Dirk Diggler

Bedford Camper with BMW 3.0d auto - €3200
https://www.donedeal.ie/vintagecars-for-sale/classic-bedford/33212217

This was a bit of an impulse purchase whilst I was at a curry restaurant on New Year’s Eve.
It was just about the cheapest road legal Boxster, going totally against the matra of buying the best you can afford.
Its had about 14 owners. Done 160k odd miles. Cosmetically a bit knocked about. So all the red flag stuff most people avoid with these. YOLO

 
 

11/10 vegetables 

Calamitous Clio update time. It's positive and negative.
The good news - I managed to bring it for a quick drive at the weekend to get its battery charged and automotive blood warm. Thankfully it drives fantastically and is extremely comfortable. You sink into the seats and they provide plenty of comfort and support. The gearbox is silky smooth although the clutch is rather high which can take a little getting used to. All the interior electronics seem to work and the heater is akin to a mini furnace. The front electric windows are pathetically slow to go back up and so perhaps the mechanisms need lubrication or the motors are knackered. It breaks well and turns tightly.
The bad news - The indicators are still dodgy. A replacement (used but identical) flasher relay hasn't fixed the issue. As some on here have suggested suspicion now falls on the hazard switch and indicators stalks/units. I'll now attempt to source and replace these. Cars eh!
 
Here's the latest update video... 
 

ahh! Not that I'm aware of. It lived on Quinsborough Road in Bray since about 2013/14

You must be local to me; I've seen that car around for years

Hi all,
 
It's been quite a while since I ventured on here to post anything. Not at all a reflection of this wonderful place, more on the general busy-ness of all things life.
For anybody who follows the mundane mutterings of CrapCarCollective you'll be well accustomed to the array of old shitters I've purchased over the last couple of years. My latest purchase however is considerably shitter than most. It is the 'infamous' Bray Clio. 
This little munter is well known to any Irish old car fanatics, especially those of a Dublin/Wicklow regionality. I first spotted it back in 2017 and immediately wanted it. The lack of wheel trims, the differing shades of blue, the dents, the scratches. Perfection.
I wandered past it again in 2021 and earlier this year which is when I decided to leave a note. I heard nothing back and with its NCT (Irish MOT) having expired in May I naturally feared the worst. That was until my phone rings in early October. It was a pleasant lady offering me the shiters chance of a lifetime. A shonky Renault Clio with more battle scars than Simon Weston? Yes bloody please!
A price was agreed, and I collected it last Sunday. The weather was rather fitting for such a momentously mediocre event, lashing rain and gusty winds. The drive home was exceptionally uneventful. The 1.2 petrol powerplant under the frontally hinged bonnet ushers it along adequately and it seems well able to keep up with modern motorway traffic albeit stunted by the hideous weather conditions.
The interior is relatively clean and almost everything seems to work. The radio head unit has been nicked as has the interior light lens in an apparent attempt to disable the immobiliser. Any old Clio owner will know to run for the hills if theirs is equipped with a sunroof. The ridiculous placement of the immobiliser until directly in front of it means that when they inevitably leak it does so directly into the electronic gizmos. Thankfully this particular example is without a sunroof which should prevent any moist electricals and all the fun* that brings. 
The interior door handles are cracked and so replacements will be needed. It has front electric windows. The time in which it takes to wind them back up can only be measured accurately with a calendar. The oil level dial on the dash works fine with the ignition on but dies once on the move (videos online suggest this is actually normal). The clutch is a little high, but the gear change is smooth. The seats are wonderfully comfortable and hold you securely whilst cornerning.
It failed its NCT on an exhaust leak and the airbag warning light which is constantly on. I also suspect another lighting issue, but the previous owner has misplaced the failure sheet.. It's booked in for a retest, but I may cancel and concentrate on getting it right during the winter. I'd hate to subject it salty roads. It deserves more.
Also, whilst driving home the indicators and hazards failed. There's no ticking noise or lights on the dash so I suspect a possible relay failure? Anybody got any ideas?
I'm a little busy with work at the moment so I'll try and post updates whenever possible. Let me know what you think!!
 

No epic collection thread or long haul train or bus journeys yesterday for this.. was delivered to my door by a good friend. Very presentable C15 van. Needs some stuff sorting out. Needs a drivers door and both rear doors to leave it very nice. Anyone here got any bits for one of these?

I wasn't going to bother but as a few of seem interested i thought I'd start a thread on the Capri that i bought last month.
It all started when a lady in the village who knows my wife asked her if I'd be interested in her husbands relatives old Capri they have in a garage, both him and his wife have died of old age and they have inherited the property and this old Capri had been in the garage for 20 years since he gave up driving at 83 and it was now being a 'burden', her words, not mind.
The car was over a hour away near Harlow so i shot down there to visit the ladies mother in law who was at the bungalow sorting it out, she gave me the key to the garage and told me to take a look whilst she made me a cup of coffee.
This is was i viewed when i opened the up n over door.






I admit i got a bit excited at this point! the story is what he bought the car new in 1986, used it up until 2003 where he got Parkinson's and was too ill to drive anymore racking up 95000 miles, whilst he maintained the car well he probably would have benefitted from parking sensors these days!
The lady said she'd been offered £900 by a neighbour but thought it was a bit low, i offered £2000 and she was more than happy! a few days later by mate helped me collect it.

Access wasn't great as it was at the rear garden with a short drive with no room for pulling the car out easily and onto a road that was rat run and blind pulling out on, nothings easy!


fortunately my mates truck managed to drag it out with locked brakes and big hammers!

we then dragged it backwards down the roads, swapped ends and pulled it into a nearby school entrance and onto the trailer


on the way back we got lost and managed to go past the original dealers, Gates in Harlow so we pulled in a got a photo!


eventually we managed to drag it into my garage, phew! that was hard work!

13 months later....
Not much has happened of note, an MOT pass achieved back in June with a slightly shorter list of advisories, front and rear discs and pads done as well as a temporary rebuild to the rear callipers. I say temporary as it was good enough to free off the slight stickiness but they'll probably need replaced soon. 
In (slightly) more interesting news now that the winter is here again it is back on SORN and some more serious spannering has been going on...
 
Over the last couple of weeks I've embarked on the job I've been dreading, replacing the control arm rear bushes. These were an advisory on the MOT but the front end was beginning to feel awfully wobbly and the old tyre kick test didn't yield pleasant results.
The reason for my dread is that this is a subframe off job and given that I'm still not quite over the trauma of replacing the strut top mounts 2 years ago (horrifically seized bolts everywhere) I wasn't looking forward to this one.
So first job was to enable front end service mode and much struggling with rusty screws and nuts that would rather disintegrate than turn we have this...

Next it's out with the big breaker bar to see if any of the subframe bolts are going to play ball and surprisingly and with relative ease all but one have yielded so they've been removed one at a time, cleaned up and refitted with copper grease so when I come to finally drop the subframe there should be no problems. The one that is resisting will come out once I get a new removal socket as I managed to snap the 16mm socket while trying to get it off and a standard socket is starting to slip so I don't want to mangle the thing. Learning from experience here, more haste less speed, I've got 6 months to do this job!
Now having lived on the east coast of Scotland for 21 years the subframe is looking pretty crusty so I took a punt on a second hand subframe from ebay, the plan being to get it refurbed and built up with new bushes etc before doing the swap.
So a couple of days ago this arrived (don't know why the photo insists on being upside-down):

Really chuffed with it, it is remarkably clean with only a few small bits of surface rust which can be easily dealt with. It also came complete with the ARB and control arms and all the bushes which all look in pretty good nick. However I'll probably replace all the bushes with new ones anyway as I don't really want to be doing this job again anytime soon.
The breaker bar came out to start stripping the components off the 'new' subframe which again amazingly all came apart with very little swearing required.
Next job will be to thoroughly degrease and clean everything, treat the rust and apply some chassis paint before fitting the new bushes.
However as I've run out of degreaser and can't be bothered going down to Halfords today I've quit while I'm ahead for the moment.
Watch this space for more exciting updates.

Feel the need for closure on this thread, anyone who's remotely interested will have seen this on the communal Bini thread but given it's now over 2 years since I update this thread here's some pictures of the "bargain" Bini back in the land of the living.
Stands me at around a grand all in so I'm probably breaking even if I decided to sell it.
First drive in 2 years after passing the MOT

Original wheels back on fresh from rattle can paint job...

Inspiration... 

Closure achieved.
 
 
 

That'll do, pig. That'll do.

 
I'm collecting rear brake pads tomorrow.

On the BMW front, then.
It's been on holiday with the resident welder in the central belt for the past week or so.
It failed the MOT when the tester poked a hole the size of my thumbnail in the offside rear jacking point.
Gingernuttz has been busy doing some digging.



Both rear jacking points weren't too happy, plus the fronts too.

As the rears stand now:

He still needs to tidy the fronts and repair a wee bit of the exhaust, plus spray some stonechip on. However, the jacking points are now made out of 5mm steel, so they should be fairly sturdy!
After I get it back I still need to fit both replacement front wishbones and track rods, plus check the front left caliper...
 
 

So what was on the back row!
Mrs6C Volvo V70 T5 Auto.
It has not been used since 2018 because it has had it engine light one, diagnosed as cam sensor. Somehow it has never been done but today @Slowsilver said we would have a go at changing the cam sensor. I had bought the part and we have the i-soft Volvo code reader to help.
It started up just fine for the first time in ages, runs sweetly and has no warning lights on! The tyres were checked.
A quick call to a local garage and it is going for MOT this week. 

These 4 were started, warmed though and driven outside so we could get the car on the back row out?

Alfa 156.
This is his everyday Triumph built from a lost cause rust bucket! This was done using the lowest cost items that aren't always original.
Next year the plan is to finish a beautiful 2500Pi saloon he is rebuilding. I wonder if he will let me borrow that.

Coal powered Ford Capri
 

Wooden Car - €3250
https://www.donedeal.ie/vintagecars-for-sale/wooden-car-k30-toyota-engine-swaps/31970353

Wooden Car - €3250
https://www.donedeal.ie/vintagecars-for-sale/wooden-car-k30-toyota-engine-swaps/31970353

Wooden Car - €3250
https://www.donedeal.ie/vintagecars-for-sale/wooden-car-k30-toyota-engine-swaps/31970353

Can't explain how happy and relieved I am now.

More random pictures. And is so much nice details on these.

It was a purchase

So...