richyb66

So it took a team of top professionals 5 years to produce a few ALIAS renderings - what have they been messing about at? Obviously not setting up a website for interested customers - that's still under construction as well.

Yes we do still meet up (although I've missed a few meets myself). There don't seem to have been any reminders posted on here for some time for some reason thought. As the meetings are the last Wednesday of the month, the next one will be on 30th July, 7-30 onwards. It might be worth putting a post on here a bit nearer the day to see who's going but it doesn't seem to make too much difference as there weren't any posts last week and we still got 10 people turn up.

I bought a cheapie Dremel style drill from B&Q like this - http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav/nav.jsp?...;isSearch=false for £25. You get a selection of fine cutting discs that I've used on stainless panels and although it's not the fastest of tools it is easy on the elbow grease and will do the job but you need to be careful not to overload it or the discs wear out very quickly. It only removes about a 1mm width of material but can be a bit tricky to cut very straight lines. Personally if I wasn't bothered about re-using the bit I cut out, I'd chain drill a few hols to start and then just use a decent fine tooth hacksaw blade by hand and just wrap a load of gaffer tape around one end where you hold on to it. Certainly not the fastest but cheap and you're pretty well guaranteed a neat cut.

I've bought a pair of Securon 4 point harnesses like these http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Securon-4-point-Blac...Q2em118Q2el1247 I'm assuming that your shoulder straps are the problem, the ones on these will extend up to 1.8m from the lap belt to the rear fixing and each waist belt will extend up to 78cm from the centre of the buckle to the centre of the belt mounting. HTH

Found another place http://www.fhellis.com/ It looks like they come well recommended on another forum that I frequent and from reading this thread, the price seems very reasomable too - http://www.nsra.org.uk/newforum/showthread.php?t=10489

I get a whopping 0.7Meg - but I'm paying for 'up to' 2Meg thanks largely to our phone line coming from some outdated exchange in the next village, rather than Tamworth (surely the hub of the internet) I think they must be using one of these http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u289/ri...6/Exchange1.gif Still, musn't grumble. For really fast internet, there's always the one at work. One question remains thought. Did the bloke that sold me my internet deal offer his wife 'up to' 12"?

Throttle position sensor - Zetecs are prone to this and I had the same on a 1.8 Escort too - got sick of the missus moaning about it so I sold the car but have a read here for a few easy things to try - http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=36472

I'm pretty sure I've got one in my dad's garage in Cov. It didn't seem to be very high-tech but I remember it did work a treat when I was running twin 40's looks like this http://www.gunson.co.uk/item.aspx?item=1813&cat=675 I'm over there tonight so I can dig it out if you want.

You gould give these lot a call - http://www.coollouvres.com/index.shtml They're in Hampshire, and they don't look cheap. Or here http://www.racecar.co.uk/roach/louvring&machining.htm also in Hampshire (UK hub of the louvre punching industry apparently?) I've not used either so I can't give a recommendation but it's a start.

Sold - for free to Matt. Hopefully his final step to SVA.

I've got a Mamba black bucket seat that I'm no longer using that looks like this: http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u289/ri...66/PICT0009.jpg http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u289/ri...66/PICT0010.jpg Due to the wide tunnel on my 2B, I've narrowed the base of the seat so it's now just 500mm wide. This was achieved by stripping the covering off the seat, cutting and re-welding the frame and then re-fitting the cover. However, I'm not too happy with how it sits in the car relative to my harnesses and the missus thinks it's uncomfortable so I've bought some Roadster 7 seats to replace it. I've also got a second seat the same that I started to narrow too but due to the time it was taking and not being 100% happy with the first seat, I've not progressed with it any further than removing the cover and chopping the frame. It looks a bit like an explosion in a mattress factory now but given a bit of time it could be a perfectly useable seat. The general condition of both seats is pretty good, a few scuffs around the back of them at the bottom but still more than presentable. OK, the price. I'm looking for £0, yep, they're free. Just come and get 'em. They could be just what someone is after but please don't just come and get them to have them sitting unused or to sell them on - let someone who needs them have them. Could be ideal for a track car if you only need one (although probably not if you've got a Hugh Jarse). I'm at home in Tamworth for the duration of the Bank Holiday weekend and evenings during the week but most other weekends I'm in North Wales so I'd prefer to get rid of them asap. You can pm me for more info or my mobile number. Oh, and there's no runners with them so you'll need your own. Richard.

Just got back from a trip up this afternoon to pick up some parts - very friendly, a tour of the workshop and some useful tips. Thanks guys and keep up the good work.

Hi adie, I think there's a Warwicks, Worcs and West Mids meeting next Wednesday night at the Malt Shovel Pub on the A45 - 7-30 onwards. Keep an eye out on the forum for confirmation. No doubt someone will be there in a car you could have a look at though sadly not me as I'm still building.

My chainsaw is used pretty infrequently and as a result can be a bit of a bu99er to start. What I do to get it going is take the plug out and give it wipe on a rag to get rid of any residual oil and then give it a good warm up with a blowlamp. Stick it back in while it's still hot and it starts after a couple pulls. I suppost a gas hob would be a bit easier but as I don't have one the blowlamp has to suffice. Another tip with two stroke garden tools is to empty the fuel tank when you've finished with them and then start them up and run them at idle until they run completely out of fuel, otherwise the petrol in the fuel system evaporates leaving just the two stroke oil and this can make starting them more difficult later.

Looking good Keith, I assume we'll be able to see it in the flesh next week (weather permitting). I should be in attandance after a couple of DIY induced no-shows.

It takes me an hour to get changed, make a cuppa and walk into the garage - and that's before I've started.

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.