What made you UNHAPPY today!

[windymiller]

i have a funeral to go to monday and as tuf as it will be ive just realised i need and want to say my bit in church, i did it for my mum and was so so determined to do that, it will just eat me up if i dont say my thoughts 😒

[Chillidoggy]

12 hours ago, C8RKH said:

Give her the grout and an old cushion and tell her to get on with it!

 

If you’d met my missus, you’d know that she’d take the tools out of your hands while your doing a job if she thinks you’re not doing it (a) right, or (b) fast enough. Apparently, us blokes spend too much time standing around talking and drinking tea rather than getting on with the job.

 

 

[Redwing]

I managed to pass my speed awareness course (non lotus related) at the weekend,  and the ex-Motorway policeman conducting the course told us that, within the next 2-3 years, all speed limits will be reduced.  Current 30mph roads will become 20mph, country roads, currently 60mph will become 40mph and motorways will become 60mph.

First I've heard of this, and if true then we may as well all drive glorified golf buggies, which,  I suppose, is the plan anyway. 

[Colin P]

On 04/08/2021 at 15:30, Chillidoggy said:

As per usual a simple job sprouts legs and runs away. Cloakroom make-over instruction started with a repaint, new radiator and sink. Fine, no problem.

Revised upwards to tiling the floor.

Revised again to include knocking out the boxed-in bit under the stairs.

Revised again to include new light, new light switch.

Revised again to include wall tiles.

Final revision, fit a new toilet.

Cost of said revisions has meant the price has skyrocketed, and I hate tiling. I’ve already got bad knees, and they’re screaming at me right now.

“It’ll be nice when it’s finished”, she says. Right now I couldn’t agree more.

 

I bought myself a set of Dewalt trousers with knee pads. That said, just finishing my second bathroom in the last couple of months and both have Pro-Tek Click Vinyl flooring. Non Kitchen/bathroom in real wood and Click vinyl where it needs to be waterproof - I can honestly say I don't think I'll ever tile another floor again. Warmer on your tootsies as well. And it can be lifted if needs be.

[comem47]

4 hours ago, Redwing said:

I managed to pass my speed awareness course (non lotus related) at the weekend,  and the ex-Motorway policeman conducting the course told us that, within the next 2-3 years, all speed limits will be reduced.  Current 30mph roads will become 20mph, country roads, currently 60mph will become 40mph and motorways will become 60mph.

First I've heard of this, and if true then we may as well all drive glorified golf buggies, which,  I suppose, is the plan anyway. 

So that's why the trillons of dollrs in the US are slow to come forth for infrastructure. Who needs highways?  😉

[Redwing]

Apparently the aim is to reduce the burden on our NHS by reducing the number of people suffering terminal/life-changing/long term injuries by 50%.

[Barrykearley]

All the nhs has to do is stop saving those folks with ridiculous interventions. The chap who I watched smash his car head on into a truck whilst pissed is now a cabbage but alive - crippled from the neck down with brain damage. Frankly that’s cruel.

[RobinB5]

The owing ey o not wor on my aptop

 

[pete]

On my way to the royal veterinary college at brookmans park with my poorly spaniel

[Bibs]

19 hours ago, Redwing said:

motorways will become 60mph

Drove home along the M4 in Wales yesterday where a stretch of the SPECS monitored motorway has been reduced to 60mph to improve air quality. Bit rubbish bearing in mind I was in a fully electric car.

[Redwing]

Ah, you've had a glimpse of the future @Bibs.  These air quality limits are starting to creep in all over the place.  Speed limits are the opposite of prices, once they go down,  they rarely go up again. 

[mg4lotus]

reduced speed limits might also be due to Vision Zero. It was on the radio this morning. Scary!

Vision Zero - Wikipedia

[C8RKH]

I don't have a problem with "Vision Zero" in principle, but what I do have a problem with is the demonization of "speed" as being one of the greatest evils.

Get hit by a car at 30mph, as a pedestrian/cyclist and there is still a good chance you will die, a chance you will live. Get hit by a car at 60 and it depends on how you are hit as to the chances (full on versus glancing etc).

But the assumption is, someone gets hit by a car on a dual carriageway/motorway at 60 mph and the death is caused by "speed". In fact, in a lot of cases the death was caused by the sheer stupidity of someone, usually taking a chance on a shortcut, darting across the carriageway and miss judging the speed of the traffic and splat!  Speed really had FATDWI as actually the cause of death was "stupidity".

I can understand you wanting to limit the speed of traffic in roadworks, or heavy rain, to reduce the risks of accident. That makes perfect sense to me. However, why does the same thinking then mean that from midnight to say 0530 in the morning the speed limit on the motorway with practically NO TRAFFIC cannot be raised to say 100 mph?  Of probably more usefully, HGV's are allowed to increase their speed to say 75 mph to cover substantially more ground at a time when traffic and congestion is at a minimum?  Oh, let's not be silly because as we all know, "Speed Kills" so that means that every HGV travelling at night will have an accident due to the increased speed.

Vision Zero, I get it. But in reality, I suspect it is just a more palatable approach by a bunch of tree huggers to take away yet more personal choices and freedoms and reduce everyone to the lowest common denominator with a bloody boring same as lifestyle with no risk so you can live an extra boring 10 years on average!

F**king tree huggers, the lot of them! 

 

[Dave Eds]

gave up after "demonization" ......

[Barrykearley]

My van is in the distance on the left. I was narrowly missed by the post office truck with its front wheels ripped off by a nissan Micra which is in the hedge in front of the van. The kids and I walked away that day physically unscathed. How the explosion of parts missed my van I’ve no idea. The lorry driver was badly physically shaken and bruised. The bloke in the Micra will never walk again and is brain damaged. That was 0627 - road was closed until late afternoon and I wasn’t allowed to retrieve my vehicle up until then.

did speed play a part? Not really - I’d followed him for a mile or so - and I’d say he was off his tits on drugs or pissed as a newt. Had that been a 20mph road - he would still have smashed into the truck - but if they wish to change speeds on roads then I’d suggest they shitcan HS2 .

one things for sure - the kids were shocked by what they saw. I’ve not enjoyed driving since - except for a couple of weeks ago at the Speedfest.

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

IMPORTANT: this includes shocking content.

We saw the most gruesome sight this morning. We were in our car waiting at a roundabout on the A48 at Carmarthen when we pulled up just behind and to the side of an old Audi A3. There was something dangling down from the passenger’s door. At first I thought it was a seat-belt, coat or scarf, but as we got closer I realised to my utter horror that it was a dead kitten, which had its tail caught in the bottom of the door and had been dragged along the 70mph dual carriageway for god knows how long. It was truly grotesque and I’m still shaken by it now. The lights turned to green and the Audi headed off in another direction dragging the carcass with it, before we had any chance to get their attention. How could something like that happen? The occupants were in for a truly horrific shock when they got to their destination and opened the passenger door.

[Colin P]

The Evora is coming up to it's birthday. MOT booked. Thinking about the service so just checked, it has done the grand total of 800 miles since the big service last year. Am wondering whether it is worth having it serviced this year.

[C8RKH]

I would get a "basic" service done, the oils etc do break down and it does not harm getting it checked. You need to them use it - I've done 5k miles this summer and enjoyed every one of them even without an IoM trip!

 

[Alfa2Evora]

Finally today, for the first time since I stripped down the front of the Evora and removed the knackered clutch master cylinder, my day/night off coincided with some half-decent weather - for that read, "it wasn't constantly persisting down".

After a bit of pillow-time following last night's shift, I got stuck into getting the replacement Wilwood cylinder installed. It's a bit of a tight squeeze as it's noticeably larger than the OE unit, but I wiggled it into position after a bit of hand-scraping manoeuvring. Then the fun started, as it's the one place that Lotus chose not to employ captive bolts where they are almost essential, well at least they are if you're tackling the job single-handed.

However, with a bit of ingenuity involving some off-cuts of wood left over from a domestic DIY project, I managed to jam a ring-spanner onto the head of one of the mounting bolts on the front side of the bulkhead, allowing me to adopt (and remain in) the 'feet up, head down' position in the footwell to screw on the securing nut inside the pedal box, one click of the ratchet at a time as space is so restricted in there. Then it was pop up outside again and set everything up to repeat the exercise with the other bolt.

After about 2 hours (it seemed longer) of having the blood rushing to my head, everything was finally nipped up tight and I went to refit the clevis pin that secures the actuating rod to the clutch pedal. WTAF,  - it doesn't fit!!!!! If you look at the old and new units side-by-side, the locating holes look identical. Clearly they aren't but you'd need a micrometer to quantify the difference in size. Whether it's a case of the pin is metric and the hole has been drilled imperial (made in the US of A, so quite probable as the mounting bolts were 1/2 inch rather than 13mm) I don't know but the pin ain't going in that hole without the assistance of Jeremy Clarkson and his favourite universal tool, 🔨.

The clevis fork on the Wilwood is adjustable so I suppose I could have (with a bit of a struggle in the confined space available) simply unscrewed it from the end of the rod but it had taken me ages, with it on the bench alongside the old unit for comparison, to get the operating length exactly right. So out it all had to come again and the clevis fork is now in the vice awaiting an attack with a round file.

If that doesn't work, do any of you want any bits off the car before the mysterious overnight fire? - oops, did that just come out of my brain and through the keyboard? 

[C8RKH]

Put the original front bumper on BEFORE you strike the match please @Alfa2Evora, I'll have the new bumper no problem. Glad to help.

[ramjet]

@C8RKH @Alfa2Evora isn't going to strike the match himself. He 'said' it was going to be 'mysterious'.

Might be a good idea to put the original bumper on anyway?

There, that should help with an insurance claim if they scour the internet looking for anything.

[Painterdave]

3 hours ago, Alfa2Evora said:

Finally today, for the first time since I stripped down the front of the Evora and removed the knackered clutch master cylinder, my day/night off coincided with some half-decent weather - for that read, "it wasn't constantly persisting down".

After a bit of pillow-time following last night's shift, I got stuck into getting the replacement Wilwood cylinder installed. It's a bit of a tight squeeze as it's noticeably larger than the OE unit, but I wiggled it into position after a bit of hand-scraping manoeuvring. Then the fun started, as it's the one place that Lotus chose not to employ captive bolts where they are almost essential, well at least they are if you're tackling the job single-handed.

However, with a bit of ingenuity involving some off-cuts of wood left over from a domestic DIY project, I managed to jam a ring-spanner onto the head of one of the mounting bolts on the front side of the bulkhead, allowing me to adopt (and remain in) the 'feet up, head down' position in the footwell to screw on the securing nut inside the pedal box, one click of the ratchet at a time as space is so restricted in there. Then it was pop up outside again and set everything up to repeat the exercise with the other bolt.

After about 2 hours (it seemed longer) of having the blood rushing to my head, everything was finally nipped up tight and I went to refit the clevis pin that secures the actuating rod to the clutch pedal. WTAF,  - it doesn't fit!!!!! If you look at the old and new units side-by-side, the locating holes look identical. Clearly they aren't but you'd need a micrometer to quantify the difference in size. Whether it's a case of the pin is metric and the hole has been drilled imperial (made in the US of A, so quite probable as the mounting bolts were 1/2 inch rather than 13mm) I don't know but the pin ain't going in that hole without the assistance of Jeremy Clarkson and his favourite universal tool, 🔨.

The clevis fork on the Wilwood is adjustable so I suppose I could have (with a bit of a struggle in the confined space available) simply unscrewed it from the end of the rod but it had taken me ages, with it on the bench alongside the old unit for comparison, to get the operating length exactly right. So out it all had to come again and the clevis fork is now in the vice awaiting an attack with a round file.

If that doesn't work, do any of you want any bits off the car before the mysterious overnight fire? - oops, did that just come out of my brain and through the keyboard? 

That's a lot of difference 🤔

[Barrykearley]

3 hours ago, Alfa2Evora said:

Finally today, for the first time since I stripped down the front of the Evora and removed the knackered clutch master cylinder, my day/night off coincided with some half-decent weather - for that read, "it wasn't constantly persisting down".

After a bit of pillow-time following last night's shift, I got stuck into getting the replacement Wilwood cylinder installed. It's a bit of a tight squeeze as it's noticeably larger than the OE unit, but I wiggled it into position after a bit of hand-scraping manoeuvring. Then the fun started, as it's the one place that Lotus chose not to employ captive bolts where they are almost essential, well at least they are if you're tackling the job single-handed.

However, with a bit of ingenuity involving some off-cuts of wood left over from a domestic DIY project, I managed to jam a ring-spanner onto the head of one of the mounting bolts on the front side of the bulkhead, allowing me to adopt (and remain in) the 'feet up, head down' position in the footwell to screw on the securing nut inside the pedal box, one click of the ratchet at a time as space is so restricted in there. Then it was pop up outside again and set everything up to repeat the exercise with the other bolt.

After about 2 hours (it seemed longer) of having the blood rushing to my head, everything was finally nipped up tight and I went to refit the clevis pin that secures the actuating rod to the clutch pedal. WTAF,  - it doesn't fit!!!!! If you look at the old and new units side-by-side, the locating holes look identical. Clearly they aren't but you'd need a micrometer to quantify the difference in size. Whether it's a case of the pin is metric and the hole has been drilled imperial (made in the US of A, so quite probable as the mounting bolts were 1/2 inch rather than 13mm) I don't know but the pin ain't going in that hole without the assistance of Jeremy Clarkson and his favourite universal tool, 🔨.

The clevis fork on the Wilwood is adjustable so I suppose I could have (with a bit of a struggle in the confined space available) simply unscrewed it from the end of the rod but it had taken me ages, with it on the bench alongside the old unit for comparison, to get the operating length exactly right. So out it all had to come again and the clevis fork is now in the vice awaiting an attack with a round file.

If that doesn't work, do any of you want any bits off the car before the mysterious overnight fire? - oops, did that just come out of my brain and through the keyboard? 

Need any cableties?

[C8RKH]

Something else to rip your hands to pieces! 

 

[Alfa2Evora]

16 hours ago, Painterdave said:

That's a lot of difference 🤔

Not really - I think the enlarged nature of the photo exaggerates the apparent difference.

I've managed to borrow an internal micrometer from an engineer neighbour and the hole in the new one is 0.026mm smaller so I think it is down to the difference between metric and imperial.