Colin Lindsay

Lidl are also selling 12v oil pumps for (I think) £14.99; I wish I'd seen them on the local garage day when we did about a dozen gearbox and diff oil topups / changes using an oil can to refill.

Regarding Nick's original question: yes you can buy repair sections as well as the entire panel; it all depends on how competent you or your welder are to join them invisibly! I'd agree with Pete re Chic - he will make sections of panels and not always the obvious bits, so you can repair a large or small area depending on your needs.

I had the old yellow Autolock version (in fact I still do, it's just not used any more) for handbrake and gearstick, but sadly mislaid the key once... so just unscrewed the gearknob and removed it that way. I found the key again but never used it after that. I also had a Disklock but it was huge and hard to store when off the car, and when I lost the key for that one, that was the end - they won't replace keys under any circumstances.

Not just our lifestyles but our entire economy. The entire ethos of our current industry is 'make, sell and dispose' - look at how many heavily subsidised car-making plants we have in Britain, owned by other countries who are making a fortune from UK government grants and incentives to keep people in work, no matter what. The work of course is churning out new cars, which people no longer buy - they 'rent'. Deposit of £4995, 48 monthly payments of £189, and an 'optional' final payment of £10,000 (Nissan Quashqai ad) or else return the vehicle. I just wish they'd make vehicles more like houses - you buy one for a long period and maintain it, and when you can afford it, move up. If the fuel issue does start to cause problems then we'll see an end to the policy of centralisation and a return to regional offices and local branches, with a lot more people working near where they live and less commuting vast distances, and becoming more self-reliant on local agents and services. My village doesn't even have a shop, nearest one being three miles away. I can walk down and have coffee in the visitor's centre, but no paper to read...

How is your timing? Check it and make sure you're at the correct setting for both the MK1 engine, and unleaded fuel. I set mine to handbook spec back in March and it ran terribly, yet setting it beyond the recommended setting - about 15 / 16 degrees BTDC - has it running perfectly ever since. Incidentally I had my Delco dizzy rebuilt by H&H including their electronic ignition, an excellent job and it's running well.

Is that an advisory? My 1200 Herald was coated in the stuff to half way up the engine. Side valences, bulkhead and all the mechanical components to a depth of inches thick. It was a nightmare to remove for the restoration.

You could put the entire contents of your garage in the boot and still be caught out. Go for the fix-all solutions that will get you home or to a place of safety, not enable an entire roadside gearbox swap - good tape, cable ties, an adjustable spanner or pliers and a couple of screwdrivers. A container of water is always handy - radiator, screenwash or handwash afterwards. Spare fan belt, ignition lead, rotor arm and sparkplug. Jack and wheelbrace plus of course the spare tyre. The sparewheel is a great place for storing things - rubber gloves and cloths, tool rolls, and an old footwell mat to kneel on. I like the basic concept of repairs:

That's not the brakes then, that's driving style. Once you lose grip you've lost control completely and no amount of servos, uprated brake pads or multiple calipers is going to make any difference.

I've got a set.... never out of the box, am saving them for the right vehicle... I've seen the modern equivalent on some American car forums, but I've no idea if they're available for Imperial threads.

Just been watching the dreary "Classic Car Show" with Quentin Wilson, where Jennifer Saunders drives the Fiat 500... and all she kept repeating was: "If only it was electric... if only they'd make it electric..." If they'd bin her everyday-drive Range Rover you could put ten Fiat 500s on the road and still have less pollution...

Watch 'The Fly'.... I think she lives down our road already....

Ditto to that, my Eezibleed exploded and blew fluid everywhere so out it went, and the vacuum / air operated bleeder was a waste of time other than to start the refilling process on new brake pipes - best is the plastic pipe with either a valve, or as Pete says, a small slit cut in the side near one end.

Hopefully this will help - they start 16 cm from the end of the outrigger with 49cm between the two inner faces.

No doubt good stuff, I considered them a few months ago, but I reckoned the price wasn't worth the use I'd get from them.

I didn't do it myself, but a local upholsterer replicated the entire dash cover on my Herald in black vinyl-type material including the factory-look stitching for £50. It's a lovely job and much richer looking than the original as he added extra foam padding underneath. You can also buy leather dash covers, (although only at present in black) complete with colour-coded stitching, from online auction sites.

My GT6 didn't let me down once, needle in the middle of the gauge and no starting / moving off issues. A recent round trip of over 100 miles went perfectly despite the roasting heat.

Early days in this technology to be rushing it in as the next big thing especially if you're banning all other forms of transport and hoping that a solution will be found before 2040. Remember Space 1999? THAT was set 19 years ago... and was a supposed vision of the future twenty-odd years on from when it was made. Is this what the EV camp are hoping for - a future with matter-transmission or some amazing new form of drive that will make cars obsolete before we need to really worry, but by bringing in these daft ideas now they can be seen as trendy and caring, even if it never becomes a reality? Anyway, as it's chronic overcrowding that cause many of our pollution problems, perhaps the idea is that if, in a few years time, it's standing room only in the UK - there won't be any room to drive...

Make sure the padding is eco-friendly and not that nasty Chinese stuff that's eroding the atmosphere... again. Just when we had the ozone layer patched over... ...and on a slightly different note: all new homes are to be legally required to have an electric car charging point when built. I thought they already had them? Just unplug the TV first... or the kettle, as the BIRO electric cars I was looking at recently have a standard 3-pin connection on the back...

Rants are good - we love debate! I notice you didn't mention the greens, but then realised that in THEIR case, there'd be no cars at all, MOTd or otherwise.

I don't phone, we just chat, at least I think it's HIM as I get answering voices and it doesn't sound like the cat. I've asked my alternative personality and he says it's not him either.

I haven't checked this thread before but it appears that your sender float wasn't falling far enough with the petrol level, due to the pipe being in the way. Now you've bent it, it'll drop fully, but is no longer the correct profile to read accurately at the other end which is why it's only showing 3/4 full when full. It'll take longer to drop on the gauge at first, but it's probably the better option! Back in the day, many of us carried a can of fuel in the boot (How I miss my Paddy Hopkirk can!).... as the gauges were never 100% reliable.

Oh Lord... the memory is failing this morning but I had a fairly similar problem with my first Spitfire way back in the day, something along the lines of: when the left indicator was selected, three flashed; when the right indicator was selected, a different combination of three flashed, and the warning light did something I can't remember... but it was all down to earths at the front sidelight units. I cleaned the earthing points and possibly added new earths, which cured it completely. Check the connections to the rear of the hazard switch too. I know in the past I've wired light switches wrong as the diagram was impossible to follow in relation to the actual wiring.

Believe it or not, I do!! I understand what you mean now - thanks for clarifying it for me. I didn't think, going by your posts, that you'd be cutting corners.

Hmmm... not that I think you would, Shaun, but I believe that when the day comes that an MOT Official tells me there's something wrong with my car, I'll not be whipping out my 'Get out of MOT free" card and laughing at him... I'll be off to the garage to sort it out. My local centre, despite being the official production-line Government Test Centre, will usually chat about what they're looking for and why, which lets me know what to look out for when I next test the car. They'll usually point things out: "We don't like to see that" as a broad hint for me to go home and rectify things, since we don't get advisories; it's pass or fail.

McDs not bad as a stop-gap (had one at Amsterdam Schipol airport yesterday while passing through and couldn't be bothered with a full-on meal) but avoid the scrambled eggs; they're a perfect example of recycling. Recycled what exactly, I don't know, but old Herald soundproofing comes to mind.