What's made you smile today?

[bugsymike]

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.

You are not saying it took you that long to find out it was something you liked doing?

 

[The Panda Nut]

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.

As they say on the TV "Keep out of the reach of children" I always respond by saying I try my best.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

As they say on the TV "Keep out of the reach of children" I always respond by saying I try my best.

It’s rarely the children you have to worry about.

Speaking of which my 2 year old likes “colouring” this is not actually colouring but using water pens on special books which appear white until you wet them, then the colour shows through from behind.

Well he discovered he could be much quicker and more efficient at these colouring books if he just uses a wet wipe on them…. Now every book in the house can be done in seconds

 

[Cheest]

It’s rarely the children you have to worry about.

Speaking of which my 2 year old likes “colouring” this is not actually colouring but using water pens on special books which appear white until you wet them, then the colour shows through from behind.

Well he discovered he could be much quicker and more efficient at these colouring books if he just uses a wet wipe on them…. Now every book in the house can be done in seconds

Jeez, they still have those books. I remember those as a kid and I'm older than dirt. Your young 'un has the making of an 'Efficiency Expert'. As in "let's make it faster, but not better"

I got the new Chromebook yesterday. Or should I say, Chromebook Plus. I managed to transfer my files from the old one without too much brain damage. One of the first things I had to do with it, though, was tone down the brightness of the screen. Thought I was looking into the sun. There's a bit of a learning curve with it and probably has a boatload of features I'll never use. It's also more than a tad larger than the old one but weighs a hell of a lot less than my old Dell.
Now I'll move the other one to the bench in the basement and see if I can work any magic on it. As spring is just around the corner; temps in upper 60s F next week, it will probably languish there until next November.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Rubys brakes. Theres the 16%. These we spotless and in perfecr condition 1 year ago.

 

[The Panda Nut]

All totally as should be again. How long this time. Its notable these cars dont have a full back.plate just a part one. Im considering modifying it. Im getting.new pins and caliper bushes. I checked pistons are free moving. Theres nothing else to do. Even the back plates are clean and rust free. I spoke to GEM 's technical expert. His pronouncement. They are designed to go like this. The reduced braking will be accounted for by Fiat. It doesnt matter and there is nothing worth raising with Bosch or Fiat. To wit I say... ******ks! Rusting like this aint right and it ought to be addressed. Half height back platesmay be ok in Italy, but not so good here I think.

Moral of the story: Charge hard andbrake very hard. We need some Alps.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Jeez, they still have those books. I remember those as a kid and I'm older than dirt. Your young 'un has the making of an 'Efficiency Expert'. As in "let's make it faster, but not better"

I have had many wise words from various people over the years, one that stuck in my head from a lecturer at university was to “be lazy, if you have to do a job do it once, get it right the first time, over engineer something, make sure you do it 100%, because if you don’t you’ll only have to do it again so by doing something right the first time you’re being lazy in not repeating the task. The other was to use everything at your disposal to make the task quicker and easier. At the moment he’s only 2 but he seems to be getting the second part of it down, he just needs to learn to do things properly and only do them once. lol

I got the new Chromebook yesterday. Or should I say, Chromebook Plus. I managed to transfer my files from the old one without too much brain damage. One of the first things I had to do with it, though, was tone down the brightness of the screen. Thought I was looking into the sun. There's a bit of a learning curve with it and probably has a boatload of features I'll never use. It's also more than a tad larger than the old one but weighs a hell of a lot less than my old Dell.
Now I'll move the other one to the bench in the basement and see if I can work any magic on it. As spring is just around the corner; temps in upper 60s F next week, it will probably languish there until next November.

A lot of these chrome books are made extremely cheaply, I remember during covid they sold loads of them in the uk but a lot of them couldn’t be repaired if they broke such as the keyboard keys breaking and were only good for the trash if they did go wrong. I don’t really have much experience of them, I don’t even know what hardware they use, I do remember they usually don’t have much storage space.
The thing I find is you can get a very nice Microsoft built laptop like a surface go for only a couple of hundred quid second hand which are strictly a business machine rather than for gaming

 

[bugsymike]

Rubys brakes. Theres the 16%. These we spotless and in perfecr condition 1 year ago.

Salt on the roads? We don't get half the issues you guys further up the Country get with rust.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

All totally as should be again. How long this time. Its notable these cars dont have a full back.plate just a part one. Im considering modifying it. Im getting.new pins and caliper bushes. I checked pistons are free moving. Theres nothing else to do. Even the back plates are clean and rust free. I spoke to GEM 's technical expert. His pronouncement. They are designed to go like this. The reduced braking will be accounted for by Fiat. It doesnt matter and there is nothing worth raising with Bosch or Fiat. To wit I say... ******ks! Rusting like this aint right and it ought to be addressed. Half height back platesmay be ok in Italy, but not so good here I think.

Moral of the story: Charge hard andbrake very hard. We need some Alps.

Nothing that surprises me there. I've seen many looking like that or worse. The outside faces were better I bet? Braking forces would probably still have been reasonable and probably still pass the MOT? This is an excellent example as to why, maybe every 6 months or even yearly, you need to get under and take a look at the inner tyre sidewalls and discs. At the same time you can check CV and steering rack boots and maybe track rod end dust covers too. Is that a shocker leaking? lots you can see if you look. Regular visual checks like this take only minutes and can save you a lot of money if you catch things early - But I obviously don't need to tell you this Panda Nut.

 

[bugsymike]

Nothing that surprises me there. I've seen many looking like that or worse. The outside faces were better I bet? Braking forces would probably still have been reasonable and probably still pass the MOT? This is an excellent example as to why, maybe every 6 months or even yearly, you need to get under and take a look at the inner tyre sidewalls and discs. At the same time you can check CV and steering rack boots and maybe track rod end dust covers too. Is that a shocker leaking? lots you can see if you look. Regular visual checks like this take only minutes and can save you a lot of money if you catch things early - But I obviously don't need to tell you this Panda Nut.

Something else I used to do when servicing cars was chip the rust scale of the edge of the disc where pads don't quite reach as the rust gradually grows inward and jacks the pads off the disc reducing the contact area.
I used to tap the edge of the disc with a small hammer and most of the rust would break away.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Something else I used to do when servicing cars was chip the rust scale of the edge of the disc where pads don't quite reach as the rust gradually grows inward and jacks the pads off the disc reducing the contact area.
I used to tap the edge of the disc with a small hammer and most of the rust would break away.

Absolutely. It actually chips off quite easily most of the time and is well worth doing even if just to reduce the "dry scraping noise" it tends to make at low speeds. I always did it because it resulted in a happy customer. On my own vehicles I just didn't like the noise. The surface remains quite rough though so doesn't restore effective braking surface - it just grinds away the contacting pad surface.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Nothing that surprises me there. I've seen many looking like that or worse. The outside faces were better I bet? Braking forces would probably still have been reasonable and probably still pass the MOT? This is an excellent example as to why, maybe every 6 months or even yearly, you need to get under and take a look at the inner tyre sidewalls and discs. At the same time you can check CV and steering rack boots and maybe track rod end dust covers too. Is that a shocker leaking? lots you can see if you look. Regular visual checks like this take only minutes and can save you a lot of money if you catch things early - But I obviously don't need to tell you this Panda Nut.

Ive being doing annual brake renovation and I think it needs as you say 6 monthly. The 319 brakes are a great deal better designed than the 169 but still do this. Im really thinking its the half height back plates. I may see what happens if I modify these. Its hardly as if they need a massive amount of cooling. Trouble is I have other things to do than messing with 4 sets of Panda brakes. I just wish I knew why it was happening so I could put a stop to it. I am now quite rough with the brakes on the Pandas and even this doesnt seem to do the business. You are right again, the out side faces were exactly as you would want shiny from edge to edge. If there are any faults I couldnt find them. Coated discs should help a little. It just passed its MOT but they said 16% imbalance which is way to much for me. The discs and pads were original so nealy 11 years old. 43000 mile and the pads were barely half worn, As the discs were worn down to thwir limit, changing seemed natural. Maybe I'll clean the discs and swap them over every 6 months. I have cleaned and repainted the caliper brackets so who knows how long it will go before needing further attention. It definitely drives me Panda Nuts trying to keep on top of it. Annoyingly I dropped a bleed nipple cap. I found you cant buy them separately. Ill have to try the internet or nip round the the breakers.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Something else I used to do when servicing cars was chip the rust scale of the edge of the disc where pads don't quite reach as the rust gradually grows inward and jacks the pads off the disc reducing the contact area.
I used to tap the edge of the disc with a small hammer and most of the rust would break away.

I do this and clean them back to bare metal. clean with a flapper disc or sanding pads onmy multi tool. CHeck for flatness and flat the pads dead level ona block with 400 grade emery. Discs then get pained with stove black. Its mind bending the condition of these after 12 months and 2500 miles when the car is also garaged. They look as if they have never been serviced in its 11 years. This car is the least used, mine has been working quite hard and doing a lotm of fetching and carrying recently and towing a load of weight. The trailer alone is 400kg so the brakes should be working. Ill bet they are in the same state. Rachels does 50 miles a day and seems to be in exactly the same state. I think bad design.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Salt on the roads? We don't get half the issues you guys further up the Country get with rust.

It hardly sees the light of day on the winter, we use Noop with his winter tyres and 4x4. We have had salt for the last 10 days but its very rare now. In the event they are driven over salty / muddy roads its a near full under body wash and clean out of the mud traps, and then they go for a spin and get the brakes used hard so they go away dry. I reckon I should stop all this time wasting.... It clearly does no good at all.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Ive being doing annual brake renovation and I think it needs as you say 6 monthly. The 319 brakes are a great deal better designed than the 169 but still do this. Im really thinking its the half height back plates. I may see what happens if I modify these. Its hardly as if they need a massive amount of cooling. Trouble is I have other things to do than messing with 4 sets of Panda brakes. I just wish I knew why it was happening so I could put a stop to it. I am now quite rough with the brakes on the Pandas and even this doesnt seem to do the business. You are right again, the out side faces were exactly as you would want shiny from edge to edge. If there are any faults I couldnt find them. Coated discs should help a little. It just passed its MOT but they said 16% imbalance which is way to much for me. The discs and pads were original so nealy 11 years old. 43000 mile and the pads were barely half worn, As the discs were worn down to thwir limit, changing seemed natural. Maybe I'll clean the discs and swap them over every 6 months. I have cleaned and repainted the caliper brackets so who knows how long it will go before needing further attention. It definitely drives me Panda Nuts trying to keep on top of it. Annoyingly I dropped a bleed nipple cap. I found you cant buy them separately. Ill have to try the internet or nip round the the breakers.

Breakers is probably the easiest but you could try these folk: https://www.biggred.co.uk/ They don't list everything they have, a bit like S4p. and they're definitely enthusiasts. I haven't had much from them but keep them always in mind for older stuff.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

I do this and clean them back to bare metal. clean with a flapper disc or sanding pads onmy multi tool. CHeck for flatness and flat the pads dead level ona block with 400 grade emery. Discs then get pained with stove black. Its mind bending the condition of these after 12 months and 2500 miles when the car is also garaged. They look as if they have never been serviced in its 11 years. This car is the least used, mine has been working quite hard and doing a lotm of fetching and carrying recently and towing a load of weight. The trailer alone is 400kg so the brakes should be working. Ill bet they are in the same state. Rachels does 50 miles a day and seems to be in exactly the same state. I think bad design.

Very much similar to what I do but I used to automatically flat all pads on emery on top of a sheet of 1/4 inch plate glass - which is very flat - However I've found that, unless the discs are in exceptionally good nick, flatting the pads can reduce the contact area on an older disc with imperfections like slight ridges. It doesn't take all that long for them to settle back in but can have a noticeable reduction in braking performance for a few days until they do - settle down that is and reprofile to the disc surface. So now I will still flat a pad if the disc surface looks flat, which is most of the time, but not if it's a bit ridged.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Breakers is probably the easiest but you could try these folk: https://www.biggred.co.uk/ They don't list everything they have, a bit like S4p. and they're definitely enthusiasts. I haven't had much from them but keep them always in mind for older stuff.

Well Fiat wanted £65 for two plastic plugs that were missing from Noop when supplied. Big Red have done two brake bleed nipples with the rubber caps, and two complete sets of slider pins with thread lock, and all the bushes for £25. A no brainer. I shall change these annually when stripped down and see if it makes any difference, You get the caps, slider pins and caliper bushes for £10.50 each car. You even get grease. I should have these on Friday.

How Fiat can charge so much I dont know but its absolutely disgraceful. It did cause a hell of a bust upI have to say. I had more than alittle to say,. 1, They supplied an incomplete car with bits missing off the brakes of all things. 2 They are the only people who have laid a hand on the car except me, and they didnt pick up the parts missing of the brakes on two services and a PDI. And £65 for two 1cm palstic plugs that should have come with the car... They must still be nursing the burns from my thermo nuclear reaction. I dont think they will be so B stupid as to suggest that to another cutomer with luck. Luckily I spilled no blood or guts but I anticipate they may be more careful in future!

 

[The Panda Nut]

Very much similar to what I do but I used to automatically flat all pads on emery on top of a sheet of 1/4 inch plate glass - which is very flat - However I've found that, unless the discs are in exceptionally good nick, flatting the pads can reduce the contact area on an older disc with imperfections like slight ridges. It doesn't take all that long for them to settle back in but can have a noticeable reduction in braking performance for a few days until they do - settle down that is and reprofile to the disc surface. So now I will still flat a pad if the disc surface looks flat, which is most of the time, but not if it's a bit ridged.

Not as much as when I backed out into the road yesterday. I had not pumped the pads back into contact with the discs and teh pedal went to the floor. I think I wont do that again!

The multi tool with the right pad seems to reduce the ridges by at least 50%. By then Im bored and put it all back together. If you ever see a Panda disc in exceptionally good condition, duck fast, or you may be hit on the head by a flying pig!! LOL

 

[The Panda Nut]

Very much similar to what I do but I used to automatically flat all pads on emery on top of a sheet of 1/4 inch plate glass - which is very flat - However I've found that, unless the discs are in exceptionally good nick, flatting the pads can reduce the contact area on an older disc with imperfections like slight ridges. It doesn't take all that long for them to settle back in but can have a noticeable reduction in braking performance for a few days until they do - settle down that is and reprofile to the disc surface. So now I will still flat a pad if the disc surface looks flat, which is most of the time, but not if it's a bit ridged.

After seeing this I feel Ive been doing it right, which is nice!

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Not as much as when I backed out into the road yesterday. I had not pumped the pads back into contact with the discs and teh pedal went to the floor. I think I wont do that again!

The multi tool with the right pad seems to reduce the ridges by at least 50%. By then Im bored and put it all back together. If you ever see a Panda disc in exceptionally good condition, duck fast, or you may be hit on the head by a flying pig!! LOL

I bet we've all done it at some time or other and, depending on the circumstances, the feeling of hopeless panic can be considerable!