Stew

I have been offered contract positions a few times. I have never taken them as they wern't always that long term. I have a mortgage so if it went to crap I'd be potentially up the creek. The biggest one was that my misses is a PhD student so she couldn't support me if needed. One thing I will say as someone that used to travel a lot is, what do you think about being away from 'home' and more to the point, what does Carla think about you being away? If you/her hate it what kind of options would you have? Could you go back to 'normal' money? Also, what kind of benefits do you get at the moment? Good pension etc?

The grand place, atomium, the palace. Just a wonder about generally as Brussels is nice!

I *think* this is a genuine birthday..... Not a fake 'test' birthday like before!

Happy Birthday Chris! Hope you have a great day. Just for you - shame it wasn't a steamer!

That's Doogyrevs new back garden though!

It's the new tuner car for sure! I have seen about 100 kits for it in the last month!

Nissan are a business and as such have to produce what is profitable for them. If the Zed is not profitable enough for them then they'd be silly as a business to continue manufacturing it.

The GTR now costs twice that of a 370Z. They won't compete. To make a Z car upmarket they need to sort the interior out. Get premium german grade plastics etc. The 370Z looks great, Interior is nice but quality could be better and if it was then it'd be excellent.

Look like E46 rims to me. The optional 19" ones though (that most E46 M3s wear) Didn't expect to like it but it looks great!

Lime Prime has mild abrasives so can be used as polish. You can just wax over it.

The beetle is lovely. I like the mods done to it and as you say, the interior is something else! There is a lot of total tat in the show car section, 80% rubbish. 15% proper show cars that you don't like and 5% show cars that you do like.

I like tyre paint on muscle cars and hot rods. Like this I like it on some 4x4s too.... I have a set of these sitting in my garage at the moment actually. I don't think it really works on the Zed personally but then you like it and that is what matters. With the car finished it might well be awesome and change my mind!

Possibly ducting to an air filter? It's on that side..... It looks like it has spacers on it so maybe there is an CAI of some description.

Comfortable for sure but XJs aren't that spacious in my opinion. They aren't cramped but I wouldn't get carried away!

Wow, she's really fit! Hard to believe that 2 of her 3 husbands left her for other women as did her long time partner . Pete Behind every beautiful woman is a man saying 'will you shut up, you're doing my head in!!!!'

This help?

As Rich says, fishing around is possible. Get yourself comfy and fish around behind the dash. Just get access from underneath.

I like a damp microfiber for cleaning the interior. If I use product then it's something like poor boys natural look. Nothing shiny for me inside! Any large drying towel should work fine. What else are you planning on using? What results do you want to achieve?

Sitting watching just now. Brazil vs Germany in the beach volleyball...... I've been enjoying it but haven't been impressed with lineker. Every time he opens his mouth he sounds like a bitter ignorant idiot. It's a shame as BBC really are doing a great job! As an example, I was watching the other night and he said 'and you'll be glad to know that Germany haven't got any medals yet!' - errrrrrrmmmmmm why? Because Germany have a superior football team to England? Because we had a war? Sorry but there is no place for comments like that within the BBC or on the Olympic stage. Disgraceful comment in my opinion.

Rat look is great on some cars. A certain aged look can really make the car characterful. Modern cars with bonnets that have been rusted on purpose are rubbish.

Not online since 21st July...... Prime holiday season...... Hmmmm.....

Well I'll try and do a few notes and post them up as I go - not really big on build threads The plans, Got a few Ideas but need to pass them by the daughter first as it's her car - Thinking complete strip clean and weld her up with new panels where required, de-seamed maybe a body kit (subject to insurance) clean and sort the engine - including a conversion to unleaded. Paint it up and see how it looks. Need to get my 350 sorted and the engine back in first! Will probably start this winter sooner if mines doing OK. Sounds good. Less is more with Minis! Could make it look like a Mk1 and or just put on nice arches and minilites. They look ace as is so it's all good. I have thought of a mini for a while as myself and my wife love them but have never owned one.... Differing ideas puts me off. She wants purple or some rubbish. I want proper pastel colour and a fast road spec!

What are the plans for it then? I'm hoping we get a proper build thread for it!

I hear that Alex often has them in stock and good to go same / next day!!!

Have to say I wasnt impressed with my 748SPS at all. Previous owner paid nearly 12k for it new. I bought it when it was 2 months old and it only had 400 miles on the clock. The engine blew up at 600miles and went back to Ducati for them to fix (took them 3 months!)(a valve had dropped into the cylinder head destroying one head, piston & liner). I then did about 10,000 miles on it after then in 8 months (used it as my daily commuter). It took me ages to set the suspension up on it, as from the factory the back shock is set so hard the back end would slide out on roundabouts / bends. At first I thought maybe id hit some oil, but it was the shock setting. Once I set it up it was fine, but it never handled anywhere near as good as my ZXR750L2 did. Performance wise, I had it superchipped and terminini carbon cans on it, but it just didnt have enough power compared to 4 stoke 600`s. I never managed to get used to the low rev limit, and the v-twin lent itself to more relaxing "leave it in 6th gear" poodling about. The best thing about it was the sheer noise the engine made with those race cans. I sold it to a guy from Glasgow who hired a van and drove a 700 mile round trip to my house and bought the bike for cash without even riding it. I went out and bought a nearly new R1 and a VFR750 with the money & still had change. I did try a friends TL1000R a few times afterwards and found that much better powerwise as its a bigger engine - so maybe id have got on better with a 996 or something. 100% agree with the back end, it's set up for a heavier rider and with me being about 11.5 stone kitted up it was a bit stiff, but I couldn't be bothered changing it, I just learnt to dip in slower to corners and use the masses of torque to pull out of the bend like batman on a rocket! The top end power was always a let down on the V and L twins compared to I-4 600's, but now they've only gone a created the greatest license stealing death trap rocket I have ever known in the 1199 Panigale, 195 bhp on 165 kg Imagine that machine with a set of Termi's with race ECU My neighbour cancelled his order on the new Panigale at the dealer launch. He said it was horribly uncomfortable! The adjustable rear shock dug in.