r.welfare

I’ve a Touran the same age (good car), where is yours rusty? Mine is only scabby on the tailgate where the handle and number plate lights are.

Yes, it looks like the late Sir John to me.

GM H-body; Chevrolet Monza, Buick Skyhawk, Oldsmobile Starfire or Pontiac Sunbird from 1975-1980. The squared-off chrome edge on the rear side window is unusual.

Wonderful. I owned one of these 15 years ago. They are deceptively rapid. Briefly donning my anorak, I can see rear head restraints which means yours is an ‘87 model year.

Really pleased to see this, as I owned this Cavalier for a few months in 2007 (I did a double-take when seeing the registration on the Hubnut video). Bought for £100 from the 97 year old original owner to save it from being scrapped, I put a pair of front wings on it (paint match looks better than I remember so maybe they’ve been done again!) and had the inners welded up. Of the 30-odd cars I’ve owned I think this is the only one that survives (it’s possible the ‘78 Opel Rekord I sold to a guy in Belfast still lives too), which I never would have put money on at the time. https://api.flickr.com/photos/43761783@N03/6354589635/

I spent a fair bit of back-to-back wheel time in both flavours of 1.4 petrol about 15 years ago (my wife had the 16v, my mother in law the OHV) and the old plodder was nicer in day to day driving. The 16v went well but only if you wound it right up; there was bugger-all low down torque. Do they have any obvious faults at this advanced age? I hardly see them day to day, but I assume that’s natural attrition at work.

Ah, memories. I learned to drive in my mum’s when they were new. Frisbee the rubber dash mat, it’s a pain in the arse sliding off in hard cornering.

I had a ‘78 Rekord that colour. Opel were turning out good looking designs back then.

Drop him an eBay message to say if it all falls through to let you know. Has worked for me in the past.

I’m no great mechanic but it was ok. The rearmost ones each side are the hardest as there’s not much clearance against the inner wings. There’s just a lot of engine in the bay. I changed a headlight at the same time and that was a faff. The engine note makes it all worthwhile

You can do them topside using a socket set with a universal joint if you take the airbox and battery out. You’ll still remove some of the skin off your knuckles though.

Good memory, same colour, I reckon that was a good 14 years ago! (EDIT: it was, bought Sep ‘05, sold Apr ‘06). It was a time of low scrap value so I paid Shadow money for it. Quite the sleeper with the Astra GTE engine. Got scrapped after I sold it.

On my slightly later one (59 plate), if you flick the wiper switch down a few seconds after removing the key, the wipers park in the vertical position. Worth a try?

I hope TEH SHADOW is back on form with another Suzuki Wagon R

Two MOT passes back to back this morning. Touran’s done nearly 20,000 miles since the last one - advisory for rear pads which are ‘in stock’. Then my brother’s new-to-him Subaru - thankfully pronounced solid underneath and advised on front discs and a couple of bushes. A slight blow from the Y pipe in front of the rear silencers nearly put the lambda over on the emissions test so need to see what can be done there.