groovylee

Cheers! I did look at that one, but the vauxhall lump put me off as I know feck all about them. Do you still have bits to sell? I know quite few people who'd be interested

not sure if it qualifies as shite, but I went to view, and ultimately buy, a 1999 Alfa GTV, in the dark 1500 notes. complete with original bill of sale, and extras list. £31k new red leather, 17" teledials, looked awesome. best, most reliable car I have owned to date. took it round the evo triangle at speeds that made me wince, but still held fast in the bends. sold it as our two kiddy seats didn't fit. still cry at night over that one lol Lee

I don't suppose you could let me know the reg by PM could you? nothing nefarious, we're just trying to keep a register of what is/was on the road. many thanks in advance, Lee

OH NOES! totally forgot that lol righto, as pennance, i'm off to paint it yellow and add the customary TITCO signwriting.......

as far as i know, the rickman shell will not sit on a SJ chassis as is. the chassis is a bespoke ladder type that was designed purely for the escort running gear. happy to be proven wrong though, that sort of information is always good to have on record for the OC. cheers, Lee

you could buy them as either DIY or built. the quality of them is epic, the bodywork and trim is really good qulaity, certainly better than most kit cars ive seen. the only issue if the fact that, like many others, they are constantly getting broken for the escort running gear Lee

cheers mate, noted Lee

It does rather, doesn't it.... makes you wonder what the design inspiration was for the Rickman Bros........... you think right sir. rear wheel drive, MK1 or MK2 running gear. choice of Pinto or Kent (or even Essex if you felt that way inclined) engines. only difference is the 14" wellers rather than 13" wheels. not without some SERIOUS modding unfortunately. although I gather someone managed it once with a Jago Geep as off roaders they are pretty good. so far I have managed to get two medals in my first 18 months of trialling. the only let down is the MK2 escort tax on all the important bits, like English diffs for example saying that, if anyone has a 4.44:1 diff laying about, I would love to have a chat. I managed to kill my spare 4.1 the other day, and I am currently hoping like hell that my fitted diff doesn't die on me cheers, Lee

hmmm, this is very interesting. I could do that from Hitchin in a little over an hour on the A5...... then it's first MOT since 2008 would be at its supplying dealer! awesome. I may have to do this! thanks RayMK!

so, anyway, to carry on with the tale... I ordered a new battery from (I think) Tayna for the princely sum of <£30 ish with adaptors, and decided to throw caution to the wind, not bother with any pre flight checks, and attempt to start her with the current 9+ year old fuel in her. first step - spin her over briefly and check oil light goes out. Check. second step - out choke and go for broke! and bugger me - it started! not much in the way of idling, but she bloody started! so next up was the non working lights..... when I pulled the light units out, they looked a bit, erm, furry. and the bulb holders were toast. not really surprising that they don't work! so I removed all the knackered bits: and added some new ideas.... to explain - to replace the lamp holders is about £40 a side for NOS items. these will ultimately suffer the same fate. so, I have ordered some SMD LED panels, and i'm going to fit them into the indicator and sidelight housings. the cable will then come out through the gland to some waterproof connectors, and in turn to the original wiring. they should be much better, and the whole setup only set me back £10. full of win. rear shocks have been sourced for under £20, the knackered rear ARB droplinks are going to be replaced with rosejoints (£18) and most of the other stuff looks ok. next step - sort out the seized brakes. that will happen when I go off shift for a bit, so probably after easter. i'll update then cheers again, Lee

indeed, I was wondering what the little bowl thing under the passenger door was, and why there were random lengths of pipe not connected to anything..... "oh, I seeeeeee. theyre supposed to be connected to each other...." lol

awesome! do you know if he is in the owners club? if not, point him in our direction? it would be great to see the space ranger at Stoneleigh this year!

oh no! it is literally two miles from me, i love the place. i'll have to go and do some digging....... Lee

so, as Schumarialto requested more info, here it is lol the back story is that i was bored at work one day, and so i got to reading some of the freecycle emails that i get all the time. normally i skim through, deleting them page by page. this time though, i happened to spot the word 'three wheeler' and it piqued my interest..... short story, three days later (and a manic organising of a trailer from a friend i'd only met once!) i went to pick up the car. for free she took some dragging out from the garage, as she had been driven in there in 2009, and never touched since! but after a couple of hours, we got her on the trailer ready to get her home: once home i got a bit more up close and personal. there is minor damage all over the place, but otherwise she is in relatively good nick. all the tyres hold air, the brakes are seized on, but nothing a good mk1 eyeballing wont sort, and it needs new rear shocks. the front sidelights/indys are shot (more on that later) and the heater didnt work. worst of all, the battery was dry, so no chance of trying to start her. i'll let the pics do the talking: thats all for now folks, thanks for reading! Lee

not long after, on the way back from the festival of speed last year, this happened and on further inspection i found this: it seemed the poor little 1300 had given up. all due to a split crankcase breather hose so, the obvious choice was to replace it with a newly rebuilt 1600 an engine was sourced: and stripped down before having the block bored out to +.020, crank reground, and sourcing new, well, everything so, what was it like trialling? Great! well, that's pretty much it in a small nutshell. if anything changes (which it will lol) i'll update this thread accordingly. cheers for reading1 Lee

oops, pressed the wrong key! got to get used to a new forum i guess lol. that picture was on my first Production car trial (PCT) which is mostly in a field, trying to navigate courses between marker posts, and climb near impossible hills. all with no trick diffs or 4wd, or off road tyres.... i quickly found out that i had entirely the wrong diff fitted (3.54:1) for this sort of thing, so i set about finding a 4.44:1. int he meantime, i found a hardtop: which i promptly strapped to the car using cheapy ratchet straps to get it home after a bit of a scrub up, she looked like this:

So, i guess i had better do a bit of an intro and info thread on my motors I have a bit of an unhealthy habit of buying random, or 'different' cars to all of my mates. this one was one of the latest, although it was bought for a purpose. a very specific purpose. Classic Trials. so, here is my 1989 Rickman Ranger Convertible:

in that case i will attempt to be there in the reliant not sure if i will be there for the saturday night though, as i have a 10K race in milton keynes on the sunday morning Lee

cheers dude, i'll see what i can do tonight when i get home Lee

although i have literally joined today, i like the sound of this would a newbie in a reliant rialto (MOT dependant, if not, skoda octavia, or rickman ranger) be welcome along? can bring comedy tent and BBQ stuff. possibly a gas bottle woodburner too if i get it finished Lee

That'll be me then i thought i'd have a look on here after i spotted the sticker in the back window lol the good news is, it is still going strong, and is now on 177K. hopefully it will do a lot more, as it is needed for daily service until my reliant rialto is MOT'd in the near future, then it may be up for sale again Lee

Hi All, I recently bought a Skoda Octavia diesel and it had a sticker in the rear window, which i now know to be an Autoshite dealer sticker! searching for it on google bought me here to get some for my other cars, but in the meantime, im off for a mooch about to see what i can find Lee