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Jun 14, 2022 18:56:41 GMT
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I had a quick search on Auto Trader and there are an awful lot of 3.2 V6 flavoured Audi TTs (can you get 30 mpg out of one?) as well as lots of 3.2 Chrysler Crossfires. There's even a couple of S4s on there but I somehow doubt you'd see 25mpg, let alone 30...
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Jun 14, 2022 18:45:26 GMT
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Rally-look Saab 96 - windows open in Tesco's car park. The electric fans were still going - wonder if it had been driven "spiritedly" before being parked? 2CV Van at the Friday St boot sale a couple of weeks ago. Very brown Mk 1 Cavalier at the local shopping precinct - have seen it around a lot but this was the first time I have seen it up close and been able to get a picture. And when I parked the other weekend, there was a space next to me. When I returned to the car I had been joined by a sporty little number - convertibles together!!
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Yes - black underside and the silver items will look awesome
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It's absolutely brilliant. Nice to see something that will be utterly bonkers.
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I have come to the conclusion that this car is cursed. I went over to see a friend last night. Parked in his street. Drove home in the dark. Realised when I went to the Man Room this afternoon that someone has hit my car AGAIN and been so kind as to not own up. I wouldn't mind so much if it was me who'd done it as I would have someone to blame, but it seems that no matter where I park, this car has a target on it. It's a shame, because it's actually really pleasant to own and drive. 4 times in the last 11 months. FFS.
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Last Edit: Jun 7, 2022 19:38:28 GMT by mrbounce
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May 29, 2022 20:21:43 GMT
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Progress is Progress as Ta2Don always said. You mentioned Road Trip. Finland? ❌ ‘Merica ✅ I need prayers too……….. Did the DIY renewal of my passport after about 50 photos and 9 submissions failed the test. I eventually submitted a 50% liable for success photo. I look forward to hearing about your trip. With photo, video reportage. And the rest. I used my friendly photo guy in the local Tesco - he told me how to pose, what expression they like, uploaded it to the Government website and even stuck it on a memory stick for me. I renewed my passport in 2020 "just in case" all online - which was probably just as well considering the backlogs they have today. It came back within 4 or 5 days... And yes, there will be photos and a thread. Probably!
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Last Edit: May 29, 2022 20:22:20 GMT by mrbounce
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May 29, 2022 20:04:59 GMT
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In between various appointments, planning for a US road trip (they're all the rage apparently!) and taking cats to the vets, I have had precious little time recently for the little orange pain in the butt. Last time out I had started looking at making a bracket to secure the handbrake. Now, I'm insulin-dependant diabetic, and at the time of planning said bracket, I was starting to go hypo - aka very low blood sugar and in need of something sweet. What the doctors don't really tell you in any great detail is that when you have a hypo, your mind doesn't really work as well as it should, and what might SEEM sensible to you at the time would be a complete balls up when you looked at it with your normal head on. I took both brackets I'd made up last time, and threw them straight back into the metal brackets box. The way I'd made them would have been perfect to mount the handbrake, but the cable would have hit the supports and there wouldn't have been enough clearance for the fork bracket at the back of the lever. Armed with a more sensible idea, I set about the sheet of metal I'd found in Dad's old cupboard with an angle grinder, then started bending, measuring, and stripping the paint off what I had made. I still had the U-shaped metal plate to fit the floor, but to this I had a higher (and offset) rear bracket (to give the rear fork a bit more clearance) and as a result the front L-bracket would be taller as well. Now, my welding is... how can I say this politely... something not even Ray Charles would be proud of. However, the Mig set-up I have been using is a 20-year old SIP set-up, which has constant issues with wire feed, the gas delivery is awful and it's forever tripping the garage electrics. Time for an improvement then. Now, much as I would like an R-Tech, I simply can't justify the price for the amount I would use it at present, so I bought a Clarke 135TE from Machine Mart. Now, it will take me a while to get used to the new settings, but the first few goes on this new puppy left me in no doubt that it wasn't just me that was rubbish. I was able to tack some captive nuts on to both brackets before welding them onto the U-shaped bracket. Some of it's a bit ugly, but I got good penetration and I will only improve with time. All I need to do now is paint it, to drill holes in it and fix it through the floor, and then connect up the handbrake cable. Exciting times... Handbrake attached to new brackets And from the other side. Not that pretty, but it feels pretty strong. And the view from underneath.
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May 27, 2022 22:33:27 GMT
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My friend had a 2000 Mercedes S430. Huge thing with loads of sound deadening everywhere.
We needed to give it service, which of course meant 8 litres of fresh oil. Went under the car after putting it on ramps and hey presto - a huge undertray covering the entire underside of the engine bay. *sigh* 😫
But wait! In said undertray was a purpose built flap, which when moved gave easy access to the sump plug and also enough space to drain it. Thank you Mercedes 😊
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My sister in law and her other half went. I was super jealous!!!
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May 15, 2022 15:29:00 GMT
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I am active on this forum (obviously), I also inhabit The Mini Forum and The Midas Cars Forum, mainly for updating my ongoing build thread. I was very active on the Golf GTi forum a few years ago but since selling anything I had VW-related I very rarely pop in now.
Magazines I get are Practical Classics and PPC (this one's on Subs as it is difficult to get in the shops round my way). Plus they featured my project a while back. If I am going on a long trip (flight or train) then I grab a copy of Classic and Sportscar.
Stuff I watch on TV is Car SOS, and occasionally Wheeler Dealers, although Mike Brewer does grate. I like Bangers and Cash (although it isn't quite as good since Sarah left). I will also watch Kindig Customs occasionally if nothing else is on, mainly because I like seeing them put the ideas they have into working metal.
I have also stumbled across Vice Grip Garage on YouTube - I find Derek strangely entertaining, plus it terrifies me what's actually deemed "ok" on US roads.
I was a huge Roadkill and other assorted Motor Trend shows fan, but since they threw every subscriber outside of the US off their streaming platform a while back I have not looked at returning. Can it be streamed legally elsewhere does anyone know?
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May 14, 2022 19:07:27 GMT
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American Road Trip? Tick.
Huge US barge? Tick.
Ridiculously oversized engine? Big tick.
70s colour scheme? Tick.
Everything about this thread is ridiculously awesome. I am all IN. Chips, car keys, V5s, the lot.
Brilliant.
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A silly one from when I was about 10 or 11 in the early 80s. Dad used to hire numerous Ford cars to take my brother and I to boarding school, and most of the Ford Sierras he got were lowly 1.6L models. As I was stuck in the back on such journeys, the rear seat was a pretty boring place to be. Until we had a 2.3 D GL model, which had a rear centre ARMREST!! I think I annoyed my Mum by constantly moving it back and forth. Amusingly I believe I have never owned a car which had a rear armrest... Picture stolen unashamedly from the interwebs - I believe this is an XR4i interior (no such delights with the hire cars!!). And another one which again goes back to my childhood. My friend's parents had a white N-reg Classic Mini and often used to drive us around. It might sound really odd, but I simply loved being driven along country roads with the slight smell of 4* petrol and the little blue light of the High Beam showing on the centre speedo. When I bought my first car, it was a 1977 R-Reg Classic Mini 1000, which had a centre speedo (I didn't want a Mini without a centre speedo) with the blue full beam light below the speedo needle and yes, it smelled a bit of 4*. I loved it, even though it was rotten and a bit rubbish. For me, driving down country roads at night with that little blue light on was freedom, and is something I won't forget. Again, a stolen piccy of a Mini speedo.
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Love a Vitesse ever since I saw one in the local AR Garage across from my parents' house. And then reading the Road Test in What Car a few days later. Always thought they looked slightly malevolent in the blue.
You have been bookmarked and I am following with interest.
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May 11, 2022 22:25:51 GMT
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Socket rail on a tool wall in the garage for me. Always know where they are.
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Last Edit: May 11, 2022 22:26:05 GMT by mrbounce
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May 10, 2022 18:01:48 GMT
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Back to the dash top: I decided that it was time to check fitment before making appropriate holes for fixings. And of course I walked straight in to a problem. When I created the buck, I had dropped the wiper mechanism down so the basic shape of the dash top would not be affected by the wheel boxes. And once they were back in place, the dash top would not fit properly. Never mind. Dremel cuts! For now I have cut a couple of bits out of the leading edge so it can be moved into place. I will tidy these up in due course but I still have to cut holes for the windscreen vents. Once these are done I can focus on the final design of the dash top. Whilst test fitting the dash, I noticed that the leading edge in front of the driver will sit very close to the windscreen seal. I intend to relieve this using the Powerfile. However, I am aware that this area is pretty thin, so I cracked open the resin and fibreglass again and added several layers so as not to cause any issues. It only needs 2 or 3mm of relief, but I would rather have a bit of a safety net than mess it all up and put a hole in it. Once the new layers were dry, I got the dash top exactly where it needs to be. There is precious little clearance anywhere here - I can see why Midas' idea of a random bit of plastic chucked on top was thought to be a good idea rather than mounting it properly. Much easier, but bleeping awful. I have decided to use rivnuts and short set screws that can easily be removed with the windscreen in place - taking it out with the windscreen out is easy, but by the time this is finished said screen will be in the way, with not a lot of clearance. I then drilled 4x holes, made them bigger and then glued in the rivnuts. I didn't fancy trying to use the rivnut tool on the fibreglass dash - I expect all I would have heard is a brutal cracking noise and the sound of failure! It's not exactly structural so epoxy will be fine - they are not going anywhere! Having left all this to dry, I turned my attention to something else: I still have not fitted the handbrake. When I got the car, it had a broken handbrake lever that I couldn't identify so getting a replacement was a non-starter. Also, the cable arrangement was a very strange Heath-Robinson concoction of threaded bar, homemade cable guides and general bodgery that looked like it might work "occasionally". I swapped everything out for a standard Mini front and rear cable and lever. And rather than bolt it through the floor like the last one, I would make a bracket which will be bolted to the floor. The lever could then be attached to this. Out came the metal spares box, the angle grinder, some Jaffa Cake box cardboard for templates and what looks like the side of a filing cabinet I found at Dad's old house. The bracket is in its early stages but will be shaped to fit the floor before being welded together and painted. Still lots to do! Cuts made to clear wiper wheel boxes. Lots more tidying to follow. Dash Top drilled and held in place with temporary screws Additional fibreglass added to the underside prior to the necessary reshaping of the top Sheet of metal found in Dad's house "modified" with the grinder to make... ...the start of some handbrake bracketry
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May 10, 2022 17:19:27 GMT
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mrbounce I've just ordered a couple of plates from this guy, his prices seem keen and he's got a good range. Might be useful? I'll post some feedback once I have received them! platemine.co.uk/shop/ One of my suppliers - I have had nothing but great service from him
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It's orange. And it's in the States. Therefore it gets the Bounce approval. I have feeling that interior smells properly funky. And not necessarily in a good way. But what the hell. It's an orange camper with a big block for 1000 bucks. Bounce likes this A lot.
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varelse Dad was not much of a petrolhead at all aside from having a '69 Escort GT, and rarely took photos of cars. The vast majority of the pictures are family, buildings and flowers. There's a whole ton of stuff on a hard drive which I have started to go through, but there are SO many it could take years. His filing system is difficult to understand as well. His Dad, however was amazing (died before I was born) - he was an engineer with Castrol and used to drive a big late 30s Dodge. I will see if I can find some pictures. As penance here's a picture of Dad's Escort GT (with the ZF gearbox as he always mentioned!).
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Found this on the Tube of You. A Dax Rush. Don't know how long ago it was or whether it ever went on the road/track but it certainly had potential... PS You've been bookmarked
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Possibly the most useful and underrated tool in this whole build. Powerfile rocks. Get one. Bought a Powerfile a couple of months ago. Don't know how I managed without it. Fabulous bit of kit. Just bought 100 extra bands for it. Just in case, of course...
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