Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[Zelandeth]

I've already got a few component drawers in here - though there are 70 odd values of caps, so I'd need a lot of drawers! The plastic trays sound a more sensible option until we're moved and I have a room which is actually designated as the electronics lab rather than trying to cram it into a (small) bedroom.

[Zelandeth]

I have stacks of these things Zel, and a vertical one that can be hung on a wall. All from places like B&M, Home Bargains and Poundland/world. Cheap as chips.

Those apparently have become harder to find!

Been round several shops today including B&M, Aldi, Poundland and one of its competitors I always forget the name of, B&Q, and The Range...no dice. The only ones they had either had about four little compartments and two huge ones occupying about half the overall space, or were so tiny as to be useless.

Closest I found was in B&M where they had variety packs of washers/wiring clips/screws etc all of such poor quality you'd never voluntarily use them, in decent looking containers for £3 apiece.

Amazon want for one reasonably sized 15 compartment box (I ideally need somewhere around 70 slots in total)...a tenner! I'd be better just getting the packs from B&M and dumping the contents in the recycling bin...

In all honesty if it's going to cost me more than around £10 to do this I may as well just do it properly and get a decent sized rank of proper component drawers to hang on the wall - I'd just figured this would be a quick and easy one to sort in a way which would do fine for a year or five until we move.

[mickthemaverick]

3 of these (select 24 slot option) from ebay will give you 72 slots for £19 - any good?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/125969581528 ... R8ynhcKlYg

[Rp0thejester]

They look like my mums old X Cross stitch box where she would keep her threads in number order. Maybe worth looking at eBay under haberdashery

[xantia_v6]

Or "tackle box"

[Zelandeth]

Sounds like Wilco are the place to go to...which is of course the one I forgot existed today. So I know where to go next.

Last of the current batch of parcels from CPC arrived today.



So hopefully future repair work where I'm trying to extract components from multilayer boards might be slightless frustrating.

[CitroJim]

That soldering station looks good Zel. Something I need nowadays...

Let us know how well it works and I may purchase one if you find it serviceable...

[Gibbo2286]

Jars (Coffee, meat paste etc.) can be useful for storing all sorts of bits and pieces, if you have some shelves fasten the jar lids under them and you can screw the jar on and of when needed, big jars small jars depending on what you need to store.

[myglaren]

I have stacks of jars with seeds in them. Enough to plant a park.

[Zelandeth]

Wilko had exactly what I was after.

Before:



Which worked fine when there were a dozen or so values I kept in stock and I was doing this now and then, but now I seem to be doing this quite regularly and have 70 or so cap values in stock...not so much.

After:



Much better.



Should save me a fair bit of faffing around going forward. One day I will have proper wall mounted storage, but that's an upgrade for another day.

[Zelandeth]

Very briefly had a go at changing the rear shock absorbers on the Rover yesterday.

Not actually too difficult. Access to the top mounts is provided via two removable caps in the boot.



The lower one I apparently failed to take a photo of, but is immediately accessible on the side of the lower spring carrier.

Both of the bottom nuts unbolted without issue. One of the top ones did as well, the other however decided to spin the entire upper shock body instead. Which wouldn't be a problem if I had a helper to grab hold of it for me, but I didn't at the time. So I stuck it back together until an occasion when I have a helper - or it's not a million degrees so I have more patience for figuring out alternative solutions.

Whether that will actually improve the ride or not I don't know yet...but it looks like it should be a simple job, so worth trying I figure.

Made a quick run out to a local classic car meet up yesterday evening.



Though was slightly upstaged by another P4 turning up!



Gorgeous looking 100. Not sure if it was a factory combination or not, but the colour on this is absolutely beautiful I think.



I didn't realise that interior was so different between the 100 and 110. The instrumentation and switchgear is almost all different.



I wouldn't mind mine being this free of rust - but honestly if it was that cosmetically tidy - especially if I'd spent as much as the owner had on restoring it from a complete basket case - I'd probably be afraid to drive it!

Had a proper "okay that makes me feel old..." moment though seeing this there.



A horribly compromised variant of a generation of the model which let's face it wasn't exactly a high point in Ford's history...yet I found myself looking on it with a certain degree of fond nostalgia.

I did take quite a few photos, but most of them are on film so you'll have to wait a while to see them.

Aside from these two anyway.

[CitroJim]

Lovely cars there Zel... My choice, by far is the blue 205 GTi

[MattBLancs]

Storage box dividers: I've got some very similar ones and found the orange removable divisions rather to keen removing themselves. Cured by a quick splodge on each slot from the hot glue gun.

Two-tone Rover: might be showing my ignorance but the blue looks to have a metallic element to it. Were metallics available when it was new? Looks lovely all the same mind!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Nice shape of the Jag Windows captured on your photo, and I always think the Vitesse front-end looks just a touch anthropomorphic with a "you lookin' at me" attitude. Maybe more so in black..

One of my recent shutter clicks from the Lights! (Interesting and Awfu) thread


Neil

[Zelandeth]

Lovely cars there Zel... My choice, by far is the blue 205 GTi

The blue 205 apparently is apparently propelled by the engine and gearbox from a 306 GTi-6.

I imagine that's something of a handful.

Storage box dividers: I've got some very similar ones and found the orange removable divisions rather to keen removing themselves. Cured by a quick splodge on each slot from the hot glue gun.

Two-tone Rover: might be showing my ignorance but the blue looks to have a metallic element to it. Were metallics available when it was new? Looks lovely all the same mind!

Metallic finishes were definitely around then, though I'm not sure if there were any in the options list for this exact car though.