The Chat Thread - Daylight fading - WC 27/11/23

[braaap]

This week I watched This is England. The movie and the three mini series sequels. Had not heard of it earlier.

One thing I was wondering about: in the movie, Combo, a 32 year old bloke, just releasewd from prison, drives a toyota CROWN, with the letter L both on front and rear.

I guess that has the same meaning like elsewhere, L for learner, a driver with little practice. Or did it have another, different meaning?
Over here You only saw that letter L on the rear of a car. Was it mandatory on both ends in the UK?

I also don't know if Combo was really only a beginner, but he wasn't the type of guy giving a sh!t of legalities like the letter L on his ride, so I wouldn't expect HIM to drive around that way.

[stealthstylz]

It's still the law that you have to have a L plate front and rear if you're learning to drive. You also have to have a front seat passenger that has a full licence and isn't drunk.

This is England is one of my favourite films ever. There is a "making of" documentary floating around in the ether with interviews with Shane Meadows. They spent months trying to find somewhere to film it that looked period correct (Sky dishes are hard to hide iirc) and ended up with their own fleet of period curse word cars to use in the background.

Also if you enjoyed it, watch Dead Man's Shoes.

[The Cat Herder]

No snow and above freezing, so today I tackle the Muranos bad alternator.

Jack it up and remove a wheel to get to the belt tensioner, then remove battery, battery tray, relay box, intake duct, engine cover, undertray, radiator fans, then drain cooling system and remove the radiator, remove the belt and tensioner assembly then undo all the wiring harnesses. Now I can see the alternator, stuffed up under the exhaust manifold above the a/c compressor. It came apart pretty quickly really, maybe 45 minutes tops, and my garage looked like an explosion in a parts store…



But there’s one 14mm nut that holds the alternator on that’s buried between the a/c and crank pulleys, up against the chassis rail. A normal socket doesn’t clear the engine cradle, and a deep socket doesn’t fit inside the chassis. I tried a breaker bar on a standard socket socket even though it wasn’t a straight pull and it the socket slipped and started to round the nut off. I tried a few other things without success, so in the interest of not completely screwing myself I called it and started to put the car back together so didn’t have parts spread all around. It did go back together pretty quickly, but I’ve been this deep in it before. Fired it up to bleed the cooling system and while it idled I put a meter across the battery; 14.5 volts. Well, boo. I let it run for about 30 minutes to come up to temperature and bleed all the air out and monitored battery voltage and it was all over the place; peak at 14.5v down to 11.8v and back.

I think some extra long swivel head wrenches may be what I need to get that nut off. Guess I’ll be going to the tool store this week and will be back under the car next weekend.

[braaap]

Dec 3, 2023 0:12:20 GMT stealthstylz said:

It's still the law that you have to have a L plate front and rear if you're learning to drive. You also have to have a front seat passenger that has a full licence and isn't drunk.

This is England is one of my favourite films ever. There is a "making of" documentary floating around in the ether with interviews with Shane Meadows. They spent months trying to find somewhere to film it that looked period correct (Sky dishes are hard to hide iirc) and ended up with their own fleet of period curse word cars to use in the background.

Also if you enjoyed it, watch Dead Man's Shoes.

Thanks stealthstylz. I can't remember when I last saw an L on a car, I think You don't/didn't have to have one, well I didn't, but I rememebr my mum had one on the back of her first car. She passed her test when I was about 3 or 4, so that*'s a long time ago.

And as I wrote, Comobo didn't appear like he really cared about such rules, but his recent prison release may have played a role here.

The film was okay, placed mainly around Shaun, but the sequels really got me, with the deep focus on Lol. It's not that I liked it, I was more deeply impressed. If the old plans of This is England 2000 will really get realised, I will watch it.

I now read about DMS, recognizing Shauns mum and one of the Hot Fuzz Andys in the cast. Will watch it when I stumble over it.

[akku]

I'm a big fan of Shane Meadows. A lot of his stuff is set and/or filmed round my neck of the woods. A lot of it resonates heavily with life round these parts.

Once Upon A Time In The Midlands was filmed right on my 'hood at the time. Never saw any of the filming. Loved that Oldsmobile in it, that came up for sale a little after.