MOTOR CHAT
- Thread starter velomaniac
- Start date
epicyclo
Senior Retro Guru
I used to be a car enthusiast, a temporary perversion of my youth back in the deluded days when derailleurs seemed a good idea.
My first car was a barn find - one of the Singer team cars from the 1934 Le Mans race - cost me £15. Bit of petrol, a borrowed dud battery, some energetic work with a bicycle pump (lots and lots of it!), about half an hour of maybe this time with the starting handle, and I drove it home unencumbered by a driving licence (too young), registration, insurance, or MoT. It had a crunchy diff, and that was the first of several major jobs I had to do on it. Luckily I didn't know diffs were supposed to be difficult, I just thought I wasn't very good at it and stripped it a few times to reshim and rematch cogs until I got it right.
Singer LeMans Special Speed "Porthos"
My first car was a barn find - one of the Singer team cars from the 1934 Le Mans race - cost me £15. Bit of petrol, a borrowed dud battery, some energetic work with a bicycle pump (lots and lots of it!), about half an hour of maybe this time with the starting handle, and I drove it home unencumbered by a driving licence (too young), registration, insurance, or MoT. It had a crunchy diff, and that was the first of several major jobs I had to do on it. Luckily I didn't know diffs were supposed to be difficult, I just thought I wasn't very good at it and stripped it a few times to reshim and rematch cogs until I got it right.
Singer LeMans Special Speed "Porthos"
velomaniac
MacRetro Rider
I read motor chat and find myself mystified most times. Dont know my big end from my back side me 
velomaniac
MacRetro Rider
So the backfirings nothing to do with too much lubrication, I dont have to lay off the beer after all, cool !
jimihendrix
MacRetro Rider
Sad day today, had to scrap my old BMW 728i 
, mistake i made was impulse buying the 750iL on the strength of the 728i passing an MOT (it had failed on emissions), plan was to get the 728i MOT'd and sell it getting back most of what i paid for the 750iL, was sure it was the Lambda's causing the fail, changed the Lambda's, bought the 750iL, then the 728i failed on the CAT, had to pass the death sentence as a new CAT is £240 (also found wear in the front TCA's the MOT tester had missed), i wasn't prepared to spend any more on the car and unfortunately it's worth more to me in parts than selling (without an MOT a car like this is very hard to sell for decent money)
Was still a superb car though, ran and drove great, felt a bit sorry seeing it getting forklifted in the scrappy (was down there thisafternoon salvaging all the new bits off it i fitted last year), hate scrapping or breaking a decent car but sometimes the Maths just doesn't add up, especially with a non (or even borderline) classic.
Here's a pic of the beast looking healthy only last year, hopefully now in the great Autobahn in the sky :cry:
Ironic thing is i feel that i'm not quite bonding with the 750iL and may sell that :roll:
I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to cars :facepalm:
, mistake i made was impulse buying the 750iL on the strength of the 728i passing an MOT (it had failed on emissions), plan was to get the 728i MOT'd and sell it getting back most of what i paid for the 750iL, was sure it was the Lambda's causing the fail, changed the Lambda's, bought the 750iL, then the 728i failed on the CAT, had to pass the death sentence as a new CAT is £240 (also found wear in the front TCA's the MOT tester had missed), i wasn't prepared to spend any more on the car and unfortunately it's worth more to me in parts than selling (without an MOT a car like this is very hard to sell for decent money)Was still a superb car though, ran and drove great, felt a bit sorry seeing it getting forklifted in the scrappy
(was down there thisafternoon salvaging all the new bits off it i fitted last year), hate scrapping or breaking a decent car but sometimes the Maths just doesn't add up, especially with a non (or even borderline) classic. Here's a pic of the beast looking healthy only last year, hopefully now in the great Autobahn in the sky :cry:
Ironic thing is i feel that i'm not quite bonding with the 750iL and may sell that :roll:
I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to cars :facepalm:
That's a shame. I hate scrapping perfectly drivable cars, especially ones I've enjoyed owning.
Did you salvage the indicator switch from it when you were there? If my experience on the A406 North Circular this afternoon is anything to go by, they are a particular weak point on BMW's of this era, and presumably fetch quite a premium...
Did you salvage the indicator switch from it when you were there? If my experience on the A406 North Circular this afternoon is anything to go by, they are a particular weak point on BMW's of this era, and presumably fetch quite a premium...
jimihendrix
MacRetro Rider
GSB":24wkm6ch said:
Indicators ?, Ah, is that those strange flashing lights on the corners of other cars i've seen ?
My other car is a big 4x4, i'll try and use them on that if i can figure it out, last time i checked it was a plastic stick at the side of the steering wheel
Clubby, i'll be bringing the monster Disco on Sunday since the Beemer would cost about £175 in fuel, hopefully there will be some scrap cars to drive over if i dont fancy riding the bike
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