At the risk of moving this thread in a direction rather far from the original title I feel that the whole issue of global warming is being driven, like all sensitive issues, away from the real problem - there are just far too many people on the earth, I think that it currently around 7.8 billion.

I don't understand people like David Attenborough banging on about the Amazon forest being destroyed [which it is, and has been for over 30 years], the Big Five animals in Africa being killed off, and the River Ganges becoming toxic but he never, ever makes the point that there are far too many people trying to use up the earth's resources. The populations of Indonesia, India, and China are exploding, and the people all want what we, in the West, already have.

But even Europe has too large a population. And that's what drives trade - more people, more products wanted. So burn down the Amazon forest to raise more and more cattle, kill of all the tigers and elephants in India so that the massively over-crowded cities can keep expanding, and the same in Africa.

Telling the world that there are too many of us is as bad as saying that diesel is not bad for us, after all !! Would you believe that the population of the UK in the 1700's was only 5 million, a long way from the current 64 million.

Sorry for the re-direction of the thread 😅.

Pierre3.

Hi karlos, what make was the one that you got ?

Pierre3.

Thanks, David. It looks like I will have to go for the Yuasa as the Hankook isn't available in Ireland from what I can see.

I did see that Kwikfit, in Northern Ireland, have a similar battery to the Yuasa, a Platinum 019SPPLA with a lifetime guarantee [I didn't look to see what "Lifetime" is referring to !!] CCA 900 and 100 AH. That works out at £159 as opposed to Halfords Yuasa HSB334 Silver with a 5 year guarantee at €155 [although it does say "From"].

The Yuasa is rated at CCA 830 [they call it "Startup Power"] and also 100 AH.

I don't know why these companies use different terminology but I suspect that it is to try to prevent users from making direct compaisons by using the same specifications. Tossers !!!

I will have a closer look at the Kwikfit battery, just in case I could warrant a trip over the border, into the North, but it would be useful if anyone knows anything about their batteries and they could let me know.

And Richard is correct about the May weekend discount from Battery Megastore - it doesn't include the Hankook MF31-1000, and no, they don't have any in stock. I also checked this morning.

Pierre3.

Thanks Richard. I will give it some thought.

My own battery is starting to loose charge over a week or so. I have fitted one of Marty's RF filters, last year, which did help but I think that the battery is due a replacement. It looks like it has been around the houses and was already in the car when I bought it two years ago.

Pierre3.

I don't mean to have another long thread on batteries, but I wonder if there might be a bit of advice about replacing the battery in my 2001 P38 2.5 DHSE.

I have read though a lot of the other threads and I notice that the preferred choice is the Hankook MF31 - 1000, but I don't think that this is available in Ireland. I have spent a while looking at suppliers in Ireland and the only other option that I can find, that has been recommended on the forum, is the Yuasa HSB334 which is available today in Halfords.

Is the Yuasa a good option, or would I be better to wait until I go to Scotland in July and buy a Hankook ?

Pierre3.

Hi Symes, the problem is, at the moment, is that I need to line up the step in the brackets so that I can mark the support arms and drill new holes in the correct positions. I have the arms cut to the correct lengths [there is 10mm difference in length between the front and back arms] so I need to lift the step up into the brackets and punch a mark onto the arms through the original bolt holes in the brackets.

This is the side step with no support arm remaing:

This is the bracket under the vehicle, requiring a good grinding off with the wire wheel:

This is the front rubber end piece required new strengtheners:

Finally, the side step with a new support arm welded in, but no mounting holes yet:

It will have to be lifted with the trolley jack to mark up new holes in the supporting arms, going through the bracket holes. It is too heavy to lift it, hold it in place, and punch a mark in the arm, all on ones own. It's not going to happen !!!

Pierre3.

The passenger side step supporting brackets rusted through and broke, three weeks ago. Fortunately, the brackets on the chassis are good so I asked my lad to call around and weld two replacement support arms to the side step frame.

He did this last weekend, and I had to then spray the frame with zinc primer and then black paint. As I deconstructed the side step I spent today fitting new small support pieces to the rubber rusted end sections, refitting the rubber step, and then cutting the new support arms to the correct size. I bought some 30mmx30mm square plastic plugs to fill in the open ends, so that they look neat.

These original side steps are really heavy, so I have decided to leave refitting the step until another day. I need to drill new mounting holes through the new arms, but I am no fitting Rivnuts, I am just going to bolt them straight through the mountings with 10mm stainless bolts [out of my old work stock box - which also contains about 10 boxes of S/S washers from 6mm to big penny washer type for 12 mm bolts].

As I have not got a pit or any such amazing workshop ancilliaries I will have to use the trusty trolley jack and just jack up into position.

But on another day, when I have more energy.

Took some time to watch the funeral of HRH Prince Phillip. A sad loss, it just reminds one that all of our days are numbered. RIP.

Pierre3.

Dave3d, I have only just caught up on posts. Hopefully you got the new material attached OK. I was well able to do it with the assistance of my wife, so I would think that it should have gone OK with three of you.

I don't remember the rubber blocks in the roof but then I wasn't looking for them, and therefore didn't notice them. The only two that I recall are those with Velcro glued to them, on the edge tailgate pillars, two on each side.

Richard, very many years ago a friend of mine bought a very rough E-type for buttons. It was a bit rough to the extent that the seats were actually sitting on 2x4 timber cross members !!! Along with quite a few holes in the floor. But what the hell, it was a cheap, cheap, cheap way to impress the girls at Tech College.

Pierre3.

I have found that two of the black ones, on my door panel, tend to stay in the door so I pull them out and refit them. One of the white ones on my door card has broken, one of the top edge ones, and I think that I can only use the black ones as replacements.

The white fasteners are well fixed to the green studs and I find that, by using a panel clip removal tool, they stay where they should. I think the one that has broken was caused because, being up by the window glass edge there was too much bend on it.

Pierre3.

I found that the square plugs that were originally fitted in place of a grab handle were too difficult to refit:

This picture isn't of my car, by the way.

I bought a used, clean passenger side grab handle and fitted it in place of the square plugs. I think that it looks better as now all the doors have a grab handle above them.

Pierre3.

Hi Richard, the white ones look like they may be put on in the factory and are not intended to be replaced. They have a completely circular head, which clips onto the green stud. I can't see, myself, how it would possible to press the white fastener onto the green stud because they are pretty tightly fixed originally.

The black ones have a slot in them which allows them to clip onto the green stud fairly easily.

I was just interested to see if the white ones are obtainable because I have looked about on the internet but nothing comes up.

Pierre3.

I would like to ask a quick question, please - is it possible to find any original, white, plastic door card fasteners ? If so, is it then possible to get them to refit onto the green studs which are located in the door card ?

I noticed that when I took off the drivers' door panel today, to fit a new door handle cable, that there are four black, slide-on fasteners. Would I be right in thinking that these guys replace the original white fasteners ?

I know that these - RANGE ROVER P38 DOOR PANEL CLIPS - 20 X MWC9134 - are easily available.

Pierre3.

My vehicle is 2001 and the pillars have a slightly fuzzy sort of a finish. It was very easy to sponge down with a damp cloth and then wipe it dry with a dry cloth. The surface didn't look as if it would scrub off at all easily, but it did clean up pretty easily.

Pierre3.

I have never heard about heating oil being used, but then most houses where I live always used kerosene.

In the late 70's using red diesel was very common among Irish hauliers. There were a couple of big guys caught doing it, companies with around 20 trucks. The most frequent offenders were the refrigerated haulage guys because they could legally buy several thousand litres to fuel the fridge trailor motors, usually 2 litre Toyota diesels in Thermo-King fridges.

The amount fiddled would have been huge. A common ruse was for the fridge trailor to have two 40 gallon tanks, and if it was queried the answer was that the truck might be away for several weeks and the company didn't want to have to buy expensive European normal diesel. In fact, a lot of the guys had an electric pump and fuel line plumbed in, and it was just a case of sticking one end into the truck fuel tank, turn on the electric pump and wait !

There never seemed to be any fuel checks done in the UK or the continent from what I remember, maybe only in Dover Port when the trucks were parked up, waiting for customs clearance. The biggest threat was back in Ireland because Customs and Excise were well aware of the scam. If you had a farm, or a commercial yard of any sort you were allowed to buy as much red diesel as you wanted, once you had a couple of old tractors or forklifts.

Pierre3.

Dave3d, I looked at the sunshade when I took off the old material, and it was glued all around all 4 sides. I repeated that, leaving as much material on the front and back edges to get the maximum glueing area. The sides are determined by the spring clips, I think. There is only about 1/2 inch of a lip but I glued the material firmly down each edge and cut off any excess afterwards.

I followed the pattern of the original headlining material around the edges of the main roof panel. I could see that by not leaving as much material as possible on the back side of the panel should provide much more grip for the material. I know that, when the relined headlining is in place, the inner track of the door seal grips the panel, but I do think that by being generous with the adhesive on the back sides and edges you will benefit later as the material shouldn't be able to pull loose.

Looking back at my panel I can see that there is plenty of room to leave excess material. Once it is glued down it can't go anywhere. The only real exceptions are where the grab handles fit, because you don't really want two layers of material to get through when you refit the roof panel. The area above the tailgate are a bit awkward as well, because of the different angles. When you cut the material into the angles you find all sorts of overlaps. I kept trimimg these until they eventually didn't lie on top of each other except for a couple of places where that was unavoidable.

Oh yes, don't forget that the plastic sort of pull handle fits into the sunshade and you have very little material to work with here. It's just a case of extra trimming until the material just folds into the opening and grips the back of the shade panel. The pull handle will keep the material in place afterwards. Just don't forget to fit it before refitting the sunshade panel.

Pierre3.

Hi Symes, you have it completely wrong here - there is no tax or duty on Class A drugs in Ireland, especially if you throw them into the sea in big bales and let them float ashore. The Revenue patrols are only there to make sure that you haven't been buying excessive amounts of dangerous products from Sainsbury's in Newry. You could have too many loaves of toasting bread, you swine !!

Pierre3.

Ah-ha, I thought that there might be some reason why people don't all drive around on cheap LPG !! Lots of people in Ireland used to use "red" diesel in their cars, if they were farmers or road hauliers, but it always caught up with them because diesel cars aren't really designed to run on red diesel, it makes them rather smoky, if I remember.

There was a big problem in the 80's with the IRA washing diesel and selling that through dodgy garages. Again, people got well shafted after using a couple of tanks because the engine in the car would blow up !

Pierre3.

Richard, thanks for your informative post.

These are the current personal entitlements when returning to Ireland from a non-EU country, e.g. the UK:

"You can buy goods from outside the EU up to a value of €22 without incurring any VAT charges. Goods up to a value of €150 may be imported without payment of customs duty. To avoid these packages being stopped by Customs, the value should be clearly marked on the label.1 Mar 2021".

So, unfortunately, in theory I can't stock up on parts without paying either VAT, if the goods are over €22 but under €150, or duty and VAT if the goods are over €150. At the moment the only way to do this is to drive over the north of Ireland, to Scotland and then down to, for example, Rimmer Bros. When returning there would be no border between the North and the South, but there are currently mobile Revenue patrols on the motorway south, checking vehicles at random. So you take your chances.

Pierre3.

Hi, I would just like to clarify my earlier post.

I had no intention of politicizing my remarks about import duties from the Uk, but, instead, my point is that a number of unanticipated consequences have happened due to Brexit, and which I believe that a lot of people in the UK hadn't expected. I will give a couple of examples, which are not in the least political but economic, not just to people, for instance in Ireland, but also in the UK.

Last summer I decided to fit a new kitchen, which I am doing myself. I looked around for a new worktop, granite sink, tapset, and some other extra's for the sink. So I looked around, on the internet, for a week or so, and decided on the sink and ancilliaries from Caple Co Ltd, in the UK, and a worktop from Formica UK. These items were all quite a lot less expensive buying from a N.I. company, who had an office in Dublin, than buying a sink from Franke, or Blanko, or Stock. The parts, and bits and pieces, collected by myself in Dublin came to around €700. If I had bought from a large local dealer I couldn't have bought products from Caple UK because the main dealers here don't sell Caple. I would, therefore, have had to pay at least 30% more for locally sourced items.

That was last December, just before Brexit happened, and if I had waited until January this year I would have had to add taxes and duties to the cost of buying from Caple, thereby making not worth the cost as I could then but Franke or Blanko for less money. Therefore, and this is my point, I wouldn't had bought from a UK company but from a German or Belgian company and so the sale would have been lost, to the detriment of Caple Co and their workers.

Example two- I had to fit all new bushes to the front of the P38, last September, to pass our version of the MOT, so I bought everything, track rod assembly, drag links, anti-roll bar assembly, upper and lower ball joints, the lot. All these parts came from Rimmer Bros, and cost somewhere in the region of £350 [I forget exactly]. Now, after Brexit, if I had to buy all those parts I would probably expect to have to pay closer to £500/£525. At that stage I would have to consider whether I want to put the car through the MOT test, but instead sell it for parts.

Again, my point is that is that, before Brexit, the parts were only different in as much as I would have a currency conversion rate to bother about, so I would therefore buy from Rimmer Bros UK. Now, after Brexit, I have currency conversion and taxes and duties to be concerned about, and how much more expensive it is going to make the parts. Therefore, I may either scrap the vehicle or try to find a supplier in Europe, although he will be buying from the UK himself and adding on the premium, but either way I would not be buying from Rimmer Bros, therefore, as before, the sale would be lost to the detriment of Rimmer Bros and their employees.

Although I am only one person when you multiply up the number of people who did used to buy directly from the UK the figures become very, very large, and if those people are now shopping online from Germany or Spain or Italy then the loss to the UK exchequer will be really noticeable.

This is my point that I don't believe people in the UK realised the unintended consequences of Brexit. A decision made in one country can have profound effects in other countries. After 40 years of no barrier trading this is big issue.

Sorry for the long post, but I am just trying to put into context some of the results of Brexit outside the UK. Nothing political is assumed or intended. I just wanted to point out that, because of the big jump in imports from the UK to Ireland, keeping an oldish P38 may have become to expensive and not worth the hassle.

Pierre3.

Hi Dave3d, I didn't mean to offend anyone who voted for Brexit, I just don't think that people were fully aware of the cosequences. But let it lie. What would you like to know about the headlining ?? 😉

If it's any help my roof lining is still OK after two weeks so I believe that that maybe a good sign !!!

Just an aside, a second hand grab handle arrived today to fit in place of the square plugs above the driver's seat. The holes are all there to accept a grab handle to be fitted, which I think will be better than the two square plugs which were originally fitted.

Pierre3.