The new news 24 thread

[Christine]

I was in my workshop on the farm ,and Spud started barking frantically ,which means .. "PIKEY ALERT  BOSS !"

 

 I went out to see ,  and there's an old  fella with a half dead lamb in his arms .. His dog was off the lead in the field , and had the lamb ..Bloody signs on all the gates DOGS ON LEADS  PLEASE ---  LAMBS IN FIELD

 Least he had the guts to own up .. I expect it'll die it was bitten on the neck

 

 

Spuds a vicious little bleeder sometimes..  

 

[HMC]

Popped over to next door neighbour steves earlier. He was unloading his latest purchase, a 1961 herald 1200 that he was looking over carefully. Quite original but with a rotten chassis, but not a scrapper was his verdict.

 

 

Hes got a few other projects on the go as you can see....

 

 

Its great having him as a neighbour, and he makes me look sane and restrained by comparison, which is always helpful with the missus.

[richardmorris]

I was in my workshop on the farm ,and Spud started barking frantically ,which means .. "PIKEY ALERT  BOSS !"

 

 I went out to see ,  and there's an old  fella with a half dead lamb in his arms .. His dog was off the lead in the field , and had the lamb ..Bloody signs on all the gates DOGS ON LEADS  PLEASE ---  LAMBS IN FIELD

 Least he had the guts to own up .. I expect it'll die it was bitten on the neck

 

 

Spuds a vicious little bleeder sometimes..  

 

IMG_9939.JPG

 

 

 

 

Any chance of the farmer taking action? Loads of signs in Surrey warning that dogs worrying sheep will be shot.

[vulgalour]

One of our neighbours had their car on the drive recently, which isn't too uncommon but it's a scarlet Mercedes Benz 190 that looks spotless, replete with chrome arches.  It looks massively conspicuous, especially so next to the meticulous lawn with healthy pampas grass and it being a large corner plot.  Of course I've already made assumptions about the sort of people they probably are/were and it likely involves car keys and fishbowls.

[dollywobbler]

Any chance of the farmer taking action? Loads of signs in Surrey warning that dogs worrying sheep will be shot.

 

We get it around here a lot. Some dog owners really are utter pricks.

[wuvvum]

Done any driving yet Wuv, or have you only just got there?

Nope, and I won't be, either - which feels a bit odd seeing as this was meant to be a roadtrip holiday. I'd actually booked a hire car at Chicago, full of big ideas about where I was going to go and what I was going to see, but then decided that in view of the limited time I have it'd just be too much driving and not enough time looking at stuff. Plus I really didn't fancy driving in Chicago. So I'm Greyhounding it, and saving a shitload of money in the process. I went to Canada today.

[stuboy]

On 0735hrs to victoria sadly not car related just collect teenage son

[Richard]

 

Very nearly a first time pass. Astounded.

[Kiltox]

Admiral left my other half stranded on the outskirts of Cardiff 250 miles from home on a bank holiday evening when she was T-boned on a roundabout.

They offered to take her to their impound/ compound but no further. They were insulting on the phone when she was distraught about getting home.

They then refused to fight the case and told us it would be 50/50 despite loads of evidence that it was the other drivers fault. Just flat out refused.

Rude and obstructive at every turn.

 

Fuckers.

Never again.

In their defence - I had an accident a couple of years ago and they were fantastic although it was a fairly straightforward single vehicle accident resulting in a total loss

 

Had the money in my bank account before the car was at Copart and they offered main dealer retail for it

[ruffgeezer]

I've gone done a bought. Picasso weldage soon, then for sale.

[andy18s]

One of our neighbours had their car on the drive recently, which isn't too uncommon but it's a scarlet Mercedes Benz 190 that looks spotless, replete with chrome arches. It looks massively conspicuous, especially so next to the meticulous lawn with healthy pampas grass and it being a large corner plot. Of course I've already made assumptions about the sort of people they probably are/were and it likely involves car keys and fishbowls.

Pampas grass eh??

 

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[Kiltox]

I've gone done a bought. Picasso weldage soon, then for sale.

Are Picassos bad for rot? Took my FiL's 52 plate for test yesterday and the tester commented on how clean it was

[BorniteIdentity]

Replacing bulbs this afternoon in the Avensis. All 3 heater bulbs had gone so it was always a fumble in the dark. And not the good type.

 

 

Decided to do the ODO and clock ones too because I did them 3 years ago with white, not realising they should be green.

 

 

Minus speedo. Who needs it anyway? The car in front is a Toyota anyway.

 

 

Fin. £2 for 7 bulbs and about half an hour work.

 

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[Kiltox]

Love fixes like that, so satisfying for so little outlay

[Skizzer]

I've just ordered a load of service stuff to rehabilitate my Golf, taking advantage of one of GSF's rare* 40% sales (see the many and various 'GSF 40% off' threads for details - this week it's FRDY40 if you are one of the three people in Britain who don't already get this via email).  

 

My expected booty includes a cambelt kit.  Expect much jollity in a few weeks' time when I attempt to do my own belt change.  I can do wiper blades now in under half an hour, so WCPGW?

[Kiltox]

Amazed that GSF can supply a clutch kit for my Panda for about £24 and timing belt kit for less than £20 using those codes - cheapest around by far

[panhard65]

Bought another car today, It's not really for me but any excuse really. My girlfriends lad wants to do autotests but doesn't want to use his own car and being only 18 2 lots of insurance would cripple him. It seems as long as someone is insured and the car is roadworthy he car take part. So now I am the "proud" owner of £200 worth of Saxo Furio !!. It isn't too bad really as it had to be under 1.4 for the group he wants to be in. About a weeks worth of mot but seems sound enough. There are a few bodges to sort out including the burnt headlight wiring and the brake shoes hold down spings replaced with little nuts and bolts.

[eddyramrod]

That's a bit of all right!  I'd like to get back into autotesting, I had a little go in Cyprus and it is rather addictive.

[Lacquer Peel]

My expected booty includes a cambelt kit.  Expect much jollity in a few weeks' time when I attempt to do my own belt change.  I can do wiper blades now in under half an hour, so WCPGW?

 

There are much worse engines to change the cambelt on than an old VW 8v job. Would you like a PDF that might help? What's the engine code?

[Cavcraft]

Today in pictures inc 306 exhaust rubber repair* and the Fiesta which I collected Thursday. I wasn't going to spend any money on it but will get new discs and pads tomorrow to try and save it from the crusher for a couple of months...

 

 

Fleet update picture, missing three cars but you get the gist....

 

 

 

 

As you can see the already worthless Fiesta is even more worthless with dents and rust. It holds sentimental value to a mate's girlfriend so if it lasts until the MOT in May then fair enough.

[Kiltox]

Doing a cambelt and dephaser on a 1.6 VVT Renault and fucking it up has put me off it for a long time, do I need to worry about changing the belt on my 1.1 FIRE Panda engine?

[Skizzer]

There are much worse engines to change the cambelt on than an old VW 8v job. Would you like a PDF that might help? What's the engine code?

 

That's very decent of you, thanks!  It's a DX - the 8v 1.8 GTI.  It's a late mk1 cabrio from 1991 (so the donkey is mk2-era).  No rush though - lots going on at the moment so I probably won't get around to this until May at the earliest.

 

Noodling around on the Mk1 Owners' Club site suggested this might be a good vehicle on which to pop my cambelt cherry, so I'm feeling brave.  

[Angrydicky]

Those who know me well might have spotted that I've been running the Somerset as my only car for about a month now. The other two Longbridge products are both slumbering in garages, but where's the Maestro then?

 

Well, it's been in a small indy garage near Canterbury for a while now while the chap investigates the poor cold starting, the leaky heater pipes and welds up a small hole in the outer sill which I managed to poke. I asked him to repair the sill, as my welder is broken and even if it wasn't, I don't really have the time to do it at the moment. I did request a flush repair, so hopefully it will be better than the usual blobby garage welding. This chap can weld though, as when I dropped the car off he had a Sixties Merc in for a replacement sill. I also requested he put it in for an MoT, which he was happy to do - although he warned me that the tester in the garage he uses across from him tends to poke holes in old cars. I told him to go ahead with it anyway, as with the exception of the localised rot on the outer sill (that I missed when I repaired it two years ago) it's all very solid, especially for a 31 year old Maestro. I suggested it might need a pair of wiper blades, as the ones on it are past their best, but I couldn't think of anything else.

 

I dropped the heater pipes I got off the donor Maestro off with him on Tuesday. Just happened to have a look at the MoT history today because I wanted to see if there were any advisories on the last MoT that might give a clue as to what it might need this time. It seems he put it in on Wednesday: 

 

 

Not too bad. I guess he put it in to see if there was anything else it needed first, then fix within 10 days or so to get the free retest. 

 

In other news I attacked the one major scab on the latest replacement back door with the angle grinder. It's deeply pitted and has gone through at one point. There are a couple of other bits that are barely pin holes, but amazingly, the inner frame is almost mint, very clean indeed compared to the original which is really rotten. It's just the skin that has suffered from being left dirty, but I'm not confident welding a Maestro door skin - door skins are awful to weld at the best of times, and Maestros are made of very thin steel. It's a shame really, because it's otherwise very good - at the top under the window is solid, it's got the correct glass and handle, and the inner frame is good. I got a load of distortion when I tried to repair the original. The original rear door needs to be replaced as soon as possible, because not only is it rusty and distorted, but it's the wrong shade of beige as I painted it with aerosols. 

 

Dad suggested grinding out as much rust as possible, fitting it on the car then taking it to some bodyshops for some quotes. Trouble is, if I'm going to go to that expense I don't want the rust coming bubbling back again a couple of years down the line.

[FakeConcern]

Patrick Mcgoohan's birthday today (if he was still alive)

 

[ruffgeezer]

Are Picassos bad for rot? Took my FiL's 52 plate for test yesterday and the tester commented on how clean it was

 

Yeah they go from slightly grumbly to where have the sills gone very quickly, a proper repair job is a couple of hundred a side.

[dollywobbler]

My day of aircooled Citroen content. Firstly, I drove 2.5 hours up to Oulton Park. Dyane was pinking a bit, so I lobbed Tesco's finest 99 octane fuel in. Which made no different. Meh.

 

On arrival at the circuit, I found old friends - the 2CV I helped look after at the 24hr last year.

 

I watched the first 2CV race. It was nip and tuck all the way. The chap who won it went from first to fourth at one point, at one corner. Exciting stuff.

Winner

 

The other racing (Clios, MX5s and other stuff) didn't really interest me, so I went for an amble around the paddock instead. And fell in love.

 

Then I went for a walk (ok, a drive) around the circuit. Gadzooks!

 

Parked up near the VIP area.

 

Had to be done. So comfy.

 

The second race was also entertaining, but sadly involved a very rare coming together. Serious enough for the drivers to be whisked off to the medical centre. Thankfully they're both fine - the cars, less so.

 

"Ouch, my face!"

 

This is a bit blurry, but the smash snapped the cylinder head in two!

 

Then it was another 2.5hrs flat out to get back home.

 

I tell you what, I'd forgotten how absolutely exhausting it is to drive an A-Series Citroen at "fast traffic" speeds for hours on end. I was shattered by the time I got back home. The XM really has turned me into a soft bastard. In that, I rarely top 3000rpm. With the Dyane, I was rarely below that. Which was tricky given that I'm still trying to bed the new pistons and barrels in! It's definitely a bit flat too. I'm hoping a carburettor rejet will sort that out.

[trigger]

 

I collected my Cortina this evening from my in-laws after it being there since last September time, it's been in their garage and unstarted about 3 months now without even disconnecting the battery but I jumped into it tonight, a few turns of they key and it fired into life and I drove it straight home which is about 25 miles.

 

 

I really can't fault it mechanically but I'm still tempted to sell it even though everyone tells me to keep it, even my dad said he'll give me £4500 for it tonight, fuck know where he would put it as he's already got my old Mk1.

 

I don't really like the low driving position and wooly steering and I just fancy something more V6/V8 and from the 1980s. I'll have to see how the summer goes and how I feel as it doesn't owe me anything anymore and it doesn't cost me anything to keep either now.

[HH-R]

Doing a cambelt and dephaser on a 1.6 VVT Renault and fucking it up has put me off it for a long time, do I need to worry about changing the belt on my 1.1 FIRE Panda engine?

99% sure pre Euro 5 1.1 FIREs (around 2010 change) were non interference, certainly the 1.2 was.

[cobblers]

99% sure pre Euro 5 1.1 FIREs (around 2010 change) were non interference, certainly the 1.2 was.

That's comforting as our lasses 2009 1.2 500 is still on the original belt. 

 

Why bother producing a 1.2 and a 1.1 engine? what a waste of resources! Surely you'd just put the 1.2 in everything?

[EssDeeWon]

Its been freezing today, even darn sarfend mate, but I haz no warm air coming into the cabin!!

 

Recent new waterpump / thermostat and all that malarkey, and the engine was well up to temperature.

 

Why no warm air from that lovely hot KV6??