What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I think it's a Panhard Dyna, the precursor to the PL17. The two have very similar side profiles. The PL17 is one of my favourite cars ever, possibly because the first old car mag I ever found had a road test of a PL17 Tigre which I must have read 50 times. 

[dugong]

Princess is a massive waste, but it's good to hear VA managed to save some bits.

 

The car Barrett has been driving is a Panhard PL17 by the looks of it. A new acquisition?

The Princess is the same car photographed on flickr. The lads have owned it for nearly a year after dragging it out of a car port in Hale. 

 

I remember the plate and watched VA strip it. It's pretty rotten by all accounts. It looks presentable in the pictures but had a crispy N\S inner and outer sill, rusty wheel arches, a knackered boot floor and tired wings. The rear axle is pretty good though - he's hoping the race won't finish it off. The repairs would be far more than even a decent Princess would sell for. 

 

It had been plated up before and Ziebarted - which is perhaps why it survived this long. Even VA admitted it was hiding a lot of tinworm. 

 

The meet in Stoke is a memorial race. The Princess will fit into the 2 litre class as it's a HL

with a 1.7 litre engine. 

[fordperv]

ahh sound, if im not working i may have to pop along i havnt watched banger racing for ages

[Ghosty]

It's occurred to me that this time last year, I met some supposedly rich-ish girl on the net - we ended talking on the phone and all sorts but never met - turned out she was the worst grade of schizophrenic, a real basket case. Apparently she had an 'old' (09 plate in 2013?!) Golf TSI.

She was a right div and never actually stuck to any arrangements we'd make, making excuse after excuse, such as dead relatives, being on a downer, self harm and all sorts.

 

Oh how foolish I was...

 

Anyway, she only ever gave me one believable excuse for not showing up (and that's because she was too dim to have made it up)...

 

The timing chain went on the Golf.

[nacho man]

I know very little about new vags but I thought fsi has a belt and the tsi has a chain. I am probably 100000% wrong though.

 

Should of married her. Took half the profits after a failed marriage. Bought a s3 v12 jag and lived happily ever after.

[Ghosty]

Yep, I said TSI and chain, but with FSIs it varies by engine size, according to Google.

How could I have married her? She wouldn't have shown up!

 

At one point I did try to convince her to sell the Golf and buy an XJ40, but the insurance put her off.

[jmsguzzi]

What a coincidence, just last week i met an Arab Prince on the internet willing to share all of his wealth with me, but he comes up with all kinds of excuses not to meet up aswell.

[overrun]

I had someone believing I had ran a homeless bloke over and didn't stop, when I showed them this picture.

 

 

It coincided nicely with a few days radio silence from me.

 

What I was actually doing, was replacing the alternator.

[cort16]

What is it?

[fordperv]

^ a royal pita by the looks of it 

[Pillock]

What is it?

A reason to buy something pre-1982?

[overrun]

It says everything when the car can't be identified with the whole front end visible.

 

It's my dads '10 DCi Clio. It's a great little car, tbh. It was bought with the alternator already on the way out.

 

Despite me having to remove the bumper/grille, lights, FMIC and boost pipes, expansion tank, plastic shite, crash bar, slam panel, arch liners, wiring etc, it wasn't a bad, or long job.

 

Plus I just left the tensioner as it was and levered the new alternator into place, against the A/C compressor. So that saved me a bit of a chew on.

[dollywobbler]

Frightening. Not so bad on a four-year old car, but imagine what that job will be like after a decade or two! Mind you, the electrics will be pretty much dead by then I guess...

 

Anyway, my grin is entirely aimed at the Autoshite member known as Pillock, for chucking a hard drive in the post. Will be so nice to have a working laptop again! Was worried it would arrive at some ungodly hour of the morning, but it arrived at a most convenient hour this afternoon. It's now installed and I've just finished installing a form of Linux onto it, so I can wave goodbye to my ancient desktop once more. Verily, the man is not a Pillock at all. Thanks!

[vulgalour]

Hold the phone!

 

Is this the same one? (credit goes to GoldScotland71 on flickr).......

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47381765@N04/11159186256/in/photolist-i16Ki3-i16E9z

 

Yes it is!  I have the number plates to prove it.  Funnily enough, it didn't sit at all wonky when I saw it in person and it was way worse than the pictures make it look.  Got a decent haul, failed to proceed on the way home and had to fix my thermostat housing again.  Sat Nav blew one of my fuses and I didn't have a spare to sort it out so I got lost on the way back too.

 

Still, it was 130 miles all in and I got a proper decent haul of stuff, some of it quite rare and presently absolutely worthless.  Full update at some point.  I believe Dugong took pictures of my face, so that'll likely happen at some point and I make no apologies for the mental scarring it might cause.

 

I believe some massive props are to be handed to Dugong for the tip off.  I now have a contact in the banger community in case any other Princesses crop up as he's much happier to help me keep mine on the road by stripping out knackered examples.

[Pillock]

No problem dwobbles!

[Ghosty]

From a series of despair-type pictures criticising society - but look! Two 2CVs and an R12!

[beko1987]

Restoring an old Electrolux Dolphin, and found this whilst stripping it down for washing

 

Will be leaving that the fuck alone then! It's the circuitry for the adjustable power and boost button. Gingerly does it!

[Cavcraft]

. Apparently she had an 'old' (09 plate in 2013?!) Golf TSI.

She was a right div

 

Obviously.

 

You should have kicked her in the VAGde though.

[HillmanImp]

Just found some more footage of the Autoshite meet last summer. Those red trollies were later found stuffed in the engine bay of CMS's Volvo.

 

[chaseracer]

That can't be Dollywobbler. His beard would do an 'Isadora Duncan' with the back wheel... 

[saucedoctor]

@Ghosty:Girls with "issues" like that are sometimes just giving it the "LOOK AT ME! ME! ME! I'M SO WHACKY!". In my experience, these ones are FILTHY. Burds who ride horses tend to be the same.

 

 

Of course, some folks do have very real problems. The above statement is not intended to belittle the genuinely afflicted.

[155V6]

@Ghosty:Girls with "issues" like that are sometimes just giving it the "LOOK AT ME! ME! ME! I'M SO WHACKY!". In my experience, these ones are FILTHY. Burds who ride horses tend to be the same.

 

 

 

Hmmm,I deliver horse feed & straw etc to stables.

[chaseracer]

Midrange Peugeot sales issues aside, it's a lot nicer and more relaxed in this section than over the way in the 'open forum'. This makes me happy.

Have an appropriate smiley: 

[MrDuke]

Finding THIS thread over on the blue.

 

 

 

OMGALLMODIFIEDCARSRSHIT etc etc

[Angrydicky]

That's Dave Clark's car. A top bloke and a very well known car in club circles. The guy is a genius at engineering and is currently building a turbocharged A series van with a modern BMW gearbox!

[Angrydicky]

Mine on the right

 

[wuvvum]

Mostly making me grin today has been this wee beastie, which I bought yesterday evening.

 

 

It's a Cagiva Planet 125.  I hadn't particularly been looking for this kind of thing - I'd actually been after a bigger bike - but then I saw a derestricted Aprilia AF1 on eBay and the idea of something small, light and zippy quite appealed.  So I had a bid, but the bike didn't reach the (optimistic) reserve. 

 

Then a couple of days later I spotted this, had a bid and ended up winning it.  Ironically, about two hours after the auction ended, I had a second chance offer on the Aprilia, for a pound less than I'd won the Cagiva for.

 

Anyway, I picked it up from Edmonton yesterday evening, having borrowed my mate's used-to-be-a-trailer-tent trailer.  Proper trailershite, but it towed OK, and the Cagiva fitted across it like a glove.  Took ages to get home as I stayed off the motorway and some plonker had rolled an MR2 on the A12, so I didn't get a chance to take it out yesterday, but I took it for a spin this morning and it's enormous fun.  Ever so light (feels about half the weight of that 400cc scooter I had) and sounds and smells like only a tuned two-stroke can.  As standard these make 33bhp, this one's probably making a bit more with the fancy exhaust, but it isn't going to worry any 600cc sportsbikes.  At least not in a straight line - it's so light and chuckable and has such well set up suspension (mechanically it's basically the same as a Mito) that even a crap rider like me can corner like a twat without coming to any grief.  It pulls well too, although naturally it does like to be revved.  The previous owner had fitted new sprockets to raise the gearing so I reckon it'll do the ton if I need it to. 

 

It's not a long-distance bike as the riding position is too cramped (I was originally going to ride it home from London but I'm glad I bottled it), and it's not really a town bike as the steering lock is appalling, but it's going to be great fun on back roads.  And it looks a bit like a Ducati Monster, which is a bonus in my eyes.  In fact I think it's one of the best-looking 125cc bikes out there.

 

Predictably, being Italian, my fun was relatively short lived as it broke down.  This was quickly diagnosed as water in the fuel (only because the previous owner had mentioned that he'd had the problem before when it had been wet, so had brimmed the tank to get around the problem - obviously hadn't worked), so I pulled the fuel pipe off the carb and opened the tap and for a good 30 seconds more or less pure water came out.  I'm amazed it had run for as long as it did.  Unfortunately I couldn't get the drain plug in the carb float bowl out as access is very tight and my spanners are all too fat - I might try and pick a thin ring spanner up tomorrow and drain the carb before the water has time to emulsify with the petrol and clog everything completely.  Access to the engine is surprisingly good though as the whole fuel tank hinges up from the back, so the top of the engine (including the plug) and the carb are easy to get to.  Which is a good thing, as I think I might need to get to them quite often.  A Honda CG125 this thing is not.

[Joey spud]

This has made me grin today,i have finally finished putting this back together after a summer of welding,preping and painting had left it looking like this

 

It now looks like this.

 

Too scared to put anything in the back of it now though...

[trigger]

That's ace!

[hairnet]

haha theyre ace wuv

 

i look like a gorrila shagging one when sat on one tho