wuvvum

I got a mystery package in the post this morning. It contained these!

My grin today is I have to do 500 miles in the stroker Sonett before taking it to Prescott in a couple of weeks time to run it in. Despite the power band starting at 4k and me limiting it to 4.5 - 5k I covered 80 miles today and returned home with a massive grin and the smell of 2 stroke oil in my nostrils. Ace.

Don't mean to alarm you, but they shouldn't do that.

Went to a local restaurant with Girlfriend_70s on Saturday (after a trip to Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life), parked the Doloposhite on a sidestreet outside a house with a tidy Morris Minor Traveller on the driveway. Girlfriend does a double take, I enquire as to her surprise. Turns out she'd seen the Charles Ware sticker in the back window and was surprisingly well versed on them having been on their website not long ago and being able to remember the going rate for a fully rebuilt Traveller (£26k).
 
Clearly I'm slowly breaking her into the shite car world, we'll start with easy things like the Moggy and VW Beetle but hopefully in a year or two she'll be mad for rusty Austin Allegros and barn find Datsun 120Ys...

Even the offices alone had lots of interesting stuff dotted about them.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
These look amazing in pacific blue 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
So that was it, not bad, there was people who had drove from Yorkshire, Cornwall and Derbyshire, not sure i'd been so impressed if I'd driven that far but for a hour down the road and a couple hours there it was worth a look.

Some 10000 mile Focus that was used on the M25 i think?
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Not sure if this was the last Capri?
 

 

 

 

 
Rather nicely Oldford visited the collection just before he died of cancer and brought along this Crusader badge and fitted on this, every time i now see it i think of John.
 

 

 

 
I'd still love one of these in saloon form.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of the cars were sandwiched in sadly, these was the closest i got get to this one.
 

 
The only yellow Cossie made.
 

 

 
the 10 millionth Fiesta, this had all the leather and only covered 282 miles.
 

 

 
Another one you can't see very well, still a beauty though with full black leather!
 

 

 
This looked a bit sad with flat tyres.
 
 

 

 

 

 
I'm guessing this was the last Escort?
 

 
This was lovely with a full power roof.
 

 

 

 

 
A Thunderbird Ka.
 

 

 
This was donated by the first owners family.
 

 

 

 
I never knew Ford had a Orion in the collection, this was lovely too, it was also a Candor of Colchester car where my dad bought his cars as a kid.
 

 

 

 

 
Thought of Dan when i saw this!
 

 

On Sunday i was lucky enough to get a invite to view the Ford heritage collection, they ran a competition online to allow people to visit and both my sister and her partner won a pair so me and my dad were invited as their plus ones (although my sister couldn't make it in the end).
 
You rocked up at the factory and had to follow a Transit van across the plant to a old shed and then parked up.
 

 
There was seas of ST's and RS's... YAWN.
 

 
Although the outside was a good sign!
 

 

 

 

 

 
around one side of the shed was all the catering vans which were supplying as much free food and drink as you wanted (that was the best bit) as well as these.
 

 

 

 

 
and around the other side was modern cars like the new Focus St Line X complete with a screw in the tyre and a new Fiesta ST but the inside was better.
 

 
The first beauty was this Fiesta just like my mum had in 2001, i hit a fox in that on the A12 at 70mph and ripped the front valance off, the day after she agreed to trade it in :/
 

 
I'm guessing this was awaiting restoration.
 

 

 
This Thames was nice, it was donated by the first owners family and Ford restored it in his bushiness livery.
 

 

 
I got a woody for the LWB Tranny
 

 

Slightly broken Mk3 Escort diesel
 

Miserly spec 309 1.3
 
 

 
If you like torn & filthy interiors, then yer m9
 
 

 
Cos it's got the gear knob off a Fiesta with completely the wrong gate pattern on it you penos. Should I phone him and let him know?
 
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Peugeot-309-ge-1989-petrol-1-3-Classic-Car/273371292146?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3D0394101c33c4467ca4bb6693e7d3921b%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D15%26sd%3D273371292146%26itm%3D273371292146&_trksid=p2481888.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3Ab2f938ec-8f6b-11e8-83b2-74dbd180cdb2%7Cparentrq%3Acd74b8b01640aa411cf3ecf9fff25066%7Ciid%3A1

As ideas go, this is akin to bolting Scafell Pike to the side of your Ligier Ambra
 

 
 
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Classic-1978-Yamaha-XS250-in-metallic-blue-with-unique-handmade-sidecar/192606973271?hash=item2cd8452d57:g:yMIAAOSwUl5bJPqK

Putting this here because I can't find the "bargains" thread.
 

 
Yes it's lovely, but fark me!!!

The eternal internal battle between good and evil. 
 
Good Rob thinks . . .

 
 
Bad Rob thinks . . .

Fucking hell Trig, that is gorgeous!

We all like photos yeah?, good 'cause I've just been out and took some!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Not too shabby!
 

So this happened:
 
20180724_104610 by Sam Osbon, on Flickr
 
Probably the most impulsive buy I have had in the past few months. It popped up on eBay whilst I was passing on a train home (railway slang for being a passenger whilst still on shift) and it looked honest enough. I sent a reasonably low offer for it and it was accepted. First time I've won a car in that there London for some time too.
 
I didn't start work until 1730 yesterday so got a train in the morning to bring it back. First off, Finsbury Park is a dive, and I had to go into the Andover Estate to get this. It had a horrible aura to it, and the sellers neighbour was telling me of various murders on nearby street corners. Great!
 
The old boy selling it had had it since 1994, and had covered less than 1000 miles since 2014. He had also just lost his wife so I wasn't going to be a dick and pick out the little faults the car had, it drove and stopped and that did it for me. The front windows and sunroof don't work though, and until I remembered about the blower fan, I nearly melted. 
 
It kicked out a ton of smoke on the drive back, almost a dirty protest against leaving London. Happily that's now all gone, so it must have just needed a blat down the motorway to get the cobwebs out. I also had (and hated every second) the insane fear that the cooling fans weren't going to work when stuck in traffic on the North Circular, but happily, they kicked in when needed. 
 
Its got plenty of faults and i suspect someone or someones have attempted to steal it in the past, but the XUD7T (yep, its not a XUD9) has quite a bit of kick to it compared to others I have had, but it's barely run in at 87k.
 
Not sure why I bought it. I really wanted Dave Qs 147 but my insurers played silly buggers with it, whereas putting this on my 'spare' policy cost me a couple of quid. I suspect I'll get it through a test and pass it on end of September when the policy runs out. I have already had a serial Peugeot botherer ask for dibs, but if that falls through, you will see an advert here soon.
 
 
P.S. the early dashboards are a bit more bonkers, albeit much more cheaply made.
 
 
In other fleet news, the Alfa is still at the local garage, not sure whats going on with it. I also haven't heard from the buyer for a while.
The R21 is going on Thursday.
 
The 605 is coming in on Saturday, and it will probably be the longer journey car as the 405 has been used so lightly recently I don't want it to implode with heavy use.
R11 incoming date is August 5th, but if the 164 doesn't go by then it will have to wait.

Common sense needs to prevail for a change (shame the bugger wasn’t in evidence two weeks ago when I bought it), so despite an amusing collection mission and a few trips out I really have zero use for this big old thing. Parked idle on the road it’ll just bother me as that’s how my brain works, or worse still get bashed or something.
 
Naval gazing aside, the details are:
 
-1999 W210 430 V8
-164,000 miles
-History up to 121,000 miles, and was imported from Dublin in 2014 (originally being registered over there).
-MoT until 20th September
-Price: £600
-Location: South-East London
 
The only reason I bought it was the engine, which is superb. 279bhp and 295 lb/ft so progress is swift, and allows you to obliterate most Audis, which is nice. Gearbox is fine, no overheating evident even in this mega hot weather, and on the whole it’s pretty decent for a cheap V8 in my expert* opinion.
 
Bodywork is presentable enough after a good wash. A dent on the rear wing plus a few minor dings/scrapes, and the usual random rust patches for one of these. I briefly checked out the front spring perches and they looked OK, but I need to take a closer look. Small bit of lacquer peel on the bonnet.
 
I’ll be replacing the front tyres this week with a decent set of 6mm Goodyear part worns. Rears need replacing, or at the very least the off-side one.
 
Front suspension knocks a bit, which is likely to be lower ball joints but could be more of course. Gets a bit annoying over rough surfaces, and probably hasn’t done front tyre wear any favours.
 
The dual climate control needs to be re-set. The lad before me replaced some filters and had it re-gassed, but gave up at that point. I’m not surprised as I’ve tried briefly but have printed off some lengthy notes and will have another go this week. My initial idea was to buy something with working aircon for this heatwave, so naturally I bought this instead because V8. Genius…
 
Interior is OK but could do with a proper clean, I just haven’t had the time. Driver’s seat back is stuck in position as some dork broke off the adjuster (not me!), so driving it is a fairly upright affair. I just stuck a cushion in my lower back which seems to help.
 
Hopefully it can find a home on here, otherwise it’s a deep breath and eBay.
 

 

 

 

 
Headlights need the wet and dry and polish treatment.
 

 

 

 
Money shot.
 

 
Pretty vast in the back.
 

It only rhymes if you're very posh.

You're currently experiencing the hottest heat wave Britain has ever experienced apparently (according to internet comments - it's midwinter in NZ), so I reckon the waxoyl can wait a while. I suppose it'll be nice and fluid in the current climate though.
 
My vote for now is just drive it everywhere with the windows down and your best shades on and feel like an absolute winner. It won't win any traffic light races but won't need to, to look effortlessly stylish. Yes, I used the word 'stylish' to describe a Marina. After all, the condition makes it undeniably attractive and those hilarious Top Gear funsters stopped crushing them under pianos over a decade ago. I reckon that BL knocking will go the way of 1980's Skoda jokes and not be funny anymore, as there's a generation that don't remember them from the first time around. Applies to all 1970's/80's 'shit' cars, I suppose.
 
If you're not convinced, I reckon a really good show piece would be to get a modern day Ford/Vauxhall/whatever brochure and have the paint options page displayed next to a 1970's BL paint brochure for a compare and contrast (the 'contrast' bit relating to the various shades of grey you can buy a modern in, of course).

Sweating my man boobs off and baby watching too! Front plate just fitted now too!

I must be mental but I've now finished polishing the nearside meaning the cars finished other than a touch up, waxoyl the underside and cleaning the dash, 13 hours now spent on this today (on and off) and I'm bo11oxed!
 

Given that that oil has been sat under the ground for probably 60 million years, I'm sure another few years in a can won't have done it too much harm. 
Nice purchase - I'm with Wobbler on the first facelift being a good looking motor.

Putting this here because I can't find the "bargains" thread.
 

 
Yes it's lovely, but fark me!!!

Small steps but I'm nearly there now! So this morning I got the insurance sorted, £78 for the year Inc breakdown wasn't to be sniffed at, after that I spent the morning polishing the offside, roof and all the tailgate which to be honest in this heat was murder!
 
Still it was looking good, also fitted the rear plate and then serviced it, changed the coolent, oil, fanbelt etc and took it for its first drive on the road since 1981, it drives amazingly well, everything is tight and quiet and smooth, well it should be with only 25017 miles on the clock!
 
All that's left is to polish the front end and nearside, waxoyl the underside and then give it a long road test and it should all be done!
 

 

 

You need to stop it crossing that bridge .