kevin the chicken

As dave said its a good day out, so many cars you wonder where they have all come from. I have already booked in, this year I will be having a good look around rather than looking for an escaped greyhound who will be staying at home!

I need to buy some new gauges for my wife's spartan kit car and I wondered if anyone could recommend some good but keenly priced replacements. I need fuel, temperature, oil pressure and an analogue clock I think although this will probably change when I ask her! The current set are a mix but we want to go with black face with white lettering to match the speedometer which is staying. Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated..

Is there another gearbox that could be used other than the ford one? Although I do seem to have a picture of front drives coming out to one side In my head. Probably because I have a vision of landrover boxes with transfer boxes attached.

A bit of extra weight too, as I tell my potential passengers as they eye up that second doughnut. Surely the whole point of the car is that it is light and pointy. An interesting engineering exercise though

I like it! What about green walled tyres?

That's exactly how I did my red top and it cured all my problems. In addition I drilled a small hole in the thermostat so that any air pockets were eliminated

I looked at the diesel but thought it would be painfully slow pulling nearly three tons around so opted for a petrol. As it was to be an occasional use car fuel economy wasn't really too much of a concern so went for the 4.6 auto. Bought one which was fairly straight but needed a few jobs doing, which I am slowly working through. Only cosmetic ones left now. One problem I did have was that the battery kept going flat. I was lucky enough to find a 4x4 garage that knew what they were talking about and they plugged a laptop in and disabled the key remotes so that I have to lock it manually. Job done, apparently some other cars can upset or fry the receiver so that the control unit doesn't hibernate. Whatever it was it worked. I find it another car that puts a smile on my face but in a totally different way from my robin hood.

You could do what I did and buy a car that needs restoring, I bought it as spares or repair cheaply. There was plenty of work in that for me but it allowed me to put my stamp on the car before it was put on the road. Aside from the actual engine block and the gearbox just about everything else was dismantled and cleaned or overhauled/replaced. There's still plenty to do especially with regards to the bodywork but at least it's usable now

Spent some of today changing the o rings on the heater matrix of my old range rover. Thought I would have a look at the workshop manual last night and after about five minutes decided the job was beyond what I cared to tackle. The official landrover manual says you should remove the centre console, steering column, instrument panel, fascia, radio, heater controls, wiper motor, disconnect the air con and so on. There would be nothing left inside the car! Apparently the main dealers allow 12 hours to replace these two o rings. A quick look on the Internet found a site showing an alternative method with photos which I followed. Took me about four hours to strip it all out and replace the rings. Left it overnight full of water to check for leaks and I reckon I can put it all back together tomorrow in less than two hours. That's a grand saved then

I checked mine with a speedometer app on my smart phone. It was free!

It's in the status updates

We, that is our retained fire station and one from a neighbouring town had a tip to one of our local engineering firms as part of our ongoing process to keep abreast of local risks. I have been there before but had forgotten the sheer scale of some of the jobs they do and the machinery they operate. They work mainly in stainless steel, hence their name Stainless Metalcraft but there other jobs with different materials ongoing too. They have lathes, turning and milling machines the size of small houses and everything seems to be on a massive scale. At least one of their machines is salvaged from a defunct shipyard and although a lot of it is some years old it has been adapted to computer run systems. One job on the go was a stainless flask about five foot high for waste nuclear fuel with side walls about 50 mm thick and another a circular thing made of stainless and mild steel for the RAF of which nobody knew the purpose. On of their bread and butter jobs is components for MRI scanners of which one part alone commands 230 hours work, 80 of that on one machine. Bet there can't be many companies left in the UK that can do this sort of job

I wrapped mine and it made loads of difference to the engine bay temperature. Yes of course if you stop the heat coming out in the engine bay it will make the exhaust run hotter but I would rather have a hot exhaust outside the car than heat cooking more delicate items in the engine bay.

Happy birthday, I'll have a beer in your honour tonight

If the weather forecast is like it is this week you would be better off with a hull rather than chains

An oily rag on its own wont spontaneously combust otherwise there would be a lot of garage fires! Other than a direct chemical reaction between two volatile chemical most fires need an ignition source unless of course it is self heating by bacterial action. Went to a barn fire yesterday afternoon that was set off by an overheating heap of horse poo! With the popularity of recycling nowadays there are quite a few fires at recycling centres some of them caused by self heating. Not very environmentally friendly at all.

Similar yes, that's the later lighter version. They are quite fast considering that they are a tractor from the fifties. I think they do about thirty mph. I had a go on one across rougham airfield a few years ago trying to clear a misfire and it nearly shook all my fillings out when I had it opened right up. I think that had a conventional clutch and gearbox though. I would like one of those. Christ is right about the transmission, David brown called it the turbo transmitter, a fluid flywheel with the gears selected rather crudely by braking the transmission with a hand lever. Works ok though and driving is a smooth experience which is want you want if you are retrieving a bogged down plane with delicate undercarriage. the winch works through the box too so take up on that is smooth too. I've got a couple of tree stumps I need out so I might get it out and use the winch on them. According to the manual winch overload is indicated when the tractor is lifted up on the anchor four foot in the air, don't think I'm that brave!

David brown, weighs about 3 1/4 tons now I've removed the ballast. Four cylinder 40 horsepower petrol and has an 11,000lb winch with 300 ft of cable on the back. Bench seat for three people. All four wheels have full steel wings. Designed by David brown for hauling heavy bombers such as the Wellington and Lancaster with the auto transmission because the clutches on the fordsons slipped.

I have always used dexron 2, including in my 1943 aircraft tug which has an auto transmission of sorts. It is ok to use in anything that specified dexron1 which basically takes you back to the stone age. Backwards compatible was the expression that stuck in my head!

Got to replace two o rings on the heater in the range rover as it is leaking coolant in to the footwell. The rings only cost about six quid but my local 4x4 dealer said allow yourself a full day to fit them as half the dash and fittings on the drivers side have to come out. Deep joy, my favourite sort of job. May have to break it up with a blast in the kit.

If the footwell is a bit tight then you can do what I did, get a cheap pair of karting boots. Just gives me that extra bit of room to move my feet around. Somebody on here is bound to have the variant you are looking at. You may end up maintaining it more than driving it but if you are capable and happy to do it then go ahead. Have a look on the Internet to see what triumph spares are available. I would imagine there are people supplying new and second hand triumph spares out there, I can think of one not far from me but can't recall their name. As the duck says there are no specific issues with bushes, just use good quality poly ones.

Would that be the one that feeds its used hops to pigs?

I can do the long melford one but only on the Sunday. Working Saturday's is really starting to p me off, it ruins so many opportunities to go out.

I put mine on with the plastic fittings and pads and haven't had any trouble from them yet. Be mindfull that once they have been pushed on you can't get them off again without cutting them off and buying some more

Never mind the first, roll on the good weather. I am a bit limited not having any wet weather gear. It was a lovely day here on Friday but I was working but my wife said the forecast for saturday was good. I thought great, I will be able to finish early and take the robin hood to see my local football team play in Ely about fifteen miles away. It blew a near gale and rained so having got wet at work I took the range rover and we lost!