sutty2006

Gt Yarmouth sea front 

Mmmmmmm bluebird. Round the corner from me. 

One poorly Citroën and one probably waiting to be poorly 

Mmmmmmm bluebird. Round the corner from me. 

Spotted these two yesterday:

I went off and found a bit more about it
Alan Gaines tractor pull Orange Blossom Special II
Skip to 1:10 in video below.  It's a bit handy!

I was going to move on the Majorette model, but now I'll think I'll keep it back and touch-in the paint cips

Buy it. 
 
 
chuck a 6BT in it and crack on. 

Buy it. 
 
 
chuck a 6BT in it and crack on. 

Buy it. 
 
 
chuck a 6BT in it and crack on. 

Looks pretty unanimous to me 

Yup any EML or emissions related warning light on is a failure regardless of age. Glad it’s passed now! 

I’ve never met the guy but he sounded like he was a good bloke. Rest in Piece. 

I'd bought a couple of cars from classified ads or as BIN/best offer on ebay before this one but had treated the transaction purely as going to view a secondhand car which I then bought on the spot.

This was the first one I won in an actual bidding frenzy. I say frenzy. I had a few beers one night, spotted this and thought, 'Oh, I used to have one of those, that looks smart', and stuck in a low ball bid which I never imagined would result in me waking up to the email the next morning telling me I'd won it.

Wonderful cars, shame they nearly all dissolved.

Similar to you. 
 
2006/7 I bought a 518i shark nose on a D plate for £107. It was mint apart from the smell of curry inside. Changed the whole interior but it still smelt of curry powder. Used for 2007 scally rally. Then got ebayed off. Did have a picture but can’t find it. 

Recaros out of a 220. Lush. 

Recaros out of a 220. Lush. 

Similar to you. 
 
2006/7 I bought a 518i shark nose on a D plate for £107. It was mint apart from the smell of curry inside. Changed the whole interior but it still smelt of curry powder. Used for 2007 scally rally. Then got ebayed off. Did have a picture but can’t find it. 

I had written off my 1999 SEAT Ibiza just before Christmas 2009 in the snow. The insurance company gave me a very generous settlement for it. Despite the very iffy work situation, I decided that I needed a car on standby just in case the next place of employment was hard to reach by bus. Work was a little hard to come by as the economy was still suffering from the 2008 credit crunch / “wanker banker” crapshow / bailout.
I had in mind something like a 1990s Toyota Starlet. Hugely unexciting but starts, stops and keeps the rain off. My dad was quite keen that I take a look at his drinking pal's Ford Escort (mark 5.5?) diesel that he wanted rid of. I wasn't impressed. Nevertheless, towards the end of March my dad and I went to have a look at it. Dad's mate T lived on the same estate as my parents and I (I had my own flat a few streets away). T was selling the Escort because one of his daughters had given him their mark 4 Astra. The Escort sat in a lock up council garage just around the corner from T's abode.
M62 VVX had a flat battery and thus had to be wheeled out of the lock up for inspection. T had been declared medically unfit to drive. It was MOT'd in December and put straight back into the garage. The Astra would be ready for him once he was declared medically fit to drive. I was delighted to discover that it was the rarer 'Orion shape' saloon and not the common hatchback. It did lose some points on it being white, my least favourite car colour. A deal was done T agreed to drop the asking price by £50 as I was out of work, so I'd buy it for £250. I asked T if it was OK if I could disconnect the dead battery to charge at home, which he agreed to. Deposit paid. I think my dad and I returned the following day, connected the battery and the Escort thundered into life like a hundred blacksmiths hammering at an anvil. Sweet. With a bit of clag.
On April 1st I walked to T's, paid the rest of the money, sorted out the paperwork and drove the car to the post office, where I taxed it for six months: £112.50. I was even more delighted to discover that there was half a tank of derv in it. I took it home and got to work. Insurance was cheap. 150,000 miles on the clock.
Eventually I discovered that it was an ex-Police patrol car (Essex constabulary). The driver's seat and side bolster was likely worn down over years by lard-arsed coppers, who wouldn't pass a police fitness test in a month of Sundays when the car was in service. I found the driver's seat to be very comfortable.
Being an L spec with a natuarlly aspirated diesel engine with 60 bhp, it was basic. However, it did have the power steering and ABS which were optional extras. I'd wager that these features would have been demanded by the constabulary. Tweed upholstery, radio cassette player. I didn't bother with putting my old car CD player in it. My old hi-fi was put back into use in recording the early era of recently purchased early era Roxy Music album CDs onto cassette, not to mention a few others.
Most satisfying to valet a used car when bought privately. I removed the deteriorating front seat covers and frisbee'd the cracked wheel trims into my wheelie bin. They were held on by black cable ties. The trims were not the originals but appeared to come from an older Escort or Fiesta Bonus limited edition (sort of off white colour). I gave the car a more utilitarian look.
1994 Ford Escort 1.8 LD diesel by Matt W, on Flickr
I washed the car. Paint was rough to the touch. The 13 inch steelies where cleaned of it's brake dust and some of the silver paint on the edges of the wheels reappeared. Vacuumed and polished the interior to get rid of as much detritus of the previous owner as possible. It was looking much better.
Took it for a drive on the A47 dual carriageway to give it a jolly good thrashing at 70 mph (ish). Well...it took quite time for the beast to get to sixty. My parents told me that it probably never got over 40 mph in the time that T had it.
The ignition would take about 3 seconds to fire up. Occasionally it would need two turns but the coarse engine never failed to start. So coarse that it was impossible to see a clear image through the vibrating rear view mirror at idle.
About two weeks into ownership, the driver's door lock failed. It would not unlock from the outside but (from memory) would lock OK. I could have dismantled the door card to take a look but I was a bit lazy so I got into the routine of unlocking the passenger door, pressing the button, going round to the driver's side and getting in. The spare wheel footwell would fill with rainwater and I even had mushrooms growing out of the boot carpet!!
At some point I stupidly bought some engine oil for it. T told me that it didn't use any oil and he was right, it didn't! I still have that bottle in my shed, unopened.
1994 Ford Escort 1.8 LD diesel (ex police car) by Matt W, on Flickr
I owned the car for almost six months. I had sold my flat in this time and with some of the cash decided that, as much as the Escort exceeded my expectations, I needed a more modern car to carry on getting me places. I traded it in for the 2003 Nissan Almera 2.2 dCi that I still own. I got £250 for the Escort as a trade in, so effectively got my money back on it.
My ownership experience of the Almera over the past nine years made me realise how good a car the utilitarian Escort diesel saloon actually was in the brief time I had it. The newer car never felt as economical as the old timer. I could actually be wrong: the Escort's needle on the fuel guage never dropped. Maybe I was having too much fun with the torquey 130 bhp Almera which blunted the fuel economy? Before it, I had never owned a car that had more than 80 bhp before!
I put around 2,000 miles on M62VVX during my tenure. Sueprisingly, it made it through two or three more MOTs (with repairs) into 2013 before it was scrapped at 167,000 miles. I was anticipating it to fail spectacularly at it's December 2010 MOT but the owner(s) after me appeared to have persevered with it.
What a fantastic car!

Yup any EML or emissions related warning light on is a failure regardless of age. Glad it’s passed now! 

Couple of easy enough failures no? 

This.
Those who are spouting about how 'it's fucked' and would 'cost too much to sort' really need to have a word with themselves. There are various threads on here where members readily talk about their ticked-up modern, which is undoubtedly costing £200+ per month, and where they have nothing to show for their spend at the end of it. Yet £1000 spent on a rare, unloved Rover 'is mental mate'. 
Sometimes I wish there was a forum for unusual, shonky, unloved old cars which deserve saving by people who aren't in it for the money. 

I bought a 73 ascona a few years back that had a picture of an AM Radio where there should have been a real one. 
 
tight bastard. 

I bought a 73 ascona a few years back that had a picture of an AM Radio where there should have been a real one. 
 
tight bastard. 

The 1977 Matchbox catalogue has been rather difficult to find at a decent price, wasn't worried about getting every year, but as I was born in '77 I wanted this one!
It was also a pain to scan as it's too big to scan two pages at a time. This has taken hours to scan, rotate and crop!
Anyway, enjoy...
 
Matchbox 1977 (1) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (2) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (3) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (4) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (5) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (6) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (7) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (8) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (9) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (10) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (11) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (12) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (13) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (14) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (15) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (16) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (17) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (18) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (19) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (20) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (21) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (22) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (23) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (24) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (25) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (26) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (27) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (28) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (30) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (31) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (32) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (33) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (34) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (35) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (36) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (37) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (38) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (39) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (40) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (41) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (42) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (43) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (44) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (45) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (46) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (47) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (48) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (49) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (50) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (51) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (52) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (53) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (54) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (55) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (56) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (57) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (58) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (59) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (60) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (61) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (62) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (63) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (64) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (65) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 p70 by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (66) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (67) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (68) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (70) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (69) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (71) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (72) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (73) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (74) by RS, on Flickr
Matchbox 1977 (75) by RS, on Flickr

Following Mrs6C taking over custody of the Edinburgh based Visa Cabriolet I thought I had better get the 1/43 model to add to the collection.
I had to send to France to get the red one to match the 12 inch to the foot version.