ekjdm14

One of these days, you'll wake up dead 🙃

Beats my job title in 2000/01 "Butt Welder".... Yes, there were plenty of "waving your torch around" jokes...

Don't think that was his name, online profile doesn't look like him but could well be wrong. RP2000 you're more than welcome to help yourselves to 95% of our rain, I'm sure we'd still get by with only minor flooding from the other 5% & they ban us from using hosepipes through summer anyway so might as well give them a reason for it...

Haha cool, I'd imagine Bernard knew the fella down Leafield ave probably, old bike courier and (IIRC) founder member of NABD. Wish I could remember his name now, he gave my youngest lad a GS550 project bike for a donation to the charity.

We were on Brayside up near the park! They'd just finished the mural by Sifters when we were moving out... (if you ever went up there last year or so you probably saw my old tractor out front lol) small world.

Nah their main diet is cheese, surrender & dodgy electrical connections... (at risk of being thrown in the tower I will say this though, they provide us with a healthy supply of doctors & engineers) Anyway back on topic my first job was making wrought iron gates and fireguards!

Haha, we lived in Burnage for a while & have to say we did notice a "little" more tendency to rain than just a few miles further south in Cheshire! Just be thankful you have a garage to open up to the rain, I'm working on driveway! It's the wind doing us in here though mainly, gusts trying to knock the bonnet prop out, blowing my hat off, it's even been blowing tools under the damn car it's been that strong. Calmer today though, hoping to get a bit of a Buxton/Cat n Fiddle run in later.

Welcome, from one newbie to another! Good to see there's still the old guard hanging in there. I'm not the one to be asking since I'm terrible at getting pics uploaded (honestly, I will try!) but would love to see the van in particular.

Thanks, will give them a check if I need to buy a replacement. Hoping to be able to save the original motor with some oil & a set of brushes but we'll see. In other news, the Scorp' is officially back on the road after 6 years! 🤩 Had it to a point where I thought just book it in & see what else needed sorting, as I had a feeling it'd fail emissions because of a slight stumble at idle caused by the dizzy cap (Typically it's an unobtanium part, similar to the earlier 2.8 but with different connectors). I've got a 2.8i cap on order and was going to grab some leads to suit ready for the retest when I'd have sorted the other issues too. However, she just squeaked through emissions by skin of her teeth & nothing else to fail on either! Bonus! Think she got a bit too excited at the prospect of being brought back to life though as she promptly refused to restart after the test, traced it down to a blown fuse caused by the starter wiring touching the exhaust manifold so that was a brief scare. Fired her up bridging the solenoid and marked that as another job needs done but other than that well pleased. Will try and get some photos now she's all cleaned up, rear arches still need smoothing out and paint plus the spoiler is missing but other than that & the electrical she's pretty much ready for springtime cruising. Perfect timing too, what with fuel prices being such a bargain currently and nobody panic buying making everywhere run out... Ohhh, hang on... 🤦‍♂️

No worries. Just managed to find a '92 wiring diagram that looks to be close enough to our car to help diagnose the blower so that's a bonus. Decided to simply mud up the left rear arch for now as it's nothing like as bad as expected so will tidy it up enough to enjoy the car for a while & always got the repair panel to do it properly in future, just itching to cruise round and enjoy the spring weather when it returns!

Drool inducing those Mk1's both. That said, I'd take the SS if I had to pick. Is the old photo the same car? Just wondering as different plate, maybe private plate?

Thanks folks, I'm notoriously bad at getting photos but will try (it's a PITA getting them from phone to laptop, just CBA usually!) Got onto a couple of the more "niggly" things with the Granny now as weather not great for welding. Blower fan doesn't work, found blown fuse "cool, maybe a quick fix"... Course not, new fuse and still nothing. From what I've seen so far the thermal fuse resistor pack is mangled (open on one coil too) and the connectors have been hot at some point, easy enough to replace a few spade terminals there but nothing doing with power direct to the blower motor itself either so that's likely dead as well! At least it's not blown the fuse again lol. Also a small miss/stumble at idle and just cracking the throttle, sounds like cap/rotor from the relative spark strength pulling leads off, but they look OK inside, leads are decent, will have to pull plugs and check/change those too. Would love to be able to find a wiring diagram about now, would help a lot with sorting the blower motor if anyone has an idea where to find one? As an aside, I knew a Dave Knight back in school days. Not been Cruckton hall by any chance?

Nah fair play IMHO, you got one of the good ones which makes a difference & like you say it earns it's keep/still fun when not load lugging. Personally I'd not own a modern but horses for courses.

Definitely agree on BL build quality, the customers were their unwitting QC department when they were new! Makes it all the more fun to fix up & make them better than they came new though. Almost kinda-sorta acceptable from BL but what gets me is how bad Jaguar were for being a premium car... Reminds me, wouldn't mind an XJ-S either but then again I've already got the luxury, comfort & the sound with the Granny Scorpio, just feels way more solid and the electrics work! The 4 by 505 would've been amazing as a parts hauler/project recovery rig, shame. Hopefully still out there putting the work in though. I always liked the look of the 309 retrospectively, my dad had a "silver bronze" 1.6 GR and I hated that thing as a youngster (mainly because it replaced a mistral blue Sierra 1.8 that I loved, so clouded my teen judgement lol)

Nice, always liked the look of the 309. Our "other cars" are a couple of 306s, a 406, ZX & Xantia. Enjoy them all but really wouldn't mind a 505 estate at some point... Errrm, and maybe a wedge princess or ambassador... guilty pleasure? lol

As per title really, looking for a decent towbar to fit our new toy ('93.5MY Granada Scorpio). With or without electrics doesn't matter as will do a proper job wiring it in myself, closer to Staffs/Cheshire the better but beggars can't be choosers if we have to travel or ship it. Cheers, Dan,

Agreed it's a real shame you can't leave them out unattended, but the owner must have known it was desirable & easy to snap n cap. What's wrong with people? Even our Mk3 Granny Scorpio gets blocked on the driveway and when driveable is going to have a clamp &/or steering lock despite it being a PATS car & less desirable.

Hi all, new member just wanting to say hi. We've been largely playing with frenchies for the last 15 years or so although I cut my teeth in Mk2 festers & had a few Escorts & Sierras that were all great fun cars. Anyhow our youngest lad was looking for something to learn to drive in eventually as the insurance is a bit silly on his 306 XS, and found a clean looking 72k mile Mk4 Fiesta 1.3 in the best colour and up cheap with long MoT so we went to have a butchers at that last week and bought that, but while we were down there I spotted a silver '93 Scorp' 2.9i that'd been sat for about 6 years & long story short, that's also followed us home! (along with a set of 13" Wellers that now live on Ryan's Fiesta. Expensive day, that one!) The Granny runs, moves & stops good although could use some fresh petrol after sitting so long (good thing she's a thirsty girl, tank is about empty of the old stuff) and a good service/maybe the TPS is flaky as it's woolly off idle sometimes. Main issues were both rear arches are (were) gone, front springs knackered and outer sills need a couple of small patches, other than that it's just age related dings/scratches from the old fella who used to drive it getting a little "touchy feely" with the bumper corners in his old age. Right, that's me for now but will get some photos at some point of where we're up to so far (ordered a pair of rear arch repair sections the other day & have one roughly fitted now, might leave the other side till after MoT as it's not quite as bad) and any trials/tribulations we have along the way. Cheers, Dan (plus Daniel, Ryan & long-suffering Emma lol)