What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[oldcars]

Love the tide mark on that SD3. When was the photo taken?

[Pillock]

My Spidey Sense dates it around 1987 when every single car on the road seemed to be red.

 

My ma tried to order an Escort LX in 1987 in Maritime Blue because so many cars on the road were red. "Oh, there's a long delay on that. We've got Rosso Red in stock ready to go though".

 

A bit like Silver now, really.

[Guest Hooli]

It's a bit of a weird place, the Mount Stewart Trust owns most of it; if you want to do something vaguely out of the ordinary or your face doesn't fit it's not the place to be. Nice enough to visit though. What kind of work do you do? Aside from the boatyard/marina there's really only council/school work, farmwork and seasonal hospitality.

 

I do IT geekery so I'm expecting a season ticket on the boat/train to get to work everyday.

 

ETA, the new missus lives there & loves it, so if things work out I will end up there.

[Jim Bell]

Love the tide mark on that SD3. When was the photo taken?

Judging by my haircut and white socks, id say mid nineties.

[Talbot]

My Spidey Sense dates it around 1987

Would have to be 1988 at the very earliest for that MK2 golf to have wipers the "correct" way around for RHD.  1987 was still using LHD wipers with an oversize wiper on the right to compensate for the lack of swept area.

[NorthernMonkey]

Judging by my haircut and white socks, id say last week sometime

[Pillock]

Would have to be 1988 at the very earliest for that MK2 golf to have wipers the "correct" way around for RHD. 1987 was still using LHD wipers with an oversize wiper on the right to compensate for the lack of swept area.

Nerd

[Datsuncog]

Would have to be 1988 at the very earliest for that MK2 golf to have wipers the "correct" way around for RHD.  1987 was still using LHD wipers with an oversize wiper on the right to compensate for the lack of swept area.

 

Comments like that get you thrown out of cinemas.

 

Ask me how I know.

[AlabamaShrimp]

Is it really because you were touching yourself?

[Datsuncog]

^^^ Not on that particular occasion, surprisingly.



But staff in the QFT cinema in Belfast were seemingly unimpressed with my ability to spot that the approaching Morris Marina is one of the final 1978-80 facelift jobs with a plastic air dam and wheeltrims, and therefore anachronistic to the 1976 time period of this particular scene in Anton Corbijn's 'Control'.

I was glad to get out of there, my willing suspension of disbelief was as shot to bits as the car itself's trunnions. Probably.

[Ghosty]

Driving down the M66 earlier I passed an old boy in a flat cap and flip down sunglasses driving a RENAULT 18 TURBO!!!!!

[Datsuncog]

^^^ Was it a black R18 Turbo? If so, think blokey's a regular spot on the AS Facebook page... apparently a bloody nice bloke, owned the Turbo from new (or nearly new) and no plans to ever sell... legend.

 

EDIT: found a pic of car and owner, I do believe.

 

[strangeangel]

[Ghosty]

^^^ Was it a black R18 Turbo? If so, think blokey's a regular spot on the AS Facebook page... apparently a bloody nice bloke, owned the Turbo from new (or nearly new) and no plans to ever sell... legend.

 

As it happens it was!

 

edit: I also spotted an E21 Alpina B3 rotting away on a driveway next to another E21.

[somewhatfoolish]

I do IT geekery so I'm expecting a season ticket on the boat/train to get to work everyday.

 

ETA, the new missus lives there & loves it, so if things work out I will end up there.

Yep, Glasgow's the likely end point for you, although there is presumably some IT support work in the callcentres in Greenock/Port Glasgow. IBM retained a tech support centre in Spango after the fab and assembly plants closed which would obviously be convenient but I vaguely remember it being downsized/phased out so may not be there anymore. The other non-Glasgow prospect is the HP plant in Erskine, it's still there despite them periodically threatening to send all the work to eastern europe although how much actual IT nerdery goes on there is an open question, judging from the job ads it's mostly glorified telesales these days.

[Cavcraft]

/\

Probably the best idea, ever. Drive round everywhere untaxed for two years, let the fines mount up then go for a straightener with some specky twat from that department that somehow knows you need your V5 back urgently and sends it out 8 months later to someone five streets away.

[The Moog]

/\

Probably the best idea, ever. Drive round everywhere untaxed for two years, let the fines mount up then go for a straightener with some specky twat from that department that somehow knows you need your V5 back urgently and sends it out 8 months later to someone five streets away.

But then the DVLa will start employing a department Cage Fighter.

[Cavcraft]

 

[The Moog]

Ahhh it's alright, I will definitely pay the fine!

[MorrisItalSLX]

Thanks to FakeConcern of this parish, I had somthing to occupy myself:

 

 

The panel gaps are better than from the factory!

 

 

It was a bit floppy, so some bits of egg carton were sellotaped (other brands are available) to the inside:

 

 

And for extra authenticity* the front valance was bent up and some holes were made in the leading edges of the wings:

 

 

And there was also one other small modification:

 

 

All-in-all a very satisfying afternoon.

[privatewire]

Yep, Glasgow's the likely end point for you, although there is presumably some IT support work in the callcentres in Greenock/Port Glasgow. IBM retained a tech support centre in Spango after the fab and assembly plants closed which would obviously be convenient but I vaguely remember it being downsized/phased out so may not be there anymore. The other non-Glasgow prospect is the HP plant in Erskine, it's still there despite them periodically threatening to send all the work to eastern europe although how much actual IT nerdery goes on there is an open question, judging from the job ads it's mostly glorified telesales these days.

Nothing left at Spango these days, IBM took over a new unit in Pottery St in Greenock a few years back, and I think around 300 folk still work from there. Telecom Service Centre have a place in Rothesay, and also Greenock, as well as the Royal Bank and Cigna Insurance, EE have a service Centre in Greenock too. Amazon in Gourock are constantly hiring it appears......

[sierraman]

Trip down to Somerset over the past few days was an absolute feast of old ford chod spotting. I've never seen so many Ford Orion's or early rust free S to X plate Mk1 Focuses, nearly all of them really tidy and original looking. Didn't get chance to take any pictures but might make it a port of call next time I'm looking for a car.

[ruffgeezer]

2 and half months on from the incident that finished the Volvo, I finally have a claim reference number.

 

Even if I do get a pay out, I have no idea what I will do out of the other side.

[Spottedlaurel]

In some respects this wasn't a grin as I'd rather it hadn't happened at all, but I've just been called by an old lady to say thank you for helping her and the husband out after the clutch on their P-reg Fiesta had gone pop. Initially I didn't have much choice as they were stuck in the middle of the road up to the village, so Mrs SL and I had to push them into a side road.

 

I had to lend them my phone to call for recovery as they'd left theirs at home, but beyond that there wasn't much I could do. Felt bad when I got home in the warm and put the kettle on, so made a flask of tea and took it back to them, then waited until the recovery truck turned up. That was fairly shite-worthy as well, a 52-reg Renault with 371k on the clock.

[hairnet]

Driving down the M66 earlier I passed an old boy in a flat cap and flip down sunglasses driving a RENAULT 18 TURBO!!!!!

hes must live prestwich bury area seen him on the motorway 3 times since oct

 

saw old biffer driving a maestro on thursday also

[Captain Furious]

I was wikipedia-ing something about one of the yank tanks in the eBay thread, up came this engine power output comparison chart

 

Magnificent

 

[John F]

LOL!

 

Should that column really be headed "power"?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

[cms206]

This wasn't the grin though. This was....

 

20180124_140552.jpg

 

 

WP Lewis & Son in Pembrokeshire. All of these cars adorned the showroom whilst the modern stuff was outside.

 

Somw of these cars (like the Astra and Corsa were locally sold vehicles that were looked after by the garage and bought back when the owners part exchanged them for a newer vehicle. The Opel Rekord estate was apparently a Surrey-registered vehicle owned by a company in London, the car later ended up in Malvern and to a scrapyard when it was saved by the scrapyard owner who knew the garage owner and sold and displayed here. I have pictures of the stories but the pictures end up sideways and it's a right PITA to get them to display properly.

 

I told the lads there of the North London Derek J Ketteringham dealership that had a similar set up but the older vehicles inside the showroom were not on display, they had been for sale for years and ended up staying there until recently when the dealership was sold off to some van dealer.

That is mental - WDE 308T passed me last week! Owned by a local bus driver along with an orange coupe (MKB 936R IIRC) which he uses daily!

 

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[cms206]

Now as it's the grin thread, this weekend couldn't have gone better. She's perfect for me & is delusional enough to think the same about me.

 

How hard is it to move to Bute?

Have you ever heard the joke about Rothesay?

 

It's a Bute!

 

etc.

 

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