The new news 24 thread

[Shep Shepherd]

In preparation for Shitefest, I dodged the showers this afternoon and made a start on polishing The Volvo's paintwork, which due to the awful weather we've had so far this year has faded quite badly. I'll let the picture do the the talking:

 

 

 

Hopefully, by polishing a piece at a time whenever time and weather allow, I'll be able to get the rest of the car's paintwork shiny and one shade of red by the middle of next week

[RobT]

 

Hopefully, by polishing a piece at a time whenever time and weather allow, I'll be able to get the rest of the car's paintwork shiny and one shade of red by the middle of next week

 

Looks good Shep. I've been doing the same on the R25. Got up at 5.30 this morning and did 2 hours before work, so the bonnet and OS wing have now been cut, clayed, and polished. A bit of wax will follow. Takes bloody ages doesn't it but worth the effort!

[Shep Shepherd]

 

Hopefully, by polishing a piece at a time whenever time and weather allow, I'll be able to get the rest of the car's paintwork shiny and one shade of red by the middle of next week

 

Looks good Shep. I've been doing the same on the R25. Got up at 5.30 this morning and did 2 hours before work, so the bonnet and OS wing have now been cut, clayed, and polished. A bit of wax will follow. Takes bloody ages doesn't it but worth the effort!

 

I'll probably finish the roof off when I get home from work tomorrow morning

 

So far, Meguiar's Ultimate Compound and Color Magic are doing the business, but I might give the car a going-over with Auto Balm before Shitefest

 

TV2 could do with a polish as well, but due to being metallic, it won't be as difficult to do

[MrDuke]

If all goes swimmingly, the Scrote will be leaving for fresh pastures next week, to be replaced by something with oxidized paint, 2 odd panels, ghetto welding repairs, half an interior, and an X-suffix plate. And currently no MOT. I shall be driving it 200 miles to a pre-booked one.

 

Hell Yeah

 

 

Oof, ready to spill the beans as to what is is?

 

 

+1 Spill the beans.

 

 

I'm afraid that would spoil the massive let-down when it actually arrives. It's another fwd blue oval, so don't get too excited.

 

I am slightly nervous about the journey, as it's just been dragged out of a lock-up after a long sleep. Although there's very little that can actually break on it, and there's no obvious MOT failure points bar a split CV boot, so I'm sure* it'll be fine*

[vulgalour]

Had to run my brother to A&E yesterday - ruptured tendon in his wrist - and on the way back spotted that brown Skoda Estelle again, got far too excited but was in no position to take pictures as we were on a roundabout going different ways. Shall have to track it down and put an Autoshite notice on it. Have also noticed that to most people M reg ('95) is old these days and it's rare to see anything pre F reg ('89) in regular use which shows how much out of touch with new cars I am because to me, an M reg is a new car and an F reg is an average age car.

[SambaS]

NEWS! None, whatsoever. Although I'll have paid off my 2 new cars soon so I'll be able to make some progress with the Monza, Sambas and MG!

[trigger]

I still class a M reg as the modern, That's one of the reasons I keep thinking about selling Mrs T's M reg Golf for something older, am i the only one who feel anything with a airbag is modern?.

[dollywobbler]

Not at all Trig. The Maverick is airbag free, which is the way I like it. It still feels a bit modern though.

[Richard]

The cut-off date for me is the early '80s, I just can't see a 1980s car as old, even though 1980 is nearly as distant now as WW2 was then.

[catsinthewelder]

We've had locallised OMG flood chaos around Ludlow today so the 1100 took a back seat and the BX was brought out for the school run. Coped fine with torrential rain and huge puddles this morning so I left it with Ms C so she could pick them up. Pinched the 1100 to bimble into work with for a change. Phone rings at 4 O'clock, the car won't start......ARSE, so packed some metric sockets and a rope from work into the Austin and set off.

 

After a bit of fannying round I spotted some stuff hanging under the Citroen which shouldn't be there, It was the fuel pipework and it had split, knocked off in the big puddle up the road at a guess, So 10 minutes 6 cable ties later we hooked the jump leads up to the Austin and churned it over until it burst into life. New fuel in it and back to work

[Cavcraft]

After much pissing about from a pretty hopeless seller who was/wasn't/was/wasn't in today/yesterday/tomorrow/yesterday/tonight/last night I finally collected the new wheels tonight after a pretty shit trip to Buxton.

 

 

I don't know what it's like to drive yet as my mate drove it back for me but he said it pulls ok and had the 'usual Peugeot clonk here and there'. I'll give it a whazz round tomorrow, fingers crossed the pump says Bosch and not Lucas.

Oh, 1.9 n/a dizzler flava and not at all expensive!

[messerschmitt owner]

It's of an age that a Lucas pump is most likely

[ashmicro]

My mate Neil just bought this

 

 

And round the back:

 

 

Nutter. He says it'll pull a small solar system, but scares oil companies. I was going in to his shop for coffee, and he said "Buy two, I need the money for petrol"

[phil_lihp]

The Nova is rolling again after a session with a big hammer. Couldn't get the split pins out on either front caliper as I didn't have the right tool but repeated bashing with the wrong one produced a satisfying clunk as the caliper let go of the disk. Both fronts are still a bit stuck but will be pulled apart when I get the pins out. The universal car repair tool also released one stuck rear drum. Even managed a little drive around the garages by my house, still amazed how sweet the engine is on 5 year old fuel.

[dollywobbler]

Spent this morning gluing some sound-proofing into the 2CV in a desperate bid to save my hearing from further destruction. Still not exactly quiet but the wind noise is now at least noisier than the engine noise, whereas they were very near rivals before. Got the sound-proofing on Ebay - quite pleased to score enough for the job for £11 inc delivery. It's a few mm thick and does the job nicely. Still got some left over too.

 

Just fixed the heater resister on the Maverick. I've been meaning to do this job for about six months now! Simply remove the glovebox (a few screws) with the bonus of discovering a Binatone sat-nav that must have fallen out of the glovebox at some point! Handy as my Garmin Nuvi has gone all broken on me. Then out comes the resistor. A quick search on the Nissan 4x4 Owners Club forum and I found the issue straight away. A metal tag that should be soldered to another section had come adrift. A quick bit of work and that's sorted, and I now have all four blower speeds working again. Still need to re-fit the glovebox but the midges are hungry so that can wait.

[Lord Sterling]

Well, managed to bag 2 head unit-to-CD changer cables, one brand new, still sealed and the other used. I've got 2 Philips DC082 6-CD changers that I'd never used so this gave me a chance to test them out, I connected my the one R960 head unit and plugged up the CD changers....

 

 

Both worked excellently, I was pretty chuffed. However, where the hell I was going to put the changer is anyones guess, also running the cable from the dash to the boot looked like it was going to be a right nightmare, so I changed back to the R750. I will use the newer headunit as soon as I can get the changer properly fitted.

 

Went to the scrappy today, but they were closing up only half an hour after I'd arrived.

 

Been tinkering with the Rover's engine to see why the it keeps on clicking only when trying to start it. Cleaned up the battery connectors to no avail so the next suspect is the ignitor, I have a spare one somewhere but it doesnt help that I dont know where

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Today I was twatted in the face with the lowering stick going over a cattle grid when a bolt in my rear suspension snapped.

 

Pulling it all apart now I remember how unplesant working on rusted up suspension is.

[catsinthewelder]

After several years without real trouble I've had 7 breakdowns within a week, fixed with variously swearing, pushing fiddling, cable ties and one large hammer. All seem to be working at the moment so today me and the small boy helped a mate break his C15. I'm off to convert the speedo binacle into a clock/nightlight for his room now

[wuvvum]

Made a start on the Renault 6 exhaust this evening. It's actually gone surprisingly smoothly so far - I've got the old one almost completely off the car, with the only casualty (apart from the skin on my knuckles) being one of the rubber mounts for the centre section - its twin is still in place though so should be able to hold the thing up OK. The only problem is it's all come off in one piece - the three sections are so rusted together that I'm not even going to attempt to split them - and the rear section runs over the rear anti-roll bar. So I'm going to have to take a hacksaw to the rear section to get it off (seems rather more sensible than dropping the anti-roll bar), but unfortunately I couldn't find my hacksaw blades and it was too late by then to go out and buy some, so that'll have to wait until tomorrow. I'll have to buy a couple of exhaust clamps as well, although I did find a new tin of Gun Gum in the boot of the Rover so that'll save me having to buy assembly paste.

 

Also fitted a right footrest to the Diversion - a mate had given me one off a Chinese monkey bike, but the hole for the pin was too small. £1.79 for an 8mm drill bit later and it was sorted. So I can now ride the thing without having to balance my right foot on the gearbox casing. Now all I have to do is sort out the oil leak and it'll be almost roadworthy...

[M'coli]

with the bonus of discovering a Binatone sat-nav that must have fallen out of the glovebox at some point! Handy as my Garmin Nuvi has gone all broken on me.

 

Whang it on eBay and lie about how good it is, we have a Binatone one that I use to check where I am but never let it tell me where I want to get to - they're dreadful.

[RobT]

with the bonus of discovering a Binatone sat-nav that must have fallen out of the glovebox at some point! Handy as my Garmin Nuvi has gone all broken on me.

 

Whang it on eBay and lie about how good it is, we have a Binatone one that I use to check where I am but never let it tell me where I want to get to - they're dreadful.

 

Do the Binatone ones tell you your speed? If so I'll buy a cheap one rather than do the proper thing and fix the speedo. Not bothered about the sat nav element.

[wuvvum]

I have a Binatone satnav - the cheapest one out of the Argos catalogue. It's actually not that bad - so far it's always managed to get me where I want to go, and it picks up a signal a lot quicker than my old Navman thing.

 

It will tell you your speed, but irritatingly there's no option (that I've found) to have the speed displayed on the map page - you have to go into the GPS Status page, where it gives your speed to the nearest 0.1mph and your altitude to the nearest yard, along with a realtime map showing the location of the GPS satellites and which ones it's locked onto.

[M'coli]

Sort-of. I've found when they're not telling you to go somewhere they don't like changing from one road to another.

[RobT]

That'll do me, cheers. A trip to Argos tomorrow then

 

In other news, I had the day off doing car stuff yesterday. The miniMetro passed it's MoT together with a pump up (only needed a bit as the rear was a touch lower than the specs), and I spent the afternoon trying to fix a poxy blowing/brrr-ing noise I've had from the Montego's exhaust for ages. I was adamant it was the mid-section so replaced that after much faffing and swearing, but no difference Rear section and downpipe are OK so must be coming from the manifold. MoT for this one is Monday so I'll just send it in and see what it fails on before doing much else. I'd wager a bit of welding is in order, as is the case every year!

[Lord Sterling]

I have a Binatone satnav - the cheapest one out of the Argos catalogue. It's actually not that bad - so far it's always managed to get me where I want to go, and it picks up a signal a lot quicker than my old Navman thing.

 

It will tell you your speed, but irritatingly there's no option (that I've found) to have the speed displayed on the map page - you have to go into the GPS Status page, where it gives your speed to the nearest 0.1mph and your altitude to the nearest yard, along with a realtime map showing the location of the GPS satellites and which ones it's locked onto.

 

Strange that, I have a Binatone one (that, being a cheap flash harry, I bought from the neighbour a few years ago) its never really failed me*, the speed is displayed on the map somwhere on the left-hand side of the screen whilst in map mode.

 

* I say never it did once take me up a road to a very small bridge over a small river that looks like it had been closed off for a few years somewhere in the Shrewsbury sticks.

[rml2345]

I bought a new road map he other week... It's like satnav but the battery is better

Noticed a bit of play in the door check straps on the Yaris after Shep did one on TV2. Went to open the drivers door yesterday and it's sheared at the pin

Since new ones appear to be £daft it's off to the scrappy today for a replacement.

[Cavcraft]

Excelsior news on the 306 front: washed and buffed it yesterday which made it look shite loads better and my lad weaved his magic today so boot now opens and closes (even if the lock is typical bloody Peugeot and only works when it wants to) which is mint, oh and the rear wiper also works now too!

 

Best of all though was a check under the bonnet reveals pump says Bosch! Asian supermarket here I come!

[dollywobbler]

RobT - you can have this one if you're at Shitefest. I don't really need a Sat Nav. I've gone back to using Google maps and I'm sure I can convince the Garmin Nuvi to work again if I really need it.

 

The wife is pretty good at navigation as well, which is good as we went to Redditch today and it's a fuggin' nightmare. We went to Arrow Valley Country Park which is handily not sign-posted until you take the junction you need on one of the many dual carriageways. Come off and down to the roundabout and you're actually treated to a sign telling you where the park is! Wife 1, Redditch nil.

 

Left the BX 'Safari' unlocked all day at the park, which was silly. No-one seemed to notice though - perhaps they were too busy laughing at the stripes. Hideous journey over there, with loads of dawdlers and caravans. That at least allowed a rather pleasant 55mpg. Drives beautifully now I've sorted the steering and suspension and disengaged the self-cancelling function on the indicators. Wonderful.

[wuvvum]

This afternoon I have mostly been working on shite. I nipped into Norwich for some hacksaw blades and exhaust clamps, then cut the old exhaust off the Renault 6 and more or less managed to fit the new one. I say more or less because there's a little blob of weld inside the silencer in-pipe which is stopping the centre section sliding fully into the silencer, and I didn't have anything to file it off with. I couldn't be arsed to go into Norwich again for a file (the motor factor's in the village shuts at 1 on a Sunday) and the pipe was far enough in that it would be secure and wouldn't blow, so I just clamped it up where it was.

 

The other advantage to this setup was that the rear silencer mount is hung from the front-most bumper mounting bolt, and said bolt snapped when I tried to loosen it, so with the silencer being further back than it should be I was able to move the mount to the rear-most bolt (which undid fine) and everything lined up. So now the tailpipe sticks out about half an inch beyond the rear bumper, but other than that it all seems secure. It's quietened the old crate down a fair bit too.

 

After that I pulled the Solara onto the drive to change the water pump. It's so nice working on a 27-year-old car which doesn't have any rusted up or seized bits. Everything that needed to come undone did so with little effort, and the whole job took less than an hour. The pump I bought off eBay came without a gasket so I used a liberal amount of Hylomar, which seems to have done the job, and the bearing noise is gone so my guess as to where the noise was coming from appears to have been right. Now all I need to do is get the thing idling properly and it can go in for a test.

 

Next job is the handbrake shoes on the Jeep, but I'm going to have to pay someone to do that I think as there's no way my little Aldi trolley jack will lift a Grand Cherokee off the ground.

[dieselnutjob]

just got back from a very flash wedding in Marbella

 

I thought that the wedding car was a big shite though

 

DSC_1593 by dieselnutjob, on Flickr