The Chat Thread - Social Media Diet - WC 09/09/24

[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.


I've been having a bit of a social media diet this last week. Put time restrictions on my facebook and instagram on my phone as I found myself relentlessly and purposely scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. I think they've either made their algorithm even more like crack, or my brain is at the point in the year where it stops working properly. Anyway I time limited the apps so now I have to go in for a reason and life is much better. It has also made me re-engage with website (like in the olden times), which has also shown me how even more lacking the mobile experience on this site is than I previously thought (it is find for just dipping in, but properly using is harder). So like an absolute lunatic I've gone back to brass tacks with the design work under the hood. The look and feel I'm keeping the same (don't want to have THAT discussion again), but the way it creates these pages needs to change so it is easier to debug, more stable on a phone and just generally better. This is a project I have actually started a couple of times but never completed, I've got more of a direction and better approach this time, so wish me luck.


Still need to replace the Club RR system, which will become increasingly important when we announce what we're doing show/event wise for 2025. However there is some time yet, I'm hoping to put the finishing touches on a new system at the end of this week and maybe launch next. However that may be a bit of a punchy deadline.


My garage has ended up full of stuff again, but my weekends are a bit more free so I hope to get back out there and back on clearing it out. Need that space, the Datsun may well return home in the next 12 months!

What is going on in your world?


Previous Thread: forum.retro-rides.org/thread/227623/chat-thread-back-school-wc

[johnthesparky]

Some mission creep, health issues and other obstacles meant that the Fug didn’t get started for a while.

It has been started now though, I’ve not seen it… but hoping to be going down for a seat fitting etc in the foreseeable future.

But for now, a teaser photo 😬

[DarrenW]

Yeah can relate with the social media thing, Instagram can be addictive.

I bought a new daily a little while back but I haven't really got to know it yet because, well, life things have got in the way, but now things are beginning to settle down I'm looking forward to getting properly acquainted.



(Yes, that's a genuine Manta i200 next to it!)

[fogey]

Can identify with the 'too much time' on I-Phone and PC. In my defence, time spent on Facebook is mainly spent on Marketplace looking at cars, car parts and tools. As for my PC then it's mainly Ebay and CarandClassic; so that makes it alright then . . . .doesn't it?

[droopsnoot]

I've also found myself looking at FB too much recently. It's not as if I haven't got plenty to do, car-related or otherwise.

[jimi]

The voice of Darth Vader & Mufasa is no more

James Earl Jones RIP

[skinnylew]

Another week passes and it's the same old story sadly, still in hospital. Has been nearly 6 months! Still reading plenty of things on here has kept me chipper and reminded me of how good this forum is to still be going when many others have petered out. 😀

[akku]

The Sovereign is back and behaving itself well enough. Went to a family event up on the North East coast and it did a fine job getting us there and back with no drama, in comfort, at a frugal 25mpg. Thats pretty much unheard of for me, and beats the Rover P6 by a fair amount. Its probably a bit quicker although it feels "not especially inspiring" in performance terms. I guess I am used to yanks as my big saloons and the V8s are more grunty, less refined.

It still has things need doing. I will probably do my usual trick of dumping a load of time and effort into it and then selling it on for a % of what I have in it because I have "a better idea".

I've been using it for work and it got positive comments from colleagues and so on.

I like it but I'm not excited by it.

I feel frustrated, the season is coming to an end and I have so much stuff I wanted to get done before the nights start drawing in and get gets cold(er) and damp(er) but this year hasn't been much of a year for it, I have missed a number of my favourite events and some of them were cancelled due to weather. The '68 Galaxie is no closer to being done, the Humber still has silly little jobs keeping it off the road, and the Majestic which was on the road now is not and I have done little with it since it failed to proceed.

I was trying to sell my caravan, but since even the scammers can't really be bothered with it I think I will store that until next year now.

[The Cat Herder]

I haven’t had a flat tyre in probably 15 years or longer, so I guess I was overdue. Wife’s Kia picked up what looks like a piece of palm tree right where the sidewall meets tread, so means a new tyre. No problem, except like so many moderns, her Kia has no spare, just a bottle of sealant and a compressor. So I get to inflate it and see if it will hold enough air without resorting to the goop to get two miles to the tyre store tomorrow morning. Then I get to see if I can carve up the foam blocks in the boot to take a spare and toolkit.

We also move into our house next week. No garage, but a nice carport and a decent shed for my tools and workbench. So I went looking for another small truck, part project vehicle, part home store runner. Yikes! The people in Florida sure are proud of their cheap beaters. Project truck may have to wait a while.

[igor]

Our youngest has been home for the university holidays. Told me his car was running a bit hotter than normal (half way up the gauge instead of one third).
En route back to Christchurch the boy called me to report that his car was down on power and still running hot. He then called the AA breakdown service who duly sent out their local contractor. AA man couldn't see anything obviously wrong and followed him for a while to see if anything happened which it didn't then sent him on his way. The boy made it a couple of miles further up the road and the car spat out a spark plug. As it was well into the evening by then this resulted in an unplanned overnight stay in the home of a very kind farming family. Next morning the local garage man (the same AA breakdown contractor) got the car going for him at the cost of one spark plug and half an hour labour. Amazingly the thread in the cylinder head was undamaged. The mechanic checked all the other spark plugs and discovered that two more were loose which might explain the hot running and power loss. With all four spark plugs present and correct, and torqued up properly, the boy continued his journey.
Upon arrival in Christchurch he called me to report that the car was running as well as it ever had.
His girlfriend of three years has strongly suggested that he get a better car before they have children. I would have thought it a bit soon to be thinking about children given that they are now first year students at different universities.

[slackerTHEpinstriper]

Aquired a BMX out of a skip so thats gonna get painted for on the roof of the Passat.
So obviously went down a rabbit hole of custom BMx's.

Couldn't find a suitably Lowrider styled one 🤔

Ordered white walls straight away for it

[HoTWire]

Sept 11, 2024 15:12:28 GMT slackerTHEpinstriper said:

So obviously went down a rabbit hole of custom BMx's.

rmad is your man for custom BMXs

[Seth]

Got back earlier today from a week away. Not that far away as we stayed in Winchester, partly to be nearer to Goodwood for the Revival, which we went to on Sunday. Will try and get some photos sorted and post a thread.

[stealthstylz]

Still not done any personal car stuff. Seem to have spent 1 million dollars in the last couple of weeks so trying rebalance that situation. Did the full works on a Rover SD1 V8 at work that's come out of a Ford Pop that was bought from that famous TV auction house renowned for selling vehicles that aren't as described.

[vulgalour]

Been signed off work sick. Not thrilled about this. I'd like to use the unexpected time off to do some jobs on the Princess but I don't think I can, my brain isn't working properly.

[zeberdee]

Sept 12, 2024 15:07:30 GMT vulgalour said:

Been signed off work sick. Not thrilled about this. I'd like to use the unexpected time off to do some jobs on the Princess but I don't think I can, my brain isn't working properly.

That doesn’t sound good .

Hopefully some time off will help , even if you don’t feel that you need it .

👍

[adam73bgt]

Managed to get the Crossfire back on the road in all it's shabby glory so that's been a nice win this week

Sept 10, 2024 18:28:31 GMT akku said:

Its probably a bit quicker although it feels "not especially inspiring" in performance terms.

When I had my 4.0 Sovereign, it always felt like it was lacking a bit. Lovely car to drive, cornered better than I expected but even on kickdown it didn't really seem to get going. Did some... "benchmarking" against a friends Lexus IS200 at the time which isn't exactly a straight line monster itself and there wasn't much in it

Still find myself looking at them for sale now and then mind

[misteralz]

Sept 12, 2024 15:07:30 GMT vulgalour said:

Been signed off work sick. Not thrilled about this. I'd like to use the unexpected time off to do some jobs on the Princess but I don't think I can, my brain isn't working properly.

Been there. Twice. Must've been sixteen years ago the first time, and I was signed off for two weeks. It wasn't enough, and I was signed off for another two. It was the reset I needed at the time. The second time was about ten years ago when a close relative died unexpectedly and again, two weeks off. I went back too soon that time. Mental health is important. I've learned a LOT about my brain in the past twenty years, and yeah, if you've not got it in you to do Princess jobs then stay well away from it. But throwing some water and a sponge at it? Crack on.

[travellingnigel]

100% this, sometimes it takes someone else to see what we can't see ourselves.
Don't push yourself to do anything that feels too much and just take the time.

[surprisingskoda]

The two themes of this chat thread go together as well... mental health can be affected much more than we'd like to tell ourselves by social media.
A limit or even a total blackout for a while can really help and I've found myself in a much better place over the last couple of years by, kid you not, removing the facebook tab from the homescreen of my phone. I have to go into the apps/menu/whatever to access it. Literally quartered my FB usage which was all nonsense anyway.
Not that's it helped me spend any more time on cars, as I'd hoped...
And talking things over always helps. Even if you don't think there's anything wrong, expressing some of your frustrations or issues can help you see how anxious you might have been about them really. Keep a clean slate, make sure you're not bottling stuff up. There's a thread on here to vent in too.



The most frustrating thing in my world right now is the neverending delays involved in buying a house. Why? Literally there is NO REASON for it to take so eye-wateringly bleeding long to do each simple task.