Andy F

When we bought this house in '16, the garage had a partition room at the back. Fully soundproofed, it was the previous owners' music room. For a couple of years, we left it at that, using the back room to stores the Mini bits, and the main garage held the shell, my tools and the tumble drier.

Eventually, I bought the MX-5 and decided I'd much rather have it nice and dry in the evenings, so after a few beers, I got my hammers out and took the partition wall down.

Took a while, but eventually, I was left with no wall, but a lot of mess to clean up:

Eventually, after much sweeping, shifting and organising, I finally got to a point where the Mini and the MX5 could live indoors in harmony. A crude workbench was fashioned down the side from a leftover bit of kitchen worktop, balanced on top of my rolling toolbox and another metal storage box.

This was all done in Aug '18. The Beat was purchased in Oct '18 and immediately leapfrogged the queue to live indoors, leaving the Mazda to stay outside in the pissing rain. Sorry Mazda.
Now, the eagle-eyed amongst you would have noticed the plug sockets and light switches dangling from the wall. These were formerly attached to the partition wall, and just stayed dangling there, getting in everyones way until recently. With me finally calling time on the Mini, the BX needed to be the next priority to come inside for some work.
So, with all the cars evicted onto the driveway, the first port of call was to ensure the Beat and Mini were adequately protected from the elements during their time outside. The Beat was easy, we had the cover from the MX-5 and some bungee cords, thankfully in the nick of time, as it pissed down just as the cover was thrown on!
The Mini shell was a bit trickier, the shell sat on a wooden pallet on wheels, so we just bought a really sturdy large tarpaulin and stapled it all the way around in such a way that rain would just run down and off the car. Winner!

Next job was to relocate the light switch and plug sockets to the walls/ceiling to make some space.

Then came the massive fucking around of shifting stuff around to achieve the goal:

 
The vision was slowly starting to come together, thanks to my willing volunteer MrsH
 

After a bit more tidying, I had the big test.
Would/Could Herman fit in the garage?
The answer?

Happy days. With the BX in there, as was the intention, there was plenty of walking round room too!

And empty, there's plenty of room for DIY projects. A lot of the racking will go when the Mini leaves.

Then, using the spare chipboard left over from ripping down the partition wall, I hung it back up intending to use it as a tool shadowboard. 

 
Thankfully, someone on Facebook was disposing of a set of bedroom cabinets for free. A quick visit, some screws and baton provided me with the final product.
In order to free some surface space, I mounted the stereo to the sides of the cabinets and added a Bluetooth adapter. I also assigned the most important cupboard in a garage:


Lastly, my next door neighbour gave me a spare sodium street lamp he had kicking about. A quick loom knocked up to check it works:

Then it was a case of mounting it on top of the garage and wiring it up. 

 
(Ignore the blanket, that was just on there to test the light sensor!)
And when night falls, the garage and driveway are suitably illuminated, as is half the garden.

So, I now have a garage I can actually work in, and a project car I'm really keen to get back on the road.

That's me up to date now, so any and all car goings-on will all fall within this post.
Thanks for reading

I'm quite pleased with my car history, the problem is I wish I'd kept them all, except the Seat Alhambra
1987 Citroen AX 11RE - Had this for years, fitted GT interior, loads of extra interior bits from the upper models, loved it.
1993 Rover 218 SLD turbo - Had this for a few years too, brilliant bit of kit. I really wanted a Xantia (they were quite new then!) but this one came from a well known lover of cars, it even went out to the states and back again with the owner who had it from new. It never gave any trouble and frankly was excellent.
1995 Xantia 1.9 Turbo D - What I always wanted. Had it for years and years until it developed an LHM leak on a return pipe. I was convinced I needed something more modern by the, (this was 2009) so bought a C5. In fact I ended up replacing the pipe and sold it to a friend who had it a few more years. Shouldn't have sold that one.
2001 Citroen C5 - Fine car, quiet, comfortable, but niggly problems I hadn't experienced in other cars. On one of the times it was broken I borrowed my Dad's Xantia and much preferred it to C5 so I went out and a bought a
2001 Citroen Xantia 2.0 HDi - Had this for years and did about 100,000 miles in it changing only oil and spheres. In hindsight best car I've owned. At that time I was regularly having 26 trumpets, 8 tubas plus laptop my work etc. It just wasn't quite big enough so I bought a 
Citroen C8 2.0 Hdi - Despite negative reviews it was excellent and much better than the Seat Alhambra that I can't remember where it fits in.
Eventually sold C8 (needed more mpg) and wife's Mini 1275 to buy VW T25 which we've had 8 years and now in need of work when I've finished the house...!
So I bought another Xantia.
Then another for spares and ended using the spares one as it was an Exclusive and had lots of toys.
Sadly the exclusive went from sailing through every MOT to disintegrating underneath so was sold. And a 
Saab93 convertible turbo was bought cheaply as a stop gap. Fixed the roof, had it remapped and kept it way longer than planned. child number 3 meant it had to go, so I bought another Xantia, an estate this time. Fab
Wife has had succession of 306 and Xsara Picasso alongside the above which have all providing excellent service. I enjoyed the 2.0 HDi 306 , great fun!

Utterly seamless rear indicator installation there, looks like Ford put them there themselves.

Indeed, it looks like 90% of it is the escort you know and love.., just one last 10 %of the front and rear got "improved" I guess to suit American lighting and 5 mph crash regulations and  errr tastes (wot no cheese on it!) The result is something familiar but... wrong.
 
 
Did they rust that badly?        I'll get me coat....😂🤦‍♂️

I miss my Ax, an 1987 E reg 1.1. First car, all the adventures etc, added loads of stuff from ones out the breakers yard, digital clock in roof, extra plastic bits. Old square interior definitely the best. 
Will dig out some photos. 

Saab 9-5? Like a Volvo but more GMy.
Audi A6 Allroad that's broken? or soon to be broken?

That's definitely not an audi, well bought! 

Ever started out on a  journey late on a dark horrible night out in the sticks, half a mile later hit a bump in the road and all the lights go out?
Then naturally assume that Lucas the Prince of Darkness has paid you a visit and continue your journey by pulling the hi beam flash constantly and hovering over the brake pedal to give yourself some rear lights if anyone comes up behind you,
Do this for 20 miles until you reach civilization and stop under a street lamp and see that when you were pissing about with the choke, it was you that turned the lights off!
Old minis were shit sometimes!

Loving this thread, some cool stuff mentioned and pictured. That XC70 with roof tent excited my particulars a bit 😍 Very cool beans.
Of course what you really need to do if you want a motorhome/camper/whatever is this:
Get pissed off that there are no houses you want to buy within your budget Look at camper base vehicles on ebay whilst a bit pissed Show OH a cool* one you've found Fall off chair when they suggest buying it to "live the dream" etc Buy it blind Drive fecking miles, hungover, to literally the other end of the country to get it Drive it home in misery cos some twat fitted coilovers that were so badly adjusted that the only suspension on the front was basically the strut top mount rubber Realise it does <20mpg but is also SLOW AF Also realise although it has had some good work done, there is a fuckton more to do and it is really a bit tatty and unloved Once home and consoled with hair of the dog (and more) see that whilst you were driving to the Scottish border from the south coast, an almost ideal* house has been listed for sale Buy said house with only 1 parking space (FFS!) Use base vehicle to move house with (bonus) Use vehicle very little (despite expensive running costs) for 2 years cos you can't afford the money/time to fettle and convert it, nor do you have space to keep if off the road Bitch about it on AS. But I would totally recommend it, I have received great pleasure in planning what I will eventually do with ours and it has been a great utility vehicle so far, despite it's foibles/issues. Also, how many Volvo 740 Hearse campervans are there around? None that I know of. Here is the offender at Shitefest '19

The engine is hung right out the back, rear wheels are driven.
The results on an even vaguely slushy road in the winter is predictable...
It's downright creepy as in the cab you honestly can barely even hear the engine...
Some of the larger coaches used a conventional front/mid engined coach with an unpowered trailer...Know Stagecoach Bluebird had a couple of them, but sadly I never had a chance to travel on one. 
I believe the reason for having the "trailer" powered was something to do with driver licensing rules...if the front part was powered it was classed as a vehicle & trailer so you'd need a D+E licence...whereas if the trailer pushes the front it's not considered a trailer so you can drive it on a normal category D licence. 

Engine is in the back. Rear wheels are driven. The rest is witchcraft 

I am now imagining the size of the bulb kits with both front headlamps and tail lamps for some led lamp equipped cars and vans where the bulbs aren't replaceable.

A car with apparently minimal redeeming features, BaSE spec.
This is AS man! Of course we would..

Train achieved. 20 minutes ahead of schedule. Winning! 

 
Goods train passing through 

 
 

I love collections, it makes me feel I am out and about on the pull without leaving my desk!
 

Late HDi Xantia would probably be my vote.  Not sure if you'd quite hit the target MPG in general use but it must be close.
Yes there are plenty of horror stories out there, but they are absolutely a dependable car once the well documented bits of preventative maintenance are taken care of, and the hydraulics are nowhere near as terrifying as rumour would have you believe.
They're worth pennies so it should be easy enough to get one and give it a thorough going over without breaking the bank.  Comfy car to spend time in that won't make you want to gouge your eyes out with a dull spoon or need to hire a chiropractor during the commute.

I love our 205 1.8, and quite like my new 1.4, but I think a 206 HDI with a decent remap would make an excellent commuting weapon

Boom!!! 
 
One brown Nova! 
 
My view as I walked out the front door... 

So yes, wasn’t too hard to work out that it is indeed a Brown Nova. The story of my username is that my very first car was a Brown Nova (but in SR hatchback flavour) and it was well known (and ridiculed) among my friends at the time. when @cms206 shared one for sale on my facespace I was determined to resist... but my willpower isn’t strong. 
 

So brown.... 

 
Massive respect to @worldofceri who had it at my door at 7am so I wasn’t late for work, quick look round suggests bodywork is not perfect but ok, interior looks pretty good.  
Has been dry stored for a long time, so recommission needed. P.O. says he had it running and driving before sale, time will tell. I’ll have a proper poke around later. 
But now I’m stuck in work wishing I was at home living out my teenage dreams in a Brown Nova! 

Having first-hand experience of driving a 15 year old skoda felicia (with airbag) into the back of a Vauxhall insignia at moderate speed on the m27 in 2011, the airbag failed to deploy. I think the general consensus is that they DO have a BBE date, but no-one replaces them and certainly nowhere wants a pile of out-of-date airbags lying about so they get left in situ.
I think I heard/read somewhere that the default failure mode is that they don't trigger, rather than decide to go off randomly while you're sat in a queue at McDonalds drive-thru one day, showering the postcode with cold chips and impacting chicken nuggets through your forehead.

Yikes, that's a crazy car buying story! Didn't realise the Corsa had given that much grief!
That story reminds me of when I bought a clearly knackered 1987 AX off a bloke on the towpath of the Gloucester Sharpness canal in the dark. But without the stately home bit. It was only destined to be a parts donor car, but that didn't make the journey home any less eventful.
Sounds like a thermostat stuck open to me.

"Keeping You Moving" it would do when it goes boinggg !!!!! ?

That reminds me, I need some new batteries.
Good luck! 

That reminds me, I need some new batteries.
Good luck! 

That reminds me, I need some new batteries.
Good luck! 

Didn't that crush the rest of the SJ?