The Chat Thread - Sweltering - WC 12/06/23

[HoTWire]

Hey Folks!

Another week, another weekly chat, your place for stuff that may not warrant a full thread, or stuff that is just going on right now that you want to share.

Ever get the feeling that things are on the verge of falling apart? Don't panic their not, but right now I've got a whole lot of plates spinning and if I can get them to all spin correctly at the same time then a little bit of magic will have happened and I can give myself a quiet round of applause. However as it stands some of those plates are looking wobbly, so please excuse the slight radio silence from this end of the keyboard, I'm trying to get the plates to behave themselves.


In other news, there are new podcast episodes recorded and ready to go, so expect those to start coming out over the next few weeks. I've got a venue and most of a booking done for a special Retro Rides 20th anniversary event for next year. The updated forum layout for mobile should be testable this week and I'll really be keen for people to test it (particularly those that didn't enjoy the last experience).

Really been enjoying people's event reports and builds and all that good stuff that makes this place tick, so thanks for everyone that has contributed in that way.

Previous Thread: forum.retro-rides.org/thread/224992/chat-thread-suddenly-june-wc

[ballbagbagins]

I'm back to my usual behaviour, only one of our three cars works currently. Apparently this is an unacceptable ratio.

[ChasR]

Indeed, there should be more episodes landing soon 👍.

Things are getting busy with it being show season. But it’s looking good.

Where do things stand with me? At this time of year (and the fact I’ve not cleaned the M3 since the garage floor painting), I’m enjoying my garage looking a little wannabe Californian at the moment.

Furthermore, I saw some cars at DubClub. I’ll have to do a thread as to what goes at that mini Meet.

But here is a taster

























In sadder newss, my 325d met a friend, albeit an SE variant at a local coffee shop. The 325d is doing a great job of soldiering on and being handy with the housework. The shot shows however how dated the pre-LCI (my grey car) is, to the LCIs.

[akku]

Dear lord how I would love a second generation Corvair....

I saw a Stinger replica for sale in California a year or so back which was a decent looking project at a sensible price. I probably equally should and shouldn't have bought it. Won't find that deal again though.

[akku]

Also I regret selling my only car with working AC....

[cortinaman]

As the weather is rather nice - off to the Marquis of Granby in Esher, Cortina meet this evening - 8pm ish onwards - ought to be some nice cars if you like old Fords.

[adam73bgt]

I must get back to a Dub Club meet, been years since I last went

Gf's Peugeot 207 has performed its latest trick by the air con breaking just as the weather gets warm 🙃 it's got it's MOT this week as well so I'm preparing for something else to come up...

It's been quite nice to be outside polishing motorbike engine casings into the evening so have been trying to make the most of the weather and long days.

It also helps paint dry on the chassis and suspension parts of the Crossfire 😁

[ironmighty07]

Jun 13, 2023 10:20:59 GMT akku said:

Also I regret selling my only car with working AC....

Weirdly, in my modern cars I "need" the AC straight away, whereas the Chevy happy to cruise around with all the windows down while melting....

[ballbagbagins]

Jun 13, 2023 8:55:34 GMT ballbagbagins said:

I'm back to my usual behaviour, only one of our three cars works currently. Apparently this is an unacceptable ratio.

Halfords are outside now recharging the ac on our one working car. Hopefully this buys me some time to sort the other two.

[akku]

Jun 13, 2023 14:14:35 GMT ironmighty07 said:

Jun 13, 2023 10:20:59 GMT akku said:

Also I regret selling my only car with working AC....

Weirdly, in my modern cars I "need" the AC straight away, whereas the Chevy happy to cruise around with all the windows down while melting....

Cars which have AC engineered in from the get-go are harder to cool without AC than non-AC cars. The designed in airflow is different. Nothing is worse than an AC equipped car with broken AC! I like the scuttle vents which are commonly used in American cars of the 1960s and 1970s where the car has no AC. This gives really good ventilation and even on a hot day the air is surprisingly cool. It doesn't work when sat in traffic mind.

My '69 Mercury is a non-AC car and its cooler in that than my '71 Galaxie which is an AC car with busted AC. No scuttle vents, all the airflow seems to come through the engine bay before coming into the car...

[LPlates]

Air-con gets recharged tomorrow. Mrs LPlates has decided it is a priority.

Finish leveling floor for shed that allows me to start making the garage a garage is the goal for this week.

[BritBrick]

The aircon in my "dog van" has stopped working. It's under warranty but the dealer don't get it in until the 27th so it looks like Windows down for me for a while.

I want to clean up and paint the calipers on the C70 but it's just way too hot. I almost feel as if useful time is being wasted as its just too hot for me. Annoying.

On the plus side the nice weather has brought out the interesting tin. Saw a lovely mk2 Scirroco yesterday.

[vulgalour]

No air con for me, though it would have been welcome when we did the tip run in the Maestro over the weekend. The hot weather really helped when it came to retrimming the headlining, not so much when I was swapping the spare rear doors on, and not at all when I've been trying to find a cool enough slot to don PPE and set to on some cosmetic welding repairs.

The prospect of instead pivoting to do wiring on the Lanchester is about as appealing as jamming forks in my eyes. What I wouldn't give for a nice air conditioned garage to work in on this kind of stuff right about now.

[stealthstylz]

I've had one of those weeks where the good bits are really really good, and the bad bits have been really really bad.

The arrival of hot weather meant it was time to get the monster pool up. Literally as big as I can fit in the garden. I also knocked up a bigger solar heater that works really well.

http://instagram.com/p/CtUhYenI4VF

I then spoilt it by splashing around in it for 10 minutes before realising I had my phone in my pocket, which hasn't done it much good obviously.

Relaxing BBQ, beer and floating on lilo was a good ending though.

Sunday a guy down the street asked me to have a look at the crank bearings on his Vauxhall Signum. He'd got it up on stands and dropped the sump etc off in situ and taken the caps off. Bearings were bad, so I got underneath to look at the crank, he lent over the front and because the twazzock had not chocked the wheels he pushed it straight off the stands. I have no explanation of how, other than adrenaline strength but I somehow managed to lift the whole car over me, using only my left arm which was on the floor with my palm on the subframe. After about 20 mins of rolling round on the floor in pain, I managed to not puke/pass out and I'm just left with a sore arm and a huge bruise. Very very lucky. Pretty sure its not broken.



And then had another BBQ and more floating in pool with beer for the last couple of days which have been excellent.

[ballbagbagins]

Jun 13, 2023 18:40:22 GMT stealthstylz said:

I've had one of those weeks where the good bits are really really good, and the bad bits have been really really bad.

The arrival of hot weather meant it was time to get the monster pool up. Literally as big as I can fit in the garden. I also knocked up a bigger solar heater that works really well.

http://instagram.com/p/CtUhYenI4VF

I then spoilt it by splashing around in it for 10 minutes before realising I had my phone in my pocket, which hasn't done it much good obviously.

Relaxing BBQ, beer and floating on lilo was a good ending though.

Sunday a guy down the street asked me to have a look at the crank bearings on his Vauxhall Signum. He'd got it up on stands and dropped the sump etc off in situ and taken the caps off. Bearings were bad, so I got underneath to look at the crank, he lent over the front and because the twazzock had not chocked the wheels he pushed it straight off the stands. I have no explanation of how, other than adrenaline strength but I somehow managed to lift the whole car over me, using only my left arm which was on the floor with my palm on the subframe. After about 20 mins of rolling round on the floor in pain, I managed to not puke/pass out and I'm just left with a sore arm and a huge bruise. Very very lucky. Pretty sure its not broken.



And then had another BBQ and more floating in pool with beer for the last couple of days which have been excellent.

Does sound like a mixed bag

[ChasR]

Glad to hear you got away with it. That is incredibly lucky!

[HARDCORE]

curse word hell Matt! Lucky to not be really hurt. Be safe out there people!

[Dez]

Jun 13, 2023 18:40:22 GMT stealthstylz said:

*press and hold*
*save to photos*

That’s another one for the curse word bank. I loves me a good armpit shot 🤣

[adam73bgt]

From that photo it's almost like you were going for an Eddie Hall cosplay, but I'd say bench pressing a Signum was a bit too much commitment to the look 😅

Glad you weren't seriously injured though!

[Rich]

I've been playing what's my mystery key for on Facebook.



Apologies for the quality of the picture. My phone camera has eaten itself.