Why so high?

[roscobbc]

newsatten said:

Rosco this a bit of you? could use this for any trip out! as much as i like my RT the pull of something more usable is growing every time i sit in traffic like today, 45mins to do 3 miles, 210 on the temp gauge, 250 on the driver gauge! 3 sets of temporary traffic control in a 1 mile stretch of road ,

i reckon if we'd been able to go to the Mopar meet in Brighton it would have taken us 3-4 hours each way, just taken my Daughter an hour to get home from us, she lives 2 miles away!

Edited by newsatten on Sunday 18th July 20:27

Yes, almost a 'bit of me' - seen it, like, good spec, good mileage, unfortunately I don't like the interior - too drab, too bland, need to be contrasting colour/material. Not so sure even about the body colour. Yellow would be great with light tan interior.

[roscobbc]

CAPP0 said:

Here's a random question from me - any of you chaps got an American RV?

I've looked a quite a few, and was about to purchase one yesterday (31ft Thor Four Winds Class C on a GM/Chev chassis with the 6.0 Vortec V8), but I found a leak out of the bottom of the bellhousing and having rung around for an idea of prices to repair (I can't get anything like that up in the air to get under it myself) it was coming out eye-watering, plus I just don't need another project, I want something I can turn the key and go.

Anyway, any thoughts, suggestions, places to look for ones for sale (other than eBay and FBay)?

American RV's seen to be a major minefield to me. One does occasionally see something thats a keen price but needs some internal re-furb. My logic would be to simply continually view the usual web sites to see what comes up. Don't forget the camper section on the Classic Cars For Sale site - you'll see the occasional American motorhome there.
One of my neighbours will be most likely selling a Nissan king cab truck with fifth wheel and a large caravan with (if I recall a couple of 'side-outs') if of any interest to you.

[LeighW]

newsatten said:

...as much as i like my RT the pull of something more usable is growing every time i sit in traffic like today, 45mins to do 3 miles, 210 on the temp gauge, 250 on the driver gauge! 3 sets of temporary traffic control in a 1 mile stretch of road ,

i reckon if we'd been able to go to the Mopar meet in Brighton it would have taken us 3-4 hours each way, just taken my Daughter an hour to get home from us, she lives 2 miles away!

I don't know how you cope with that traffic. When we were down in Dorset the traffic was an absolute mare around Bournemouth /Poole. I love it down there but it drove me nuts. It took us about an hour and a half to do twenty miles coming home, I reckon we'd done 70 miles before I hit 60mph. I was almost glad to get back to the Midlands. Almost.

Spent this weekend fitting a stereo to the Firebird. Lower dash out, heater controls out, console out, back seats out. Lying in the boot wiring speakers in in 30 degrees heat is not fun. It 'only' took Friday evening, all day Saturday and to mid afternoon Sunday. It all works though thank god. Now have DAB, Bluetooth streaming etc, but the stereo looks period(ish) and the speakers are hidden. The only slight fly in the ointment was when I took the offside A pillar trim off to fit the DAB aerial. The pillar was covered in rust. Cleaned it up and painted with POR15, but it's a worry, and may go some way to explain the slight blistering in the paint on the roof.

A paint sprayer I showed the roof to a few weeks back reckons that moisture has got into the primer before it was top coated. Getting kinda concerned it might be worse than that, which, if so, will get bloody expensive. I think it probably had a vinyl roof at some point. Uh oh.

[CAPP0]

roscobbc said:

CAPP0 said:

Here's a random question from me - any of you chaps got an American RV?

I've looked a quite a few, and was about to purchase one yesterday (31ft Thor Four Winds Class C on a GM/Chev chassis with the 6.0 Vortec V8), but I found a leak out of the bottom of the bellhousing and having rung around for an idea of prices to repair (I can't get anything like that up in the air to get under it myself) it was coming out eye-watering, plus I just don't need another project, I want something I can turn the key and go.

Anyway, any thoughts, suggestions, places to look for ones for sale (other than eBay and FBay)?

American RV's seen to be a major minefield to me. One does occasionally see something thats a keen price but needs some internal re-furb. My logic would be to simply continually view the usual web sites to see what comes up. Don't forget the camper section on the Classic Cars For Sale site - you'll see the occasional American motorhome there.
One of my neighbours will be most likely selling a Nissan king cab truck with fifth wheel and a large caravan with (if I recall a couple of 'side-outs') if of any interest to you.

Cheers Rosco. The one we didn't buy was absolutely immaculate inside, like new, but as well as the expensive oil leak issue I was sternly warned off anything with the Chevrolet chassis as apparently they have plenty of other issues as well. You're right about the minefield thing, very much so. I said to MrsC last night, I actually wonder whether all the sellers are upping their prices by a chunk as school hols are about to start, foreign travel is still a maze, and so people might be thinking they can get a few bob more out of people desperate for a holiday.

The other weird thing is, two that I have contacted have not responded at all, and yet the MH appears to remain for sale! One of them was about 3 weeks ago, I messaged, WhatsApped and called and got nothing back!

Re the 5th wheeler, not for me really. I could buy a big caravan, which I already have something to tow it with, and not have another vehicle to maintain as well (the Nissan). In fact a mate has a 5th wheeler for sale, it's a big old thing, but no, doesn't appeal. Towing it behind a full-size Scania artic is quite funny (but looks very odd!).

Edited by CAPP0 on Monday 19th July 12:42

[some bloke]

What stereo did you fit Leigh? I an thinking of a Retrosound Huntington one, as it would suit my dash.

https://www.raysmith.co.uk/collections/classic-car...

[LeighW]

some bloke said:

What stereo did you fit Leigh? I an thinking of a Retrosound Huntington one, as it would suit my dash.

https://www.raysmith.co.uk/collections/classic-car...

I looked at the Retrosound myself, but in the end went for the Classic Car Stereo 200. The generic Retrosound one was going to take some fettling to fit mine, and I couldn't find one with DAB and Bluetooth that was specific for mine unless I waited a long time. Plus, the CCS one came in at £269. The rectangular fascia wouldn't fit my dash without chopping it about, so I made my own out of aluminium. I'm a bit miffed that the bottom edge of the fascia had to sit just over the edge of the console trim, but without chopping the dash about I'm stuck with it, and I didn't want to cut the dash at all. Sound is quite decent for what it is, I've put JBL 4" speakers in the dash, and Pioneer 6"x9"s in the rear shelf. There are already suitable holes in the rear from the factory, which is nice. The only thing I had to so was drill four holes in the offside for the fixings, other than that the car is untouched.





One bonus with the CCS is that it retains the stations and sound settings if the battery is disconnected.

[some bloke]

The Huntington one would fit in with my big funky dash design so I will prolly go for that. My Impala wasn't fitted with one originally.

[roscobbc]

CAPP0 said:

roscobbc said:

CAPP0 said:

Here's a random question from me - any of you chaps got an American RV?

I've looked a quite a few, and was about to purchase one yesterday (31ft Thor Four Winds Class C on a GM/Chev chassis with the 6.0 Vortec V8), but I found a leak out of the bottom of the bellhousing and having rung around for an idea of prices to repair (I can't get anything like that up in the air to get under it myself) it was coming out eye-watering, plus I just don't need another project, I want something I can turn the key and go.

Anyway, any thoughts, suggestions, places to look for ones for sale (other than eBay and FBay)?

American RV's seen to be a major minefield to me. One does occasionally see something thats a keen price but needs some internal re-furb. My logic would be to simply continually view the usual web sites to see what comes up. Don't forget the camper section on the Classic Cars For Sale site - you'll see the occasional American motorhome there.
One of my neighbours will be most likely selling a Nissan king cab truck with fifth wheel and a large caravan with (if I recall a couple of 'side-outs') if of any interest to you.

Cheers Rosco. The one we didn't buy was absolutely immaculate inside, like new, but as well as the expensive oil leak issue I was sternly warned off anything with the Chevrolet chassis as apparently they have plenty of other issues as well. You're right about the minefield thing, very much so. I said to MrsC last night, I actually wonder whether all the sellers are upping their prices by a chunk as school hols are about to start, foreign travel is still a maze, and so people might be thinking they can get a few bob more out of people desperate for a holiday.

The other weird thing is, two that I have contacted have not responded at all, and yet the MH appears to remain for sale! One of them was about 3 weeks ago, I messaged, WhatsApped and called and got nothing back!

Re the 5th wheeler, not for me really. I could buy a big caravan, which I already have something to tow it with, and not have another vehicle to maintain as well (the Nissan). In fact a mate has a 5th wheeler for sale, it's a big old thing, but no, doesn't appeal. Towing it behind a full-size Scania artic is quite funny (but looks very odd!).

Edited by CAPP0 on Monday 19th July 12:42

And then you have the 'thing' about getting underneath to inspect and work on the thing..........presumably (as you would with a large truck) you'll need HD ramps, axle stands, jacks etc - or take to a specialist. Either way its all gonna add-up in terms of costs. Having said all that many of the drag race guys go buy a cheap, tatty GMC, Dodge or Wini-Winnie 'small' (well, relatively), convert over to LPG and tow a trailer with the race car.

[roscobbc]

LeighW said:

newsatten said:

...as much as i like my RT the pull of something more usable is growing every time i sit in traffic like today, 45mins to do 3 miles, 210 on the temp gauge, 250 on the driver gauge! 3 sets of temporary traffic control in a 1 mile stretch of road ,

i reckon if we'd been able to go to the Mopar meet in Brighton it would have taken us 3-4 hours each way, just taken my Daughter an hour to get home from us, she lives 2 miles away!

I don't know how you cope with that traffic. When we were down in Dorset the traffic was an absolute mare around Bournemouth /Poole. I love it down there but it drove me nuts. It took us about an hour and a half to do twenty miles coming home, I reckon we'd done 70 miles before I hit 60mph. I was almost glad to get back to the Midlands. Almost.

Spent this weekend fitting a stereo to the Firebird. Lower dash out, heater controls out, console out, back seats out. Lying in the boot wiring speakers in in 30 degrees heat is not fun. It 'only' took Friday evening, all day Saturday and to mid afternoon Sunday. It all works though thank god. Now have DAB, Bluetooth streaming etc, but the stereo looks period(ish) and the speakers are hidden. The only slight fly in the ointment was when I took the offside A pillar trim off to fit the DAB aerial. The pillar was covered in rust. Cleaned it up and painted with POR15, but it's a worry, and may go some way to explain the slight blistering in the paint on the roof.

A paint sprayer I showed the roof to a few weeks back reckons that moisture has got into the primer before it was top coated. Getting kinda concerned it might be worse than that, which, if so, will get bloody expensive. I think it probably had a vinyl roof at some point. Uh oh.

One of the 'things' about living within the M25 is that you are at the risk of being a little bit arrogant thinking that here in London we have the worse traffic in the UK and that 'we' have seen it all in terms of congestion and pollution. Truth is that other parts of the country have been bad either seasonally or at work times for many years and seem to be getting exponentially worse. Of course now its the combination of work travel and the ever increasing brat factory traffic. A few people have noted that since lockdown with many people working from home the day time traffic seems to be constant at all times as parents 'skive-off' with the kids for a few hours.
Coastal congestion is made so much worse for you guys on the south coast. Much like Southend-on-Sea you can only travel in a 180 degree radius, so in to town from one side (ocean on your left) leave town (ocean on your left) the only option is somewhere off to the right and inland. Seems that even motorwat standard roads like the M27 are OK for a few miles until you are funelled-down into the next traffic queue...........so glad I have retired from work (45 years repping and 1.5 - 1.8 million miles later.........

[aeropilot]

roscobbc said:

Coastal congestion is made so much worse for you guys on the south coast. Much like Southend-on-Sea you can only travel in a 180 degree radius, so in to town from one side (ocean on your left) leave town (ocean on your left) the only option is somewhere off to the right and inland. Seems that even motorwat standard roads like the M27 are OK for a few miles until you are funelled-down into the next traffic queue...........so glad I have retired from work (45 years repping and 1.5 - 1.8 million miles later.........

I've got friends in Southend & Bournemouth and family down in Newquay and all love the places except for the mid-summer months of July and August (and that was before Covid)

[newsatten]

as said before to many people on our little island.......................... 70% of them living now in the south. i managed to get out clay shooting last Friday,
Greenfields has been a shooting ground for ever, its closing this year for good and 600 more homes are being built on the land,
Thats the main problem here totally uncontrolled house building, thousands more bodys here now compared to 25 years ago, we wont have any green land here in 20 years time,

Ok im old and had the best out of it in my time, but Kent is absolutely F----d now, Our road are choked pretty much all the time, even if we venture out away from the sea we just get caught up in huge queues once we get near to home, its obviously worse this time of year, but it never goes quite now,
mental 12 months here..................................................................................................

Ive been using the Dodge now for well over a year, spent most of it stationary


See the Green Charger has finally gone live, its actually a mongrel , one wonders how it will fair, 50K tops????? probably want 80+
Good looking though...........

Edited by newsatten on Monday 19th July 17:01

[newsatten]

[quote=LeighW]

I don't know how you cope with that traffic. When we were down in Dorset the traffic was an absolute mare around Bournemouth /Poole. I love it down there but it drove me nuts. It took us about an hour and a half to do twenty miles coming home, I reckon we'd done 70 miles before I hit 60mph. I was almost glad to get back to the Midlands. Almost.

Spent this weekend fitting a stereo to the Firebird. Lower dash out, heater controls out, console out, back seats out. Lying in the boot wiring speakers in in 30 degrees heat is not fun. It 'only' took Friday evening, all day Saturday and to mid afternoon Sunday. It all works though thank god. Now have DAB, Bluetooth streaming etc, but the stereo looks period(ish) and the speakers are hidden. The only slight fly in the ointment was when I took the offside A pillar trim off to fit the DAB aerial. The pillar was covered in rust. Cleaned it up and painted with POR15, but it's a worry, and may go some way to explain the slight blistering in the paint on the roof.

A paint sprayer I showed the roof to a few weeks back reckons that moisture has got into the primer before it was top coated. Getting kinda concerned it might be worse than that, which, if so, will get bloody expensive. I think it probably had a vinyl roof at some point. Uh oh.




The pops in the roof sounds ominous ? if its close to the drip rails, its almost a certainty its roof metal corrosion , the whole water in the primer thing is generally boll----, for the last 30 years weve been using 2k/ epoxy type paints, which dont really absorb water, yeah water can get in the paint if the compressed air isnt properly trapped, but these days thats hard to believe!

These are old old cars, and almost all are corroded to some extent............................... unless they come from Southern California in which case only metal from Coventry rust's !

[LeighW]

newsatten said:

The pops in the roof sounds ominous ? if its close to the drip rails, its almost a certainty its roof metal corrosion , the whole water in the primer thing is generally boll----, for the last 30 years weve been using 2k/ epoxy type paints, which dont really absorb water, yeah water can get in the paint if the compressed air isnt properly trapped, but these days thats hard to believe!

These are old old cars, and almost all are corroded to some extent............................... unless they come from Southern California in which case only metal from Coventry rust's !

No, it's just generally on the flat surface, not near the edges in particular, and none near the drip rails.. I'll try and take a photo, but they hardly show up on pics.

Went out for a run tonight once the air had cooled. All windows down, lovely. Roads were mad busy.

68 Firebird by LeighW, on Flickr

[CAPP0]

newsatten said:

Ok im old and had the best out of it in my time, but Kent is absolutely F----d now, Our road are choked pretty much all the time, even if we venture out away from the sea we just get caught up in huge queues once we get near to home, its obviously worse this time of year, but it never goes quite now, mental 12 months here ..................................................................................................

Off topic, but as a fellow resident of Kent, "ain't that the truth". I've lived here all my life, and where I am was considered "semi-rural" 25 years ago but now it's just part of a sprawling set of several previous towns and villages which are all being joined up as all the land in between is being built on.

On Sunday they closed one 2-mile stretch of road near me for resurfacing, and every other road in the vicinity was completely buggered as a result, the infrastructure is on that much of a knife-edge. But still they build! And apparently, if they submit an annual plan to Westminster which says that they're going to find space for, and build, say, 3000 new (extra!!) homes, and fail, Westminster say "right, in that case you have to build 4000 as a penalty". Beggars belief. I would move out, but the vast majority of our social circle (friends and family) are here or hereabouts.

Rant over. As you were!

[newsatten]

Okies sounds like Micro blisters, not terminal but will cause problems when the tops come off , then the primer grins,
Im going to start my suspension upgrades soon, just need to get my interest back!



Yeah i can see rammed there! we had so many cars here over the weekend several incidents took place, one a brawl as some ahole actually thought it was ok to park in someones driveway , lock the car up and f----ff down to the beach!

Edited by newsatten on Monday 19th July 22:30

[roscobbc]

There are a number of things in like that I just don't really comprehend any more.
1. Going down to the beach. OK, so a bit of leisure time to do and do nothing - I get that, especially if you live right on top of it. But to drive and queue for hours, find somewhere to park, squeeze on to an manky bit of sand strewn with rubbish and oks dog turds, why?
2. Barbeque's, why? - they last about two seasons the are so rusty they represent a major health hazard. Do all the people in the street have to endure the strench of low quality, high fat content meat being incinerated and distributing a carcinogenic cloud through everyone windows.
3. Formula 1. Why can't they do re-runs about the time I go to bed? - at least it would help me sleep.
4; Football, cricket, tennis etc etc. As above with the volumn turned off.
5. BMW's, Mercedes, Audi's, VW's - why do people convince themselves that these are the best cars one can buy when they probably know it should have been a Honda, Toyota or Nissan?
6. How an HGV driver can actually do his job? - I mean do they ever get to their destination?
7. How do people have the patience to actually go abroad for a holiday? two or three hours travelling to the airport, similar time waiting for your flight once there all for a one hour flight (but further 1/2 stacking before landing) two hour trip to hotel which has put you in the wrong room. Probably be better staying at home and taking a walk once a day down to the local recreation or country park/
8. Why I feel this way? - is it because previous and current governmental authorities has f***ed our existances up so badly?

[newsatten]

roscobbc said:

There are a number of things in like that I just don't really comprehend any more.
1. Going down to the beach. OK, so a bit of leisure time to do and do nothing - I get that, especially if you live right on top of it. But to drive and queue for hours, find somewhere to park, squeeze on to an manky bit of sand strewn with rubbish and oks dog turds, why?
2. Barbeque's, why? - they last about two seasons the are so rusty they represent a major health hazard. Do all the people in the street have to endure the strench of low quality, high fat content meat being incinerated and distributing a carcinogenic cloud through everyone windows.
3. Formula 1. Why can't they do re-runs about the time I go to bed? - at least it would help me sleep.
4; Football, cricket, tennis etc etc. As above with the volumn turned off.
5. BMW's, Mercedes, Audi's, VW's - why do people convince themselves that these are the best cars one can buy when they probably know it should have been a Honda, Toyota or Nissan?
6. How an HGV driver can actually do his job? - I mean do they ever get to their destination?
7. How do people have the patience to actually go abroad for a holiday? two or three hours travelling to the airport, similar time waiting for your flight once there all for a one hour flight (but further 1/2 stacking before landing) two hour trip to hotel which has put you in the wrong room. Probably be better staying at home and taking a walk once a day down to the local recreation or country park/
8. Why I feel this way? - is it because previous and current governmental authorities has f***ed our existances up so badly?

Priceless ! Grumpy old me comes to mind

[aeropilot]

Getting back on topic....slightly....

Saw some pics posted on another forum of the Krispy Kreme Yank/Hot Rod breakfast meet on Sunday, and it look well attended with some nice stuff in the early morning sunshine. Glad some people were able to get out and about

[SRT Hellcat]

I had to have the Lightning MOT'd Saturday and the guy said are you going to the classic car show in Radlett tomorrow. He was taking his 60's Cadillac.
I thought that maybe there would be 30 or 40 cars there. I took the 356. It was bloody mobbed. I could not believe it. Must have been over 300 cars there. Won best non american classic which was a nice surprise.

[rat rod]

Traffic here in Devon is just as bad if not worse with the smaller roads, Boiler blow up at the weekend just as daughter landed on my doorstep for a month,

managed to spill hot lemon drink over my pc keyboard now ceased to function,(using hers) so thought fk it ,managed to get a cancellation cottage for a

week ,Packed her and the boys up in the car and went .

hopefully everything will be sorted by the time i get back.going see my my mate who restores Mustangs while i'm down here for a car chat , just to

keep me sane ,Daughter was looking forward to her surfing but no surf ,At least that's the only thing to worry about till we get back.,

Haven't seen one American car here yet .