richyb66

Then once you're well covered, try warming the film with a hair drier.

That's fighting talk that is - CATIA V5 is clearly better!!! Pro E is just a colour version of etch-a-sketch.

Got CATIA V5 on my laptop (purely for evaluation purposes), but it's what we use at work and is more than up to the job for design although I've never used the FAE side of it and don't know of anyone that does. Decent FEA packages are expensive and take ages to run due to complex maths involved in the calculations.

Phill, you have a PM. Rich.

I've got contacts at the Jag working in development, I'll see if i can get hold of the wiring diagram for the electric handbrake.

My axe is probably already sharp enough and I'm certainly not having a dig at the police who have a difficult enough job without worrying about number plates. Just pointing out that I seem to see an awful lot of cars going round with blatantly illegal plates on them and people seem to be getting away with it. I know that the penalties are severe and I believe the DVLA technically have the power to seize plates from serious offenders but with such a large proportion of motoring offences being detected by ANPR - these people have little or no chance of being detected and they all seem to know it.

Just use any font you want, make sure the plate background has lots of little Tazmanian Devils (or similar) on it. Get your favourite football club's emblem added in a panel on the left hand side then screw it on with lots of screws with big black heads in random locations to make it a bit more difficult to read. Finally get what you're trying to get the plate to read, printed in little letters along the bottom of the plate because let's face it, most of these reg numbers are pretty cr@p and you need something at the bottom to help you de-cypher them. Of course it won't be legal, but you'll be far less likely to get pulled over than if you leave plain black and silver plates on. HTH - though probably not.

Oh, and new Jags use electric parking brakes too- http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/JAGUAR-S-TYPE-NEW-XJ...1QQcmdZViewItem but I'm not sure how simple the wiring would be as it's almost certain to be wired into the engine ECU.

I was looking at using a Renault electric mechanism and had spotted a few on Ebay for £50 or so but eventually decided to use an umbrella type instead on the basis that electric ones as still pretty scarce and if a second hand one goes pear shaped it could cost an arm and a leg to replace. After looking for suitable levers I finally got a Mark 1 Cortina handle for 30 quid, again off Ebay, but the prices seem to vary wildly with some going for over 60 quid. I mounted the handle to the left of the steering wheel rather than the right so it's less likely to get kicked getting in and out and because it's more usual to go for the handbrake with your left hand. One thing to bear in mind with this setup is the handle on its own has no mechanical advantage, it just pulls on the end of the cable, so you need to incorporate something to give around a 7:1 advantage. I've now got it all fitted and despite the fact that it uses 3 seperate cables, it works a treat and everything is routed inside the tunnel so there's nothing dangling down underneath the car and the adjusters are (fairly) easy to get to. The only slight issue might be that the Cortina handle has a die-cast end with a few sharp edges so this might need a bit of fettling for SVA. Despite a picture being worth a 1000 words, I haven't posted any yes as I'm posting this when I really should be doing some work, but if there's suitable interest on this thread I'll take a few and try and do a bit of a write-up for anyone who's thinking of doing something similar.

Sorry but I don't agree, GBS shouldn't be putting stuff up for sale on Ebay if they're not in a position to fulfill the order - they're obviously happy enough to take peoples money, if the items aren't in stock or available then they shouldn't post the item. If they were available when they placed the ad and now aren't for some reason (like the factory burnt down or something similar), then they should update the listing or pull the item. If they're only planning on running of a few manifolds when they've got enough people interested then there's probably a better way of canvassing interest.

Tak, you've clearly been mis-led. They've advertised an item for sale that doesn't actually exist and it doesn't look like they're in any position to give you a definite delivery date. I know it won't help you much if you need the manifold but I think that you're more than within your rights to ask for a confirmed delivery date in writing and if this isn't acceptable, they should give you a refund. Personally I'd be speaking to them asap and then maybe giving some negative feedback - sadly there seem to be too many people (and companies) who are happy to use Ebay as a marketing tool but then refuse to play by the rules. Maybe a bit of honest feedback might give then the kick up the ar5e they obviously so badly need.

Vaseline

Keith, no problem, you can tell us all about it at the next meeting.

Keith, I got the build videos that came with my 2B - think I've only got 3 of the 4 videos (in magnificent VHS format) so I don't know if these cover what you're after but you're more than happy to have a look through them if you think they'd be any help. I've had a quick look at them myself - admittedly more for amusement than anything else as I seem to be spending most of my time re-doing someone elses previous attempts at everything. I got a spare pair of hands too if you think you need help but sadly they're not available weekends, only weeknights. Rich

They're obviously a copy of Cragar SS Mag wheel but as they're 4 stud they're unlikely to of US manufacture. Nothing obvious springs to my mind but I could probably dig out a Custom Car or Hot Car mag from the 70's and find a John Brown Wheels advert that'll almost certainly have a picture of them. There's a fitment chart here http://www.retro-rides.com/wheels.asp that'll show what they'll probably fit. If you don't sell them on Ebay, stick a free ad on Ray's excellent www.rodandclassicmart.co.uk and someone who goes on there will almost certainly know what they are.

Yes, that's what i was expecting to see but the bloke at Ford couldn't find it. Maybe he was just a muppet on the microfiche and I need to try a different dealer.

I've bought a pair of (supposedly) Sierra rear flexi hoses. The metal ends that fit into the trailing arm and would also mount to the Sierra body aren't threaded - they're round with a flat on them so they fit into a Dee shaped hole and my trailing arms appear to have the corresponding shaped hole in them. The problem I've got is I can't find the metal clip that retains them - I'm assuming that it'll be some sort of horseshoe shaped jobbie, a bit like the one that retains the fixed end of the rear handbrake cable but I've got a load of them and they don't fit because they're a bit too small. A trip down to the Ford dealer didn't show anything on the slides - they just look like the usual hoses that are retained with a thin nut. I'm wondering if I've got the wrong hoses, although they appear to fit the trailing arms and having bought two of them, I'd rather not have to buy something different. I did make my own retaining clip by cutting out some stainless steel sheet which will do the job but as it took a bit of time and I need 4 of them, I'd maybe be better seeing what else might be available. Anyone got any ideas?

That's correct but if you look inside most manifolds you can trace a path around the walls of the manifold to the inlet port without encountering any sharp corners or dead ends. The square section plenum would need to have it's ends capped off and the path to the inlet ports would encounter numerous sharp edges and changes of direction all of which would create turbulence in the mixture and disturb the airflow. Granted the engine will basically suck in the mixture from anywhere in the manifold but for maximum power, the object of the exercise has to be getting the air to flow as smoothly as possible.

In theory it can't not work but I'd wonder how well the induction mixture will flow, given that the plenum between the carbs and the head will have numerous dead air pockets which will cause a lot of turbulence in the mixture and could cause fuel droplets to condense out onto the walls of the manifold and affect the fuel / air mixture. My personal view would be while it would probably work to a certain extent, you wouldn't be using the bike carbs to their fullest potential.

Yes - http://community.rhocar.org/index.php?show...c=18398&hl=

I've got an account with BOC for a half size Argoshield bottle that I use on my big MIG welder which I hardly ever use now so I only get a bottle once every couple of years, but the one thing I will say about BOC is I've hardly ever know a company increase their prices as often as they do. I can't remember how much I pay for the annual rental but I think it costs something like £50 to get the bottle refilled. Now that my welding is mostly thin stull and stainless steel rather than big mild steel fabrications, I use a small hobby type welder with gasless wire for mild steel and a small disposable bottle for welding stainless which I think are about a tenner a time from Halfrauds or Machine Mart. A good tip with the disposable bottles is to always loosen off the regulator when you finish welding as they sometimes don't seal that well and the gas tends to escape over time.

http://www.wickes.co.uk/Mounting-Boxes/5m-...uit/invt/715020 - Think it's also available in black.

Why bother with a book when you have a wealth of experience available here to call upon?

Items are also available in store. Picked up a 40 LED lamp this morning and looks OK for the cash.

Try these: http://www.woolworths.co.uk/web/jsp/produc...sp?pid=50697087 http://www.woolworths.co.uk/web/jsp/produc...sp?pid=50965559