Luke Rainbird

Ed's in Plymouth and I'm 10 miles away but have drunk too much to visit. Bah! Damn you, @forteh!

In fairness, that's a decent chunk of the active TF cohort.

Cheers for the update Danny. How's the TF pot looking these days for hardware/bandwidth etc? Happy to have a whip round to provide a bit of a boost if it helps?

I don't know what's better - this post or the fact it'll likely go right over the heads of half the folk who read it.

That's the afterPREparty sorted then...

I'd tag Tori to ask permission, but I think she's had to pass on the @Prawny Baby's Baby username on to Oliver now.

@Prawny Baby @Prawny Baby @Prawny Baby Have now. I suspect he'll be doing the whole "good parenting" thing though. Selfless b*****d.

Beauty, cheers gents

Beer pong special.

Might I suggest the Saturday night in that case?

Hefty dose of valium ought to do the trick. Seem to recall Fatmike being pretty much dead to the world when we stuck him in a lift after taking some - Granger wasn't all that much better either

Chap in the office just commented on how there was a clear 3 inches of snow outside the office. Wasn't quite so chirpy when I pointed out it was a curb

You say this like it's a bad thing?

Tom is 7'9" IIRC.

I am indeed - drop me a PM if there's anything you need

That'll be this one then

What do you want me to do? Just bump this thread and poke people on occasion? Done.

As a result of OldCarThread™, TB and I are currently sharing stories of Pete Wright (southern) and Pete Wright (northern) @dann2707 - Started using an old camera for photos rather than my phone as the quality is better (although I then go and compress the shit out of them for online use...) but it seems to have a slight problem at the edge of some photos so I've just set a PS action to crop a touch, resize and stick a plain border which eliminates it. It's actually growing on me a little.

I just remembered where to find the old lot. Have flicked through the first few pages and it's already entertaining looking back. If there's no longer a danger of the IPB back end getting upset it'd be cool to merge them so everyone's able to look back

Page 1000 of this iteration of the car thread! I wonder what we'd be up to if things hadn't been split all those years ago! Boring car update: Managed to get a couple of hours this weekend. Not a huge amount to show for it, but here are a few photos regardless. First up, I decided it was best to check my thinking before finally wiring up these bi-xenon projectors. I’ve been very lazy and they’ve just sat gathering dust for ages. I don’t plan on fitting relays/resistors/etc as some folk have done, and wanted to see how they react to a raw 12v source. Fortunately they are spot on from a dummy check, no sticking etc, however a few folk have experienced no issues on a test then had sticking in the real world so I fully expect the same. Content that I can get these sealed up one night while Soph’s out, I went about repairing the damaged shroud so it’s all pretty well good to go one evening. Next, I decided to investigate my iffy vehicle speed sensor. Rather than putting the car in the air, I thought I’d try from above and pulled the airbox out for access. A quick wiggle of the connector on the sensor and nothing was noticeable loose/similar. I’ll get in and clean all the contacts at some point. With the airbox out of the way, I spotted something I’ve not seen for some time - a stock TIP! Typically, I sold my oversize silicone replacement just before Christmas and could now do with another. ...and something distinctly non-factory too Hmm, let’s whip the battery out and inspect that a little further. Not sure why this would have been redone, unless something’s been played with, so I wondered if this was the root cause. Decided to pull the tape off and see if I could find any obvious breaks/similar. No visible problems with the wiring, and nothing I could feel with a fingernail either. Frustrating as I’d like to have a definitive solution here. Taped it all back up with TESA loom tape, much better.. It was about this point that I messed up. I figured I’d pop the engine cover off and have quick check to see the state of things. Nothing much to bear witness to in all honesty. Standard engine, #2 coilpack is different to the rest so obviously changed at some point but I’ve a new set to go in soon which makes it a moot point (That reminds me, need to pick up fresh plugs). I also noticed that the n249 valve (all still plumbed in), although it wasn’t sat on its mount quite right. It seems as though it’s been this way for a while, as when I went to move it, the brittle plastic broke. B*****ks. With no way of picking up another for a few days minimum, I took the hint and decided to delete the n249. I’m aware of the can’o’worms here so let’s not reopen it, and just say that I’m well aware of the details and have made the educated choice to remove this. With that in mind, I went to remove the small engine cover in front of the inlet mani only to find the bolts seized and rounded, and not wanting to shift. I soaked them in penetrating fluid to no avail, and without removing this couldn’t get to the 2x M6 bolts to remove the metal bracket beneath. Time to get a little more brutal than I like - mechanical sympathy is usually king! Popped the inlet mani up to access the ports on the bottom and inspect the PCV hoses. They’re all in tact at the mo, so can stay a while longer. Tucked the injector wiring slightly while it was up, but there’s not a huge amount of length there so I’ll need to rectify that before tucking it properly to keep it looking as clean as possible. There was a slight spot of oil in the TB. Will keep an eye on that, could be some worn turbo seals/similar although I’ve not noticed any real smoking etc to cause major concern. With that squared away, I popped things back together. With no n249 to hold in place, I swapped over to the cut down engine cover bracket I’ve had on the old car. Here’s a comparison with the stock unit. Much better, although could do with a respray soon. Popped the battery back in to complete the set, and noticed that the retaining bolt/bracket was missing. As before, simply grab the spare from the old car. And with that, everything was back together again for the day. It’s been a while since I’ve owned a standard-looking engine bay and I must say, I quite like it. Sunday morning I received a message from a chap via FB who was after an 02M gearbox. I’ve got the standard box from the old car in the garage, so gave that one a quick wipe down as it’d gathered a bit of gunk being sat in the garage for a while: Decided that it was as good a time as any to give the new engine bay a quick clean. As with everything else, I’d like to get the car up to a decent standard in stock form prior to playing around with it much, so I’ll probably revisit this in a little more depth at some point however I’m much happier with it now than it was. As always, photos of a fairly simple engine clean aren’t much to look at. Perhaps there’s a difference from the photo above, though I suspect it’s negligible other than digging out the battery cover to replace another missing item. I also popped the NSF door card off again as I realised I’d not added any extra sealant around the speaker. It seems the speaker has cracked a touch around the rivets (likely from Mr Rude Boi playing his mixtape too loud - he genuinely gave me several copies with the car and it’s not something I’d want anybody to catch me listening to... You can see here where the mounting points are cracked, and the little tell-tale sign of a slight dribble below (happens to us all with age). Bead of butyl sealant should do the trick and stop anything getting in to the car. With that sorted, I figured I should sort out a minor niggle to keep things road legal. Soph had spotted that the OS tail light hadn’t been working when following me home one night, so I grabbed the bulb out of the black car and popped it in. No dice. Having heard of folk having issues with the bulb carrier, I decided the easiest thing to do was to simply swap this over too as it’s a 30 second task. I have the lights on the old car plus another full set spare so no biggy, but it didn’t solve the problem. I decided to quickly clean behind the light housing to procrastinate. I went to grab a multimeter to check the terminals, but as I walked past the front end of the car I noticed the sidelight on that side wasn’t working either. Now, it turns out that that bulb has gone, however before I discovered that I checked the fuse which powers both together and found it to be dead. With a car full of spares, it’s a nice solution. ...and that's about it for this week. All very minor stuff bringing the car back to a level I'm happy with. It's still a way off, but it's a lot closer than it was.

Have you not seen Euan's VXR? It's the best car ever! Check out his Facebook page for 18947 photos a day In fairness, it's a tidy little car, but if you want a good giggle wait for Joe Maher to point out "it's just a Corsa" and watch the entertainment unfold.

You were ripped off. *hides from Euan Beaden*

Didn’t plan on doing anything to the car today as we were out and about sorting other things out. Managed to find 20 mins this afternoon though so decided instead of getting started on anything on the daily, I’dd start pulling a few bits apart on the black car instead. Removed head unit and climate control unit, which will both be moving across to replace the original kit in the grey car which has seen better days. Also removed a few bits of trim, steering wheel and the clocks which are the roughest of the 3 sets I have, so will be ideal for playing with down the line. A few of the chaps on UK-MkIVs are currently experimenting with some cluster mods (ColourMFA type stuff) so once they have it all figured out for me to shamelessly copy I might get involved! With the car having been sat and getting a little damp, the leather wheel and gear gaiter had started to get a touch furry. Only early stages, but given the car won’t be going anywhere soon it’d only get worse. The gaiter I’m not too concerned about - so a wipe down with a baby wipe has cleared it up fairly well, however I’m not yet ruling out putting the wheel into the new car and as a result wanted it properly cleaned up. Cue a fairly brutal routine (I won’t be winning any awards for leather care on DetailingWorld any time soon…) of carb cleaner, bathroom bleach, boiling water, hot APC solution and another boiling water rinse. Should kill off anything that was planning on taking up residence! I made a point of getting in to all the stitching, joins and pores as best I could with a stiff brush and I’m relatively content with it being as organism-free as it’s likely been in years, so that’ll do for now. Currently drying between a radiator and big static dehumidifier to draw out any moisture from within. You can see above that the perforated side panels are quite red - this seems to be common with age/wear on these, and a lot of people recolour them with Cherry Blossom shoe polish but IMHO it gives as poor a result on steering wheels as it does on shoes, so I don’t really fancy that. I’d like to have it retrimmed with yellow stitching and band (which, incidentally, looks much better for a clean too!) but that’s waaaaaaay down the priority list so for now this’ll get dried out and put away in the garage for future use/sale. Wasn’t expecting to touch the cars today, so even a few minutes to pull bits off was good. I’d like to get the vehicle speed sensor replaced on the new car soon to stop the incessant beeping round corners, but it seems the one on my old standard box which is in the garage is cracked so not much point moving it across. OM part is about £60 from memory, so if it comes to it I’ll just pop one in rather than an unknown used item but I’d rather not have to drop that cash so will give the wiring a thorough inspection prior to buying one, just in case. I’m also conscious that there still aren’t any real photos of the new car in here. The honest answer is that it’ embarrassingly filthy at present and I’ve not yet given the exterior a proper seeing to. Will see how this week goes and figure something out on that front soon.

I did consider a derv variant, but they're just not so fun! Car is good (as post above yours), nice to just be cruising about in a standard automobile for a little while actually, ride comfort and minimal niggles for the wiiiin

Proper job, Alex. Some lovely repair work going on there. As always, envious of your workshop access and skills to get involved