dave21478

Aye, most of the Mr Brico-rama-depot-lage stores sell the disposable bottles, but at 15€ a pop, they are far from economical apart from very occasional use, and even then, its not unusual for the flimsy valves on them to let all the gas seep out, leaving you empty when you need it. My project car is still at the "bare shell on it`s roof on an old mattress with no floor-pan" stage. There is a massive amount of welding to do, so a big bottle is the only way. Maybe my google-fu is weak today, but I simply can not find any kind of national supplier like a French BOC. I asked on a local-ish car club forum, and seemingly in the Marseille area, there is a company that you can sign up to for about 80€, they deliver a bottleof co2 (slightly higher prices for argon/co2 mix) for another 30€, and when its empty, you phone them up and they come round with a full one to swap for your empty, and only charge 30€. Exactly what I need, but Im far from Marseille, but given the prices I have found so far, it will be well worth my while to take a run down and collect the bottles each time I need one myself. I will look into it and keep you posted if I find anything. I too have been considering going back to arc welding. The wee inverter sets are a relatively reasonable price now, and they can do very low current settings so are fairly manageable on car bodywork with turning it to swiss cheese. Cant beat the old MIG though, its what Im used to, and the simplicity and ease of use put it right above arc for regular use.   For the oxy acetylene stuff - My bottles were about done, so I never brought them over, just the torch etc. I got a pair of "Linde" bottles on contract from a shop called SEM Angles in Albi - they do bathrooms and plumbing supplies. The bottles worked out about 80€ each, which I thought was reasonable. (I tried the same shop for the CO2, but they dont stock it - they could order it in, but the price made me feel dizzy!)   Given the generally shocking prices of consumables for my hobby - grinding and cutting discs, MIG tips, wet n dry paper, paint etc etc, it might be worth my while heading back to UK and stocking up a decent supply to bring down. That way, at the same time I could maybe get some doorskins that arent completely banana`d by the courier companies [:@] The problem is, Im stuck here due to the Gites till September, and I was hoping to have the car finished by then, I dont want to loose the whole summer due to lack of materials.

well, the restoration project has hit a stumbling block....I have run out of gas for the welder. I have an old BOC bottle of carbon dioxide, which has lasted me years, but its finally given up. Obviously I cant exchange it here in France, I went round a couple of places yesterday, and the prices are frightening. They all want me to take a minimu 3 years contract for the bottle at around 200 - 250€ upfront, with the bottle refills then costing 60 - 100€. It would almost be worth my while going back to UK to get mine refilled there! Anyway, does anyone know of a french gas distributer like BOC that have reasonable rates? Is there a chance of finding somewhere that can refill my bottle there and then? what about drinks co2 bottles? in uk, pub bottles are commonly used for welders. I was at an outdoor event the other day and spotted the beer pumps on the stalls were running rom usefull-sized co2 bottles - who supplies/fills these and would I be likely to be able to get my hands on one? Thanks,

I dont have my website linked here because I dont want you wierdos knowing where I live [:P]

What happened to the good ol days of allowing people to use common sense to decide if conditions warrant their use? This legislation is the sort of thing I would expect in nanny-state UK, not France.

It was quite amusing the other day on the Toulouse ringroad to see two drivers on the hard shoulder after a minor shunt standing discussing things as they took their jackets out the packaging and put them on! Then there was the broken down merc further on with the diver stretched out sunning himself on the verge with his vest on while waiting for recovery.   I can see the benefits at night, but on a bright sunnyday....seems a bit silly to me.    

Very interesting.... An airport very nearby for a change....I woner if the flight times to Dublin will coincide with an onward ryanair flight dublin to aberdeen? Knowing my luck, I doubt it!  

Lee&nik, that is one of the least relevant replies I have ever seen on this forum. So, youve been a soldier and picked up body parts - well boo f****** hoo for you. Just because you have done something unpleasant does not give you some kind of superior overview to comment on what you think I find trivial. No, cleaning piss off the toilet is not the end of the world, nor is it the be-all and end-all of my light-hearted ramblings. I would say you need to get some perspective here, because if you think the two are even slightly comparable, then...well...maybe you were hit on the head out there?[;-)]

[quote user="JulieP"]...a 40 something women in bikini and rubber  gauntlets with her hands down the Karsie ....[/quote]   Im sure there are some...specialist...websites out there that would contain this sort of thing[;-)]

September? yeah no more guests, but then the builders move in to build a big conservatry thing. Rather than strangers in bikinis in the garden, it will be hairy french butt cracks. :( Yeah, the guests are paying the bills, but they are wrecking my karma too! 78 is my birth year, so no im not old. Its not often I get called a babe either [:$] re Basil Fawlty - I view those classic programs as a training manual! Comedy? Ive been likened to Ben Elton and Jack Dee a few times. I dont know if thats a good thing or not.     [:)]

Meh, I just cant be bothered with it any more.[:(] I want to go to see something on a saturday or go away for the weekend - cant, its changeover day. I want to have a holiday - cant, need to be here for changeovers I want to spend a few hours floating in the pool and sleeping in the garden - cant, unless I share with half a dozen strangers. The ladyfriend wants to come round for the weekend - fine, but "I have changeover day remember". "ok, Ill help you". "great, you clean the stale piss off the toilet rim and Ill deal with the jizz-stained matress protector. Classy. I want to invite loads of people round, turn the stereo up to 11 and have a good party - cant, the guests dont like disturbances. My nephew wants to come round and run his remote controlled car in the big field - cant, the guests kids are playing football there. I want to have my dinner in peace - Cant, the guests cant figure out how to use the dish washer, and cant read the instructions. My dog wants to sleep on the doorstep - cant, everyone wants her to fetch, roll over etc etc. The kitten wants to explore the world - cant, the little girls in the end gite want to cuddle it to death. There is a good film on the telly, I want to crank up the surround sound - cant, the bass tavels through the whole building. I want to cut the grass - cant, there are 3 cars, a badminton net, loads of sun loungers, chairs and toys in the way. I want to wash my car in peace without hearing "ha ha, you can do mine next" - cant, because thats the funniest, most original joke in the world isnt it. I want to go out and slap that spoilt kid that has tantrums when he doesnt get his own way - cant, I dont think the parents would like that. I want to be able to go shopping without wondering if there is enough fairly liquid or bog roll in each gite. - cant, this stuff doesnt restock itself and the guests certainly wont buy it.   Im a grumpy old man, and Im not even old! This might not have been a good career choice.  

yep, I would say fit an inner tube. I used the emergency foam aerosol thing on the front wheel of mine and although it is holding, the tyre is now slightly out-of-round. Hardly a big hardship on a mower but annoying all the same. I will fit a tube one day when I can be bothered. Both the rears now have tubes after a vazriety of punctures and other problems, and I havent had any go flat since.  

Assuming you have the market to sell to, its worth it. Where I live, there are loads of hillbilly types, loads of hunters and loads of farmers, so 4x4`s are popular. Dont be expecting to sell an old disco to suburbanites in Montpellier! Make sure you get the oldest you can, with the flat dashboard with the instrument binnacle perched ontop of this, as this is easilly swappable. The newer ones (from M-reg maybe? not sure) with the curved, moulded dash look like they are swappable too, bt im not sure. It apears that the binnacle is a seperate secton that can be fitted where the glovbox is on the other side, but I have never had one apart to verify. The one I bought was this...(poor photo, sorry) [IMG]http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc297/dave21478/DSCF0058.jpg[/IMG] a J-reg diesel, 3-door. Crusty, rusty and ratty, with a boot floor that was like a seive and an interior fit for keeping chickens in, but the guy who bought it was really happy!  

I got a LHD steering box, swivel hub, panhard rod and a few other wee bits and pieces from a scrapy pretty cheaply. Thats all that had to be changed...the mountings for the steering box are duplicated on both sides of the chassis, I swapped one hub as it has the connection to the steering box, the other hub could stay as it already had the connections for the LHD steering arm, changed the panhard rod...all brackets etc are duplicated on both sides, no welding required. Same goes for the bulkhead etc. most of the mountings for the pedal box etc are duplicated, many of the necessary holes are duplicated and blanked with grommits, there were a few holes to drill, but their locations were marked by a dimple in the steel. The main components of these cars are designed so that there is as little difference between LHD and RHD as possible, minimising tooling and production costs, with only a limited number of ancillary stuff that is uk or europe specific. The examples of the smaller French cars are similar in a way. The UK market cars are based on LHD shells that have a few bolt-in modifications to change them to RHD, which are easilly reversed to convert them back for French use.

This page... http://www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible.html tells you how to decode the date stamp on the tyres.   In my last job, our tyre supplier said 6 years was the maximum usefull lifespan of a tyre.

The point is, that all of our guests here have access to internet through this modem, either by wifi or ethernet cable. Anyone typing orange.fr on any computer here, even their own laptop on my network would go straight to MY espace client and be able to access all my personal details, billing information etc etc. The orange website does NOT ask for a password, simply because I have logged in as the main user on the orange website in the past, it assumes I will always want to be the main user on this computer network and wont let me log out. Hence me having to set up a dummy second user account, log into that, then log out of it ( the website allows logging out of and switching between all other accounts) so that it once again demands a password to log in as the main user.  

But if you are on a Peage, surely you loose more paying the toll to leave the road then possibly rejoin later than you save on the fuel?  

Phew, go there in the end.. Because I am the account holder, it appears to be impossible to log off from my "home" computer system. I created a second user account with orange, logged into that account, then logged out of it ( its possible to log out a second user, but not the main one seemingly) it now asks me to log in the main user,which obviously I wont be doing. What a completely stupid, insecure farce of a system.

Theoretically, yes, but as you can see in the screenshot above, the log off icon is not present.  

FARCE.   just taken this screenshot of the "how to log off" page, but the chuffing icon to log off is not there! [IMG]http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc297/dave21478/Untitled.jpg[/IMG]    

Just discovered this just now... if I go to www.orange.fr I am automatically taken to the "espace client" where I can get webmail, change subscriptions, pay bills etc etc. It doesnt ask me for password etc, it just goes direct. I assume because I have logged in at some point in the past, all the details have been kept. I dont want this though, as I have a public access computer here for guests at the gite, and this is private stuff. It makes no difference if I use my own laptop on the wifi, or the gite pc which is on the ethernet cable, I always get the espace client site...I have never logged on from the gites pc, so I assume the log-in is stored in the modem?. It not a live-box its an aftermarket adsl thing.   I have spent the last 10 minutes fruitlessly trying, but i cant log off the bloody site. Clearing the computers cookies does nothing, re-starting the modem does nothing, I have found where to click on the site to change to a different user, but I dont have a different account, it simply wont let me just log off.   help?      

Much appreciated, thankyou.  

Hello, could someone tell me what the French call these... Zinc weld-through primer seam sealer flexible adhesive not silicone sealer - stuff like sikaflex or soudal.   And does anyone know where I could buy these and normal consumables for reasonable money? The prices for cutting and grinding discs, MIG welder tips etc here make me weep, so I have been getting them sent through ebay uk, but would like to find a reasonable local supplier. Brico shops and local motor factors are all very expensive, often 2 or 3 times what I could find them for easilly in UK.   Thanks, Dave.  

Im pretty similar. I normally have a feel for the guests habits from conversing through the week, general appearances, how clean their car is etc. On the day of departure, they have to be out by 11am. Im normally a bit flexible with this as changeover doesnt take long. I have a quick scan through the kitchen, checking pots and frying pans are present and clean and a quick look in the cupboard and cutlery drawer. I dont sit and count spoons or anything, but a quick look reveals if the quantities are about right. A quick look in the bathroom then tour all the rooms, checking nothing is obviously broken or missing. Im done in less than 2 minutes. The beds Im not too fussed about.... I use disposable matress protectors which get binned after each stay. 99% of guests bring their own sheets etc. My guests are mostly French. I take a 100€ security deposit cheque at the start of the week, which I dont cash. I just give the cheque back to them at the end of the week. If I were to make a deduction, I would write them a cheque for whatever they are due, then bank their cheque. So far I have never had to make a deduction.   Im a trusting person and believe that if I treat people well, they will do the same to me. Never had any bad guests...yeah the odd thing gets broken, but the loss of a few glasses and plates through the year is a tiny price to pay imo. I know of other people who religously go through the full inventory to check everything is accounted for...that just makes them look like a tight-wad to me. sure, no-one likes to loose stuff, but in the hospitality business occasional losses are inevitable, and I honestly couldnt bring myself to deduct a few euros from someoneses deposit due to a missing teatowel or broken wineglass after they have paid me several hundred euros to stay for a week. This stuff mostly all comes from Ikea and costs pennies to replace, so I dont see it as a big deal.   I have had allsorts here from elderly couples, families with young kids to a large group of 20-somethings having a lads week away fishing and partying. (these guys have been back a few times and despite partying hard, the place is 101% spotless at the end their stay!) Everyone who has broken something has offered to pay to replace it, which I have always refused. Never had any major problems with any large breakages or loss. If for example the washing machine stopped working...what do people do in this case? how can you decide if it has been broken by your guests or has simply succumbed to wear and tear? I honestly dont know what I would do in these cases. Unless it very obviously been overloaded or misused, I doubt I could take someones security for an appliance that may have packed up at any time and whos demise may very well hve had nothing to do with the last person to switch it on. May Im too soft, or too trusting. dunno, but the way I do things works for me - Im happy and the guests are happy and thats what matters.  

I wouldnt think you would need to notify the prefecture of the change. There is no mention of LHD / RHD on the carte gris. The only people who might want to know would be your insurers, but even they rarely ask what side the wheel is on, unlike in UK where they always ask and having it on the "wrong" side loads the premium.  

Granted, I have access to a 2-post ramp in UK, which makes life a lot easier, but a disco clutch isnt particularly hard. Infact, Id say it was a lot easier than many FWD clutch changes. There are a couple of bolts on the top of the transmission that are hard to get at, but with the prop shafts out, gearbox mounts removed and the box dropped down to rest on the crossmember, there is enough room to get in with a few long extension bars and a uni-joint. Either that or take the centre console out and go in through the gearstick hole, where they are quite easy to get at. You can then slide the whole box backwards by about 8 inches with minimal disconnecting, which leaves enough room to change the clutch.     Also, it may "only" be fiesta, but its the guys car that he obviously wants to keep. If he has the parts and the know-how, then why not change it? that way he keeps a car he knows to be reliable rather than have to try and sell it in UK (probably get a pittance for it too) and buy something here that is unknown and potentially troublesome. The example I gave about the landrover made me a decent profit, but even doing this on small, cheap cars works out a fair bit cheaper than buying a French car. I have converted the landy, a 106 and a few wee vans. I dont do it for fun! every time it has worked out cheaper than buying the French equivelant.