What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[Spottedlaurel]

First commute of the year in the Laurel yesterday. Something very pleasing about the balance between the maroon paintwork, green verges and bright blue sky.

Stopped for fuel at the good garage (not the annoying BP/M&S up the road) and they'd got one of their toys out:

Got chatting to one of guys, he said the rod (which seems to be a rebodied Burlington kit car with a Rover V8) was up for sale as they'd bought several other things. I got ushered in to see one of them:

Purchased as they had fond memories of a couple run as garage hacks back in the day. He mentioned about bringing it along to one of the ECR meets down at Shotley, would be great to see it out and about.

Also popped into the garden centre, young lad working there saw me with the Laurel and was quite excited to see it.

[Cavcraft]

My mate has being fags from a reputable source for a while now, all was going well until Saturday when the latest batch didn't smell or burn as well as they should. Got him to pass me one for examination, and not kidding this was the quality* of the snides...

[cobblers]

29 minutes ago, Cavcraft said:

My mate has being fags from a reputable source for a while now, all was going well until Saturday when the latest batch didn't smell or burn as well as they should. Got him to pass me one for examination, and not kidding this was the quality* of the snides...

A lad who I used to work with got dodgy fags off his mum, the best ones were called "Email reds"  

They tasted nice (supposedly) but smelled like dog muck.

[Wack]

1 hour ago, Cavcraft said:

My mate has being fags from a reputable source for a while now, all was going well until Saturday when the latest batch didn't smell or burn as well as they should. Got him to pass me one for examination, and not kidding this was the quality* of the snides...

How can anyone smoke that, you have no idea what's in it, it's not like it doesn't fuck you up when they're legit but to risk smoking that to save a few quid seems mad to me 

[Wack]

 

18 hours ago, Wack said:

Taxed the cheap MX5 I bought, I'd forgotten what a laugh they are to drive, it's stood for 9 months, started 1st time, didn't even turn over , the tyres are all shot, cracked all over so I'm getting 4 new ones tomorrow 

 I'm hoping the hood is OK under that hard top 

Slightly crunched at the front 

New tyres fitted, £180 for 4, china's finest designed in Europe specials  INCORRECT , made in Poland

Put some power down on a roundabout and didn't end up going back where I'd come from so they might be OK 

[sdkrc]

Forgot to turn up to court for jury duty. Called the attendance hotline and it had been postponed anyway.

This is the second time I've forgotten to turn up for jury duty from three call ups 

I've forgotten to turn up as a witness a few times too

[hairnet]

Hnnng

[Remspoor]

40 minutes ago, hairnet said:

Hnnng

Yep the Streets of San Francisco. They are alive with tat.

[Cavcraft]

2 hours ago, Wack said:

How can anyone smoke that, you have no idea what's in it, it's not like it doesn't fuck you up when they're legit but to risk smoking that to save a few quid seems mad to me 

He usually gets legit ones, but someone must have had his supplier over. I wonder how many have smoked Lembert and Butlar and not realised?

[Wack]

1 hour ago, Cavcraft said:

He usually gets legit ones, but someone must have had his supplier over. I wonder how many have smoked Lembert and Butlar and not realised?

They'll find out in 10-15 years 

[fairkens]

4 hours ago, Wack said:

 

New tyres fitted, £180 for 4, china's finest designed in Europe specials  INCORRECT , made in Poland

Put some power down on a roundabout and didn't end up going back where I'd come from so they might be OK 

Please tell me you went straight home and washed your wheels

[Wack]

14 hours ago, fairkens said:

Please tell me you went straight home and washed your wheels

Chucking it down so unfortunately not, the wheels are the least of this cars problems, it's been left in the sun for a long time, the lacquer on the boot lid and bonnet has lifted all over in 3mm bits, front is crunched, back bumper has hardly any paint on it, drivers mirror casing broken 

This car is a 'drive it until something big breaks car' the tyres were badly cracked so they needed replacing, it drives really well, nice and tight so it's going to stay as it is 

The only thing it doesn't seem to have for an early Mk2 is raging rust 

Those white blobs on the boot aren't water spots, it's where the lacquer has chipped off in small dots 

[DavieW]

Maybe not grin worthy for me, but might raise a smile from someone reading this.

This afternoon I saw who I thought was my niece walking the same direction as I was driving. I thought I'd offer her a lift and I was about to slow down and shout to her "do you want to see some puppies?" when I realised it wasn't her. Close escape or I might have been some ones play thing in the slammer tonight.

[somewhatfoolish]

Were you driving a scruffy Cortina Mk4?

[Snake Charmer]

23 minutes ago, DavieW said:

I was about to slow down and shout to her "do you want to see some puppies?" when I realised it wasn't her. 

Why did you not resort to the Werthers Originals? 🤔

[Snake Charmer]

9 hours ago, Cavcraft said:

 

F

Lembert & Butler, French? Might be re-branded Gitanes....

[Wack]

9 hours ago, Snake Charmer said:

Lembert & Butler, French? Might be re-branded Gitanes....

I watched a program on TV about fraud , they raided an industrial unit in the UK and were shocked at what they found, a full counterfeit cigarettes setup , everything from printing the actual fag boxes and outer cartons to creating exact visual replicas of the cigarettes, obviously what was in them was a mystery, in a drawer they found another address which they also raided , in that was a whisky distillery with everything there to create counterfeit whisky, not just tipping cheap whisky into expensive bottles, the whole distillery , it looked that good I had no idea why they were creating counterfeit whisky

[Richard_FM]

3 hours ago, Wack said:

I watched a program on TV about fraud , they raided an industrial unit in the UK and were shocked at what they found, a full counterfeit cigarettes setup , everything from printing the actual fag boxes and outer cartons to creating exact visual replicas of the cigarettes, obviously what was in them was a mystery, in a drawer they found another address which they also raided , in that was a whisky distillery with everything there to create counterfeit whisky, not just tipping cheap whisky into expensive bottles, the whole distillery , it looked that good I had no idea why they were creating counterfeit whisky

A few fake vodka rings have been smashed in recent years, I hadn't heard of fake whisky!

[horriblemercedes]

13 hours ago, Snake Charmer said:

Lembert & Butler, French? Might be re-branded Gitanes....

Christopher Lambert & Butler, then?

[Blunderguts]

[vulgalour]

I wish I'd known about this before @SiC set to on his bumper, would have saved him a lot of effort and noise.  Took the most trashed of the spare Lanchester hubcaps, something that was pretty much destined for the bin, since it would be a great test for derusting something complicated and fragile.

24 hours later in an oxalic acid solution - I mix the crystals with warm water in quantities of About Right, and it does the job nicely - and then rinsed off with plain tap water and we've got quite an improvement.

That bracket you see came out blue too, which is the original paint colour.  I've dunked the hub cap back in the solution for another 24 hours to see if it'll get the last stubborn bits off.  Hub cap is still scrap, like, but it's shiny scrap now.  Practically no effort either for this, the hardest part of the job is turning a tap on and off.

[SiC]

1 minute ago, vulgalour said:

I wish I'd known about this before @SiC set to on his bumper, would have saved him a lot of effort and noise.  Took the most trashed of the spare Lanchester hubcaps, something that was pretty much destined for the bin, since it would be a great test for derusting something complicated and fragile.

24 hours later in an oxalic acid solution - I mix the crystals with warm water in quantities of About Right, and it does the job nicely - and then rinsed off with plain tap water and we've got quite an improvement.

That bracket you see came out blue too, which is the original paint colour.  I've dunked the hub cap back in the solution for another 24 hours to see if it'll get the last stubborn bits off.  Hub cap is still scrap, like, but it's shiny scrap now.  Practically no effort either for this, the hardest part of the job is turning a tap on and off.

I did actually know about that as (iirc) @PhilA has done it before but I forgot. I'm not sure if it would have worked that well with very flaky rust though? 

That said, I'd still have ended up attacking it with power tools as I would still have been expecting to paint it. Also an excuse to get the power tools out and make some noise 😀

[vulgalour]

It seems to totally ignore the chrome and only attack the rust, so you'd have still had the flakey chrome, just no rust to deal with.  I am boggled at how effective it is.

[High Jetter]

24 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

hardest part of the job is turning a tap on and off.

Hence the pliers?

[cobblers]

Setting up the new phone system for work and choosing hold music etc,

Pan Pipes Moods on youtube provided much inspiration

EDIT: its connected to a phone properly now so don't ring anymore

[richardmorris]

29 minutes ago, cobblers said:

Setting up the new phone system for work and choosing hold music etc,

Pan Pipes Moods on youtube provided much inspiration

call 01629 888488 for a sample. Press 0 for the wildcard

Preferred the panpipes. No Idea what the rapping was!

[Wibble]

3 hours ago, vulgalour said:

It seems to totally ignore the chrome and only attack the rust, so you'd have still had the flakey chrome, just no rust to deal with.  I am boggled at how effective it is.

We use oxalic acid for bleaching stains out of wood. Didn’t know it could also do this. Everyday’s a school day😁

[richardmorris]

Just now, Wibble said:

We use oxalic acid for bleaching stains out of wood. Didn’t know it could also do this. Everyday’s a school day😁

It’s a component in barkeepers friend cleaning stuff. Very good at getting copper pans shiny.

https://www.lakeland.co.uk/8868/bar-keepers-friend-stain-remover-300g

 

[PhilA]

3 hours ago, SiC said:

I did actually know about that as (iirc) @PhilA has done it before but I forgot. I'm not sure if it would have worked that well with very flaky rust though? 

That said, I'd still have ended up attacking it with power tools as I would still have been expecting to paint it. Also an excuse to get the power tools out and make some noise 😀

Worth it, incredibly effective stuff.

[somewhatfoolish]

1 hour ago, cobblers said:

Setting up the new phone system for work and choosing hold music etc,

Pan Pipes Moods on youtube provided much inspiration

call 01629 888488 for a sample. Press 0 for the wildcard

No Rage Against the Machine?🤣