out of Glossop.

[Skizzer]

my Capri

 

I covet your Capri.  Get it MOTd then post us up some more hot Mk2 action.

[Bren]

Focus ghia TDCi estate duly purchased. Pick it up Thursday.thread to follow.

[jonathan_dyane]

Discovered I just can't live without a Saab 900 so I've just got back from Carlisle with this beauty. I feel like going back outside and getting back on the road!

[trigger]

Got my Mk1 back home today which makes me very happy, it seems to be running well (touch wood) apart from the battery being a bit naff, I bought a new 038 tonight but the bugger won't fit in the battery tray as it battery has a lip around the bottom.

 

The car is such a attention seeking whore though, I keep getting thumbs up from strangers and pestered when i stop!.

 

[JohnK]

Just out having a few beers at moment. Was walking down to one of the pubs in town and a red 'smiley' Transit van pulled up outside. A lass jumps out with a decent rack and a mini-skirt. Legend!

[Jazoli]

Just out having a few beers at moment. Was walking down to one of the pubs in town and a red 'smiley' Transit van pulled up outside. A lass jumps out with a decent rack and a mini-skirt. Legend!

You need to be careful around pikey birds, they always have rabid family members nearby.

[stripped fred]

Spent a few hours on my mr2 today mainly rustproofing with my new bilt hamber products. I was impressed with how easy they are to use and the lack of mess. Gave the inside of the sills and wheelarches a good amount of s50 cavity wax and also used the dynax UB on the wheelarches and lip along the bottom of the sills. Found a few areas of rust behind the side skirts which may need welding at some point but smothered them in UB for the moment. Also got an aerosol mixed at halfords and used that on the area i had welded recently. Overall a good days work and I hope it will delay further deterioration. Got it taxed when I got home so looking forward to actually using it!

[fred]

I covet your Capri.  Get it MOTd then post us up some more hot Mk2 action.

I have to concur

[Asimo]

Been thinking about getting an A2 to fill the "sensible modern" slot, to complement the Insight as it is the other aluminium  3 cylinder.

Trouble is the 3 cylinder is the 1.4 TDi. I am no Diesel fan and havn't driven one for ages. Five minutes in this one has put me off the oil burner version but I remain interested in the A2. In particular the ride was better than expected, massively better than the Insight which rides like a lowered 1962 Mini.

 

[Six-cylinder]

My Audi convertible will not start at all, turns over ok but will not catch.

 

You can hear the fuel pump and I have put a can of petrol in it because it was low.

[stuboy]

finally sourced some foglights and surrounds..

[Norbert]

Managed to get an oil and filter change done on the Pug of Many Miles on Friday. Normally I do this on the works' car park, but following an unfortunate incident involving a senior manager and a sumpful of oil from a colleague's mk6 Escort, maintenance in the car park is now banned. So I had to do it at home.

 

Anyway no problem, raise the car, tum ti tum, put mat and drainer underneath, doo de doo, get under and undo the sump plug, la di da, stand up again and acknowledge the audience..... Eh? Audience?

 

My ace* mechanic efforts had managed to attract some onlookers! "Is everything OK?" "Are you in the AA?" "My Brother's sister's husband-in-law is a mechanic, shall I get him to see what the problem is?"

 

Is the sight of people doing their own maintenance at home so rare these days that it actually counts as a spectator spectacle? Ok, it's French and everything, but the sight of a raised bonnet does seem to get curtains twitching and dog-walkers stopping in a way that just wouldn't have happenned in my distant youth (opens another Werther's Original).

 

They're not bad folk round Slade and I would have been grateful for any help had I been trying to bench-press a gearbox back up into place or something - it was simply the fact that an oil change seems to be Big Servicing Task Not To Be Undertaken By The User that amused me.

[gordonbennet]

I've not seen a raised bonnet round here, apart from me that is, for the past 11 or so years we've lived here, but then they've nearly all got new or newish shit so apart from checking the oil, if it's even got a friggin dipstick, there's no point i s'pose.

 

Luckily our driveway and my working area is out of sight to everyone except the immediate next door neighbour, so no bugger know what's going on...had too much 'can you just rebuild this engine for me after your 15 hour shift please' where we lived before,  twat tattooed on your forehead does tend to encourage 'em.

[stillOrange]

OMG OMG OMG OMG

 

Trying to finalise purchase of a car from Poland. If it all goes to plan I might be able to bring it to shitefest!

 

So excited

[andy18s]

Not a Lada then......