Bugger

[steve_earwig]

Thinking about it, he's turned out to be ok. He did ram my car of course but I think that falls under the heading "sh!t happens". The real bastards are the insurance co who tried to take the first way out they could, I just wonder what else the devious bastards'll try.

I've been thinking about this handout too, if it includes the cost of the new wheel (Service Box = 187 quid) I could get the guy to just paint the old one and could possibly end up with a result!

[steve_earwig]

I've just pulled the D8 out of my garage and taken it along to register it for a week. Was very strange to drive it again, the suspension's knackered so it was very squishy and wandered about all over the shop. It's generally fine though, temp was steady at 85, idle rock solid at about 850 and the air con blows cold. No problems with their safety test, it flew through (of course).

They'd changed things since last year though, last year they gave me a sticky registration plate with "PROBA" written on it but this year the guy in the cop shop deals with them. Well "guy" isn't the word people usually use for him because he's a short-arsed bumhole job's worth Billy-no-mates and seems to get a kick out of p!ssing people off, including me - I can't have them, they're only for when I sell a car. And it only cost me 142Kn (£16) to find out

The people in the safety test place could do me temporary registration for 2 months but that's 2500Kn (£275) - f*ck that. They were trying to tell me I could drive it about and if there's any problems I could show them the safety test results, but it would be illegal of course, and if another tit drove into me it'd be a nightmare. Plus I don't want something like that screwing up my stay here, anything's better than being kicked out back to Blighty.

Looks like I'm on me bike

[Welly]

Bejesus - your country makes our MOT garage and queing in the Post Office look like a walk in the park

Good that the D8's OK though after it's hibernation

[steve_earwig]

Aha! Greetings young Welters!

They love their buraucracy I tell them we do lots of it by post and the rest takes almost no time at all but all I get is blank stares - does not compute!

Not much of a hibernation, it's been run once a month. I've learned to leave the handbrake off so it doesn't freeze on and I always make sure the clutch disengages too - stick it gently in gear, then drive it forwards and backwards a foot (I had to un-freeze a mate's XR3's clutch once when it'd been standing for a year or so, violent bunny hops up and down the road 'til it came unstuck, I so don't want to do that to a car I own!).

I forgot to say, both fans work fine

[Welly]

From what I remember of the Ford XR's they all did violent bunny hops from the factory - the clutches were terribly cheap

[teamster1975]

Gawd bless the escrote

[steve_earwig]

Just out of interest:

Gawd bless the escrote

Afaik that particular corset, which was re-shelled with a blue printed lump, is still sitting in a mate's garden shed. Hard to believe it's 27 years old too!

[Welly]

I can't believe they're spending so many hours rebuilding that thing

That will be one of those cars you look at and think....there's something wrong with that car but I can't quite put my finger on it

[steve_earwig]

there's something wrong with that car but I can't quite put my finger on it

Touch it anywhere, your finger will be right on what's wrong with it

Update: I trundled along on my scrapheap challenge pushbike this morning to see how they were doing:

Hmm, so they're only painting part of the wing, this I'll have to see...

The insurers have offered me 5200Kn (£570), this is including the wheel of course (Service box £187.46) and guy in the garage seems amenable to a deal.

Mangled Glof:

I just noticed, they managed to save a door! (I must get to guy to tell us when it's done so I can take some pics)

[teamster1975]

The insurers have offered me 5200Kn (£570), this is including the wheel of course (Service box £187.46) and guy in the garage seems amenable to a deal.

Bloody marvellous! Keep us posted!

[Welly]

Is that your door they've removed and put on the stand behind?

It should be ready in a couple of days then?

[steve_earwig]

Yep, that's my door. I was thinking about why they'd masked off part of the wing, maybe it's because it's for the base coat/primer and there's no point in painting this over a decent surface?? I dunno, I will be giving it a good look before I accept it tho

I made a discovery with the cycling. When I first appeared on here I came with crank pulley panic and had to cycle home for the D8. When I arrived I was almost dead and I remember cursing my total lack of fitness. I know my house is higher but I always thought the road looked like this: /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\. It still takes me 40 minutes to get home and I need oxygen when I arrive, however the way back is almost all downhill!

I'm quite enjoying cycling just now, there's no rush or anything so I'm having a good look at stuff that usually goes past in a blur. I can't wait to get my car back though, I cycle on the pavement as much as I can but sooner or later one of these idiots'll get me. Croatian cyclist passing technique #1: Keep as far away as possible, pass them slowly with your tyres almost on the opposite kurb (obviously cyclist themselves). Croatian cyclist passing technique #2: Blast past as close as possible, if necessary give a blast on your horns as you do this in the hope they'll wobble about and end up on your bonnet (obviously morons).

[Welly]

The saddle on my bike plays havock with my arse

carry on....

[teamster1975]

I made a discovery with the cycling. When I first appeared on here I came with crank pulley panic and had to cycle home for the D8. When I arrived I was almost dead and I remember cursing my total lack of fitness. I know my house is higher but I always thought the road looked like this: /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\. It still takes me 40 minutes to get home and I need oxygen when I arrive, however the way back is almost all downhill!

Why don't you take the TDM Steve?

[steve_earwig]

Because I need to import, register and insure the damn thing first. And guess who I'd be dealing with
I'll give you a clue:

he's a short-arsed bumhole job's worth Billy-no-mates

I was riding it around just with their insurance for a couple of years but I'm not sure how legal this is, the official word seems to be it must be fully legal in it's country of origin, yeah, so I'm going to take it back to the UK once a year to get it MOTed, taxed and insure it for somewhere I'm never going to ride it and insure it here because the UK companies won't cover me, no thanks.

My mate I came out here with tried to import his bike, he did all the paperwork in the UK and paid the import duty but Billy-no-mates said he'd done it wrong, so he rode it about for 4 years without insurance. Eventually he found the usual patch of diesel, wrote off his bike and damaged three cars. Of course he got nicked but the cops said there was nothing wrong with his paperwork and couldn't see why he'd not been allowed to import it.