Ekona

Bear in mind this isn't the finished article, I still have lots more work to do! Yeah, needs a huge amount of tidying up with some more trunking etc, but you get the gist. Means I can add a printer or server or whatever anywhere in the house, no drama at all. The big box you see is my current NAS.

Cable ties are your friend I'm fortunate that I have a server cupboard that I can hide everything in, so it doesn't have to be super-neat. I have cables coming from the faceplates, but they have units in front of them (TV unit, or a dresser in the bedroom etc) so you can't see that either. Oh, and definitely colour code your cables, makes life a hell of a lot easier! Let me get some pics and upload them for you, two secs.

I'm glad we agree Seriously though, the hatch isn't that ugly. It's just not as pretty as the coupe. It's better looking than the R35...

Bought a spare key today. Just a valet one as I only need it for emergencies, but I was somewhat surprised when it turned up as a single piece of solid... Plastic? Yup, spare keys of that era are now made of grey plastic. They still have a small transponder in so do indeed start the car (but not turn off the alarm, sorry neighbours ), but not exactly what I expected. Still, only £40 instead of £140 for the full remote doobry. A set of ARBs shall likely be on the car shortly after I return from LM, I feel the need to start tinkering

Absolutely. The main thing is you're okay, and he may well not do it again. Hopefully... Did you have a big rant-off right in his face? I think I would have

I think I escaped lightly '90s FTMFW.

I was born in 1979. Just to make you feel old

Did he seem sorry at all? Or realise his mistake?

I go to the gym only so I can eat more.

Measure the gap, then buy a plate to fit?

Did you have a sensible word with the guy before running to the bosses?

Sometimes the experience is more important than the looks. Actually, scratch that, it's always more important.

Tyres. /predictable

Hatch is lighter than the coupe, so quicker

Bearing in mind you can run anything over Ethernet with the right connector, that means HDMI or USB or whatever are already covered. So even if you run it and just leave it coiled up ready for the future, do it! I've just done mine, hence the modicum of knowledge.

Cat6 is overkill, cat5e is plenty and 1/3 of the price. It'll do 1080p/5.1 without breaking sweat. Make sure it's shielded cable, then run at least 4 cables to every place you want it. Try to put 8 ports in each room, in opposite corners unless you have definite plans for a particular wall. You don't need a standard router, you need a proper patch panel with a rack mount router: I use a Netgear GS724T, which plugs into the patch panels I've got (you'll probably need at least two of those) which sit in a wall mounted rack.

Weight?

I cannot believe how well you've got on with this matey, it's truly outstanding and a credit to yourself Beautiful looking car. Massively, massively jealous.

You ALWAYS do a boroscope inspection on every single M96/M97 engined car you intend to buy. If you spend a few hundred quid across multiple cars, then that's better than buying a car that suddenly needs £7K worth of work a couple of weeks after you bought it. You don't do it on every car you see, only the one you intend to buy. You can only do so much on a visual inspection like you say, which is why you check everything as much as you possibly can and THEN you get the boroscope or full inspection (depending on your own mechanical knowledge) done on the car before you hand over a penny. I'm not trying to be an arse here, or do the old I told you so, I'm merely stating common knowledge that absolutely every single person with knowledge of these cars will tell you to do. I've seen so many people across so many forums take their cars outside of the big names to try and save a few quid, only to find the repair was done on the cheap to low standards and with only a few of the bits that needed replacing doing. Again, I'm not saying that's what's going to happen here, and I'm actually really curious to see what does get changed and what liners are used as it would be great to know of somewhere more local to me that I could use for when I buy my next Porker. I really want this to be a success, but to imply that I don't know what I'm talking about and that I'm talking sh*t just isn't fair or true. You knew the history of these engines before you bought the car, and you didn't do what everyone tells you you should do. You took a gamble and sadly you got caught out, and I feel sorry for you, I really do. It's a beautiful car and it deserves to be up and running on the road soon.

Difference between buying a decent car and a shed of one. Good luck getting it fixed mate, really keen to see how you/they go about this.

In that case, get yourself over to the Classic British Welcome at St Saturnin on Friday, make sure you get there early! If there's enough of us, we could meet there, maybe around 11am?

Never knew it was called spurring, every day is a school day

You don't need to clean them. Put them on your DAS, run the machine at low speed, and then use a toothbrush from inside to out in one movement to remove any cloggy mess.

1. Always prep the pad with a spray or two of QD. 2. So hard to say, you basically work the polish until it breaks down. With some it takes ages (or if you put a lot on), some break down quickly if the speed is too high, but really I'd expect to use about 4-6 goes on a bonnet. You're doing it right though, it's better to use multiple passes than go all-in and wreck the paint. Not that you really can with a DAS, but you know what I mean. 3. When they're falling apart, bin them. Otherwise, don't worry too much.

Fixed for you. Vista was a disaster. Win 8 wasn't perfect. Win 7 and 8.1 are as good as you could ever want in a domestic environment, and I can't see 10 being anything other than a nice improvement on what is already an awesome OS.