General Chat Of Nothing In Particular

[acecard]

Acecard, does your reply indicate that you, like me, are are a refugee from Visionhire? AKA Titanic Rentals. I blame them for making me a lifelong skeptic.

Well well-- I worked for Visionhire in Manchester 1968-1970 - fixing tellys when we had proper valves and line transformers and crt's to replace etc. Not like nowadays - nothing like the nice warm glow of a boxful of valves.

Just when colour Tvs came into vogue - couldnt afford one at home but I usually managed to keep one in the van so we could use it overnight :closedeyes:

Mind you, the only colour xmissions then were the Spinners, Star Trek or trade broadcasts :lol:

 

Back on topic- took a 63 plate titanium 140 for a test spin and actually very impressed - just a couple of niggles - overhead storage boxes seem a tad flimsy and a lack of power pulling away in 2nd at low speeds - actually saw that same comment on a video test review of the mk3.

Generally though felt very solid.

It had the SEAT pack too so electric folding mirrors and electric chairs...

[Scorpiorefugee]

Acecard, small world. I started in 64 and in 67/69 was Area Eng in South Yorks and ended up in the tech training South West to 88. 

Your test drive sounded good. The seat pack is probably an improvement and your comment on the lack of power seems a bit strange although I find it no real improvement on the old 115 and the whole power range just seems very one ended and nowhere near as smooth and progressive as the old VW unit. I'm afraid I am rather old fashioned in preferring knobs that turn and give immediate results, switches that click and you know by feel what you've done without having to look at an LCD display somewhere out of the way or wait for a bloody computer to make up it's mind what it's going to do. I also like seats that leave you fresh after a long day in the saddle so mine is never going to live up to the old MKI. I might have gone for a Titanium X but couldn't face the depressing severely tinted windows that made it look like a Mafia bus. I live in hope that my son may let me have the old Ghia back.  

[acecard]

Hi Scorpio.

Must admit the knowledge I gained at Visionhire and other companies in the electronics fold has certainly come in useful during the rest of my life.

I moved into computer programmming on mainframe IBM360s and Amdahls after that for Shell. Don't tell me you worked there as well

Maybe theres a Friends Reunited group for ex-visionhire staff!

 

I checked carefully for runflats but it had standard fit so it should have had one of those aerosol thingies somewhere but couldn't find one - not a big issue at the moment as they're bloody useless anyway. I recall using one of those on a puncture about forty years ago - a novel idea but finished up with a load of foam on the road still with a flat tyre.

 

Understand your point about knobs and buttons. I've been running a Zafira Tourer courtesy job and for the life of me can't figure out the climate controls or for that matter the radio functions. The new gal  would probably defeat me in the same way. Time for new blood - ask my daughter..

 

Re the Mafia bus - Mumof4 thinks it looks like a hearse anyway. I can appreciate her point.

Edited February 14, 2014 by acecard

[Scorpiorefugee]

Hi Acecard, This is getting like a friends reunited topic on it's own. I agree your comments about VH. They went through many takeovers growing at a huge rate and making engineer's life appallingly difficult and finally under the nickname of Titanic Rentals died taking a lot of good loyal staff down with the remnants sucked up by Granada. I jumped ship as an alternative of joining the enemy and, would you believe, spent 10 years with IBM Sys36 and AS400 using Cobol and RPG before post 2000 everyone spent trillions on American software and 'Consultants' at

Edited February 14, 2014 by Scorpiorefugee

[acecard]

Hi Acecard, This is getting like a friends reunited topic on it's own. I agree your comments about VH. They went through many takeovers growing at a huge rate and making engineer's life appallingly difficult and finally under the nickname of Titanic Rentals died taking a lot of good loyal staff down with the remnants sucked up by Granada. I jumped ship as an alternative of joining the enemy and, would you believe, spent 10 years with IBM Sys36 and AS400 using Cobol and RPG before post 2000 everyone spent trillions on American software and 'Consultants' at

[gregers]

OI YOU 2 GET A ROOM. :16: :13:

[acecard]

Give us a break, gregers - it is valentines day!

[Scorpiorefugee]

Give us a break, gregers - it is valentines day!

Is it? Oh dear!  I'm in trouble again. I might need a room somewhere now.

I could always move into that Galaxy thing in the garage. It doesn't seem much use for anything else. :(

 

'Ere, who started this?

Edited February 15, 2014 by Scorpiorefugee

[chrispb123456]

Bloody foreigner's what are they talking about :16:  :16:  :16:

[Scorpiorefugee]

Back to colour TV in the 60's. Does anyone else remember Test Cards and demo films in the afternoons. Jack Nicolas winning the same Golf tournament in glorious weather several times a week, an educational film about polymers with men carrying a long plastic pipe and SIDE, (Switch off, Isolate, Dump and Earth) a safety film for HV electrical workers. I got quite addicted to test card music.  :46:

 

Now that's a test for oldies. If you can remember that you ain't no foreigner.

Edited February 16, 2014 by Scorpiorefugee

[gregers]

:blush: i remember the test card,iirc (without googling) wasnt there about 5 or 6 different pics of the same girl??

i seem to remember some safety films,especially the farm 1s.

[acecard]

Gregers - I think the test card with the girl and the clown was test card F - one of  the first colour cards for engineers - and iirc she was the daughter of some BBC brass.

 

The afternoon test transmissions were some of the best programmes!

 

Scorpio- remember convergence with crosshatch generators? Some of those sets were an absolute pig. I always used to tell the customer not to vacuum too close to the TV as the strong magnetic field used to play havoc with some colour sets.

Used to give me some very strange looks. As a matter of fact, people still do.

Way, way off topic now....

[Scorpiorefugee]

Way off topic, but it's fun and harmless, although I'm not too sure about Gregers 'googling' at that innocent little test card girl :9: .

As far as the magnetic fields do you remember wandering around the rooms with a degaussing coil muttering weird incantations? :44:

Field service isn't any fun these days.

[acecard]

Wonderful days - such a lot of funny stories.

How many times did i go out to a fault and find that all the valves had been moved around like musical chairs obviously in an attempt to get the tv working before the engineer arrives the following day.

 

me-"it could never have worked like this"

customer - "well its been working fine until yesterday"

 

sure..and he couldn't even get the screws back in :16:

.

[Scorpiorefugee]

Not had that one but it was often a case of "Tells yo owt, thinks yo know nowt."

The trouble is that they're all at it now, the government, the bankers,..........

 

I think that came from a song from about the same time. Any offers? One of the west country groups I think.

 

Did you stay in the trade long enough to go through the phase of all sorts of pets secreting an an assortment of bodily fluids in video recorders and then leaving it long enough for the acid to remove the copper from the legs of ICs by electrolysis. It also made a mess when it went into the tapes and when the machine fired up it wrapped the tape around the video head about 50 times and then stuck fast. All to be repaired on site in 20 mins with said pets sniffing at your bum.  Whoopee! And then back to your car to find that some low life had squirted a full tube of superglue in the locks. That's always assuming your car was still there and still with another 20 calls to do.

 

Oh, any movement on the new car yet? I don't know how much longer Gregers is going to let this continue and he's too young to take part. :27:

Edited February 17, 2014 by Scorpiorefugee

[gregers]

Way off topic, but it's fun and harmless, although I'm not too sure about Gregers 'googling' at that innocent little test card girl :9: .

As far as the magnetic fields do you remember wandering around the rooms with a degaussing coil muttering weird incantations? :44:

Field service isn't any fun these days.

i did say'WITHOUT GOOGLING',i know your an old geezer but plz keep up. :16: :16:

i was trying to use my miniscule brain,it was the 70s wasnt it?.

 

dont worry about me,but as it keeps going off target it might be worth changing the title to something else?

lost lovers or summit like that :1: :22:

Edited February 17, 2014 by gregers

[acecard]

Back in line--

Almost forgot - yes, I have eventually plumped for the titanium 140 63 plate with the seat pack. I hope its a good decision - only time will tell.

Edited February 17, 2014 by acecard

[Scorpiorefugee]

Acecard. Well done mate. I'm sure it will be fine but don't ever get into a MKII again otherwise you might get second thoughts. From what chrispb123456 has posted Ford have fixed a lot of the problems which seem to have occurred when the MKIII was 'improved' Get to know it and come back please. 

 

Gregers. I must have got confused. It happens a lot lately. I thought Google was a contraction of goggle and ogle. One of my grandchildren explained it. :49:

And, no. It was the 60s. Petrol 4 gals for

Edited February 17, 2014 by Scorpiorefugee

[acecard]

One odd thing - I was expecting quite an uplift in the insurance premium - just transferred insurance from the written off mk2 to the new mk3.

The respective insurance groups are 13A and 20E but all they wanted was another 20 notes until the policy expires next May.

[Scorpiorefugee]

Acecard. I can't remember what my insurance was but it will renew in about 4 weeks. I think it was about

[gregers]

60s eh,WELL before my time then :)

 

wish those prices were still around,but with the wages we have now. :rolleyes:

 

i bet in a few more years scorp and your end up being hammered for being(in there eyes)a liability because of your age and not your driving record.

 

ACE,hope you end up being happy with it,BET you stall it more times then the mk2 :lol:

[acecard]

ACE,hope you end up being happy with it,BET you stall it more times then the mk2 :lol:

Don't ever recall stallingthe mk2 :46:

[acecard]

Searching the Galaxy manual for 'tyres' - wanted to check info about the tyre mobility kit for what good it would probably be.

Zilch under tyres - strange I thought - then it dawned on me - surely not - yes, there it was under TIRES.

 

Why, in a manual for a British model (yes I know made in Belgium), do we need to have American mutant spelling. :27:

The Galaxy brochure has TYRES and even COLOUR !

Edited February 19, 2014 by acecard

[gregers]

why not search for 'useless compressor and gunk'.

thats unless yours comes with a proper spare??? :rolleyes:

[acecard]

I

Gregers - I thought they might just have improved the technology - I know its stupid of me.

No spare I'm afraid and apparently nowhere to store one easily.

You'd have thought they would have at least kept a cradle at the back so you could sling one underneath.

On second thoughts, the winch would probably seize up when you needed it.

I don't really mind running round the UK without a spare - just call out the breakdown guys but I would be a tad cautious of taking it on the continent even with AA/green flag etc type cover/

Its crazy - just change the wheel and back on the road - now  i can't do that - progress.

 

(maybe i'm getting too old to change wheels anyway) :blink:

Edited February 19, 2014 by acecard