The new news 24 thread

[cort1977]

Honda's are boring but when you need a car for the wife that will just run and run and not cause you to end up in the spare room then they are a winnah.

[panhard65]

Been thinking about fooking cars all night! I've now decided that I HATE the Honda! It was fine until yesterday afternoon but driving home was... horrible.

 

Isn't it strange how your attitudes change with age/incapacity? When I was just a very few years younger, buying anything even remotely exotic scared me not one jot as I could get m hands dirty, tear into it and enjoy fixing the thing while complaining loudly and swearing like a trooper.

 

Now, scared stiff. I like the Honda 'cos it's cheap to fix and reliable and I can throw it at the garage without a huge bill forcing me to eat stale bread for a few weeks. Bentley could hurt...

 

Years ago I actively hunted down anything posh/big/expensive with problems as they were cheap and I knew I could fix them. I don't like garages much (even the one I own a tiny share in!) as so few do a decent job. At least if you do it yourself and fuck it up, no one to blame but yourself.

So when are you picking the Bentley up then ?? I love my Rolls and it is certain to cheer you up just driving it so get it bought, flog the Honda to pay for a few years rent on a lock up if you are worried about the Bentley living outside. Just go for it and enjoy. The bills will only be big if you let them get away with it, if I can look after a Rolls then most garages should be able to they are pretty straight forward just slightly over engineered.

[xtriple]

First question when Jo came round was: 'Where's the Bentley?' still at the bloody dealers.... They still haven't come back to me re the price I offered, which is annoying...

 

I shall give them until tonight then ring them but don't want to look too keen... but of course, I am! I think I'll get rid of the Honda seems pointless having two cars when I hardly use one.

[vulgalour]

The MG B unwrapping continues.  The level of bodge is pretty spectacular with multiple layers of patches and an inner wing section sculpted from a sheet of filler (impressive skill to do that).  What I don't understand is the use of patches that are massively oversized, the wing rail has rotted away almost completely but the patch not only goes over the remains of the rail but down the inner wing for a good 12-18 inches for no reason.  In other places rust holes are covered entirely in filler and underseal.  I suspect several years of bodging from several artisans of the craft.

 

Now to see if the customer is happy that his bill for parts and labour is going up a bit more, he wasn't too keen on the first bill for the work we could see needed doing.

[dollywobbler]

It's bloody lovely here.

 

Dyane running deliciously well. So, do I risk it for the 500+-mile round-trip to Goodwood Revival? In the traffic, I expect the Dyane would be a lot more comfortable than the XM (mostly because I can just get out and push it!).

[danthecapriman]

It's been lovely here today too. Not a cloud in the sky.

I went out in the Capri today, up the A3 came off down the A272 and then the back roads to Fareham and then the A27 and A3 back home. Lovely and warm, the car was great fun and the British countryside was lovely. It's been a couple of months since I last used the Capri but it behaved perfectly as usual.

 

Spotted loads of old stuff, possibly on the way to Goodwood? Step side Chevy pickup, Jag mk2 towing a caravan, Ford Pop and a few others too.

 

DW, be a hero and use the Dyane! It'll be a brilliant run down in that!

[spike60]

This Sunday Saltburn hillclimb is on 10-4, I think it is open to cars and bikes 1975 and earlier. Last year had a good spread of entries including Bentleys, 3 wheel Morgans, Allards, Datsun 240z, Cortinas etc. Slightly more bikes than cars last year I reckon, this years entries are closed.

 

[plasticvandan]

Double news,good and bad.

I managed to sieze my Honda c90 on the a449 yesterday evening,to be fair I had been working it hard for 20 miles at 45-50.noticed it getting slower and then it squealed,for the clutch/gear lever down quickly.after half hour it restarted and I rode slowly home.

Dropped valve covers and found exhaust valve tight with no gap,so think that was the culprit.also dumped the overheated and piss thin happy shopper 20/50 and put in some Castrol fully synthesis that's on offer at tescos.it seems*OK,little rattlier than before,and a bit slower,but no bits were in the sump oil and compression is there so hoping I got away with it.

 

My Velocette LE however,which I been struggling to get running properly for 3 weeks,is now almost ready for the road,yes its noisy and leaky,but its good enough,so hoping to annoy the post office by asking to tax it,after first changing the tax class to historic,then giving them an mot exemption form

[richardmorris]

Nice blue skies here too. Just enjoyed a Kir on my "terrace" watching the sunset. DW use the dyane for goodwood- a long run will probably do it the power of good, and it will be better on the car park fields. If you get stuck on the way back I'm just off j3 of the m3. Although I am planning on taking the 2cv to the chevrons rally on Sunday.

[anonymous user]

 

 

 

Dyane running deliciously well.

I need new glasses or I am starting to become dyslexic, I read that as "Dwayne running deliciously well" and was wondering who the hell Dwayne was

[Fat_Pirate]

First question when Jo came round was: 'Where's the Bentley?' still at the bloody dealers.... They still haven't come back to me re the price I offered, which is annoying...

 

I shall give them until tonight then ring them but don't want to look too keen... but of course, I am! I think I'll get rid of the Honda seems pointless having two cars when I hardly use one.

 

I wouldn't ring them - they'll be banking on that, so they can squeeze more money out of you.  It's unlikely another offer has been made on such a vehicle, so sit tight and wait for them to crack.

[RobT]

Didn't win the Merc, sold for £1,055, just above my maximum. Never mind as it saves me the headache of where to put it.

[billyboy406v6]

Have just received part to fix leccy window on Merc, just as weather is forecast for rain ! So it can stay shut for a while. Bugger !!

[Cavcraft]

Decided I'd sell the Berlingo and keep the 306. Until I drove the Berlingo again to pick up some bikes and other random crap, then remembered how useful it was. As it was (is) full of junk, I used the 306 instead and remembered how I loved that, so probably neither of them are going anywhere now, unless I ever get round to taking engine out of old 306 (veg) and putting into Berlingo (non-veg) of course.

 

That would then (finally) clear up the garage for the next victim. 

[Ghosty]

Just changed the A4's sunroof switch as part of a fault-finding exercise.

 

It's not that that's broken, it's the sunroof motor.

 

B5 Passats have the same exact sunroof system as the A4. On the VW, there's a door in the headlining to access the motor assembly.

 

On A4s it's a headlining out job.

Fuck that, it can stay broken.

 

Meanwhile Old Man's been messing about with bumper mounts and a dremel all afternoon, I'll be interested to see the eventual outcome of his efforts.

[wuvvum]

I rode the Spacy to work today as the weather is half decent for once.  It broke down on the way home.  This time it appears to be the HT cap which is the culprit - it has disintegrated inside.  I bodged it back together as best I could and spluttered and farted the rest of the way home - it was down to 15mph by the time I got to my road, but it made it.

 

Tomorrow I think I'll be taking the Hyosung.

[andy18s]

Tomorow,I shall mostly be.......

 

[phil_lihp]

Didn't win the Merc, sold for £1,055, just above my maximum. Never mind as it means I can buy a brown Jag instead.

 

There you go, you typed the wrong thing by accident.

[derskine]

 

 

I'll make a thread tomorrow.

[wuvvum]

I saw one of the new Bentley Mulsannes today.  Proper impressive looking bit of kit, far less fugly in the metal than in photos, although the arse end is too far off the ground.  Be a few years before they're shite money though.  I think they still use the old pushrod Turbo R V8, don't they?

[vulgalour]

After removing the crumbling inner sill box section on the MG BGT a rather larger hole was found hiding behind it.  This needed exploring and meant the outer wing came off.  Then lots of rust, filler and really bad repairs were found.  There's some good news, the A pillar seems okay as does the inner sill and the outer sill which have been replaced to a seemingly better standard than the following mess.  The litany of bodges and bad ideas is fairly comprehensive, once I find the mesh and newspaper I'll have ticked all the big bodge boxes.

 

 

 

 

Thankfully the MG B is well catered for in the repair panels department so everything I need is readily available for reasonable prices and the construction is so simple that rebuilding it all shouldn't be too much trouble.  Just annoying that the clean up is so involved and labour intensive, there's no easy way to do localised repairs properly without digging out a metric buttload of filler and bodge and that's really tedious stuff.

[Lord Sterling]

Got the KV-COCK-PISS-BABTRIDGE Sterling back. Now I'm at very_Motherly_ones place for the night as Mahmoud wants to check the flapping noise from the smaller cambelt.

 

Oddly enough I've ended up watching Alan Partridge and his graffiti damaged KV6 Sterling on TV just now.

[cms206]

I have spent this week driving an automatic Rover 75CDTi Club SE tourer and I think it's now a matter of time before I part with cash to own one. Still not keen on the manuals though and I don't like the saloons.

 

Bother.

[skattrd]

A bit OT, but chompy, I recently got a Windows phone (640xl) and think its gr9, apart from the keyboard (I miss swiftkey). Windows mobile 10 will be out soon (10/10?) which I'm hoping will make it even better.

[HMC]

Back in 2005-6 ish I picked up a 92 range rover 3.9 out of the local free ads. I sold it on to a mate and since then he's been hauling his boat around Europe with it ( Once to Sweden at 13mpg - ouch!) He's looking to move it on, and I found it hard to say no- so I'm now the owner again!

[garbaldy]

After removing the crumbling inner sill box section on the MG BGT a rather larger hole was found hiding behind it. This needed exploring.

I know how you feel, its 20 odd years since I restored 8 of these and I said I would never touch another funny how I ended up with two again.

[EssDeeWon]

Took my 75 in for some work this morning (OSF drop link)

 

Been given this ZR as a courtesy - Zippy little thing, much fun.

 

Courtesy ZR by steve wilson, on Flickr

 

Courtesy ZR by steve wilson, on Flickr

[oldcars]

/\ thats clean.

[twosmoke300]

The constant steam cleaning does that !

[xtriple]

Re BTR. I blinked first and e-mailed them. Got a phone call this morning (which was nice as it woke me up!) to say that the owner has not been in touch (selling on behalf of) as they have to not only give him my offer but also their bad news... They seem to be very good as they are insisting it gets new pads, an oil service and a new engine mount before leaving them!

 

Knowing the prices they charge it would be cheaper for the last owner to give me the car if I settle their bill!

 

Anyway, now to start hunting for garages in the area as I am going to keep the Honda - I want the BTR to stay 'special' which it won't be if it's a daily and also, I can keep it nice and play with it if it's tucked away.