The grumpy thread

[95 quid Peugeot]

On a  car collection this morning.

Trainwankered on at 0602, 2 people on whole train, guard comes around,  checks tickets, has hump as use a screenshot of QR code as its quicker to find.   Old twats rail card please sir, i show him screenshot of that as original horrendously faded and virtually unreadable however you can determine expiry date and name if you can be arsed looking.

Sorry sir cant accept that nice clear screenshot, youll have to buy another ticket and claim back under railcard amnesty,  its not a problem getting your money back.   

Now thats why i drive a car

[loserone]

FFS!

[hairnet]

so bike for mot this morning

had ordered something from screwfix which was meters away

hoping id get notified before or during mot

10 mins after i get back

your item is ready to collect

ffs have to go back out now

fuggit SL wheeler dealers then ill go out

 

[ruffgeezer]

Spotted a cheap C220 auto nearby which I thought idea to run for a while after my impending op, contacted the seller, no reply. 

 

Messaged again asking for his phone number, he replies saying he'll send it later. No reply. 

Car now sold. 

FFS

[dozeydustman]

Moved some appliances around in the kitchen. Needed new Vent hose for tumble dryer. Who knew the vent hoses came in left and right-handed coils?

Can I find a left-hand coiled hose anywhere? Or an adapter to fit the new hose direct to the machine without just stuffing it in the hole? Can I feck!

[cort16]

22 hours ago, cort16 said:

Fuck me this Renault megane has turned into a migrane after all . I’m selling my Citroen and the only thing stopping me using The Megane daily is a very badly clunking ball joint.  It was supposed to be going to a specialist in Edinburgh but transport then Covid restrictions got in the way .

I watched a couple of videos in YouTube on how to change the bottom arm . Peace  of piss .

Of course everything Unlike on YouTube  has 200,000 miles of  m77 salty rust on them . First off the radiator support bracket turns to chocolate biscuits And crumbled into powder I had to drill the remaining bolts out as they rusted to nothing . 
The video says the ball joint is held on by a pinch bolt. Not in the RS ones they have a big nut you can’t get a socket on. Of course a spanner can’t get on it as the nut is so rusty and  it’s also seized solid. There’s no way to get a hex socket or breaker bar on it.

I decided to cut the big nut off but it’s still seized solid.
no manner or hammers or bars Or wedges hammered in will move it.

I can see it’s rusted inside the hole it goes through So it’s probably welded in there  Not helped by the taper. 

Ive soaked it in penetrating oil and left it like this in hope it cracks in the night and doesn’t fly off and smash my windscreen .

 Next stop a ball joint fork or blow torch I think .

 

Sorry for the pics they get flipped when I upload them here 

I bought this  (Arrived in 12 hrs from amazon )

Ball joint defeated at last . The arm finally came out with lots and lots of swearing .

Parts orders just need to find that radiator panel brace , which I guess I’ll need to go to Renault for .

[Zelandeth]

These fsking scooters need to piss off.

Counted twelve abandoned on the walk with the dogs earlier.  That's just the ones abandoned on the paths like these two, not ones actually parked up (I'm counting "upright at the side of a path" as parked up).  Have had to drive around two this week on the actual roads too.

Secondly: Migraines can get in the sea please.

[Stanky]

12 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

These fsking scooters need to piss off.

Counted twelve abandoned on the walk with the dogs earlier.  That's just the ones abandoned on the paths like these two, not ones actually parked up (I'm counting "upright at the side of a path" as parked up).  Have had to drive around two this week on the actual roads too.

Secondly: Migraines can get in the sea please.

All I'm seeing is aluminium To be weighed at £2k/tonne here. Finders keepers

[83C]

15 hours ago, 95 quid Peugeot said:

On a  car collection this morning.

Trainwankered on at 0602, 2 people on whole train, guard comes around,  checks tickets, has hump as use a screenshot of QR code as its quicker to find.   Old twats rail card please sir, i show him screenshot of that as original horrendously faded and virtually unreadable however you can determine expiry date and name if you can be arsed looking.

Sorry sir cant accept that nice clear screenshot, youll have to buy another ticket and claim back under railcard amnesty,  its not a problem getting your money back.   

Now thats why i drive a car

Sorry but I’d have done exactly the same regarding the railcard.

The terms and conditions are quite clear - you must carry the original, and make it available for inspection as required. Screenshots/photos of a railcard are not valid, because of the amount of people who try to digitally alter them and generally scam their way around things. If the railcard becomes difficult to read it is your responsibility to get a replacement. 

Look at it from the Guard/Ticket Examiner’s point of view. They are under instruction not to accept anything other than the original. There is provision to claim back the cost of an excess fare or new ticket if a railcard cannot be produced when required. They don’t know you from Adam, and have no idea if you’re a genuine case of ‘forgot my railcard, sorry’ or whether you’re one of the countless fare evaders who try it on with them, trying passing railcards to friends, using screenshots to all get a discount, etc. I know some TOCs use mystery shoppers to check on how effective revenue protection is, for all the Guard knew you were one, trying to catch them out. 

[hairnet]

can all the tiers fall off and get in the sea please

 

[Spiny Norman]

2 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

These fsking scooters need to piss off.

Counted twelve abandoned on the walk with the dogs earlier...

Pick 'em up, stick 'em on eBay at a tenner apiece. WIN.

[High Jetter]

I saw an illuminated Christmas tree in the front room of a house yesterday afternoon! I know we all want 2020 to be over, but it's still October FFS!

[brownnova]

Ordered some stone, and today is delivery day. Knowing builders merchants often deliver fairly early I got up, and spent the morning prepping the patio ready... it was ready for the stone around 10.30... 

Of course they’ve not arrived yet... I’ve not wanted to start anything else in case they arrive! Grrr... 

[Jerzy Woking]

Waiting for a skip to be dropped off so I can start clearing the garden, I went onto the BBC website and read this:

BBC News - Climate change: 'Dangerous and dirty' used cars sold to Africa
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54665545

Some of the laziest journalism I have seen lately (and there has been a lot).

Where did the figures for each "statement" come from? Who are the experts that are mentioned? Does he not think that demand dictates supply, and income dictates the supply that can be sold. I'm sure every African resident would love to be able to afford and drive a new Audi, but that's never going to happen.

[95 quid Peugeot]

On 10/24/2020 at 6:38 AM, 95 quid Peugeot said:

On a  car collection this morning.

Trainwankered on at 0602, 2 people on whole train, guard comes around,  checks tickets, has hump as use a screenshot of QR code as its quicker to find.   Old twats rail card please sir, i show him screenshot of that as original horrendously faded and virtually unreadable however you can determine expiry date and name if you can be arsed looking.

Sorry sir cant accept that nice clear screenshot, youll have to buy another ticket and claim back under railcard amnesty,  its not a problem getting your money back.   

Now thats why i drive a car

Managed to convince customer services 

1. I really am old

2. My railcard is in date

Righty ho sir, we will issue you a replacement for the £80 we stung you for your 2nd ticket, (original was 16 quid)

Obviously we're busy in this environment,  hopefully you'll get it credited into your account  14-21days

As my original post.... that's why I drive a car

[cort1977]

2 hours ago, Jerzy Woking said:

Waiting for a skip to be dropped off so I can start clearing the garden, I went onto the BBC website and read this:

BBC News - Climate change: 'Dangerous and dirty' used cars sold to Africa
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54665545

Some of the laziest journalism I have seen lately (and there has been a lot).

Where did the figures for each "statement" come from? Who are the experts that are mentioned? Does he not think that demand dictates supply, and income dictates the supply that can be sold. I'm sure every African resident would love to be able to afford and drive a new Audi, but that's never going to happen.

Heard this today and it did make me smile wryly.  How do they think economics works?  I'm all for cleaner vehicles and all the rest of it but it's a bit much to tell the poor blighters in Africa that they can't even have our cast offs because they're not green enough.

[Jerzy Woking]

Exactly. 7 million used cars ended up in Africa between 2015 and 2018. 

How much pollution would have been caused by making 7 million cars? And scrapping 7 million cars? *

No figures that I can find since 2018, but I could guess that the numbers are higher.

* Other environmental arguments are available.

[puddlethumper]

Probably greener than the ones they had.

[clayts450]

'Keep left unless overtaking' signs on motorways - I mentioned this last week. I've seen it on the M1, M6 and today the nightmare that is the M25. 

Difference made on the latter. Nil. The only way to make progress is to either gun it in lane 4. Or lane 1 and dodge the trucks.

[omegod]

I was considering getting a copart membership again as they usually do some form of discounted offer, not this year and they can whistle for £100 

[somewhatfoolish]

What's the gig with Copart; which categories are verboten for civilians and strictly for special people? It's all greek to me.

1 hour ago, omegod said:

I was considering getting a copart membership again as they usually do some form of discounted offer, not this year and they can whistle for £100 

 

[omegod]

16 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

What's the gig with Copart; which categories are verboten for civilians and strictly for special people? It's all greek to me.

 

You can buy anything apart from cat B unless you are a licenced breaker

[Borsuq]

On 17/09/2020 at 17:59, chaseracer said:

What IS that?  Looks like the bastard offspring of a drunken coupling between an Iveco Daily and an early Merc Sprinter...

It's an FS Lublin, successor to the good ol' Żuk.

Sorry for taking a little while to respond. 😅

[Remspoor]

21 hours ago, Jerzy Woking said:

Waiting for a skip to be dropped off so I can start clearing the garden, I went onto the BBC website and read this:

BBC News - Climate change: 'Dangerous and dirty' used cars sold to Africa
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54665545

Some of the laziest journalism I have seen lately (and there has been a lot).

Where did the figures for each "statement" come from? Who are the experts that are mentioned? Does he not think that demand dictates supply, and income dictates the supply that can be sold. I'm sure every African resident would love to be able to afford and drive a new Audi, but that's never going to happen.

I read that too.

It was based on  A Dutch report . Look at all of those nice new Chinese cars .

Nothing in the report about the standards of driving, roads, maintenance and crash repairs. All of these will have an affect on cars the local environmental impact. I will expect these countries will still be using ICE long after we have been obliged to change to EVs.

I like the photo heading this article on the same news. https://newmobility.news/2020/10/27/unep-wants-to-restrain-export-of-polluting-cars/

This website shows car that are of a different level to the ones in the report.

https://cars2africa.com/en/50-used-car-available-from-stock

Wonder if they will ignore all the old ambulances etc used in poorer countries?

https://www.autoblog.nl/nieuws/8-nederlandse-voertuigen-die-elders-nog-even-doorgingen-71454

 

[Zelandeth]

Oh FFS.  As mentioned above I'm currently doing a pretty wholesale rearrangement of my office/bedroom.  One of the thing I need to progress with that is a load of shelving.  Doesn't need to be fancy as it will likely be painted in due course anyway.  Last lot came from B&Q because they're less than a mile away and came in 3-packs of 1200*300*18mm pine shelf boards for £not much.

Of course they now don't have any shelving that's deeper than 230mm in stock.  Because why would I want a shelf that's deep enough to actually put anything bigger than a typical paperback book on?

Off to try Wickes.

[puddlethumper]

10 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Oh FFS.  As mentioned above I'm currently doing a pretty wholesale rearrangement of my office/bedroom.  One of the thing I need to progress with that is a load of shelving.  Doesn't need to be fancy as it will likely be painted in due course anyway.  Last lot came from B&Q because they're less than a mile away and came in 3-packs of 1200*300*18mm pine shelf boards for £not much.

Of course they now don't have any shelving that's deeper than 230mm in stock.  Because why would I want a shelf that's deep enough to actually put anything bigger than a typical paperback book on?

Off to try Wickes.

If it's getting painted why not get a sheet of 18mm MDF and get them to cut it to what width you need. Probably cheaper.

[Zelandeth]

6 minutes ago, puddlethumper said:

If it's getting painted why not get a sheet of 18mm MDF and get them to cut it to what width you need. Probably cheaper.

I've always ended up with MDF used like this sagging after a couple of years.  We tried a few projects at my parent's house and always wound up with the same issue.

Granted, the average ambient humidity in that house being about 95% due to the omnipresent damp ingress the council refused to do anything about probably didn't help.

[Parky]

18 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Oh FFS.  As mentioned above I'm currently doing a pretty wholesale rearrangement of my office/bedroom.  One of the thing I need to progress with that is a load of shelving.  Doesn't need to be fancy as it will likely be painted in due course anyway.  Last lot came from B&Q because they're less than a mile away and came in 3-packs of 1200*300*18mm pine shelf boards for £not much.

Of course they now don't have any shelving that's deeper than 230mm in stock.  Because why would I want a shelf that's deep enough to actually put anything bigger than a typical paperback book on?

Off to try Wickes.

The IKEA shelving system called Ivar is relatively decent and has some flexible options.  Might be worth a look?

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/cat/ivar-system-11703/

300mm deep too

 

[Jerzy Woking]

Was booked to go to the MotoGP in Sepang at the weekend. No GP, and not allowed to enter Malaysia. BA have given us vouchers for the price we paid for our flights, which is OK as they are very flexible. Had we booked our flights for either yesterday or tomorrow, we'd have received a refund as those flights are cancelled.

But what pisses me off is Ryanair. I can change my flight (which was £41.99) but for the dates I'd like, they want an additional £16.49 to £46.99

I went on their website and I can book new flights for £13.49 and £21.99. So fuck them. I'll never fly with them again.

Easyjet have let me change my return flights from London free of charge.

If BA and Easyjet can do it, why can't Ryanair? Oh yes, they are thieving cun........

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, Parky said:

The IKEA shelving system called Ivar is relatively decent and has some flexible options.  Might be worth a look?

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/cat/ivar-system-11703/

300mm deep too

 

Thing is that involves going to IKEA.  Ours is currently an utter zoo.  Especially as it's now half term.

A friend went to pick up something yesterday and sent us a photo of the queue snaking about 1/2 the way around the car park.  Delivery is out if the question as they charge through the nose for it.

There will probably be a Kallax going on the back wall in this room at some point...but that's waiting until things calm down a bit.

Got what I was after from Wickes.  More expensive than the cheapy pack that B&Q used to do, but better finished and it's a vastly nicer place to shop.  Them and Toolstation have most bases covered for me...B&Q just are still a default for some stuff simply because they're so nearby.

Question I'm now asking myself is why the fluff did I wait this long to buy a laser level?!?  So much easier than juggling a spirit level and trying to line it up with the pencil mark you just smudged with your hand...

That will save me some time.