New Year disaster. (Do not view if easily distressed)

Post by **Ronnie** » 04 Jan 2009 01:01 pm

Sell me one

Post by **mac** » 04 Jan 2009 01:23 pm

Slap that man with a wet fish! - twice!

Seriously John - if there were no injuries that's the only really important bit.

Mac.

Post by **Tourinki** » 04 Jan 2009 01:41 pm

About decent lights. I'm going to fit two of these to my pickup and probably with xenon conversion
http://www.katuauto.fi/product_info.php ... cts_id=216

What i've noticed when driving when it quite dark. It is really annoying to drive a car with crap lights. 3 of 5 cars which are mine and what i've driven in dark have or had auxiliary lights. Those with decent lights are much nicer to drive. But there is a down side having good lights on full beam but when you have to change back to dipped beam. You can't really see a damn thing.

Post by **jtbo** » 04 Jan 2009 01:49 pm

I have also one set of Bosch 225's, got them cheap when I was up north, they lack bit of width, I would believe Lightforce will be better in that aspect.

Low beam is not too bad at least in 240 if you get new reflectors and lenses, there is not so large drop of what you see even with my HID kit.

Btw, I did pay 160 euros from pair of my Hella Jumbo FF320 set and 136 euros from HID conversion kit, it is a lot less than factory built set and does exactly same job, of course it is not perfectly legal, but I prefer seeing that moose than limiting my options in aspect that has nothing to do with traffic safety as you always cut high beam off when other car approaches so can't really see a problem.

What I would like to have is those 225's together with ff320's both with HID conversion set, that would be some serious visibility improvement as 225's show at least 30% longer distance of road and FF320's show at least 40% wider when compared to each other

Post by **kaos** » 04 Jan 2009 02:34 pm

Just so happens i have a volvo to shift...................

Least you are allright!

Post by **SteveP** » 04 Jan 2009 03:26 pm

Aww unlucky dude, glad you got out alright - sounds like trecherous conditions though! What makes you reckon the ex-vario's been in a crash before?

Post by **sven360** » 04 Jan 2009 05:09 pm

Lightforce are good-too dear tho'.

KC's good enough for an aircraft to land good enough for the Sven

http://www.difflock.com/buyersguide/new ... e/kc.shtml

Oh yeah now we're talkin'

God loves pencil beam and so do I

Has it T cut'd out yet John????

Post by **filthyjohn** » 04 Jan 2009 06:07 pm

kaos wrote:Just so happens i have a volvo to shift...

I'd have it if it wasn't for transport costs mate. I don't normally cry about stuff like that, but I'm really skint now, having had to spend about £250 getting the car back from Penrith.
I'm normally happy to drive mega-miles for a car, but my borrowed sierra does 200mpg, of oil! So it gets really pricey. A mate has a 205XS which goes really well and I may get that on tick. Won't rule it yours out yet though.

And so to the update.
Yesterday I towed it back and ripped into it with the help of 3 friends. It's definitely a write off, it's creased the bulkhead and moved the strut top back about 4 inches. The A pillar is subtly bent, and the chassis rail at the front has split from the inner wing.

SteveP wrote:What makes you reckon the ex-vario's been in a crash before?

There's a large amount of filler on top of the inner wing, and pretty thick on the front valance. It's clearly had a bump on the same side previously.
Pics:

Half of the grey lumps in view here are filler

Front valance full of pog:

Inner wings were canny, but starting to rust at the top.

This is ICE from inside the water pump, it gets cold out there!

For some reason there was loads of shredded spanish newspaper shoved in here:

Anyone want owt? Clearout coming up in the FS section, both to clear space for parts from this, and to keep me in beer money.

Post by **volvosneverdie** » 04 Jan 2009 06:24 pm

My Spanish-Dwarf hamster escpaed some years ago on an outing to seaburn.
maybee its been living in your car man.

As I recall it always always demaned its bedding/reading material to be in its own language. So it could read up on the days happenings as it went to sleep.

and it did sh@ bodge.

Post by **trabitom99** » 04 Jan 2009 07:52 pm

Ouch John, that looks like quite a shunt. Glad you got out of it in one piece!

I always scoffed at the Germans for swapping tyres over once a year - even in the North where there's little snow if any. But since I've been using winter tyres I really recommend them, they're good on other surfaces other than snow too ...

Having said that, I've changed the 17-year old rubber on the 343 for my crap cheapo Turkish summer tyres (need to keep the pennies together at the moment), despite good tread they've got very little grip, even the steering lightened up after fitting them.

Hope you get some of your cash back from parting the car out. Try and keep some vario bits back if you can - if I were any nearer I'd have some panels too, but they're a bummer to pack and send.

Tom

Post by **filthyjohn** » 04 Jan 2009 08:21 pm

Still got all the vario bits Tom, you can have dibs on any of it. Also don't mind arranging collection/delivery when you're next over, or also may be going to the ring in the summer if that helps.

Post by **Chris_C** » 05 Jan 2009 12:58 am

Ronnie, chase up the one with a phone number in offers... I can't remember which post it was now, I was going to chase it for a spare but if you are in need dude...

John.... ouch. Don't sniff at the XS, it'll outrun a 1.7 to 60. Steering on them is direct as anything normally, but gearboxes are shite. Just remember as it's a Pug if you lift mid corner if *will* go up in a big flaming fireball and everyone in a 200m radius will die.

Post by **foggyjames** » 05 Jan 2009 01:29 am

Ouch...bad luck! Was the car cursed? Had it already been repaired following the neighbour incident? That's some impressive Bondo action.

Eyeing up that mk2 daan saaf as a potential replacement...?

cheers

James

Post by **filthyjohn** » 05 Jan 2009 05:42 pm

Chris_C wrote:Don't sniff at the XS

Yeah man, I've been in it quite a bit but I'm giving it a good kicking tonight to see if they're as fun as i remember (used to have a 954cc one). It's way quicker than a 1.4 340.
What I'd really like is a 1.7 as it's the only one I've not had, but I'm currently mega-skint until payday, and that's 3 weeks away.

foggyjames wrote:Was the car cursed?

Definitely, it's the only explanation. I spent loads of time and cash getting it right, but it just kept throwing it back in my face. It still wasn't repaired following the neighbour incident, so I may go and ask for some cash, saying I've scrapped it because no bodyshops would touch it.
And yeah, I really fancy that mk2 but distance is a bother when I'm this skint.
I just need something that will hold its value for a month and sell easily, as my blue 3dr is nearly done. Or something I can keep and sell the 740.
Too many decisions.

Post by **foggyjames** » 05 Jan 2009 06:07 pm

Oh...I forgot before...are those 1.8 CVH Sierras actually the worst cars ever made? I've not come across many, but yours must be the third which has had exactly the same problem....and absolutely not the sort of thing you expect from a vaguely modern engine. And to think some poor people have to put up with a turbocharged version of that engine. Weaksauce...

cheers

James