mike65

Nice pictures and they look good. But I know what you mean those dust spots, scratches etc all seem to add to that feel of age, something computers are good at removing but not putting in. Mike

Totally agree and not to forget. On hot summer days you had to wear shorts and sit on vinyl car seats. I believe that a lot of camps and go-carts were constructed from ex-boxes. The TV channels we had also went off at night.. If you had a rash it was only because you were allergic to gravel. Mike

Mark Ballcocks Drill hole for threaded bolt into top of stand. Fix with No Nails. Screw on plastic float. Put on helmet. Mike

Shouild be up there with my 109. It will be easy to spot, Its the one with the crap paint. dents and primer. Thats assuming it makes it to Dunsfold and back on the Saturday. Mike

Welcome in. An ambitious plan you have there. I cannot see why you think parking would be a problem. Its a larged tracked armored vehicle you can park on anything you like. You also need to be careful on the free road tax and LEZ exemption for pre 1973 vehicles. IIRC the free road tax only applies to vehicles used for non-commercial reasons. You may also find this also applies to the LEZ. If not it may be worth running a haulage business in and out of London using 1960'2 trucks. I would also consider a vehicle that is already road registered and rvrn then you may have problems as limo's are prone to be spot checked for compliance by the authorities. I believe there are various issues with certain vehicles. Anyway Good Luck Mike

I suppose they will also give it a hi-vis-coat so it does not get run down, which will also keep the animal rights people happy. Mike

They are not there to tell you how to get there. They are actually advisory signs to stop you going there by mistake. Mike

Nice pics thanks for posting. Is that the Catalina trying to peep over the top in the last pic. Mike

Try this website out. Quite a comprehensive list http://www.aviationmuseumguide.co.uk/ Now to visit and rate them all. Mike

By all accounts Duxford has more stuff than they know what to do with. There are probably many smaller museums who would love to have something like that for displaying. The problem is finding them. Did not realise there was one at Shoreham, despite going to the airshow. You could always try Old Warden (Shuttleworth) most of their stuff is older but you never know. Mike

Have had the truck now for 2 MOT's and both had advisories on the rear cross member, the official word was keep an eye on it. But in real terms it was "Don't attempt to tow anything heavy" I knew this when I bought it all down to the dodgy welding and the fact that it was bent. Well the tow hitch was on the piss anyway. That and the fact that I managed to push a chisel through in a few places meant it was time for a new one. As I cannot weld I had to get this done. BEFORE AFTER I removed and painted the bumperettes, need to do the tow hitch now. The only issue with the crossmember appears to be that the upper hole for the tie down brackets has not been drilled through the tub fixing. A 3 day weekend and only one good day for working. Got the rear chassis on drivers side cleaned and painted though. One thing I have noticed about my truck is the distinct lack of any real amount of underseal, both on the tub and the chassis. Chassis only seems to have a thin coat of black and in places the obligatory coating of copious amounts of oil. Then decided to strip paint of the wheel. There were a fair few layers of this, Nato green, primer and towards the bottom the "duck egg blue" colour normally reserved for engines. Why? The others show signs of white but who knows. Before anybody asks it is a mil spec wheel FV738903 / 5.5F*16*33 / 569690 / (Dunlop symbol?)964 are stamped on it anyway. No doubt somebody will know what this all means. Mike

Sadly the circles are something added by Envirocheck. They provide the maps for the geo-environmental reports you need got developments these days. You need to know about certain site within specific distances of the site (represented by the circles) ie: Land fill, water extraction, recorded pollution incidents. Blast radius would be far more interesting though. Mike

I have always had an interest in maps and in particular looking through historical maps. Working for a civil and structural engineering consultancy I get to see many a report which includes historical maps. Came across one today that is really interesting, it is only an extract but it is for an area near Brooklands. The whole map is in Russian and were produced by the Russian military between 1950 and 1997. Amazingly they produced detailed maps of 103 towns and cities. All are colour coded and key buildings numbered with a corresponding schedule. The level of detail tends to indicate that they actually surveyed on the ground by people. Has anybody else come across these. Please note that I would post the PDF of the map but due to its source I believe I would incur the wrath of admin for copyright breach. However this link takes you to an example http://www.envirocheck.co.uk/envirocheck/graphics/Russian_Map_Reading.pdf Mike

Mark Have you come across this site? http://www.dodge50.co.uk/rb44-story-1.html Does not seem to answer your questions but has some interesting info Mike

There are multiple ways of resizing photos, All depends what software you have. Simple way is open the image using Pain. Select resize image and change largest dim (im pixels) to something like 900. Remeber to maintain aspect ration. Then use save as, giving it a new name (you to not want to wreck the original file) Of course if you do not have paint you can always try the Gimp. http://www.gimp.org/ Quite a good manipulation program and it is extremely competitively priced (FREE) Have an older version on my laptop This is OK for a few images, if you want to do quite a few then you ideally need to find sime software that batch processes. Mike

You may be right, but you need to remeber that the vast majority of people are sensible, but we are living in a country obsessed with H&S and wrapping up in cotton wool. We have to protect the brain dead idiots who think they are invulnerable and cannot die. After all we need these people.:shocked: After all if you believe all the doom and gloom we will soon have no oil, will be re;ying on wid power, so no electric most of the time. Which would be a major disaster, no TV (so no Corrie, EastEnders etc) to keep the wife quiet, Worst still no PC and no HMVF.:-(:-(:-( This will be like Medieval rimes when the only entertainment was the village idiot, So where would we be if we let them all kill themselves? Anyway the bike test has just proven to be very usefull, the hours of practice weaving around cones comes in handy for avoiding potholes. Miike

Power (and posibly weight) is probably the best way forward, possibly with an engine size restriction thrown in. They could have different rules for older (more sensible?) people. This should be easy as they already do it for motorbikes. Mike

Have been busy again. Rear tub has now been mostly rubbed sown and primed, still need to do the inside of the rear wings. Thought I would then have a go at the rear tailgate, As this has the standard hitch dent with some further damage caused by a PO using only one chain on the tailgate and as such was split through all the birmabrite bits the only bit intact was the galv liner. Thought I would give it a repair/strengthening exercise. First job was grill out all the rivets and remove the galv liner. Was hoping to be able to access the bottom section byt it is a solid box. Had to change plan and decided to insert a galvanised angle by opening the end and sliding it in. Angle needed some grinding to fit nicely. The tailgate and angle were drilled through and riveted in place.. Channel runs from the corner gusset to the one at the opposite end. The open end was then closed back up and riveted back together, had to drilled out 2 spot welds. Some instant car (fibre glass paste) was then used to seal up the cuts. The damaged section had been cut and levered to allow the angle to slide through. This was them beaten back into some sort of shape and riveted to the angle. Heat was applied to ease the bending process using a hot air stripper gun on the high setting (have one which gets everything really hot) Some more instant car was applied and I now have a quite successful repair as the tailgate is no longer as flexible as before and just to confuse the rivet counters I now have some extra ones. Just need to sand down ad finish the filling, strip all the paint get some rubber seals, Oh and fill the spare rivet holes somebody else created along the bottom edge, then a coat of paint and refit pioneer kit. Mike

Just read the instructions for my new lawn mower (had it a couple of months) has a Briggs & Stratton motor in it. Basically it says "DO NOT USE FUEL MORE THAN A MONTH OLD" Runs OK. Mind you the hedge trimmer was smoking heavily today and smelt a bit funny. Could be because I am down to the last of the 2 stroke mix. Had it for 2 years. Mike

Been trying to get through the paint on my 109. Found nitromors stripper to be bery good on anything but the paint on the body. Sander OK but time consuming and dusty. Have been having more success with hot air gun and a chisel. The paint seem s to come off relatively easy when it gets hot. Mike

Bio fuels do not save the planet they destroy it and lead to starvation. Why you ask. The poorer nations descide they need money, so rather than growing crops for food they grow crops to feed the oil companies with the "bio fuel". Then they get greedier and start ripping out rain forest etc to grow more bio fuel crops. As such food supplies get less and the demand means the price of this goes up, but never to a llevel that makes it more profitable than fuel products. I suppose in the long run it saves the planet as we will all have succumbed to starvation. The problem of ethanol and dissolving fuel systems has been a well known problem for many years now, just ask anybody who run an alki burning dragster. Mike

Not quite, the two do not neccessarily go hand in hand. Building Regulations Approval is required on things that do not need planning. You do not need planning permission to knock a hole for a door through an internal wall, but if it is a load bearing wall you need building regs approval as it is a structural alteration. You also need building regs approval for double glazing, heating and certain electrical work. Approval process varies dependant upon work. You need Planning if you want to turn your garden into a concrete yard, but you do not need building regs. Temporary buildings need building regs if they are there for more than 28 days Mike

He was but the cat has evicted him. Mike

They probably have thought of snow loads on smaller structures, but a chieftan size "bunker" maybe a different matter. As for burying them under soil this has its own issues. They have eventually finished the Tesco at Gerrards Cross. You may remember this one from the news. Simple idea build concrete dome over railway, cover in soil, from sides upwards and then buid supermarket. Contractor thought better, Dump soil on top and let it fall down the sides, resukt, whole lot on railway line, minutes after a train had passed under. http://www.meadwaypark.co.uk/Collapse/index.html Same issue with snow, if it builds up from base and compacts it will hold if not, get the shovel out. Mike

Simple way of creating anything and everything as a PDF. Download and install CutePDF (don't forget converter bit). http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/writer.asp Basically it installs as a printer. If you can print it you can print it as a PDF file by selecting CutePDF from the available printers.. Mike