Mat777's charity 2x collection thread - a weekend of shite

[mat777]

(NB. Please read the final part of my second post )

So.... 36 hours and 5 trains later.... That's a long but a productive weekend boxed off doing a small bit for the amazing charity that is Casus Pax

Run by good friends of mine, this charity supplies much needed medical/ humanitarian aid, ambulances and replacement civilian vehicles to the hardest hit areas of Ukraine.  As you can imagine, this involves a lot of AS fodder, and my brains being picked on  many occasions as "vehicle and engineering advisor" - and I've posted on here before about their tribulations with the long suffering cheapest-in-the-country ML270...

With a proxy-coordinated aid convoy about to leave, but a vehicle short for the amount of stuff going out, a friend of the charity came up trumps by donating their recently-replaced family MPV - a Toyota Verso affectionately known as "Hank The Tank". Only trouble was, the car was in their garden in Manchester uninsured and on zero fuel, and the convoy was departing from North Yorkshire. 

Cue a message on Friday morning from CPax... "What are you doing this weekend?"... Well, I was going up to my unit to tinker, but I'm sure I can help instead.....

Roll on Saturday morning, and trains 1-2. "The delayed Northern Rail service......"  Into the centre of Manchester, then a swap to go back out to the suburbs...

Normally I hate public transport at the best of times, but this was extra special..... welcome to taking the train, where:
- The person sat opposite you will be engaging in an extensive nostril excavation scheme 
- The station toilets will feature a man in a balaclava having an extremely serious and in-depth discussion about pirates, with himself in the mirror.... 🤣

Time to collect Hank from a nice lady who was on the edge of tears to see him go.... To the point where she insisted on moving him across the driveway for me for "one last drive" whilst I was busy sorting the temporary insurance (Big Up to the Cuvva app, for effortless and cheap 3 hour fully comp cover in minutes) 

 

First stop.... Crawling across Manchester on fumes, to join a 15 minute queue for fuel at Costco where there was actually diesel in stock - and it was 20p/l cheaper than anywhere else. "I'll just stick 40 litres in, that'll be about half a tank to safely get me to north yorks".... *Gets back in the car and it's now showing full on the gauge*  "ah, damn my lived experience with large 4x4s!"..... 2 hours later and I arrived with the needle having barely moved from full 😅

Having safely dropped the car off with its aid custodian, it was time for the side quest....

As intimated earlier, CPax's ML is getting seriously long in the tooth after 10+ return trips out from England, that not only involve serious mileage in transit but also being hammered around on destroyed roads in-country with lives sometimes at stake. Seen here taking a breather in Eastern Europe with a somewhat more modified Ukrainian example!

It's still holding together, but only just - and even then only after many many repairs - so much browsing of the classifieds and Marketplace has been occurring recently to acquire a supplemental vehicle. For all its faults, they love the W163 for its combination of toughness and simplicity once the 00s Mercedes foibles have been dealt with. But of course any 163 ML is hard to come by these days, let alone one that isn't rotten or shagged.....

So, whilst in the North East area it would have been rude not to investigate a local and suitably cheap ML270 spotted with a traditionally trepidation -inspiring  bombsite forecourt in South Yorkshire. A swift phone call on dropping off Hank confirmed it was still available, but there was other interest. Pleading with the dealer to hold it for 3 hours worked, so.... Cue a bus, trains 3 and 4, and a final Uber to my new destination....

[mat777]

Another station, another delayed Northern service....

Does anyone know what's with these LNER trains? They looked decidedly 80s so I assumed the first one I was was part of a museum collection.... Then I saw 3 more parked up, and all in sparkling new livery.... I'm no Francis Bourgeois, so I'm confused!

Also, I spotted the most ridiculous rucksack I've ever seen...

 

Anyhow, the ML.... 

As with all these things, it definitely looked better in the photos.... but still, cosmetics were definitely not important for this usage! A brief test drive confirmed that whilst the performance was definitely not going to set the world on fire, it did at least drive nice and smoothly. Although my chief concern was the fact it was already halfway through the fuel light zone before the test, and I had no idea where the nearest fuel station was....

Time to conclude a deal, which involved a 3 way conversation with the dealer, myself and CPax via WhatsApp video call from Ukraine. Slight awkward moment.... The dealer was a very nice chap with a strong Eastern European accent. With myself and CPax having both mentioned Ukrainian aid to him, upon a polite enquiry as to his origin it turned out he was Russian. 😬 "Awks", as the kids say.... Although there's probably a serious dose of irony there in buying a car from a Russian to help Ukraine! 

Aaaannyway, duly acquired, in Aladeen news, it turned out there was a fuel station one mile away. But in Aladeen news, they had no diesel and didn't know anywhere else who did. With probably about 2 miles of range, I finally found some... because it was one fucking pound ninety fucking pence a litre 😱 still, beggars and choosers, and this time I was definitely going to need 40 litres of it! Also a chance for a collection snap:

Yes, the tyre shine was doing some heavy lifting there with the cracked bumper and mad lacquer peel everywhere... Talk about rolling a turd in glitter.....

By now it was gone 5pm and I was still the wrong side of the Pennines, with a dinner rendezvous to keep with the family who I'd been supposed to be spending the evening with. Time to make good time back.... Oh wait, this was very much not a car to be flogging!

So a steady cruise had me within 30 minutes of my overnight halt, when I suddenly felt something grabbing and the car slowed. A scary big yellow triangle appeared in the middle of the Speedo, but my surprised mild application of the brake pedal luckily cleared it and stopped the grabbing... To be replaced by ... Ah bollocks...

Disappointing, however not completely unexpected as I'd been told by CPax to inspect a section of wiring loom known to cause this by chafing under the headlights. I had done so, and found it wrapped in loom tape where normally there is none. Maybe the "ah, looks like someone pre empted this" was actually "someone has belatedly tried to fix this"..... 

But the car still drove absolutely fine and I made it back just in time for dinner. 

Today dawned significantly more rainy, but whilst I had access to the family tools before departure for the final drop off destination, I decided to more thoroughly inspect the loom (curses to Mercedes for the grille-in-bonnet design. I like not having a dent in my head ⛑️)

 

.... and also properly removed the covers to check the other known trouble spot of the OM612... Injector seals

Yep, I'd say they definitely need doing 🫠

However, anything that doesn't immobilise or otherwise threaten to cripple the car will be dealt with in Poland or Ukraine, where parts and labour are a fraction of UK prices - making an enormous difference to the charity coffers!

All dropped off safely today, it was time for a final train back home.... And a well earned drink! 

The dealer had.kindly given me this gift upon purchase. It looks lovely but I'm not sure if I dare drink it ....  👀

 

Instead I plumped for my current favourite..... Aaaaaaaahhhhhh

 

 

If you've read this far, then congratulations!

And an important final note....

If anyone fancies helping these unsung heroes in their work, please feel free to donate at:
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/cpaxukraine

 

And with that, I'm done for the weekend!