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Dollywobbler's Consolidated Tat Thread


dollywobbler

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18 hours ago, Schaefft said:

Taurus is a completely different architecture although similarly sized. Funnily enough Ford tried to sell it in Australia around the time Betty was built, and failed miserably.

They did.  Used to see the odd one and think why on earth would you buy something so inferior to the Falcon in every way.  Bet the dealers were gutted if forced to take one of those. 

According to a quick google, the plan was to replace the aging Falcon with the FWD Taurus but Ford Australia managed to boost sales with the EF Falcon facelift enough to get a commitment to the next Falcon revision (that became the AU, BA models).  Ford North America had already committed to the RHD design for the Taurus so decided to recoup some of that by releasing it in Australia, NZ and Japan.  Not much chance of that given the massive tooling up cost for a market of only 20 million people.  And they already had a good slice of the market with a better car. 

Ford really have some odd ideas at times.  See also, developing the Mercury Capri MX5 rival when they were a major shareholder in Mazda and already badge engineered loads of Mazda models.

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I've a soft spot for a Duster or Sandero. Proven mechanicals, basic switchgear and it's actually going to work. A lot of people are swayed by the idea of a small deposit and small monthly repayments and if it goes wrong you throw it back at the dealer. 

It's a modern day base Escort Popular. Except they're not shit. 

 

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14 minutes ago, 2cvspecial said:

They didnt go for base model , but one above

Ooooohh someone's doing well.

Dacia Sandero (5)

 

 

If I could have got a Dacia past my boss, I would have had a Sandero or Duster access.  I'd have happily spent £100PCM of his money rather than the £350 it costs him instead, but that was up to him!

I think they're gr9.  Keith Adams the motoring journo ran one long term for Honest John and thought very fondly of it.  We seem to have similar taste so I'm quietly certain I'd have enjoyed one too.  However, I could never shift the suspicion that it would only do what my existing car already did, and that cost £800 and not £6k (at the time).

 

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6 hours ago, cort1977 said:

They did.  Used to see the odd one and think why on earth would you buy something so inferior to the Falcon in every way.  Bet the dealers were gutted if forced to take one of those. 

According to a quick google, the plan was to replace the aging Falcon with the FWD Taurus but Ford Australia managed to boost sales with the EF Falcon facelift enough to get a commitment to the next Falcon revision (that became the AU, BA models).  Ford North America had already committed to the RHD design for the Taurus so decided to recoup some of that by releasing it in Australia, NZ and Japan.  Not much chance of that given the massive tooling up cost for a market of only 20 million people.  And they already had a good slice of the market with a better car. 

Ford really have some odd ideas at times.  See also, developing the Mercury Capri MX5 rival when they were a major shareholder in Mazda and already badge engineered loads of Mazda models.

The Taurus wasn't a bad car, it's just hard to think why consumers so familiar with Ford Australia's products would make the change to a car they haven't heard of at all before though. It probably cost about the same as a similarly equipped Falcon, too while being smaller on the inside. Funnily enough the Merkur Scorpio had the same fate when marketed alongside the Taurus sibling (Mercury Sable)  in the States a decade earlier. Ford also slapped the Sable's front fascia on the Aussie Taurus to make it look a little more conventional, it's all pretty interesting stuff to me.

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21 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

Ooooohh someone's doing well.

Dacia Sandero (5)

 

 

If I could have got a Dacia past my boss, I would have had a Sandero or Duster access.  I'd have happily spent £100PCM of his money rather than the £350 it costs him instead, but that was up to him!

I think they're gr9.  Keith Adams the motoring journo ran one long term for Honest John and thought very fondly of it.  We seem to have similar taste so I'm quietly certain I'd have enjoyed one too.  However, I could never shift the suspicion that it would only do what my existing car already did, and that cost £800 and not £6k (at the time).

 

think my work friend  had  one with radio 

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22 hours ago, Spurious said:

I've a soft spot for a Duster or Sandero. Proven mechanicals, basic switchgear and it's actually going to work. A lot of people are swayed by the idea of a small deposit and small monthly repayments and if it goes wrong you throw it back at the dealer. 

It's a modern day base Escort Popular. Except they're not shit. 

 

I now work with a young Romanian guy. 

He has convinced me I want a Dacia 1100.

Or maybe a 'papuc', so I can comically overload it... 

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Having use the Fairmont for an unexpected dash to Shelsley Walsh (because the GSA wouldn't start), I was reminded that the rear brakes are still building up rather too much heat for comfort. The brake discs get untouchable, and that spreads to the rim with a pleasant warmness rather than can't touch that either, so it's not massive, but it is there.

Today, we drained the engine oil and replaced that and the filter and it made no difference. ;) As I last did that back in December 2019, it was still nice to have it done. More service items are still in transit.

We did fit new rear discs, as the existing ones are quite worn and have a fair lip on them. What we discovered is that it looks like the offside hub still has a little wobble to it, though nowhere near as drastic as it was with the old halfshaft. But the big problem is that the heat issue is still there. We cleaned up the calipers, checked the sliders, everything was good. Handbrake adjusted as it should be (heat builds up even with it slackened right off), bleed nipples opened to make sure there's no excess pressure building up etc. I'm not sure what to do next.

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nice to see TWC is out and about once more :) 

 

although I really wish you would be a bit more positive/show the whole story when you give a potted history on the the Model 70

 

for example there where many different control schemes available, and that TWC is not of standard handle bar control layout, the standard layout was per TPA with switch gear and hand brake left

IMG_0500.thumb.JPG.081f5faf9caca03b465fe2fc6ac7299d.JPG

TWC only has her odd control layout because that is what her last user needed because of his or her disabilities 

and for example you could get a floor mounted hand operated, or foot pedal foot operated parking brake should you require it, I know of a Model 70 that had 4 foot pedals because of that! which amusing when they are an automatic car!

you could also get single handed tiller controls or a regular steering wheel if you had weak arms and needed the extra gearing a steering wheel provided and likewise you could also get a brake booster installed if for similar reasons you needed one

and that Graham hill drove an AC Acedes Mk15 which is not exactly a fair representation of a Model 70 is it now

 

and also the Model 70 was crash tested by MIRA and data from those tests was used to improve the Model 70 and produce the Model 70 Mark B and later revisions with strengthened chassis to improve front and rear crash worthiness, and engine restraints to stop the driveline from entering the cabin in the event of bad accident 

im not saying they are safe compared todays cars but, a lot of people seem to paint the picture that safety was not thought about at all, and that they where much worse then contemporary cars when that very much was not the case

how many cars even today came with a fire extinguisher as standard and later Model 70's even had a rollover bar to protect the occupants in the event of a rollover crash/accident

which most other cars of the time did not have

and the driving test was a bit more involved than just a drive round a car park

they legally where motorcycles more or less back then (still are depending on the weight of the vehicle) so each user had to pass what was basically a motorcycle test and had driving lessons with an instructor 

one amusing anecdote of this Is of an examiner getting run over by an Invacar, because he was taking one out on test and told the user "when I see you come round I will out onto the road I want you to do an emergency stop"

and an Invacar came round, so the examiner stepped out onto the road, but it was NOT the Invacar under test so the poor examiner got run over! 

 

a lot of what you hear from back then was a Vocal minority, that basically just wanted Free Mini's and then it was all picked up by the press as the thing to shit on basically

the original  plan was to get rid of all Invacars by 1981! but this caused such an outcry by the silent majority that they where not withdrawn until as you say in 2003

as you do say, a lot of Invacar users could not drive a regular car because they simply could not be adapted like the Model 70 could be, because a regular car was not built for the disabled while the Model 70

and also the Model 70 was free on the DHSS, but a motability car would cost you money still, and if you did have a family or such the DHSS would give you a regular car for free, you could even get Renault 4's!

On 17/06/2021 at 20:18, LightBulbFun said:

its also a good excuse to finally post this which I came across a good few months ago now from the Hansard reports https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1973-05-17/debates/a5445f8f-64fb-4a24-87dd-e27a79747623/WrittenAnswers#contribution-f71a9727-9850-40aa-bb4e-76ca5bc10b08

188247056_Screenshot2021-06-17at19_03_51.thumb.png.945c764f6078e56e46bf3ff9b2bf2a27.png

a nifty chart showing what regular cars the Ministry had on issue back in the day

(I knew of the Ministry Mini's and Minors, but I had no idea of all the other cars, can you imagine if someone found a Ministry Renault 4 :)

 

which is fun because I mentioned before, contrary to popular belief you could very much get a normal car from the IVS if you needed one (say if you where a married couple or had children/other dependants etc)

 

and this picture for example was part of a protest against the decision to get rid of all Invalid vehicles by 1981 from people who really did not want to give up their machines!

71962100_998164447189616_2635953650123407360_n.jpg

 

I say all this

because for the most part your just saying what all the news websites say, and its bit disheartening when I have put so much time and effort researching the actual facts and figures

for someone keep perpetuating the myths and wrong information etc

and I will admit you do sort of sit there and go whats the bloody point then

but alas ill keeping fighting for the Model 70 as much as people laugh/take the piss out of me me for it!

 

anyways I look forward to seeing more TWC adventures :) 

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Wobbler has to cater to his audience, and I imagine the number of Hubnut subscribers who would want that level of detail about the history of Invacars would be a very small minority.   In fact I could probably count them on the fingers of one hand, even if four of my fingers had been chopped off. ;)

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2 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

 

nice to see TWC is out and about once more :) 

 

although I really wish you would be a bit more positive/show the whole story when you give a potted history on the the Model 70

 

for example there where many different control schemes available, and that TWC is not of standard handle bar control layout, the standard layout was per TPA with switch gear and hand brake left

IMG_0500.thumb.JPG.081f5faf9caca03b465fe2fc6ac7299d.JPG

TWC only has her odd control layout because that is what her last user needed because of his or her disabilities 

and for example you could get a floor mounted hand operated, or foot pedal foot operated parking brake should you require it, I know of a Model 70 that had 4 foot pedals because of that! which amusing when they are an automatic car!

you could also get single handed tiller controls or a regular steering wheel if you had weak arms and needed the extra gearing a steering wheel provided and likewise you could also get a brake booster installed if for similar reasons you needed one

and that Graham hill drove an AC Acedes Mk15 which is not exactly a fair representation of a Model 70 is it now

 

and also the Model 70 was crash tested by MIRA and data from those tests was used to improve the Model 70 and produce the Model 70 Mark B and later revisions with strengthened chassis to improve front and rear crash worthiness, and engine restraints to stop the driveline from entering the cabin in the event of bad accident 

im not saying they are safe compared todays cars but, a lot of people seem to paint the picture that safety was not thought about at all, and that they where much worse then contemporary cars when that very much was not the case

how many cars even today came with a fire extinguisher as standard and later Model 70's even had a rollover bar to protect the occupants in the event of a rollover crash/accident

which most other cars of the time did not have

and the driving test was a bit more involved than just a drive round a car park

they legally where motorcycles more or less back then (still are depending on the weight of the vehicle) so each user had to pass what was basically a motorcycle test and had driving lessons with an instructor 

one amusing anecdote of this Is of an examiner getting run over by an Invacar, because he was taking one out on test and told the user "when I see you come round I will out onto the road I want you to do an emergency stop"

and an Invacar came round, so the examiner stepped out onto the road, but it was NOT the Invacar under test so the poor examiner got run over! 

 

a lot of what you hear from back then was a Vocal minority, that basically just wanted Free Mini's and then it was all picked up by the press as the thing to shit on basically

the original  plan was to get rid of all Invacars by 1981! but this caused such an outcry by the silent majority that they where not withdrawn until as you say in 2003

as you do say, a lot of Invacar users could not drive a regular car because they simply could not be adapted like the Model 70 could be, because a regular car was not built for the disabled while the Model 70

and also the Model 70 was free on the DHSS, but a motability car would cost you money still, and if you did have a family or such the DHSS would give you a regular car for free, you could even get Renault 4's!

and this picture for example was part of a protest against the decision to get rid of all Invalid vehicles by 1981 from people who really did not want to give up their machines!

71962100_998164447189616_2635953650123407360_n.jpg

 

I say all this

because for the most part your just saying what all the news websites say, and its bit disheartening when I have put so much time and effort researching the actual facts and figures

for someone keep perpetuating the myths and wrong information etc

and I will admit you do sort of sit there and go whats the bloody point then

but alas ill keeping fighting for the Model 70 as much as people laugh/take the piss out of me me for it!

 

anyways I look forward to seeing more TWC adventures :) 

'Potted'.

'Irony'. 

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Yeah, Wuvvum has a point there. With any of these things, it's difficult to get enough detail in to amuse the superfans, while not sending everyone else to sleep! Plus, you may have all the information in your head, but I simply do not. I try to retain what I can, but there's not room for everything!

Truth_According_to_Homer_Simpsons.thumb.jpg.21dcb7118f66c8f7a93860a0866d8d8d.jpg

In other news, the best thing to do with a car with slightly sticky brakes? Drive it 300 miles.

E9lRd6rX0AMEleE?format=jpg&name=small

Rear brakes still getting warm (rather than hot, I wouldn't be attempting it if they got properly hot) but I think it's going to be caliper rebuild time as complete calipers seem a bit tricky to get hold of. That's going to have to wait though as it's Surrey this weekend, and the only feasible alternative (the GSA) still won't start.

Economy - for the first hour, we averaged 15mpg. Lots of hills, twists and very hard to conserve momentum. By the time we got home, that had improved to 26mpg, though I've filled it twice this week and that's over £120 spent on fuel, and it's only Wednesday...

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19 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

I have put so much time and effort researching the actual facts and figures

Which you can publicise and promote as much as you wish.  It's not for you to berate anyone else for not using your research in their video.  Quite frankly, if DW went into the detail you're suggesting, I'd probably unsubscribe.  It's not that sort of channel.

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16 minutes ago, Talbot said:

Which you can publicise and promote as much as you wish.  It's not for you to berate anyone else for not using your research in their video.  Quite frankly, if DW went into the detail you're suggesting, I'd probably unsubscribe.  It's not that sort of channel.

I will admit I did go into a bit of a ramble there and im not expecting @dollywobbler to say word for word/detail what I wrote up

(although if he did want to do a deep dive into the Invacar video, id be more then willing to help with that!)

 

but its just that, Dollywobbler is the public relations guy when it comes to Invacars, just by virtue of the fact they are so obscure and he got popular with his

there are no other big youtubers/internet people doing Invacars

so anytime anything Invacar related happens he is called to it, and people treat him as the Invacar authority figure, so what he says people will tend to believe 

and thats fine and all, but I just wish because of this, that a little bit more effort would be made to getting the facts and figures right 

 

 

theres no way im unsubscribing from his channel!  it is very awesome and I very much enjoy his content still!

 I just wanted to get that grievance so to speak off my chest it had been sitting there for a good while!

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7 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

I just wish because of this, that a little bit more effort would be made to getting the facts and figures right 

Given that DW is more accurate about facts and figures than the overwhelming majority of media/press based outlets, I do think you're asking for the moon on a stick here.

DW does not make documentaries.  If you want to make one, YouTube will gladly host it for you.

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18 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Wobbler has to cater to his audience, and I imagine the number of Hubnut subscribers who would want that level of detail about the history of Invacars would be a very small minority.   In fact I could probably count them on the fingers of one hand, even if four of my fingers had been chopped off. ;)

I think @LightBulbFun has a point - I mean, well I think he does. I don't know. I think if you've seen one invacar you've seen them all. But I'm not everyone.

However, given what they were for, I am curious as to how they were tailored to suit the different needs of the public at the time. 

That is not a come on for you Dez to fill me in on that aspect of Invacars!!!

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I'm hopeful we can actually have an Invacar gathering at some point, which should allow for some interesting comparisons.

In other news, GSA non-starting was easily solved. Turned out to just be the connector on the wire from switch to starter solenoid being a bit 'French'. So I took it on an exciting* run out to the tip to dispose of some cardboard. #glamour

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