Hail stone renovation

XKJohn said:

After the front of my 2014 XF Sportbrake bonnet was peppered with hail stone dents our local garage paint shop made a great job of repainting. I took the opportunity to have the front bumper repainted plus the lower side skirts that were suffering from pebble rash, not a difficult task to remove these body parts. Bought new chrome front grille and side blades via Aliexpress saving over £250 compared to Jag prices. Looking forward to getting it back together and also renovating the 20 inch wheels. View attachment 66082 View attachment 66083

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Looking lovely under the lights John, and will be gorgeous on your big cat ... looking as good as new with a fresh out of the show room touch which is bound to make you smile from ear to ear

Nice idea J777, but working on a new alternative energy under-sea power supply, which strangely enough is actually functioning better than I anticipated in a very basic form.
However, a true story from many years ago after I and a friend took a holding patent out which did away for the need of a toilet cistern overflow pipe and rid the problem of green wall when the cisterns often leaked to the outside of buildings. After getting the patent for it I approached the major toilet producers and Insurance companies. All loved it and wanted to either license or buy. The insurance companies would also stomp up money for the start up company because it could save them huge amounts in claims. Then came the crunch...the water authorities sent me a letter saying it would break the current laws and would therefore be illegal. The dream was over and we let the holding patent expire. Within a week or two, the water authorities then changed the law and these cisterns are now to be found in many of the UK's new homes. Who did it...I don't know, but I have never trusted authority since!
I have also designed and built a new vertical turbine model which increases the power of vertical turbines (traditionally 1/3 the power of horizontal turbine)...It has doubled the output, is self starting in any fixed position and silent in operation, it is seen as a solid object by birds, so no destruction of our feathered friends. It is self regulating and cannot run over-speed in strong wind conditions, unlike our big horizontal turbines.
Perfect for home or commercial buildings and an effective additive to a solar panel set up when the sun is not shining but the wind is blowing, even just a little.
As you might imagine I like playing when I get the time.

To Ruby: I thank you for your kind words and lovely compliment. I am in fact just an old inquisitive chap who loves life and sees no reason to surrender to aging. In fact I have found that aging actually comes with many benefits and rewards and I suspect you will understand that in the future Ruby when you reach that stage.
To PetA: Pete, I am never offended by well meaning and interested comments or honest statements...Why? Simply because I have never stopped learning from other people. Everyone has things to offer and I am a good listener and fast learner.
Your question about the modern blades of wind turbines is a very valid question and your statement is indeed true.
However, they are rotated into their flat position when wind speeds, such as found in storm conditions, exceed the rating of the blades or indeed the braking system used. One of the causes of the many fires in horizontal wind turbines is due to over-speed caused by excessive wind speed (as seen on many you tube videos). This happens if the blade rotation mechanism is either not quick enough to act or has already failed. A blade or blades break up and bits fly off. This of course puts a tremendous out of balance strain on not just the bearings but also on the mounting structures.
Before getting to that point however, the emergency braking system has kicked in and can trigger excessive heat caused by the friction it is being asked to cope with and due to the limited amount of space can cause even a small turbine of 1.5 MW to ignite the 900 ltrs of lubricating and cooling oil found in these turbines. The forces involved here are enormous and just last week there was an article about the new types of super high turbines that are seeing catastrophic collapse of the supporting structures. This, it must be said, can only be down to bad design and an under estimation of the requirements of the super high supporting towers, in my opinion.
Most people do not realize that horizontal wind turbines require power from the grid to start the blades turning and again to rotate the turbine head into the direction of the wind. As you may imagine these movements are not fast and changing gusts can hit them before they reach optimum positioning.
Here is a link to an interesting, and I believe, unbiased review. It's worth a read.