After some discussion on the VZi forum, where most folks seem to swear by the tools from the Halford's professional range, I did a trip over to the superstore in Norwich and had a good ol' spend. I came back with a 150 piece pro set (that's on special offer at the moment), plus a breaker bar, a compression tester, a 3 tonne trolley jack (nice big 'cup' on it that'll go right around the oil strainer cover plate for when I want to take the engine out), and a couple of 3-tonne axle stands (they were out of stock of the 2 tonne ones). I also bought a MIG welder and a compressor with air hammer and cut-off tools. Looks like I'm going to need them all too:
I took her round to the local garage yesterday and got them to run through the MOT checklist and tell me what'll need doing in order to get her through the real MOT; due at the end of May. I'm pleased to say there were no surprises as I already knew that the horn and window washers aren't working and I was pretty certain that the nearside heater channel was going to need replacing. Actually the garage said she needed welding on the door sill and floorpan but having seen one of these things in pieces (on the Bug Me Video DVDs) I know it's the heater channel.
The first job however is to create a place to work. The driveway at the side of our house is gravel so there's no way I can start jacking up a car on that. I'm in the process of pricing up concrete slabs.
Friday, 27 April 2007
Saturday, 21 April 2007
How to become a VW Beetle expert in 2 easy steps
Step 1: Go to http://www.vw-diy.com/ and buy all of the "Bug Me Video" DVDs.
Step 2: Watch them.
Seriously, these DVDs are the business.
At the beginning of this month I knew next to zip about cars but needed to learn fast because my old car was failing and I wanted to buy a Beetle.
My first purchase was a copy of "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot" by John Muir. This is regarded by many as the bible for Beetle maintenance and I would not argue with the suggestion that every Beetle owner should have a copy. Let's face it, the author died 30 years ago and the book is still selling and is currently in its 19th edition; how could it be anything other than a masterpiece?
As a total auto-dunce however, and without a Beetle in front of me to refer to, I found it hard to get into. (That's the beauty of the DVDs: you can see exactly what they are talking about). I am finding Mr Muir's book much more accessible now that the DVDs have shown me what's what and I actually have a bug parked outside so I can go out and look at the bit that's being described.
Another thing that should be taken into consideration about the book is that the cars were not nearly so old when it was written and this has consequences. For example, the section on how to assess a vehicle that you're thinking of buying makes no specific mention of the heater channels, an area that any current advice will draw great attention to. I guess when the book was written they were mostly in decent condition and Mr Muir would have simply walked away from a bugs with less serious problems in other areas on the grounds that there were plenty more to choose from. These days if you find a bug with good solid heater channels it's most probably because they've been replaced already. Similarly, unless the owner has gone out of their way to keep it original, you'll probably find that your average bug contains parts that were not available when the book was written.
My second acquisition (we'll get to the DVD's soon enough) was about 90 back issues of Volks World magazine that I found on eBay as a job lot. They date from about 1996 up to about 2001 so the adverts are out of date but pretty much all of the other information is still relevant. I found them particularly helpful, as I said in an earlier blog entry, in deciding what kind of Beetle I wanted. Now that I've bought the bug I dare say that they'll come in useful in the future as, with 90 issues to go at, there are articles on pretty much any aspect of maintenance and modifying that you can think of. It would have been difficult to use them for my initial learning however because the pieces of the puzzle would be presented in no particular order; whereas the DVDs start with the simple stuff and progress in a logical sequence.
Of course 90 back issues of Volks World (for 42.50) is also something of a lucky find however if you pay a quick visit to their website at http://www.volksworld.com/ you'll see that it's possible to buy books of articles and indeed, I bought "All practical articles on customising and restoring Beetles from 2000 to 2003." I have to say that I was disappointed when it arrived to find that it was a collection of not particularly nicely bound black and white photocopies of what were previously colour articles. In fairness though, the pictures are quite adequate even in black and white and while it doesn't look like fifteen quids worth of book it can't be denied that the information in those articles is probably worth an awful lot more.
So, finally, the DVDs:
I discovered them via a copy of Practical Classics magazine that I picked up at Tesco. They looked good from the video clips on the website at http://www.vw-diy.com/ but at 15 quid each I wasn't about to jump right in so I bought Vol 1 and 6 to check them out. They arrived a couple of days later, I watched them both the same day, and immediately placed an order for Vol 2, 3, 4, 7, 9 and 10 i.e. I skipped the ones about Type 4 engines.
I think they are superb but the results kind of speak for themselves because by the time I went shopping for my bug (about a week later) I'd watched the whole lot and was in a position to confidently examine the car and negotiate a better price. In fact I reckon I knew a heck of a lot more about the car than the seller and after I pointed out the various bits that would need attention we agreed a reduction in the price equivalent to double what I paid for the DVDs. Thus it is fair to say that they've already paid for themselves and by the time I've done the work that needs doing, work that I now feel entirely confident that I can do myself, they'll have paid for themselves many times over.
No doubt I'll be mentioning them on a regular basis as I document my progress and may even do a bit of a write up. In the meantime, all of the information you need is on the website at http://www.vw-diy.com/, and if you are still not sure, do what I did and buy a couple to check them out. My bet is you'll end up buying the whole lot.
Step 2: Watch them.
Seriously, these DVDs are the business.
At the beginning of this month I knew next to zip about cars but needed to learn fast because my old car was failing and I wanted to buy a Beetle.
My first purchase was a copy of "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot" by John Muir. This is regarded by many as the bible for Beetle maintenance and I would not argue with the suggestion that every Beetle owner should have a copy. Let's face it, the author died 30 years ago and the book is still selling and is currently in its 19th edition; how could it be anything other than a masterpiece?
As a total auto-dunce however, and without a Beetle in front of me to refer to, I found it hard to get into. (That's the beauty of the DVDs: you can see exactly what they are talking about). I am finding Mr Muir's book much more accessible now that the DVDs have shown me what's what and I actually have a bug parked outside so I can go out and look at the bit that's being described.
Another thing that should be taken into consideration about the book is that the cars were not nearly so old when it was written and this has consequences. For example, the section on how to assess a vehicle that you're thinking of buying makes no specific mention of the heater channels, an area that any current advice will draw great attention to. I guess when the book was written they were mostly in decent condition and Mr Muir would have simply walked away from a bugs with less serious problems in other areas on the grounds that there were plenty more to choose from. These days if you find a bug with good solid heater channels it's most probably because they've been replaced already. Similarly, unless the owner has gone out of their way to keep it original, you'll probably find that your average bug contains parts that were not available when the book was written.
My second acquisition (we'll get to the DVD's soon enough) was about 90 back issues of Volks World magazine that I found on eBay as a job lot. They date from about 1996 up to about 2001 so the adverts are out of date but pretty much all of the other information is still relevant. I found them particularly helpful, as I said in an earlier blog entry, in deciding what kind of Beetle I wanted. Now that I've bought the bug I dare say that they'll come in useful in the future as, with 90 issues to go at, there are articles on pretty much any aspect of maintenance and modifying that you can think of. It would have been difficult to use them for my initial learning however because the pieces of the puzzle would be presented in no particular order; whereas the DVDs start with the simple stuff and progress in a logical sequence.
Of course 90 back issues of Volks World (for 42.50) is also something of a lucky find however if you pay a quick visit to their website at http://www.volksworld.com/ you'll see that it's possible to buy books of articles and indeed, I bought "All practical articles on customising and restoring Beetles from 2000 to 2003." I have to say that I was disappointed when it arrived to find that it was a collection of not particularly nicely bound black and white photocopies of what were previously colour articles. In fairness though, the pictures are quite adequate even in black and white and while it doesn't look like fifteen quids worth of book it can't be denied that the information in those articles is probably worth an awful lot more.
So, finally, the DVDs:
I discovered them via a copy of Practical Classics magazine that I picked up at Tesco. They looked good from the video clips on the website at http://www.vw-diy.com/ but at 15 quid each I wasn't about to jump right in so I bought Vol 1 and 6 to check them out. They arrived a couple of days later, I watched them both the same day, and immediately placed an order for Vol 2, 3, 4, 7, 9 and 10 i.e. I skipped the ones about Type 4 engines.
I think they are superb but the results kind of speak for themselves because by the time I went shopping for my bug (about a week later) I'd watched the whole lot and was in a position to confidently examine the car and negotiate a better price. In fact I reckon I knew a heck of a lot more about the car than the seller and after I pointed out the various bits that would need attention we agreed a reduction in the price equivalent to double what I paid for the DVDs. Thus it is fair to say that they've already paid for themselves and by the time I've done the work that needs doing, work that I now feel entirely confident that I can do myself, they'll have paid for themselves many times over.
No doubt I'll be mentioning them on a regular basis as I document my progress and may even do a bit of a write up. In the meantime, all of the information you need is on the website at http://www.vw-diy.com/, and if you are still not sure, do what I did and buy a couple to check them out. My bet is you'll end up buying the whole lot.
Friday, 20 April 2007
My New 'Toy'
And here she is:I've had her for two days now and she seems to be behaving herself which is kinda what I expected considering that the engine was rebuilt about 7000 miles ago.
Unfortunately the garden is not quite so rosey in other areas. She's going to need some welding and I feel pretty sure that some of it will need to be done in order to get her through the MOT at the end of May. However, I've learned so much in the last few weeks that I now feel entirely confident that I'll be able to do it myself. I also used that knowledge to get her at what I hope will turn out to be a very reasonable price (650 quid), although only time will tell on that one.
Thursday, 19 April 2007
Counting The Days
On my old Diary of a Mac Virgin Blog I implemented a 'counter' to show how long since I became a Mac user. That's kind of old hat now however, as I bought a VW Beetle yesterday, and hired a server running Fedora Core 6 about a week ago, I figured that I'd recreate the counters here (in the right hand column along with the links and stuff).
My intention to switch to Fedora and to buy a bug were a major part of the reason for my switch to this blog - because I want to document my endeavours with those in the same way I did on the old blog for my introduction to the Mac. I'll say more about both in the near future but for now I just wanted to implement the 'counters'.
My intention to switch to Fedora and to buy a bug were a major part of the reason for my switch to this blog - because I want to document my endeavours with those in the same way I did on the old blog for my introduction to the Mac. I'll say more about both in the near future but for now I just wanted to implement the 'counters'.
Friday, 6 April 2007
Looking For a Beetle
I mentioned previously that one of my goals for this year is to fulfil my 25 year ambition to obtain an old VW Beetle to 'play' with. Well I'm now looking.
Up to about a fortnight ago I knew next to zip about cars however I started reading up and I now know what a distributor and a carburetor do (although taking them apart would still be beyond me).
I have in fact been forced to step up the pace on looking for a bug. I really wish I had longer to research but my current ride (a 16 year old Proton) is failing fast. In the past fortnight she's been at the garage three times at a cost of 200 quid and she's still acting like she'll die at any moment. Hopefully she'll hold on long enough for me to find a Beetle, but I seriously doubt it.
Thus far I've bought a number of books and back issues of relevant magazines and joined the forum over at http://www.volkszone.com. I'll say more about those things and how useful they've been at a later date but for now I would like to comment briefly on just one, or rather the 90 back issues of Volks World Magazine that I picked up on eBay.
At the moment I'm kinda skimming through them reading the articles that appear most relevant to my current situation or that catch my eye. Perhaps the thing that has been most useful so far is that they've helped me to identify what it is that I like about Beetles.
At a first glance you might think all VW Beetles are all the same but if you look just a little more closely there are a plethora of variations. These are not just differences in the way they looked when they rolled off the production line, but include the numerous modifications that people have made to them since. If you'd asked me a couple of weeks ago I wouldn't have been able to consciously identify the difference between a vehicle that makes me say "Yeah, it's a Beetle, so what?" and one that leaves me unable to speak because I'm drooling too much. It turns out that what I like is a cross between the 'Cal look' and the 'German look' although it's fair to say that I drool more over the really custom jobs than over definitive examples of either style. If those terms mean nothing to you, and you'd like them to, then you should do some research or return to this blog at a later date when, hopefully, you'll be able to see what I mean.
Up to about a fortnight ago I knew next to zip about cars however I started reading up and I now know what a distributor and a carburetor do (although taking them apart would still be beyond me).
I have in fact been forced to step up the pace on looking for a bug. I really wish I had longer to research but my current ride (a 16 year old Proton) is failing fast. In the past fortnight she's been at the garage three times at a cost of 200 quid and she's still acting like she'll die at any moment. Hopefully she'll hold on long enough for me to find a Beetle, but I seriously doubt it.
Thus far I've bought a number of books and back issues of relevant magazines and joined the forum over at http://www.volkszone.com. I'll say more about those things and how useful they've been at a later date but for now I would like to comment briefly on just one, or rather the 90 back issues of Volks World Magazine that I picked up on eBay.
At the moment I'm kinda skimming through them reading the articles that appear most relevant to my current situation or that catch my eye. Perhaps the thing that has been most useful so far is that they've helped me to identify what it is that I like about Beetles.
At a first glance you might think all VW Beetles are all the same but if you look just a little more closely there are a plethora of variations. These are not just differences in the way they looked when they rolled off the production line, but include the numerous modifications that people have made to them since. If you'd asked me a couple of weeks ago I wouldn't have been able to consciously identify the difference between a vehicle that makes me say "Yeah, it's a Beetle, so what?" and one that leaves me unable to speak because I'm drooling too much. It turns out that what I like is a cross between the 'Cal look' and the 'German look' although it's fair to say that I drool more over the really custom jobs than over definitive examples of either style. If those terms mean nothing to you, and you'd like them to, then you should do some research or return to this blog at a later date when, hopefully, you'll be able to see what I mean.
Tuesday, 20 March 2007
And if I DON'T want Excel?
I recently found myself having achieved my objectives for the day by lunchtime, except that I needed to compile a shopping list of things I need from DIY stores. It's the kind of job I like to do on a spreadsheet however NeoOffice has been irritating me recently. Given that I had the rest of the day available, I decided to take a look at what else I might use.
In the past I've done all kinds of fun things with spreadsheets but these days my use of them is limited to two relatively simple things. The first is keeping track of simple lists; like the list of model kits that I have stored in the loft, my list of passwords for various websites, and of course my various shopping lists. The second is for recording of what I've spent on my credit card so I can check my statement when it arrives. I haven't used a macro, graph, or a function any fancier than sum() in a long time.
Perhaps unsurprisingly therefore, the thing that's been bugging me about NeoOffice is the 'weight' of it. It wouldn't be so bad if I made use of the other NeoOffice apps however, my wordprocessing needs are also relatively basic and TextEdit has them covered (and loads a hell of a lot faster). As for databases and presentations, I just don't need them. Given that I use it so infrequently, having NeoOffice loaded and using up a big chunk of resources is not an attractive option, however waiting for it to load every time I want to a add something to a shopping list or look up a password is a nuisance too. I figured that a simple spreadsheet application shouldn't be too difficult to find however I was in for a bit of a surprise.
I didn't even bother to download any of the other suites as I guess most would present the same problems as NeoOffice. I did however download Mesa 3.1 which, being a single app, seemed more promising. My judgement of it is probably coloured by the rather annoying 20 row limit on the trial version however I found it difficult to use. I couldn't, for example, figure out how to mark a range of cells using just the keyboard.
In the end I gave up on Mesa and found what I wanted in the shape of Tables 1.2.1..
Thank you, thank you, thank you Daniel Schwill for creating a spreadsheet app that is immediately easy and intuitive to use, and that provides all of the functionality you need for simple spreadsheet work without all the fancy clutter.
I'm not going to rattle on and on about what it does and does not have. Go check out the 30-day trial verion if it sounds like it might be of interest to you. 5 days into my 30-day trial I've already been back and bought a licence. Yes, I like it THAT much.
What I am still curious about however is "Why the hell does everybody seem to want Excel, for free?" Mesa seemed almost apologetic about the Excel stuff that it doesn't have and as the three reviews of it over at macupdate.com seem to be encouraging the developer to continue making it even more like Excel, you can't really blame it. In fact I've got the distinct impression that anybody developing a spreadsheet is going to find themselves being pushed towards making it more and more like Excel, but why?
I can't help wondering who are these people are that are doing the pushing? I can't imagine there being enough accountants out there who are so tight-arsed that they won't pay for Excel, to justify the number of cheap Excel-a-likes in development. On the other hand, can there really be that many home computer users who want a spreadsheet app with the ability to run macros and generate two dozen different types of 3D graphs to figure out how much they spent on petrol last month? Actually, given the number of 4x4 monsters trucks you see being loaded with groceries at Tesco's, I guess there probably can.
I can only hope therefore that Daniel Schwill tells them to sod off so that Tables can continue to be the spreadsheet of choice for those of us who don't want a boated mega-app to balanace our bank statements.
In the past I've done all kinds of fun things with spreadsheets but these days my use of them is limited to two relatively simple things. The first is keeping track of simple lists; like the list of model kits that I have stored in the loft, my list of passwords for various websites, and of course my various shopping lists. The second is for recording of what I've spent on my credit card so I can check my statement when it arrives. I haven't used a macro, graph, or a function any fancier than sum() in a long time.
Perhaps unsurprisingly therefore, the thing that's been bugging me about NeoOffice is the 'weight' of it. It wouldn't be so bad if I made use of the other NeoOffice apps however, my wordprocessing needs are also relatively basic and TextEdit has them covered (and loads a hell of a lot faster). As for databases and presentations, I just don't need them. Given that I use it so infrequently, having NeoOffice loaded and using up a big chunk of resources is not an attractive option, however waiting for it to load every time I want to a add something to a shopping list or look up a password is a nuisance too. I figured that a simple spreadsheet application shouldn't be too difficult to find however I was in for a bit of a surprise.
I didn't even bother to download any of the other suites as I guess most would present the same problems as NeoOffice. I did however download Mesa 3.1 which, being a single app, seemed more promising. My judgement of it is probably coloured by the rather annoying 20 row limit on the trial version however I found it difficult to use. I couldn't, for example, figure out how to mark a range of cells using just the keyboard.
In the end I gave up on Mesa and found what I wanted in the shape of Tables 1.2.1..
Thank you, thank you, thank you Daniel Schwill for creating a spreadsheet app that is immediately easy and intuitive to use, and that provides all of the functionality you need for simple spreadsheet work without all the fancy clutter.
I'm not going to rattle on and on about what it does and does not have. Go check out the 30-day trial verion if it sounds like it might be of interest to you. 5 days into my 30-day trial I've already been back and bought a licence. Yes, I like it THAT much.
What I am still curious about however is "Why the hell does everybody seem to want Excel, for free?" Mesa seemed almost apologetic about the Excel stuff that it doesn't have and as the three reviews of it over at macupdate.com seem to be encouraging the developer to continue making it even more like Excel, you can't really blame it. In fact I've got the distinct impression that anybody developing a spreadsheet is going to find themselves being pushed towards making it more and more like Excel, but why?
I can't help wondering who are these people are that are doing the pushing? I can't imagine there being enough accountants out there who are so tight-arsed that they won't pay for Excel, to justify the number of cheap Excel-a-likes in development. On the other hand, can there really be that many home computer users who want a spreadsheet app with the ability to run macros and generate two dozen different types of 3D graphs to figure out how much they spent on petrol last month? Actually, given the number of 4x4 monsters trucks you see being loaded with groceries at Tesco's, I guess there probably can.
I can only hope therefore that Daniel Schwill tells them to sod off so that Tables can continue to be the spreadsheet of choice for those of us who don't want a boated mega-app to balanace our bank statements.
Tuesday, 27 February 2007
Something & Nothing
Quite a lot has happened since my last entry, but none of it relates to any of the things I intended to blog about.
February 6th saw Pickfords collect our stuff from Whitby; after which I ran the vacuum cleaner around, jumped in the car, waved good bye to Whitby, and headed south. I called it quits somewhere near Peterborough (even though I was only 80 miles from my destination) and stayed over at a Travel Lodge because I was too knackered to continue. It was bloody cold that night too. The following morning I went straight to our new bungalow in Weeting and got there just as the Pickford's guys were arriving. Everything was unloaded by lunchtime so at 1pm I went to Dee's folks (where she was staying while I sorted all of this out), some 9 miles away for a spot of lunch. So far, so good.
The fun all started when we went back two hours later to find water pouring through the ceilings in the kitchen, living room, bathroom and hallway. To cut the story short, a pipe in the loft had frozen in the night, remained frozen in the morning while I was round there, and thawed out while I was away having lunch.
20 days later, Dee and I reckon we were kind of lucky because, as they had just been delivered, none of our kitchen appliances were plugged in and are working again now they've dried out. Our stuff in the living room that got wet was still boxed and the boxes protected most things. We unpacked them into the bedrooms immediately we'd shut off the water and the only thing to have suffered is our CD collection, about half of which now has crinkly booklets.
Our landlords have been less fortunate because the kitchen ceiling eventually collapsed, the living room ceiling is warped and needs replacing, the carpets in the kitchen, hallway and bathroom were unsalvageable, and all four rooms need redecorating. The worst part however is that they forgot to tell their insurance company when the last tennant moved out in October. This has invalidated their insurance so they are having to foot the bill themselves.
In a way I guess they are lucky too. As it stands they are looking at having to pay for several hundreds of pounds of repairs. If the place has burned down...
I've volunteered to do most of the work, if they pay for the materials as I figure that it will get the job done faster, more conveniently, and with materials of our choosing. It does however mean that I've had little time for MacBooks, blogs, Fedora, Beetles, or anything else. Things are settling down a little now but there's still a heck of a lot of work to do so my 'Blog Projects' are likely to be taking a back seat for a good few weeks. Expect another update around the end of March.
February 6th saw Pickfords collect our stuff from Whitby; after which I ran the vacuum cleaner around, jumped in the car, waved good bye to Whitby, and headed south. I called it quits somewhere near Peterborough (even though I was only 80 miles from my destination) and stayed over at a Travel Lodge because I was too knackered to continue. It was bloody cold that night too. The following morning I went straight to our new bungalow in Weeting and got there just as the Pickford's guys were arriving. Everything was unloaded by lunchtime so at 1pm I went to Dee's folks (where she was staying while I sorted all of this out), some 9 miles away for a spot of lunch. So far, so good.
The fun all started when we went back two hours later to find water pouring through the ceilings in the kitchen, living room, bathroom and hallway. To cut the story short, a pipe in the loft had frozen in the night, remained frozen in the morning while I was round there, and thawed out while I was away having lunch.
20 days later, Dee and I reckon we were kind of lucky because, as they had just been delivered, none of our kitchen appliances were plugged in and are working again now they've dried out. Our stuff in the living room that got wet was still boxed and the boxes protected most things. We unpacked them into the bedrooms immediately we'd shut off the water and the only thing to have suffered is our CD collection, about half of which now has crinkly booklets.
Our landlords have been less fortunate because the kitchen ceiling eventually collapsed, the living room ceiling is warped and needs replacing, the carpets in the kitchen, hallway and bathroom were unsalvageable, and all four rooms need redecorating. The worst part however is that they forgot to tell their insurance company when the last tennant moved out in October. This has invalidated their insurance so they are having to foot the bill themselves.
In a way I guess they are lucky too. As it stands they are looking at having to pay for several hundreds of pounds of repairs. If the place has burned down...
I've volunteered to do most of the work, if they pay for the materials as I figure that it will get the job done faster, more conveniently, and with materials of our choosing. It does however mean that I've had little time for MacBooks, blogs, Fedora, Beetles, or anything else. Things are settling down a little now but there's still a heck of a lot of work to do so my 'Blog Projects' are likely to be taking a back seat for a good few weeks. Expect another update around the end of March.
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