Practically Classics Forum

ooh bugger! ive never played with aircon but thanks for the warning! i hope your mate is ok.. ive heard that frostbite can make things drop off, but im sure your used to those temperatures up north

He's fine, if a little embarrassed and clumsier than he was prior to the glove hole incident. Luckily for him, he has been told that he's unlikely to need to have any fingers removed.. Yet!

not a mistake he will make again i hope!
meanwhile....
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bedford-Vega ... rmvSB=true

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-Fairlan ... rmvSB=true

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1965-thunder ... rmvSB=true
off to blighty for a while, no computer.. so enjoy the peace...

John, you're into Morris and Marinas and all that junk, so how do you fancy a project?
https://www.prewarcar.com/233577-1935-3 ... 5hp-saloon

I love the way that looks,very "Oily rag" and apparently pretty solid with the exception of some of the woodwork. I've never imported anything from NZ, but as I understand it, the process is every bit as easy as bringing in cars from Japan.
However, I don't fancy a project. What a great basis the old Morris will make for someone's next restoration job though.

Progress!
I sold the tall, tiny and freshly IVA tested modern Toyota Pixo that I imported (as referred to in an earlier page) and have now cleared a space on the drive at home for the mystery vehicle, by moving one of my bins slightly closer to the kitchen window :



It's a teeny bit different from a Metrocab, but has a similarly small turning circle, a teeny bit different from the daily bB but is just as eccentrically Japanese and it fits like a glove, though the floor is a little high so I'll be looking at steps as sold for caravans when "project X" goes in to get a towbar on later this week.
The mystery car is three feet shorter than the bB, the same height and a foot narrower. It's old enough to get me into the local multi-make club's events and is probably the only one in the country that hasn't yet rotted away, so will be dosed thoroughly with Ensis V to keep it that way.
The car's default layout is RWD with the option of some 4x4 action at the flick of a switch, its instrument panel includes an altimeter and it has a parking brake operated by a lever on the floor - by hand, a gear lever also mounted on the floor and only one brake pedal, so getting used to that should keep my mind focused given how long it is since I last drove about regularly in something with a similarly un-Japanese layout to its controls.

The make is of course visible in the above screen grab from its DVLA information page, but what flavour of "retro" Japanese motor is it exactly? Have a guess, I'm betting that even Rich may not be able to work out what I've bought this time.

A lawnmower.

Near enough! It is, however, somewhat heavier than the device my gardening slave uses for the job.

JPB wrote: Tue May 01, 2018 3:53 am Near enough! It is, however, somewhat heavier than the device my gardening slave uses for the job.

I too had a gardening fairy, but he retired, I'm currently searching for another. My missus has an ironing fairy. When some interfering busybody heard that she farms out the ironing and said: Why don't you do it yourself?" My missus, quick as a flash, said: "I can't get on with I-technology." It went right over busybody's head.

Well the "new" member of my random collection of gadgets gave me a bit of a scare yesterday, or rather the insurance broker (who handles my key policy) did..
After the truck was delivered, I checked on askmid to see whether the addition [to the policy] had been processed and saw that red patch on the screen which might as well be saying "Oi! You're an evil person and the police will be coming soon to lock you up.." Yep, it said that I wasn't insured.

Printing out the certificate that I had downloaded revealed that a C on the registration (R**BCH being the correct issue) had been printed by the underwriter as a G - R**BGH. Sure enough, checking askmid again, with the erroneous G in the number, revealed that a vehicle of the same make and model as mine but which didn't exist had been added to my key policy instead. A quick call to my broker's office would, had I used one of the companies offered up by comparison sites, have solved the glitch last night but A-Plan, whose standard of service for anything imported, old, weird or a combination of the three has always been highly satisfactory, are all human beings and as such, they go home from work at 5pm unless the customer is making a claim, in which case they have a special number - crewed by someone who has no access to make amendments to their database.
I've just come off the phone to A-Plan now and they have sorted the issue as any professional outfit would have done, which means that the world's slowest, noisiest, lowest geared (10mph/1000rpm in the quietest of its three gears) vehicle is now road legal and will share the daily duty with the bB, whose rev counter is redlined at a mere 7,300 and only rises past 5000 if I'm extraordinarily late to get somewhere.

I may add images of the new machine, but won't if a vehicle built in 1997 is considered inappropriate for inclusion on these boards.