rabbitstew

+1 looks terrible Loving the shut lines +2, that looks very bad indeed. Reminds me of when I was at University and a mate had an old Metro. The new Rover Metro came out which had totally different bodyshape to the old one. My mate bought all the panels and welded them to his ancient metro. The funny thing was, he did a brilliant job. He even had the new shaped lights and resprayed the whole car. The only way you`d know it wasnt a new metro was the reg which was a 1982 one. lol..

+1 looks terrible Loving the shut lines +2, that looks very bad indeed. Reminds me of when I was at University and a mate had an old Metro. The new Rover Metro came out which had totally different bodyshape to the old one. My mate bought all the panels and welded them to his ancient metro. The funny thing was, he did a brilliant job. He even had the new shaped lights and resprayed the whole car. The only way you`d know it wasnt a new metro was the reg which was a 1982 one. lol..

Welcome! Prices vary a lot. Id checkout autotrader, piston heads classified and ebay to give you some idea of the prices.

Welcome! Prices vary a lot. Id checkout autotrader, piston heads classified and ebay to give you some idea of the prices.

Its build quality issues like this which put me off getting a Range Rover. That and they seem common as muck these days. I didnt realise just how common they were until I posed the subject of getting a Range Rover with the missus a few weeks ago as I really like them, and she said "why do you want to get one of them, *everyone* has one of them". I disagreed with her and so every time we drive out anywhere now she keeps an eye out for them just to prove her point, and I hate to agree with her, but shes right! Just driving through places like Kimbolton in Cambridgeshire, it seems every other car is a Range Rover. Even around Coventry a few days back we actually saw about 10 in the space of 1 mile. All were black too! Has everyone won the lottery or something? Last time I looked Range Rovers werent exactly cheap cars! And the government reckons noone has any cash these days?!

Its build quality issues like this which put me off getting a Range Rover. That and they seem common as muck these days. I didnt realise just how common they were until I posed the subject of getting a Range Rover with the missus a few weeks ago as I really like them, and she said "why do you want to get one of them, *everyone* has one of them". I disagreed with her and so every time we drive out anywhere now she keeps an eye out for them just to prove her point, and I hate to agree with her, but shes right! Just driving through places like Kimbolton in Cambridgeshire, it seems every other car is a Range Rover. Even around Coventry a few days back we actually saw about 10 in the space of 1 mile. All were black too! Has everyone won the lottery or something? Last time I looked Range Rovers werent exactly cheap cars! And the government reckons noone has any cash these days?!

+1. In my experience of cars, its always much easier to sell a stock car than one which has been modified - you are hitting a much wider market.

Just seen not one but two grey coupes on a5 just outside of towcester

Sounds like a nice buy and glad you liked it! Personally I just didnt get on with the 370z when I tried one out for a few days, and preferred the 350. Be interesting to see what they actually put your car up for on the forecourt!

Chris is spot on. There was another thread discussion on this a few months back and I spent hours researching all the relevant guidelines and legislations and rules etc for MOT`s and the road side tests relating to CATs. The upshot is that there was nothing which said you had to have a cat fitted to your car. Its purely down to the emissions. They test emmisions at MOT time and they can do them in random roadside tests. Having said that, cats are on cars for a reason and that reason is that a lot of cars are not able to pass the emmisions test without them. So, if you remove your cat, then you may fail the emissions test. However, there are new MOT guidelines which have just come out for 2012 and according to the thread ive just read detailing what they are, theres a new failure check which specifically says that if the car came with a cat when it was made, then it has to have a cat for an MOT. I havent read the actual MOT guideline in detail but initial views are that it doesnt say it has to be an OEM cat, and so a high flowing or performance CAT should be fine as long as the cars emissions are correct.

Interesting reading. Sounds like the MOT man is in for a busier time. At least they are now clarifying the catalytic converter subject. As we discovered on another thread on here a few months back, the current legislation's dont require you to have a cat on your car, its purely done on emmisions. Now they are saying if the car had one originally then you have to have one to pass an MOT. So de-cats are out, but hfc`s should be okay if the emmisions are fine. God knows how im going to get my track car through its MOT, the seats are bolted in. I notice the wording on this area said it has to have 2 or 3 adjustment positions - so maybe I could weld up a bracket or something to allow for that. But the safety harness vs tensioner thing may be harder to do. I think i`ll wait until I see the actual legislation wording to see how it can be interpretted.

+1 to this. You have to really work it all out before you speak to your insurance company. Typically you will loose about 3 years NCB if you make a claim and you dont have it protected, then they will jack your premium up for making a claim, plus you`ll obviously pay more because you have less NCB. My missus made a claim on her car last year. Unfortunately she didnt have much choice as she had hit another car, so there was 2 cars needing repair. Her insurance company jacked her premium up so much she couldnt afford to insure the car any more, so had to sell it and buy something cheaper.

Great. Thats something else for me to look forward to then. I bet the MOT mechanics will be fighting over the keys to my car.

Now that was a bargain! But then I guess this time of year isnt the best time for selling these as people are skint after Xmas.

Dealers can be over zealous in their "risk" assesment Flagging a warning that the pads are 50% worn (i.e. half way through their life?!) is surely a joke? When I got my car from Nissan they flagged the pads as needing replacement in 1000 miles. I got 10,000 miles out of it before I needed to replace them. Personally id ignore everything they have said and take it for its MOT, then you will find out what items are in need of repair. Brake Discs are very often pitted, but dont affect breaking unless its mega serverely rusted. As for the worn suspension bush, my last car had that flagged as a "warning" one year on its MOT. I did nothing at all. It then passed its subsequent 4 MOT`s perfectly fine with no warnings at all.

Thought this is only switched on in the head unit - i.e. you can turn it on or off. If you have changed the head unit then unless you have connected this up and have it turned on in the head unit then it shouldnt be working. I personally find it very anoying, my K1 seems to have screwed it all up so the volume of the stereo is up and down like a yoyo.

Ive done wood flooring in more houses than I can remember. Plus side is that its quick and easy to do yourself if its the click together laminate type. You dont have to remove skirting boards else you end up having to replaster and decorate - you can get some nice subtle edge trim instead which goes between the skirting and the floor. Wood flooring does look very nice and is easy to clean. In my last house I had it over the entire downstairs - lounge, dinner, hallway etc. Downside is that it is a bit noisy, but only if people leave shoes on then you get loads of noise and high heals will leave marks. But most people leave their shoes at the door. Animals hate it, as they get zero traction and end up sliding all over the shop. I never found it cold under foot, but then im always a warm sort of person myself and my house has heating. Some of the cheaper older stuff does look crap now, but some of the newer laminate stuff does look very nice. I just fitted some in the downstairs hallway / cloakroom in a house and everyone who has seen it comments on how good it looks - this was just cheap B&Q stuff. If you go for solid food or stuff then it can get expensive. The outside trim and underlay soon add up and will cost more than the actual laminate. For hallways and cloakrooms its always worth considering tiles instead. Bedrooms i always prefer carpets.

Excellent!! Interesting indeed. I remember when Nissan were trying to fix my roof and had the car stripped down. Their parts manager couldnt believe how many speakers the bose system had.

Only thing which would make me think twice is that presumably your`d have to get commercial vehicle insurance on it which when I checked last seemed to be more expensive than car insurance?

Nice.... This is the Ex-AA model 'Top of the range' .... 102 PS (75 kW; 101 bhp) @ 3,500 250 N·m (184 ft·lbf) @ 1,900 BUT ... it has just had '150 bhp' injectors put on it... and will be getting a re-map as soon as I get hold if it. Can't WAIT to get it..... also means I will be able to properly SORN the Zed over next winter and only tax it for 6 months He also retro fitted cruise control to it... which if your`s is the right sort of year is easy to do as they are drive by wire anyway. Yes, no CC on it at the moment. but I think, as you say, it is pretty easy. about £60 for the stalk as all the electrics are all ready there. Yep, I did it on my mk4 golf and its pretty easy. Just need the stalk and a small bit of loom. One bit of loom goes to ECU, the other to the fuse box. Then you have to enable it using the OBD2 socket - can use vag.com to do it.

Nice.... This is the Ex-AA model 'Top of the range' .... 102 PS (75 kW; 101 bhp) @ 3,500 250 N·m (184 ft·lbf) @ 1,900 BUT ... it has just had '150 bhp' injectors put on it... and will be getting a re-map as soon as I get hold if it. Can't WAIT to get it..... also means I will be able to properly SORN the Zed over next winter and only tax it for 6 months He also retro fitted cruise control to it... which if your`s is the right sort of year is easy to do as they are drive by wire anyway.

oo-er, ive never had this happen before, but will look out for it in the future!

Brilliant! Could I borrow it when i go lamping?!

Its very satisfying when you have a nice ride out like that. Ive had a leaking rear shock on my car for months and kept putting off replacing it, then last week I went for a drive and the whole car was all over the place, so when I got back, I swapped the rear shock out (litterally a 20min job at most), and then took it for another drive. What a transformation, had one of the best drives out id had in ages.

All good advice. I spent a good 5 grand on my home theatre a while back and had the same worries. I went for wall mounted rear speakers and heavy floor standing front ones, to avoid stands. Stands are very wobbly at the best of times, esp if you want to get the rear speakers at the correct height. You can fill em with sand and stuff which can help a bit. I also hid the wires, but didnt put the seperates on a shelf - which meant toddlers and kids (and even the cat) promptly felt it was a toy where they could press every button on.