TV classic cars

[IaininTenbury]

ITs the first one of this series I've seen tonight and the producers have definately seen too much American chopper and the like... Annoyng haggling session at the start (had that been my car I was selling, I'd have told him to keep on walking when he feined walking off, just for being rude...) and then stripping paint with sanding discs on angle grinders! Yes I do that all that time on an area I'm going to cut and weld, but the whole car? Must have used loads of filelr and high build primer to cover up the scratches in the steel. I say must have, as I didn't bother to watch the rest...

[dalebrignall]

i watches 5 mins of the e type programe and switched it off total rubbish ,any mark evans programe is much better ,wheeler dealers has a new series starting tonight .

[chickenjohn]

I have to disagree, Mark Evans is awful and wheeler dealers even worse! Lots of obvious mistakes and mis-information in both series. and annoying presenters who think they are comedians!

The only bearable restoration series I've seen was the Beetle and Campervan crisis programs. Now if they did a Minor series in the same vein!!!

[dalebrignall]

i dont think 2 people swearing at each other when a car gets driven into a engine , a set up is good telly lets agree to disagree i thaught that e type programe was awful .you can only cover a little in a hours worth of tv ,they are entertainment programes to give you some idea what goes on in a restoration ,not to be taken too seriousally i can allways spot flours in what they do nothing is going to be perfect ,and they have a bigger budjet than the layman in his lock up .

[lambrettalad]

In wheeler dealers to-day they restored an American Willies jeep,and took it to a reenactment weekend ,and I think the small tubby one mixed up a Hurricane with a Spitfire(50% of which were built in (Birmingham )flying past.

[wilfred]

I think the major limitation to these programmes is the one hour format, the balance between "entertainment" and useful information being a production decision.
At least Wheeler Dealers attempts to show you how to correctly repair a panel or prepare and paint a repaired area in a way that an enthusiast can understand and then try themselves.
I don't subscribe to the "grind off the paint and cover everything in filler" philosophy of other shows. If I did that at home I'd spend the rest of my life trying to get it smooth enough to paint.

[dalebrignall]

he got the aircraft wrong way round people forget it was the hurricane that won the battle of brittian not the spitfire .

[MarkyB]

a car gets driven into a engine

Didn't the E type get driven into a jack or something?
Cue last minute repairs, more "tension" and more swearing.
Formulaic rubbish.

I'm really liking the wartime farm on BBC 2, some cracking old kit on there like the tractor you start with a shotgun shell.

[dalebrignall]

thats a good programe they are telling the younger generation what people did for our freedom ,i do wonder how many kids actually know where our food comes from not the supermarket .the raw material

[Jefftav]

Wartime farm is quite imformative it amazing to see how folk had to be inventive to get by. My Grandparents used to pass on these stories. I had never heard of starting an engine with a shotgun shell he had some sort of lit paper smouldering as well.

[JSimons]

What annoyed me about the e-type was the sunroof, they should have got rid of it. Looked awful. And then the 30K price tag which i personally thought was by no means realistic. I think by the repairing of a 'piston' they meant the carb piston as they got in a stress when they put too much oil in the dashpot and made it smokey.

[les]

----Although they did say 'one piston'. If it was the carb piston it would have been THE piston. Unless they were being sloppy with the grammar.

[JSimons]

----Although they did say 'one piston'. If it was the carb piston it would have been THE piston. Unless they were being sloppy with the grammar.

Could still be the carb piston since there is technically three...

[les]

Good point! Didn't think of that.

[MoggyMatt]

After reading through all of this, I'm glad that I don't have a television. I'd have thrown my crutch at it watching this lot. "Grinding paint off with an angle grinder" Mad, totally mad. I pity the poor people who end up with these cars. I can't think of anything worse that paying a lot of your carefully saved money for what you think is a good car and ending up with tarted up junk.

Does anybody remember a series called "Classic Cars" (I think Channel 4) in the early nineties? This was a wonderful series that gave a true insight into classic ownership at all levels, from auto-jumbles and Ford Zephyrs to Christie's Auctions and Jaguar E-Type's. I think I owe my love of all things classic to that series of programs, I was about 10 at the time and never missed an episode

[les]

The cars are apparently given to whoever wins some competition. No tv? Honestly, they've ironed out all the problem now!

[MoggyMatt]

The cars are apparently given to whoever wins some competition. No tv? Honestly, they've ironed out all the problem now!

Strange, but it never really got used. I only ever watched Top Gear, and much as I love Jeramy Clarkson, I'm not sure he is worth the license fee. The money I saved from not needing a license any more has meant an extra £145 in my "buying a Minor" fund. And with youtube, I haven't missed the telly at all.

Having a tv or a Moggie... No contest

[les]

Fair enough to you. Admittedly you do have to steer around the naff stuff!

[chickenjohn]

----Although they did say 'one piston'. If it was the carb piston it would have been THE piston. Unless they were being sloppy with the grammar.

Could still be the carb piston since there is technically three...

Yes, I thought either one of the SU carb pistons (maybe dirty and sticking), or a caliper piston.

[Matt]

Did anyone else notice the spark plugs shown as being in the crank case (in the animation talking about piston temperatures reaching 2500 celcius) on last nights MGB build??

I am convinced the car they started with isn't the one they did in the end - nothing about the front wings or repairing the rear ones so I think it was a fudge! Also how could they tell the rear axle was back correctly (after it fell off due to rust) on a 2 poster?? If the car was that bad there is absolutely no way they could have fixed it up correctly in a fortnight