Idly browsing the Cash Converters website (as you do) and their branch at Kingstanding in Birmingham seems to have a job lot of NOS, sealed Elcaset cassettes. 11 in total. Priced between £40 and £60.
It appears that not every one ended up in Finland after all. Some Brummie contrarian was obviously taken with this obscure format.
Bought my 60k miles, one previous owner '05 Z4 2.2i last weekend and even though there was loads of history with it I wanted to do a bit of a reset and get my local main dealer to do the Inspection II service. They do a discount for older models so the price was very competitive.
Anyhoo, I know they do the videos to scare you into new pads, discs, God knows what else but I was very pleasantly surprised. I can live with a slightly corroded handbrake cable for now.
Warning: they guy sounds bored out of his mind. He'd probably done a dozen of these already that day.
No better pics right now but here it is. 2005 2.2i SE manual.
One owner from new, just under 60k miles.
Absolutely spot on 😉
Hi all.
Very much a long shot but one of our cats is missing. He's the black and white one in the photo. Greystones area, specifically Peveril Road or Ranby Road. Usual check your outhouses, sheds etc request.
W11.
I've been using a slightly older version of SpotiFLAC Next for a month or so after buying the developer a cup of Ko-fi. Great tool. Pinned to my taskbar. No issues. Lovely stuff. I've ignored updates since installing but today I decided to update to v1.4.5 which I believe was only released today. I even bought another cup of Ko-fi.
Then I ran into all sorts of issues.
I downloaded the zip, extracted it and went to install the SpotiFLAC-Next application in windows-portable. Immediately Windows flagged it as unsafe and when I bypassed that it wouldn't run because it detected Trojan:Script/Wacatac.H!ml whatever the hell that is. I can turn off real time protection and use SpotiFLAC Next but when I re-enable security, Windows runs a scan and quarantines the above item.
If I want to use the tool again I have to do all the above again.
What am I doing wrong? Or have I jumped on a release that's a little buggy? Never had any of this when I first downloaded it. I just installed it, pinned it and used it.
Thanks in advance.
Family schlepp to Cornwall time.
337 miles door to door (in the UK that's a long way. I appreciate some of our colonial cousins drive that far to the shops), averaged 37mpg with four up, a boot full of luggage and the roof box full of all the stuff I couldn't get in the boot 🤷 Based on a recent trip to that London I'd say the extra weight plus the box knocked about 6mpg off. Cruise was set at GPS 70 for most of the way.
It goes without saying that the old GS performed flawlessly. And the new wheels have transformed the ride.
My amp has the usual L/R In/Out RCA connections on the back. Fine if I'm just playing back or recording MiniDisc but I also play back and record cassettes which I obviously can't have connected at the same time. I'm told that what I need is an RCA switch box so I can flick between the two. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
My amp has the usual L/R In/Out RCA connections on the back. Fine if I'm just playing back or recording cassettes but I also play back and record MiniDisc which I obviously can't have connected at the same time. I'm told that what I need is an RCA switch box so I can flick between the two. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Reposted to correct the model name. It was too late to edit and it was annoying me.
Original purchase post https://www.reddit.com/r/cassetteculture/comments/1utrk8j/oxfam_charity_shop_haul/
Replacement belt arrived today so I decided to tackle the swap. It's a bit fiddly on these and initially my test cassette played too slowly. Using a torch I could see the belt had moved off centre on one of the wheels so with the aid of a paperclip I got that sorted.
Next up, I realised that I was only getting the right channel from my headphones so I dipped the plug in IPA and pushed it in and out a couple of dozen times and that did the trick. Who'd have thought?
Lastly, the buttons on the front were a bit temperamental and the FF refused to work at all. I didn't fancy removing the circuit board on the rear so I tried The Gravity Method™️ I turned the deck facing up and soaked the buttons in IPA while repeatedly pressing them all. Then I made some food while the IPA evaporated. Guess what? That worked too 😁
So I now have a fully working Aiwa AD-F410 but I don't really know what to do with it. I've already got a perfectly good Yamaha KX-580. I might give it back to Oxfam so they can make some money on it. My total expenditure is £28.
Original post https://www.reddit.com/r/cassetteculture/comments/1utrk8j/oxfam_charity_shop_haul/
Replacement belt arrived today so I decided to tackle the swap. It's a bit fiddly on these and initially my test cassette played too slowly. Using a torch I could see the belt had moved off centre on one of the wheels so with the aid of a paperclip I got that sorted.
Next up, I realised that I was only getting the right channel from my headphones so I dipped the plug in IPA and pushed it in and out a couple of dozen times and that did the trick. Who'd have thought?
Lastly, the buttons on the front were a bit temperamental and the FF refused to work at all. I didn't fancy removing the circuit board on the rear so I tried The Gravity Method™️I turned the deck facing up and soaked the buttons in IPA while repeatedly pressing them all. Then I made some food while the IPA evaporated. Guess what? It worked 😁
So I now have a fully working Aiwa FD-410 but I don't really know what to do with it. I've already got a perfectly good Yamaha KX-580. I might give it back to Oxfam so they can make some money on it. My total expenditure is £28.
So my refurbished G-Spiders are on and I think they look great. And compared to the LS430 wheels that came with the car I can't believe the difference it's made to the ride at speed. The old wheels were always a nightmare to balance, one had a slight buckle, spacers had to be fitted to make them fit and I think they'd been refurbished far too many times. Good riddance to all that 😎
Unfortunately the centre caps on the old wheels didn't fit so I've picked up a set off a standard GS and I'm having them painted a little darker. Should be on by the end of the week.
Did one of my occasional trips around local charity shops today and spotted a sealed TDK SA90. I'll take that. Then found an Aiwa AD-F410 in the same shop. Cosmetically very good, powered on, PAT tested but apart from the motor turning, nothing else. Belt maybe? I'll have a punt. Then the guy asked if I needed any more blanks and brought a stack of C90 Type ll Sonys out of the back room. 4x CDit Ultra Slim and 3x CDit Slide Cases. I've never tried Sony Types lls before. So that's a score in anyone's book 😁
Got the Aiwa home and yes, it's the belt. Or what's left of the belt. Basically black, sticky tar. So onto eBay for a new set of DeckTech belts and roll on midweek when I can hopefully get it going again.
Absolutely chuffed with these. They're going on my '08 GS450h on Monday. Can't wait to see what they look like on the car. The colour is anthracite as I didn't want them too dark. From what I've found out about G-Spiders they were originally described as dark grey so hopefully not a million miles away from the original colour.
They're replacing some LS430 wheels that have been on since I got the car in November '24. The LS wheels are 7.5J so spacers are required. New wheels are the correct 8J width so the spacers are coming off too.
UK.
This has been planned for quite a while. My son is 18 and decided that after his A levels he wanted to go travelling with a school friend and see a bit of Europe. They booked the Interrail tickets and sorted AirBnBs at various places in The Netherlands, Germany, Czechia, Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal. He goes this Saturday but teenagers being teenagers he only told me today that his friend isn't 18 until August. I assumed his friend was 18 too 🤷
Can anyone give any advice? Obviously my son can do what he likes but what should his friend/his friends parents put in place to make this trip happen in... err... 4 days? Specifically crossing borders.
I've managed to pick up a set of 18" Enkei/Lexus G-Spider/Baransu wheels for my '08 GS450h. They're a bit battered but currently in for refurbishment and I've gone for a lighter anthracite finish which will hopefully be close to the original.
But... I'm starting to fret about how they'll look. Currently my GS is on 18" late LS430 broad 5 spokes but they're 7.5J and need spacers. The G-Spiders are 8J and won't need them. Anyone got any pictures of their GS with the G-Spiders? I've got used to how the LS wheels look with the spacers and even though the new wheels are a smidge wider I'm worried about how they'll look.
I should also mention that my car sits a little lower than stock as it's on coil overs.
Does anyone know anywhere I can take flattened cardboard? Preferably not the city waste places. My parents have quite a bit on a month to month basis and it's usually too much/too bulky for the blue bin.
In S11.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cevl2nyvxl3o
This is a real shame. It was "Shouty Jon" when we used to take our kids down there and nicer guy you couldn't hope to meet. Our three were down there for probably 10 years in total. He and his staff were great with the kids, always fun, always joining in. It might sound silly but this feels like a part of their childhood has gone. We've experienced operators in other parks, in particular Millhouses and they're usually run by some sour faced fun vacuum with a stopwatch.
:edit: Just told my now 18yo and he got genuinely annoyed. He obviously feels the same way I do.
I'm very excited.
That's it. That's the post.
😁
Hi all.
Just after a bit of advice. I don't buy items like this from eBay very often.
I've spotted some OEM alloy wheels for my car. The listing is a Buy It Now and Free Collection In Person. In the body of the description they are listed as "free from any cracks/buckles & never had any previous welding repairs." However, under Returns it says No returns accepted and in the body of the description it also says "SOLD AS SEEN".
Now, though welds and cracks are easy to spot, buckling is not. The items are quite a distance from me and I wouldn't know until I got them to my local fitter and they're on the wheel balancer. If one or more is buckled then where do I stand given the no returns/sold as seen statements?
Thanks in advance.