Watching CarSOS too much.

[stek]

Just watched the one about the Mini Cooper from last week.

Now I want one of those too.

Weslake head, bored out to 1300cc, dunno if it had a LCB exhaust, but twin su carbs.

They did a lovely job of doing it up.

And I now know how a crank shaft is reground.

Like the Lancia Flavia one, lovely car, looked mint after it was done up

[chopper]

Presenter trots along to one of those slightly magick storehouses of wonder and lo! "Oh, yes. We've got some of those on the shelf".

What they don't show you is the spotty oik intern researcher who spent 3 days phoning every car spares store in the Yellow Pages until he found one who managed to find one in a dusty corner of the parts store.

[NickFitz]

Nope, got new dizzy cap, rotor arm, coil and leads for Mk 3 Escort 1.6i engine in summer from local parts distributor, all in stock. OFC not all stock the same stock.

Excellent!

There's actually two car parts shops within a few minutes walk of home now, but I suspect the newer and nearer one would be more likely to have to order that kind of thing rather than having it sat on a shelf in the back room like the older one did. I needed to get somewhere (I think either Cambridge or London) that morning, so it was great to be able to get the car going again within twenty minutes of finding it wouldn't start

[greenlake]

I've watched the price of spares for my Orion go down and now start going back up again

Shame you don't still have that E-Type....

[ladymuck]

Perfect for clearing all that snow

[anonymouse]

I've watched the price of spares for my Orion go down and now start going back up again

And I suspect the days of walking into the car parts shop up the road and getting a replacement distributor cap over the counter without any need to hunt for and order it have passed.

Nope, got new dizzy cap, rotor arm, coil and leads for Mk 3 Escort 1.6i engine in summer from local parts distributor, all in stock. OFC not all stock the same stock.

[greenlake]

Has given me the urge to start renovating the ZeitFiatSeicento(tm) instead of doing the sensible thing & scrapping it.

Go on, Zeity, do it, do it....

[NickFitz]

What gets me is the availability of spares for some of these ancient cars, and equally ancient valve wireless sets.

One of the Car SOS progs this week was about a 1926ish Austin 12/4 or 12/6, produced when god was a boy.

It needed a new set of pistons coz the existing lot were terminally fecked & in pieces.

Presenter trots along to one of those slightly magick storehouses of wonder and lo! "Oh, yes. We've got some of those on the shelf".

"Do they come with piston rings?"

"Oh yes, and gudgeon pins with circlips".

Same thing goes for ancient valves like the ones in a 1937 Marconi wireless of mine.

All available off the shelf, NOS.

However, should you want some chip from 3 years ago to fix sommat, then it's "Oh, no mate, they don't make those any more, you'll have to scrap it".

I've watched the price of spares for my Orion go down and now start going back up again

And I suspect the days of walking into the car parts shop up the road and getting a replacement distributor cap over the counter without any need to hunt for and order it have passed.

[original PM]

Drop in a cossie 8 pot and some decent ice and you are down with the kids

[RSoles]

Ah that old return on investment question.
I ask myself something similar every time the wife's Ancient Rover 25 comes up for MOT....

Edit, then you come here and we're playing 'CookerSOS'

[zeitghost]

Has given me the urge to start renovating the ZeitFiatSeicento(tm) instead of doing the sensible thing & scrapping it.