trustmeimamechanic

Groetens Paul , Welcome to the forum , it was nice to meet you and Joris and nice to have shared the ride on Adrians M10 with you both , Jacqui was pleased to practice her Dutch and we will share any photos we have with you if she managed to take any good ones ;-) Tot ziens Graham & Jacqui

I can't see a problem with the changes....... all they do is make sure the vehicle is functioning as it should and is safe at the time of the MOT , most of the changes are just taking into account the more modern systems fitted to cars. Put it this way...... would you be happy for a car with some of the faults listed above being driven towards your wife and children coming the other way in your car ? The other night as I drove the 10 miles or so home in driving rain and wind I must have passed half a dozen cars with defective headlights (either not working on one side or badly adjusted ) We are all in the minority as we have an interest in vehicles and know where the dipstick is.... a good 70% of drivers are now the dipstick :laugh: behind the wheel of a vehicle.

Awsome..... the tank sounds and looks just right .... roll on A&E ... thanks Adrian ... all the girls loved your 17 pounder ;-)

That will have needed a bloomin big hole to bury it ;-)

That will be the moth liberation front again..... next thing we will have to turn all the outside lights off to stop them getting dizzy from flying round and round the light..... one of them made a deliberate attack on me tonight..... he flew straight into the windscreen of my van .... lucky that against 4 tons of van at 60mph one small moth has little affect... but if they start to take growth hormones we may have a problem... imagine the damage a 2 kilo moth could do

Yes I knew they were replicas ...... but there are real ones the other side of the airfield :cool2: ....far better that the genuine one's are now undercover and restored . Spoke with the person at the chapel today .... now awaiting further contact..... dealing with the MOD it may be a while .

Mothballs !!!!!!! , the smell of the naptha keeps them away . It used to work on the old axial-flow combines we had , just bung them in all the confined spaces that contained wires and sound deadening .... only trouble was for the first few days of use all you could smell was mothballs . another tip is to open any access panels you can , mice and rats like warm dark places to chew , let in lots of light and air and they are not so happy.

There would seem to be plans for some kind of center to be built on the site of some of the old housing stock that was redeveloped a few years ago.... at least thats what a board on the side of the road says . Some of the old E pens still exist and a lot of the underground buildings are still there but sealed.... but you only have to scratch the surface and history appears.... when they started building the new firestation all sorts turned up just under the surface. Will try and find out more.... given the weather it may be a "spring clean " we end up doing.

Was up at Biggin Hill today working on the airfield and as I drove home past the Spit and Hurricane outside the chapel I was struck by how unkempt the fence and area seemed to be ...... Not sure who would need to be contacted but there must be enough of us who live within a couple of hrs of Biggin that we could all arrange a working party to tidy the place up and repaint the fence and gates.... Just an idea but to my mind it was almost disrespectful to see the place looking so forgotten ... especialy as several posters in aid of the Legion poppey appeal were very evident in local bus stops urging people not to forget those who gave thier lives ....

A truly moving experiance whenever you visit.... we were there a couple of years ago one winters day having just spent the last couple of days following the movements of my mother-inlaws father from his copy of the Royal West Kents regimental diary.... he never spoke to his daughter about his time on the front line and as she had just celebrated her 80 something birthday we felt it was a good time to take both my inlaws to Ypres. To read about "Hellfire corner" and various other locations and to still be able to trace the route they took from the front line back to Ypres .... we were often just lost for words as my wife read extracts from the diary and details of what happend to them on that day at that location.... there must have been a lot of dust in the air.... The only thing that for me didn't feel right or rest easy was the amount of "shops" selling objects dug up from the battle fields.... some of it personal kit.... from both sides.

Try Peter Vallance at Charlwood .... no idea of his phone number.... try Vallance Byways I think thats what he trades as. Its sad to see his collection slowly corroding away... I would love to give the Shackleton a home.

Going on Sunday with Adrian Scott , doubt any of my pics will be as good as those

Yes a lot were no doubt hit by the AA guns on the coast .... but there are several maps showing V1 impact sites in sussex and kent and there are an awful lot of little dots on it :-) , the V1 can't of been an easy target ..... I remember a story of a bararge ballon breaking free of its mooring , the local AA guns were tasked with shooting it down..... many hrs and many hundreds of rounds later it was still floating merrily over the countryside .

Sure I read somewhere that Jerry fitted some kind of anti -tipping trigger or such like in the wing tips when he became aware of the what was happening , there are several accounts written by pilots who shot V1's and then flew through the debris seeing " wheels and cogs" whizzing past the cockpit and the paint on the A/C being scorched or blackened. My father remembers watching a Spit shoot a V1 down over home , the slightly dodgy bit was the rounds coming through the cow shed roof as a result.... the holes were still in the roof when I was a lad . The V1 came down some 1/2 a mile from the farm ... funnily enough some 500 yards from the site of a Dornier crash earlier in the war... the farm buildings were undamaged but a house a mile away suffered broken windows and a crack in the end wall as a result of a valley funelling the blast towards the house. My mother lived at the time on the edge of Ashdown Forest and remembers hearing them coming and getting brothers and sisters under the dineing room table..... I have eaten many a meal at the same table and am damn sure although very solid it would have been little defence against a V1 :laugh:

Well , if we become the independant state of England (HMVF branch) we will at least have a better equiped Army than some EU countrys can raise , the airforce may need a bit more work ( If I win the Euro lotto myself and Mr Scott will contribute a Mk 9 spit each with Tim in a Mustang ) and as far as I know the navy may well only consist of the small RIB we use on the pond in the garden .... may well be able to strap the 50 cal onto it but I fear the recoil may have a devastating affect on forwards motion when in action.

I was told the other day that the law is to be changed to include private use ..... the implication being that most decent 4x4's will need a tacho if fitted with a towbar . This came from my brother inlaw who is an MOT tester .... they are being sent advance notice's by the DVLA on upcoming law changes..... he was certain that the law would apply to all vehicles private or not. Perhaps someone here can throw more light on the subject

Don't think that year DB tractor would of had hyd brakes ..... be careful ... some AG stuff use's LHM or mineral brake oil NOT brake fluid..... put the wrong stuff in and its goodbye seals .

Just waiting for Mr Clifton to post on this thread and end the argument once and for all :-) , or is artillery not counted :-D

Yes sad but..... one has to question the wisdom of an 80 year old pilot flying an aircraft of that performance in that particular flight envolope . Most 80 year old's I know are a little unsafe in a car.

Don't get me started on supposed enviromental "improvments" :nut: ... Since the introduction of emmisionised diesel engines the performance of said engines has gone down and the fuel consumption gone up. Using B100 or 100% bio fuel halves the engine oil change interval at the very least on most engines .... so on one of our smaller engines thats an extra 20 liters of engine oil every 600 hrs ... not to mention additional filters..... both of which the production of would more than likely cancel out any "good" done by using B100 We then have had to mess about with injection timing on mechanical pumps causing them to use more fuel and to loose torque back-up .... so then they have to work harder and use even more fuel :nut: , but the NOX is down in the exhaust so thats what the legislators want... not to save precious fuel. Common rail engines fare better and can electronicaly boost up on demand to replace the lost power and torque but again are strangled and hampered by EGR ..... what a crap idea .... put hot sooty burnt exhaust gasses back into the cylinder ..... engine life is reduced , oil change intervals not what they could be and the hot gas again causes a power loss so fueling is upped to get the power back .... result more fuel is used. Adblue systems do go some way to resolving many issues as the engine is most of the time running in a good run condition with NOX and the like dealt with in the exhaust post engine. Bio in red diesel is going to cause farmers and plant users no end of problems but was introduced because the engine manfacturers needed a controled fuel and "Dino red diesel" didn't have a standard unlike "new" red that meets EN590 that modern high performance plant and Agri common rail engines need. Without falling foul of the "P" word its difficult to express how I feel about supposed Green policys that are introduced as a way of raising tax and the UK's blind introduction of every law to the letter while our competitors are much more selective

Yes I put it in my Landcruiser - its 90's tech rotary injection pump is not realy designed to run on this ultra low sulphur part bio crap we now get out the pumps... don't put a fixed amount in though .... just a dash every now and then. Also put injector cleaner in a tank of fuel every couple of months. Its well worth putting one of the anti bug treatments in your fuel tank every now and then .

"Just to clarify a point -- the photos submited to the Police were of people and vehicles that could not be explained. There was no intention to name and shame people who to all intents and purposes could have been perfectly innocent how ever suspicious it may seem that nobody who has been questioned so far appeared to know them, they pitched thier tents at around 20.30 (the time they were caught on camera) and they were seen packing up and disappearing at around seven in the morning" So what's the harm in putting a pic up then ? if no accusations are made then it may just be a " heads up " to others at events. After all... we do share our pics of events Could the pics not be sent via PM to anyone who may want to see them ?

Issue 58 pattern bag.... otherwise know as the "prince of wales bag" due to most of them having about 7 feathers left in them after a bit of use :-D

presume you mean chainsaw chain oil ...... its very sticky.. so yes it would be good stuff to spray into hollow sections during a rebuild ... leave a can of saw oil outside for years and the top will not be rusty so it works

High altitude PRU at that.... note the lack of a bullet proof front screen Next time you are flying on holiday and the pilot comes on the intercomm saying " we are cruising at 44 thousand feet and its -50 outside" ... spare a thought for the guys who were flying spits in those conditions in 1944 ...:wow: