THE GUBBERMINT ALWAYS KNOWS BEST

[wuvvum]

Picked this up this this evening.

 

 

I bought it a couple of days ago on the Bay - thought it might be useful for moving non-driveable tat around (including a certain Saab 900 ). It was the only vaguely local (March), sensibly priced towing dolly on the Bay at the time. It's actually not a bad bit of kit from what I could see in the dark - it's tidy enough and seems quite solidly built. It has ramps, but no winch so not brilliant for non-runners, but ideal for shifting tat that will run but not drive for any distance. I've never towed with a non-articulated dolly before, so could be interesting - I would imagine one would have to make sure the wheels are pretty firmly strapped down before setting off. I intend to try it at the weekend - probably run the Skoda down to the garage and bring the Volvo home to sit on the driveway for a while, see if I can actually get round to doing the brakes if it's sat at home. After that, well, the world of non-running tat is now my oyster.

[michiel]

the world of non-running tat is now my oyster.

 

Danger!! Also, well done on the DS, looking forward to some good pics!

[M'coli]

Erm, sorry about that M'Coli - I never knew it was such a little rotter! Actually, am genuinely embarrased. Anyway, judging by your Cavalier antics, the future looks hopeful. Just cast a glance of the pic of it on my bookshelf from when I picked it up in 2002 from Impspeed prior to reading this post, funnily enough. IIRC they said that the paint they used on the cheap blow-over respray was from a 205 GTI, so hope that helps somewhat.

 

There will be no need to worry about it, twas not your doing. It was well hidden and is not awful, especially for an Imp. Will have been rotting from the inside out for 10 years too, you know what they are like. Could be worse. That floor still needs protection by the looks of it but thankfully looks like the car should be getting sorted soon.

 

Give me a shout if you need a hand M'coli. I reckon it would be a lot easier to patch that together rather than buy panels. Depends on how flush you feel.

Don't worry, cav-estate: it has been very well bodged. There's no guarantee that Impspeed actually noticed themselves as it may date from before they had the car.

It's going to get properly sorted out, so new panels it will be where needed. The fact that the inner and outer sills may finally be attached properly to the rear crossmember mounts may sort out the skittish nervousness that I felt the back-end always had - I never felt entirely comfortable chucking it into fast corners, there was always a feeling that it would snap round on me.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

New outer sills arrived for the Maserati today

 

Hey JohnF, did you get them from Eurospares?

 

How did you get on, I want to buy some metalwork for my Maser. The bits are available ‘to order’, and seemingly not very expensive, but they reckoned on the phone that availability depended on when the factory got a batch made up so impossible to say when they might arrive!

 

Yep I did, Eurospares are generally pretty good. They had the n/s sill in stock, the o/s one came from the Maserati factory but everything arrived within 10 days or so. One of the sills has a small dent in it though, not a problem in my case as my car has sill covers but I'd have sent it back otherwise.

 

David Askew's spares service (http://www.davidaskew.co.uk/) is pretty good as well, his new parts are often cheaper than Eurospares or MIE in America.

 

What bits of metalwork are you planning to replace?

 

Just found out off Eurospares that everything I want to buy off em is NLA, despite being listed on their site. 2-dr Biturbo sills are NLA as well according to their man, you must have got the last pair!!!

[John F]

Just found out off Eurospares that everything I want to buy off em is NLA, despite being listed on their site. 2-dr Biturbo sills are NLA as well according to their man, you must have got the last pair!!!

 

Bloody hell. What's the chances of that?

 

It might be worth giving David Askew a shot (http://www.davidaskew.co.uk/), other than that it'll be a matter of fabricating your own.

[Father Ted]

Has discovered the cause of the knocking at the front of the C8 is a banjaxed lower ball joint.

[andrew e]

Sainsbury fuel stations - trigger spray de-icer 99p. And super unleaded for £1.34.9p!

[oldford]

He does some good de icer, does that Trigger:

 

[wuvvum]

[andrew e]

Is he curling a log off there?

[Father Ted]

 

Little bit of play in the ball joint there. New wishbone arm has bolts of a different (larger) diameter to the existing ones

[simmo]

 

Little bit of play in the ball joint there. New wishbone arm has bolts of a different (larger) diameter to the existing ones

 

Supplied bolts? Are you expected to enlarge the holes on the subframe?

[trigger]

You git John!

[Father Ted]

Little bit of play in the ball joint there. New wishbone arm has bolts of a different (larger) diameter to the existing ones

Supplied bolts? Are you expected to enlarge the holes on the subframe?

Sorry, in my rush I mistyped that - old arm had larger pitch bolts than new arm not by much.

New arm needed threads re-cutting to accept the old bolt fittings.

Bit of a twunt but its deffo the right part. Anyway its on now and not bloody coming off again.

[simmo]

Little bit of play in the ball joint there. New wishbone arm has bolts of a different (larger) diameter to the existing ones

Supplied bolts? Are you expected to enlarge the holes on the subframe?

Sorry, in my rush I mistyped that - old arm had larger pitch bolts than new arm not by much.

New arm needed threads re-cutting to accept the old bolt fittings.

Bit of a twunt but its deffo the right part. Anyway its on now and not bloody coming off again.

 

Nice one, I was getting enraged on your behalf

[Negative Creep]

Handbrake light is staying on all the time

 

 

 

[mnde]

Well the BX is gone - picked up by The Moog earlier. Nice to meet you! I'm going to miss it a lot...

 

In other news, I've just watched The Informant! and I think the theme music should be playing when you log in to Autoshite. It's GR8! Chintzy and 70s

 

Mark.

[scaryoldcortina]

Handbrake light is staying on all the time

 

 

I'd check that it doesn't do double duty as a brake fluid level warning light

[Lord Sterling]

I've had a couple of days off, so today I decided to try and tackle some niggling problems in the Rover. Firstly I tried to tackle the heater blower problem, me being me, I have next to no technical knowledge and failed to even get the glovebox off, mind you, it didnt help that I had no instructions with me, I did manage to fugure out a way of getting it off but I lost interest.

 

Next on the list was the wipers, one of the former owners (before my mate had it, who sold it to me) had obviously worked at Ford Dagenham Motors what with the radio wires spliced into a Ford connector block, a 'Dagenham Ford' tax dic holder and the wipers also being Ford items. They were a right bastard to get off, how on earth they managed to be fitted on in the first place I dont know, the first wiper was hard enough, but the second wiper wouldnt come off no matter what, I had to get a metal cutting tool to cut the fucker off, then I fitted some new wipers I had laying about.

 

One side of the rear bumper was sticking out a little too much, so I loosed the bumper off and removed wheel arch trim that had been bodged on with another bracket, I removed the rear arch trim and refitted the bumper, it needs a new bracket but is held on pretty well now, I refitted the rear arch trim after I took the old bracket off.

 

I had a minor bump the other day (my fault, all agreed no damage) so one of the front lights was a little droopy. I straighten it up, but seemingly it seems the car may have previously been in another minor bump before I had it. The one wing has been resprayed and is lighter than the rest of the car.

 

Next thing this car needs is 2 new part-worn tyres on the front, tracking and probably a new ball-joint or something as I can hear one-side rumble as I go over rough roads.

[dollywobbler]

Have had some better offers on the Rangie, but none I want to accept yet. Driving around in it today I was forced to concede that it's very useful and really rather pleasant to tool around in. The heater works nicely as long as you're doing at least 30mph as well!

 

NC - handbrake light on the BX was very hit and miss. Turns out the switch on the lever was held in with masking tape! Kind of explains why it tended to work when the handbrake was off, but not when it was actually on... (I hate warning lights that just appear, especially when it's a bluff!). I've disconnected and removed the switch for now - it's the same as the tailgate open switch apparently. Bonus!

[Albert Ross]

new part-worn

 

For fuck's sake man... shell out! They're THE MOST important component of any vehicle.

[Cavcraft]

Everytime you buy a second hand you buy second hand tyres.

[wuvvum]

Got a new style red V5 through for the Innocenti today. Apparently they're sending out red V5s to all vehicle owners who still have the old blue type. The reason given is the theft of a large batch of blank blue V5s. Wonder if that's true, or if it's a ploy to make sure nobody can scrap their own cars any more.

[MK5 Escort]

Not quite shite, but the Teak Brown A4 I use as the company hack is playing up. The ‘Emission Control Light’ is lit on the dashboard and in the handbook it states you must drive slowly and take it to a dealer as soon as possible as it could lead to Catalytic Converter damage. It drives and performs normally (at the moment, anyway…)

 

So yesterday afternoon I contacted them and at first they seemed rather enthusiastic to get it in. "Oh yes, bring it in as soon as you can and we’ll take a look at it" and the usual "better be safe than sorry, it may not be anything, but it could be something serious" comments given. I asked for a courtesy car and they said they couldn’t see it being a problem. So, I was getting ready to book it in either over the weekend or early next week.

 

So, I gave him the registration number. You could physically hear the tone in the guys voice change when he heard it was an 11 plate. "Oh…it’s under warranty then". "Of course..." was my reply. "Um, might just be an electrical glitch, dunno, we’ll book it in for you next Thursday and have a look". "Have you tried switching the engine on and off to reset it?" was the next stupid question - as if I hadn't already tried it. What happened to getting it in ASAP? Anything to try and stop it from going in. Oh yes, I almost forgot. They’ve checked the system and it appears that there is no courtesy car of any sort available until 4th November all of a sudden…

 

Is it just me, or are no main dealers out there willing to carry out warranty work these days?

 

B**tards, the lot of them.

[cort16]

Usually dealers love warranty work as they get paid for it at an agreed rate from the Manufacturer. It's money in the bank for them.

[worldofceri]

Sainsbury fuel stations... super unleaded for £1.34.9p!

 

It's 'only' 97 RON as opposed to most super which is 98 RON and Tesco Momentum which is 99 RON. Suits me though 'cause according to my Volvo's handbook it's supposed to be run on 97 RON.

 

I also discovered last week that Sainsbury's sell sidelight bulbs at one third the price that Halfords and at least one independent spares shop near me charge. I discovered this after paying the higher price, obviously.

[Cavcraft]

Dream car deal fallen through, at least for now. Oh well, when faced with things like this it seems getting another Griffin badged bucket of bollocks is a good idea. Deposit left, collection tomorrow, more news then.

[Cavcraft]

I just like arsing about with cars and (sadly) get excited about driving cars I've not had before. I swap a fair amount of them to be honest, actually trying to sell stuff is a bloody nightmare these days, ss the Mondeo is proving. In fact at the moment I can't think of a single car out there that's so hard to shift.

If someone says they have a cheap old knacker going it's like a bloody magnet and I spend most of my week weighing up (or in!) old chod. Sadly, stuff like Corsa Bs, Astra Mk3s and the like really float my boat.

 

Oh well, they're taking the internet off us at work next week so my hobby maybe slightly curtailed.

[dollywobbler]

A clear petrolhead is interested in swapping my Rangie for his Jeep Grand Cherokee (98 vintage so old shape) OR Rover 75 diesel (with lots of the usual fails recently replaced ie fuel pumps) OR an E30 325i. Hard to make a judgement call there. The Beemer's the only one I could insure as a classic but I can probably put the others on my wife's modern policy (as long as they don't want a ridiculous amount!). I await further details of all cars with interest.

[jonathan_dyane]

1 vote for the Rover 75...