THE GUBBERMINT ALWAYS KNOWS BEST

[seth]

Wow. I might be a bit deaf. Just been out for a quick run in a friend's carbon Westfield Se7en thingy. 450kg or so, 200bhp K series, Hewland dogleg, striaghtcut transaxle. Blimey!

[Pillock]

  mnde said:

Oh I forgot - I can't pop the bonnet of the Suzukiwagen to fill up the washer reservoir because the release is broken, and one of the wipers doesn't have a blade on it. And there's quite a patina of dust in the interior. A real old school courtesy car, none of this new fangled, better-than-your-own-car nonsense...

 

Mark.

I've had better courtesy cars than that..... all around 1999/2000 to give you an idea how old they were.

 

1) Escort Mk4 Estate - see the overheating post above, it was this car! Nice to drive, being a 1.6, but in reality needed water in the system to work well.

 

2) Nissan Sunny - F plate I think. Someone had driven into (or at, judging by the level of damage) the passenger side meaning it was a two-door, where one of those was the boot. Had great fun racing a Saab 9000 Turbo over the twisties in it though, the driver took it with the humour intended.

 

3) Mk2 Cavalier, D reg. Stolen/recovered so it started with a screwdriver applied to the ignition switch dangling from the smashed cowl. Doorlock also mangled and no reverse gear.

 

4) Astra 2.0 CD, H-reg. The one truely good car they lent me, over a weekend to go to London for a gig. Pulled 115mph on the motorway, nice spec, very comfy when I had to sleep in it on the A1 coming home because I was completely exhausted.

[garethj]

New clutch cable fitted to the Ginetta, the travel feels a lot shorter now. Perhaps because it's just the pedal moving the clutch arm, not stretching a bit and then moving the clutch arm.

 

Took about half an hour, which is good going in my book.

[Rusty Pelican]

H/G has gone on my Singer

FUCKSTICKS

[Pillock]

Golf was treated to new oil, filters and plugs yesterday. Also fettled the timing slightly and it goes much, much better.

 

Release bearing noise has vanished (yay!) but there's still the rattle from the top end at 2000rpm which I was hoping was oil related.

[mouseflakes]

  Rusty Pelican said:

H/G has gone on my Singer

FUCKSTICKS

Ooooh - bad luck.

[mouseflakes]

Apparently, vinyl interiors were special order only on the Renault 30 - and I've just bagged a full one, in blue!!!

 

 

 

 

[Rusty Pelican]

  mouseflakes said:

  Rusty Pelican said:

H/G has gone on my Singer

FUCKSTICKS

Ooooh - bad luck.

Even worst luck , snapped a headbolt taking it off , engine out now i guess

[mouseflakes]

  Rusty Pelican said:

  mouseflakes said:

  Rusty Pelican said:

H/G has gone on my Singer

FUCKSTICKS

Ooooh - bad luck.

Even worst luck , snapped a headbolt taking it off , engine out now i guess

Lorks! If you were here I'd offer you a relaxing cup of tea and a sit in one of my nice blue seats to get over it. As it is, I can only offer you another one of these...

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

  mouseflakes said:

Apparently, vinyl interiors were special order only on the Renault 30 - and I've just bagged a full one, in blue!!!

Wanna widen my car to fit those, they're lovely.

[Pete-M]

  mouseflakes said:

Apparently, vinyl interiors were special order only on the Renault 30 - and I've just bagged a full one, in blue!!!

 

I've got the matching rear seat to that, in blue vinyl.

 

Oh, and I'm back. Sorry folks.

 

Not that much has happened with the Escort since last time I was there. All the bushes have been replaced but I still have to order a few repair panels (which I'll do this week).

 

Still, the engine looks rather bloody good, and it's all been checked out internally and is spot on. Should be pretty reliable, if not quick..

 

[gearoil]

Stuck my head round the shed door yesterday to have a look at the Sierra, did a bit more prodding, bit more grot fell out it.

 

I think its fate is sealed.

[Rocket88]

Front bench seat of the old Tata lives up to it's name in the bench department so decided to cast round for a replacement. After a bit of measuring, Volvo 740 rear seat almost spot on. Very comfy.

[Cavcraft]

Two steps forward, one step back...

 

...changed the o/s/f wheel/tyre over for the spare on the Volvo as the tread is better. WIN!

 

Temporarily fixed blowing exhaust. Had a small hole in it where front pipe meets the centre one. Bodyfiller in the hole, got some exhaust repair bandage stuff and then used 'No More Nails' to make sure it stuck. RESULT!

 

Attempted to fix non-working windscreen washers. Eliminated the pump (as originally thought) by taking a pipe off and getting my lad to help and it was flowing out. Problem: blocked pipe/s.

Found some spare pipe in the garage, fiddled about, ran direct to driver's side nozzle and bypassed headlight wash/wipe. Jet knackered, removed from bonnet, leaking like a sieve. Passenger side removed and fell to bits in my hands. Diagnosis: BIG FUCK OFF FAIL.

 

Scrapyard job tomorrow I think, if they haven't got a Volvo in I'll see if I can raid some jets off another car and 'persaude' them on.

[Mike D]

More filling and sanding to my Capri front wing this evening, it's nearly ready for paint now

 

Also, I lopped a couple of coils off the rear of the Pao last night to bring it level. Investigated the boinging front suspension and found a missing top mount bush, also found a leaky track rod end. Head is off at present awaiting blue-ing and then reassembly / a skim if necessary.

 

Oh, and I finally managed to reset the service counter on the Merc.

 

[Rusty Pelican]

Think the H/G on the Singer was well and truely fucked then

 

[Cavcraft]

Hey it's a small victory but a victory non-the-less: I can haz windscreen washers!

Trip to the scrappy, four quid and five minutes later we have water. No joy on the headlight washers, suspect fucked jets ala the windscreen but not going to lose any sleep over them.

Exhust repair holding up well, no leaks/blows and quiet as you like. Has anyone a rough idea how long exhaust bandage/bodyfiller and no more nails is likely to last as a repair please? It does seem very well stuck on.

[Guest]

Just went to swap a new battery onto my mate's Alfa, the old one finally gave up the ghost.

 

 

He's had it as his main car since it was about 2 years old and kept it mint since then. That picture doesn't really do it any favours, it hasn't got a single scratch or dent on it. I really like the 155, they're a right looker.

[pogweasel]

OOh, that's nice.

Not only do they LOOK hot, they go nicely and make an absolutely divine noise.

 

Even the totally scratty one we had had a special feeling about it.

[trigger]

Wasn't there also a 155 with wider arches?, I had a poster of one of these as a kid on my bedroom wall in the BTCC colours, Gorgeous cars.

[Pillock]

Wikipedia suggests 155s from 1995 onwards are widebody, that P reg one should be one of them. The front flared arch suggests it is, the earlier ones seem to have a proper arch rather than a vague 'box' arch.

 

It's all very dependant on colour of the car though. Regardless, that one in the thread is highly lush.

[Guest]

It is indeed a widebody.

[trigger]

It didn't look like a widebody from that view, They are the best looking ones IMHO.

[trigger]

  trigger said:

I had a poster of one of these as a kid on my bedroom wall in the BTCC colours, Gorgeous cars.

As by magic here is a photo of my wall with said poster, this was 1995 when i was 15 i like to point out.

 

[Pete-M]

I had an 'R' reg 1.8 widebody. Quite liked it actually.

 

Thing is, it always felt like it was encouraging me to break it.

[barrett]

Weird to think there were Tigras around when you were 15, they seem ultra-modern to me (not that i'm saying you're old or nuffin!)

[Rusty Pelican]

Beemer failed the MOT today but only on the NSF flexi brake hose , stuck another one on , went back , got ticket , rear brakes need adjusting as it said so on the MOT , after much hastle got a rear drum off only to find next to no shoes and a drum with a 3 mm wear lip on it , so now I HAZ MOT but need new rear drums and shoes

ARSEFLAKES

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Just got back from driving to Brittany in my Rover, 1000 more miles on the clock, and a few more oil splats on the roads of Europe. Lovely stuff.

[pandamonium]

I have been putting gravel down where my front garden used to be.

Poor Mercedes has been hauling the gravel back from homebase.

[Cavcraft]

*WARNING CONTAINS FAIL*

 

Another scooter run today (I'm thinking there doesn't seem to be any anti-two-wheel-erage here, so hope no-one minds the content) this time to less than sunny Wales.

About forty+ of 'us' met up in Chester then rode to Wrexham for a meet up, then on to the Horsehoe Pass for a good blast out.

 

Loved this, never seen one like it and bet it was GR8 4 CORZING KEWS Ov TRAFIC...

 

Random others which caught my eye...

 

Weather wasn't bad leaving Chester then it started raining a bit. Left Wrexham after an hour or so and there must have been easily 200+ scooters, then it RLY pissed down. Impromptu stop to put waterproof kex and a sweatshirt on about half a mile before the Ponderosa cafe at the top of the Horshoe Pass, then rolling into the carpark EPIC FAIL as my clutch cable snapped

 

Piss wet through, cold and a good few miles from home it wasn't looking good. Until a top bloke I know and hadn't seen in a couple of years whipped out a spare inner cable and between four of us (though mostly the kind fella with the cable) we had it on. Happy days, clutch not quite what it should be (needs adjusting) but it got me home, for which I'm eternally grateful.