The grumpy thread

[vulgalour]

Here's a little warning about barn find cars and how they got me.

The two Lanchesters we've got are both ex-barn find and have been sat around with wildlife in and on them for decades.  While we did take care with things like gloves, masks, hand washing, etc. they still got me.  A couple of weeks ago I started getting a nasty looking rash on my neck where the collar of my overalls rubbed and it wasn't clearing up.  Suspected nickel allergy on that, which I know I have and looked just the same the last time a chain necklace kicked it off and made me aware of the issue.  We suspect it was some fertiliser with nickel content because it kicked off just after discovering some unknown granules behind some trim when dealing with woodworm.  Given the car spent some years on a farm and being used as storage for at least some of it, this doesn't seem too far fetched.  Not a big problem, a dose of antihistamines (first time I've ever had to do that) and a couple of weeks later it was cleared up just in time for the next problem.

Lanchester 2 gave me ringworm, which despite the name is a fungal infection.  Again, this is something I've never had before even though I've lived with and worked with animals, including horses so came as something of a surprise.  This car did contain a dessicated rat, signs of fresh rat activity, and more recently has been the local foxes choice of wendy house so I suspect I've picked it up off a surface in the car from one or more of those sources.  I did wear gloves and mask on the initial clean up and once everything had been swept and hosed I just assumed I'd be fine not to bother which apparently isn't the case.

Don't be like me, all itchy and gross, wear gloves when you're working on barn find stuff until you're sure it's cleaned thoroughly.  Even regular hand washing and showers and the like apparently isn't enough to stop infection.  At least it's nothing life threatening or painful, and I can hide the unsightly blemishes easily thanks to having long hair.  I'm also reminded by all this that I'm going to be cautious about my lithium allergy, something I learned about when I got white lithium grease on my hands a few years ago, especially given how much grease is all over the next stage of work on Lanchester 2.

It's almost like old cars are bad for your health or something.

[Zelandeth]

Just had a message through from my mother in law, that my father in law's health has deteriorated rapidly over the last couple of weeks (they've been in a care home for the last 8 months or so due to advancing issues with Parkinson's).  

They're predicting he's probably got days to weeks left given the current trajectory.  

In some ways it will be a mercy being this relatively quick, a lot of us were kind of dreading a years long drawn out decline, long after the person is basically gone, especially with the price of hospice care eating rapidly into their retirement funds.  We were pretty much resigned to the fact we'd probably seen them for the last time when we visited in October when they were still at least mostly lucid.  Still not news you want to get though.

[w00dy]

Just had some absolute tossers do the old oil in coolant scam on me. I should have stopped them, but I didn't. Selling an old,.cheap BMW is a miserable time. You'd think there wasn't much profit in a slightly broken 5 series that's up at £1650, but you live and learn.

[RoverFolkUs]

On 4/21/2023 at 10:56 AM, Rust Collector said:

Round my way it's almost always a smashed up car with a giffer behind the wheel and the camera is front and rear facing with cables draped all over the cabin... Presumably had a lot of crashes which definitely* weren't their fault and so now they have the camera to prove it next time. It's going to be such a disappointment for them when they watch the footage and realise it was their fault all along 🤣

Even more so when said footage captures them blaring out "caught it all on dashcam m8" but the insurance company reviews it and notices an action in the clip that deems it their fault where it may have been 50/50 without any footage 🤣

[RoverFolkUs]

22 hours ago, barefoot said:

It's all a fucking con anyway, don't ever get me started on recycling or I might tell you about the factories in China which produce plastic bottles exclusively to send next door ready to 'recycle' to make into lace and bras etc.

My local council have started collecting the recycling on black bin day as well. So 50% of our recycling automatically ends up in landfill before it even hits the "recycling" plant. I guess it cheaper to incinerate it than reach the quotas of recycling their green counterparts set? 

[Dead_E23]

I read somewhere that it's actually more effective to recover the energy from recyclables by incinerating them than it is to recycle them in the conventional sense.   

There's a lot of bullshit around recycling anyway.    The preferred solution is 'source reduction', which is newspeak for going without.  People have become so accustomed to having abundant cheap shit that 'source reduction' isn't a particularly palatable option.  I was just thinking earlier about how affordable power tools have become compared to when I grew up and any kind of tools were fucking expensive.  I wouldn't fancy going back to that!

[Billy - Medhurst]

6 hours ago, w00dy said:

Just had some absolute tossers do the old oil in coolant scam on me. I should have stopped them, but I didn't. Selling an old,.cheap BMW is a miserable time. You'd think there wasn't much profit in a slightly broken 5 series that's up at £1650, but you live and learn.

Step Daughters just had this tried with the Chrevrolet they are selling. Caught them doing it and told them to F.R.O. Did not know it was a thing.

[chadders]

8 hours ago, Dead_E23 said:

I read somewhere that it's actually more effective to recover the energy from recyclables by incinerating them than it is to recycle them in the conventional sense.   

There's a lot of bullshit around recycling anyway.    The preferred solution is 'source reduction', which is newspeak for going without.  People have become so accustomed to having abundant cheap shit that 'source reduction' isn't a particularly palatable option.  I was just thinking earlier about how affordable power tools have become compared to when I grew up and any kind of tools were fucking expensive.  I wouldn't fancy going back to that!

I find your first paragraph entirely believable but I guess that there's the perennial spectre of pollution.

I've got a B&D drill that's well over 50 years old and is still working OK. Mind you I couldn't afford any more tools for quite a while once I'd bought that.

[Dead_E23]

49 minutes ago, chadders said:

I find your first paragraph entirely believable but I guess that there's the perennial spectre of pollution.

I've got a B&D drill that's well over 50 years old and is still working OK. Mind you I couldn't afford any more tools for quite a while once I'd bought that.

I think they put scrubbers in the chimney to catch all the nastiness and paint the building a modern colour to make people imagine that what goes on inside is all unicorns and kittens.

Is your drill a fancy variable speed job, or one of the single speed on/off variety? They were pretty wank, and because they were so expensive I remember there being a whole family of attachments to 'turn your drill into an xyz' that fundamentally didn't work.   

My dad had a B&D hedge trimmer, which although purpose made, was very obviously based on a drill and it was both tiny and shit. I have a gigantic petrol thing that I got in Aldi and probably paid about the same number of pounds for, fourty years later, and it's a beast.

 

 

[chadders]

2 speed with hammer action.

It's pretty hefty, not the sort of thing to use working under a sink. I've got a few modern ones for that sort of stuff but it's ideal for things like wire brushing rust off seat frames.

[Mrcento]

A car i'm very interested in has popped up for sale at a dealer. I cannot get in touch with him. Is ignoring messages and if you call, he just rejects the call.

What a fucking way to do business. No worries mate, only trying to give you thousands of pounds, i'm sure given that you seem to not give a flying fuck at someone trying to give you money, any aftersales that could cost you would be EXCELLENT.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Hyundai got covered in cow shit today

I feel a little bad for what I have done in a petrol station car wash 

[ruffgeezer]

I've the focus of much work up for sale on an eBay classified advert. 

• 22:04: Your item has sold awaiting payment!
• 22:05: Buyer has requested a cancellation.

What pisses me off about this cunt, is that eBay now want to charge me another set of classified ad fees to relist it.  That's another £19.99 so that Dabek can get off scott free.

 

CUNTS

[RoverFolkUs]

53 minutes ago, ruffgeezer said:

I've the focus of much work up for sale on an eBay classified advert. 

• 22:04: Your item has sold awaiting payment!
• 22:05: Buyer has requested a cancellation.

What pisses me off about this cunt, is that eBay now want to charge me another set of classified ad fees to relist it.  That's another £19.99 so that Dabek can get off scott free.

 

CUNTS

How does the classified ad get taken down when they "buy" it? 

I didn't think they could buy it and take the advert down, with that being the whole purpose of a classified ad?

[ruffgeezer]

Classified ad with best offer allows them to make an offer,   which was subsequently auto-accepted. 

I think ebay ought to charge them the relisting fee, it might put people off such shithousery.

[myglaren]

On 23/04/2023 at 10:22, chadders said:

2 speed with hammer action.

It's pretty hefty, not the sort of thing to use working under a sink. I've got a few modern ones for that sort of stuff but it's ideal for things like wire brushing rust off seat frames.

Long gone now but I had one of the old metal ones, bought in 1978.

Was great to hammer in the plugs after drilling the wall

[Markeh]

12 hours ago, ruffgeezer said:

I've the focus of much work up for sale on an eBay classified advert. 

• 22:04: Your item has sold awaiting payment!
• 22:05: Buyer has requested a cancellation.

What pisses me off about this cunt, is that eBay now want to charge me another set of classified ad fees to relist it.  That's another £19.99 so that Dabek can get off scott free.

 

CUNTS

I get this roughly once a week when I accept a best offer - usually because I've not accepted it within 0.2 picoseconds and they've bought something else.

[ruffgeezer]

6 minutes ago, Markeh said:

I get this roughly once a week when I accept a best offer - usually because I've not accepted it within 0.2 picoseconds and they've bought something else.

I had it set to automatically accept above a certain threshold.   Why offer it if 60 seconds later you get cold feet?

[Rustybullethole]

2 hours ago, ruffgeezer said:

I had it set to automatically accept above a certain threshold.   Why offer it if 60 seconds later you get cold feet?

Because you’re a cunt. Bidder of course just to clear that up. Been caught out numerous times with regular bidding shall look out for that in classifieds now. 

[Rustybullethole]

On 4/22/2023 at 12:46 PM, vulgalour said:

Here's a little warning about barn find cars and how they got me.

The two Lanchesters we've got are both ex-barn find and have been sat around with wildlife in and on them for decades.  While we did take care with things like gloves, masks, hand washing, etc. they still got me.  A couple of weeks ago I started getting a nasty looking rash on my neck where the collar of my overalls rubbed and it wasn't clearing up.  Suspected nickel allergy on that, which I know I have and looked just the same the last time a chain necklace kicked it off and made me aware of the issue.  We suspect it was some fertiliser with nickel content because it kicked off just after discovering some unknown granules behind some trim when dealing with woodworm.  Given the car spent some years on a farm and being used as storage for at least some of it, this doesn't seem too far fetched.  Not a big problem, a dose of antihistamines (first time I've ever had to do that) and a couple of weeks later it was cleared up just in time for the next problem.

Lanchester 2 gave me ringworm, which despite the name is a fungal infection.  Again, this is something I've never had before even though I've lived with and worked with animals, including horses so came as something of a surprise.  This car did contain a dessicated rat, signs of fresh rat activity, and more recently has been the local foxes choice of wendy house so I suspect I've picked it up off a surface in the car from one or more of those sources.  I did wear gloves and mask on the initial clean up and once everything had been swept and hosed I just assumed I'd be fine not to bother which apparently isn't the case.

Don't be like me, all itchy and gross, wear gloves when you're working on barn find stuff until you're sure it's cleaned thoroughly.  Even regular hand washing and showers and the like apparently isn't enough to stop infection.  At least it's nothing life threatening or painful, and I can hide the unsightly blemishes easily thanks to having long hair.  I'm also reminded by all this that I'm going to be cautious about my lithium allergy, something I learned about when I got white lithium grease on my hands a few years ago, especially given how much grease is all over the next stage of work on Lanchester 2.

It's almost like old cars are bad for your health or something.

On the plus side it proves genuine barn find status. 

[jakebullet]

Ma has a new reduced* sight adapted tablet. She is driving me fucking mental with it. Because it's a new improved version it doesn't work exactly the same as old/shit version she had before.

This leads to quality crazy ideas. The screen is turned off by pressing the power button rather than closing the case. So that means when the screen is off if anyone emails her it will be INSTANTLY DESTROYED and she won't get her emails of sister's horse having a shit. Turned on book cover in the settings to shut her up, and she just keeps on chuntering that she's not had any horse videos all weekend and they're lost! lost! Nothing to do with horse is in a field 5 miles away while idiot sister who makes the horse videos is in Lanzarote....

[AnnoyingPentium]

I lost far too much time to this today, trying to remove this wheel bolt.

Now replaced, turns out the fucked droplink is fine. I've yet to check the other side, trying to time it between showers of hailstones. Grrrr.

[Lankytim]

Sold a Fiesta gearbox on eBay, first problem was the buyer wanted it sent to an alternative address. second problem was UPS, my courier of choice had a look at the packaged up gearbox and said they didn't want to take it  in case any oil spilled out.  It was fully drained with any holes sealed up, banded to a cut down 1/4 size pallet and shrink wrapped to death. The dimensions were well within their limits and gearboxes aren't on the prohibited list, it was packaged perfectly but the manager at the depot just didn't want to accept it "just in case". Fair enough I guess.

The only problem is no other courier wants to take the bloody thing. Car parts over 15kg, prohibited, gearboxes, prohibited. I could get Paisley freight or someone to take it but they want £60 odd rather than the £25 UPS were quoting.

I've spent most of the day trawling courier sites, sorting a refund from UPS and finally cancelling the sale with eBay, which prompted an angry response from the buyer. With fees I think I was only making £30 or so from the box anyway. Fuck eBay and FUCK couriers. 

[artdjones]

3 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

I lost far too much time to this today, trying to remove this wheel bolt.

Now replaced, turns out the fucked droplink is fine. I've yet to check the other side, trying to time it between showers of hailstones. Grrrr.

I admire your perseverance getting it out with one of those reverse twist extractors.

[AnnoyingPentium]

Just now, artdjones said:

I admire your perseverance getting it out with one of those reverse twist extractors.

Granda and I worked together on that one. We swore at it collectively.

[RoverFolkUs]

4 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

I lost far too much time to this today, trying to remove this wheel bolt.

Now replaced, turns out the fucked droplink is fine. I've yet to check the other side, trying to time it between showers of hailstones. Grrrr.

What in fuck's name happened there!? How did it get so rounded!

[AnnoyingPentium]

9 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

What in fuck's name happened there!? How did it get so rounded!

First of all, the new apprentice at the garage I frequently use dialled them on at 100000000lb-ft (slight exaggeration) and I had to take it back to get them to get the bolts off as I couldn't get them off, even with 17 and a bit stone of me on a breaker bar. That one had been a touch rounded after the ugga dugga incident. Tyre fitters finished it off later on, and when going to change a drop link today I couldn't even get a socket to grab onto whatever was left of the head of the bolt.

Tbf, looking at the quality of the work that nearly £600 got me, this honestly isn't a surprise. I'm quite annoyed, to say the least. You'd think the exhaust had been fitted by Ray Charles.

[RoverFolkUs]

39 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

First of all, the new apprentice at the garage I frequently use dialled them on at 100000000lb-ft (slight exaggeration) and I had to take it back to get them to get the bolts off as I couldn't get them off, even with 17 and a bit stone of me on a breaker bar. That one had been a touch rounded after the ugga dugga incident. Tyre fitters finished it off later on, and when going to change a drop link today I couldn't even get a socket to grab onto whatever was left of the head of the bolt.

Tbf, looking at the quality of the work that nearly £600 got me, this honestly isn't a surprise. I'm quite annoyed, to say the least. You'd think the exhaust had been fitted by Ray Charles.

It's painful to read of such shoddy workmanship. Not saying I'm perfect, but you know... 

[Bren]

On 4/22/2023 at 6:41 PM, w00dy said:

Just had some absolute tossers do the old oil in coolant scam on me. I should have stopped them, but I didn't. Selling an old,.cheap BMW is a miserable time. You'd think there wasn't much profit in a slightly broken 5 series that's up at £1650, but you live and learn.

I hope you encouraged them off your property.....

[AnnoyingPentium]

4 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

It's painful to read of such shoddy workmanship. Not saying I'm perfect, but you know... 

If I weren't a million miles away you'd have had my trade.

I hadn't had issues like this from the garage before, and if I did have any quibbles they were remedied very quickly/cheaply (read as free). I'm disappointed, and should have said something sooner, so that's on me. I'm going to take the leap into doing more of my own work where I can, leaving the big and scarier jobs to them, and making sure it's done right from now on.