Mally

Today the weather was absolutely stunning.  Got my tools out to crack on with the sill repair on the Princess, really the only difficult bit of welding (that I know about) left to do, everything else is minor cosmetic things like wheel arch lips that are easier to deal with.

Just lately the car has been letting off a faint whiff of petrol.  It always has, to be fair, throughout my decade or so of ownership.  I kept looking for leaks and wet patches and couldn't find any, the lines and tank were always dry so I always put it down to Old Car Stuff.  That meant I didn't worry about it too much today when welding up the sill.
I had already replaced the very trailing edge of this sill some years ago, that repair is still sound.  The damage is along the rest of the sill for the bottom inch or so.  It looked frilly but more alarmingly is that when I actually cleaned it up the outer and inner sill weren't attached which only became apparent as I started removing the rusty strip.
The cause of the rust is that in the past before I got the car, someone cut the original outer sill off but left the bottom inch of it attached to the inner sill.  Luckily, the inner sill is still really solid so no need to do work there, and it explains why there was nothing to see needing repair underneath the car.  They then slapped a new sill over the top of everything and didn't attach it very well along the bottom edge.  They also didn't put any protection inside the sill.  How it's lasted as long as it has I don't really know.
Some years ago I salvaged an outer sill from an orange Princess I used to own that was too rotten to save.  Fortunately, it had a brand new outer sill attached on one side which ended up being a perfect donor for this repair, what was left being just long enough and the right section to match what I needed.  It took me longer to clean the original outer sill off the car than it did to prepare the patch and then I set to welding it in.
Still going smoothly I made a start grinding off the knobbly bits of welding since I was having to do this laid on my back so the welding looked pretty ugly, and the petrol smell was getting quite strong.  I still couldn't see anything amiss, there was just some water dripping out of the drain at the front... wait.. what drain?

I very quickly downed tools.  While the car was jacked up with the nose down, the front hard line had started to drip fuel at an increasingly alarming rate.  All of the hard fuel lines on this car have underseal on them, have the entire time I've owned it, and it's been through numerous MoTs with no bother on this front.  Today was the day it failed.  Once back on the level the leak slowed and then stopped, which was a little odd.
It was now too late to finish the grinding and any pinhole chasing so I threw some paint on and ordered some new copper fuel line, rubber fuel line, clamps, and pipe bending tool all of which came to about £35.  One job I did want to do is drop the fuel tank so I can refit the rubber grommet around the filler neck and repaint the filler pocket properly.  It was a job I was saving for another time but since I'll be replacing the whole fuel line I might as well do it at the same time and then I'll finish the grinding and welding on the sill once I know things are fuel tight again.
I feel like I've had a bit of a near miss today with this one.

No need to apologise.  Although it was a little out of character for you, it was funny.
I've followed all your postings, and everything you do has added value. Intentionally or not.
I've had many convertibles, but learn't with the Dutton that cutting a hole in a sound roof does not always end well.
I believe you can do whatever you like to a  car. I've spent much of my life crashing them.
 
 
 

No need to apologise.  Although it was a little out of character for you, it was funny.
I've followed all your postings, and everything you do has added value. Intentionally or not.
I've had many convertibles, but learn't with the Dutton that cutting a hole in a sound roof does not always end well.
I believe you can do whatever you like to a  car. I've spent much of my life crashing them.
 
 
 

No need to apologise.  Although it was a little out of character for you, it was funny.
I've followed all your postings, and everything you do has added value. Intentionally or not.
I've had many convertibles, but learn't with the Dutton that cutting a hole in a sound roof does not always end well.
I believe you can do whatever you like to a  car. I've spent much of my life crashing them.
 
 
 

Aye, you're in your late 60s but you know how to do memes. I'm 42 and don't have a bloody clue 😄

I cut a hole in my Brand new* Dutton Sierra. Thought about it long and hard first. It was fine but leaked after 6 months.
In your case I reckon a non factory roof modification would lower the value dramatically.

Pleasant day spent at the auction, bought nowt, bid on a few and the shite selection was better than for a while.
So, two days left at home before heading back to Norway, so what better way to spend one of them than a kolleckshun. The target vehicle is 250 miles away and of course is not driveable, no point in making these things easy! So got back from the auction, hitched the trailer to the Disco and swapped the trailer number plate. Lights were checked, tie down straps thrown in, then a charged battery put in the back for the winch. Finally, the remore control for the winch, and to be on the safe side, I have also put in the winch wander lead as a back up. Alarm set and tomorrow the fun starts......

I don't care about colour. I did want an auto, but I have to take what comes at the right price.
I very much fear clutch failure, but had my last one for 3 years without problems.

Mines the same colour. Hope  yours serves you well.

Mines the same colour. Hope  yours serves you well.

There's the new front strut in place.  It's short of a bolt at the moment because one had to be butchered to get the old one off.  This seems to be a recurring theme with this car!  However, it's taking shape.  MoT is booked for next Monday.

MMMMMMMMMMM sweet!  One of my beautiful new tyres, fitted today and back on the car.  Note lovely new wheelnuts too.  The old ones were the standard Ford-designed items, consisting of a steel nut inside a tin or ally cap.  The nut and cap react and swell and garages have to (all together now) "hammer a smaller socket over it!"  Which means the caps are toast.  These new nuts are single-piece.  All 20 of them...
Tom pulled out the dipstick and showed me the golden oil on it.  He said he didn't dare think how old the old oil was.

Mint Imperial in the glove box.

Mint Imperial in the glove box.

Mint Imperial in the glove box.

You could do a Car Throttle and pay somebody else to make the content for you.
Shame you don't know anyone who always wanted to be on TV and has far too much free time.

Evening all
For some years now I have been looking for a big Fiat from the 80's or 90's but it had to have an Auto box.
Apart from a very ropy Croma in Isleworth last year, nothing has ever come up and I had accepted that I would never own a fantasticaly mediocre Italian car.
Then out of nowhere, a terrible Facebook ad appeared with one blurry picture of a Bravo/Brava/Marea. Knowing that many users cannot understand the term "Automatic Transmission", I didn't get my hopes up but after a quick check not only was it an Automatic, it was a Weekend!!!
So, after much back and forth, trying to find if anything had ever been serviced on this poor car, here she is......my Fiat Marea 1.6 100 ELX Weekend!

The car has been off the road for over a year, has no MOT and I have absolutely no service history.
So new belts, gearbox and engine service are a must but from the outside at least, it looks very tidy and there doesn't appear to be any noticeable rot* plus it has only done 27,000 miles.
What could possibly go wrong? 

Mint Imperial in the glove box.

In September I saw these come and go!







 
Some of these cars were bought from forum members and some were won by ex forum members, The Lexus went to Pogweasel and the Honda H100 went to Breadvan...

July saw these up for the "giveaway"





 

In June I gave the day job up to focus on doing this full time, bought a recovery truck to aid with collections and continued buying shite.
These went in June:

Hello, I've had a much needed break from posting on the forum in any great detail but now I'm feeling like I have some interesting shite to share.
I regret deleting my previous tat thread which spanned a decade of buying and selling shite so with this thread I aim to update it regularly with vehicles I have coming and going.  I've been raffling cars a lot this year so this first post will summarise how and why it started.
It's largely done through Facebook, but I do have a separate website which can be used without FB at https://retroshite.com/ and a place to buy merch at https://retroshite.shop
In April I was having a tough time at work, forced into night shift and really struggling to cope with it, one of my coping mechanisms was to buy cars to entertain myself with when I wasn't at work but started accumulating far too much shite and became weighed down with it all so decided to have a mega clear out!

I'd ended up with around 17 cars and a bunch of motorbikes so decided to start raffling them as a hassle free way of getting rid of stuff.
In April I got rid of these:






The 505 gti did surprisingly well and made over 5 months wages at what then was my current job and was the catalyst for escaping my regular working life.

Mint Imperial in the glove box.

Mint Imperial in the glove box.

Mint Imperial in the glove box.