Max Thunder's Motoring Testamonial's

[Max Thunder]

Hi
Having been a member of this fine forum for over a month i thought I'd better put something down on my motoring history and not just post pictures of ladies with no vests on .
But I feel a bit of a fraud as I don't have a have an interesting daily nor do I spend my time fixing cars anymore but I have a bit of a motoring history so will share it here until I get banned for being boring.

Firstly get the confession out of the way I used to peddle a bit of rust around the ovals yep I was a "Banger racer " mainly raced under 2litre but I do know my way round a V6 granny (fnar)
Raced a couple of cars that were a bit different which I cover latter on .In my defence I was young(ish) and I didn't need the money.

Right starting with the newest first I will place my motoring history here

This is my daily except it's not used daily as my wonderful partner and I both work on the same shift in the same factory but in different sections so we use her car unless there is Omg snowkaos or some other totally uninspiring reason
It's a 2004 Mazda B2500 turbo diesel

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Bought it in November 2012 from a backstreet dealer in Peterborough with about 62k on the clock and I am the 4th owner

Owner 1 was an Electronics company in Aylesbury Buckinghamshire and it wore a private plate and it seemed to have had an easy life
Owners 2 & 3 don't appear to have kept it long and i think I know why as it likes a drink never got round to working out the mpg but the dealer kindly pointed out "That it's not the most economical vehicle sir" on the test drive but I expected that.
I have only added about 26k on the clock it's got a bit of a rust bubble on the drivers front wing and on the corner of the bonnet
I change the oil and filters every year almost to the day and that's about it .
I have been told that they like to eat glow plugs and I changed them when I got it as it took a bit to start and that cured it and just recently it started to show signs that there were on the way out again so it just changed all 4 as they weren't that expensive and that they crack the heads at about 130k with no warning .
So that's something to look forward to
To be cont.......(if anyone is interested or even still alive)

[Max Thunder]

Hi
Not sure if I am supposed to edit my first post to add some more or start another post so i will start another post until told different or just blocked

Forget to add that the truck had no evidence of having a towbar fitted untill I got my grubby mit's on it. Also the load liner was like new so l bought a wheel arch boxing out kit for the bottom half and adapted/added to it to board the back out over the load liner without drilling into it.

So the load liner and floor should be like new and as it's a 4x4 it's compulsory to have a bit of chequer plate somewhere so there's a bit on the bed floor
Bored of me yet good I will carry on & on

So the Mazda replaced X197 FCR a 2000 ex Scottish Gas Smiley Transit.
Bought from a dealer in Coventry who dealt in ex Transco, British/Scottish Gas and the Post Office vans
The ex gas vans were the most expensive but were in very good condition with low mileage
They fitted a new towbar for free and it came fully serviced and a full cambelt kit

At the time WE were working Steam Rally's Country Shows etc part time (WE were looking at full time and was about there when the last recession came along and killed that dream) with our stall .

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It was a good van obviously rusted like f*uk and had a lot of the rear chassis replaced and inner and outer front wings

Then also i parked it up over winter and then the diesel heater (no glow plugs) stopped working and after trying to get it sorted with no avail I resorted to pulling the air pipe off and using a Plummers style gas torch which rested nicely on the slam panel and gave it a couple of seconds of flame, bingo it would fire (pun intended) .

I think I did this for a couple of winters and the only incident of note was a passing dog walker shouting"your vans on fire" just as I started it and the flame's went out as the hot air was sucked in .

In the end the rust was coming back and with the aforementioned cold starting issue it was time to say bye bye
So I sold through Gumtree to a chap who came all the way from North London and paid the full asking price and said he was going to convert it into an Ice Cream van

Yeah I thought --So here it is ( not the best photo but thanks Google)

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Yep that's how it looks now and I wouldn't mind it back

To be cont.........

[BenHar]

I think you should just add to your original post by replying to it.

Keep all this good stuff together.

Ben

[Max Thunder]

Well I thought I'd carry on sorry it's taken me so long but I re read my first post and slipped into a coma

Right before that Transit I had another K267UBC bought from a New age Traveller in the Corby Asda carpark.

Cannot remember the milage but it was over 100,000 and it had a nice scrape by the back wheel arch passenger side.

It had been fitted with 2 windows in the front half and a bench seat fitted .It had been originally belonged to an engineering company in sunlight you could see the writing after the stickers had been removed.

I had the back half panelled out and a bulkhead fitted effectly making the back half a van and the front a mini bus (it was because of this combo that there was a bit of a "do" at the tip and the Police were called but that's another story)

I initially bought it tow my Rebal stockcar and fitted the back out as a small workshop. I only kept the stockcar for one season and then we bought a caravan and started working the shows .

I took the bench seat out and covered the windows with a couple of skull and crossbones flags which we sold . It obviously had required welding and was getting a bit rough so as we were doing well with the stall we saved up and bought the smiley one.
Because of the show season WE bought the new one and sorned it until the end of the season and then scraped the old one .
Here's a picture of of the old one bringing home it's replacement

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[Hooli]

Tip action sounds interesting...

[DodgeRover]

Let me guess it went something along the lines of, vehicles with windows behind the drivers seat are fine, oh you aren't bringing that in here

[Max Thunder]

Let me guess it went something along the lines of, vehicles with windows behind the drivers seat are fine, oh you aren't bringing that in here

Tip action sounds interesting...

Hi

Yes sort of ish

Right this was a few years ago now but East Northamptonshire Council like many brought in restrictions for commercial vehicles at there tips or community recycling facility's or whatever there called.

Commercial vehicles were only permitted to use the facilities on two days (Tuesday and Thursday IIrc) between 10am & 4pm . However there were some exemptions.

Minibuses as long as they had seats fitted was one Camper vans another so basically any commercial vehicle under 3.5t that had got stuff fitted inside.

They even published a leaflet explaining thus. So my vehicle had a bench seat fitted in the front bit and obviously Windows (no flags at this point )
and the rear was fitted out as a small workshop cupboards etc not the same as but similar to a camper .

However this was completely irrelevant as all the rubbish I had got was in my 6'x4' trailer which at the time had no restrictions placed on them . So the transit was just the tow vehicle.

Got to the tip on a non Van day and was stopped and told No Vans so I explained and showed the youth that it ok and it conformed with regulations .He said that it was ok but he just needed his boss to confirm it.

It was at this point that things went downhill faster than Pavarotti on a tin tray going down the cresta run.
I not sure if boss man had been taking a waz and in a rush had got his foreskin stuck in his zip but boy was he in a bad mood .
It's a van he said ignoring me showing him the inside and waving the leaflet about . I also explained about the rubbish was all in the trailer and he said that I could find a towcar that was ok but not a van . So I tried to ring a mate to bring his car down but I could not get hold of him .

Anyway boss man said that if I didn't go he would ring the police so I pulled forward a couple of feet blocked the road and said "Go ahead punk make my day" or probably just go ahead
So he did .They had to put one of the tip chappies on the gate and direct all the traffic through the service road .

The Police arrived after about 20 minutes it must have been a quiet day for crime , listened to my side of the story and pursued the leaflet and said that as far as they were concerned I was right. But boss man was having none it .He was in charge and that was it .The police took him to his office for a quiet word but came out and sorry mate we think he's wrong but if he says no then you will have to come back on Van days

Can't you make him change his mind I asked but apparently they were Northamptonshire Constabulary and not the Sweeney.
So I had to leave and I went back on Van day arriving 1/2 an hour early (on purpose) with the trailer exactly the same as before and parked in the the same spot.
Boss man had now apparently recovered slightly from the previous predicament and on spoting my happy smiling face said "Just go and f*cking tip So I did
The End

[Guest]

Like the off-side rule in football, tip rules are something else in life I have never got to grips with. The white C15 van was unacceptable at my nearest tip, but accepted at the one by my sister, the red C15 van (which had small side windows behind the cab) was accepted at both. My Espace was only accepted at one tip if it had rear seats in it (so I used to keep two folded up loose at the front). Good for you for standing your ground, but if I tried it I know the police would just find some excuse to make it my fault and worth arresting me.
The daftest commercial vehicle thing was the Severn Bridge toll, my brother got caught out with his Fiesta van and only just had enough cash on him to pay the increased charge because it was a van, even though it was smaller than most cars

[I am not Diesel]

I enter the local tip in my van with the same feeling of dread and trepidation I feel on MOT day.