Page 4 of 9
Re: Marvin's miserable miniature motors
Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2022 10:37 am
by Hooli
Ahh I spot a fault in your plans there...
Re: Marvin's miserable miniature motors
Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2022 11:50 am
by LynehamHerc
marvinsmom wrote: ↑Sun Jul 31, 2022 9:49 am
lets have a bit of a fleet update -
we have got the Toyota tested for another year. it has needed a new front bottom arm as one of them had rusted though. for those who have not seen one that Toyota use on the T250 Avensis its a pressed bit of strip thats all welded up. recent we had one that had rusted though so it needed changing. the other one while crusty its still sound. for now.
with the Toyota MOT's, the Rover is next up. now that has in the recent past had the drop links and the brakes, including the hand brake, gone through. given that, i am hopeful that it won't need too much to persuade the man from the ministry to pass it safe for another year.
then as i have been on holidays (yes, i am responsible for the summer ending and the rain starting, or is it cos the schools have broken up?) so the other day with Marvin playing up and the weather breaking we went to the lock-up, and 2 went in while 1 came out. we have had a bit of a fiddle with Marvin, and Kerry wonders if its a fuel issue rather than ignition, like is there some crud floating about in the carb? we have had the spark tester on the car and it seemed ok, though i must admit we have not had the plugs out. yet.
20220716_124724.jpg
20220726_122059.jpg
20220726_122107.jpg
20220726_122132.jpg
20220726_122134.jpg
20220726_122139.jpg
2019-07-18 19.05.15.jpg
2019-07-18 19.05.19.jpg
2019-07-18 19.05.30.jpg
so with the bike and metro away i have run about in cocopop. which was nice. we went over to york, whitby and even seaham. seaham? what the hell is in seaham? well we went looking for "sea glass", washed up little glass pebbles which are made up of the glass waste dumped from historic glass making in sunderland. its something that a colleague at work had seen a leaflet for, so we thought we'd have a look. well we found some sea glass, they are wee glass pebbles about the size of my little figure nail, for the most part! so a bit smaller than what i was expecting..... and not quiet what the promotional literature promised!
20220729_124933.jpg
and finally rodney mini, well for the last month i have been asking "where are the mini keys?" and "have you found the mini keys?" and "so you have lost the mini keys?" followed by "if you have lost the mini keys, then i'm going to have to beat you......"
kerry has FINALLY found the keys. so sadly i didn't get ti use my beating stick. drat. but now its pissing with rain so Rodney mini can just stay where it is, tucked up in the other garage!
We stopped off at Seaham a few years ago. Did you see the Tommy sculpture?
Re: Marvin's miserable miniature motors
Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2022 12:36 pm
by marvinsmom
we did yes. we came into town from Murton side and had a drive up along the seafront, though we didn't stop and get out for a proper look we did see it as we came by.
its a very moving and evocative memorial to the soldiers of the Great War.
Re: Marvin's miserable miniature motors
Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2022 5:58 pm
by marvinsmom
we went to the model railway show in Redcar this morning cos, well, i like trains.
Rodney mini has met a friend.
- 20220806_104805.jpg (728.95 KiB) Viewed 848 times
- 20220806_104817.jpg (708.43 KiB) Viewed 848 times
- 20220806_104828.jpg (641.17 KiB) Viewed 848 times
this Austin 10 is, according to the sign on the back seat, a 1934 and has a 1140-odd cc side valve motor fitted.
its been restored, but happily this one instead of stripping absolutely EVERYTHING and replacing the seats have just had a good clean and feed. though the door cards and headliner all looked brand new. well they are only original once, and maybe the originals were shot, at least the seats still have some patina left in them.
it was lovely though, and i know Kerry would like a proper veteran car next. though i dunno what the situation is with spares foor any car of this age. i'm guessing that there isn't really anything left for a car like this, though maybe the owners club will know where service parts and the like can be found.
after watching the trains for a while, well we had to go and get some groceries. you would be surprised just how much you can get into one of these tiny cars. honestly they just swallow plenty both on the back seat and in the boot.
- 20220806_125410.jpg (266.67 KiB) Viewed 848 times
and no, its not Redcar in Australia, its Redcar in this country so god alone knows why the pictures are upside down!!
Re: Marvin's miserable miniature motors
Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2022 11:52 pm
by SiC
I believe most prewar cars aren't much more than blacksmith engineering. So many parts that aren't available can easily be made up.
Re: Marvin's miserable miniature motors
Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2022 12:27 am
by marvinsmom
SiC wrote: ↑Sat Aug 06, 2022 11:52 pm
I believe most prewar cars aren't much more than blacksmith engineering. So many parts that aren't available can easily be made up.
i also understand that, with some models at least there is the expertise available to adapt parts from newer cars to fit some of these old motors.
for instance, i seem to recall that it is possible to turn down the brake drums off a Fiord Fiesta to use on an Austin 7.
but i could of course, just dreamt it!
Re: Marvin's miserable miniature motors
Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2022 7:19 pm
by marvinsmom
i've been lowering the tone of the office car park today.
- 20220811_124547.jpg (336.48 KiB) Viewed 781 times
- 20220811_124551.jpg (436.94 KiB) Viewed 781 times
- 20220811_124553.jpg (381.06 KiB) Viewed 781 times
- 20220811_124603.jpg (342.92 KiB) Viewed 781 times
- 20220811_164355.jpg (452.89 KiB) Viewed 781 times
- 20220811_164358.jpg (484.89 KiB) Viewed 781 times
oddly no one in the office mentioned seeing Rodney Mini sat outside. however one of the guys out of the factory did.
"is that yours? it looks mint!"
going to work this morning was a breeze as the traffic has been really quiet. i guess it must be factory fortnight, and folks are on holidays.
coming back home though was more stressful. with it been hot outside, the cars temperature gauge was sat higher than i am used to seeing it. not that it over heated, just the needle sat a touch higher up the gauge (just past "N") than i am used to seeing it. and of course there isn't any relief for the car on the parkway compared with going over the moors, there it gets warm going up hill, and then the temperature comes back down as we coast down the other side.
its been nice though driving there and back today in the Mini 1000, and i have been inspired to use that car after seeing a lass in a Morris Minor pottering along that road the otherday.
and its supposed to be cooler tomorrow, so maybe i'll take Rodney to work again tomorrow.
Re: Marvin's miserable miniature motors
Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2022 7:24 pm
by paulplom
marvinsmom wrote: ↑Thu Aug 11, 2022 7:19 pm
i've been
upping the tone of the office car park.
FTFY
Re: Marvin's miserable miniature motors
Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2022 9:51 pm
by marvinsmom
some of our pictures from today in Durham. we took Rodney Mini, instead of Cocopop and i'm glad we did. seems that Rodney (and Teddy too) made everyone smile, either they had a mini like him, or a relative had one back in the day. we were lucky with the weather too, just a brief shower in the morning and then dry the rest of the day. which was nice.
Re: Marvin's miserable miniature motors
Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2022 10:11 pm
by marvinsmom
Sunday we took Rodney Mini over to Ripon races, the weather was stunning, as wee many of the cars on show. with winter coming i will be soon be missing that sunshine i guess! the one sore spot is the £17 it cost to get myself, my better half and the mini 1000 in. still i suppose the covid bounce back loans are getting called back in. and it did make us reconsider where we were going today, we had been planning to go over to Ripley Castle today, but as that is organised by the same lot well, we decided otherwise.