The new news 24 thread

[Timewaster]

Managed to spend a couple of hours on the Spitfire today inbetween bottles and nappies.

Wirebrush, Kurust and Hammerite means the floor in the tub is looking good, even if it is soon to be hidden under new carpets

[eddyramrod]

welding tales

 

I so wish I'd known you guys when I had my Plymouth police car, I might still have it!

[eddyramrod]

welding tales

 

I so wish I'd known you guys when I had my Plymouth police car, I might still have it!

[Cavcraft]

After about 18 years I finally got to the very back of the lock up today. To 'celebrate' this milestone though I managed to stand on (and break) the Renault 5 Mk1 sidelight/indicator lenses that I've had since the year dot

Now both garages have cars in AND some spare room.

[Cavcraft]

After about 18 years I finally got to the very back of the lock up today. To 'celebrate' this milestone though I managed to stand on (and break) the Renault 5 Mk1 sidelight/indicator lenses that I've had since the year dot

Now both garages have cars in AND some spare room.

[Cavcraft]

Wah and quite literally hey. The brand new mingebag exhaust we got for the C*rsa was fitted today, after it had sat round for yonks in the garage. To be fair for a cheap system it looks ok and went on ok, which sort of surprised us in a way.

Anyhow with that done we checked the front brakes for the 'dangerous imbalance' it failed the test on and it appears the o/s/f caliper was sticking a bit, so we stripped all the dront brakes and cleaned them up etc. Fingers crossed it's only a couple of wiper blades away from passing the MOT now, as popular* as they are on here I've sort of missed driving it and the absolute mingebaggery par excellence at passing petrol stations is useful. Sorry.

 

Merc cleaned up, looks like it'll end up on thiEfbay.

[Cavcraft]

Wah and quite literally hey. The brand new mingebag exhaust we got for the C*rsa was fitted today, after it had sat round for yonks in the garage. To be fair for a cheap system it looks ok and went on ok, which sort of surprised us in a way.

Anyhow with that done we checked the front brakes for the 'dangerous imbalance' it failed the test on and it appears the o/s/f caliper was sticking a bit, so we stripped all the dront brakes and cleaned them up etc. Fingers crossed it's only a couple of wiper blades away from passing the MOT now, as popular* as they are on here I've sort of missed driving it and the absolute mingebaggery par excellence at passing petrol stations is useful. Sorry.

 

Merc cleaned up, looks like it'll end up on thiEfbay.

[wuvvum]

This afternoon I took the first step down the road to Doomifying the Rover 400, by unplugging and blanking off the EGR valve, using the blanking plates nicked from the 200. Initial efforts were hampered by one of the EGR pipe mounting bolts rounding off when I tried to undo it. This was soon overcome in the time-honoured Autoshite manner, although this did necessitate removing one of the turbo pipes to make room for the hammer. It doesn't seem to have made a great deal of difference to the way the car drives, although the turbo does seem to spool up slightly more quickly when it does kick in (it's still laggy as feck compared to the 200 though).

 

I'm now trying to decide whether to fork out for a new tuning module or nick the one off the 200 - the advantage of the latter course of action being that I would save £144, the drawbacks being that I'm not sure whether or not the module was causing the spluttering problems the 200 was experiencing before, plus I have no wiring instructions so would have to try and copy what had been done on the 200 - and most of that was done by a major bodge artist, although it all seemed to work OK. I'm also going to fit the adjustable boost valve I bought for the 200, although I suppose this would mean plumbing in a boost gauge as well to ensure I don't overdo it.

[wuvvum]

This afternoon I took the first step down the road to Doomifying the Rover 400, by unplugging and blanking off the EGR valve, using the blanking plates nicked from the 200. Initial efforts were hampered by one of the EGR pipe mounting bolts rounding off when I tried to undo it. This was soon overcome in the time-honoured Autoshite manner, although this did necessitate removing one of the turbo pipes to make room for the hammer. It doesn't seem to have made a great deal of difference to the way the car drives, although the turbo does seem to spool up slightly more quickly when it does kick in (it's still laggy as feck compared to the 200 though).

 

I'm now trying to decide whether to fork out for a new tuning module or nick the one off the 200 - the advantage of the latter course of action being that I would save £144, the drawbacks being that I'm not sure whether or not the module was causing the spluttering problems the 200 was experiencing before, plus I have no wiring instructions so would have to try and copy what had been done on the 200 - and most of that was done by a major bodge artist, although it all seemed to work OK. I'm also going to fit the adjustable boost valve I bought for the 200, although I suppose this would mean plumbing in a boost gauge as well to ensure I don't overdo it.

[Lankytim]

Hey Wuv, I missed out on all this Doom business before, what's it all about?

 

In other news, work were having a big clearout of all their unusable shite, I noticed a load of brass nuts and bolts about to be skipped and asked if I could have them instead as i'll "use them in the garage" Instead I weighed them in and got £21, along with £11 for a pair of dead batteries which went towards a nice pair of part worn Pirellis and new wiper blades for the Saab. Nice! I think work may have some more brass for me too... I won't tell them what i'm doing with it though.

 

Saab is getting nearly 31 MPG too, which I think it very good. It makes me feel alot less guilty about selling the Volvo 240 as that only got 26 odd. Economy barge FTW!

[Lankytim]

Hey Wuv, I missed out on all this Doom business before, what's it all about?

 

In other news, work were having a big clearout of all their unusable shite, I noticed a load of brass nuts and bolts about to be skipped and asked if I could have them instead as i'll "use them in the garage" Instead I weighed them in and got £21, along with £11 for a pair of dead batteries which went towards a nice pair of part worn Pirellis and new wiper blades for the Saab. Nice! I think work may have some more brass for me too... I won't tell them what i'm doing with it though.

 

Saab is getting nearly 31 MPG too, which I think it very good. It makes me feel alot less guilty about selling the Volvo 240 as that only got 26 odd. Economy barge FTW!

[wuvvum]

Hey Wuv, I missed out on all this Doom business before, what's it all about?

The 200 got christened "the Rover of Doom" when I took it to the AS meet at Jaywick last year - mainly due to its scruffy appearance, incongruously rapid acceleration and the vast clouds of black smoke it chucks out on full throttle. I think it may have been Oldford who coined the phrase, but I liked it so it stuck. Now that the 200 is off the road until further notice, I'm trying to get the 400 up to the same levels of performance (and smokiness) - it's already almost as scruffy as the 200 - it loses points for having all the major body panels the same colour, but gains points for having more rust than the 200 and a patch of grey primer on a rear arch. Plus the 400 in saloon form is even more of a giffermobile than the 200 so should be even more irritating to A3 TDI drivers when it leaves them choking on its copious exhaust fumes.

[wuvvum]

Hey Wuv, I missed out on all this Doom business before, what's it all about?

The 200 got christened "the Rover of Doom" when I took it to the AS meet at Jaywick last year - mainly due to its scruffy appearance, incongruously rapid acceleration and the vast clouds of black smoke it chucks out on full throttle. I think it may have been Oldford who coined the phrase, but I liked it so it stuck. Now that the 200 is off the road until further notice, I'm trying to get the 400 up to the same levels of performance (and smokiness) - it's already almost as scruffy as the 200 - it loses points for having all the major body panels the same colour, but gains points for having more rust than the 200 and a patch of grey primer on a rear arch. Plus the 400 in saloon form is even more of a giffermobile than the 200 so should be even more irritating to A3 TDI drivers when it leaves them choking on its copious exhaust fumes.

[Lankytim]

What mods does it have to get the power up? There used to be a battered as fook white bubble 200 round here that absolutely flew, but chucked out stacks of smoke, maybe it was modded in the same way as yours?

[Lankytim]

What mods does it have to get the power up? There used to be a battered as fook white bubble 200 round here that absolutely flew, but chucked out stacks of smoke, maybe it was modded in the same way as yours?

[wuvvum]

It has one of these:

 

 

It's actually quite a sophisticated bit of kit - it doesn't just increase fuelling as some of these modules do, it also alters the timing of various parameters - I'm not entirely sure how it works on a technical level as I know naff all about diesels, but I do know it makes an L-series engine responsive as f*ck. It's also had the EGR valve blocked off, and I think it's also had the wastegate actuator fiddled with to increase boost. I'm going to use an adjustable boost valve on the 400 as I think it's a bit more scientific than shortening the wastegate actuator rod, and hopefully will do the job just as well.

[wuvvum]

It has one of these:

 

 

It's actually quite a sophisticated bit of kit - it doesn't just increase fuelling as some of these modules do, it also alters the timing of various parameters - I'm not entirely sure how it works on a technical level as I know naff all about diesels, but I do know it makes an L-series engine responsive as f*ck. It's also had the EGR valve blocked off, and I think it's also had the wastegate actuator fiddled with to increase boost. I'm going to use an adjustable boost valve on the 400 as I think it's a bit more scientific than shortening the wastegate actuator rod, and hopefully will do the job just as well.

[CreepingJesus]

Found a bottle of red Colour Magic in the back of the hall cupboard. Not sure of its' vintage, but Kay reckoned it was bought for the red R19 I had. So roughly 10 years old then. Clearly Colour Magic improves with age, like a fine wine , 'cos now the Volvo is the shiniest car on the street. And, given that a couple of old clunkers have been replaced lately, the oldest. Yay me.

Sadly on closer inspection, the paint's falling off a couple of small sections of the n/s/f wing, not helped by the recent alternating downpours and heat.

Also, last week's comedy wiper failure has an interesting development. It involves 'Volvo', 'design flaw', and 'premature failure' in the same sentence. Shockaroonie. And this is a pre-Ford one.

The base of the wiper arm wears out the plastic insert, of the rubber bung the drive pin passes thro' the back window in. So it lets in water, which swells the ceramic coating of the drive pin's metal sleeve, cracking the rubber bung's plastic insert, and letting yet more water in. Now that the ceramic's swollen, it's exposed the top of the sleeve, and...now the water's got nowhere else to go but down the drive pin's casing! Hello seizing metal, goodbye wiper. Champion.

I 'manipulated' it with suitably applied violence and GT85, but the motor hasn't got the grunt to make it wipe. Hey ho, maybe it'll magically work tomorrow .

On the upside, I managed to stick the tailgate trim back in properly, without having annihilated any of the poxy arrowhead clips , so it's Neil FC 2 - Wear + Tear United 2 for the weekend. Roll on the rematch - P38 and rattle cans at the ready*. (Pics available on request)

[CreepingJesus]

Found a bottle of red Colour Magic in the back of the hall cupboard. Not sure of its' vintage, but Kay reckoned it was bought for the red R19 I had. So roughly 10 years old then. Clearly Colour Magic improves with age, like a fine wine , 'cos now the Volvo is the shiniest car on the street. And, given that a couple of old clunkers have been replaced lately, the oldest. Yay me.

Sadly on closer inspection, the paint's falling off a couple of small sections of the n/s/f wing, not helped by the recent alternating downpours and heat.

Also, last week's comedy wiper failure has an interesting development. It involves 'Volvo', 'design flaw', and 'premature failure' in the same sentence. Shockaroonie. And this is a pre-Ford one.

The base of the wiper arm wears out the plastic insert, of the rubber bung the drive pin passes thro' the back window in. So it lets in water, which swells the ceramic coating of the drive pin's metal sleeve, cracking the rubber bung's plastic insert, and letting yet more water in. Now that the ceramic's swollen, it's exposed the top of the sleeve, and...now the water's got nowhere else to go but down the drive pin's casing! Hello seizing metal, goodbye wiper. Champion.

I 'manipulated' it with suitably applied violence and GT85, but the motor hasn't got the grunt to make it wipe. Hey ho, maybe it'll magically work tomorrow .

On the upside, I managed to stick the tailgate trim back in properly, without having annihilated any of the poxy arrowhead clips , so it's Neil FC 2 - Wear + Tear United 2 for the weekend. Roll on the rematch - P38 and rattle cans at the ready*. (Pics available on request)

[Shep Shepherd]

Thanks to a Bristol-based friend I visited this weekend, TV2 now has LED reversing lights, which were a direct substitute for the original bulbs:

 

 

GR15 for reversing in really dark places

[Shep Shepherd]

Thanks to a Bristol-based friend I visited this weekend, TV2 now has LED reversing lights, which were a direct substitute for the original bulbs:

 

 

GR15 for reversing in really dark places

[outlaw118]

Re: Rover Of Doom: I agree I think it was Oldford who coined the phrase, I wish I could take the credit. And to the unbelievers, that bucket of bolts is remarkable, both in perfermance, and epic smokieness.

 

Did a tip run with my trailer yesterday, and decided that as the trailer was fully loaded i would drive Moose down the garden, turn her round in a 5/7 point turn on the lawn (a maneuvre that i have performed about 534 times) in order to reverse up to the trailer. In doing so i scuffed the neighbours wall.

Fucksticks. Black bumper now has a cluster of white scrapy marks, and i've also done the grey plastic trim bit too. I've had a go with my Colour Magic, and it still looks shit. GR1.2

[outlaw118]

Re: Rover Of Doom: I agree I think it was Oldford who coined the phrase, I wish I could take the credit. And to the unbelievers, that bucket of bolts is remarkable, both in perfermance, and epic smokieness.

 

Did a tip run with my trailer yesterday, and decided that as the trailer was fully loaded i would drive Moose down the garden, turn her round in a 5/7 point turn on the lawn (a maneuvre that i have performed about 534 times) in order to reverse up to the trailer. In doing so i scuffed the neighbours wall.

Fucksticks. Black bumper now has a cluster of white scrapy marks, and i've also done the grey plastic trim bit too. I've had a go with my Colour Magic, and it still looks shit. GR1.2

[rml2345]

^ Bumhats! I hate it when something like that happens.

Got the new voltage regulator in the post this morning so spent a few hours fitting that. Yes... A few hours.

Got the old one off and it looked pretty past it

 

 

But the new one wouldn't line up with the alternator attached to the car... Mostly because of "OMG TEH INCOMPOTENTS KAOS etc." I suspect but never mind...

After pulling it all to bits I got the bloody thing on and back on the car. Unsurprisingly some of the 24 year old wiring was buggered and required repair too but that's alright as I can now wire a radio in without burning a car out

I hate alternator jobs on 740s...

[rml2345]

^ Bumhats! I hate it when something like that happens.

Got the new voltage regulator in the post this morning so spent a few hours fitting that. Yes... A few hours.

Got the old one off and it looked pretty past it

 

 

But the new one wouldn't line up with the alternator attached to the car... Mostly because of "OMG TEH INCOMPOTENTS KAOS etc." I suspect but never mind...

After pulling it all to bits I got the bloody thing on and back on the car. Unsurprisingly some of the 24 year old wiring was buggered and required repair too but that's alright as I can now wire a radio in without burning a car out

I hate alternator jobs on 740s...

[CreepingJesus]

V70 in breakdown shocker! At least the failure to proceed was in Asda's car park, on a sunny afternoon. It failed to start, but after an hour and a half, and a visit from the recovery bloke, it decided to play ball after all.

Off up the factors tomorrow, for some ignition components. That's the joy of buying old cars with no service history: all the bits might look good, but you've no idea how old they really are.

[HillmanImp]

Lancia is currently having its Mot

 

Its going to fail. The question is by how much?

[Volksy]

I'm hoping thats it's just the odd light and electrical gremlin. Everything crossed here!

[dollywobbler]

Took the BX Mk2 up to Harrogate for Cizzle Shizzle. Got held up by a lot of trucks and generally avoided motorway on the way up. My reward was 54mpg. Noice.

 

Sadly it all started going a bit wrong though. Perhaps my BX felt bad as all the other BXs looked so obviously cared for. It became more and more reluctant to start. Diagnosis is that the alternator (replaced in January by previous owner) is just not delivering the goods. It's putting out about 13.4v. We'd done a lot of pottering around site on near-tickover, with lights and the fridge running. This eventually flattened the battery. Happily, it started with a jump and got us home, but the clutch is now juddering horribly and the intermittent PAS has returned. Furthermore, the tax is up at the end of this month. It might be the end of the road as I need to renew the tax, fit a new clutch, fit a cambelt and fit another bloody alternator just to get it fit for purpose, when I know it's so rotten that it won't be passing another MOT. All seems a bit pointless.

 

I did fail to sell the Mk1 at Harrogate, despite a carefully constructed advert stuck in the window of the Mk2. That's also out of tax at the end of the month. Bother.

[meggersdog]

Although not my news thought I would drop this in here.

I don't have a camera-phone and never carry my bulky 10 year old digital camera so don't really do spots.

This afternoon was different, I was returning from a photo shoot for a car I am selling when I noticed Dean ( a friend of mine) had removed the cat piss tarp

hiding his latest project.I stopped the car and quickly took a snap for you guys.

The interior was out and on the drive having been pressure washed by the look of it.

Anyway this is a lesson in the perils of buying a low mileage car.This Fiat 128 1300CL has only covered 20k from what I remember.It had been parked in a

garage until a couple of years ago when the next owner bought it and tried getting it running.Not sure whether he tried tow starting it but just as it fired up the

30 year old rubber timing belt snapped bending numerous valves in the process.Dean bought it like that just over a year ago and it's been under the CPT ever

since so I had to grab a quick snap before it gets covered up again.Last time I spoke to him he was having trouble finding new valves so to see the car in the

open might mean engine parts have been found.