I would just like to say

Stanleysteamer · 2025-05-20T17:50:12+0100

DanClarke said:
When I was a youngster working out of IBM South Bank (next to the National Theatre) we used to use a local boozer at lunchtimes and it was opposite the waterloo East station stairway entrance. In one of the railway arches was a business/bloke that bought in Citroen TA's from France and totally refurbished them. The finished cars looked absolutely splendid. So you got to see a rusting hulk alongside a finished item. This would be c.1983/4 and I was just 30 years old. How time flies.

Famous for being frontwheel drive as the words "traction avant" indicates, but apparently their drive shafts were a weak point!
I know a Brit chap who runs a B& B with his wife, we used to stay with them when going north to the ferry. He is ex army and a bit of a car nut.
We used to ask him if we could park our wine-laden car under the house to keep it away from prying eyes.
Eventually I realised that under a pile of stuff there was a Traction sleeping, dry stored. I asked him about it and he just said "Make me an offer!" We haven't stopped there for ages as he is on a bit of road where it is not advised that you take a caravan, or any other sort of trailer and we know why, having had once to shunt back and forth to get around a particularl hairpin! Just in a Disco.
Shame as the local town has one of the best traditional French restaurants serving typical French dishes.
Maybe if we ever get to not trailing anything we'll get back there.
As you say, how time flies.
They feature a lot in films and Maigret episodes. You can get them in French on a rather distant channel, with subtitles.
I once lived not far from a guy who was a thatcher by day, when the weather was suitable, and a car nut the rest of the time. He had barns full of them and regularly rented them out to film companies. The big yank used in the film "IKE" was one of his. I expect he is dead now.
Getting old is a real sod.

Stanleysteamer · 2025-05-20T17:53:48+0100

landowner said:
Had a few as well but wish I'd kept the '52 Citroen 6 cylinder Traction avant, the Moskvitch and the 66 Austin Cooper
The cars I kept the longest were a 2.2 diesel Renault 21, a diesel Pug 106 and an 05 Ford Ranger pickup
All other vehicles were short term bangers

Your phrase "cars I kept the longest" really got me thinking.
The problem being that I have a habit of driving cars and then sometimes, especially if they break down, simply parking them up until I can get around to fixing them.
Which means that the car I have owned for the longest is a kit car I bought in 1988 and still own, though I haven't driven it since about 2012. I struggled it home with a transmission problem, parked it up and left it.
Proud to say that the two other vehicles we have had the longest are both Discos, a 1 and a 2 which we still use.

Turktowner · 2025-05-20T17:57:00+0100

Pop quiz.
How thick would you have to be to hoover up kiddie vomit with Dyson?

Freelander owners can pass..

DanClarke · 2025-05-20T17:58:45+0100

Turktowner said:
Pop quiz.
How thick would you have to be to hoover up kiddie vomit with Dyson?

Freelander owners can pass..

Funny you should say that...... I think the Vax Spotwash cleaner is a godsend for such mishaps.

Stone56 · 2025-05-20T19:25:43+0100

Wimblowdriver said:
Its a bit perverse I know, but the Mk1 Cortina takes my fancy

In Lotus form with the green stripe I hope , good looking car

Stone56 · 2025-05-20T19:34:07+0100

Stanleysteamer said:
"plenty of prep and then cook as little as needed" totally agree.
I have to contrast doing it @kevstar 's way with doing one in a copper frying pan, over a spirit stove next to a customer's table, as I had to do back in the 70s, the days of Steak Diane, etc.

Steak arrives properly prepped, get the pan hot as heck, drop the butter in, chuck the steak in, flip it (as many times as needed), check for how well cooked it is, (it'll often cook in just the heat of the pan, off the flame), on the plate, flambé the pan, sauce in, warm it all up then over the steak. Job done. Always worth a good tip!

But the steaks weren't 2" thick.

And none of us have mentioned those griddle pans with the raised parallel lines.

I have even heard of people doing steak in the oven! (My ma, it was terrible!)

Flip this is making me hungry now!!

kevstar · 2025-05-20T22:27:27+0100

Hippo said:
Issit broke'd? They normally are.

Not broken had a bust water hose & the lad said hes got his eye on somit else take it, years mot too. Im looking for another one as im going to convert my boat to run on m57 engines.

kevstar · 2025-05-20T22:33:23+0100

Stanleysteamer said:
Cheeky Sod!
I done more plumbering than you by a mile.
Just in the house I am sitting in at the moment: The house had nowt in when we moved in. Kitchen: double sink together with a dishwasher. Utility: sink plus washing machine. Downstairs bog with sink. Downstairs bathroom, + basin and bog. Upstairs bathroom: two sinks, bog, bath (and shower still to be finished).

Plus remember I sorted out what was wrong with the central heating in our other place after two pros couldn't.

I won't list all the plumbering, and central heating work I have done in 4 other houses I have owned.

I only put in the bits about leaks for the general amusement of peeps on here. None were at all drastic and we, W and I, laughed as much about them as you lot did!

So I agree, not too difficult, although running a long copper pipe under floor boards going crossways, entailing several soldered joints made under the boards, was a mite tricky. 1930s house, joists had to be drilled to take the pipe.

I'll stop telling you about the little booboos I make, if you aren't careful!!!

Oh no you wont

Tis like going fishing I throw my baited hook in & wanabee plumber jumps on it

kevstar · 2025-05-20T22:40:41+0100

Turktowner said:
Pop quiz.
How thick would you have to be to hoover up kiddie vomit with Dyson?

Freelander owners can pass..

Should have bought a wet n dry vax

Forrest Gump · 2025-05-20T23:06:47+0100

Turktowner said:
Pop quiz.
How thick would you have to be to hoover up kiddie vomit with Dyson?

Freelander owners can pass..

You might need a carpet washer, but the hoover will pick up vom…made the mistake of hosting a party a few years back for some Neanderthals…next morning was a mess lots of regurgitant and one splashdown. Jeez man. Hoover did it but without the carpet washer I would have been kicked out, my own gaff too.

I would just like to say

Stanleysteamer

Well-Known Member

Stanleysteamer

Well-Known Member

Turktowner

Still muckin about

DanClarke

Well-Known Member

Stone56

Well-Known Member

Stone56

Well-Known Member

kevstar

Well-Known Member

kevstar

Well-Known Member

kevstar

Well-Known Member

Forrest Gump

Well-Known Member

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