What was the last thing you repaired?

Not exactly fixed, but yesterday I removed a fluorescent tube in my father-in-law's garage and am going to buy a new one tomorrow. I realised I'd never replaced one before and had no idea how to remove it (this one needed turning 90 degrees and then the pins slip out the bottom). Apparently a good idea to replace the starter motor too so I'll do that at the same time.

Also, had no idea what they were called in Spanish until I asked for one in a shop this lunchtime. (it's a 'barra' if you ever need that info).

I realised I’d never replaced one before and had no idea how to remove it (this one needed turning 90 degrees and then the pins slip out the bottom). Apparently a good idea to replace the starter motor too so I’ll do that at the same time.

Yeah I have done a few of them over the years (growing up in the 70s when they were very popular probably helped). I don't recall ever changing the starter at the same time. Also - I thought modern tubes didn't need starters? Or do they need a different base for them to work?

Ah, didn't know that - there's a space for one so I'm guessing it will need something in there. I'll ask in the local ironmongers tomorrow - they will literally know everything.

My oven. Quite fiddly but working again now 🙂

The house alarm and the cover for the boot area of my car.

The dishwasher. It stopped mid-cycle, googled the error code which identified a lack of incoming water. More googling said that the most likely suspect was the solenoid valve that controls the incoming water.

A bit of dismantling later, I had the valve disconnected from the internal electrics - it's one of those where the solenoid is integrated into the water supply pipe. I knocked together a mains test cable from the box of useful electrical bits in the garage, which confirmed the solenoid was knackered.

For bonus satisfaction points I found a local independent parts guy who had a replacement in stock at a good price, he even delivered it for free the same day.

Some of you may like this
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K65UQy6t6KQ

Air con pipe in my Alfa. The crimping around the rubber pipe, where it connects to the aluminium solid pipe, was showing signs of splitting but there was no evidence of leaking (unlike another one I had to replace recently, at huge cost).

I made up a clamping block to reinforce the crimping, thus:

Tow bar wirinng on the T4 camper. What a pain. Can't even feel the bilb release tabs let alone see them. Crappy chocolate blocks every where. Done now.

Laid a carpet this morning.

Rebuilt two kitchen cabinets Weds. All reinforeced with solid wood. Good job I have a circular saw.

But is it a Festool circular saw? 😉

Roland UA25 sound card with a faulty USB socket

Our Renault Scenic handbrake switch (contact cleaner) and the heater blower fan (replaced resistor pack).

Still to fix are the rear windows (I think the motors are blown) and the poor radio reception

Stripped the rust and paint off my XC90 subframe in preparation for zinc coating then new bushes.
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Really satisfying home fix today.  Mrs Scape stood on the floor by the kitchen door and said it felt spongey. Lifted the lino, sorry, "bespoke vinyl floorcovering" and found a layer of ply that was clearly flaky, then under that the chipboard floorboard had blown and disintegrated.

Happy few minutes lifting it all away, dreading to discover some sort of leak, but no, it looked like it was just from wet boots, dogs and a bit of rain over the sill.

A couple of leftover fence palings, a layer of hardboard,  then a piece of ply cut from a figure 11 target board and all was  fixed. I even got to repurpose a leftover box of cable clips as I couldn't find any appropriate nails to tack down the hardboard.

Mrs Scape takes the  piss because I hoard lumps of leftover timber but it really paid off today!

This week I repaired both the kids walking boots which have fallen appart due to 10 days of soaking scout camp in the uk and several rocky walks out here in the Picos. Not only that, I repaired my own keen sandals which brok (TBF these are about 12 yrs old) And I had to go into a Spanish diy place and get the right adhesive and whittle a stick for adhesive application. All holding up so far.

Also – I thought modern tubes didn’t need starters? Or do they need a different base for them to work?

If you’re replacing a regular fluorescent tube with an LED tube, which is what you really ought to be doing, then you replace the old starter with a dummy, otherwise the light won’t work, it has to have something there to make sure the circuit is complete.

I’ve had an LED tube in my kitchen overhead fitting for a few years, although I’ve got a series of spotlights and under-cabinet lights that I use, if I do need it, the fact that it comes on instantly without that irritating ‘bink, bink, bink…’ and the light is a clean white without that ghastly greenish tinge. Plus there’s no starter to fail causing the light to start flickering and flashing on and off.

I didn’t have a photo of the little lava lamp when I posted about it, so here it is lava-ing happily away 😁

my audi aircon has never worked, but the heaters not much good either.

One of the air flaps packed up, so couldnt get cool air in the car. Theres 5 of these motor/flaps, one is impossible to get at.  It wasnt that one though, so the glove box came out, and i took the motor off, and took it apart. You have to hold a plastic clip open with one hand, open the next clip with the other hand, while holding it and opening the next clip with another hand.

the gear was stuck but freed easily. The motor worked, the pot resistance was good, it was put back together and didnt work again

i stripped it right down,sprayed all the plastic gear with  silicon oil and reassembled it. The gear was sticking in one place, and i couldnt see why I triple checked everything, sprayed it some more and put it back together and back in the car and reset the values and tested it with the software.

Its still making some clicking noises, but the car is a lot cooler,and hopefully wont go wrong again, fingers crossed. If it does i shall disconnect it and keep the flap open

My brand new warranty replacement paddleboard. Walking it through a gate, misjudged it and tapped some barbed wire with the tail. 😭

Patch on but it's spoiled the new look for sure.

My mini lathe. The white plastic things in the foreground are the high speed /  low speed gears. I stripped a couple of teeth off one. To fix it you need to completely dismantle the lathe to remove the headstock, press out the spindle, press out the layshaft and reverse. I don't have a press so I bought 2 pieces of steel plate and used 12mm studding to make a press. A bearing puller and new Thor aluminium / nylon faced 2lb hammer completed the job.

Along the way I found out just how badly the lathe had been assembled.

The white plastic bits have been replaced with steel ones, all the bearings replaced with brand name ones (including angular contact bearings for the spindle, top tip, check which way round they go before fitting them to avoid having to do the job twice). If something breaks now it's likely to be the motor pulley or belt, they're much easier to replace.

Replaced the wheels on a Samsonite suitcase, the wheels were ok except that the rubber bit on the outside had fallen off one of them.

Found some new ones on Amazon which were a bit too large, so just filed the rubber down, taking 2mm off the diameter.

[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53132499620_ef834c4220_w.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53132499620_ef834c4220_w.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2oX8X2E ]Samsonite suitcase wheels[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr

Does refurbishing my troll count?  I have been fitting new hir to the bald ones and making them new clothes

Fixed a mailbox for a neighbour and got a feel good vibe out of all proportion to the scale of the job.

We live on a remote bridleway out in the cuds with just 3 houses, the nearest a couple of hundred metres from me. The elderly lady who lives there lost her husband last year. She has no family, few friends and doesn't drive. We keep an eye out for her and help where we can.

She asked me to take a look at the wooden homemade box as it was starting to come apart. Her old fella had made it and she didn't want to replace it as it reminded her so much of him.  It was clear it had real sentimental value. The steel mesh bottom was falling out, the lid was rotten, hinges rusted up and the wood was split in several places. Only took me an hour or so to fix and a couple more for the varnish on a new lid to dry and some wood glue to go off.

She was absolutely made up and a little tearful when I dropped it off. I thought I was in an episode of the Repair Shop!  Properly chuffed to have made someone's day with such a simple thing.

Melted the handle on my Wusthof chef’s nice. Filed off the melted bit and then smoothed it with some wet and dry.

A nice one at work today.

Rayburn Heatmaster range cooker. I had changed the consumer unit, when turned back on, the range was dead. Rang up the Technical Helpline, no idea was their response, probably a PCB failure. Rang up the chap who services it, he had no idea too, but said take the display pcb off to check the connection on the back. Took it off, all was good, then notice a CR2032 battery on the PCB. Hmm, I’ve had similar before where the back up battery is dead, and the item won't work. Changed the battery, and all working again. Very relieved with that, as the householder was looking at me as the one who broke her range cooker.

The key from one of the works vans. The switches that lock and unlock it had come apart and we thought a £300 bill was due. Fortunately all the pieces of the microswitch assembly were still within the key body. Some delicate tweezer work re-assembled both switches. The the caps of 4 presta valves were trimmed to provide new plipper buttons taped over the microswitches. A new battery and the key functioned almost like new.

Our inflatable kayak.

It's only been out 10 times in 4years (COVID+ 3 year old+ pregnant wife)

Found leak one on a seam, patched it thinking it would not hold.

Deflated the next day.

This evening it's been quiet enough to listen for leaks.

Found a second big fat hole in an easy to patch place.

Patch glued on, hopefully it will stay inflated tomorrow 😊

Our outdoor table got smashed when the verandah roof fell on it. We put it to one side and we’re getting a new one made. The timber for the new one will need a bit longer to dry so I thought I would take a look and see what was needed to repair it. Turned out to be really simple. The only part that couldn’t just be glued was a corner ‘wedge.’ So this afternoon I remade that and put it back together. Rushed a bit when fitting it and didn’t pre-drill the first screw which caused a slight split, but it should be ok.

Reeksy your grass needs mega attention.

Sort that shit out you have no excuse. Standards should be upheld regardless of any megastorm house tree interface carnage.

Fair enough 😆

The plumbers have put all the stormwater pipes underneath the ‘lawn’ but we’re not really lawn people so it doesn’t really look any different!

Fixed the tumble dryer after it went from squeaking to sounding like it had a brick rattling around in the drum. Took it apart expecting the bearing to have worn out but it turned out the drum shaft had sheared off too.

All quiet and working again for £18

Two things!

The battery on my Pixel 6 swelled up a few weeks ago* 🙄

Although it's still under warranty I would have had to pay for a new screen as it's got a small crack in it. So I bought a new battery kit from iFixit and tackled it yesterday.

Amazingly it wasn't a difficult job and I took my time - result is pretty perfect.

Second job was on the central heating.  Switched it on the other day, for the first time since the summer, and although the [Drayton] wireless system said the boiler should be firing it wasn't.

Their digistat wireless receivers have a capacitor that wear out every X years.

This is the second one I've done in the 22 years we've been here.

Did some soldering and fitted a new one for £4. All working again.

* I think it was because I'd charged it the night before using one of those usb ports built into hotel room bedside light switches 😠

I've always charged it wirelessly up til then.

Pool pump has been making a fair bit of noise … pulled it apart and discovered a spacer had worn its way through the diffuser. Replaced it.

Our washing machine started making lumpy noises and bouncing round the laundry. Opened the door and saw the drum had dropped a couple of inches. Took the top off and saw that one of the two big springs that the drum hangs off was loose.

Where the spring hooks through an eye hole on the drum casing it used to have a nylon sleeve, which has gone AWOL at some point. The bare metal of the spring has then slowly worn through the eye hole.

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(The two holes at the sides were drilled by me as part of the bodge)

So I knocked together a couple of plates out of a bit of scrap steel (an old L-bracket) and bolted them to the sides of the flange, creating a new eye hole for the spring.

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Simple enough except that the flange was in a really small space. Couldn't get a drill in there, or my knock-off Dremel. Had to resort to a puny micro-dremel to that I use for tidying up 3D prints. It can only take a 2mm drill bit so I had to drill small holes and use sideways pressure on the drill bit to (very, very slowly) remove enough material to get my 5mm bolts through. Good as new, at least the washing machine should make it to its 15th birthday next month!

I've recently discovered JB Weld and keep hoping things break so I can miraculously save them. Last thing was the food waste bin, the binmen had given it a good hiding with a gaping Y shaped crack going the whole height. Before that did the car windscreen reservoir leak. Last weekend after a very muddy ride I switched the tap on to hose the mud off the old Sub 5 and heard a pop. The newish Karcher lance must have had ice inside and the handle burst open with the pressure. So that's next on the list.

Why did it take me so long to discover JB, that stuff can fix anything.

This happened
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So I smoothed the tear down and glued a bit of old canvas on top
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Kept it flat while it dried
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Then carefully filled the canvas until leveland painting over
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Anmyone want a cheap painting? One (not very) careful owner 🙂

Our 15 yr old + bread maker which we’d passed on to no. 2 daughter snuffed it. I said I’d have a look. When turned on it lit up and made a noise but no drive. Guessed it was the belt. Checked up and you need a special tool to get the bottom off to get it it. Sod that. Half an hour with a small drill bit followed by a bit of attention with a hammer and a screwdriver and the belt and pulleys were revealed.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0cdTh39Rnn5FTwTrnhmFaE2-g

£13 odd for a new belt off eBay plus a strip down and lube of the bearings. Jobs a good ‘un.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0ball7-UPSom2O2qbNQuToirA

Gaffer tape to put the bottom back on again.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0076TdxIsx1VPnf6TeyxMMNkw

My Heals sofa broke so I fixed it. I got it from the Heals outlet some years ago for half price (£2k instead of £4k) so it wasn't covered by a lifetime warranty.

The new webbing wasn't as substantial so I used more span and lots of staples:

I also had to add an extra layer of dense foam as the webbing is now attached on the opposite side of the cross beam than it was.

May or may not be slightly firmer now, I am not sure.

Don't think Heals stuff is as well made as it was - wasn't very impressed on examination. The cross beam had split because of a badly placed nail shot into the side of it during assembly.

Good work. 👍

My fence, well three of the four panels damaged from the storm last week. Knew the middle beam was rotten but turns out most of that part is beyond repair. Now standing upright and held together with old decking boards, couple of bungee cords, any solid old chunks of wood that was lying around and a couple of untreated batons. It's going to need a professional later in the year along with the decking that I went through when fixing the fence - also fixed the hole in the decking by covering it so I couldn't see it!

Don’t think Heals stuff is as well made as it was – wasn’t very impressed on examination. 

We're on our second Marks and Spencer sofa. The first one was ex-diaplay from the Chester store and still lasted at least 15 years before being given away. The next one got a collapsed arm after 6 months,  warrantee repair that needed a new arm 'card' which was exactly as described.  Cardboard in a £1k plus sofa. Absolutely shite.  

My Heals sofa broke so I fixed it.

Impressive work.

Just after lunch Mrs Reeksy alerted me to the misbehaving 19 year old washing machine. Drain pump appears to have failed.

Not the end of the world given we gave another identical model in the shed with a burnt out motor.

Nevertheless from long experience I anticipated many hours of frustration leading to dummy spitting.

Tear down of the old machine went smoothly though and soon I came back to the house brandishing a replacement pump and the knowledge and confidence to strip down the in house machine.

Apart from an awkward jubilee clip things continued well.

Put everything back together and tried an empty rinse and spin. Yahtzee! We're in business. Pump it out...water everywhere. Oh yeah forgot to put the drain filter bung back in. Much laughter from my admiring wife.

Try again. Works a charm.

Hang on, what are those two little screws there? Oh yes, the ones from the door latch I mislaid. Maybe they would be better than the long ones I used. It's quick to swap them. But as I removed the long screws, yes sure enough that's a tear in the seal right there. Where the long bastard ****ing screws were.

Definitely the first time my kids have heard me say"****ing ****!"

Karcher pressure washer that’s at least 20 years old. Leaking low pressure water so the motor was cutting in and out. Took the plastic “cylinder head” off and identified where it was leaking from three seals, located replacements at E Spares but actually replaced the whole “head” including lots of tiny pistons and springs for just over £30. Back together, working a lot better than it’s been working for years so hopefully it’ll see me out!

That's great. I had similar luck with a pressure washer a while back. Found the same one on Gumtree and was able to swap bits over and have loads of spares left. Very satisfying

Mrs asbrooks’ hair straighteners. Replaced the cable, now as good as new. She was going to throw them away and spent £200 on new set. Oof! Who knew they cost that much?

Got the 45-year-old mower running smoothly again. Good as new, needed a good clean out of the carb + new filter, spark plug, oil and blade. Ready for when the rain stops now.

The next one got a collapsed arm after 6 months,  warrantee repair that needed a new arm ‘card’ which was exactly as described.

M&S refused to replace the collapsed cards on our 6-month-old sofa when we got it. Said the arms weren't supposed to take any weight 🙄 This year the frame cracked just after the 6-year warranty expired, they weren't interested. Took it apart like the Heals one above, but it was so shoddy decided to get rid.

Yesterday I repaired a sideboard.

Recent house rennos, so trying a new TV cabinet. Only problem is the amp I'm putting in there is super deep and just didn't fit (amp plus banana plugs / cables.

Quite literally sick of moving furniture in 35c heat I kind of used a hammer to smash the back panel off the new sideboard.

Whaddya know, the amp fit perfectly.

Replaced a cracked/delaminated Vision SC40 carbon rim on my road bike rear wheel

Was lucky enough to find a Ribble Level carbon front wheel brand new from their website for £100 delivered

The Level rim is pretty much identical to my damaged Vision SC40 one, delaced both wheels and rebuilt the Level rim into my exsisting Vision rear hub, even found some new decals online for £10, result!

https://flic.kr/p/2pDT9Vr

https://flic.kr/p/2pDS6Jr

https://flic.kr/p/2pDUoT6

https://flic.kr/p/2pDUoSQ

Said the arms weren’t supposed to take any weight

(It's a while ago now, but...) yeah, I was told not to use the arms to lift yourself up when standing. FML, it's rubbish. The other arm is sagging now. Might have a go myself with some heavy duty webbing if I can get the cover off.

The cable that I put a screw through earlier.

Battery powered PIR light.

It was getting more and more erratic.

Having a couple of matching capacitors I replaced the ones on the board - this fixed the "once on, always on" issue, but not the detection issue.

Found some "similar" PIR sensors on internet (cost:buttons, delivery time measured in elephant pregnancies).

Fitted using my shovel ended, "furnace rated" soldering iron - and it works!

Could have bought a new one etc., etc.,

Old Kitchenaid mixer, given to us as it was broken.  It's a horrible thing to dismantle as it requires a pin being hammered out with a drift...  However, once open the fault was obvious.  A new worm for £8 and ta-da!

Except that it sounds like a bag of spanners, so much investigating and we identify the noise is a weird govenor on the end of the moter shaft that's opening and closing a pair of contacts and making the noise, I couldn't work out how it could be quiet with that design so in desperation I looked on youtube.  Turns out the horible noise when running is a 'feature'.

Chainsaw bar last night. Cleared out of the old mans shed. Seemed a shame to chuck it so half an hour with a vice and a big hammer and it is straight. The raspberry cage on Sunday. Getting ropey and a bit small. Got a pigs cot roof to do over Easter and off to turn 2 bent rear mechs into 1 straight one when I finish hear.

A BMW K1200S.

Bought as a write-off last year. Must've been rear-ended and consequently dropped as the exhaust was bent, rear light had popped out (no damage) and some scratches down one side.

Popped light back in, fitted new Delkevic exhaust, polished up some of the scratches (could still do with respraying), gave it a service - jobs a good 'un.

Rode it for about three months then could hear an intermittent knocking. Ending up fitting a new alternator bearing, timing chain/sprockets, checked the clutch and transmission. Noise still there which made me think it must be a rod bearing - argh! (Later on checking the service history I have I don't think it had had an oil change for 3 years!)

Should I give it up - sell it for bits? A second hand engine is £1000+ - not worth it. Second hand crankshaft with rods £175 on eBay - I'll give it a go!

Engine out - taken to bits on kitchen table, one rod bearing kaput but no damage to valves (phew!). Took six months but the engine is back together, back in the bike, started first time! Just passed MOT, only done about 30 miles on it so far but no strange noises and running sweet!

Shark cordless vacuum, left on the side of the road, thought I can grab some spares parts, for ours at worst. Filters all totally blocked/dirty, along with a huge amount of hair behind the front roller of the ridiculously named “floor nozzle”. Unfortunately it was flashing the headlights & not spinning either roller of the floor nozzle. Dived onto the internet & was promptly informed sharks are a bit crap for self repair, but persisted & found a video about a microswitch. Took the floor nozzle covers off, which was an annoying mission, as i have a set of security hex head, but they seat some of them too deep for a swappable head to reach. Shoved an old electrical screw driver into them instead & got it apart! Messing with it, it started working, & I suspect the cleaning cover’s security microswitch/plastic rod had been the cause of the issues. Even managed to get it back together, still working (one little roller wheel does now need replacing, but that’s a minor note), & seems more powerful than our original (well used) unit. I was a happy chap, my partner just wanted to know where dinner was..

 I was a happy chap, my partner just wanted to know where dinner was..

I then replied “look dear…..I have a new vacuum cleaner for you”………

……..and that is why I am sitting in the shed with a snapped vacuum cleaner, nursing a scalp wound whilst eating a can of dog food with a garden trowel.

I soldered up some holes in my 1982 Alfa GTV petrol tank - great success ?

Err few things 

Exhaust on the van.  Had to grind all the fixings off which was nice.

Just done coloumn switches and ignition lock too!

Also been on with rot repairs 

Conservatory is a ballache.

Replaced the velcro on my Topeak MTS bag. Original velcro wasn't that good and was too long to work properly on the two bike racks I have.

Re circlips on washing machines... And cars.

The proper pliers are great.

I soldered up some holes in my 1982 Alfa GTV petrol tank – great success ?

We now want to see the car……..love a GTV

Here it is:

It's a 1982 GTV 2.0 ( I would have liked a GTV6, like I had before, but they're all a bit too expensive now).

Car is currently in dry dock while I sort out an extensive job list.

I plan to change the wheels as I've never really liked that style (Purists will be offended of course but I'll keep the originals - just in case I ever sell the car).

Car is currently in dry dock while I sort out an extensive job list.

That’s why the Alfa handbook has a number of blank pages at the back, to list down the “jobs to do”

It looks in helluva decent condition, what’s the mileage?.

Not quite repairing but I'm optimizing the liquid CO2 injection module (that I built 2 years ago) on this mixing head.

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In the last two weeks....

1) Friends Cistern: the toilet wouldn't flush so I repaired the Syphon with a section of 4pint Milk bottle.

2) Our Toaster: the Handle (that lowers the bread) had become detached. Dis-assembled toaster, drillled, bolted and soldered the handle back on and re-assembled toaster.

3) Replaced Clutch Slave Cylinder and flexible hose and bled the system on a Series 2a LandRover.

4) Cleaned, greased and otherwise refurbished all four hydraulic brakes, replaced the Master Cylinder and bled all corners on a Series 2a LandRover.

5) Re-wired my Locost 7 kitcar - this is an ongoing project. Has been 'in-progress' for a while! (too long)

Currently balls deep in my Mondeo.

Took it off the road in December to get some new wheels and front discs and pads before it got MOT'd. Never got that sorted till the end of March, failed it's MOT on corroded suspension arms and broken spring, got new arms, springs and links, snapped bolts holding arms on, got new bolts, managed to cut out the old ones, got arms fitted, got front struts out on Saturday, springs off on Sunday (top thread rusted up), new springs on and rusted top mount screw off yesterday.

Which takes us to today. I still need to fit all that back in tonight and then pull the battery after I drill out the rusted airbox lid screws and hope it takes a charge.

So far I'd probably have been cheaper selling the ****ing thing or just paying a garage to do it in the first place. Front wheel bearing also needs done but that's not going to be me doing that. I blame the corrosion on being parked up, it was nowhere near as bad before.

I'm just dreading whatever new horrors present themselves when I put it back through.

It looks in helluva decent condition, what’s the mileage?

GTV has done 84000 miles. bodyworlk is in very good condition as is most of the underneath. I've had to weld up two holes in the floor but that's better than I expected.

You're right about the extra pages in the handbook for jobbies but in my case I'd need 52 pages (one for each job). Most are silly wee things though.

Very cool car amongst a sea of bland modern vehicles, enjoy it.

In the process of fixing and servicing my Husqvarna ride-on mower.  It's daunting but I reckon I'm going to save £600 in dealer costs. It's a big old badger, 10 years old with twin blades and a 46" cutting width. I use it to cut a very rough 1 acre paddock which is covered in molehills, slopes and dips. Yesterday I clipped a rock in the brambly border and it started making an awful noise and vibrating like a jackhammer.

Cue several YouTube videos today and I've removed the blades - both of which are damaged and need replacing, removed the deck and discovered the main fault which is a knackered blade spindle assembly. I decided to service and clean it whilst it's in bits, so ordered all the service bits, oil, fuel and air filters, spark plugs, blades and the spindle assembly - £95 all in.  I cleaned about 2 bucket fulls of dried mud and grass from the deck then jet washed it and put some corrosion inhibitor on it. The parts  haven't come yet, but with the help of YouTube I'm confident I can replace the damaged parts and service it.

I service my little Honda walk behind mower but I've always shied away from working on the Husky as it looks too intimidating.  Last time I had it dealer serviced and blades changed it was £450.  With the deck needing to be removed and a new spindle assembly I reckon that would be nearer £700.  I can't afford that at the moment, nor a new mower and I do rely on it. So pretty chuffed at stripping it down, diagnosing the problem and ordering the parts. I just need to put it back together now!

This nugget

https://imgur.com/a/MtzX8jG

Bought it about 2 years ago with a rattly engine, quite a lot of rust (*) and not a single properly functioning suspension part.

(* quite a lot of rust by normal car standards, it was actually pretty good by MX5 standards)

Pulled everything possible off the shell while the engine was out, and went back to bare metal wherever there was even a hint of rust. Basically one winter away from needing a load of welding but it should outlast petrol now

https://imgur.com/WRTkGem

https://imgur.com/RNKJ6RP

Bought a Mazda 6 and scrapped that for its 2.5 litre engine, stuck a set of cams into it, and painted it orange because orange engines make 10% more horsepower

https://imgur.com/SgBX8y6

https://imgur.com/QX3tg1w

Polybushed througout, new goodwin racing exhaust and tomei headers, Meister R shocks and IL anti roll bars

Just MOT'd it, not even an advisory.

Fixed a toilet that has ceased flushing in Mrs Gordimhor's house . She was sceptical at first but mightily impressed  when I did it  without even consulting you tube.

The Mondeo is back together and the charger accepted the battery (down at 3.something volts!) so here's hoping it can be saved and save me some cash!

Northwind - I have no idea how you start to do proper man mechanics, where do you put all the parts when they're off the car? How do you know which engine will fit. So many things that I wouldn't know where to start nit would love to given the time.

@stevet1 I learned by doing something little, I had a motorbike and no money so I had to learn to fix it, and then I started learning how to improve it, paint it, whatever seemed like fun and got addicted. I'm more of a practical learner than a theoretical person so it works pretty well just diving in, and if all else fails, there's always a youtube video where an eastern european man tells you how to fix it. TBH there was nothing in this project that was especially clever, the hard part was just that there was a hell of a lot happening, all at the same time, hard to keep track of.

Conveniently I have a big shed but there was a point where there was stuff just <everywhere>, stuff in the garden, stuff in the attick, stuff in the kitchen, stuff in the other car... Wish I had a garage but if I did, it'd be full of crap too! Many, many takeaway food boxes full of bolts and stuff. The engine swap here was actually pretty simple, Ford/Mazda put versions of this engine in a ton of cars so even though the one that's in now is larger capacity and more powerful, it's almost the same shape and uses the same wiring etc as the original one. You have to do some tweaks and use a mix of parts from the 2 donors to make it work, and some more to make it work well, but it's genuinely not much harder than "take old one out with little crane, put new one in".

(there was an awful lot of "which bolt goes in this hole" and "I have completely lost this part" and a little bit of going on the owner's group on facebook and going like "what is this bracket" for stuff I'd taken off 2 years before 🙂 )

I see image insert is working as well as ever.

An early 1960's Adcock and Shipley 1ESG horizontal milling machine I bought for scrap money.  I did a complete rewire with modern components after someone bodged a 3ph to 1ph conversion at some point in the past.  I still need to fully strip, clean and repaint the machine and also remake the missing the coolant tank and plumbing but the first job is to make a set of gears so I can complete the metric screw cutting gearset for my 1950's lathe.

@jonm81 - That's a thing of beauty.

Fly sceen cables  on camper door broke last summer on our way back from the alps. I already had an injured rider with me so duct taped it open. Managed to do a running repair before we went this year and it lasted till the last day. Duct tape again til it went for its habitational check. Dealer said it couldnt be repaired and a new one was £1500 plus vat plus fitting. Couldnt find any thing on YouTube to help but bought some cord and with loads of photos as it was been dismantled and using three of the cords that hadnt broken to measure for length we replaced all the 6. 2 1/2 hours after starting and a bit of readjusting for tension and it's  just like new

Brunsviga 13RK mechanical calculator. Now fully working.