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Posted
12 hours ago, Austat said:

Retropower is creating an automotive sin

They decided to cut up a well kept, original Allegro that was last on the road in 1982 and are cutting up a very clean and highly collectable Honda Intrega to put the mechanicals into it. I hate this build with a passion. Not only will they ruin an Allegro with all this modern tat that will most definitely look like wank once it's done, they are essentially scrapping a very well kept Integra in the process that could of been sold to an enthusiast who would of enjoyed it a lot as they are very popular tuner cars. Once Honda fans know about what is happening here, they will grab their pitch forks, this is such a terrible fucking idea and is one of the reasons why I have trust issues when it comes to resto mods, they ruin perfectly good cars all for a laugh.

All because we hear in the media that "the Allegro is the worst car in the world" and so forth from bored tabloid writers with no automotive knowledge, who only make these articles to get a quick pay check because they can't rely on annoying the royal family as a profession. 

This is the Allegro which will be ruined for this retro-mod-monstrosity (LLW 47P), these photos are from January 2021 when it was first taken out of its garage since 1982 (I now think it should've never left it).

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Apologies for the language, but I can't keep this to myself.

I fucking hate this so much.

 

10 hours ago, cobblers said:

While I'm sort of with you on this, there's not a lot of point to what they're creating - if anyone had to do it, retropower are the people who will do it as much justice as they can and most importantly not overdo it.

Most builds like this are started by some overenthusiastic maniac who would cut the bottom out of the allegro, slide the underside of the integra underneath and just weld it together where it touched and then use some 60x60x6mm box section to "reinforce" random bits, then it would end up passing through 3 or 4 owners who all think they're the guy to finish it before finally being scrapped.

A bit like this project then?

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Posted
2 hours ago, chadders said:

What about your two (?) spare houses?

Anyway Excel is your friend in these circumstances.

One is worth £700 a month in rent. 

The other is a fucking liability but has a little equity (£60k after capital gains tax and cost of selling) 

Posted

You can often take your pension some years before the normal retirement age. Obviously you'll get less but with the 60k it might make the bridge to normal retirement age a lot easier.

Posted
5 hours ago, omegod said:

Ouch, today I managed to hit my thumb with a brick I was using as a hammer, 48 yrs old and still incredibly fucking stupid 

Um, necessity is the mother of invention, and all that. Was a hammer unobtainable?

Posted
14 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Um, necessity is the mother of invention, and all that. Was a hammer unobtainable?

I only needed 2 whacks for what I was doing so couldn't be arsed finding it, whack 2 was rather painful so lesson learned 

Posted
8 minutes ago, omegod said:

I only needed 2 whacks for what I was doing so couldn't be arsed finding it, whack 2 was rather painful so lesson learned 

Must admit, I’m guilty as sin for doing things like that. Going and finding the right tool is too much effort or time so you use something else!

Using a ratchet as a hammer, screwdriver as chisel etc…

  • Like 1
Posted
14 hours ago, cobblers said:

Most builds like this are started by some overenthusiastic maniac who would cut the bottom out of the allegro, slide the underside of the integra underneath and just weld it together where it touched and then use some 60x60x6mm box section to "reinforce" random bits, then it would end up passing through 3 or 4 owners who all think they're the guy to finish it before finally being scrapped.

This one's textbook. What a gopping bag of shite. I'd have assumed that a fundamental part of car design is ensuring the dashboard doesn't block ¾ of the door opening. Unless it's some sort of selective thing to ensure those carrying chub have to lose weight before performing limbo moves in order to sample the unique driving experience...

 

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Posted
You can often take your pension some years before the normal retirement age. Obviously you'll get less but with the 60k it might make the bridge to normal retirement age a lot easier.
You can usually "cash in" a pension from 55yo.

Ignoring physical wear & tear, almost everyone has some work or money related stress. It seems to be the less stressful jobs command lower salaries so you worry about money, while the higher paid ones take away the financial stress but are more pressured.
  • Like 2
Posted
4 hours ago, Cheggers said:

You can usually "cash in" a pension from 55yo.

Ignoring physical wear & tear, almost everyone has some work or money related stress. It seems to be the less stressful jobs command lower salaries so you worry about money, while the higher paid ones take away the financial stress but are more pressured.

I did mine at 55, a bit over 5 years after I retired. I think that if you can prove ill health you can do it earlier.

I disagree to an extent about stress. Our eldest son is a teacher in a Special Needs School; I never had a client throw a fire extinguisher at me or try to cut me with glass shards from a broken window.

  • Like 1
Posted

Some cunt has fucked both front doors on the c1 to steal nothing. Dozy cunts didn't even take dashcam.

Any top tips to fix?

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Posted
9 minutes ago, jakebullet said:

Some cunt has fucked both front doors on the c1 to steal nothing. Dozy cunts didn't even take dashcam.

Any top tips to fix?

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Fit one of these?

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Posted

Have lathe will make totally invisible* repair. It was that or weld a plate on and try for invisible paint match on pearl metallic. It will keep scrotes out while I can find doors.

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Posted

Factory shutdown.

Purging the machines with polystyrene.

It fucking stinks 🤮

Posted
7 hours ago, jakebullet said:

Some cunt has fucked both front doors on the c1 to steal nothing. Dozy cunts didn't even take dashcam.

Any top tips to fix?

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I’d be rigging it up to mains electric…. Absolute fuckers.

  • Like 3
Posted
1 hour ago, jakebullet said:

Have lathe will make totally invisible* repair. It was that or weld a plate on and try for invisible paint match on pearl metallic. It will keep scrotes out while I can find doors.

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Better than my first idea  of penny washers to cover the hole… 

Posted

Driving home today along the A5, suddenly *BANG* and I have a nice big stone chip right in the middle of my fucking windscreen.

A few weeks ago I had a quick look over a car at a dealership.  Since then my Focus has had a wing mirror smashed while parked, a puncture, a blown headlamp bulb, and now this - and I am also fairly sure I got done by a scamera van last weekend.  I've not even mentioned selling it but somehow it knows I looked at another car and is doing all this to fucking spite me.

(edit) Oh, and after work today I returned to said Focus to find bird shit all over it as well!

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Posted
9 hours ago, jakebullet said:

Some cunt has fucked both front doors on the c1 to steal nothing. Dozy cunts didn't even take dashcam.

Any top tips to fix?

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You need one of these:-264d82a443bac6ae65686914670741848ef46540.jpg.e700380d1a55c1b9943fb870c46f021e.jpg

A Sykes Pickavant door lock hole reforming tool. No059600. Trouble is, they are £50 and I'm not sure they make them anymore. But something could probably be knocked up to do the job.

Posted
12 minutes ago, artdjones said:

You need one of these:-264d82a443bac6ae65686914670741848ef46540.jpg.e700380d1a55c1b9943fb870c46f021e.jpg

A Sykes Pickavant door lock hole reforming tool. No059600. Trouble is, they are £50 and I'm not sure they make them anymore. But something could probably be knocked up to do the job.

"Tools you never knew existed" thread starts right here?

Posted
7 hours ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

"Tools you never knew existed" thread starts right here?

There are more of these than you could ever imagine.

Posted

Someone did the same to an old Vauxhall of mine back in the early nineties.  I ended up removing the knackered passenger door lock and a mix of fibreglass and filler smoothed it all off so it had that smooth look

Drivers side called for a bit of hammering and a bigger, thicker  washer (vaguely recall cutting up a thick rubber floor mat to make it with a school compass) and along with a new lock it all ended up looking ok.  Meant I couldnt unlock the passenger door from the outside but that wasnt a problem ever.

Bloody annoying.  I know who did it so if you were an MOT assistant at LJK Setright BMW in Barkingside in 1992, I havent forgotten sunshine....

 

 

 

Posted

Changed from winter wheels to summer wheels on the modern today. And it's terrible what winter driving here is doing to the cars now. The chemicals and salt that are dumped on the roads now are killing cars. 

Posted
On 4/8/2023 at 11:55 PM, omegod said:

I only needed 2 whacks for what I was doing so couldn't be arsed finding it, whack 2 was rather painful so lesson learned 

Look on the bright side though, 2 whacks and only one crushed your hand - that’s a 50% success rate!

Posted
18 hours ago, artdjones said:

You need one of these:-264d82a443bac6ae65686914670741848ef46540.jpg.e700380d1a55c1b9943fb870c46f021e.jpg

A Sykes Pickavant door lock hole reforming tool. No059600. Trouble is, they are £50 and I'm not sure they make them anymore. But something could probably be knocked up to do the job.

Nothing there that you couldn’t fab with some big washers and threaded bar. Might need a blob of weld at the back if it’s split. 

Posted
On 4/8/2023 at 8:20 AM, New POD said:

Are all jobs shit? Does every manager want 2lbs of flesh? Does every person have totally impossible workloads with more than one boss dictating what's you need to do. 

Given how I feel this morning, I'm going to phone in sick all next week. Then maybe start to push back on all the conflicting shit I'm expected to do. 

I think there’s a lot less money around and so a lot of SME’s will be trying to do either pre-covid levels of work or greater with a smaller staff than before the lockdowns. It’s not exactly fair, but for a lot of businesses and their employees there probably isn’t much of an alternative.

A few weeks back I just couldn’t face the levels of stress at work and so I phoned in sick for two days - that’s the first time I can recall ever phoning in sick because I couldn’t mentally face work. Other than that I’ve only ever been off work for covid or physical injuries that meant I couldn’t work, I’m not one to call in sick on a whim. It did help to have a breather though and rally myself, so I’d recommend doing the same if work is damaging your mental health.

I’ve made things more manageable by doing a lot of overtime in the early mornings, any work or deadlines that are stressing me I’ve been working on before the office opens, that way the phones aren’t on and I can ignore my emails. The thing that was killing me was people constantly phoning and chasing when things would be completed, it was making me feel physically sick every day as I hate confrontation and my workload isn’t achievable by one person - there’s nobody to share the load though so it is what it is. Working in an empty office with the phone lines switched off let me get so much more sorted every day. Plus, doing overtime in the morning means I don’t miss out on spending the evenings with my partner and son.

I am a little worried that my employer will freak out when they see my overtime submission as it’ll be quite large, but they knew I was in so hopefully they won’t kick off too much - if they do then I’ll point out that my work has added value to the business in terms of completing projects that otherwise would have stalled.

  • Like 4
Posted
4 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

I think there’s a lot less money around and so a lot of SME’s will be trying to do either pre-covid levels of work or greater with a smaller staff than before the lockdowns. It’s not exactly fair, but for a lot of businesses and their employees there probably isn’t much of an alternative.

A few weeks back I just couldn’t face the levels of stress at work and so I phoned in sick for two days - that’s the first time I can recall ever phoning in sick because I couldn’t mentally face work. Other than that I’ve only ever been off work for covid or physical injuries that meant I couldn’t work, I’m not one to call in sick on a whim. It did help to have a breather though and rally myself, so I’d recommend doing the same if work is damaging your mental health.

I’ve made things more manageable by doing a lot of overtime in the early mornings, any work or deadlines that are stressing me I’ve been working on before the office opens, that way the phones aren’t on and I can ignore my emails. The thing that was killing me was people constantly phoning and chasing when things would be completed, it was making me feel physically sick every day as I hate confrontation and my workload isn’t achievable by one person - there’s nobody to share the load though so it is what it is. Working in an empty office with the phone lines switched off let me get so much more sorted every day. Plus, doing overtime in the morning means I don’t miss out on spending the evenings with my partner and son.

I am a little worried that my employer will freak out when they see my overtime submission as it’ll be quite large, but they knew I was in so hopefully they won’t kick off too much - if they do then I’ll point out that my work has added value to the business in terms of completing projects that otherwise would have stalled.

It makes you wonder how much productivity the telecoms revolution has really added. When I worked at the garage I was the only one capable of giving technical advice and the like when customers  phoned. The other guy in the workshop was a great worker and workmate, but was Polish so difficult to understand over the phone. It gets annoying when you get called away from a timing belt 3 or 4 times. If all the customers had no mobiles it would have been a lot easier.

Posted
1 hour ago, artdjones said:

It makes you wonder how much productivity the telecoms revolution has really added. When I worked at the garage I was the only one capable of giving technical advice and the like when customers  phoned. The other guy in the workshop was a great worker and workmate, but was Polish so difficult to understand over the phone. It gets annoying when you get called away from a timing belt 3 or 4 times. If all the customers had no mobiles it would have been a lot easier.

Emails and phone calls make up most of my day, which was how I ended up in the situation of needing more hours in the day to actually do my project work and move things forward.

I think there’s a lot to be gained by having your phone or email off for a portion of the day, but admittedly that’s not practical for small businesses where there may only be one person with the relevant skills/knowledge to sort a query out in order to win business. That said, the company is still there whenever I come back from holiday so apparently the world doesn’t end if I don’t come to the phone immediately when summoned by a client.

I was thinking about computerisation of workplaces the other day. Computers were meant to speed up tasks and provide us with more free time, but as far as I can see from my grey cubicle all they’ve done is devalued our work by allowing it to be churned out in larger volumes using the same human resource. Bulk production was already a thing, so maybe we should’ve seen it coming and stuck with getting less done for the same money.

I fucking hate working in an office.

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Posted

I got about the same amount of work done on friday as I did monday-thursday, because I wasn't being distracted  every 15 minutes with "when will my xxxx be done?" or "Can I just pick your brains?"

An honest response would be "I don't know when it will be done, and if everyone would stop fucking phoning me it would have probably already been done! Yes, I know your customer is nagging you, just fob them off. When you sent it in I said it would be a week or two - it's been here two days! Call back if you don't hear from us in a fortnight!"

Very soon this is all getting turned digital and progress questions etc will be directed to the repair portal website thing.

Posted
On 15/06/2022 at 03:40, LightBulbFun said:

the hot weather has clearly been too much for the 20W Philips SL-E in my room pendant which has just shat its filter cap

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flickered a few times then went to half brightness, upon  spotting the liquid gunk on the bottom of the glass I thought ah ha and pointed a Camera at it, which confirmed my suspensions, its a HF lamp those 50Hz scan-lines should not be there! so Im pretty positive the main DC smoothing electrolytic capacitor has just blown its load all over the insides of the lamp LOL

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its been installed since the 17th of the 1st 2021, and run 24/7, it managed 13140 hours, which to be fair its only rated for 10K hours, but I still expected better from a quality Polish made philips lamp

I mean, well the tube its self is still perfectly good, and shows minimal electrode wear, its just let down by the electronic ballast which goes to show is why I dont like electronic ballasts

its been replaced with another pinched from another location in the house hold, lets see how it holds up!

 

honestly give me a proper magnetically ballast Philips SL lamp from the 80's or 90's any day of the week! very temped to nab some off ebay, but id feel bad about using up a vintage lamp LOL

so the 2nd one I fitted to replace the above one, failed in exactly the same manner, alright fair enough the ballast of these enclosed CFL's cant handle base up 24/7 running so a short while back I fitted a spare* open tube 23W PL-E I had kicking around

which has just failed in the exact same manner, fucking electronic ballasts seriously

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(*which itself was another let down, normally Philips CFLs are/were the best on the market so I explicitly ordered a bunch of these high end ones new in 2015 to outfit the house with but every single one very quickly failed with a strange fault of what looked like a bad internal connection, on this particular one above If I put torque on the tube in just the right way I could get it to make a connection and light, as long as I did not turn it off again and let the thermal cycling disconnect it, which is why this one was kicking around unused until now, but was fine for this application since my room light runs 247) 

 

so nothing for it, in goes the reliable Old soldier! hastily  pulled out of retirement at 4:50AM because the modern has failed once again, a good old Philips SL lamp, 30 years old, a heavily worn tube, still fired up after the first action of the glow starter no problems

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good old magnetic gear! will remain until I figure out a proper replacement (as this is only an 18W one a bit dim this application and as mentioned it is heavily used and I would like to preserve it rather then use it up)

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