What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[vulgalour]

Oh, is there a Maestro van for sale?  I hadn't* noticed.

[The Moog]

Yep used to do that with my elderly doggies. Always used to get strange looks in the car park mind.... Maybe that was just me

[MrDuke]

I do like the C5 estate, but they are outside my current budget of tuppence ha'penny.

 

 

I wouldn't worry, the Xantia has noticeably better build quality than the C5 anyway.

[forddeliveryboy]

In my continuing search for a Bentley, I've just been contacted by a chap from Pistonhead. He bought a nice 95 BTR for £10250 in January this year and has since spent £11000 on servicing it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It hadn't been used much for a few years and was due big services, the hydraulic one alone was £5000 PLUS, bloody Citroen bits are seriously pricey!

 

He now wants to sell it to me, wonder why?

 

Parts are very cheap, a little more when boxed in a Bentley or Rolls box. No doubt a Rolls-Bentley spesh-list adds a mark up on the LHM and whatnot. At least Rolls-Royce Cars wasn't arrogant like M-Benz, who redesigned their own hardware, having bought the licence - none of it is as good as the original. But a hydraulically sprung Merc estate still has some magic about its ride.

[gary_davidson]

anybody here interested in the lingerie fighting championships?

https://lingeriefc.com/

[Asimo]

Mrs Me seized the strimmer helping boy#3 clear his allotment. No oil in the petrol she bought. Fair enough, I hadn't explained about Clerk cycle engines and oil mix etc.

 

Solid, won't turn over. Plug out. Oh yes, scored bore. Oil in through plug hole and carb. Wait. Pull on starter cord gently, harder, very hard and suddenly its free. Drain fuel, pre-mix in and away we go, seemingly as well as before.

 

Tough old things, 2 strokes. Mr Wartburg and Mr Trabant had a point.

[dave21478]

The problem is if its down on compression it might become hard/impossible to re-start when hot. I had to ditch my hedge trimmer a couple of months back due to this - it was fine when cold, but lacked torque when warmed up and if I stopped to refuel or anything, it would refuse to restart until it cooled right down.

[vulgalour]

Dad had this wire hanging down under the Lexus, seemed a bit of an oddity because it doesn't really correlate with anything so my brother took a look and removed several yards of scotch-blocked wiring that was for a blue underlight kit.  He also removed wiring and evidence of more blue neons from behind the grille... then he put the wiring right again and all is well.

[outlaw118]

I've just spunked £87,149 on a Jaaaag XF-R Sportbrake.

 

I haz no munny, but it was fun pretending. Can't seem to post a link....

[Ratdat]

Finally put some proper wheels back on my MX5. This makes me happy, especially as it now has proper sticky rubber for maximum cornering fun. 

 

[xtriple]

Just had the pics of the Bentley through.... fook me, it's lovely! Looks utterly mint and I soooooo want it. Just waiting on a price. If he wants to recover all of his costs, then it's a 'no go' as I can buy a last of the line car with even MORE bhp and torque (700 ft/lb!!!!!!!!!!!!) for less than 20K. I know it's a lot of cash for a fookin' old piece of chod.... but you're a long time dead!

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/58602139@N03/

[chaseracer]

Looking for an amusing way to waste time when you should be working...?

 

http://www.3dtuning.com/en/

 

[cort16]

Instant hard top. Just add 100kg of filler.

 

[vulgalour]

What were you doing in Deatons looking at my old Golf?

[cort16]

It was on classic scrap yard finds on friendface

[vulgalour]

that makes more sense I suppose.  Not as much filler as you might expect in that roof, shame my brother never finished the job really.

[cort16]

Is that really your old one? What was he thinking?

[vulgalour]

Yup, that's really my old one.  He was thinking it was cheaper than a fabric hood & frame and wouldn't be that hard to do.  He was correct on the former but not on the latter.  It was certainly a lot more watertight than the old vinyl hood that was on it, but then a colander would likely have been more watertight.  Shame it went to the scrapyard really, but they aren't very nice cars and that one did have a lot of mechanical unbodging (roof aside) still to go on it to make it as good as they ever are.

[Cavcraft]

Just met that there Andy Mcnab. He did a 25 minute talk then answered questions, and book signing at the end, so got one each for daughter and son. I could have sat there all night listening to him, absolutely fascinating stuff. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

What!!!! Has that golf really got a layer of filler all over the soft top?

[Mr Lobster]

^ This. Does it actually have the entire fabric roof covered in filler?

 

That's incredible.

[Pillock]

I did wonder how many metallic blue Golfs there could be with a brown interior. I never realised it had been hard-topped though!

Fibreglass bandage would have been better perhaps, if it was just to be watertight. Or, you know, a new hood

[philibusmo]

How did you never mention that!

[Asimo]

Finally put some proper wheels back on my MX5. This makes me happy, especially as it now has proper sticky rubber for maximum cornering fun. 

 

 

 

I'm not sure about grippy, sticky tyres being best for FUN. Don't they just mean the occasions when you can corner hard are even rarer and a faster crash and more damage when they do let go?

 

I really am ambivalent about this.

 

On the one hand "more grip" must be faster / safer / better. On the other hand, crossply remoulds make every corner an exciting challenge, even in a pedestrian old barge like an Austin Cambridge.

[nacho man]

Finally put some proper wheels back on my MX5. This makes me happy, especially as it now has proper sticky rubber for maximum cornering fun. 

 

Are they 13's? It looks ace on them wheels, I LOVE mx5's and have had two, there so cheap, so easy to fix, so reliable, as long as there not rotten you cant really go wrong.

 

They look like ssr mk2's as well? as previously seen on one of my old ones.

 

 

[vulgalour]

The fabric was stripped from the roof before a fibreglass shell applied to the frame after a few parts were removed.  The frame itself was actually knackered, twisted in one place and a couple of broken components rendered it little better than scrap, something we didn't know until removing the fabric.  After crafting a basic fibreglass shell, filler was then used to begin the process of smoothing it all out.

 

It actually worked really well and didn't weigh any more than what my brother began with because of the frame being lightened.  It also meant the frame could be straightened just enough to make it seal properly and all the mounting points worked as factory intended so the roof could be removed fairly easily with two people or very awkwardly by one.  It was a cracking idea.  He spent a good amount of time on it making sure it was right, sought advice from a couple of local boat builders who advised on materials and techniques that would and wouldn't work and was quite happy with the result which was weather tight, didn't leak or boom and was pretty good at making the best use of the heater.  The plan was to leave the hard top in the garage in the warmer months with a small fibreglass parcel shelf cover to keep it looking tidy but of course it never got that far.

 

Sadly, after the Golf got stolen by the world's most stupid theives and rolled down the road into a neighbour's car, my brother lost a lot of love for the little sparkly floppytop and could never really gel with it again.  There was a bit of a hoo-hah when I found he scrapped it but I do understand (if not agree) with his reasons for doing so.

[Ratdat]

They're 14s made by RiverSide. I much prefer MX5 on older styles of wheel than modern ones. I used to have some lovely wide Weds Racing on it when it was really low but it sits a bit higher now so that I can run better tyres.

 

 

I'm not sure about grippy, sticky tyres being best for FUN. Don't they just mean the occasions when you can corner hard are even rarer and a faster crash and more damage when they do let go?

 

I really am ambivalent about this.

 

On the one hand "more grip" must be faster / safer / better. On the other hand, crossply remoulds make every corner an exciting challenge, even in a pedestrian old barge like an Austin Cambridge.

Whatever floats your boat.

[vulgalour]

It really is very smart that little MX5 in both guises above.  I think I like it more to look at on the red wheels but I bet it's nicer to drive on the gold ones.

[philibusmo]

That's a better thought out plan than I had hoped for.

 

I was kinda hoping that chompysnake downed one too many sherrys of an evening and decided to cover his slightly rough looking soft top with wob - regretting it so much in the morning that he scrapped the entire car.

[Pillock]

Yeah, to be fair I just imagined a drum of wob and a palette-knife sort of affair over the top of the original hood. Plus I guess we're seeing it mid-work there, it's not a bad idea to make hard tops for some classic floppies since the leaky hoods are always a ballache.