What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[Noel Tidybeard]

Replacing the inlet manifold gasket on the Rover has improved my fuel consumption (no surprise there).  I'm getting about 36mpg mostly around town, that's just silly!  I hardly ever put petrol in the thing, it doesn't use any.  I'm going to reward it with some new tyres.  I need to put new tyres on after setting off from a damp junction and after I'm moving the front wheels span up which is ridiculous, and it then understeered as I got into the corner and oversteered as I got control of that all at speeds under 15mph.  These tyres are SHIT.

uniroyal rainexpert3 or yokohama blueearth £28 each

[Cheggers]

After a crappy year sorting stuff out after a failed marriage, I've a lovely new lady in my life. We seem to have discovered the secret of a happy relationship...I live in Portsmouth, she lives in Dublin

[cobblers]

I thought I was winning having my workshop/mancave in the attic with our lass mostly staying 3 stories below. 

[outlaw118]

Got some ££ for my birthday and had a minor spend up; Amazon delivered House Of Fools series one and "The back of my mums head" by Greg Davies today. 

 

SWMBO working 9-3 tomorrow, i'm on 7-1. Get the chores done undisturbed then retreat to the den for some dvd laffs.  Might treat myself to some fizzy pop too (I'm a recovering popaholic).

[LC Torana]

I thought I was winning having my workshop/mancave in the attic with our lass mostly staying 3 stories below.

 

How do you get your car up to the attic?

[Richard]

How do you get your car up to the attic?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWHniL8MyMM

[The Moog]

This doesn't get boring

 

[tooSavvy]

This doesn't get boring

IMG_20151030_130825.jpg

..... I feel a 'Gigawatt reference' in the picture somewhere!

 

TS

[steve_earwig]

I had a similar thought, it's similar to the display in the Delorian, one time and date over the other. Further confusing is the "fuel's not been that cheap in bloody years!" prices but I'm guessing that's lpg.

 

I've seen a few LPG-converted cars here, usually in the workshop getting their cylinder heads welded and engines rebored, although I'm willing to accept that the Croats may well have no bloody idea at all what they're doing when they fit the systems...

[Slappy]

When I went to Turkey last year, there was tonnes of cars on LPG, my favourite being an extremely ropey Renault 12 estate. Would have taken a pic, but a combination of stern (now ex) girlfriend and owner perched nearby put me off somewhat....

[Cavcraft]

On a dangerous road through a village in the dark this morning. I was doing. 40mph ( the speed limit) when someone doing probably 65 + came zooming up my ares end and tried to overtake me in an almost blind corner.

Traffic coming the other way foiled his plan so I just slowed down to 25mph thinking it must have been the police. Oddly enough , it wasn't them so some two bob shite particle in his silver German car has had his journey time reduced a bit by some wanker in a Peugeot.

[cobblers]

As I was driving along talking to our lass about how old people are a complete menace on the road, some doddery old bloke in a Hyundai I10 pulled out into my path on a roundabout. Completely oblivious to the fact that there was even a roundabout there, didn't even look to the side when I was inches away from caving his drivers door in

 

Normally I'd have been a bit pissed off, but the timing was just fantastic.

[Arthur Foxhake]

Went to the legendary L.C.Hughes scrap yard today for an alternator and turbo  for this wanky connect van I'm working on.

 

No connects in the yard.

 

However there were several ZX's. I now have the parcel shelf, electric window regulator, speakers, wing mirror trim ,door lock button, and exterior door trim pieces I was after.

 

 

Oh yeah, I also robbed a PH1 306 of its Bosch pump,lines and injectors while I was there. Looks completely standard and un-fucked with, all tamper proof seals intact. Soon be a vegetarian.

 

ZX stays long term. I can't believe I've never owned one, they're awesome.

[The Moog]

 

 

I had a similar thought, it's similar to the display in the Delorian, one time and date over the other. Further confusing is the "fuel's not been that cheap in bloody years!" prices but I'm guessing that's lpg.

Yep LPG, that's half a tank.

[anonymous user]

How do you get your car up to the attic?

ask this chap on ebay, there must be a way

[dave21478]

The new Roadkill episode is out.

 

 

I love this series and would recommend anyone to watch them from the start.

[beko1987]

We dont have a 'what makes you nervous' thread, but the Meriva is potentially booked in for its MOT on tuesday, my mate needs to confirm though

 

I checked the battery with a multimeter, and after being parked up for 2 days, 8 minutes after very nearly not starting at all or showed 12v, not bad I dont think

 

 

She fired straight up and showed 14v

 

 

Stupid thing, The hold function on my multimeter is ace though! So maybe it's fine, and just had a moment, after all, it is a vauxhall!

 

I did buy some de-ionised water from asda earlier, will find 5 minutes at the weekend and top the battery up. Do I disconnect it first and unscrew, topup and re-screw each bit in turn? Or can I leave it connected to the car? It wouldnt surprise me if it was the original 2004 battery tbh going by everything I've changed on the car so far...

[dave21478]

You can leave it connected, but that doesnt look like it has screw caps on the cells unless they are under the sticker?

[beko1987]

Yea, their under the sticker, I peeled it off and had a look

[dave21478]

May as well top them up - it will do no harm.

Thing is - if its getting slow at starting, its fucked and only a matter of time till it fails and since winter is coming, its not going to last long once the cold really hits.

 

You really need a proper battery tester to see how it behaves under load.

DIY, you can check volts with the engine off...will be 12.something. Without starting, hit the lights, ignition, fan blower etc. If it falls much away from 12 its not a good sign.

[cobblers]

You can do a somewhat accurate test with no more than a multimeter and a clock. Put the battery on charge til it's "full" (or run the car and measure the volt drop across the alternator charge wire to be less than 0.1v) . With the battery on the car turn your headlights on and time how long it takes for the battery to drop to 11.3v.

Come back and check occasionally but if it's less than an hour the battery is absolutely knackered.

 

Multiply the time (in hours) by ten (assuming you have 55w headlights on each corner and 5w tail lights) and you have your batteries AH capacity, they will lose a bit with time but expect about 50 for a little battery up to 80 for a big ish one. 

[cobblers]

Oh and the proper capacity is probably written on the top of available online somewhere, if you get less than 50% of what it should be then it might still start the car now but it's probably only got a few cycles left.

[Noel Tidybeard]

if you can charge the battery 1st then check the "water" level- there should be a plastic "step" which is the max but as a loose rule "water" should be about 5mm above plates

[jakebullet]

Spotted an A reg sierra earlier. Proper old school, 1 component failing away from the scrapyard look, both rear arches wobbed up and paint skillfully* blended in by Stevie Wonder.

[Vin]

This has been sat in a draw for years, along with some Smurf 'National' stickers....They'll all be going in the back window of the van...

 

Basically, I'm a 'Motorail' junkie...

 

 

[DVee8]

KISS

 

[fordperv]

Earlier I popped to get a bite to eat from a place I hadn't been to for a good few years, I always used to have a chip, bacon and egg bap which wasn't on the menu but they made it for me any way, I placed my order for the bap and a lady behind the counter looked at me and smiled, said to another lady "it's him" and explained something, she then came to the counter to say hello and told me she was explaining that I used to go in every Saturday and order the same thing that wasnt on the menu, it got put on the menu when they changed the signing after i stopped going, it made me smile that someone who I didn't really know remembered my little routine so well and also the chip, bacon and egg bap got put onto the menu

[greengartside]

Finally managed to get the rear number plate from DMB fitted.

 

From this....

 

 

To this...

 

 

Looks 1000x better I'm sure you'd agree. Also put a new pair of tail light bulbs in as one had silvered badly. It's the little things of course. Next up is to clean her again and think about rust-proofing the underneath. Any tips on what to use?

[fordperv]

its amazing the difference that a number plate can make, i still remember the joy i got swapping the ones on my saph for some dmb ones

[greengartside]

Like I say, it's the little touches that make the most difference!