The new news 24 thread

[skattrd]

XT has gone. To the first person to see it and for the asking price (I wasn't flexible on that).

I'm not really sad to see it go, it was a car I'd always wanted, but I didn't actually enjoy driving it. I'll be more sad to see the R25 go.

 

Next on the clearout (after the Renner becomes a BX) will be the Saab 900 T16s, another car I'd always wanted but didn't enjoy driving ... yes I'm fickle.

[Lankytim]

After a week of standing the 205 dizzler started FIRST TIME, the interior leak seems to have been cured as even after a weeks worth of rain everything was bone dry inside. As a reward it was treated to a dose of cockpit shine and 20 litres of finest Texaco diesel. The plan is to run it on a mixture of veg oil and diesel but I guess halfa tank of the real stuff should aid an MOT pass. The rear wash/wipe was fixed but I ran out of time to get the windscreen jets working. Roll on the MOT!

 

I have to say Tim, you're a braver man than me if you're going to run vegoil through a Lucas pump! Not recommended...

agree with JD - you'll f*** it up in no time!

 

 

When it does go i'll just stick a bosch one on instead. From what i've read you can run a lucas pump for a fair few miles on veg before they pack up- but I do know that it will eventually die on me!

[dollywobbler]

Lobbing a Bosch on isn't as easy as it sounds. Think you need all the injectors etc as well. To be honest, it's bloomin' frugal even on dino-diesel. There's a theory that the Lucas ones are more economical than Bosch-equipped XUDs - though I've no idea whether that's true.

[jonathan_dyane]

Tim, just be warned that when the Lucas pumps die of veg it usually happens with no warning whatsoever!

 

I have (somewhere) a Bosch pump and injectors that came from a running car I would gladly swap for a bottle of Laphroaig, however they have been on a shelf for a few years so no guarantee...

[Lankytim]

Cool, sounds like a plan, I probably won't need it for a while as I need to sell the Volvo before the pug goes on the road.

[jonathan_dyane]

No worries, I'll try and dig them out at some point...

[skattrd]

Gave the Alfa a jump start and then thought I'd better take it for a run to charge the battery a bit more before using it for work tomorrow. Half a mile down the road at the bottom of a hill it died. I went home, got the VW boring to give it a jump again and it now won't start at all. It turns over but its not firing. I'm thinking its fuel supply related. It's now dark, so I've given up called recovery. Looks like I won't be using it for work tomorrow ... Its days may be numbered.

[wuvvum]

Been sat at home waiting for a delivery. The courier was Yodel, so I was half expecting to be sat here till this evening waiting for them to turn up (they don't allow you to specify delivery times), but got a knock on the door at 10.30. So I'm now the proud owner of a complete NOS exhaust system for the Renault 6. £60 delivered - don't know if that was a bargain or not, but the car needs an exhaust and I don't think Kwik Fit would have been a lot of help. Now I've got the fun task of removing the rotten exhaust from the car - although at least it's all got to come off from the manifold back so I can take a hacksaw to it if I need to.

[Wilko220]

I won't bore you with how I came to discover this - but nail varnish remover seems to work as an alternative to T-Cut. I don't know how the prices compare, but a raid of your girlfriend's make-up drawer has to be cheaper than a trip to Halfrauds...

[retrogeezer]

New o/s steering rack gaiter fitted to the bluey and used the autoshite fix on the rear box when it fell off last week (tin cans and jubilee clips)

 

MOT due within a few weeks so not wanting to spend out £££'s on a new zorst until I know what else may be needed.

[sporty-shite]

Alfa ... Its days may be numbered.

 

NNNOOOOOOO! Get it recovered to my house

[RobT]

Did the French exchange today with Chris aka skattrd (and a very pleasant bloke he is too )

 

Here we are at the A14 Cambridge services doing the swap. French cars with bonnets up shock!

 

 

The 25 drove home beautifully. So what if the speedo doesn't work, I just made sure most people were going faster than me. And it fits in the garage, albeit with inches to spare!

 

As much as I like the BX, I think I got the better part of the deal

[ashmicro]

Gandini was having a good day when he designed the BX. It'll never look old.

[Guest]

Cleaned the 460 the other day. Seriously, what the actual fuck have the birds been eating?

 

 

Set to work replacing the driver's door mirror too, as the one on the car had completely disintegrated.

They're hard to find nowadays. Scored a better pair from a breakers down South a while ago.

 

 

Twenty minutes of swearing later and I had a 'new' door mirror. Except there was a crack in the outer casing I hadn't noticed when it arrived. Still better than what I started with. The driver's door card was held on mostly with factory gaffer tape and the door speaker trim. How they expected to compete with a Mercedes 190E with build quality like this is anyone's guess.

 

Oh right, they didn't. They're all Renault 5 GT Turbo engine donors now.

[Lord Sterling]

Went down to my mates today to do a but of work on my car due to the puddle I found in the passenger footwell, we were going to change the underlay ect... However, we never got around to doing anything to my car as we got carried away breaking an old Mk1 827 and I ended up with a load of parts, a couple of radios and 4 wheels. And there me saying I'd slow on collecting....

[Cavcraft]

I won't bore you with how I came to discover this - but nail varnish remover seems to work as an alternative to T-Cut. I don't know how the prices compare, but a raid of your girlfriend's make-up drawer has to be cheaper than a trip to Halfrauds...

 

If it's anything like Mrs and Miss Cavette's price range it's probably cheaper to have your car sent to Australia for a full polish then sent back over on the sodding Oasis Of The Seas. Via that posh hotel in Dubai where the cleaning crew stopped over for several weeks in the pent house.

 

Doesn't nail varnish remover contain acetone though, which is/was used as a panel wipe by bodyshops before they sprayed? It will flash off all right (and give you a major headache) but I'd worry about long term effects to paint and health to be honest.

[vulgalour]

You can get acetone free nail varnish remover, it's better for your nails (goth knowledge this) but does tend to be a little bit more expensive. I used to buy mine from Superdrug or Wilkinsons as it was the cheapest out there for something like a 500ml or 750ml bottle. Having said that, I reckon T-cut goes further for the money but if you're in a pinch and just need a little smidge it'd certainly do the trick, especially if the make-up drawer your raiding doesn't have a bottle of T-cut sat at the bottom of it.

[Lord Sterling]

Moar stereo malarky...

 

After visiting my mates yesterday and coming away with 4 more stereos I decided to see if any of these worked:

 

 

The Philips with the small crack in the screen works, but tape doesnt seem to function, possibly seized mechnicals?

The 2 'Rover' radios need a code as does the Clarion 'Rover' stereo and one of the R960s. The one 'Rover' radio also needs a new bulb/display.

The 2 aftermarket CD Players, a Kenwood and a JVC work brilliantly.

The other R960 needs an adaptor for the radio receiver cable.

 

So in total I now have 8 car stereos. A couple of days ago I had 3, a few weeks ago I had non in the house. Not forgetting of course the Philips CD changer which may now turn into 2 CD-changers. plus a couple of cables.

 

What on earth am I collecting these for? I'm not not even collecting. I'm sure collecting stamps is alot cleaner and takes up less space.

 

Anyhow,

 

Eventually, I'd like this set up in the Rover, I also have an R960 with code to use with the CD-changer so we'll see which one wins the day.

[skattrd]

As RobT said, we did the 80's French tat swap yesterday and I've now done 120 miles in the bx and am quite enjoying it

I don't suppose anyone has bx (or Pug 405) drivers seat going spare as I'm not getting on with the current one.

 

My Alfa is now back at it's second home ... the garage, awaiting investigation on the latest non running issue. Current thoughts are electric issue stopping fuel supply.

[dollywobbler]

The BX 'Safari' has now clocked up 1000 miles in my ownership. Most of that done in the past week or so. It really is good at eating up the miles but there's a nasty knock from the front end. I'll be checking that out tomorrow hopefully as it's either balljoints or wishbone bushes I reckon.

 

It's doing 50mpg as well. You might miss that feature RobT! Glad the French exchange went well. I have to say though, it's not quite as comfortable as I remember. Seriously lacking lower back support.

[Negative Creep]

Friendly welder has looked at the Yugo, declaring it "not so bad". With a bit of luck work can begin this week

[warren t claim]

Today I bought a car.

[wuvvum]

I did almost 400 miles in the Carina E yesterday, down to a family reunion at my mum's cousin's place in Surrey and back. It's actually a bloody good long-distance car as long as you're not in too much of a hurry - yes it's dull, but then so are most cars on the motorway. It's comfy though, and a lot quieter at speed than the Rover. And it managed 42mpg overall, which isn't too bad for a 16-year-old 1.8 petrol engine. Family reunion went well too - my parents came over from France for the weekend, my mum's youngest brother made a special trip over from Massachusetts, and I also caught up with various distant cousins who I hadn't seen for anything up to 20 years - and there weren't too many embarrassing "who the f*** are you?" moments, which was good.

[messerschmitt owner]

The xm 'state is mot'd. Road legal on the first.

[vulgalour]

Today I bought a car.

 

What did you buy, Mr Claim?

[alf892]

actually got around to doing stuff this weekend as it stopped raining...

 

Miss Alf (the younger) has turned 17 and taken over her sister's old corsa so I am fettling it in the hoe of another 3 trouble free years. Fitted headgasket, water pump and cambelt. Also discs, pads, o/s track rod end and n/s lower ball joint. Just got rear brakes to look at now and gear linkage to sort + big valet and MoT and she is on the road.

 

Back at work for rest

[dollywobbler]

BX 'clonk' was easily solved. Funnily enough, a discussion about front end knock appeared on the BX Club forum and threw up some suggestions. One of which was to make sure the cooling duct was re-fitted. Well, I hadn't bothered with this as the cooling duct was nowt more than some snapped remnants of plastic attached to a metal bracket. I placed washers on the caliper bolts (in place of said bracket) and the clonk has gone away! Sorted.

 

Will be heading out this afternoon to collect a 'new' hi-fi in the Mk1 BX. Not driven it for a while so I hope it behaves.

[RobT]

 

It's doing 50mpg as well. You might miss that feature RobT! Glad the French exchange went well. I have to say though, it's not quite as comfortable as I remember. Seriously lacking lower back support.

 

I'm already missing the economy aspect, but considering what a big barge it is the R25 isn't too bad on fuel. It also means I'll have to bring a tent to Shitefest as the plan was to sleep in the back of the BX!

 

I'll do a thread on the Renner once I've done a few more miles in it, but so far I'm very happy with it, cheers Chris

[skattrd]

Glad to hear you're enjoying it Rob. You needn't have worried about the bx, all cars of this sort of age have a few quirks/niggles and I'm quite enjoying getting to know it .... I'll be taking it to Newcastle tomorrow

[cort16]

I looks like BMW's found something to do with all those Mini Clubmans they didn't sell.

 

http://www.mini.ie/mini_clubvan/index.html

 

Want to get ahead of your competitors and do it in style? Then look no further than the MINI Clubvan – our brand new rapid transporter designed to make you the hottest player on the delivery market. See that speck in the rear view mirror? That’s the competition trying to keep up.

 

 

WHAT EVA