Mr Sands

Driving out of Webbs of Wychbold this afternoon (buying emergency flowers for tomorrow) and a young feller was driving in at the wheel of a Golf VR6. Heavy traffic at the roundabout meant we were both going slowly and I waited to see if he'd clock the Corrado. He did, looked for a proper stare and then he and I exchanged a knowledgeable nod! Quality.

Yes, indeed I do. Would love to change the cams too but with the additional unexpected financial whack, I'm going to be troubling the red zone enough as it is. Still, if it's got to be done etc.

Mine is about to cost me its first really serious money. Booked it into Stealth for the beginning of April to have chains and clutch done (needing the latter rather more!) but Vince said that since it was a 99% certainty that it would need the head doing as well, might as well get that done. I was budgeting for £800 odd but it's now going to be £1400! Still, given that it's running pretty soundly now, this is about spending money to see that it heads towards older age in good shape.

Halfords do 'em. Bought one from them a couple of weeks ago. Take the old bulb in and compare with the bulbs on the shelves and you'll find the right one. Just wish mine worked! Changing the bulb made no difference, so guess I've a loose connection to go and find.

Had the VR pretty much a year dead on, since buying it from mtc_R32. Who has since gone through a G60 and onto another VR! Was joking to the missus the other day about giving the VR a birthday party soon. At least, SHE thought I was joking.

Feeling your pain dude.

Yes, just edited Jim! That'll teach me to look at the pictures only!

Bloody hell, for one second there I thought you'd picked up a Storm for twelve hundred notes. That would've been fairly impressive. What is impressive is resurrecting a thread this old. Nice going all round!

dr_mat, quite! But that's just the copper doing his stern manner to make an impression, which is fair enough. It's exactly the same trick teachers use when ticking someone off! Sounds like old fashioned, common sense policing of the kind many police would practise, if only they weren't being replaced in this sense by machines. I've been pulled once since owning the Corrado (the only time ever) after I exceeded the limit on a national limit road, overtaking a lorry. The copper was polite, friendly and gave me a warning to slow down and drive with a little more sense. I heeded the warning and greatly appreciated his tailoring of his manner to fit the situation. He would have been well within his rights to have given me a ticket and I could have had no complaints at all about the three points, but he recognised that the situation merited a warning. As a result I have taken more care not to do anything daft, having thoroughly appreciated the police's point. Going back to the parallels between police and teachers having to administer corrective advice (be it to adults or children), the teacher who screams his or her head off every time at a child when they've gone slightly over the line quickly loses any respect from the child, who won't bother listening to the advice.

On a slightly different note, just called in at Halfrauds to pick up some more washing and polishing gear and was inordinately pleased that I saw one of the VW front of house staff from Listers Worcester getting into the scabbiest, most knackered Escort estate you ever saw out front. And not even into the driver's seat. Given the characteristically rude, typical Listers attitude he demonstrated when I called in on Friday to the parts department, I felt a huge welling up of schadenfreude. He also has the world's worst mullet. Just thought I'd share and join in, sorry for taking over your rant M15 VW!

Yes, sounds good David . We're overdue to meet up and compare cars!

Righto David. I wondered if it'd be them. I haven't used them but I did use a bodyshop just down City Walls Road, by the Fownes Hotel. I had some work done there on my old Mk II Golf when some kindly smackhead decided to open the driver's door up round the lock. Wasn't cheap but I was blown away by the work they did: you couldn't tell it had been cut and the colour match was perfect. Let me know how you get on with this other place since one of the two will probably be tasked with welding in my rusty arch. All the best with it, Ed.

You er.. mean a 'sceptic' right? ;) No no, a septic. Septic tank?

Yes, not the rousing send off season finale I was hoping for. Still damn funny though. Moyles in the back of the Panda was great. Looking forward to next series already. One of the only times that I wish I were a septic is when it comes to the length of series like this. Thirty-four episodes should be the legal minimum!

Good news David. Where is this place that you're having the work done? I might need a bit doing soon on the driver's wing.

That's insane. It's destroyed itself completely apart from where he was sitting, F1 style. As his brother says on that forum, bet he just found religion!

No indeed. The proof? The look on De Niro's face!

Looking good! Still trying to find the time to do mine.

Awesome! Love of the 'rado, Shakespeare and P.G. Wodehouse all in one post! Welcome.

That would have been one hell of a Muppet show to get past the censors.

One week and one day later, same petrol station, same time of night, same pump, same scenario! Middle aged fella, filling up his tidy looking A8 saloon, asks me "Is that the old V6 then?". Cue a gentrified discussion of the speediness of the VR, him throwing in anecdotal reference to his son's Golf Synchro. I'm going to fill up every time at that point in the weekend at that station! And the missus is going to stop going with me...

JIMMI, both your bottom two links currently redirect to the valver you're breaking. The restoration Press Car link needs fixing.

Think the search will probably be your friend here. There are LOADS of threads on this already. Also, think this one should probably have been in exterior?

djmac56, many thanks for that! Will be sure to document the process with before and after shots, and I'm sure your tips will be dead useful!

Looking great mate! You've given me renewed appetite for having a bash at this this weekend. My Speedies are looking tired and in need of a refurb and the tyres will need to be replaced all round (ouch!) so I've got a set of cheapy Solitudes off the bay sitting in the garage, which are in a similar state to yours by the look of your pics. I'm going to have a bash at sanding down and respraying this weekend. Any tips about technique or materials etc? Was planning to go down the Cheesewire's route as described elsewhere, using Halfords' very own silver spray paint.