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The Shell V-Power/BP ulitmate work well. Here in Europe alot of countries now only sell ethanol blends e95-e98 due to farm subsidies. The upside is that it burns cooler than petrol, downside is that it breaks down over time and you use more of it.

As for old cars, here is a good urban myth - there are guys sticking a little bit of 2 stroke oil in a tank when they fill up who say it helps lube the bits in the engine and the bits in the carb

I have never lost money on cars. The main aspect is to look at what skills you have and use them well. I think the main pitfalls are spending money on bits that don't add value to the car.

Also buying a car spending time and money sorting it then selling it to car people will mean you decrease the value of the car. Car punters don't pay for stuff they do for free, so why would they pay you?

I have never sold my cars to people in the car scene unless they were particularly appreciated by them for what I had done. Eg '72 911 fitted with a later 2.7 wider rear guards and painted in Gulf colours.

When it comes to fitting bits or changing components on the car. Think of it as a package and who you will sell it to. A good example of this would be here While some people see the holy grail of Hakosuka GTR and Kenmeri GTR these are in fact just standard C10/C110 solex carbed L-engined cars with big dish Watanabes. They aren't that quick and they don't handle.

Main thing is if you see another person with a similar car with a baby seat. You soon get a clear picture of the problems they face. Don't worry cause when you have a baby you get all the old people and freaks talking to you.

For some people a Chrysler Voyager 7 seater is essential. Others are OK with a Mini. It is a bit like camping or staying in a hotel. The baby doesn't factor into this as they don't know any different. However the nagging you will deal with you will be the overiding issue.

The weight/height thing is just a guide. My little guy would cry when we would put him in the rear facing seat after a year or so. Which is odd cause they love cruising. So I put him in his older brothers forward facing seat and all was quiet.

Like most things it isn't set in stone - all kids develop at different rates and the same goes for being a Dad. Nothing says caring father when you roll up to a Pack'n'Save carpark like a Matt Black Van.

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Rear facing for first year then front facing from then on.

If the ute has front airbags you will not be able to have child in front.

Gaz

That is true. I would also fill in on my own kids - a buyers guide so to speak.

I fitted an isofix from an wrecked mk5 Golf. This is a direct fixing system to the body of the car which is an option on new cars. They are a standard size as the mounting points fit over the bolts of the seatbelts and mean you can mount it where a lap belt goes, in the middle of the car. Technically the safest part of the car. In an accident your weight actuates the ratchet of the seatbelt. When kids are small and don't weigh much this movement of the baby seat isn't good in an accident. This shit also impresses the Mums and saves you having to buy a beige MPV.

You need a rear facing baby seat until they can hold their head up by themselves 1-5kg.

That is around a year, some people prefer these as they are safer in an accident and they can sleep more comfortably when they have a nap during the day. Most óf these are Isofix compatible. The other thing is that they are able to lift the kiddy seat out and click it into a pram - it means you don't wake them up.

When they are 5-15kg 1-5 years you go for a front facing 5 point harness. You need the harness because they will squirm out of a normal seatbelt. I have a Recaro. This one is extendible and adjustable as they grow. It can also be used by an older child with a 3 point seatbelt up to 19kg or around 5 yrs old.

After about 3 yrs old you can then get a booster seat to use a normal 3 pointseat belt. This is to raise them up and lowers the seatbelt to their shoulder height so doesn't cut their head off in an accident. This one which is again from Recaro. The thing that sold me is that it has speakers in the headrest and a 3mm earphone jack. So I can give him an mp3 player or DVD player and he can listen to kids music or Sesame St without disturbing me.

The Recaro is a good seat because it is narrow for a kids seat. This is important as you can't put your own seatbelt on with other brands when 2 adults are there - why everyone has 7 seaters nowadays. Oh and don't get a blue or pink one as you can easily sell it to someone else.

I couldn't find the tolerances - it is in a late 50's VW repair manual.

But this has a step by step of what you are doing here and this is where I found it. here

In case you have any other issues.

Have a look here http://www.vintagebus.com/ under the Parts section of a kombi page 255 if you need more details or other parts

I will try and dig out the rebuilding section - such as tolerances and stuff.

The ye olde wreckers yard in a feild even pickapart will get harder in the future. In Europe they have the cars stripped for parts and catalogued for resale, then the shells crushed and recycled, this was incorporated into the original sale of cars back in the late 90's so the manufacturer covers the outstanding costs when the life of the car ends. Much like a Pirate had a gold earing to cover their burial.

If you leave cars in a feild then you will have to pay for the contaminated soil to be removed and buried correctly.

I have seen a few of these in Europe. Merc Sprinter long wheelbase with a hightop. They mount a winch in it and load it into the back of the van.

Hairy dutchman in leather jacket not included..

the rule where a car turning off the road has to let a car turn across on coming traffic - unless they see a car going straight from behind them has always been stupid.

Live with it. On the positive side statistically you will have a better chance of not having an accident as people will have to think rather than drive on autopilot

Yeah sorry for the brain dump. Yes I know the fuel filter next to the dizi is not the best location, point taken. You can pick up fuel line and small hose clamps from Repco or somewhere similar like this to be on the safe side

Just make sure the lengths are correct and not touching anything - like the broken throttle return spring that goes thru the fan shroud, you can replace that when you take the generator out and remove the one strung off the air filter.

If you want an owners manual check out : John Muir - How to keep your VW alive $40 from whitcoulls here It is written in a good vibe and explains alot of things in an easy to understand way. Such as "when you start the car give it time to warm up, roll a cigarette and get it drawing well before you head off."

The basics - pre '67 Beetles use a 77amp 6V battery. No it isn't rare as there were millions of beetles before 1963 all with 6V Technically the rare one would be a 85amp 12V option code M197.

The Good - 1963 has narrow indicator turn signals on the front which are a one year only.

-The body colour is a NZ only color, it was a dulux color. So that is sort of rare anywhere else in the world. But take something like inside of the glovebox lid to get it matched.

The Bad - Getting back to the 6V thing as this has alot of emotional baggage. Look at it this way, nothing you are changing from 6V-12V changes the car. By that I mean it is all unboltable, so you can stick it in an apple box and she can stick it in the attic. Living with a 6V car is a pain in the arse. You are more likely to get rear ended because the brake lights are so dim they look like side lights and she has no 3rd brake light. These guys have shit that could help that looks period.here One of the other aspects is that your headlights/indicators are not bright so punters pull out infront of you as they can't see you. If you have a normal car following you, fuck knows what xenons would do now? But you get a shadow just infront of you cast by your car It is like driving with your sidelights on.

The Ugly - Creature comforts, you break down and you reduce the chance of a Shell/BP having a part you need being 6V.

The radio that she has is a 6v 70's aftermarket one not a early 60's one. Also the 2 mount AM/LW 8ft aerial on the drivers side isn't a VW only thing. Check out something like http://www.classiccarstereo.co.uk/ for an old style look, but with digital fm tuning and ipod compatiblity. So something else in the apple box.

Going by the newish fuel pump I would suggest that the fuel tank is rusty. Fit an inline clear fuel filter in place of the old crusty fibre flex pipe. The upper pipe next to the distributor.

When she has it painted you can fit the fuel filter underneath the fuel tank out of sight if she wants.

But you want to get the car up and running. The main things that will strand her or stop her enjoying a classic are electrical problems and fuel contamination. They do a Bosch 009 dizzy that eliminates the condenser/points/vacuum advance but still looks the same.

I know 4x4 punters are religous about diff locks and winches. The size of your manhood being proportional to the size of your tyres and your lift kit.

But this is even funnier considering the context. The Hummer in the Dakar is 2wd and Rear engined like an old VW Beetle. The 4wd cars in the Dakar are not allowed tyre adjustment from in the car. The 2wd cars are. The 4wd can get out and do it themselves.

The reason this man is pissed off is that the 4wd BMW Minis complained that as the air coming from the in car tyre deflation/inflation was going into the manifold after the air restrictor that he was getting a perfomance advantage. This got him disqualified from stage 9.

They allowed him back after he plugged the hole in the manifold and vented the pipe into the engine bay. He then beat the 4WD Minis by 20 minutes in the next stage.

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Check the valves when cold. Unless the valves are properly seated then they don't allow the heat to go into the head. Firing order is 1-4-3-2. Left hand side far cylinder (if you are looking at the engine from the back) is number 3. The one under the oil cooler. Unless you have a doghouse fanshroud, so called because it is out of the airflow of the fanshroud. This cylinder is the weakest in the engine. There could be a deeper problem with your cylinder head or burnt valve.

But this is the easiest to check. To start to off on the right direction here are the vintage training videos complete with bacon frying in the background.

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I was shown this using the fingers on my hands. Put them palm up. The fingers on your left hand you put together, the fingers represents the size of the opening. Then you spread open your fingers on your right hand, the fingers represent the size of the core, the gap between your fingers are the same volume as your fingers on your left hand.

This means that the flow isn't impeaded. There are more mathematical explanations and equations to work it out, but this is how it works in layman terms.

If it is your Escort then you could do this sort of style. In the 70's it was all Cigarettes and Oil.

I have seen a couple of custom water to air intercoolers. This normally consists of an inline radiator in between the turbo and the manifold. The fluid is pumped around by an electrical waterpump to a radiator somewhere else more convienent with space which was sometimes underneath or even at the back of the car in the difuser.

With an Anglia you have that big guppy mouth behind the grill for the radiator and nothing else. You could run a pair of side mounted intercoolers, only consideration is that you would need to cut holes in the radiator duct in front and perpendicular to the radiator with the hot air exit into the front wheel well. As long as the radiator for the engine and the intercoolers are sealed(placed against the duct) then the air will be forced into the radiators evenly, air like water takes the path of least resistance. With the front grill/trim on it wouldn't be visable from the outside of the car.

This example is off an Audi. They need to reduce the front overhang, but have a similar problem with space.

Personally I would stick with a trailer.

An A-frame much like a tow rope can only be used for emergency movement of a vehicle. Police are getting tougher on this shit. All of the cars with bikes on the back leaving a Taupo MTB race recently got served a fine for obstructing the numberplate/taillights. On the car you are pulling you won't have brake lights/indicators or a lit number plate (if they are being pedantic).

As this is 'an emergency movement of a vehicle' you also get into a grey area if you have an accident, even one that isn't your fault.

Driving a car with an a-frame on a road that has alot of camber the trailer will crab to that side. As the others have mentioned you cannot reverse a car while being A-framed. It goes to full lock immediately and stays there – all to do with Ackermann geometry.

I'm not a big fan of te Toyota Hilux, very crappy, I have driven them new/300k km and they fall apart just the same as any other car. Barry Crump lied.

You are going to need something with a bit of umph rather than just a car sized pickup engine. You had a OM617 engine in your last merc, it is quite a good combo as the size of the original car was less or similar to the donor.

You need at least a 4l straight 6 engine or larger.. Dodge 5.9, small jap truck or mini bus is what you should be going for. If you go for a 2-2.5 litre it will simply just get louder when you put your foot down. If I understand that you are going to put this into the 1950 Humber - a fuller figured car.

I know it is odd but the smell of rotting vinyl and rubber floats my boat

Escorts & Toyotas seem to be the weapon of choice.

I was reading the other day that the germans ran some of the first few beetles they'd made during ww2 on wood because they couldnt get enough petrol for them. I wonder where this technology, among others, could be by now if the same time and money had been spent on development as for the internal combustion engine.

The Swedish government spent alot of wedge in the 70's in the oil crisis as Scandinavia has little or no oil reserves, but fuck loads of trees. Around WW2 over half a million vehicles were converted to wood then converted back in the 50's.

If you ran it off Coal you could get a nice steam train smell

This might sound like a bit of a joke, running your car on wood. Here in Finland I have seen a few of these cars on the road. The thing is that it is the same as converting to run on Natural gas with the same sort of power. You use about 20-50kg of wood for every 100km.

This is a link on a local guy here who has put it into play

http://www.ekomobiili.fi/Tekstit/english_etusivu.htm

Lamborgini Espada Series 2. There it is I've said it. I just love the 70's chique. Lime Metalic Green, brown leather interior.

David.E.Davis said "Everyone should drive a V12 once in their life."

I ended up rebuilding the 48 dells as they were as shagged as your mum. The shafts and butterflies wear and the brass bits were damaged from 30 years of adjusting.

I saw this pass by on the motorway today Then I realised that it was a BBQ ... Genius

The "longblock" is the oven, the exhausts do work as chimneys.

Question is what engine would you style a BBQ after