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Dollywobbler's Bluebird - Buy an award winner! £SOLD


dollywobbler

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I was spending quality time with my new nephew, but babies are quite boring, doing little more than sleeping and trying to control their own limbs. During one cuddle, I had a hand free to peruse Facebook. On said social media platform, I found a Nissan Bluebird for sale. It's the highly desirable 1.6 LX in saloon form, in the same shade of 'meh' blue as the famous Gluebird at Santa Pod. Here's a high quality* pic, of the sort that enabled me to make a highly informed decision.
received_10154517473736517.jpeg

It has a little MOT, though good MOT history. It also seems to be losing coolant at a vast rate, presumed head gasket. I lobbed in an offer of £300 and then had to explain to my sister that I'd bought a car while looking after her son...

My motivation? The 1.6 saloon is apparently the perfect spec for the oval. I reckon another enthusiast may have stepped in, so it's a shit excuse. I also sold the Daimler and couldn't face the horror of only having three cars. Oh and I have some pages to fill in Retro Japanese. Solution? Buy another shitheap. A British-built one.

Getting it home was the next struggle. As the bloke reckons it'll only do two miles before needing more coolant, driving it wasn't looking ideal. I was hoping to hire a beavertail from a company that once hired me an LDV Maxus, but it failed the MOT.

So, the final resort. Shiply. Buy £300 car, spend £227 getting it delivered. What a nugget.

I had that quote within minutes, and he said he could do today. I accepted, then realised that I was in Devon. So, I will be racing the Bluebird home today. The race commences at lunchtime. There will be radio silence until I get home after that.

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Racing a bluebird? Not the sort of motorsport I suspect many had thrust on them at this stage in their lives. Top buyage, and if it makes you feel any better about the transport cost, as borniteidentity wrote, factor in your time as self employed and the other costs on the day, and it isn't silly at all. That's my justification for it, as ultimately it's often cheaper to do it this way.

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I thought you were going to sit back and lick your wounds after the Jag, but no full launch into the next madness!

 

Well done, even without the actual drive it livens up a dull day in the office!

 

"See Doctor I am not the only one who can't control myself, there is some bloke on the internet who keeps doing daft things!"

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True! More exciting copy if your in the field nursing a sick engine or on an LDV road trip. Are these known for HGF?

 

Don't think it's something they do as a matter of habit, but all water-cooled engines have the potential. Especially if the coolant changes have been neglected.

 

 

where in Devon?

 

Nip up to "the" coombe, get any one of the Welsh boatmen to whizz you across the channel, walk home 

 

simples :D

 

top bombing by the way

 

Bideford. I'd really like to take the Honda home with me though. I'm not leaving it in Devon. Some scenester would buy it and paint bits orange or something...

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Aha. You could have bought my fully MoTed and on the road Sunny for not very much more….

 

I liked both the Bluebirds I had, although mine were higher-spec and larger-engined (and that’s the way I’d go if I had another one). I think even as an LX they have a reasonable amount of kit, but I can’t remember if they were fitted with PAS. Period tests moaned about very heavy steering on those that didn’t have it.

 

As a facelift model it’ll have the indicators on the wrong side of the column (i.e on the left, which is not correct for a RHD car).

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Aha. You could have bought my fully MoTed and on the road Sunny for not very much more….

 

I liked both the Bluebirds I had, although mine were higher-spec and larger-engined (and that’s the way I’d go if I had another one). I think even as an LX they have a reasonable amount of kit, but I can’t remember if they were fitted with PAS. Period tests moaned about very heavy steering on those that didn’t have it.

 

As a facelift model it’ll have the indicators on the wrong side of the column (i.e on the left, which is not correct for a RHD car).

 

I know, but I've always had more of a soft spot for the Blueys than the Sunnys, probably because my dad had a Bluebird when I was a kid.

 

LX does have PAS. Only the LS (and presumably the 'Premium' povo spec) did without. I know that because my dad had an LS, and always wished his company had stumped up a little more for the LX. Certainly was heavy by all accounts! Will be odd going to the 1.6 given I had a 2.0 SLX previously. I was a twat to sell that car.

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I had a 1.6 LX Hatch and and it was gr9. Leccy windows, central locking, PAS, sunroof, twin trips etc. Everything you could really ask for. It did let water in via the boot somewhere. And was slow. I eventually sold it to some mate of pandemonium for cheap as the insurance was expensive because not a classic - I got a 924 which I had a little accident in so the insurance worked out basically the same.....

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My dad's Bluebird was his first actually brand new car (still a company car, but even so). I remember a road rage incident in which he chased an Austin Ambassador in it at about 107mph down the Hollywood Bypass - which was all it had. "Don't tell your mum," he said. I still haven't. Now I feel bad as she's sitting in the same room as me as I type this. Shhh!

 

It got broken into one night, and the rather nice Blaupunkt stereo stolen. They ejected his Cliff Richard cassette and left it on the passenger seat. Sadly, it was stolen a short while later, joyridden to death and burnt out. 

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I've got to tip my hat to you, you do like to buy some tragic cases, It wasn't long ago what you could have bought a Bluebird without OMGHGF for much less, still i guess if you bought a normal one then it wouldn't make a very interesting blog/magazine feature.

 

Personally i like Bluebirds, I used to get taxied to my speech therapy lessons in one in the late 80s, and remember thinking what a luxurious car it was, saying that anything was luxurious compared to the Metro my parents had at the time.

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The body seems remarkably solid, with only very mild bubbling in the nearside rear door opening, and none on the arches. The paint is knackered in this place.

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Stereo takes me right back! Just like the one in my dad's Bluey. Hope it works!

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I am the second owner of this car, so I'm feeling some responsibility. Gawd knows when I'll actually have time to tackle the engine - I'm away again this weekend - but I'm looking forward to it. Clutch seems stiff and the bite is fairly high, so that may be adding itself to the To Do list. 95k miles though, and MOT history to confirm.

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Gotta love a turdbird!

I think they're nice looking cars personally. Our neighbors had a 2.0 saloon in white and it looked lovely. They had it years too. At the time my parents had a Datsun Sunny and liked this Bluebird, they always fancied trading up into one but never did.

There's an old boy round here somewhere too with an identical one but it's a diesel. It's immaculate too.

 

Yours looks great bodywise, I like the colour too. Head gasket isn't hard on these from memory so it's got to be worth doing.

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Any sign of the missing matching hub cap?

 

Not yet. Not been in the boot yet...

 

Moar pics. These are from Facebook, so may vanish at some point, because RUBBISH.

 

Original dealer plate.

18486045_10155310239563200_1633974705156

 

Yup. That engine has had quite a puke!

18485678_10155310239753200_6170847230523

 

Engine access could certainly be worse.

18527948_10155310239848200_7871205048891

 

Not a great photo, but that is a watery tailpipe.

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It came with this wedged under the passenger sunvisor...

18556099_10155310240643200_6146012511782

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Is this front or rear wheel drive? There were similar looking models both sides of the change to fwd I seem to remember.

 

Front. The previous U11 was RWD [EDIT - not it wasn't! Previous to that was RWD]. Just to further confuse matters, this is not really a Bluebird at all, but an evolution of the Stanza platform. Nissan liked to keep people guessing in the 1980s! The U12 Bluebird, sold in Japan and other markets, is really not closely related to the European Bluebird at all. I think Bickle has/had a Pintara, which is a Japanese Bluebird sold in Australia. Keeping up at the back?

 

Anyway, the Mud and Snow tyres (RADAR!) will be appreciated. I might get them fitted properly though...

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