Be Excellent To Each Other

Why? He trades in his spare time and hasn't had this one long.

He likes Porsches, Cavey. PORSCHES!

Oh well, that's all good then mate

I wouldn't buy a car off a miner either. All that time in the dark, eyesight shot. Probability of a few prangs in the past is high.

What do you get if you drop a grand piano down a mine shaft?

A Flat Minor

I was just a bit worried (hence "minor alarm bells") that a top spec, fast car owned by a racing driver might have statistically speaking a higher chance of being driven harder than usual. It's fast but heavy; the brakes and clutch could've taken a hammering. Still, it's no doubt an outrageous out of order thing to suggest etc etc. I'll learn one day eh

The miner thing seriously doesn't work as an analogy here though. In fact it totally blows, big time.

Yes. You had better see sharp lest the tyres be flat.

yeah, it wasn't his personal car. He DEMONSTRATED it hard, but as I said he hadn't had it very long. It only popped up on autorrader less than a week before I viewed it. No advisories on todays mot so if it does go bang someones in trouble - and I've got a 3.month drivetraain warranty.

It drives straighter than my his twingo too, which of course he picked up on.

Totally fair do's mate; if he's only had it for a week/month or whatever, even any residual concerns that he may have driven it unduly hard disappear. And anyway, these are hardy, durable, well made beasts regardless, designed for plenty of work.

Like I said mate, sure this will be a great car; the big bore Beemer diesels make a lot of sense imo and are a great performance/economy/durability combination. Enjoy!

In other news, and at the other end of the scale, I'm really liking the looks of the new Fiesta ST (even though Mrs C kindly reckons I'd look a right old twatto in one )

Back to the old school affordable, relatively light, plenty fast enough and good handling little hot hatch - love it.

Yeah, they're very good cars - I tested one a while back and was going for one but they couldn't find anyone to offload the Twingo onto(!). In the interim I decided they're probably not better enough for my seating position, which was the major failing of the Twingo, hence the warp-speed barge (which could also have a dog in the back comfortably, a definite possibility).

As tested this morning - despite being about 50% longer, the barge takes the same number of turns in our street as the Focus. Stupid Focus turning circle. As tested last night - it's longer than the spaces at Sainsburys, overhanging a good few inches. I'm that guy!

BMW in Manchester reckon the CAS update doesn't apply to my car (so I it's definitely pre-LCI then)... and that the recall on the 'battery cable cover' has been done (whatever that was) so it's up to date with everything official. Just the locking to get fixed!

Probably something to stop the battery from shorting out and starting a fire if the car rolled over.

Own Doctor Who's Corsa:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/The-first-ever-car-of-Dr-Whos-Matt-Smith-Vauxhall-Corsa-aka-The-Shed-/151078388808?pt=Automobiles_UK

Couple of weeks ago scuffed my wing mirror. Have now attempted to touch it up 4 times and each time it looks like a 5 year old has been at it. First of all used the same techniques I'd always used (apply thin layers, blend with wet/dry and then polish) but this time it just looks like a mess every time. I don't understand as I've been doing stuff with car paint since my first Fiesta (I once touched out a 8 inch long scratch over a period of a week that was barely perceptible by the time I had finished by building up paint, polishing, and repeating for what felt like forever).

Someone said that the paints now can't contain certain substances which makes them harder to work with. Certainly I found that even a few weeks back hen it was cooler, the pain was setting as it came off the brush leaving a stippled finished like a artexed ceiling. It was impossible to do any brushwork as the brush leaves marks. The marks then cause problems when you are blending the paint back.



I hate admitting defeat but it's a job for a man in a van isn't it? I'm just making it worse now. The attempt I did this morning I did over 3 days and it still looked uneven and shit after blending.

Might be cheaper to get a replacement plastic casing from ebay already painted the right colour, it should be easy enough to remove the mirror glass and pop the back cover off.

Casings not a problem. Colour more of a problem. The only one listed says it has light scratches. Mine is perfect barring the new damage. So might be jumping from the frying pan into the fire by buying a used one.

Don't really want to spray a mirror up myself either. I lost a wing mirror casing on my mk4 Golf. Sprayed a new replacement myself. Did a great job and looked perfect. Problem was that after a few years the paint wasn't as hard wearing so damaged more easily. It looked crap compared to the other mirror a few years down the line. It had chips and stuff that the other mirror didn't suffer from.

How much is new one in the right colour?

Can you not thin the paint with something to make it both more easily applicable and slower drying? I assume you're using a decent sable brush as well, not the fucking awful nail polish wand that usually comes with those retouching kits?

You can only get them "primed" then get the colour applied. The casing itself is only about 20 quid but you'll pay about 30 quid in paint for a DIY job that will chip or about £50 for a body shop spray.

When I lost my towing eye cover the part was cheap but the paint was expensive. Only got it done cheaper as I had some other work done as well. Audi quoted 40 quid. Got it done for under £20 as I had part of the front bumper done as well.

Yes, the kit that I bought came with a proper art style brush.

Local garage says he will do it for 35 quid cash. I can take it in one morning, he'll whip the casing off and I can collect it later in the day.

He also said that it's the new water based paints that are the problem for touching up. He wasn't at all surprised I couldn't do it when I did it on older cars. The paints are different formulas these days due to EU regs and you won't get anywhere with a brush on anything other than small scratches.

I fucking love driving transit vans around.

I learnt to drive in one.

If you want a fast van, get a top of the range Merc Sprinter. There's a reason you see them going down the fast lane at 90mph!

Me too, it's the only good thing about moving house.

How modern is modern, I was going to try and wet and dry/paint the bumpers on my XJR, which was made in 2000.
If it's going to be an arse, I won't bother even attempting

Any paint that is now sold has to comply with the EU regs I believe.

That said if you were going to do a whole bumper I'd be using a proper spray gun kit. It's using brushes that seem to be a problem in terms of getting a good finish.

I've read and seen alot of problems with paintwork on newer cars lately. In the Audi forums there are repeated reports of the clear coat layers failing on cars painted after the regs came in and everyone is blaming it on having to use water based paint.

That said, if you can get a local garage who will do it at a good price, by the time you have paid for the paint and all the kit it might not work out that much more expensive to get them to do it. Phone around.

I wasn't going to do the whole bumper, just the corners that were screwed. Plan was to fill in with touch up, use fine wet and dry, followed by t-cut, followed by polish to smooth it all down.
I wasn't going for perfect, just for not glaringly scuffed

I'll probably have ring round and see what the local back alley bodyshops are quoting, but I really shouldn't be spending cosmetic money on this car...

Have you seen this stuff?

http://www.chipex.co.uk

Tempted to buy some for the bonnet to get rid of the chips.

Hmm... I don't think that will work for the scuffs on the bumper, but that might be perfect for the key scratch down the side.
Cheers

When I worked for parcelline I used to take them to be refuelled. Loved it.

I fix tiny chips and scratches in the paintwork on my cars by standing three feet further away and not worrying about it. It seems less stressful than getting upset over every new tiny blemish that appears.

It doesn't upset me, but I know what you mean.
Personally I see stuff like this a kind of a hobby, I like the satisfaction of taking something in hand and making it better. (which is why I always end up spending more money on a car than I really should, but that keeps Gazchap happy when he buys them )

I don't care about the tiny stuff, but I do like it to look half decent.

That said I might give that Chip-Ex stuff a go on the bonnet.

ProTip: seek out a classic car painter with a paint scheme and get them to mix up a pot of 2pack paint. aka 2K paint. thats the good stuff and only businesses who specifically work with classics are allowed it because its deadly. make sure they know its for touch up cos they will mix it so it wont go off in the pot (you might be able to convince them to give you some hardener with it so that you can mix it yourself).


the new EU paint is water based, yes its a nightmare to put on and thats not all, if you just paint the colour on in a couple of months it will look like a 70s photo left in the sunshine. the new paint is not water proof(!) so you have to lacquer it. the lacquer is the only water proof bit so without it its pretty much useless.

Mrs Chinny-in-law had an accident last year and had some panels repaired. The rear wheel arch has gone really odd in the last few months. Like the paint is running under the lacquer. It's having to go back to be redone.

Used to live across the road from a car parts place who mixed paint on the premises. Even in the internet age the entire thing was run off of microfiche sheets which gave the mixes by weight. You'd get something like 200ml of paint for the price that people now charge for 20ml online! All the underside edges and wheel arch edges of my Fiesta were painted with that stuff!

Presumably as that ChipEx stuff doesn't appear to use a lacquer it will wash off as well? I'm guessing that's what car dealers used as my car was mint when I got it and I'm pretty sure I haven't spent the last year driving behind gritting lorries!

The C6 is depreciating at a comical rate of knots.

You'd think that a £36K car bought for £9K wouldn't be able to lose too much value, too quickly.....

Mine has dropped another £2K in less than a year

Oh well, that's big Citroens for you, guess I should count myself lucky it hasn't blown up. Yet.

My lucky-ass brother having a chat with some old chap at Goodwood this weekend:

Is that Malc?

One of my boss's Dad's motors, currently parked at the back of the office:

Oooh, that's just gorgeous mate.
Gotta love Astons, especially super-classic ones like this lovely old girl.

'tis nice.

Oooo lovely, nice as a drophead too.

Disaster strikes!

The replacement throttle body I bought from ebay is more fucked than the current one on the car. Dude is going to send a replacement replacement to the garage, but it means I will be XJR-less until it gets sorted.

He parks like a cunt.

If I was driving something worth over half a million quid, I'd probably park like that too, to be fair.

Warning: Painfully Boring

MR2
Now that the mg has gone I have made a start on getting the MR2 fit to run. theres quite a lot to do, took me 2 hours to overhaul the right front brake caliper the other night but if the rest are the same I wont be complaining as it needed no parts, just a good take to bits, clean up and reassemble. so 1 down, 3 to go on that front, of course it needs discs and pads so Ive gone for zinc plated, cross drilled and vented jobs which should be here next week (excite/remorse) but they've skinned me £190.
Elsewhere the alternator is seized which is likely to be £140 ish to replace, the exhaust is blowing and looks shit so I'm going to fabricate a copy of a Blitz system (http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d79/masteryodagopi/MadPSInet-BlitZNurSpec.jpg) and I suppose I better change the cam belt and oil and whatnot. this is going to end up costing me a fortune.
Oh, and the sills are well and truly shot on the outer skin and in the rear wheel arches so that probably wont cost much but will be time consuming and could end up looking crap if i'm not careful!

Golf
So mrs W. was driving us and 2 friends back from a wedding last night, she was des and we were steaming drunk, when what should happen but the little bugger lost power then conked out. After 5 mins sitting with the engine off we were able to set off again and got 5 or so miles before it did it again and thats the pattern. today I cleaned up the dizzy cap and gave it a test run, 5 miles in and it feels like its run out of fuel, just losing power completely but as the car slows in gear it gets a bit jerky as it seems to fire a couple of times, if you dip the clutch it just stalls and thats it. Could be running dry of fuel. so I waited a few minutes then drove it to work where I changed the filter, right enough it looked pretty dark and had a bit of gunge in but enough to restrict fuel flow? I dunno, could also be drawing air somewhere but its so hard to make it do it that its going to be a bugger to find. Havent re-tested it yet due to fuel being quite expensive! Another symptom thats been creeping in of late is that when you are in a gear and fairly low down the revs, 1500 or so, and you accelerate away hard it almost rev limits. like you can press the throttle down to about 1/3 and its fine but past that and the engine vibrates like its lost 2 cylinders and wont accelerate any further, to get past it you can accelerate gently until you're up to about 2500 revs and then it pulls fine or you can change down. I think i will change the plugs first, then the coil maybe.

Comments and suggestions welcome, Painfully Boring transcript ends.

Need more info. What year, model and diesel or petrol?

Coil packs are a known issue on certain VAG petrol cars especially on mk4 Golf's and cars based on the same platform. Not a question of if they will conk out but when. The ones on my mk4 started off as above and eventually ended with a burning smell and the car running like a tractor.

The first port of call on any modern VAG car is a scan with VCDS. Indeed Mrs Chinny's Audi had new packs a few months back but this time I scanned the car myself and the car reported the problem straight back including which pack it was. Although you need to do the lot in one go but you know that.

It's gonna be the coil.

Jesus, a DB5 volante in that nick is probably worth several million quid in the current market

its an '88 mk2 petrol, carburetor, 1.8 8valve! its only concession to electronics is the ignition trigger but I doubt its faulty as I would be expecting to see a more prominent failure. Yeah I have heard that VAG coil packs have a habit of being unreliable and although this car carries an old fashioned cylindrical coil, I guess it could be suffering from VAG syndrome



Our survey says...

I will go and order plugs and coil together then. it got leads quite recently anyway (bosch ones )