The Dark Wob

mercrocker wrote: ↑Tue Oct 22, 2019 3:56 pm Worst thing about that pic is the 5.5C. Fuck that, yet.

It's cold up here in the Scottish glens.

The external aluminium flashing on the window sills at work were too hot to touch at midday today. Finally dried the Cowley out enough to put in the garage. It was a bit nippy at 5am, though - I had to put a cardigan on. Mind you, we don't have a nice view.....

The temperature disparity between various parts of the country is noticeable. When I used to go to Gosport from the NW, in winter you could always feel it was warmer in the south. Better for cars as I suppose less salt is spread on the roads.

Nah, we have just as much fucking salt. They ran out one year and have made absolutely sure it won't happen again by over-stocking and zealously scattering it as soon as the postman gets his gloves out. We even had year-round salt at work - a compound (which was once a very purposeful 1930s General Motors plant until it was flattened) was used to store thousands of tons of salt brought in from some foreign country or other.

Turned out it was useless for road gritting purposes but equally adept at rotting cars out. It sat there for nearly three years, winter and summer, covered only by a flapping top sheet which covered about as much as the Fat Slags' thongs. Salt leached across the road every rainy day and was then thrown across the dock estate by 900 HGVs a day. Flipping wonderful....

Not had the first frost of the year yet here in Glasgow town, my parent's place up at Strathdon is iced up almost every night.

Certainly speaking to Aberdeenshire folk it seemed your average 1960s/70s lasted 7 years if you were lucky. One fella scrapped his Victor at 4 years old after two big fails on rot.

Even with me powerwashing the Dolomites weekly when in daily use they still ended up pretty fucked after a couple of years.

Scrapping his car at 4 years old! The poor fucker was probably still paying for it.
My 1st van was a 1999 ex royal mail escort. I watched my friendly mot man poke a hole in the passenger sill at 4 years old. It need brake pipes at 5 years. Slowest piece of shit I've ever driven as well.

If I remember correctly Victors weren't that cheap either. I remember looking at one in the showroom in 1973 when we went to buy our first car. My dad eventually bought a second hand Viva HC, MWT565K, which I nearly wrote off the day I passed my test.

To be fair, I don't think Victors relied on salt to complete the factory corrosion programme. I can remember walking to school past a neighbour's house in 1964 and his F Type was already leaving cornflakes on the driveway after he had gone to work. MOT tests were only due at seven years of age back then and many cars failed their first one on structural corrosion. Mind you, old apple cores and dubbin were probably considered acceptable repairs in those days....

paulplom wrote: ↑Thu Oct 24, 2019 6:24 am Scrapping his car at 4 years old! The poor fucker was probably still paying for it.
My 1st van was a 1999 ex royal mail escort. I watched my friendly mot man poke a hole in the passenger sill at 4 years old. It need brake pipes at 5 years. Slowest piece of shit I've ever driven as well.

I'm pretty sure the Royal Mail Escorts were made to an even lower standard than normal Escorts. Both sills on my work's one were properly rotten by four years. The garage that did the MOT fixed it with sills chopped out of two different Escort cars from the scrapyard and didn't even cover up the shitshow with underseal.

mercrocker wrote: ↑Fri Oct 25, 2019 4:25 pm MOT tests were only due at seven years of age back then

I get your point, but surely it was 10 years?