The only thing on your list that’s worth doing is the remap and maybe the brembos.

Remaps normally cost between £100-£300 and net you 30-50bhp depending on the car. So you’re potentially paying a couple of quid per BHP. In tuning terms that’s an absolute bargain. You do need to bear in mind that increased power will accelerate the demise of your dual mass flywheel.

Change the brakes if you find that the increased power is causing fade, and assuming it’s easy (ie, you bolt on new calipers / carriers and don’t have to mess about changing hub and hub carriers).

Both modifications are also easily reversed come car swapping time, and the brembos will sell on easily.

Anything beyond that is normally a waste of time and cash – exhausts and filters net single figure horsepower changes on most cars. You’d be much better off just selling the car and buying the proper V6. Or an old V6 GTV to enjoy on sunny days – values can only really go one way on these now.

And for the love of god don’t add stick on carbon fibre to an aluminium Alfa interior.

If you can get paint in the colour you want in Wilko’s own brand, get it. It’s more like a trade paint formulation and beats pretty much everything for covering power.

Stop reading magazines. They are paid for by advertisers, and they need to sell you things. Everything is awesome, a massive step forwards etc.

It isn’t, and you don’t need it.

Polyolefin shrink film will shrink with an ordinary hair dryer or heat gun.

It’s the wrong time of year to be painting in an unheated garage, so you’ll need to wait.

I’ve got all the clobber to paint – compressors, guns etc. but I still get someone to do it unless it’s a very simple job! Using a spray gun, you could easily spend £1-200 on consumables – paint, sandpaper, filler, primer, grinding discs, disposable overalls, proper activated charcoal masks etc.). Using rattle cans isn’t even something you should think about.

If you have a decent line to hide the join (ie, body crease, pinstripe, rubbing strips, two tone paint job etc.) then DIY is much easier. You will only be able to paint cellulose in a DIY environment and spray vapour very quickly fills up the space available – only about 30% of the paint actually lands on the car.

You need to make sure the area you’re painting in is sparkling clean (most likely making some sort of tent inside the garage), and that your preparation is good – very thorough rub down to bare metal on any rusty areas, lots of feathering in through layers of paint, good filler and good priming. And you need heat or time to get your primer dry so you know it won’t sink once the top coat’s on.

Just tried Evernote and the Keep desktop app – neither seems to have an option to download images? I need to get the actual JPEG files back out of the cloud to use them elsewhere.

At the moment keep + using save as on the images in the browser seems like a slightly longwinded but the best way around it…

The ACPO guidelines are max of 42 for speed awareness course, 50 or above is a summons.

Not a Citroen C6. The 2.7 diesel seems to only ever come up with an autobox and costs £500 a year to tax. It’ll depreciate like a stone.

I do that sort of mileage in a SAAB 9-3. It’s got awesome seats, it’s quiet and it goes well. It’s also a cabrio which is fantastic for retaining your sanity when you get stuck in traffic on a sunny day. They are also pretty cheap to pick up – easily in your budget. The standard hard top models are cheaper and very quiet at 100mph. A lot of bits are off the Vectra, and a the SAAB parts business is still running, so parts aren’t the issue some expect.

That said, the drive from Sheff to Notts will be bloody hard work with the narrow lanes and no hard shoulder. There are regularly traffic problems due to breakdowns.

In fact, I’ll give you a grand now if it’s in the Midlands.

It’s a VW Polo with low mileage. They’re always in demand. You’ll clear 1500 to 2000 easily. Spend ten quid on a mini valet at the hand car wash and throw it on Gumtree at 2000 and drop the price if you don’t get any calls. But I reckon you’ll get calls at that price. Put it on at 1500 and you could sell it for asking price that day.

The market for Polos is massive. Wife need a runabout? Polo. First car? Polo. Want something small and economical that doesn’t feel like a noddy car? Polo.

500 is 100000 mile Fiesta territory. There are very few sub 500 quid runners these days, scrappage knocked out most of the supply of low end used motors and the market has never really become normal since.

I’ve got no idea why anyone would drive to Heathrow over using EMA.

There used to be a Servisair lounge at EMA, but I think it’s out of action whilst they refurb.

The valet parking there is reasonably good, and you basically pull up outside the terminal, although there is a bit of faffing handing over the keys at the office, you don’t have to wait for a man to arrive to pick your car up from you.

The food offer is a bit meh once you’re airside, but security isn’t normally a massive rugby scrum, the roads to it are pretty decent and you don’t have to walk through a shopping centre to get to the terminal. So on the whole, it’s about 1000x better than Stansted.

The best tactic is to arrive late, take hand luggage and wait until the last person has boarded before you stand up, assuming you’ve paid for allocated seats.

What the rest said. Looked into it once, several k a day for anything nice, and a massive excess. Like 10 or 20k.

Ended up hiring a classic Alfa instead.

Can’t see the point in hiring something quickish and modern. Go out and hire a couple of old Mustangs that are only worth 10k in the first place.

Or go and buy two XK8s for a couple of grand a piece and do your own top gear challenge.

Your guard rail design is unsafe. It would be very possible to compress the mattress and get part of your body trapped, particularly when the kids end up playing around the bed.

If I were you I’d take a close look at the guard rails of commercially available kids bunk beds.

What is that? Looks 80s with the swage line. E30? Mk1 Golf?

Yes. On a black or grey car.

Test drove one, hated the power delivery. Went from 1 litre Micra to warp speed the moment it came on cam.

The cheap checks will tell you if the car is a write off etc. The expensive ones tend to tell you and insure you in case there’s a problem with their data. Ie, if you buy a car and it turns out to have outstanding finance, and it gets repossessed, they will pay out to cover the cost of the car.

Home delivery isn’t very profitable, and most of the courier firms are cutting their own throats with their pricing. We’ll eventually see everything moving towards click and collect and delivery becoming a premium option.

There is a procedure for disconnecting the battery on some 406s. Look it up and follow it! Getting it wrong results in various computers having a full on nervous breakdown. The replacement parts aren’t cheap and take a good while to get to the dealer

Do some research on the life of new boilers. I’d be surprised if many break even given the cost to change if you’re not savvy about who fits and services it.

Bump! Has anyone got any other ideas? SAE or Tamiya connectors are looking like the current favourites, as waterproof boots for Anderson plugs cost an arm and a leg.

We get the Lumia 635 as a pool phone at work. The battery life is nice, the windows phone stuff is a bit meh. No idea if the selection of apps is any good. I did see an old geezer using one of the bookie’s apps in the pubs the other day, so it might be more relevant than you’d think. I find the keyboard frustrating – not sure if you can get Swiftkey for it. Otherwise, it’s alright.

The cheaper Galaxy phones are usually a bit sluggish.

I would suggest getting something like a second hand Galaxy S3 or iPhone that hasn’t been updated to the new iOS would be more sensible than getting a dirt cheap new smartphone. My Mum had a series of slow as **** phones which she could never get used to. Which isn’t really surprising when there’s several seconds lag between each button press / screen tap and the actual result. Makes it almost impossible to work out what’s going on.

I’d be inclined to find a plan b. She’s not got your flesh and blood to use as a lever to keep you there…

Casio F91 or A168 if you want a little bling. My gold one cost 15 quid or so from Singapore. Batteries last 7 years…

Ikea do a cheap butchers block. Sand it down and recolour 10 blocks.

Having had owned the 1st 4WD Golf, I can say they are a lot of fun and AWD is very useful in the wet

A Golf Country or a G60?

Not a TAG. What I’ve heard about their servicing requirements, lack of back up and charges for new movements on quartz watches is absolutely laughable.

Quartz watches are really not my cup of tea so I will resist offering views beyond that! The Max Bill mentioned above is a gorgeous watch, but I’ve no idea if they offer a quartz one.

Almost all bits for watch meddling come from the far east, prices are usually in USD. I would suggest joining a watch site and getting a shopping list together along with where you want to source the parts from. There is a massive amount that can be done just by changing the dial and hands and the finish of the case (ie brushed or bead blated). The case is one of the more expensive parts when bought alone, so it’s usually simplest just to get a case style you like first.

That said, you may be able to buy something like an Invicta 8926, sell the Seiko movement and then fit your ETA movement to the case. That could make for a nice Tudor homage with the right movement but not quite right case…

Yes, you can put a 2824 in a new case. You’d basically be doing what a lot of seiko modders do – leaving the mechanical parts well alone and changing the cosmetics.

Raffles time sell new cases, dials etc. Dagaz also sell hands to fit ETA movements. There are a number of ETA clones available which means there will be plenty of bits available.

The key things are that dials tend to fit a range of movements, hands tend to be specific to a few brands, and the case needs to be physically big enough to hold the movement.

If I were you I’d build a nice 60s style diver.

My understanding is that practically everyone in France does this. My peer reviewed evidence that this isn’t massively problematic: spend a fortnight camping in France. You will very quickly learn that there are few problems having a pitch next to a French family with kids, but if you’re next to the average English family that indulges their kids, it’s a waking nightmare. When you hear grown people negotiating with toddlers you know they’re just making their own problems.

I would call myself an honorary expert as my wife goes buck wild whenever she sees a spider.

Never, ever pull the calyx off a tomato and throw it at an arachnophobe. :D

There is only one way to deal with phone companies. Find the phone you want and then find the most ludicrous cash back deals from the dodgiest corners of the internet. Ring up, tell them you’ve seen a deal, and you want your PAC code. Keep pushing for your PAC. They will offer a deal at this point. If you’re happy, you can take it. If you want to push it, insist on the PAC code. Someone will ring you back a few days later and offer you a better deal before you get a chance to switch.

Failing that, use the PAC, switch onto a PAYG sim or giff gaff, and go in as a new customer. Ask for your PAC from gift gaff and hey presto you’re on the same number but with a new customer deal.

This has always got me about a tenner off line rental and a top notch phone.

A4 cabrio, 1 series BMW, z4, 3 series e46 Coupe / cab are all in budget. I would think you would get a Mini Cooper happily in that price range too. Girls often seem to value new over good in cars – ie a lease Corsa might go down better than a 25 grand e30 M3 or 2 door P1 Impreza. So make sure whatever you get is kept clean and shiny and has a personalised plate so she can’t spot the year. The BMW 1 and z4 are quite good choices as the shape hasn’t changed much year on year. A MK1 TT on the other hand is obviously old hat.

The Alfa GT is a nice motor, it is 147 based, you will be changing suspension arms fairly regularly and you must buy one that’s had regular fettling from the alfa man and keep it up if you don’t want to experience massive depreciation. It’s also obscure enough that nobody can be sure when it was made.

That said, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone pull due to the car they had…

Use iCloud, unless you read that article someone posted on here the other day that explained how you can ring up Apple, put on a funny voice and give them the last 4 digits of your cc number and take control of your kit and backups…

I’d suggest he still goes to the interview, just for the practice at assessment centres.

There are quite a few firms that do a second round of intakes for the middle of the year, so there is a chance to get in for a March 15 or so start date.

To be honest, it’s not the end of the world to not get straight into a grad job, and there are plenty of non-grad jobs which can quickly get you up to grad level if you’re half decent.

As soon as I read your post, I clicked onto who the firm is. I believe they will pick you up if needed. They’re mickey takers in my opinion – the wage is a good 2.5-12.5k below the going rate for a graduate scheme, and I suspect it isn’t really a graduate job in the sense that going to one of the big 4 would be. I suspect it’s more a way of them getting in keen young bods who will work their nuts off for a while. Everyone seems to expect north of 40 hours out of graduates, and my experience is that most employers expect you to do more hours than they say, so 55 hours being bandied about at interview stage would worry me.

Anyway, it really depends on where your son is. If he’s at a Russell group uni with good A-Levels, then he’s an ideal candidate for a FTSE 100 grad scheme. If he’s got poorer A-Levels and he’s going to find it a bit more difficult. He is applying about 10-6 months too late in the year for most of the bigger scheme.

If I were him, I’d go for it and decide if I wanted the job after. See it as interview and assessment centre experience. And if he isn’t frightened of hard work, go for Aldi’s grad scheme – when I was looking a few years ago it was famously hard work but £40k starting wage and quick career progression.

The old 8v 1.4 VW engine is about 60 bhp. The 1.6 8v was 75,but surprisingly happy to do big motorway miles.

That said, for 6 miles each way? 2 litre passat or mondeo. They’re comfy and cheap. You’ll have at least a grand in the bank over buying a golf or focus.

1.6 16V mk4 Golf or the equivalent Mk5. We had a mk3 for a few years, seats 4 happily, did 40mpg, only ever needed brakes, tyres and a service every 10k. We eventually got rid of it after 60k and lost about 500 quid in depreciation. Polos are basically Mk3 bits underneath, but not great 4up.

All the 8v 1.4 engines are pretty sluggish. Not a huge weight difference between the Polo and Golf either.

It really depends. I’ve bought cars at auction, privately and from dealers. Best car we ever had was from a dealer, but I’d got to the point where I was ringing up and going “Is it straight, is it rusty, does it go and stop right?”. It’s amazing what some traders will try and flog around the bottom end of the market.

The top and the bottom of it is you need to have a bit of an idea of what you’re looking at. Buying from a certain channel isn’t going to guarantee a good car. That said dealers are obliged to offer some after sales service.

Another thing is that you need to flexible to get decent cars. If you can check autotrader / eBay more than once a day and have a Boss who’ll give you a pass to go and look at a motor. Good cars at good prices do not hang around.

No idea! I’ll take a look next time I’m in the shed. It has a valve in the side of the tank that will blow air out if it gets beyond 100 PSI or so. Can I be dead cheeky and bounce you an email when I get a chance to look at it?