I love the way TJ studiously ignores any post that proves him wrong.

“You’ve missed the point” without clarifying the point being made is a fantastically poor argument.

As I see it, TJ’s initial argument(if that’s the point being alluded to) falls flat on its face fairly quickly – if the contents of the A&A threads are against the rules, then the site’s owners will surely reprimand the posters and remove the proscribed content. This would seem to be enough to eventually reduce any such posts to a negligible level, without anyone having to appoint themselves as Forum Prefect.

Anyhow, TJ and Elfin have proved my point about some people never knowing when to stop. Back from the pub, time to carry on arguing on the internet until the early hours, you get yourself off to bed dear…

I have produced one repair panel for an out of sight area near the filler neck on my MK2 Golf. Lots of odd double curvatures etc. It took forever to make something that would just fit, with looking pretty being way down the list. I’ve also done a bit of painting.

From that experience, I’d say that if you don’t bash bits of metal for a living, attempting anything beyond the very basics is extremely ambitious. Most of the body panels for something like a Caterham would be within the realms of an enthusiastic DIYer, as long as you have a framework / wooden former. That’s because they’re mainly flat sheets with a couple of bends.

The sort of stuff you’re thinking of is serious craftsman made stuff, and they’re not easy for craftsmen to make. There are double curvatures all over those bodies, and they’ll be made of several parts welded together, with the welds then planished or ground down. I reckon it would be an extremely frustrating process, particularly when you get it painted or polished up and notice all the flaws that you couldn’t see in the metal.

If you want an idea of how much work goes into those kinds of bodies, I believe there’s a Polish firm manufacturing Aluminium replica Cobra bodies with prices online. Consider what Polish labour rates are likely to be and there are serious hours in those bodies. And that’s people who know what they’re doing, not someone learning on the job.

A quality many on here lack; they will only speak up if they feel they are being backed up by others.

He also never shuts up, backs down or gives up. There are several others on here with with a similarly high level of persistence.

The end result is that there are certain topics which simply aren’t worth discussing on here, because you’ll simply be swamped with inane and repetitive arguments, posted at an incredible rate. I’d say TJ is all for speaking up, so long as it’s him doing the speaking, or someone whose opinion he endorses. Ultimately that kind of behaviour creates an environment where people don’t speak up.

I like the idea of TJ taking an “extreme” position on an issue for dramatic/comedic effect. The only thing that would surprise anyone is TJ replying to any contentious thread with “Not bothered either way really…”. Or just not replying to a contentious thread – he seems to be on here 24/7 much of the time.

There are loads of adaptors available for exactly this purpose. Look up Car Audio Direct on Google.

There was a documentary covering this subject which was pulled shortly before broadcast a few years ago due to fears that it would incite further race riots. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3602854.stm

I expect that Jack Straw is in a position to know about the issues – he was home secretary after all. This kind of thing is, however, gold dust to the BNP, EDL etc.

I expect the majority of people who have got a reasonable idea of whether it’s a case of common or garden perversion or a cultural issue are extremely unlikely to stick their heads above the parapet.

I think we’d be better off if we did discuss these issues more openly and stopped thinking so bloody oddly as soon as race or religion enters the equation – things like not airing that documentary gives racists a bucket full of “This is what they don’t want you to know” ammunition.

And another thing, if someone in my area turned out to be abusing young girls, I know they wouldn’t go and find the vicar, chair of the neighbourhood watch committee etc. and stick them on the telly as a “Community Leader”. Could you get any more patronising?

I am on LLU with Opal. The £40 a month tariff is a recent price jack – I suspect it’s business as usual for TalkTalk / Opal if you don’t take up their offers. They surmise that you’re not paying attention and start racking up the prices.

AOL have horrendous reviews, so I’m not keen to go with them (and yes, Opal and AOL are the only LLU providers at present. Sky / Easynet are also available apparently, but I’ve no interest in a Sky dish, and Easynet only provide super pricey broadband with redudancy etc. for business).

Why is LLU such a big deal? I don’t really give a monkeys whether I get 8 meg or 24 meg downloads – I suspect that ultimately the speed will be limited by the fact that we’re probably on pretty old cable as until 20 years ago our house was the only one for several hundred yards.

Equally, I’m fairly happy to stick with BT for the time being on the landline.

At present, I have the options of Opal and AOL as LLU operators. Not going on AOL!

AAISP are rapidly falling down the running due to a £50 setup fee as my current provider is apparently LLU. For a consumer product, this stuff is complex.

Nope, can’t get O2. At the minute AAISP are looking as good as anyone.

It’s where the Nottingham branch of Evans send you if you want something slightly obscure. I suspect they’ll be spot on for an odd bottom bracket.

The OP has a point. The knowitalls proclaiming “tight arse” don’t have much of one.

The quality of clothing is often very poor, and price is no indicator of quality. A few examples:

My aunt was in charge of a line at Courtaulds back when they made stuff in the UK. As a rule, the likes of M&S would be looking for 16 stitches per inch. Stitches per inch directly relates to the quality and strength of the seam. Look at almost any garment on sale now outside of very pricey stuff, and you’ll find something like 8 stitches per inch. The vast majority of stuff on sale at the moment would have been in the rejects bin 20 years ago.

Similarly, I have some old New & Lingwood shirts in my wardrobe. If you took one to the shops and did a side by side comparision, even New & Lingwood’s current stuff doesn’t match in terms of quality of fabric.

On the other hand, it’s not all down the shitter – I’ve got a pricey jumper which has been worn as much as all my others put together, and it’s still in better nick. The problem is that there’s no way of telling on the shop shelf that one jumper is going to last years and the other will be pilled up like mad in a couple of months.

Coopers don’t make all of them – every VAG filter I’ve seen at the side of a MANN has been identical barring the VW stamps – even down to the date codes, SKUs etc.

Low oil will cause lots of noisy tappets / lifters, but you’re talking seriously low – off the minimum mark on the dipstick!

One noisy one is fairly common on cars with a decent mileage that have stood for a bit.

To be honest, a lot of rubbish is spouted on here – left foot braking is lethal, heel & toe will kill everyone in a 5 mile radius, you must wear a helmet to walk down the street / ride a bike etc.

To me there seems to be a bit of divide – people who ride bikes and include it as part of a vaguely greenish and leftish world view, and people who happen to like riding bikes. The two seem to spend a lot of time arguing…

They are if they’re on the blink 😉

Did think about replacing “without exception” with something less concrete as I typed it.

Churn will always create a level of unemployment – I seem to remember reading half a million in the UK.

As for giving everyone £80 regardless, I’m not sure. It could be cheaper than administering the benefits system, or it could result in unintended consequences. Either way, giving people on way above average incomes handouts would probably be political suicide.

I have had lots of old cars 😆

The 1.9 XUD (and derivatives of) are tough as old boots. Even the HDI common rail 2 litre units didn’t require fancy oil.

Oil, as everyone else has said, is fine so long as there’s some there, and preferably meeting the correct specs. FWIW, all but the cheap 20w50 supermarkets sell tends to meet all modern general specs. The stuff I have in the shed cost me approx £1 a litre and has VW specs exceeding those required of my ageing motors.

It’s possible that you’ve just got a noisy hydraulic tappet – if the filter has a no / a ropey non-return valve, or the car’s stood for a few days over Christmas, then you can get the odd noisy tappet for a bit. My (petrol) Golf always has one noisy tappet if it’s left without running for a bit – give it a few miles and it’ll shut up. In normal circumstances, the tappets are quiet almost immediately after startup.

That said, my memory says that the XUD has indirect injection, and therefore a separate injection pump bolted to the engine somewhere. These are without exception the noisiest thing in the engine bay of an old diesel – the common rail units do away with this part and hence sound far less dieselly. I’d be inclined to look at the fuelling side of things if the noise continues – filters, is there any fuel etc.

DrJ, that’s not a skirt, it’s just a very big buff!

Pandora’s not something she’s interested in. Just expensive kid’s stuff isnit?

Currently MAC looks like a favourite, but I’ve got to find a way of getting to a MAC shop whilst it’s open.

It doesn’t take long at all on STW does it?

A Russian printed wool scarf – think of a pashmina with eastern european style prints on it and you’re there.

Last time I worked this out, my old car was about 11p a mile on standing costs and 11p a mile on fuel, doing 20000 miles or so. Now it’d be more like 12 or 13p each.

The key thing is having something that doesn’t depreciate hugely – it’s by far the biggest cost after fuel.

Trousers & a shirt. Shirts should be white, pink or blue. As for whether you wear a tie or not, that depends on how formal the office is.

In our office, the people who matter are in shirts and ties, so if you’ve got a brain in your head you go with that.

Basically, if you wear similar clobber to the bosses, you’re on the right track.

Old job was Goretex, whatever quick drying trousers happened to be cheap and the like…

Degrees are dirt cheap in Holland and often taught in English – I almost did a Masters there as the fees were something like €2k compared to £8-10k for a UK uni. Problem was their masters degrees take two years, so the loss of earnings wiped out the savings.

As for French unis, some are very very good – IIRC some of the management schools are top 10 in Europe. The FT has international rankings.

Another option is Buckingham University, which is very well ranked and runs two year degrees.

TBH though I don’t think the new system is that bad. If you earn low wages for the rest of time, you don’t have to pay as much back as at present. If you earn more, then you pay more.

There are umpteen conditions to a gun licence. A locked cabinet and nobody else knowing the key’s location are two of them. I’d be very surprised if he kept his licence, unless the key was taken from him.

I once saw Boris Johnson give a speech when he was Shadow Education secretary or some such. Apparently media studies has destinations stats way above the average degree!

I’ve got the solution to the university funding problem.

If you appear on TV demonstrating an embarrassing level of spoken English, you can’t go to university. Sorted.

4x4ising a car isn’t often that difficult – car designers aren’t daft, so there’s often enough room to squeeze in a propshaft and diff with relatively few alterations, on the off chance that someone will want to build a 4×4 vehicle on the same platform.

At the really extreme end of the spectrum there’s stuff like the Rover 75 – started out as a FWD car with a transverse engine, then they did the V8 version which had RWD and a longitudinal engine. Then they sold approximately 6 of them.

The issue is that there’s not really a market for “ordinary” 4×4 cars in the UK.

I’d personally go for winter tyres for winter over a 4×4 for winter. 4x4s are a big compromise and cost for the rest of year.

I like my Nike Red Rocks. I read all the stuff about barefoot / minimal cushioning running etc. and thought it made sense, but I found that whilst it was fine on the flat, running downhill with relatively little cushioning hammered my knees as they took almost all of the shock. Switching to something with some bounce to it let me heel strike a little when running downhill and made running a massively more pleasant experience.

That said, I’m a fairly casual runner, and Red Rocks aren’t anywhere near as “off road” a shoe as some of the stuff posted here. That said, they work fine for my bridleway runs. It seems to be a very “horses for courses” thing – neither New Balance or Asics came anywhere near fitting me, so they were straight off the list.

Uncle Buck. Absolutely ace.

A mate has an old Orange which had OE Manitous. The workshop manual says there’s a damper in there. There isn’t in the OE forks!

So it can be a fair old difference. Personally, I’d ring and check – if they say it has XYZ then you can refuse it if it arrives without those features.

I truely dispare with the whole rasism card.

The EU are banning bent bananas too you know!

Correction:

“Stop the world – it has snowed in the south!”

I can’t work out how the kind of snowfall that allows people to carry on as usual around here seems to stop London etc. almost instantly.

They’re a symbol of blind optimism over scientific reality.

Whether you find that heartening or not depends on your point of view.

Last time I looked at the sums the UK wind lobby were admitting that you tended to get 30% of a turbines rated power out of it, and you got it in gobs and spits. Add storage losses and you’re looking at less than that.

Then look at the average turbine’s rating – it’s in the single figures of megawatts. Then look at what a powerstation pumps out – thousands of megawatts. The idea that wind turbines are anything but urinating in the wind at the moment is just daft.

If you read the article, “Welfare cuts will encourage poor to breed” is a pretty vicious paraphrase. Breed almost infers that he sees the poor as a different species, but he actually used the term in relation to the middle classes 😆

The Evening Standard (they did the actual interview) quote is as follows:
“We’re going to have a system where the middle classes are discouraged from breeding because it’s jolly expensive, but for those on benefit there is every incentive,”

Almost all the energy input in a kettle goes to heating the water. A hell of a lot of the energy input for the saucepan goes anywhere but into the water – convection will draw a lot up the side of the pan.

It could be a fairly close run thing. Wikipedia reckons cooking on gas is about 30% efficient. It also says your average fossil power station is about 50% efficient. But you also have to take into account transmission losses – one of the power firms had an ad in the Economist the other week and the transmission losses were very large, I think in the order of 50% or so.

It’s a roundabout way of asking the government for more money and coppers. As was not arresting people in London…

He seems to be making sense to me. It’s a (almost universally accepted) fact of life that if you give people an incentive to do something, it will increase their propensity to do it.

In the case of people on benefits having a disproportionate number of kids, it’s not going to be a good thing for society.

Seems odd to me that you’d look to social policy to answer an economics question…

I once saw a “How they make things” type programme on the Discovery Channel. It was about how bogs are made, and was fairly US centric. There was great concern that environmental regulations had stopped the manufacture of 25 gallon flush cisterns or some such, so the whole hydrodynamics had to be redesigned.

At one point there was a bit on “However, in Yuuurp they’ve been flushing with less water for years…”. The Americans were shown a completely standard UK style bog. They were absolute disgusted, wondering aloud at how could it ever be hygenic to not shit into a giant lagoon of water.

I do just want the data – what I’m doing is trying to produce a form for a (numbered) recipient to fill in.

In my head, it would run something like this: start everything off with the list filtered for recipient 1, de-dynamise the data by whatever method, then save it as a new excel workbook, preferably with a name along the lines of “recipient number, recipient name.xlsx” (hence the need for a bit of VBA). In an ideal world, the macro would then increment the filter to pull everything for recipient 2, and go through the process again, until everything is done.

Obviously incrementing a counter using loops is fairly simple, but can I set a filter from within VBA?

(And yes, I suspect this is something better done in Access / mail merge, but it’s not on the cards).