Stew

Paul Dalton now has a pile of vids on youtube in conjunction with 3M. I haven't watched them but thought I'd share. http://il.youtube.com/profile?user=3MCarCare#g/u

I reckon it should be called 'Project Liquid Refreshment'

Any of the soft paint options will work. After that it's 'what you like' but you won't know if you haven't done it before. I use Menzerna polishes a lot but I liked Meguiars when I tried them. I've used Sonus pads but never their polish..... You have to ask what you want to achieve with it? Do you have swirls that you want rid of? You want some shine? If you just want to get used to running a machine then I'd recommend getting some soft finishing type pads and getting some sealant or a glaze that can be used by machine and just having a go. You could also use lime prime or even lime prime lite. 85% of using a DA is having confidence working with the machine and running it at low speeds spreading products does this. Best chat to Matt as DBlock said or some of the pros on here might have an opinion.

Genius!

Happy Birthday to Chesterfield. It says he'e 32 but I think it's more like 42! The fact he looks so blooming old must be down to all the work he puts into this place. This club wouldn't be what it is today without him, of that I'm sure! Anyway, hope you get a tubi for the F430 for your birthday mate! I also hope you spend your birthday carrying out your favourite hobby - TRAIN SPOTTING! If I'd known it was your birthday this week I'd have actually bought this for you. I didn't think you'd fit into an 12-18 months though! So CHOO CHOO!

Thanks Chris. As you know that is what my plate looks like. I bought the same for Jaynes car too so I'd be in trouble if she got done. It's easy to misinterpret guidelines when it's all text and no pictures. I'm an Engineer so need pictures! I have sent a query to my local traffics so I can have the answer on me along with a copy of the regulations in my car incase this officer decides to come after me again. If the traffics say I'm wrong I'll order a new plate. Probably.......

Where does it say this, as as far as I can see it only you who interprets it this way........ Most of you will know that I have my own plate that I blatantly mis-space and don't care and gladly pay the £30 fines, just pointing out where I think Stew is getting it wrong....... That's why I asked if I was misinterpreting the regs. If I'm wrong I'll happily order a new plate. I just want some jumped up ill informed ass telling me what to do when it's wrong. It doesn't state the edge of the plate to the edge of the letter, what is a margin in microsoft word?. I mentioned earlier that I had guidance from the traffics on this before. I saw where they measured (and photographed for evidence) and I'm sure that's what it was.

I think your wrong mate. It may be 13mm, but 13mm to what? The border? The edge of the plate? I think your confusing what the minimum spacing around the letters should be with what the actual dimensions of the whole plate should be........it may be a minimum of 13mm around the top, bottom, left and right of your letters but that doesn't then equate to the size of the plate you can use................ The 13mm is the minimum from the edge of the plate to the outermost extremity of the first / last and top/ bottom of the characters. So how can a plate manufacturer make a plate that is totally legal (documents sent/shown to verify) but not 'standard' dimensions? Why do the DVLA issued regulations state all these minimum and maximums but not that the plate must be XXXmm x XXXmm when it would clear up all interpretation? I have no idea why if the plate has to be a 'standard' size why it is not mentioned in the regs issued by the traffic police themselves???? Conform to what exactly?

So something that has become apparent with this thread is that the wording of the law is perhaps unclear..... Get you missus to find out Liam! Or perhaps one of the police people on the board would like to confirm either in the thread or via PM. As I say I was given the guidelines and made sure they were followed, you can buy legal cut down plates from plate manufacturers but it appears that even the regular police don't know the legalities..... Number plates fitted before 1st September 2001 If you fitted a number plate before 1st September 2001, they must meet the dimensions in one of the two groups below: Character height - 89 mm The height of the letters and numbers Character width (except the figure 1 or letter I) - 64 mm The width of each character, 1 and I (on irish plates) are thinner but will be in proportion using the standard letter set Character stroke - 16 mm I think this is the 'thickness' of the black in the letters? Space between characters -13 mm space between each character on the plate except the extra space between the numbers and the letters Space between groups - 38 mm The space between the number and letters on the plate Top, bottom and side margins (minimum) - 13 mm This is the one that I think the policeman has got wrong. My interpretation is that a margin of 13mm must be applied on top and bottom of all characters and that each end (before first character and after last character) must also have a 13mm margin. Space between vertical lines - 19 mm I think this is the space needed if you run an import type plate or a motorcycle plate. These apply to 'Group 1' of the pre 2001 plates. My car plate is an 'S' so the pre 2001 rules will apply but which group I'm not sure.... I conform to both anyway! Nowhere in the rules does it give a minimum dimension of the actual plate which is what the police officer and myself disagreed on. If you interpret the rules differently then please share your views to give me a better understanding.

What are you doing spending three hours at a hotel in the middle of the day? Maybe he couldn't afford the 4th hour....

Because 5 wheels are better than 4 according the their snazzy newspaper ad!

A monaro!

Is that one of the convertible boats with the sliding roofs? My family rented one of them when I was about 7. We got attacked by a mentalist swan and had to slide the roof shut! Never liked swans since!

Sick of lack of stability when pressing on? What about uneasiness in the steering on track? The future has arrived! Click here for awesomeness!

Da ya like dags?

Vodka and monster again this this year? I'm gutted to be away on hols for this one, BTCC is my favourite event of the year!

Exactly, you only find the borders and spacing because this is the legal requirement not the physical size of the backing of the plate. http://www.craigsplates.com/order/order.php If you use this site to buy a plate (or just test it out) you can select the legal plates and still get the 'cut down' plate that is legal for the number of characters you have. This is a legal plate that you have to send your documents off for so it is legit. There were plates out a while ago that were basically letters with the legal borders cut round them. So the plate wasn't square. These (although hideous) were sold as legal as the margins cut were the legal one.

I'm looking forward to seeing this complete Paul!

Just buy a g35! Test drove an ST once. Not sure if it was a bad example but it was awful!

Just to clarify that I didn't get a ticket. The policeman was alone and scots law does not allow a police officer to act alone. All he did was took my details. I'm sure he'll be gunning for me. If I got a fine or change notification then I'd pay it as I admit the number is dodgy on the grounds stated above. I just couldn't hack a bobby on the beat (I assume without any specialist traffic training) spouting absolute rubbish about legislation that does not exist. This to me is the way to fast track a hatred of the police into a person or a group of people.

I checked on craigsplates this morning (where I got it) and under the 'legal plates' is a 5 character plate with the correct dimensions to keep the margins legal. This is what I have.

Just for the record, I have no complaint against the officer, he's doing his job. I have no issue with the police and don't want to turn this into a police bashing thread. Oh, he was going to 'confiscate your plate and see what the courts say about it' which my reply was a rather cheeky 'I have no issue with that.' I'd just like to know if I have epic win or epic fail.

Ok, Was at tescos grabbing something and was approached by a police officer in a focus estate. The conversation went like this. Policedude 'You're numberplate is illeagal' Me 'OK, officer' 'Yeah, the dots are illeagal and the plate is too small' 'I admit the dots are are risky but the plate is not too small' 'It is' 'It's not, it has the correct size border all around it and correct spacing' 'No, it's too short it has to be (gestures size of standard plate) this big, oh I wasn't going to give you a ticket but I am now' (Me thinking go ahead, you are alone so you can do f all about it in Scotland) 'Well I must have misinterpreted the guidelines given to me by the traffic police when I was stopped for accidentally running the car with a show plate on it, they were the DVLA guidelines that the traffic police carry' 'The plate is illeagal, what's your name?' Blah blah cop - 'You work at xxx' Me 'Yes, how do you know that?' Knowing it's on the donut run.... 'It's my job to know!' woooooo awesome! Anyway, my new boss was in the car as she's training with me and she said 'He picked the wrong guy to mess with, everyone here says you're the man that knows stuff about cars' Anyway, want to check if I'm right. Maybe I should have rolled over but he wasn't a traffic cop so I was willing to bet I was correct. Did a search http://www.theplatemarket.com/display_o ... umbers.php I admit I'm breaking this rule - Don't misrepresent letters / numbers using screws or fixings But does it say anywhere that a plate has to be 'standard size'??? I have a 5 character plate by the way. This could be an epic fail on my part but I don't believe I'm breaking any law on the length of my plate. All margins, sizes and spacing is correct - just the fixing covers are incorrect. Could anyone confirm?

What did you go for tint wise? The car is looking fantastic by the way. *checks piggy bank* - nope still not enough!

If you'd said it was Temper we could have told you it was a 2k7 with 309bhp straight off. Temper was only available that year on that model!