General Lrb Thread

[nicholasb]

My girlfriend's BMW company car has gone back and we have inherited a Volvo S40 from her parents. Its a pretty good car for a freebe and has leather upholstery - my B doesn't have that.

At least LRB won't get worn out.

 

[LittleRedB]

I thought that I would pop in and say hi!

Despite being out of work (again) I have been too busy to get onto the forum recently. Don't know how the rest of you are finding things but I am finding the UK contract market (and job market in general) dead - worse now that we have entered the school summer holidays. I don't think I have much chance of picking a contract up until Sept, which would not be too bad if the sun was out!

LRB is now on a SORN now, I cannot afford to run 3 cars so had to lay her up for the summer. She is sitting outside looking a bit sorry for herself at the moment with the front offside stripped down while I try to fix the wheel bearing. It looks as if I will have to sell her once the wheel bearing in back on, struggling to put a value to her at the moment as the b's advertised on Autotrader vary wildly. Also LRB is wearing a host of mod's (applied as I never intended on selling her) so the chances are they will lower the value on the open market when the time comes....

I had hoped to get to the Goodwood softtop Sunday this weekend but does not look as if I will be able to make it, who is going along from here?

Hope all is well with 'you lot' - I will try to pop in from time to time to see how things are going, meantime take care and keep those b's polished!

 

[KC3]

Hey Buddy,
Was wondering where you had got to, only today i was thinking ( where has that Lee got to) not the same with out you and your posts.

I,m sad to hear things are crap for ya,and that LRB might have to go./ Its also slowed here in Cyprus and i,m not doing much on my electrical side,

I,m presently helping my father who's a builder doing manual labour work,
but it brings in a little cash.


In my spare time i,m tweeking my B as best i can.

Hope your situation gets better real soon and LRB is back on the roads again.

 

[wish mine was orange]

long time no see. you thinking of selling no dont do it how will the polishing cloth manage? polishing a volvo is not the same.
sorry your out of work again hope things pick up for you, have you noticed i have a hearse sitting next to me B

 

[Robot]

Sorry to hear Next thing you'll be telling us is that you've got swine flu or something.

How much are you expecting to get for your B (obviously not too much as it's red )? £2-3K? Does that really help on your financial situation? I say put it in the garage until you get a new contract (or a proper job ) and can afford to run it.

 

[LittleRedB]

Hey Buddy,
Was wondering where you had got to, only today i was thinking ( where has that Lee got to) not the same with out you and your posts.

I,m sad to hear things are crap for ya,and that LRB might have to go

Hey Kiry - when you coming to the UK to take me out for a beer? Well overdue

Lots of people over here struggling at the moment, things will pick up again but I don't think it will be until next year tbh.

long time no see. you thinking of selling no dont do it how will the polishing cloth manage? polishing a volvo is not the same.

Hey Kaz, LRB is going to get a really good polish and clean soon as I fix the wheel bearing - also noticed that I need two new front tyres (again) - I only managed to get this set to last 6k miles!

What is with the hearse! Needed a bit of comfort in your life!!!!!

Sorry to hear Next thing you'll be telling us is that you've got swine flu or something.

How much are you expecting to get for your B (obviously not too much as it's red )? £2-3K? Does that really help on your financial situation? I say put it in the garage until you get a new contract (or a proper job ) and can afford to run it.

You may joke about the swine flu thing but I am running a temperature, have a sort throat, chesty cough and no energy - perhaps more worrying is the fact that I keep rummaging around in the flower beds with my nose for truffles!

Selling the b will be a last resort, the money (although it will only be £2-3k) will go towards paying my impending tax bill or a month of running the house

One thing is for sure, if I am forced to sell LRB it will only be a temp thing, as soon as the UK economy sorts itself out (assuming that the govn't don't feck things up any further between now and getting voted out next year) I will be buying another b. Next time I will be looking for a low mile LE of some sort, I keep telling myself that I will keep the next one std but don't think I will be able to resist the modding bug (I have to admit I was looking at some Eibach springs and Polyflex bushes for the Volvo the other day ).....

 

[wish mine was orange]

lrb stick with it thing will get better, swine flu already in my house hubby had it for 2 weeks i am not having it off him i have put my foot down.
here is the reason i have to drive the ugly tank diabetic now and has to holiday with us things i do for her

 

[bumble]

Hope things are better for you soon mate.

Regards Steve

 

[LittleRedB]

Wooo-hooo, I finally finished my wheel bearing this afternoon and managed to get LRB off axle stands!!

I drove LRB (not far as she's not taxed) - as you can imagine a couple of things are a bit 'sticky', but in the 5 mins I was behind the wheel I remembered what I have been missing!

Still don't have much spare time on my hands as I am still working away from home most days of the week but hope to 'surface' again this summer.

Has anyone heard from AutoItalia? I had a mail from the editor asking me to pull together a photoshoot - I am not able to do it (again just due to time). If someone would like to pick this up and pull the shoot together then drop me a line and I will give you his contact details.

All the best (absent but hopefully not forgotten) - Lee. . . .

 

[Dave-M]

Hi Lee.
Good to see you on the forum again, so what have you been doing to LRB. From what I can remember you were experiencing some kind of noise from the front end. I was thinking of selling my B but my wife has convinced me to keep it, spent last summer renewing the rear suspension, this year i will be doing the front, also intend to replace improve the window seals, I'm fed up with not being able to hear the radio at over 50 mph.
Do you keep up contact with Doc, it would be good to have a meet up again in the warmer weather of course.

Regards Dave M

 

[wish mine was orange]

hey lee well do lrb is alive and kicking great, i hope you polished her before you took her out, a girl has to look her best you know

as for the photo shoot have been in touch with matt he want members of barchetta owners club he said the done a ff shoot not long ago that's news to me

 

[bumble]

Hi Lee. Good to hear the LRB still alive. I drove my out of the garage, washed her and reversed her back in. Still some ice on my drive and potholes like bomb craters on the main roads so I've wussed out.

Steve

 

[LittleRedB]

Hi all, I thought that I would pop my head around the forum door and say hello!

I have been working away from home for over a year now and LRB has really suffered from not being used; the paint has peeled from her bonnet, discs rusted up, roof began to grow some green stuff around the edges amongst other things. . . . .

So, I had a pang of guilt a couple of weeks ago and cracked on with getting LRB back on the road. In the past couple of weeks I have carried out a full brake service (including re-painting callipers, removing all of the rust from the discs, etc), dealt with a few small bits of rust that were beginning to put in an appearance, quick engine service, replaced a few blown bulbs and fitted two new track rod ends as well as a full underseal and am in the middle of a really good polish and wax. Hopefully she is now ready for an MOT, then I need to get the bonnet re-sprayed as the freezing weather earlier this year removed most of the paint!

Not too sure what the future holds at the moment, I would really like to keep hold of her but fear another year of limited use would not be kind to LRB so may have to consider selling . . . . watch this space.

 

[nicholasb]

At least if LRB is back on the road you can enjoy her while you do have her. It would be sad if you parted ways but also understandable. I always say that if for some reason I stop driving the B that I will store it for later but that is easier said than done.