What's made you smile today?

[The Panda Nut]

I should mention they are very thin slices, honest! By the way, over did it yesterday and now I've got a sore back and those biceps I tore a couple of years ago are protesting too. Was hoping to get started on the polishing today but I don't think I'm up to it. Getting old? Grrrrrrr, I hate it!

Excuses excuses... I have the similar issues, I upset my shoulders and arms 30 years or so back building studwork walls and nailing upthe kitchen ceiling plaster board. It took months for things to settle down. Doing this work on my daughters place has awoken the whole bag of worms. Ive been doing nothing much for the last 2 to 3 weeks. I removed a built in cup board in her bedroom to be , and using a lot of force on the crowbar and then levering nails out has got me. I reckon there are aircraft carriers that are much more slighly build than that cupboard! I can't really stop now but may be forced to haev a month or two off. The big trouble is I have to do al least some of the wall boarding and thats really goingto make it worse. Isnt it amazing how all the injuries you got growing up all return to plague you.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Excuses excuses... I have the similar issues, I upset my shoulders and arms 30 years or so back building studwork walls and nailing upthe kitchen ceiling plaster board. It took months for things to settle down. Doing this work on my daughters place has awoken the whole bag of worms. Ive been doing nothing much for the last 2 to 3 weeks. I removed a built in cup board in her bedroom to be , and using a lot of force on the crowbar and then levering nails out has got me. I reckon there are aircraft carriers that are much more slighly build than that cupboard! I can't really stop now but may be forced to haev a month or two off. The big trouble is I have to do al least some of the wall boarding and thats really goingto make it worse. Isnt it amazing how all the injuries you got growing up all return to plague you.

Apart from the general decline of my body due to natural aging, this sort of thing is what's worrying me about attempting the rear axle change on Becky. I have the tools and I have the knowledge but this has really brought it home to me that I probably no longer have the physical ability.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Apart from the general decline of my body due to natural aging, this sort of thing is what's worrying me about attempting the rear axle change on Becky. I have the tools and I have the knowledge but this has really brought it home to me that I probably no longer have the physical ability.

All you need to do is organise an axle party... Pu tup a post Im changing my axle at 9.00am on the the nth of Octember with location and see who turns up to get a free cup of tea! I havn't been to Edinburgh for a while and Noop may need an 'Italian Service'. I know what you mean, its annoying. Im contempalting getting someone else to do wall boarding in the bungalow and I really dont like paying for something I know how to do. My big motivation is to get on and finish this project as I can see I will not be doing anything like it very far into the future. Moving an axle is something you really need a couple of assistants for in reality. Its ok until something slips. Im sure once the think is mounted up the rest would be OK taken at a steady pace. Im working up to doing Kaths clutch slave. It was squeaking when I bought the car and has got worse. I need a dry day in Manchester... Good luck with that as they say!

 

[bugsymike]

Apart from the general decline of my body due to natural aging, this sort of thing is what's worrying me about attempting the rear axle change on Becky. I have the tools and I have the knowledge but this has really brought it home to me that I probably no longer have the physical ability.

I know exactly where you are on that, just took the gearbox out of my Vauxhall Combo/Fiat Doblo, hard enough with gravity on my side on the way out, but total lack of enthusiasm for the return and aching hip and n/s leg not helping.

 

[rmjbn1]

OK so it may have blown the doors off literally instead of figuratively, but I did enjoy the noise of that Cosworth NA V12 in the back of the Aston Valkyrie

That and the Caddy V8 are keeping the aural assault of racing alive and well

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

OK so it may have blown the doors off literally instead of figuratively, but I did enjoy the noise of that Cosworth NA V12 in the back of the Aston Valkyrie

That and the Caddy V8 are keeping the aural assault of racing alive and well

Yum Yum, absolutely delicious!

 

[The Panda Nut]

Decided I should doavisualon Rubys front brakes in light of 16% imbalance reported at Mot. Result, 43000 miles new discs and pads. One side has more worn pads than the other, also one disc is worn to 10mm and the othermost be 1mm different. Need to measure tosee if its 11mm or 9mm but suspect the latter. All parts cleanedand caliper brackets repainted in stove black. THATS THE END OF THE GOOD NEWS. Back sides of discs in poor state n/s worse than o/s. And these were reallycleaned just a year ago. I note that the outside surface is shiny. As the pistons act towards the inner surface what does this mean. The caliper MUST slide ok If stuck it would suely be the out side face that would rust?? Surely, the piston should push the inner pad onto the inner face of the disc, then the caliper slides and pulls the outside pad onto the disc?? Or am I wrong. New bushes and pins will be fitted as soon as I have them. Now of course the new pads are rough and squeal like hell. MORE ATTENTION NEEDED. I decided not to apply copperease to thebacks of pads. . .

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

THATS THE END OF THE GOOD NEWS. Back sides of discs in poor state n/s worse than o/s. And these were reallycleaned just a year ago. I note that the outside surface is shiny. As the pistons act towards the inner surface what does this mean. The caliper MUST slide ok If stuck it would suely be the out side face that would rust?? Surely, the piston should push the inner pad onto the inner face of the disc, then the caliper slides and pulls the outside pad onto the disc??

I agree. with this sort of single piston sliding caliper you'd expect, if the sliding body of the caliper was seized, to find the inner disc face nice and smooth - because the piston is still pushing the pad into contact with the inner disc face - so you'd expect the inner disc face to be smooth and shiny and the outer face rusty etc. However I've often noticed that, even on setups where the caliper is completely free to move and working exactly as it should, the inner disc face is considerably more worn and rusty than the outward facing side. I've often pondered on this and the only answer I can think of is that the wheel itself shields the outer face of the disc, especially if it's a steel wheel as they are more enclosing, whereas the inner face is more exposed to dirt and salt which will be thrown up as the vehicle moves along.

 

[porta]

Decided I should doavisualon Rubys front brakes in light of 16% imbalance reported at Mot. Result, 43000 miles new discs and pads. One side has more worn pads than the other, also one disc is worn to 10mm and the othermost be 1mm different. Need to measure tosee if its 11mm or 9mm but suspect the latter. All parts cleanedand caliper brackets repainted in stove black. THATS THE END OF THE GOOD NEWS. Back sides of discs in poor state n/s worse than o/s. And these were reallycleaned just a year ago. I note that the outside surface is shiny. As the pistons act towards the inner surface what does this mean. The caliper MUST slide ok If stuck it would suely be the out side face that would rust?? Surely, the piston should push the inner pad onto the inner face of the disc, then the caliper slides and pulls the outside pad onto the disc?? Or am I wrong. New bushes and pins will be fitted as soon as I have them. Now of course the new pads are rough and squeal like hell. MORE ATTENTION NEEDED. I decided not to apply copperease to thebacks of pads. . .

Having done loads of this wehn in the trade the natural reaction was to say ‘it’s because of the camber in the road and being more in the gutter’ so it was often explained as because we drive on the right and the opposite happens for LHD countries…I have no scientific or empirical reason to confirm or deny…PS, I’ve had a Guinness or two

 

[StevenRB45]

Managed to load the boy and his cousins into the car and take them and my sister for a day out as thankfully they are now over 135cm so we can go full family wagon with 3 across the back seat as one of them is now 14 and too cool to hang out with us.

This is an improvement on the usual 2 mile walk to and from the beach at Cullercoats which to be fair would have been a bit of grim trudge on a grey day in March and we did a much nicer beach last week.

He's been asleep since 730...I feel like I'm not going to be up much longer I'm glad I'm not having 3 let's put it that way.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

He's been asleep since 730...I feel like I'm not going to be up much longer I'm glad I'm not having 3 let's put it that way.

We had 3 - boy then a girl and some years later another boy - and I remember a good friend, who also has 3, saying to me "once they outnumber you it's all over".

 

[StevenRB45]

There is a photo of me in existence walking out of the sea with child under each arm a football at my feet from a few years ago...

Today was a breeze in comparison but with my sister having 3 I've fairly regularly had up to 4 to keep entertained at once...and no I have no interest in that as a full time arrangement as fun as it is.

 

[bugsymike]

I'm glad I'm not having 3 let's put it that way.

Tend to disagree with you all, we had the three then, due to a new GP misdiagnosing a pregnancy and telling wife to come off the pill (apparently nothing was mentioned about alternative methods of birth control), she went to the 18 week scan and was told you are only 10 weeks, plus it's twins, I looked at it as a bonus and being used to a poor (financially) upbringing took it in my stride and knew we would manage, wife less impressed as in hindsight I think she was looking to depart the marital scene even then.
However I managed to provide for us all and no one starved, buying ice creams, chip and burgers at Steam Rally's tend to add up a bit though.
Great family fun on beach, moor and dog walks with all of us, even though after the others had grown up and moved out, I still ended up bringing up the last two 14 year old girls on my own and until they were able to buy a house together at 25.
As I have often said, I wouldn't have thrown any back, just wish I could have had them without the wives, I would have been much better off financially. Only out of work two weeks since 1969 in my whole working life, but still have no money

 

[StevenRB45]

3 was definitely a possibility this time around given twins run in both my and my wife's family's.

So I did do a lot of maths before we decided to have another.

In the modern era the costs of having 3 are just exponential..you can't get an estate with seats in the boot now for a start. Also you can't just slam 3 kids into a car without child seats unless they are tall enough to be about 8 or 9 years old. So you have to a buy a minibus sorry family suv.

Then there's houses a 4 bedroom house with a garden isn't a family home it's an executive property and priced accordingly also nursery for 2 kids can easily cost more per month than the average wage. It's just all crazy..

So while If it had been 3 we'd have dealt with it...it's probably going to be less stressful for all concerned to not have to deal with it.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Tend to disagree with you all, we had the three then, due to a new GP misdiagnosing a pregnancy and telling wife to come off the pill (apparently nothing was mentioned about alternative methods of birth control), she went to the 18 week scan and was told you are only 10 weeks, plus it's twins, I looked at it as a bonus and being used to a poor (financially) upbringing took it in my stride and knew we would manage, wife less impressed as in hindsight I think she was looking to depart the marital scene even then.
However I managed to provide for us all and no one starved, buying ice creams, chip and burgers at Steam Rally's tend to add up a bit though.
Great family fun on beach, moor and dog walks with all of us, even though after the others had grown up and moved out, I still ended up bringing up the last two 14 year old girls on my own and until they were able to buy a house together at 25.
As I have often said, I wouldn't have thrown any back, just wish I could have had them without the wives, I would have been much better off financially. Only out of work two weeks since 1969 in my whole working life, but still have no money

As they say (whoever "they" are?) Life's a roller coaster with many ups and downs. sometimes so slow moving it gets boring and sometimes so fast you loose control. My father died some years before my mum leaving everything to her. When she died it got really complicated with her leaving the right to live in the property to my middle brother without becoming his property (ie it belonged to us all - her 4 children - but none of us could sell it until he died or voluntarily moved out.) By the time the lawyers and other blood suckers had finished carving up what was left there was very little left to share between us. Now my dear brother has left us (my youngest brother died years ago) we've discovered the property is actually part of a very complicated trust my mum set up but didn't register properly and it's looking like the cost of sorting out all the legal stuff connected with it before we can sell is going to wipe out a goodly portion of it's worth - It's just a wee cottage. Of course, with my sister living in the States it's falling to me to tackle all this crap!

So I suppose the point of all this rambling is that, although my father saw to it that I got a good start, paying for me to go to that college in the "big smoke" where I got my city and guilds and management diploma and other "stuff" - and I'll be forever grateful for that start in life - everything else has been achieved by me and my Mrs. From the moment I left college my Dad said, "right son, it's up to you now, you'll have to stand on your own two feet starting right now" and that's what I've done (somewhat wobbly to start with I admit!) We're not rich but we are managing to keep our heads above water. There have been many challenges with the kids, the youngest has been particularly challenging, but I wouldn't change anything and I have 5 wonderful grandchildren ranging in age from 5 to 20 years old who are helping to keep me young in outlook! Yes there have been many problems but the good times far outweight the bad and I was just thinking the other day how much we'd have missed if we'd not had kids. Although I'd probably have a few less grey hairs on my head!

Choosing a wife is a bit of a lottery isn't it? and all the more difficult when you're young and lacking in experience of life in general - raging hormones don't help either?! However I have been one of the lucky ones in that I ended up with a real smasher - probably been my greatest asset, helping me navigate through this life experience together.

 

[bugsymike]

3 was definitely a possibility this time around given twins run in both my and my wife's family's.

So I did do a lot of maths before we decided to have another.

In the modern era the costs of having 3 are just exponential..you can't get an estate with seats in the boot now for a start. Also you can't just slam 3 kids into a car without child seats unless they are tall enough to be about 8 or 9 years old. So you have to a buy a minibus sorry family suv.

Then there's houses a 4 bedroom house with a garden isn't a family home it's an executive property and priced accordingly also nursery for 2 kids can easily cost more per month than the average wage. It's just all crazy..

So while If it had been 3 we'd have dealt with it...it's probably going to be less stressful for all concerned to not have to deal with it.

I thought I had done the maths having just sold the two bedroom one I had kept with a struggle paying the repayments after first divorce settlement. My fledgling one man business was thriving and I had just registered for VAT on turnover so I bought this three bedroom semi in the late 80s, then the two extra girls arriving meant two sets of bunkbeds for the four girls and the small "box" room for my son, in those days you could buy a Peugeot 504 Family estate that had 7/8 seats all forward facing and still some boot space, unlike the Volvo with rear facing extra seats which to me were dangerous. Incidentally when GP confronted he just laughed when I said "it was alright for him but I had just had to buy the 7 seater car", not impressed by his attitude.
To add insult to injury along came the first recession caused by the Governments ERM policy, mortgage rate was 16% and I lost 75% of my customers as everyone struggled and many of mine were small businesses which meant that I lost all their work vehicles, their wives cars and often their staff's vehicles too.
This is why for me personally you can shove the E.U. were the sun don't shine!

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

3 was definitely a possibility this time around given twins run in both my and my wife's family's.

So I did do a lot of maths before we decided to have another.

In the modern era the costs of having 3 are just exponential..you can't get an estate with seats in the boot now for a start. Also you can't just slam 3 kids into a car without child seats unless they are tall enough to be about 8 or 9 years old. So you have to a buy a minibus sorry family suv.

Then there's houses a 4 bedroom house with a garden isn't a family home it's an executive property and priced accordingly also nursery for 2 kids can easily cost more per month than the average wage. It's just all crazy..

So while If it had been 3 we'd have dealt with it...it's probably going to be less stressful for all concerned to not have to deal with it.

When we decided to go for our second one - turned out to be our daughter - we did consider taking out an insurance policy to cover as there's a history of twins in Mrs J's family. In the end we decided not to and lucked out when it turned out to be just her, on her own.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Having done loads of this wehn in the trade the natural reaction was to say ‘it’s because of the camber in the road and being more in the gutter’ so it was often explained as because we drive on the right and the opposite happens for LHD countries…I have no scientific or empirical reason to confirm or deny…PS, I’ve had a Guinness or two

Well stripped Ruby down again today. All the screeching and squeal has been stopped. A tiny lump on the pad seemed to have come loose. 1 mm cubed. I removed it and rubbed pads on emery paper to aid running in. They feel good but back to still need more bedding in. I tried Peanut back to back and those brakes are notably better. One thing Im sure of. The 319 brake design is better than the 169. Once the pads are bedded in Ruby is going back for a brake test again. At least I got vfm from my kidney stent pipe. Dip a length in the master cylinder put your finger on the little hole on the top, withdraw tube and 10ml of fluid removed from the reservoir. Repeat till fluid level is back down to max. The wonders of modern medicine. lol

 

[The Panda Nut]

Inoticed Peanut/ Penny rear o/s doorlock making a little moan as the doors unlocked. Thewhole lock dowsed in silicon lock lube very generously seems to havestopped it. I suppose I need to remove and clean the lock as they seem to be getting known for sticking locked. 10 locks lubed, 5 more to do tomorrow..

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

When we decided to go for our second one - turned out to be our daughter - we did consider taking out an insurance policy to cover as there's a history of twins in Mrs J's family. In the end we decided not to and lucked out when it turned out to be just her, on her own.

Aye, but then we went and mucked it all up by having another some 10 years later - Ooops! Mind you the older ones were then old enough to actually be a help.