Lost enthusiasm during the winter

[busastars]

I have been back in recently, got more cleaning up to do.

I have also managed to get my fly cutter set up and cut a new tool ready to skim my first head.

Also managed to strip an old bench saw for the motor, around 1hp, 2950 rpm and already cabled/switched up. Just need to order an M12 1.75 Pigtail, couple of mops and compound. Polishing machine almost done.

Should be setting up my upgrade compressor this week and testing out my Air Nibbler, may also buy an Air Shear so I can have both options open to me. Going to have another go at Hydroforming this month, want to get a real nice job done with my exhausts.

 

[brookie456]

Attaboy
Just a minor blip, we all get them

 

[chunkolini]

The Demon has returned.

Chunko'.
see pm.

 

[Nomad]

I'm starting to come out of hibernation now that we are getting more daylight - just want to curl up and go to sleep in the short days of winter

 

[jugs]

I'm starting to come out of hibernation now that we are getting more daylight - just want to curl up and go to sleep in the short days of winter

Its the natural way, dont fight it

 

[Chickenjohn]

I have to confess, the cold weather has discouraged me from going out to the garage and working on my classic cars, and especially as one job (removal of 944 S2 front spoiler, /bumper assembly) requires working outside as the car is too wide to work on both sides at once in my garage.

Having said that, i would gladly put up with all the snow and inconvenience to live in a place and house like Debs has! Just get winter tyres on the Discovery, driver carefully like you were on the you tube and all will be fine!

 

[Scamp]

A Guy I used to work with, said do a little everyday, even if it's just a clean up. Or a sit down musing over things with a beer/Cuppa. Keeps the interest!

That's bloody good advise. Years ago, when I was just a sprog, the old guy that owned the old village Smithy used to spend most of his spare time in there. Woodburner roaring and the kettle always on the boil. I used to love going down there to just chat with him.

I think Bert Munro ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burt_Munro ) should be the inspiration to us all in the winter months.

 

[Wedg1e]

classic cars...(removal of 944 S2 front spoiler, /bumper assembly)

Er... how is the 944 a classic car? It was around in the 80s, that's only a handful of years ago, hardly old enough to qualify as a classic

It may be a classic by insurance company 15-year limits but I believe there are 'classic' events you'd be denied entry to

Ian
('87 TVR 390SE, also a 'classic'...)

 

[Chickenjohn]

You are SO wrong, wesdgie!!!!

No, at the Leeds castle classic car event the other year, there was quite a display of 944's. And if I take my 40 year old Morris or my classic Porsche 944S2 I have NEVER been refused entry to a classic car event, so little do you know, wedgie! ;-)

As for justifictaion- common cars such as fords and vauxhalls etc may take 40 or 50 years to reach classic status but a true exotic sports car such as a Ferrari or a Porsche, after 20 years they reach classic status. (notice how one can say Ferrari and Porsche in the same phrase but say Ferrari and Vauxhall in the same phrase and it sounds SO WRONG!).

The Porsche 944 was a true great car in its day and even now, perfect 50/50 weight handling, innovative design, and the parent exotic car company makes NO equivalent modern car, PLUS the huge influence on subsequent car design. (look at just about ANY Jap coupe over the last 30 years).

A true classic!

Oh, and wedgie i have some news for you- 1980 was THIRTY years ago!!!!

By 1980, the Morris Minor (my other classic of which I have three examples) was a true bona-fide classic- i.e. had a members club, was in the classic cars magazines and all by then, was in classic car shows, even though it was manufactured till 1971. Only NINE years after the last one was made. Why?? Because it was DESERVING true, special classic car, much like the 944. To claim otherwise displays ignorance of car history and culture.

Now, tell me honestly- do you need any more justification?? And if not then why???????

 

[Wedg1e]

The Moggie Minor is a classic because beardy-wierdy real ale drinkers with leather elbow-patches say so. In reality it was of its time (just), way past its sell-by date by 1970 and would have probably hung around longer if the Japanese hadn't come along and showed (as with motorcycles) the way cars were going to go.

It's an overweight, underpowered, mass-produced tin box intended for mass personal transport - like the Mini and countless other aspirants to the 'classic' title. Don't get me wrong, I'm saying it was of its time because nobody else was doing anything better - well maybe they were, but WW2 was a recent memory and you couldn't flog French or German cars to the Brits, now could you. Strange that by the mid-80s it was the French and Germans making a laughing-stock of the British car industry, flogging (relatively) exciting cars to the offspring of those who'd clung to the output of Ford, Vauxhall and British Leyland in its many guises.

I learned to weld at the age of twelve (shortly before 1980) because my dad had a constant stream of Morris 1000s and all the other dross churned out by the British motor industry in the 60s and 70s coming in for repair. They were often rusty before the owners took delivery. If these cars were so good, why did the owners ever part with them? Why were they allowed to decay and be scrapped - all several hundred thousand of them? Do Ferrari owners do this?

My father bought a '59 Mercedes 300D pillarless limousine (known as the 'Adenauer', look it up). It was £350, because it was just an old car. The term 'classic' hadn't been invented in 1969. He swapped it for a Zodiac in '73 because Mercedes wanted a month's pay for a new starter motor. It wasn't worth fixing, it was still just an old car. It was last seen outside a scrapyard with all the windows broken. That's what happened to old cars. Sometime in the late 80s the market decided the Adenauer was 'worth' £48,000, which came as a bit of a shock to the old man as his house was only worth £35,000. Now common sense has returned and 300Ds are more like £12K-20K (if you can find one), still a lot of money for an old car.

Each to their own of course and if you like your mass-produced German tin box (which is, to be fair, an Audi 80 in drag) then all's fine: for myself I prefer to be able to look up under the nose of my eccentric British-built limited-production drophead coupe and see the signatures of the real men who hand-laid the fibreglass (one of whom I've met) and know that they only ever built 102 others like it, not 102,000 a week like the robot-produced identikits from other makers. If it breaks I can fix it myself and it starts more conversations in pubs than the Porsche 911s and Subaru Impreza WRXs of my mates - and lets face it the former might already be regarded by some as a classic (even if it's just a pumped up Beetle in reality) whilst the latter may, in time, come to be viewed by some as something rather more special than grandma's shopping car with a bit more power, which is all it is.

And when people give me the old line 'My xxxx is faster than your TVR' I say fine, if I want to go quickly I'll get the bike out... but that's another topic

 

[Chickenjohn]

Wedgie, I've never heard someone talk so much rubbish on a forum, till I read your post! Your beadry weardy and elbow patch comments are just pathetic beyond belief. We are on a forum about welding- many here like to restore classics- not needlessly slag them off- or the owners who restore them as you try to do (badly) or indeed, the owners and restorers alleged dress style. And the beardy weirdy comments will offend many folk, not just classic car owners.
To correct your mis-information. The Morris Minor is a true classic because it was a fantastic handling saloon car in its day (1948)- better handling than most sports cars of its day and was the first ever Britsh saloon car to reach 1,000,000 manufactured. The Minor featured many advanced design features. It is, and was a far better car than the VW for example. The Minor 1000 BMC car was also far better than the British Leyland crap that followed it. I notice that you try and compare a Morris 1000 with a Ferrari, how pathetic is that. Like comparing a modern Rover 200 (if they still made them) with a Ferrari 458 Italia. No one today, not even the fools on the modern Top Gear program would be so foolish as to do that.

As for the welding comments- irrelevant as all cars of the 50's and 60's had primitive rust protection, even your beloved Mercedes.

As for Mercedes, yes, they were good in their day, but since 1995 have been rubbish- just Google "E-class rust" for plenty of examples of spring perch collapse. Mercedes were taken over in 1995 by Chrysler, who as we all know make crap American cars.

Which incidentally brings me to Porsche who have never suffered from such a dramatic drop in quality. As for your pathetic Audi 80 comments. it is worth noting that the original Porsche 356 was developed from the VW Beetle. Mass produced?? 113,000 944's over 10 years is tiny numbers in terms of so called "mass production" when Ford make a million a year of many of their models. Your beloved Mercedes mass produce many more of their cars than Porsche ever did of the excellent 944. And as for the 944S2 model?? they only made 3000 coupes per year- for three years for the world market so how is that "mass produced"??? Not really. A rare car, in fact. Certainly compared to Mercedes.

And I challenge you to name any component (even ONE!) in my 944 S2 that is in the Audi 80. Such misinformed rubbish you have typed! God, i wish you were right , but there are NO Audi 80 parts AT ALL that fit my car, I wish. The forthcoming resto would be SO much cheaper. Sadly, the 944 S2 is a PORSCHE through and through and there are NO AUDI parts that fit it. Let alone it being an AUDI 80 in drag. LOL, I'd laugh, if your comments were even funny or even remotely near the truth.

Why the rant, MR wedgie???? What have you to hide, which insecurities??? a few clues....

" for myself I prefer to be able to look up under the nose of my eccentric British-built limited-production drophead coupe and see the signatures of the real men who hand-laid the fibreglass (one of whom I've met) and know that they only ever built 102 others like it, not 102,000 a week like the robot-produced identikits from other makers. If it breaks I can fix it myself and it starts more conversations in pubs than the Porsche 911s and Subaru Impreza WRXs of my mates - and lets face it the former might already be regarded by some as a classic (even if it's just a pumped up Beetle in reality) whilst the latter may, in time, come to be seen as something rather more special than grandma's shopping car with a bit more power, which is all it is."

FiBREGLASS?? a TVR?? Actually, i quite like TVRs but I wouldn't want to use one as an everyday car- they are unreliable- and not practical for daily use are they not??

(hint unlike the 944 or Morris Minor which can both, even today- be used as reliable modern transport, errm unlike a plastic TVR).

I don't want to start a slagging match, Wedgie, but you started it with your grossly mis-informed post about my 944 comment which i will NOT leave without correcting you. I do quite like TVR's and old Mercs (before 1995 they were good) but I HATE to see someone slagging the excellent Morris Minor or excellent Porsche 944 and from such a position of ignorance.

I suggest you do some research about car history before you make a reply post. Otherwise an apology for your outburst is in order.

thank you
regards
John

 

[Chickenjohn]

And ANOTHER correction of your misinformed post:-

"It's an overweight, underpowered, mass-produced tin box intended for mass personal transport - like the Mini and countless other aspirants to the 'classic' title. Don't get me wrong, I'm saying it was of its time because nobody else was doing anything better - well maybe they were, but WW2 was a recent memory and you couldn't flog French or German cars to the Brits, now could you. Strange that by the mid-80s it was the French and Germans making a laughing-stock of the British car industry, flogging (relatively) exciting cars to the offspring of those who'd clung to the output of Ford, Vauxhall and British Leyland in its many guises."

The Minor was not overweight- at only 800-850 KG it was light- and actually lighter than any modern car. As for the mid- 80's comment- totally irrelevant and showing your lack of knowledge. The Minor, despite its huge success as a world export model, it was made from 1948 to 1971. Nowhere near the mid 80s!!!! laugh? I am, right now.
So which French and german cars were exciting then?? I can't think of any. Since in 1971 vw were still selling the Beetle which was an even older design than thew Minor. And the French were selling the 2-CV and the Renault 4 (both of which I like, BTW) but hardly an improvement in excitement on the Minor in 1970!!

Please, please, please do your research before making comments on classic cars. You really need to learn a lot before making any worthwhile opinions.

I could go on ( and will if you reply in a less than apologetic manner) but I would not bother, if I were you. It is better to give up when you know you are wrong.

cheers
John

 

[chunkolini]

Is this thread going slightly off topic?

Chunko'.

 

[rkde]

^^ rubbish ~ its cold outside and in the unit, ran out of gas even colder, bit of welding done at the weekend froze went home.

Roll on sunny days, but not too hot, don't want to be sweating

 

[Wedg1e]

The Minor was not overweight- at only 800-850 KG it was light- and actually lighter than any modern car. As for the mid- 80's comment- totally irrelevant and showing your lack of knowledge. The Minor, despite its huge success as a world export model, it was made from 1948 to 1971. Nowhere near the mid 80s!!!! laugh? I am, right now.
So which French and german cars were exciting then?? I can't think of any. Since in 1971 vw were still selling the Beetle which was an even older design than thew Minor. And the French were selling the 2-CV and the Renault 4 (both of which I like, BTW) but hardly an improvement in excitement on the Minor in 1970!!

Please, please, please do your research before making comments on classic cars. You really need to learn a lot before making any worthwhile opinions.

I could go on ( and will if you reply in a less than apologetic manner) but I would not bother, if I were you. It is better to give up when you know you are wrong.

cheers
John

You're taking chunks of my text well out of context, as well you know.
There was (FOR THE TIME) design excellence in the Morris 1000, the Beetle and the 2CV.

Of course modern cars are heavier, that'll be down to the necessary audio system and safety tat. The Moggie had neither... and didn't they put the brake master cylinder somewhere inaccessible?

Mercedes is NOT 'beloved' to me, my dad had one, that's all. He never tried to make out his (one of 1200, I believe) limo was a 'classic', which it clearly should be alongside the Moggie as its fuel system included provision for driving at altitude, something the Germans perfected with their fighter planes fuelling, not driving).

I make no staggering claims for my or any other TVR. It's a car, pure and simple. It suits my tastes and costs me next to nothing to own. I actually won 'worst car in show' last year

At no point am I having a go at people who want to do their own thing with cars, classic or otherwise. Just because it seems daft to me what some people do doesn't make it wrong (see the Mini Clubman welding thread elsewhere; personally I wouldn't bother but as I said, each to his own).

I will grant you one thing: I was thinking of the 924, not the 944. I believe quite a few components of that car (eg the gearbox) were lifted straight from the Audi 80. Not that that's a bad thing, TVR as well as plenty of others have robbed parts bins since time immemorial.

I started this tongue-in-cheek, maybe I should have liberally splattered the first post with and then you might not have sat up half the night w@nking your keyboard into a frenzy.

...and are you the same Chickenjohn that was banned from Pistonheads some years back for talking sh!te?

Apologies, Chunko and others, didn't mean to pull the thread out of orbit... it was supposed to be a couple of off-the-cuff gentle digs.

 

[malcolm]

Can we leave it at that please.