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What's made you smile today?

As I said there are some ancient motor factors around who still have store rooms full of new old stock gaskets, valves, pistons, bearings etc, they could build many cars with the parts they have shoved in every draw, corner and cupboard, yet my experience of these people is they tend to have stuff hoarded like this because they won't part with it. and getting them to sell you anything can prove difficult.

We used to have an old scrap yard just north of Norwich Called Medlers, they had stuff dating back to the early 1900s, there driveway was lined with ancient cars that they had accrued over decades of collecting, They had a section specifically dedicated to pre-war stuff. The guy you would have to talk to, to buy anything, would always "have to ask his aunt" before he would give you a price on anything and that would take a few days and when he did get back to you if you had the patience to wait, he would always come back with "my aunt says we're not selling that at the moment" the place got closed down by environmental protection when the rules tightened up

It's still there but they took many of the complete cars away, anything that was falling to pieces got left to become one with the ground again, there are still some cars there but nothing that's worth taking anything from. It is still there, and there is a right of way through the site so urban explorers still post videos online from time to time


From the state of the place either the EA had nothing to do with this or they are failing in theri duty to deal with the remaining rubbish.
 
From the state of the place either the EA had nothing to do with this or they are failing in theri duty to deal with the remaining rubbish.
This was the early 90s, the place was closed down by the end of the 90s and all but abandoned. Then further stricter ruled came in by which time it wasn't a "scrap yard" anymore and just some remaining old and rusted cars and vehicles abandoned on private land, many of which had been there a decade or more by that point.

They went through a whole process of removing all the newer cars and at that time "newer" cars were from the 70s and 80s
 
Roofer out for the 3rd time this year...

I knew without the big building opposite we'd have some issues, effectively it was a massive wind break during Northern storms so this is not entirely unexpected.

So after the mortar work, and the flashing and the pointing below the front window..we had an unexpected one during storm Babet, water literally coming through the front wall.

Now standing outside the house there was a stream of water running down the wall directly into an airbrick..so yeah that'll be it then.

Front guttering has never been great...it always dripped somewhat down the fascia boards, despite being clean and crack free, the problem being in heavy rain, those drips become a stream, which when blown by a north wind is blown back into the face of the house and then runs down. This was not a problem previously as there was massive building between us and the north wind.

Anyway, he came out today to have a look, was like we'll have a look at fascia trays stop it from happening.

Came down his ladder, "Think it might be fixed" "what?" "Whoever installed your gutter had the edge of the felt behind them, it's possible it's blown behind them and you might need the trays, but yeah give it go and see if it's fixed and I'll write a quote if necessary"..

Happy with that..also the house that jack built..strikes again 🤣
 
Roofer out for the 3rd time this year...

I knew without the big building opposite we'd have some issues, effectively it was a massive wind break during Northern storms so this is not entirely unexpected.

So after the mortar work, and the flashing and the pointing below the front window..we had an unexpected one during storm Babet, water literally coming through the front wall.

Now standing outside the house there was a stream of water running down the wall directly into an airbrick..so yeah that'll be it then.

Front guttering has never been great...it always dripped somewhat down the fascia boards, despite being clean and crack free, the problem being in heavy rain, those drips become a stream, which when blown by a north wind is blown back into the face of the house and then runs down. This was not a problem previously as there was massive building between us and the north wind.

Anyway, he came out today to have a look, was like we'll have a look at fascia trays stop it from happening.

Came down his ladder, "Think it might be fixed" "what?" "Whoever installed your gutter had the edge of the felt behind them, it's possible it's blown behind them and you might need the trays, but yeah give it go and see if it's fixed and I'll write a quote if necessary"..

Happy with that..also the house that jack built..strikes again 🤣
Try these on vents, worked a treat on our old house and on boat vents:
 
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Try these on vents, worked a treat on our old house and on boat vents:
Already have them on 🤣

They were on during said storm though have been re-sealed at the top since.

One day I shall have a waterproof house, with working heating and no drafts. At that point my wife will probably decide to put it on the market.
 
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Already have them on 🤣

They were on during said storm though have been re-sealed at the top since.

One day I shall have a waterproof house, with working heating and no drafts. At that point my wife will probably decide to put it on the market.
Having no more ex wives on my back, living on my own so I can make as much mess as I like, fill it up with motor related gear and like my dearly loved old mum said about her home, "I like it here, I could die here", which she did until the last three days or so.
After 36 years here, my five children grew up here and six of my grandchildren have played here, it suits me and them, moving home only puts money in other peoples pockets, mortgage companies, banks, estate agents, insurance companies etc.
Note, I use the word home rather than house, although I am sure some people would say I belong in a home!;););)
 
This popped up on YouTube. Not a Fiat, but will be of interest to most of us older ones.

Lovely old film @portland_bill , I recognised several models that I worked on as an apprentice and even a few I have owned, though never had Austin A35s, though may have had something to do with my friend rolling his mothers one over and knocking himself unconscious by hitting the none collapsible interior mirror, no seat belts in those days.;)
 
There are two specialist companies dealing with tyres for classics, one based at Beaulieu. They have many tyres remade, from original moulds, as they have good working relationships with the original manufacturers. They have some original Pirelli Citurato, and Dunlop SP, if you remember them. There's a big price attached though. There's also a specialist manufacturer, Blockley, who make tyres for early cars.
Dunlop SP Sport……now there’s a quality tyre. Had 4 10” ones on my old S reg classic Mini. They had a lovely thick ridge round the outside to my protect my lovely white Weller wheels! 😁
 
This popped up on YouTube. Not a Fiat, but will be of interest to most of us older ones.

My mum had one of these before she got the Minor Traveller.
Where it all started for me.. Apparently😉 Austin A35
Yes, definitely the A35 because it's got the larger back window - A 30 had a much smaller one, mind you it says it's A35 in the video anyway.
I loved the sequences at the start which show the production line. As always, interested in the tyres which would have been 520x13 crossplies. I'd have guessed at them being Dunlop C41? but the tread pattern doesn't look quite right so now I'm not too sure. Seeing the front upright all nice and smart in it's coat of black paint was a treat. Don't know how many king pin bushes I must have done on those and their larger A55/A60 brothers. Was it the bottom trunnion that had a retaining pin/screw which corroded in place and could be the very devil to get out - or am I thinking of another vehicle altogether. All so long ago now.
 
Dunlop SP Sport……now there’s a quality tyre. Had 4 10” ones on my old S reg classic Mini. They had a lovely thick ridge round the outside to my protect my lovely white Weller wheels! 😁
My first "proper" road going car - as against the old 1930 Morris Minor and 1936 Morris 8 I thrashed around the fields in - was an 850 Mini. It was on 520x10 Dunlop crossplies which slid and slithered around the border roads giving me no end of relatively low speed thrills. Later, when I went halfers on a 1275 Cooper S with my Dad, it came on Dunlop radials - 145/10 if I remember? 145/80R10 in "modern" language (the aspect ratio was never mentioned on radials back in those days because everything was "high profile" 85% if I remember correctly? - which were an absolute revelation in terms of "hanging on" when cornering. Took me a wee bit of time to get used to the relatively vicious breakaway characteristics after being used to the crossplies though. I briefly got involved in club events with the Cooper doing a bit or rallying and sprint/hillclimbs. Tried a set of Bias belted Goodyear "wide ovals" as they looked good and I'd never tried bias belted tyres before, They made the breakaway easier to predict but were little better than the crossplies in terms of ultimate grip and wore quickly. I almost wore the fronts out in one weekend of hillclimbing at Stobs Camp. I gave up competitive events after a year or so as it was expensive maintaining the car and anyway, I wasn't fast enough!

Edit. Do you remember the Dunlop "aquajets" with their wee sideways channels for water dispersion?
 
My mum had one of these before she got the Minor Traveller.

Yes, definitely the A35 because it's got the larger back window - A 30 had a much smaller one, mind you it says it's A35 in the video anyway.
I loved the sequences at the start which show the production line. As always, interested in the tyres which would have been 520x13 crossplies. I'd have guessed at them being Dunlop C41? but the tread pattern doesn't look quite right so now I'm not too sure. Seeing the front upright all nice and smart in it's coat of black paint was a treat. Don't know how many king pin bushes I must have done on those and their larger A55/A60 brothers. Was it the bottom trunnion that had a retaining pin/screw which corroded in place and could be the very devil to get out - or am I thinking of another vehicle altogether. All so long ago now.
Yes larger rear window than the A30, which also had the longer "magic wand " gear stick.
I had a 1955 split screen Morris Minor 803cc OHV with the "magic wand", I claimed it to be the only automatic version as racing up the steep hill in first gear to my mums house, somewhere near peak revs it would leap out of first gear and straight into second gear and carry on, a fun party piece;).
It was another of my economy buys, £10 from a friend who had been breathalised and banned rightly from driving. I believe I mentioned before the engine was shot and one night a friend and I were stopped by a policeman for the noisy "exhaust" when I put my foot over the tail pipe and stopped the engine, then explained the noise was the engine about to blow up, he then still after some form of "crime" said isn't that dangerous? Too which I replied, "there are two motor engineers in the car and we are not bothered"! So he gave up;). Mind you a few weeks later I did fit another engine from the local scrapyard at a massive cost of £5, happy days.
On the king pin jobs Jock from memory it was the tapered cotter pin that was a pain, similar to the ones on the cranks of pedal bikes.:)
 
My first "proper" road going car - as against the old 1930 Morris Minor and 1936 Morris 8 I thrashed around the fields in - was an 850 Mini. It was on 520x10 Dunlop crossplies which slid and slithered around the border roads giving me no end of relatively low speed thrills. Later, when I went halfers on a 1275 Cooper S with my Dad, it came on Dunlop radials - 145/10 if I remember? 145/80R10 in "modern" language (the aspect ratio was never mentioned on radials back in those days because everything was "high profile" 85% if I remember correctly? - which were an absolute revelation in terms of "hanging on" when cornering. Took me a wee bit of time to get used to the relatively vicious breakaway characteristics after being used to the crossplies though. I briefly got involved in club events with the Cooper doing a bit or rallying and sprint/hillclimbs. Tried a set of Bias belted Goodyear "wide ovals" as they looked good and I'd never tried bias belted tyres before, They made the breakaway easier to predict but were little better than the crossplies in terms of ultimate grip and wore quickly. I almost wore the fronts out in one weekend of hillclimbing at Stobs Camp. I gave up competitive events after a year or so as it was expensive maintaining the car and anyway, I wasn't fast enough!

Edit. Do you remember the Dunlop "aquajets" with their wee sideways channels for water dispersion?
My first road cars were Ford 105Es on 5.20x13 and after getting used to the lack of cornering ability on them, it was a great improvement to lower the Ford, give it negative camber and 175x13 Uniroyals on Dunlop 5.5 J steel wheels.
However always enjoyed the tail out cornering of big old rwd cars on crossplies Vauxhall PA Crestas, Ford Zodiacs etc..
A lot of the Jags our way had the Dunlop SP Aquajets as I recall.
 
Yes larger rear window than the A30, which also had the longer "magic wand " gear stick.
My 850 mini had the long gearshift "wand" which went into the floor just to the left of the clutch pedal. Changing gear with it was like stirring a bowl of porridge and, if you were lucky, ending up selecting a gear - any gear was a bonus! The Cooper's remote change was so much more positive. I remember it rattled like anything at higher revs - so most of the time being as how I was young and stupid back then!
On the king pin jobs Jock from memory it was the tapered cotter pin that was a pain, similar to the ones on the cranks of pedal bikes.:)
It's slowly coming back to me. They were cotter pins, very much like bicycle pedal cotter pins, which retained the bottom fulcrum pins in the bottom suspension arms and stopped them rotating/falling out. I found this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/20433281...QcurtSXlIHfklnKkiUBzrwPZJqMGfgmxoCKTsQAvD_BwE which shows them quite well.

I remember we had a big long stepped reamer which let you do both top and bottom bushes in the one go and kept things all in line as you took them out to the correct diameter. I think it was probably quite expensive because to get the storeman to let you have it you just about had to sign your life away and he always minutely inspected it when you handed it back!
 
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I remember the cotter pins now. They'd grip in there so tight, that you could remove the nut and there was no chance of them falling out. A real pain to remove, as hitting the end tended to swell the shaft, instead of moving it, so they got tighter. They seemed to be made of special stuff, hard enough to make drilling difficult, soft enough to swell from the blows of a tiny hammer. I have a 4oz hammer, with quite a long handle, seemed to work the best. Also required a lot of swearing at it.
I also remember the reamer. Ours had to be signed out too, and minutely inspected on return.
 
My 850 mini had the long gearshift "wand" which went into the floor just to the left of the clutch pedal. Changing gear with it was like stirring a bowl of porridge and, if you were lucky, ending up selecting a gear - any gear was a bonus! The Cooper's remote change was so much more positive. I remember it rattled like anything at higher revs - so most of the time being as how I was young and stupid back then!

It's slowly coming back to me. They were cotter pins, very much like bicycle pedal cotter pins, which retained the bottom fulcrum pins in the bottom suspension arms and stopped them rotating/falling out. I found this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/20433281...QcurtSXlIHfklnKkiUBzrwPZJqMGfgmxoCKTsQAvD_BwE which shows them quite well.

I remember we had a big long stepped reamer which let you do both top and bottom bushes in the one go and kept things all in line as you took them out to the correct diameter. I think it was probably quite expensive because to get the storeman to let you have it you just about had to sign your life away and he always minutely inspected it when you handed it back!
Yes that's the kits, fitted quite a few in the past.
We had a one pass reamer like you describe for Austin A60s, but used adjustable reamers for the others, so a longer job.
 
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I remember the cotter pins now. They'd grip in there so tight, that you could remove the nut and there was no chance of them falling out. A real pain to remove, as hitting the end tended to swell the shaft, instead of moving it, so they got tighter. They seemed to be made of special stuff, hard enough to make drilling difficult, soft enough to swell from the blows of a tiny hammer. I have a 4oz hammer, with quite a long handle, seemed to work the best. Also required a lot of swearing at it.
I also remember the reamer. Ours had to be signed out too, and minutely inspected on return.
If we were lucky I would leave the nut on without the washer just flush with the end of the threads then a good wallop with a copper mallet should send the cotter pin on it's way once remains of nut removed.
If that didn't work then we knew we would have had to drill it out either way.;)
Hillman Imps as I recall no reaming required.
 
My first car was a 1956 A40 Farina. I still remember it fondly. Started on new Goodyear remoulds. After a week all 4 were bubbling all over. I swapped to G800 supersteels and loved them. I drove on Goodyears apart from 2 days on Dunlop in 1975, until around 1997 when my Laguna wasted a set in 9000 miles. I tried most brands since and now prefer either continentals or Michelin. Another A40 followed then 2 Heralds, Toyota Corolla, and a load of Renaults and Citroens before starting on Fiats. Mother has a 1937 Topolino then A35 before a line of Minis and an Autobianchi. While call you experts were using reamers dad and I were spending hours 'reaming' king pin bushes with a circular file which explains why the job always seemed to need redoing. I did find changing the lever damper oil for EP90 firmed things up until the seals failed, so moved on to grease..... needed weekly at best. Youngsters just dont have the opportunity to learn easily these days. They are worse off for it I think. I remember the motor show in 1975 I think, I made the top ten in a how fast can you change the spark plugs competition. The people at the top must have been amazing to watch. But for a teenager I was chuffed to do as well. I think today is just less fun.
 
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