vulgalour
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It's probably the best compromise. I'd actually prefer to upgrade to a full LED unit with sidelights and indicators incorporated but there's so many options out there, much of which are suspiciously cheap, that bulbs from a decent quality manufacturer might be a wiser investment.
Honestly, it's like being back on sealed beams again which is what led me to upgrade the lights to halogens years ago, before LEDs were so commonplace.
My night vision also just isn't what it was these days. Didn't realise that it had got worse until moving to the new place and the new housemate mentioned that I need lights on a lot more than they do, which I do because otherwise I can't really see what I'm doing. I'll be getting myself to the optician when I can, get some night driving specs and a check over to make sure it's not something with my eyesight in addition to poor headlights. Makes sense, I did recently get prescribed varifocals after all which were a huge improvement to quality of work life for me.
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vulgalour
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Mar 18, 2024 23:15:51 GMT
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Drove to a little social thing tonight - it was good, will go again - and it wasn't fully dark on the drive out so all was fine. On the drive back it was fully dark and it wasn't as fine. Oncoming traffic up here has a lot less LED nonsense, there's still quite a few yellowy halogens out there which is nice. However, the bright-dark street lighting plays havoc with my night time depth perception, another flaw of LED lighting. Also, while I can see where I'm going, I can't see very well. I stuck main beam on for a bit to see if it made a difference and it did... also nobody flashed me at all which kind of told me all I need to know about the brightness or lack thereof of my headlights.
The two take aways from this is that I probably need some non-photochromatic night time driving specs and to upgrade my headlights significantly. I already knew this of course. What is money if not for spending?
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vulgalour
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Mar 16, 2024 13:18:44 GMT
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Did a tip run in the Princess. You can get a decent amount of stuff in it even though it's a saloon. Still haven't washed it, had the weather for it today and I just don't have the brain for it so it can stay dirty a bit longer.
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vulgalour
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RIP Marcello Gandinivulgalour
@vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member 146
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Mar 14, 2024 15:04:40 GMT
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The BX remains one of the best looking average family cars ever penned. One day I'd certainly like to own another.
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vulgalour
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Mar 12, 2024 18:51:30 GMT
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Managed to find another pink car in the wild so that was something. Just about settled in to the new place now, got the work routine established and my studio at least functional now. Will have to do this all over again in a few years, the current place isn't going to be long term unfortunately so I've not even properly settled and I'm already planning on saving etc. for the next move. Isn't renting fun? Princess is still in desperate need of a clean but the weather has been miserable so that's not happened. Turns heads whenever I have to make the short trip to the shops for supplies and is just being a car, which is all I can ask right now. Looking forward to drier days so I can crack on with some fettling, and to getting out to a show or two since there's usually quite a few things in North Lincolnshire to enjoy on that front.
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vulgalour
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Mar 11, 2024 12:44:19 GMT
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Unexpected pink car at the supermarket!
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vulgalour
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Thank you. It's really shocking pink. Pink is good.
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vulgalour
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I'm back to dailying this again. In fact, I'm back to this as my only car now.
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vulgalour
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Pat delivered the last of my stuff today, most of which was awkwardly shaped car panels for rust repairs on the Princess. Unfortunately I've no outdoor storage at the new place, and the living room has had to become temporary storage while I just get things put away. The biggest trouble with working from home as a creative is you end up with so much stuff related to work without realising it until you have to move it all. I'm definitely just going to have to work with what I've got for a while and thin things down considerably. The goal is to get all my stuff down so it can fit in a single room, that way the next time I move house it should be a lot easier.
It is good news for the Princess. What resources I do have will be focused on getting it in the best condition I can and while I can't do any of that right now, come the summer I should be in a better position to progress. I no longer have an easy way to set up my welder, and no gas for it, and no trolley... so there's logistical stuff like that to overcome too. This is made more annoying by the fact I have no outdoor storage (and no money to buy anything) for tools so every time I need a tool outside to work on the car I'm going to have to get it from the cupboard in the house and navigate the massive double glazed door steps. It is not going to be fun at all.
I'm hoping I can have some stability for at least a couple of years before I get uprooted again. I don't see the current place as being particularly permanent, landlord and housemate have been pretty open about expectations and whatnot and I appreciate being informed on that front. I definitely don't see things getting any easier in the future, quite the opposite, so I've got to make the best of what I've got while I can to hopefully future proof myself. At least being in North Lincolnshire opens up more options for me since I'm much more geographically central and the cost of living here is significantly less than Kent.
I shan't worry about the future, it's not here yet so I can't do anything about it. I'll just look at sorting out the things I can right now.
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vulgalour
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Well I'm in the new house now and with internet. It was very weird pulling into the street and seeing my own car on the driveway of the new house. I've been absolutely knackering myself getting the studio set up anew and trying to get everything put away as much for my own sake as my new housemate's. My new space for everything is sort of more and sort of less, everything is a different shape so figuring out where things go is tricky. Especially so for the car stuff really since I've lost the garage and am currently repurposing an awkward under stairs pantry sort of a thing. Princess has been out on the local roads briefly today for that first awkward house move shop, and I have to say they're significantly nicer to drive on than the moon surface that passes for roads in Kent. The biggest hiccup has been that I underestimated the van size but because my friends are awesome, the handful of things I couldn't fit in the van (and it was so well packed *nothing* moved over the course of the 200ish mile drive) are going to follow along later this week. Actually working on the Princess at home isn't impossible but it is awkward. The drive is very narrow and while long, there's not a lot of space beside the car to use for things like welding. Just another thing to adjust to, at least I have some offroad space to make use of. On the drive up, Peter (friend with the really nice red Maestro I did a vid on a while ago, and driver of the removal van) and I were talking about the paintjob on the Princess. It's definitely going to cost a *lot* less than I expected on the proviso that I put the prep work in, which I'm entirely happy with. I'll also be helping Peter with his ever changing collection of Rovers and that's no bad thing either. We talked about lots of other stuff too but that was the only bit that's relevant here. I'm eager to get back to work next week, I doubt I'm going to realistically be able to do it this week because of how much there is to do with a house move. Never much fun since when you're self-employed if you're not working you're not earning, but it's fine, we'll manage, and if you'd like to help hop on over to www.angyl.co.uk to find out more of what I do.
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vulgalour
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Bilbo's mk1 Cavaliervulgalour
@vulgalour
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That engine bay is going to look great once you've cleaned it up, leaving it red is a really nice contrast to the beige, definitely looks like a deliberate style choice because of where you split the colour.
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vulgalour
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Feb 29, 2024 11:13:20 GMT
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The Princess has been delivered to the new house safely. That Rover isn't mine, though I am familiar with the car and do know who owns it, it's just visiting for a while. That's the last really expensive hurdle out of the way and a bit of a load off my mind. The neighbours are no stranger to weird old British cars on that driveway, though this is probably the weirdest that's ever made an appearance.
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vulgalour
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Feb 28, 2024 16:58:01 GMT
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mmm spaghetti. I'm now without a car Never fear, it's just being transported to the new house. Last time it was transported it got photographed quite a bit so we'll see if the same happens this time. Happily it behaved itself getting on the trailer and hopefully it behaves itself coming off at the other end because as far as I know the new housemate doesn't drive. I do trust the person doing the transporting so it's sad that he's not going to be doing transporting due to rising costs and falling demand. I move to the new place on Sunday, logistics are weird that way, and I'm both excited and very nervous about the whole thing.
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vulgalour
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Feb 28, 2024 13:02:10 GMT
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Here it is, the final Maestro video.
I sold the car in November and it's taken until now, almost March, to get through the backlog of footage. That's the nature of video release schedules.
This weekend is house move weekend. Today the Princess is collected since that's getting delivered ahead of me for logistical reasons and the housemate at the new place will be there to make sure all is well and safe until I arrive. I'm as prepared as I can be for it and very much looking forward to spending less money. Moving house is a ridiculously expensive endeavour and I hate doing it, which might be surprising considering how often I seem to end up having to.
On the project front that means my attention is on the Princess primarily, and the Lanchester secondarily. Pat has already been picking up the various jobs to do on the Lanchester and getting things in action for how he does things. He's not a fan of taking photos and video and that's fine, he's project lead now so he can do it his way. I will still be visiting since Pat and I are still friends and happy to share ownership of the Lanchester but since I'll be 200ish miles away from it those visits will be less frequent. Happily, Pat has stumbled across some fresh contacts who he didn't know were into cars of this era until mentioning the Lanchester. I've got video backlog on the Lanchester to get through so you will still see some footage that was recorded a while ago even though I won't be here actually working on it.
Princess wise that's now effectively my only car. That means I'm going to be knuckling down on the jobs that do need attending to, most of which are actually pretty minor outside of the cosmetic. I've got some new contacts myself that might give me access to indoor working space for bigger jobs, and even a back up vehicle should I need to take the Princess off the road for a while for whatever reason. I'll still mostly be working outdoors on the drive at home and I won't have a garage or covered space at home but since that's how it's been for a few years now that means nothing really changes so that's fine. There's also backlog footage for the Princess to release which I'll be doing soon too.
The key thing is that I've got the resources to keep me focused on just the Princess now and I should therefore make much better progress on it. There's some big ticket items I'd like to do like getting the suspension regassed, a new windscreen, and fresh paint (in the same colours as currently) and lots of little things like small welding bits, servicing, and general cleaning. Having people in the real world closer to me that are some of my oldest friends is really going to help a lot too, I'm really looking forward to getting caught up with everyone and us helping each other out with our projects variously.
We shall see what happens. It's going to be a wobbly few weeks as I get resettled yet again, and then I'll be able to figure out where I'm going.
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vulgalour
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Feb 26, 2024 19:25:35 GMT
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Thanks for the heads up, I always seem to be the last person to learn my own car has been spotted XD.
For those, like myself, not on Facebook:
I can only see a handful of the comments but they seem more positive than last time the car was spotted in the wild, with fewer of the outright insults, so that's nice.
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vulgalour
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Feb 23, 2024 16:44:25 GMT
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That definitely opens up possibilities. Now just to find a UK supplier in the sort of design I'd like so I don't have to import a set from the US. If anyone has actually done this and are happy with what they got (or not, so I know who to avoid) a recommendation for that'd be ideal.
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vulgalour
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Feb 23, 2024 14:09:14 GMT
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So it's okay not to have the kick-up now? Because I'd always worked on the understanding you had to have the pavement kick up relevant for what side of the road you drove on.
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vulgalour
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Feb 23, 2024 11:06:14 GMT
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I'm currently running twin 5 3/4" halogen H4 headlights with domed glass lenses, they look nice, they look like this. I would like to upgrade the whole light unit to LED with sidelight and indicator incorporated so I can keep the front end nice and clean, this is why I'm not looking for LED bulb suggestions. That is a thing that does exist, the trouble is they're all a variation on this horror show. What I can't find is a right hand drive chrome/silver bowl (instead of the fugly black) LED headlight unit, regardless of whether or not it has sidelights and indicators incorporated. I can find what I'm after in the US, but those are LHD and I can't find a RHD market supplier of the same unit. Moving to the US or other LHD market country is not an option
Just in case anyone thinks of suggesting them: I do not want LED bulbs
Search engines are garbage now, so that's why I'm turning to the forum hive mind in the hopes of a solution.
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Last Edit: Feb 23, 2024 11:08:04 GMT by vulgalour
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vulgalour
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Feb 22, 2024 14:19:21 GMT
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On the very slim chance they might be reading this, to the driver of this (usefully, had got a snapshot of it a few months ago, looks great) that gave me a friendly beep earlier today... ...sorry I couldn't beep back. I had all on dealing with the rain, the car being on choke, the traffic, and not having had my morning caffiene infusion. The Princess isn't the easiest thing to pilot at times.
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vulgalour
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Feb 22, 2024 10:55:13 GMT
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Was on MoT ferrying duty today. Bad news, Pat's van failed its MoT on emissions (bad injectors) and a cracked front antiroll bar which even the garage thought was a very peculiar failure. He's now got to figure out what to do next, repairs are about the same as replacing the van and while he's had it ten years, he's not sure where to go next. He'll figure it out.
Princess on the other hand behaved itself, even though Maidstone and surroundings is traffic hell thanks to a new housing development that's going in. Stop-start traffic has highlighted that the Princess can get quite hot, not overheating, but certainly hotter than I'd like. Cools down quickly once on the move again, it's just that thing where you're driving a couple of feet, idling, driving a couple of feet... heater on full and watch the gauge and it was fine. Never actually got to the top of the gauge, a second/better radiator fan might solve it.
Speaking of solving things, the ridiculously hot heater issue was solved. I'd had the output set to windscreen and turning the dial wasn't really altering that very much which meant I was getting the full heat right to my face. Over the last few trips I've been wiggling the dial and now it actually operates the blender doors properly, I can direct the heat where it should go and it feels far more normal now I have it on face and feet, which is good! I guess things just got a bit stuck from lack of use.
Another problem solved was Pat lent me a hand with the alternator tensioner since the auxilliary belt was particularly obnoxious sounding on the trek to the MoT garage. With both of us on the job we could get enough tension to stop it squealing while still having about a 1/3 twist available on the belt so it shouldn't have so much tension it's causing issues with alternator bearings or whatever.
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