Schaefft

Well, this happened the other day to my Senator. The screwdriver is still in the back. They literally chopped the steering wheel off and took it with them after the car ran out of fuel half a mile down the road. Contacted police but financially it makes no sense other than letting them know. I cut my own splines into the shaft and drove it back with a pair of vice grips. Time to order a new column and steering wheel!

Absolute bargain, the only car you'd ever need.

Knock sensor signal oof. If there's really an issue with the knock sensors that would mean the intake manifold needs to come off. I replaced the starter in my Celsior and knock sensors while in there. It's definitely doable but no fun job. Would be odd if both of them would fail at the same time, maybe they just detected knock temporarily for whatever reason.

1500 quid R9! https://www.facebook.com/groups/390896610925969/permalink/6145172662164973/?ref=facebook_story_share

Chromeline in the E65 is mainly the trim around the windows and painted trim on the bumpers. Everything else is typical council housing styling attempts. I'm surprised I'm not seeing a m-badge glued on somewhere. I'd revert all of that asap to get back to the original look that's a little more classy.

I like the E65... Bangle thought that bmw was at risk of becoming too evolutionary with it's design, and therefore blending in too much, offering little new, something that very much was the case for the next generation F01 7-Series where BMW clearly played things extra safe. The post-modernist approach of the E65 might be divisive, but it was unmistakable and bang on in trend at the time (almost the entire lineup of Renault and Nissan adapted the idea, plus countless more cars), and happened to sell brilliantly. I still consider a pre-facelift 745i once in a while, and then remember why I don't want to expose myself to the reliability nightmare of this generation bmw V8...

Brand new E36 for 3 grand: https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1523186704790789/?ref=facebook_story_share

Its great to see that your family had such a broad range of interesting cars, I wouldn't mind owning most of these! Those '95-02 Continentals were unfortunately known to blow their tansmissions, aside from that they seems like a great cruiser. Same engine as in my Mark VIII as well, just transversely mounted. Still need a proper workshop with a lift, then we are talking😂 I'm inclined to try that should there ever be any issues. Anything else would mean an engine out job anyway. My green Aurora leaks exhaust gases into the coolant so it wouldn't help much there unfortunately. I spent today finally having a closer look around the SL as well as cleaning the outside. Without an inch of filth I can at least tell what I am working with. Still have to do the wheels and reg plates. I'm not a huge fan of these original 5-spokes I have to admit, I need some inspiration what OEM or aftermarket wheels would suit the late R129 the best. The 8 hole wheels so common on 90s Mercedes would be an option but I think they suit the earlier pre-fl cars better. Years of crud and clean: The car will really benefit from a polish, that might have to wait for a bit longer. The engine bay received some attention though: Night and day compared to before. All fluids still look good, too! I took the covers off as there naturally was a lot of crud underneath as well. Judging by the RTV someone might have done the valve cover gaskets before. There's also some on what must be the upper timing cover? The engine is Mercedes' M112 3.2l V6, producing slightly over 220hp in the SL which should be okay for a cruiser, if not the 320hp+ in the 5.0l V8 (which my W140 has, amazing engine). Oddly enough the previous owner thought it was a V8... Twinspark too for added service costs yay. At least parts are cheap and easy to find as far as I can tell and it seems very easy to be worked on, it's so much smaller than the M119 5.0. While I'm still waiting for my replacement crank position sensor to arrive I've went through all the electric features to see what does and what doesn't work. I'm happy to report that everything works flawlessly including the Kenwood aftermarket stereo. I'm definitely missing one of the speakers in the drivers door though so I'll have to check whats up with that another time. I can't remember whether I felt the seat heaters either but its a good start! Obviously the soft top is the biggest potential issue. To test it I'd have to take the hardtop off so that'll be a job for another time. I had a look through all the junk in the boot as well. Fortunately everything that belongs in there seems to be present, including the original wind deflector, some tools and the original first aid kit. I just had to check the CD changer magazine and once again it didn't disappoint. Things like these always give you a pretty good idea of who might have owned the car before, and it seems to be a pretty similar story to the S8 in this case... When your sparewheel looks better than the actual wheels on your car... What must be the hydraulic pump for the softtop. The lower right corner is the only serious rust in the back. It's an odd spot, right above where the towhook sits. Must be where dirt collects? Should be an easy repair for someone with the skills hopefully. I also happened to find the service manual, which has stamps from Mercedes dealers and specialists around Worcester up until 123k miles. That was in 2013. However, with the car having only done 5k miles in the last 9 years (less miles than the typical oil change interval - ignore the time!) having the next stamp in there would mean I do indeed have a full service history with this car.😂 More cleaning tomorrow!

Haha, gotta love the Autoshite community, we even got people close to the dealer. I've already looked up their address, they are indeed still around! And yeah, the RWD 90s LT1 Fleetwood is easily one of my favorite Cadillacs, I'd love to own an Impala SS as well, the seller of my first Aurora had both an Impala SS and Saudi B-body Caprice SS which I really would love to own. I already have the Dutch '92 Caprice though, so theres that. Remember when I mentioned there might be another car... Well here it is! Yes, not only did I pick up the Deville the other day, part of the deal was also this Azurite Metallic 1999 Mercedes R129 SL320 that was dropped off yesterday! I didn't plan to be there and buy it, but one thing lead to another and I ended up doing a bundle deal that was just too hard to resist! The hardtop was included as well of course. And since I've been interested in the R129 and I love my W140 so much I'm very excited to get this one back on the road asap. Being a '99 its got the M112 V6, same V6 you find in pretty much any Benz of the time, including many recent W210 of the community. This makes finding parts much easier and cheaper compared to most other cars I own which is a welcome change. This one currently has no spark so I'll replace the crank sensor before digging in much deeper. Fortunately its easy to reach and only 23 quid for a Bosch one. Like the Cadillac its been standing in this muddy storage yard for a year so a thorough clean is long due. I'll start working on it properly tomorrow and write a list of bits it'll need. This is the first convertible I own, together with the first Cadillac theres definitely plenty to get excited about right now. It came with a set of used brake rotors and Lemförder control arms so it has seen some love in the past. Theres no doubt this will take much more time to get back into an acceptable state than the Caddy though. Not a lot space in those back seats. Trust me, we tried.😂 More updates soon!

No decent photos but a Rover 800 that looks to be clean must be worth 700 quid? https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1034634554153293/?ref=facebook_story_share

I've had a chance to go through the error codes stored in memory today. Aside from anything related to a dead battery things looked good, there's a height sensor that might cause the active suspension error I have but that hopefully is an easy fix. I've also had a look at the documents that came with the car. Turns out the car was bought by an American company director who moved over to London shortly after buying the car new in Lexington (Kentucky). Who wouldn't buy a car from this guy? I even have the pre-delivery inspection sheet and window sticker. Check this out! 41k $ would equal to over 77k $ today. I'm not sure how much the Concours trim was at the time but I feel like it wouldn't have been much more to just pick that instead and get all these options included. He apparently was important enough to get his own Wikipedia article as he was a founder of a large UK container/shipping/railroad company that went under in 2006. The car eventually sold on to the second owner after hardly moving at all (you can see on Streetview that it was replaced by a newer Cadillac DTS sometime in 2007), I don't have much info but it happened to end up in the hands of a used car dealer located literally 5 minutes from my house (in fact I vaguely remember seeing it on Ebay years ago). The 3rd owner who I purchased it from didn't have it for long before dumping it in the storage yard where I found it (along with many other cars, vans, a classic towtruck and a half finished coach camper conversion he needs to get rid of now). That means that the car was babied most of its life until somewhat recently, when it ended up in the wrong hands and quickly deteriorated. A classic story for many of these cars unfortunately. Being able to puzzle together most of its history adds a lot of value to the car for me though, its always incredible what stories many of these have had in the past (and what type of people owned them before). This one is no exception!

At this point it won't be long before I've owned every makes flagship offering of the 90s😂 I'd say the closest to a 4door Eldorado is the same generation Seville. The DeVille's platform only differs slightly though, with a longer wheelbase being the main difference. Underneath they are all very similar. Out of curiosity, is your blower motor insulation behind the engine crumbling to pieces as well?

Ha, I could open up a museum by now. Some day... We are now actually starting to look for property north/northwest of Newcastle, somewhere with space for an actual garage that isn't the typical useless garbage they sell you as a garage here. Hopefully the right place comes up for sale and I get a little bit closer to the dream.

Yes, it has happened! As the title revealed I finally own a Cadillac! And what a beast it is. What you see below is a 1996 Cadillac Sedan DeVille, Cadillac's FWD (!) Fullsize offering featuring the famous Northstar V8 (similar to that in my Olds Auroras). Yeah, the one blowing head gaskets left and right... I never really seriously considered getting one as the Rwd, body on frame Fleetwood is way more interesting to me (and even larger). With this DeVille coming up for sale literally 5 minutes from my GFs house, and with a deal to be had, how could I resist though? I don't have a huge amount of info yet. The car apparently stood in a garage in Sunderland for years before the current owner dumped it in a storage yard only about a year ago sometime around mot time. There it just sat until now, the yard is getting converted into self storage and everything must go. And boy are there some interesting cars there... The car clearly needs a clean, but with only 77k on the clock and a reasonably easy life it should clean up well enough. Had it run for a while, no signs of omghgf. Plans are to get it thoroughly checked asap, put an mot on (unless it needs a ton of work, which hopefully is not the case...) and then slowly restore it as I've done with my other cars before. More info soon! But wait, there is more... There may have been another car... More soon...

Not something you encounter on the road too often...