alastairq

Could some of that discrepancy be down to the size of the flanges on the Lima wheels?

When working{?} as a civil servant [ a loose description indeed]....I was tickled by the habit of the CS to regularly demand to know my ethnicity. Usually came around every year or so [depending on which comic had pressed the wrong key somewhere in Cheshire, or Bath..and deleted everybody's personal records....?]! I mean, to someone who spent the previous 25 years as a bus driver, the concept of being able to alter one's ethnicity at the stroke of a computer key was amusing to say the least. [Not having been or never likely to be, a desk wallah, I failed to understand the intricacies involved] Even more amazing to my limited intellect was the fact that, in a job where I came under regular scrutiny from the security brigade, the fact that I had suddenly become Chinese seemed to escape them.... Nobody ever uttered a bean, when I completely changed my ethnicity every other year or so..... The same when we had to fill in security forms now & then..... Most of us had real problems getting through the forms, which would not allow us to progress until the previous pages had been completed satisfactorily... A real problem as most of us had parents who were long deceased.....but the format didn't recognise that fact [presuming, I suppose, we were all 20-somethings fresh from Uni?].......and that's where progression stopped....the forms demanded to know where our [deceased] parents lived... Nobody had a postcode for the Pearly Gates...

I wasn't sure....nobody noticed any blue lights......just the squealing!

I recall the moment when some large pigs got away from Driffield cattle market.....and ran amok....

From one of my favourite Political philosopher's Youtube channel.. Quite insightful in my view.... We have some worrying times ahead..but am I too old to be worrying??

Excellent idea, Neil... I have the same kit, purchased simply to put the cabin & crane onto a 4 wheel chassis for a quayside.... Those windows really lift the Airfix cabin.... I look forward to seeing what you do with the crane bit?

Proper meaty jobs, those old Yankee pickups.....I like 'em, even if the fuel consumption is a tad scary? At least they don't snap in half, and are robust enough even for my style of driving..

Wire wheels, and narrow tyres point to the car being built on an Austin Seven chassis...[Track looks narrower than that of a Ford [front] axle, too.]

Rivarossi used to make a B&O Dockside switcher....and used the same mech for a tender version[with a slope back tender]. They had full valve gear, so may be worth keeping an eye out for? Their motors were huge, and could threaten the integrity of the National Grid when pulling a long train. But.....if non-working, could be a good source of parts for a Varney? [As well as having a nice plastic bodyshell]

I have something almost identical sitting in my back garden.... An Ashley 1172....a bodyshell, with a flip front[like a Spitfire]......and a centre section with boot. Mine is cut in half, as a previous owner wanted to fit it to a Mazda bottom half....I have Pop chassis [with V5c] that I intended to go under it, but old age has crept up on my brain....so nowadays I struggle a bit.

Most probably Austin Seven. Body shell likely a Microplas...

Off topic a bit [I don't use the other thread]...but I seem to think the Pug 106 had a slightly heavier bodyshell than the Pug 205? I may be wrong in that, but the topic did come about back in the day [still this century, however]....when my eldest son dropped his dead 205 GTi in my garden for storage....

I had a Metro once....Or rather, my last Ex-missus had it [I bought it, she drove it] It had a rust patch and hole.....in the middle of the bonnet! I briefly had a Peugeot 106 which I quite liked. Seemed to be a stouter car altogether than the 205? Yonks before, in a previous marriage, my Ex#2 bought herself a 309 GTi lookalike. That went well enough..when it went! I managed to graduate her onto an Alfa 33 green cloverleaf soon afterwards [Pug became a write-off, so Alfa purchased courtesy of someone else's insurance...as was my wont through life...getting someone else's insurance to fund my/our next 'new' cars... ] That Alfa had its flaws, but went like stink, especially after we had the carbs rejetted [all 4 chokes]... That lead Ex#2 to have a passion for Alfas from there on in.....I think she still has one, even though she is now retired and in her 60's. At the time my personal motor was a Renault 4...followed by a VW type 2. How odd? My Pug 106 was a Rallye version....with the non-standard gearbox...Rather a frantic thing to drive..couldn't help but drive like a rally driver in it. Purchased off me by an ardent enthusiast, since something went wrong with the drive shafts. Also, I never did get the speedo to work...

I think it's all down to the freely available media for the past 30 or more years...where old car enthusiasts suddenly turned themselves into 'classic car' buffs...and 'values' overtook the technical interests, as a priority? No longer do we get asked ''wotllitdo, mistah?'' Now it's ''wotsitworth, mistah?'' Yes, greater percentages of ethanol in fuel can lead to issues with stuff like hoses and certain gasket materials...Not to mention issues regarding when there is an ingress of water into the fuel tank [water attracts ethanol...[alcohol]...which can then settle on the bottom of a tank in blobs of very acidic watter]...just be very careful if filling up in the pouring rain, tis all... The issues with hoses, etc and ethanol makes me wonder whether we have a 'chicken-&-egg' situation here? Have we ,in fact, actually seen a 'change' in the quality[cheapness?} of the stuff hoses and certain gaskets were made of, in more recent times? Which has led us t having issues when the percentage of ethanol was [very slightly] increased, in fuel? {Bear in mind, E10 means there might be a maximum of 10% ethanol in the fuel.....Reports suggest the actual percentages of ethanol may be lower, depending on time of day, month of year, or the whims of the fella doing the mixing at the refinery? However, has anyone really looked into what other stuff has been introduced in our so-called 'petrol?' The fact that, in petrol [fuel] these days, the head-end components have a much lower temperature of evaporation than the fuel of the 1960's....which has also led to higher exhaust temperatures in older types of engine design... Which leads us to issues in old bangers [classic cars?] of things like, hot starting issues, etc... Apparently our modern day motorcars need the modern day fuel mixes in order to perform miracles? Remember , also, the hoo-haa surrounding the introduction of unleaded fuel? The sudden rise in the trade offering to convert cylinder heads to 'unleaded?' For vast sums...which the newly found classic car owners were all to happy [and well-off enough?} to rush out and trumpet that they've had their cars 'converted?' I seem to recall a premium being added to an old banger's value if its head was 'converted'..... Yet, the bug bear [valve seat recession] only really raised its ugly head if the old banger was flogged up & down motorways day in & day out, at 80 mph all day long. [I wonder how many had poor valve seats to begin with, before the 'conversion?' Then the conversion would provide that miracle of improved performance, would it not?} Folks still bung lead pellets in their fuel tanks, in the mistaken belief that they're solving the issue.... Methinks there still is an element of ''witch-doctory'' concerning the ''classic car'' industry??? I've purchased a manual tyre changer...50 quids worth....so I don't have to rely too much on the 'trade'....It is currently bolted to a decent CHP pallet....But its outside, and due to rain and pain [I'm old,so I've been told]....I haven't yet tried it out... I also got a plastic 'duck's bill' to modify the cheapo chinese tyre changer with... Cheapo tools are fine [often improvable]....for me as a casual amateur banger-fixer-upper.....Wouldn't do so well if I started doing jobs for all & sundry, however......but for me they give an element of independence to do my own thing, in my own time. In my area of the country, current lead time for local fixer-uppers of cars[motorcars, or otherwise]....is more than three weeks...Local Farcebuuk pages full of requests for fixer-uppers who can take on jobs almost immediately... If I had purchased they tyre changer 5 years ago, it would have paid for itself twice over subsequently.... [What value do we place on two packets of Custard Creams?}

Hi folks..I have just viewed the most recent video on the channel of Ian Peter Strange, concerning his rebuild of his AC 2 litre saloon.[Which I follow avidly]... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfU_NHFjnkI At the end he includes some 'extras', displaying the dairies his Father kept regarding things motoring, from, I believe, in this case, 1962? His Father noted stuff like fuel costs, repairs, etc...and noted his use of Cleveland Discol fuel. Cleveland Discol fuel contained ethanol [nothing new on this world!], and, as I recall, did no harm at all..indeed, performance of what i used to drive may have been improved? Anyhow, the point I note is that, the actual percentage ethanol content of Cleveland Discol isn't currently 'known'.....but Ian's Father noted that Cleveland Discol contained 15% ethanol! [As well as being, in the early 1960's, lead-free!!].. So the above might place a more positive view of information missing in time? Also, being lead-free at the time, puts into perspective the modern day issues amongst old banger car owners over today's fuel, with its mere 10% [or less] ethanol content, and leadless to boot. Perhaps our issues today, in truth, concerns the other additives in fuel, designed to make our moderns drive more efficiently, instead?