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Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov
Grand Master
Username: soviet

Post Number: 442
Registered: 2-2013
Posted on Thursday, 24 March, 2016 - 07:09:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Continuing on with the great Jaguar 420G restoration I decided to remove the drivers side front seats to get better access to the wooden dash to remove it to refurbish its glorious finish -it being possibly the most swanky walnut veneered dashboard in any car ever made.

Most nuts holding the DSF seat are easily removed. Then the horror began - the last screw, flat blade has a fully encapsulated nut and a fine thread. To make things more interesting the screw is between two raised edges requiring the use of an offset screw driver and a very short stumpy screw drive to remove it - or so I thought. It was tedious and horrid to tackle as I had the other three fixtures out and the weight of the seat it being back heavy was tilting the seat backwards and making a nasty task more painful. I finally go the screw out using an Australian 5 cent piece as a tool.

My question is why do English engineers design things so bizarrely ? Is it because the Irish and Scot people take swipes at them ? I have heard stories of the English actually boarding up the front of shops if England is playing Scotland at soccer and the Scots are coming down on the train to watch. Something about the Scots drunkenly running wild. Sounds like a gossipy rumour.

Or is it because they had many a tangle with the Spanish and the French and are still find a need to fight a war long finished. Obviously the London bombing by Nazi Germany would not have helped.

I find some things the English do to be very strange - not as weird as Citroen and the consumption of snails and frog legs but close.
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michael vass
Prolific User
Username: mikebentleyturbo2

Post Number: 106
Registered: 7-2015
Posted on Thursday, 24 March, 2016 - 08:22:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

It's to prove we're the Best.
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David Gore
Moderator
Username: david_gore

Post Number: 1952
Registered: 4-2003
Posted on Thursday, 24 March, 2016 - 08:56:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

"My question is why do English engineers design things so bizarrely ? Is it because the Irish and Scot people take swipes at them? I have heard stories of the English actually boarding up the front of shops if England is playing Scotland at soccer and the Scots are coming down on the train to watch. Something about the Scots drunkenly running wild. Sounds like a gossipy rumour." Vladimir

No rumour - actual fact from personal experience on the London Tube system in the early 1980's when Scotland were playing England for some obscure soccer trophy!! The train I was on was full of inebriated male Scots who proceeded to continually rush from one end of the carriage to the other in a human wave without any consideration for the other passengers. I should have realised something was amiss when I saw the number of police on the Tube station platforms which I now realise were to handle any problems if the Scots left the train en masse intent on having "fun".

Being of Welsh ancestry, I take solace in the fact drunk Welshmen instead of creating mayhem are more likely to burst into song when drunk and there is nothing better than an impromptu Welsh choir singing "Land of my Fathers" or "Cwm Rhondda" especially at the old Cardiff Arms stadium during an international Rugby Union football game.
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Jan Forrest
Grand Master
Username: got_one

Post Number: 918
Registered: 1-2008
Posted on Sunday, 27 March, 2016 - 00:41:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

The last time the Scots had a serious go at invading England they gave up half way and went home. It's rumoured that the train ran out of beer ...
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Robert Noel Reddington
Grand Master
Username: bob_uk

Post Number: 908
Registered: 5-2015
Posted on Sunday, 27 March, 2016 - 07:14:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Scots in Bournemouth continually tell me how much better Scotland is than Dorset. Then get pissed and start singing Scotish laments about being away from Scotland which invariably contain the word bonnie. I join in. Best way to annoy them is to call them Scotch. The tartan army.

The local cops tasered one scots guy in town for threatening to nut a copper. I had never seen anybody tasered very effective, he fell over and wobbled a bit and then sat up and started swearing. So he was ok. Someone shouted to do it again just for fun you know.
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Robert Noel Reddington
Grand Master
Username: bob_uk

Post Number: 909
Registered: 5-2015
Posted on Sunday, 27 March, 2016 - 07:22:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

In Roman times the Romans were at the border with Scotland. A Scot appears cover in ginger hair and iron brew and shouts come and get me you Roman c*****. So the Romans send five soldiers to sort him out. The five soldiers don't come back. Again five soldiers sent out don't come back. Then one of the next five soldiers makes it back, and says it's a trick there's two of them.
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David Towers
Experienced User
Username: xtriple

Post Number: 40
Registered: 6-2010
Posted on Sunday, 17 April, 2016 - 09:22:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Just to go 'off' topic a bit, one of my first cars was a classic MK 10 Jaguar. 4.2 auto in Sherwood green. FJU 99C where are you now?

I loved that car and kept it for 8 years before selling it to my step father who promptly abandoned it in a field....

I agree about the dashboard, and the seats and everything else really. I did a fair bit of restoration on her over the years as she kept trying to fall apart and I was determined to stop her from doing so!
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ChristopherCarnley
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 86.169.76.253
Posted on Sunday, 17 April, 2016 - 18:31:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Vlad,
Have you seen the recent film "Centurion" with Olga Kurylenko painted up and shaved,as a nutcase Pict?

(Message approved by david_gore)
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Jan Forrest
Grand Master
Username: got_one

Post Number: 931
Registered: 1-2008
Posted on Saturday, 30 April, 2016 - 22:35:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

They say that 'necessity is the mother of invention'. Mayhap, but what I do know is that, with one exception, the bellhousing of a 1960's Morris Minor is bolted to the engine with standard Imperial sized bolts. That one exception is a 13mm because an Imperial head size wouldn't have fitted in the available space.