brachunky
Scotland
Posts: 1,314
Club RR Member Number: 72
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Like many of us, projects are often worked on in the drive, on the verge or in other words in full sight of all to see. I suppose it has to blend with my mood for the day but that time when you are really struggling or deep in thought with yer hands oily etc etc and someone "drops" by to say hi or in the case of my mates, talk the bulls you know what for an hour! Now these good folk can often be blessings with an abundance of advice and "I would have done it this way" comments but on the other hand and especially during the short days of winter, they can be time thieves . In recent months, the F100 has attracted many a said visitor often on their way home from the local pub which is about 200 metres from Brachunky house. More recently, a camper I have begun seems to be even more of a reason to stop for a natter. Now I do enjoy a good chat as many do but holy cow, I hope they are not psychic and can read my thoughts of "will you sod off please and let me carry on!"
I believe I may become a grumpy midlander if this carries on!
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Last Edit: Jun 24, 2019 8:29:23 GMT by brachunky
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There is the "casing" possibility as well. I've been aware of this (and possibly a victim) when doing audio stuff to my MR2 on the driveway. You only need a dodgy geezer to see what you're doing (or in my case, a non-dodgy-but-daft-as-bumholes geezer telling a dodgy geezer) and off your project goes, spirited away in the depths of the night (or half past eight on a Saturday evening in my case...)
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vanpeebles
Part of things
I am eastbound in pursuit of a white Lamborghini, this is not a recording.
Posts: 978
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Always keep an eye on your stuff, and don't leave too much on show. Keep garage doors down etc.
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Jun 24, 2019 10:07:39 GMT
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Always keep an eye on your stuff, and don't leave too much on show. Keep garage doors down etc. ...don't live half a mile away from a traveller's settlement
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vanpeebles
Part of things
I am eastbound in pursuit of a white Lamborghini, this is not a recording.
Posts: 978
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Jun 24, 2019 10:09:53 GMT
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I mean more for scrap trucks and vans. Our estate is not rough, but seems to have a permanent supply of vans going round. Most unmarked.
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Jun 24, 2019 10:26:03 GMT
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I am blighted by friendly chats any time I am doing anything. A ten minute fix can generally take up to two hours anyway once you get stuck in and realise there are complications, but I have to factor in at least an hour spent chatting to (or more accurately, listening to) people passing by.
The problem is they're all neighbourhood residents and they're all nice enough people, so I never want to appear rude. Old Ted in his trilby has nobody else to talk to and he's a lovely old fella, so I always stop and give him the time he wants to spend chatting. He's always off to get his bags of Real McCoy crisps for the day so eventually he self-manages his own departure. One bloke though, also a nice old fella, parks on my road every day to go and get his lunch from the local cafรฉ and I have to pack up quickly and run indoors until he's been and gone because once he gets going there is literally no stopping him. He likes to present me with his entire history of something... every car he's ever owned, or every accident he's ever had, or every job he's ever had and what was wrong with every boss. It can take hours and in his case I will sometimes just tune him out completely and get on with whatever I'm doing even if it means I'm lying under my car and he's just stood there talking to himself. Unfortunately he does tend to get the impression eventually that I'm too busy and not listening and he'll say goodbye and shuffle off looking a little bit hurt... but I just don't have time. I'm usually trying to make use of two hours between finishing my real work for the day and the wife and kids getting home from school.
But my big problem is opportunist theives, or which there seem to be many round here.
if I have to go back into the house for any reason at all, it requires me to pack everything away, completely, because anything left unattended for more than 60 seconds will magically walk off.
Recently had my cordless drill and drill bits box lifted while I was actually out there, on the far side of the car trying to attach an exhaust bracket. Some scavenger actually stole them with me right there. So that's a major PITA for me... if I need a p1ss it's a full and complete pack away of everything just to go back indoors for two minutes.
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Last Edit: Jun 24, 2019 10:27:18 GMT by Deleted
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Jun 24, 2019 10:32:54 GMT
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Aside from the regular neighbours there's always a passing stranger or two who stop to tell me about my own car. I will never understand that. They're always completely wrong, but they always think they ought to tell me what engine is in the car even though I'm actually looking at it, and working on it, and I actually own it.
"Ah, a Skimitar. I had one of these back in the 90's... yeah... Princess Anne had one you know.... Ah you've got the the old Ford Essex V7 in it, out of a Renault Diesel... you want to get a carburetor on that and have fuel injection. I had a fuel injection carburetor on my exhausts back in the 90's and it did 500bhp at the lights. You should drop an MGBGT A-series in there, one of the Nissan turbo ones with the twin alternators... mate of mine had one of those in his Jag and... blah blahblah".
Those people I do just want to tell them to go away in aggressive terms. They just talk utter nonsense but say it to you as though you're the idiot, not them.
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Last Edit: Jun 24, 2019 10:36:04 GMT by Deleted
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Jun 24, 2019 12:01:14 GMT
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They just talk utter nonsense but say it to you as though you're the idiot, not them. You just described the last 27yrs of my working life!
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Jun 24, 2019 12:23:01 GMT
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I rarely get a decent chat, more so if I'm washing the car I get the obligatory "want to come do mine" or if I'm playing with the Astra I'll get a sarcy "that old thing broken again" from next door. I'm quite antisocial though, if I've started doing something on the car I'm not going to pack up because someone has turned up unannounced, my free days off work are precious and my time to get stuff done. Let me know you're coming, and I wont start, turn up when I'm 5 minutes in and sorry sausage, but you're waiting till I've finished
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Jun 24, 2019 14:46:29 GMT
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All of the above rings a bell with me. Often if its a non noise job ill get up and be outside in the summer by 06.00 am / the look on some faces returning from night shift is priceless. Also have a neighbour who i let go by before venturing outside as he repeats the same old stories year in year out. Being a drive way builder gives me a little protection from the passing idiots who ask questions or rather don't wait for an answer but proceed to spout utter c... p but if I'm into a job i just carry on regardless. The odd stranger will say ah you deal in old cars and proceed to list their car related problem. I just say go to a garage to get it fixed. Its not about being anti social but concentration and being methodical is key to completing any work safely. The genuine few have some positive contribution to the events but i just wonder also am i getting old and cannot be bothered to even try and listen to so much utter nonsense. Best passing regular i like shouts out flog it to which i reply I'm too far in to go back. Another old guy used to say is it finished yet and id say one day. Sadly the old guy passed away and i have to say he is missed unlike the others.
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Started out with nothing and have most of it left.
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Jun 24, 2019 15:00:57 GMT
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I believe I may become a grumpy midlander if this carries on! Be my guest it's about time we had some more grumpiness on here
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Last Edit: Jun 24, 2019 15:01:23 GMT by Deleted
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Jun 24, 2019 15:09:40 GMT
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You lot want to consider yourself lucky - I keep myself to myself to myself in the workshop - workshop door is always closed when I am working (part of my planning conditions) - yet Mr & Mrs Neighbour from hell opposite who happen to have X ray eyes & bionic hearing will report me at the drop of a hat pin - so anyone that wants call around my place for a loud chat outside about motors & putting the world to rights are made very welcome - especially when Mr & Mrs NfH are grovelling about in their vegetable plot that's opposite the workshop - if for any reason I think the conversation is going to end early I'll even offer to put the kettle on or raid the beer fridge to keep the conversation free flowing
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Last Edit: Jun 24, 2019 15:10:26 GMT by Deleted
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Jun 24, 2019 15:46:12 GMT
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My Neighbour Molly sadly died last year, but not long after we moved in I was adjusting the cable brakes on a Standard Flying 12. I was under the car with all four wheels in the air when a voice said; "Tighten them all up, back the fronts off 4 clicks, the backs 6, it'll be fine" Molly had been in the WRAF in the war and drove everything from crew busses, ambulances, and 5 tonners on a Canadian squadron near York. My Standard 12 was the same running gear as the wartime Tilly pickup. She had to learn to service everything and took her 5 ton test in the blackout in the hills around Bath. She was old school, ex magistrate, direct talking, damn funny, seen it and done it. I hope my new neighbour is as well informed.
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74 Mk1 Escort 1360, 1971 Vauxhall Victor SL2000 Estate.
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Jun 24, 2019 15:56:38 GMT
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Its not about being anti social but concentration and being methodical is key to completing any work safely. This line rings painfully true to me. Any time I'm about to do something that I need to pay attention to, or remember a sequence or the order of things, or pay extra care to avoid dropping a tiny thing into an irretrievable space, I always stop, have a really good look up and down the road, check the time for any likely arrivals based on regular routines, and I only proceed if I think I've a fighting chance of doing it uninterrupted. But some charlie always bowls up halfway through... usually the old gifford who likes to tell me entire histories of things, and I'll be trying to zone him out and focus, but I'll always lose count, lose a bolt, or drop something down somewhere that makes me want to cry. It's always him that bu88ers things up. Last time it was a simple case of unscrewing my hood scoop so I could re-wrap it. It's fiddly getting the internal bolts off and holding on to them so they don't fall into the engine bay where they'll rattle around forever. I'm undoing them all, he's prattling on, I have a little moment of thinking "I do wish you'd end this historical list and hobble off mate" and I dropped the little nut into the engine. As I cursed and shifted my position, the little allen key bit from my cheap and rubbish electric screwdriver also dropped out, rolled down the open bonnet and fell into the back of my engine bay, somewhere around the bellhousing and flywheel. I cursed loud and heartily. He paused only long enough to say "oooh you're going to have a devil of a job finding those, now then after the Vauxhall, I had a oooh what was it after the Vauxhall..." and he just kept going as I scrambled about in the engine bay, under the car, all over the place, completely ignoring him. At no point does he ever, ever think to himself "I am just talking absolute tosh here and he's trying to concentrate. I'd better leave him to it". Took me about 40 minutes to retrieve both items. He talked without pausing for all of it. So all in all he lost me the best part of an hour... and that really annoyed the cr4p out of me. BUT! He's a lonely old bloke. His wife died, his son died. His daughter lives in Australia. He's got nobody... and I haven't the heart to tell him I don't have time to listen to him prattling on for over an hour. I might, however, video him. I've thought about it before because it is absolutely hilarious how much he says once he gets going... "Now, in 1935 I only had a spoon. It was a tea spoon. So I ate everything with a spoon. Then in 1938 I got a fork, and I got a knife in 1939, but then I lost the spoon but by then I'd got a job as a paperboy so I saved up for a spoon and it came with a free knife. So then I had a spoon again - not as good as the one I lost - and two knives, and a fork... now in 1943 I found a box with six spoons, three knives and twelve forks... so then I had..." OH PLEASE JUST KILL ME NOW.
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Last Edit: Jun 24, 2019 16:02:08 GMT by Deleted
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Jun 24, 2019 16:03:24 GMT
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I am quite lucky in that whenever I have been working on my Midas it's either been in a garage round the back of the house barely seen from the road (at the previous house) or in a secluded close that doesn't lead anywhere and the garage is tucked away where you can't see it unless you really look for it. My next door neighbour didn't even know I had it until the other day and I've been here close to 18 months...
An occasional oddball passer-by though can be a blessing in disguise. Back in the 90s my friend and I were working outside my Mum's house on our Minis and a guy came up stating he had some old carbs and did we want them? He left them in a bucket by the back gate so I couldn't thank him but there were 3 pairs of twin SU's, one of which was on a super-rare Alexander manifold. I really wanted to give the guy a beer or two but I never saw him again. What a diamond.
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Jun 24, 2019 17:40:31 GMT
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don't have problem having to lock up tools but don't leave them on show if i need to pop to workshop in garden.Working in the garden is a real joy / side gate bolted / the world frozen out. Have a neighbour calls / if ive been painting something i have to say don't touch / one of those inquisitive sods who must touch everything / bit like Mike Brewer on Wheeler Dealers running his hands over freshly painted wings.
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Started out with nothing and have most of it left.
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Jun 24, 2019 17:46:17 GMT
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I am quite lucky in that whenever I have been working on my Midas it's either been in a garage round the back of the house barely seen from the road (at the previous house) or in a secluded close that doesn't lead anywhere and the garage is tucked away where you can't see it unless you really look for it. My next door neighbour didn't even know I had it until the other day and I've been here close to 18 months... An occasional oddball passer-by though can be a blessing in disguise. Back in the 90s my friend and I were working outside my Mum's house on our Minis and a guy came up stating he had some old carbs and did we want them? He left them in a bucket by the back gate so I couldn't thank him but there were 3 pairs of twin SU's, one of which was on a super-rare Alexander manifold. I really wanted to give the guy a beer or two but I never saw him again. What a diamond. Must be a mini thing , i had a centre exit back box donated off one passer by and a small leather rimmed steering wheel off someone else ! Back then i think 75% of blokes must of had some part of a mini in there sheds .
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Jun 24, 2019 18:12:58 GMT
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Been thinking about this one, and I'd like to apologise to the guy building the Nova kit car in Pitsea circa mid-eighties who I used to disturb now and then!
Don't know if it ever got finished...
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Jun 24, 2019 19:34:00 GMT
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You lot want to consider yourself lucky - I keep myself to myself to myself in the workshop - workshop door is always closed when I am working (part of my planning conditions) - yet Mr & Mrs Neighbour from hell opposite who happen to have X ray eyes & bionic hearing will report me at the drop of a hat pin - so anyone that wants call around my place for a loud chat outside about motors & putting the world to rights are made very welcome - especially when Mr & Mrs NfH are grovelling about in their vegetable plot that's opposite the workshop - if for any reason I think the conversation is going to end early I'll even offer to put the kettle on or raid the beer fridge to keep the conversation free flowing if i'm up you way ill pop in for a cuppa chris. sounds like you need my specialist skill set... being subtlety un-subtle...quietly un-quiet and most importantly blatantly out and out effin sarcastic. mr & mrs nfh would really love me!!
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'80 s1 924 turbo..hibernating '80 golf gli cabriolet...doing impression of a skip '97 pug 106 commuter...continuing cheapness making me smile!
firm believer in the k.i.s.s and f.i.s.h principles.
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Jun 24, 2019 19:35:11 GMT
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They just talk utter nonsense but say it to you as though you're the idiot, not them. You just described the last 27yrs of my working life! And the last 15 years of mine๐ ( time in current job... Not total work time ๐ )
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