The grumpy thread

[Stinkwheel]

The Maestro is dead.

Bunged in for MOT to see what it might fail on rust wise before doing anymore work. Answer is welding, lots and lots of welding. Mostly in awkward areas and tricky to do without stripping out front end completely, and the misses needs transport, so its dead.

Welsh small roads, salt, various types of animal shit (not shite) and the humid and damp environment here have polished it off. 

Oh well, never mind, next.

[BorniteIdentity]

30 minutes ago, Stinkwheel said:

The Maestro is dead.

Bunged in for MOT to see what it might fail on rust wise before doing anymore work. Answer is welding, lots and lots of welding. Mostly in awkward areas and tricky to do without stripping out front end completely, and the misses needs transport, so its dead.

Welsh small roads, salt, various types of animal shit (not shite) and the humid and damp environment here have polished it off. 

Oh well, never mind, next.

Get it up on here. All you need is a maestro sympathiser who can weld (ahem @Angrydicky) and it may well live to fight another day.

[Stinkwheel]

2 minutes ago, BorniteIdentity said:

Get it up on here. All you need is a maestro sympathiser who can weld (ahem @Angrydicky) and it may well live to fight another day.

Mate, i would, but im a Maestro sympathiser who can weld. And even I dont want to do it 🤣 Its failed 'badly'  on rust. I looked at the bits mentioned, cornflakes city

Seriously though, it will get advertised as being 'Free to any taker' on here for the brave/masochistic on here. Annoying that i took care of the rear suspension now, but thats old cars for you

[Split_Pin]

29 minutes ago, Stinkwheel said:

rear suspension

@JMotor, could this be a better solution to your Corsa D dampers perhaps? Or other suspensio-parts-finding related headaches that might arise in the future?

[JMotor]

On 28/11/2024 at 11:48, Split_Pin said:

@JMotor, could this be a better solution to your Corsa D dampers perhaps? Or other suspensio-parts-finding related headaches that might arise in the future?

It was Corsa D bump stops I got cheap with some part number searching. Managed to get Maestro rear dampers, the bump stops had gone all dust on mine.

Would sooo be interested in parts off that thing. Or too tempting to get the whole car if getting it transported wasn't going to be mental money.

[Zelandeth]

Just had to fix a water leak under the bath in the main bathroom.

Another old pipe run that had been capped off rather than removed.  With a plastic push fit cap on a copper pipe.  Which hadn't apparently been fitted properly.

Removed, pipe deburred properly and a proper metal compression fitting blanking cap fitted.  Now I've got to fix the utility room ceiling.  Again.  That's the...fourth, I think...leak I've had under that sodding bath.  I keep thinking I've found and checked everything that could leak, but keep finding more!  Hadn't even seen that pipe existed as it was buried right at the back hidden by building debris (because why would you both removing and disposing of rubble when you can just leave it behind?).

I guess on the plus side this was just a drip.  The last one was a push fit fitting that came off downstream of the pump for the shower, which successfully emptied the entire cold water header tank in the time it took me to get to the isolator - which was probably a couple of minutes at most.

[JMotor]

Sad to hear about the Maestro @Stinkwheel.

But I know where you are coming from too. Had this dilemma with a Vectra B estate I had. Just kept finding more and more rust. Just gave up in the end. 

[High Jetter]

Just back from a train ride to the next town to try and get hands-on with some music keyboards. Neither shop had anything I wanted out on display, never mind plugged in and available to demo - despite their websites saying they had some in stock. Got back to the car and found someone had dented the OSF wing of the MG.

[richardmorris]

Scammer response to a charity I posted on FB months ago.

Elite, Scientologist? Christians, illuminati?

ps the Carmen’s Kids is a naked wine supported charity that provides hot meals to schoolchildren in South Africa - more then their government does.

[Floatylight]

On 25/11/2024 at 13:38, Floatylight said:

Been and had two new tyres fitted this morning, noticed the inside edge of the nearside rear on the Merc was down to the cords, rest of the tyre fine and front offside worn quite low on the inner edge.

Ordered two new Falkens from Protyre (part of Micheldever) and went down this morning.

Asked them to replace both and have a look at suspension tracking as something is clearly way off.

They've put two new all seasons on, one on the front right, one on the rear left and not looked at the tracking saying i never asked for it.

Would of expected them to ask if i wanted new ones on front or rear and swap them round.l, especially as new are all seasons and old are summer tyres.

Been using them for years but wont be going back!

Am i being overly picky?

Update:- had a call from Protyre's area manager today, full of apologies booked back in to have wheels swapped & 4 wheel tracking done FOC.

Will see how it goes Saturday.

[richardmorris]

3 minutes ago, Floatylight said:

Update:- had a call from Protyre's area manager today, full of apologies booked back in to have wheels swapped & 4 wheel tracking done FOC.

Will see how it goes Saturday.

Had my first “0h” moment with the falkens on my new TIPO this morning. -1 degrees and a patch of a flood from yesterday . Definitely felt slippy. Otherwise I can’t complain about them after 25,000miles. Front are on 4mm now.

[Lord Sterling]

14 hours ago, Stinkwheel said:

The Maestro is dead.

Bunged in for MOT to see what it might fail on rust wise before doing anymore work. Answer is welding, lots and lots of welding. Mostly in awkward areas and tricky to do without stripping out front end completely, and the misses needs transport, so its dead.

Welsh small roads, salt, various types of animal shit (not shite) and the humid and damp environment here have polished it off. 

Oh well, never mind, next.

I feel ya. MoT fail on LOTS of rust has happened to this;

Happily, there is a likelihood that a shiter will be taking it on as a long-term project. We're just sorting out logistics, I might get one last hurrah of a drive to theirs in the next few weeks.

[Lord Sterling]

Slightly connected to the above, I am ill, again, possibly as a result of being out in the cold for a long while whilst waiting for its MoT results. 

Stourport whilst a delightful little town, (not as nice as I where I live though) in the morning it's pretty poor. It's simply serves a commuter pass through point mostly for those who live in the sticks to commute into the towns and cities like Kidderminster / Stourbridge / Birmingham etc...

The local Tesco didn't have a cafe as I always thought they had. Then in the High Street, out of the 4 greasy spoon cafes, only 1 was open. It cost me £6-odd for hot chocolate and a cheese sandwich. Then the library wasn't due to open its doors until 10.30am (the reception for mobile data in the cafe was none so I couldn't check opening times and they didn't have wifi) so I had to trapse around the local charity shops to stay warm until the library opened. It probably would have been cheaper and probably better on my health going home instead. £2 home, £2 and a bit of a walk back.

Once I did, it was another hour or so until the car was done. Now for the past few days I've been ill, my asthma has gone into overdrive and my lungs are filling up with phlegm every second causing me to cough it up.

I went through this a couple of months ago and financially I'm still playing catch up because I was so bad I had to take a week and half off work earning nowt more than SSP. I feel OK though m, nit as rough as I did weeks ago.

Also on the health front, my teeth need looking at badly, however my local dentist says there is a 6 month waiting list. Sod that.

[somewhatfoolish]

5 hours ago, richardmorris said:

Scammer response to a charity I posted on FB months ago.

Elite, Scientologist? Christians, illuminati?

ps the Carmen’s Kids is a naked wine supported charity that provides hot meals to schoolchildren in South Africa - more then their government does.

This shizz should warrant a life ban from the internet.

[myglaren]

8 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

Also on the health front, my teeth need looking at badly, however my local dentist says there is a 6 month waiting list. Sod that.

Try your local dental hospital.  I did when I couldn't get to my dentist (went on holiday).

Attended by a student under supervision and she was better than my dentist, who I never went back to.

Went to the dental hospital again a few years later, still didn't have a dentist but was in the main hospital anyway as I cut a couple of fingers off, the dental hospital is attached to the main hospital.

[horriblemercedes]

10 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

Slightly connected to the above, I am ill, again, possibly as a result of being out in the cold for a long while whilst waiting for its MoT results. 

 

I am sorry to hear that you are ill. I had a very unpleasant cold/flu/covid or something recently and was bad for a couple of weeks.

 

I would like to say that being cold for a couple of hours did not cause your viral infection. That is from being exposed to a virus. It is an old myth that being cold causes it and it is from the poor medical understanding that was the norm in the distant past.

[horriblemercedes]

I wouldn't say I'm grumpy but I am perplexed.

 

I was sent an email last week (work) and while I was reading it, I got a phone call to ask if I had received the email. I replied that I had and we chatted about it and some other things. I also replied to the email.

Today, I've received a letter which is a printout of the original email with a handwritten note that reads, "I wanted to make sure you have a copy"

 

I just don't understand the point of it

[loserone]

10 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

I feel ya. MoT fail on LOTS of rust has happened to this;

Happily, there is a likelihood that a shiter will be taking it on as a long-term project. We're just sorting out logistics, I might get one last hurrah of a drive to theirs in the next few weeks.

Sorry Mo, I've just taken on something else which is rusty and has no MOT.  Probably for the best given how much I hated the 60k we put on it.  Get a for sale thread up!

[goosey]

1 minute ago, horriblemercedes said:

I wouldn't say I'm grumpy but I am perplexed.

 

I was sent an email last week (work) and while I was reading it, I got a phone call to ask if I had received the email. I replied that I had and we chatted about it and some other things. I also replied to the email.

Today, I've received a letter which is a printout of the original email with a handwritten note that reads, "I wanted to make sure you have a copy"

 

I just don't understand the point of it

I hoped you would say as you replaced the handset the caller appeared next to you in person to ask why you hadn’t returned their call 

[djoptix]

I am ill and grumpy.

Started on Monday. I was meant to be working all week on a double bathroom renovation project, over the bridge in Chepstow. I was feeling a bit rough by the end of Monday. Drove home, started sweating and shivering by about 8pm. Went to bed.

Had Tuesday morning in bed then headed over to work. Felt dreadful. Home for more sweating, shivering and bed.

Since then I have no energy, like NONE. I've honestly never felt so flat. No chance of even getting dressed, never mind going to work. Back pain, joint pain, dizziness, intermittent nausea, but those really aren't too bad compared to the complete lack of ability to do anything.

To be honest I'm hoping that I might be improving a little just because I've managed to write this post 🙄

The night sweats leave me constantly dehydrated and smelling like sour milk. I slept for 12 hours last night, then managed to drag myself through the shower, and immediately went back to sleep again.

I'm massively behind with work and panicking a bit about what happens if I don't get better.

[horriblemercedes]

3 minutes ago, djoptix said:

I am ill and grumpy.

Started on Monday. I was meant to be working all week on a double bathroom renovation project, over the bridge in Chepstow. I was feeling a bit rough by the end of Monday. Drove home, started sweating and shivering by about 8pm. Went to bed.

Had Tuesday morning in bed then headed over to work. Felt dreadful. Home for more sweating, shivering and bed.

Since then I have no energy, like NONE. I've honestly never felt so flat. No chance of even getting dressed, never mind going to work. Back pain, joint pain, dizziness, intermittent nausea, but those really aren't too bad compared to the complete lack of ability to do anything.

To be honest I'm hoping that I might be improving a little just because I've managed to write this post 🙄

The night sweats leave me constantly dehydrated and smelling like sour milk. I slept for 12 hours last night, then managed to drag myself through the shower, and immediately went back to sleep again.

I'm massively behind with work and panicking a bit about what happens if I don't get better.

I hope this improves soon. It's how I felt last week and the week before - one of the worst cold/flu/covid things I've ever had

[beko1987]

On 28/11/2024 at 12:46, Zelandeth said:

Just had to fix a water leak under the bath in the main bathroom.

Another old pipe run that had been capped off rather than removed.  With a plastic push fit cap on a copper pipe.  Which hadn't apparently been fitted properly.

Removed, pipe deburred properly and a proper metal compression fitting blanking cap fitted.  Now I've got to fix the utility room ceiling.  Again.  That's the...fourth, I think...leak I've had under that sodding bath.  I keep thinking I've found and checked everything that could leak, but keep finding more!  Hadn't even seen that pipe existed as it was buried right at the back hidden by building debris (because why would you both removing and disposing of rubble when you can just leave it behind?).

I guess on the plus side this was just a drip.  The last one was a push fit fitting that came off downstream of the pump for the shower, which successfully emptied the entire cold water header tank in the time it took me to get to the isolator - which was probably a couple of minutes at most.

My grandparents have had the same issue. A drip from a perished rubber bung that put the sink waste into the main stack or similar. They realised once the plasterboard was so sodden from the inside it crumbled off the wall 😬 Must have been dripping for years slowly, hidden

All been opened up now and drying ok, they had every joint replaced on it and I took a shitter vac round and cleaned it all out at the bottom so it dried. Their waiting until spring to check it's still dry then they'll get it re boarded

[myglaren]

I have five soldering irons.  Three decent ones and two that are borderline scrap.

Have been looking for the crap ones for a couple of days now.  I was trying to put a new polystyrene insert into the case for a socket set.  The original insert long gone and have added another ratchet handle and some sockets to it.

tried to 'sculpt' it with a miniature blowlamp, OK for the handles but too imprecise for the sockets.  Wanted to use the soldering irons.  Not in the dozens of places they should be, nor the other dozens of places looked in.

They will of course reappear when I no longer need them.  I my sock drawer probably (yes, I have looked in there)

Looking like a big nail and the gas ring.

[beko1987]

15 minutes ago, myglaren said:

I have five soldering irons.  Three decent ones and two that are borderline scrap.

Have been looking for the crap ones for a couple of days now.  I was trying to put a new polystyrene insert into the case for a socket set.  The original insert long gone and have added another ratchet handle and some sockets to it.

tried to 'sculpt' it with a miniature blowlamp, OK for the handles but too imprecise for the sockets.  Wanted to use the soldering irons.  Not in the dozens of places they should be, nor the other dozens of places looked in.

They will of course reappear when I no longer need them.  I my sock drawer probably (yes, I have looked in there)

Looking like a big nail and the gas ring.

I splurged out £35odd a few years ago on a fancy Chinese soldering iron. Used it for years and it works well. Built in stand etc. 

The other month I wanted to change the tip to a smaller one, so I got the pack of tips it came with out of the place I'd stored them AND remembered the location of and... None bloody fit the iron 🤣

It's changed diameter over the years somehow, the tips are a fraction too small to go in. Not hacked them about yet, I'll have to buy another cheap Chinese soldering iron one day but rememebr to change the tips more often. This one is great for mains/appliance wires but a bit too big for some pcb stuff I tried to do (and succeeded but it was uglier than it could have been) 

[djoptix]

On 28/11/2024 at 12:46, Zelandeth said:

Removed, pipe deburred properly and a proper metal compression fitting blanking cap fitted.  Now I've got to fix the utility room ceiling.  Again.

To be honest you should probably cut back the dead leg altogether before you fix the ceiling. You're only meant to have dead legs of 1.5x the pipe diameter in length (ie on 15mm pipe the max permitted dead leg length is 22.5mm)

... which sounds ridiculously small, but if you'd seen the filth that comes out of a dead leg that's been there for years... and you know that it's been sitting on their drinking water the whole time... yuk.

[maxxo]

Just got clothes out the washing machine

ah that’s my wallet

ive got a soaking wet wallet, mushed up everything made of paper but the debit card seems to have survived

£10 note also survived!

[myglaren]

Done that many times when I was still working, discovered I had no wallet at the checkout .

Fortunately money in the car usually enough to pay for the shopping (found over £86 in the ashtray once and there was usually £40-ish in the sun visor).

But, it was an oxblood leather wallet and the paper money was ruined, had to send it to the Bank of England in Leeds who credited it to my bank account.

[Zelandeth]

4 hours ago, djoptix said:

To be honest you should probably cut back the dead leg altogether before you fix the ceiling. You're only meant to have dead legs of 1.5x the pipe diameter in length (ie on 15mm pipe the max permitted dead leg length is 22.5mm)

... which sounds ridiculously small, but if you'd seen the filth that comes out of a dead leg that's been there for years... and you know that it's been sitting on their drinking water the whole time... yuk.

It's on the hot circuit and I'm 90% certain that the the only thing on the line it's on feeds is the bath.  I'm long past the point of having enough give-a-damns left with this place to sort it properly.  If I start digging into that I'm just going to find a thousand other things that the previous owners have had hacked about by the lowest bidder they had do all their work, and I've just run out of patience with it by now.  Also to get to it properly I'd need to either remove a *large* chunk of the utility room ceiling or remove the bath.  Neither of these things are options that fill me with joy.   The new owner can chase that line most of the way back to the hot water cylinder if they feel so inclined.

The sheer level of bodgery I've uncovered over the last ten years has never ceased to surprise me.  Discovering the old bathroom lighting wiring just abandoned (live) in place stuffed under the loft insulation was a fun one!  How I didn't go through the ceiling when I got zapped by it I honestly have no idea.

[dozeydustman]

Took the C2 to work today as a colleague was interested in buying it. Came home to this. FFS. Parked on the driveway as well, hasn’t moved since Sunday. 

[High Jetter]

4 hours ago, myglaren said:

I have five soldering irons.  Three decent ones and two that are borderline scrap.

Have been looking for the crap ones for a couple of days now.  I was trying to put a new polystyrene insert into the case for a socket set.  The original insert long gone and have added another ratchet handle and some sockets to it.

tried to 'sculpt' it with a miniature blowlamp, OK for the handles but too imprecise for the sockets.  Wanted to use the soldering irons.  Not in the dozens of places they should be, nor the other dozens of places looked in.

They will of course reappear when I no longer need them.  I my sock drawer probably (yes, I have looked in there)

Looking like a big nail and the gas ring.

Sounds like you've made the classic error of keeping all your irons in one place. Had they been scattered about, odd are that you'd have found at least one by now! 😀