What's made you grumpy today?

[bugsymike]

Chances are the Stored covered 90% of what was replaced on a daily basis

Most models in the lineup using the same parts

When it takes a month to get parts nowadays.. No commercial builder is going to bother

We used to have a company called Edmunds Walker that kept most of it in stock or delivered by next day.
We used to order bearings and oil seals by their three measurements, inside, outside and width, usually corresponding to the part number written on them.
I remember buying a large rear hub bearing from the Iveco Dealers for around £135 inc. then remembering to check the part number and got the next one from the local SKF stockist for £50 plus Vat. as they only did bearings and seals.

 

[irc]

I used to enjoy repairing things like alternators and starters, the parts were cheap and it was quite satisfying.
I had to get a replacement 75a Alternator for a diesel Panda last week. It wasn't physically broken, just the diode pack had become faulty. I priced up repair parts (sticking to what was actually available) and the parts alone came to over £60.
Still would have done it, but turned out the "available" parts weren't, so ended up getting an exchange unit from Eurocarparts. I traded in a knackered alternator that has been laying around for years, and kept the slightly faulty one to (maybe) repair when (or if) I can get the parts.
That made me grumpy, just in time to be made even more grumpy as lower arm rear bushes seem to have doubled in price in the last year. And they seem to be harder to get hold of.
I've just replaced the bushes in 3 sets of lower arms I had laying around, and I thought I was on a roll... now I've run out of bushes.

 

[porta]

We used to have a company called Edmunds Walker that kept most of it in stock or delivered by next day.
We used to order bearings and oil seals by their three measurements, inside, outside and width, usually corresponding to the part number written on them.
I remember buying a large rear hub bearing from the Iveco Dealers for around £135 inc. then remembering to check the part number and got the next one from the local SKF stockist for £50 plus Vat. as they only did bearings and seals.

Edmonds Walker, there’s a blast from the past

 

[The Panda Nut]

We got back home from Maine and New Hampshire very late last night. Left the carry on bags at the foot of the stairs and went right to bed. This morning, I found evidence of a visit from a tiny furry critter. Buster dog was spending the week at his cousins' place so said critter had free run of the house. Mrs. Cheest went into full blown 'kill it with fire, slash and burn, sterilization, exterminate exterminate' mode. I rolled my eyes, which made it worse. I put my foot down when she wanted me to empty the pantry shelves and scrub all the surfaces with bleach. The signs pointed to a lone critter, not The Black Plague. I think she finally got it that I wasn't going to put up with her irrational fears this time and she crossed a line with the pantry.

Anyway, sanity shortly returned and I baited two traps. We'll see what we catch, if anything, in the morning.

I like Mrs Cheest. Go for it!

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Just to share the channel I was watching as I think several people may find this guys videos interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/@GarageTimeTV

There are a lot of Fiat's on his channel. The thing that interested me is that not only was he able to get hold of parts but he was able to get new custom parts like aluminum billet pulleys specifically for his Fiat 124 Spider project. You'd struggle to get parts at all for that engine, let alone custom new parts, here in the UK. Maybe in parts of europe/italy they may have companies that make this sort of stuff, but then they had a lot more of these old fiat's to begin with. The number of old Fiats in the USA must be pretty low and demand for parts must be very low.

 

[portland_bill]

We used to have a company called Edmunds Walker that kept most of it in stock or delivered by next day.
We used to order bearings and oil seals by their three measurements, inside, outside and width, usually corresponding to the part number written on them.

Edmunds Walker were a large branch network, run by a small head office team. Bought by Unipart in the early 80s. Gradually pushed into adopting the same bureacratic processes the parent company used, which supported large swathes of (incompetent) middle management, adding huge cost, whilst slowing down every process, until they were no longer profitable, and sold off for peanuts to a motor factor chain. I forget which.
Unipart later did the same thing with Brown Brothers Partco. The Brown Bros Partco guys were a good small team, but overwhelmed by the Unipart BS, so that all fell apart too.
Then the Unipart brand went the same way. (I wonder why!) Not before buying me a house, and about to pay me a reasonable pension, so at least I got a win from it.

 

[Cheest]

Lol at you coloUr full Americans

Honestly though I’ve never considered it to have any other name, but it’s always funny and interesting to come across different words being used even though we all speak the “same” language.

Obviously the enthusiasm and skill for doing this kind of work is still very much present in the US, but engines have become throw away items in the uk and probably most of Europe and so these skills are being lost.

The particular video that prompted my post was a guy restoring a 1982 fiat 124 spider

There are many here in this country who feel it is an HONOR to be the centER of the universe. Those who are the loudest about it don't hold a passport. They've probably never been out of the county they were born in.

Back to gudgeon, I'd not heard of it until I was in my forties, when I went to work for the company that I'm retiring from. The parent company is in France, so I had to learn how to translate French into Americanese. So, WTF was a gudgeon? It's a pin, it's a shaft, or it's an axle. Sometimes all in the same sentence. We'd have a good laugh when the French translated a manual to English, which I then had to translate to Americanese. Often, I had to dumb that down for some of our customers.

As for the brain damage I acquired working for this French outfit, I was fluent in French when I started. I can barely understand it now and only speak it well enough to insult upper management when the need arises.

 

[bugsymike]

Edmunds Walker were a large branch network, run by a small head office team. Bought by Unipart in the early 80s. Gradually pushed into adopting the same bureacratic processes the parent company used, which supported large swathes of (incompetent) middle management, adding huge cost, whilst slowing down every process, until they were no longer profitable, and sold off for peanuts to a motor factor chain. I forget which.
Unipart later did the same thing with Brown Brothers Partco. The Brown Bros Partco guys were a good small team, but overwhelmed by the Unipart BS, so that all fell apart too.
Then the Unipart brand went the same way. (I wonder why!) Not before buying me a house, and about to pay me a reasonable pension, so at least I got a win from it.

We used to trade with Brown Bros in the 1960s, I had their massive parts catalogue complete with prices before the era of massive inflation stopped things like that!

 

[s130]

We used to trade with Brown Bros in the 1960s, I had their massive parts catalogue complete with prices before the era of massive inflation stopped things like that!

Talking of catalogUes I used to keep many of such items. Bearings, car parts, etc. It is what I think we all did. They were there on the counter for free. Then over time these catalogues often became "Shop Only Use" and one would then ask the shop for any old ones they had.

The next phase is when you get your house / shelves so cluttered with catalogues one has to go into review and dump mode.

The terminal phase is when you have to move house after 30+ years. This is when all the old magazines, club mags, Fiat vehicle brochures, old cars parts, 1/3 or less full bottles of oils, ...... all have to go and you don't have time to find them new homes.

When I moved in March 2022 I managed to keep quite a bit of stuff. A lot went to Dean at Small Car Services including old Fiat/other service manuals and my Uno racing seat.

 

[Cheest]

Mrs. Cheest's cancer biopsy came back as positive. What we've been told so far is that it's very manageable and we do not have to cancel our Turkey Week trip back to Maine, which starts tomorrow. It may put a damper on things, though. Treatment starts a week from Tuesday, though neither of us knows what that entails.

Our family motto has been, "We will muddle through". We'll get through this, too.

 

[varesecrazy]

Our family motto has been, "We will muddle through". We'll get through this, too.

Take your time, look after each other
It will be OK

 

[The Panda Nut]

Mrs. Cheest's cancer biopsy came back as positive. What we've been told so far is that it's very manageable and we do not have to cancel our Turkey Week trip back to Maine, which starts tomorrow. It may put a damper on things, though. Treatment starts a week from Tuesday, though neither of us knows what that entails.

Our family motto has been, "We will muddle through". We'll get through this, too.

You better. If we can pull for you we will!

 

[portland_bill]

Midday, the doorbell went, like an emergency. (Why can't people just press once and wait?)
Neighbour, informing me that scaffolding is going up tomorrow, and will need to stand on my patio, as they have a pagoda roof over theirs, that is in the way. No worries with my patio, as it is just the crap concrete laid by the original builder.
Downside, is that we have a bird feeder there, and a slippery mess under it from the dropped seeds. So now, with little notice, I've been out, moved the feeder, and shovelled up most of the muck. It is still very slippery, and there's an old paving slab in the way. Not about to do a tip run now, so if it is in the way, they'll have to shift it. Not my windows, not my problem.

We moved in early Sept. '95. Our windows were replaced soon afterwards, as the originals were rotted wood, and we'd budgeted for that when making the offer. We still have those windows, still fine.
The neighbours at the time had just had new windows. 18 months later, they moved out, and sold to a housing association. The housing association replaced the windows a few years later. So now, they're looking at doing it again. That's three sets of windows.

It also seems unlikely that the scaffolders called my neighbour today to make the appointment to build tomorrow. The windows will have been ordered a while back, so this should not be a surprise. With no notice, I have no intention of busting a gut to clear a space for them.

 

[bugsymike]

Midday, the doorbell went, like an emergency. (Why can't people just press once and wait?)
Neighbour, informing me that scaffolding is going up tomorrow, and will need to stand on my patio, as they have a pagoda roof over theirs, that is in the way. No worries with my patio, as it is just the crap concrete laid by the original builder.
Downside, is that we have a bird feeder there, and a slippery mess under it from the dropped seeds. So now, with little notice, I've been out, moved the feeder, and shovelled up most of the muck. It is still very slippery, and there's an old paving slab in the way. Not about to do a tip run now, so if it is in the way, they'll have to shift it. Not my windows, not my problem.

We moved in early Sept. '95. Our windows were replaced soon afterwards, as the originals were rotted wood, and we'd budgeted for that when making the offer. We still have those windows, still fine.
The neighbours at the time had just had new windows. 18 months later, they moved out, and sold to a housing association. The housing association replaced the windows a few years later. So now, they're looking at doing it again. That's three sets of windows.

It also seems unlikely that the scaffolders called my neighbour today to make the appointment to build tomorrow. The windows will have been ordered a while back, so this should not be a surprise. With no notice, I have no intention of busting a gut to clear a space for them.

At least someone notified/asked you.
I was using my toilet one day and heard a noise, opened the window and there was four hulking builders standing on my garage roof admiring the work on neighbours property, so in no uncertain terms I suggested they got off it!!!! Saying next time, ask and use crawling boards to spread the load, instead of bending the box profile roof I had recently fitted!!!

 

[portland_bill]

At least someone notified/asked you.
I was using my toilet one day and heard a noise, opened the window and there was four hulking builders standing on my garage roof admiring the work on neighbours property, so in no uncertain terms I suggested they got off it!!!! Saying next time, ask and use crawling boards to spread the load, instead of bending the box profile roof I had recently fitted!!!

A few years ago, the same housing association was replacing soffits and guttering. I watched them do a few other houses in the street, and then they arrived next door. They were building their own scaffolding, not employing a scaffolding company, and I arrived home to find two legs on my paving slabs out the front. The slabs were laid very quickly, and I had no idea what was under them. (Recently, I've found out, as several are breaking up. 5 blobs of mortar, some of which are now deteriorating, allowing slabs to rock and crack.) So I had no idea whether the slabs would take the weight of scaffolding legs, with a tiny square plate under each, but mostly because they had not asked, I told them to remove it. A few minutes later, their foreman arrived and insisted, stating the slabs were fine. When questioned, he had no technical info to back that up. I'd confused him by asking about the strength of them, and their ability to take point loads. He still insisted. I told him no. They made a big fuss, but removed it, setting them back a day. Win.
Next day, a visit from the housing association. A nice guy, discussed the issue, accepted that the slabs were an unknown quantity, and apologised for the contractors behaviour. He then noticed their truck. A name he did not recognise. The official contractor had apparently sub-contracted the job, without permission. I pointed to a few of the other houses, with their bowing gutters.
Next day, the sub-standard sub-contractors were gone. Another win.

 

[portland_bill]

This morning, two scruffy oiks arrived, with a scruffier 3.5t truck. They've built a little scaffolding next door, didn't need to come over the fence.
Dog barked almost non-stop the entire time, no apparent attempt to quieten it. Usual.
Strangely, the two guys were shouting to each other constantly. When I've witnessed scaffold building before, there's not much noise, they just get on with it, concentrating on not leaving anything loose. Hopefully, their noise hasn't distracted them too much.

 

[StevenRB45]

To add to the knackered CV joy...

Wheel key has buggered off...this is what happens when I cannot bloody go myself.

 

[portland_bill]

More carer issues.
Medication is in a dossette box. This is a box of compartments, with the pills in each set out for correct timing. Often the pharmacy will create these, but I have one that I refill each Sunday, as the pharmacist has so many it is a problem for him. Each day clearly marked, and four compartments, breakfast, lunch, teatime and bedtime.
Lunchtime box is empty.
Lunchtime carer gives pill from teatime box.
Different carer at teatime, knows there should be a pill, but box is empty. Could ask. Used initiative. Took pill from tomorrow teatime.

So now Partner has been overdosed. Luckily no ill effects apparent. Happened once before, still alive.
Tomorrow teatime box is now empty. Best I refill it.

Is there anything more dangerous than someone who is not very bright, trying to be clever?

 

[Cheest]

After breakfast this morning I went out to unpack the truck. The front seat where Mrs.Cheest and myself sat was not bad as I take our bits of trash out at each pee stop. The backseat that grandson Eli had all to himself...JHC, the kid is a fricking pig. I think half the potato chips he shoved in his face ended up on the seat and the floor. There was half a container of french fries dumped on the empty seat and a burger wrapper mixed in with the fries. Yet, the empty bag the junk came in was on the floor. I was hot.
I wanted to drive to his school, drag him out of class, and make him clean out the truck in front of his class. But then I'd be in deep doo doo with the cops, DCSF(child welfare[where the hell were they when I was a kid]) and grandma, aka, Enabler in Chief of Grandchildren. So, instead, I've done a slow burn since I cleaned out the truck and have been giving grandma one word answers about cleaning out the truck. Which is code for do not talk to me.

 

[bugsymike]

After breakfast this morning I went out to unpack the truck. The front seat where Mrs.Cheest and myself sat was not bad as I take our bits of trash out at each pee stop. The backseat that grandson Eli had all to himself...JHC, the kid is a fricking pig. I think half the potato chips he shoved in his face ended up on the seat and the floor. There was half a container of french fries dumped on the empty seat and a burger wrapper mixed in with the fries. Yet, the empty bag the junk came in was on the floor. I was hot.
I wanted to drive to his school, drag him out of class, and make him clean out the truck in front of his class. But then I'd be in deep doo doo with the cops, DCSF(child welfare[where the hell were they when I was a kid]) and grandma, aka, Enabler in Chief of Grandchildren. So, instead, I've done a slow burn since I cleaned out the truck and have been giving grandma one word answers about cleaning out the truck. Which is code for do not talk to me.

Could have been worse, if he got car sick and honked the lot up, sharing that for several hundred miles and even less fun cleaning up.
Reminds me of when one of my sisters and husband had just moved to London, he was driving flat out in the outside lane on Motorway to visit my mum in their Renault 10 when there suddenly was an awful choking smell and they were struggling to breath, sisters cat had decided to have a dump on the parcel shelf.