The Vicar

Nice spin in the Wooley

Picked up a starter today from a guy who really likes landcrabs..

This has just come up for sale and now I’m in a crisis:

To be honest, I’ve had no real need to use the heater since I bought it. It does still warm up; I never really imagined that it’d be much good after 50 years anyway. I never noticed that we never put the Lourdes on the new panel until the entire job was complete anyway…

Thanks all for the comments. Re the Lancia: it’s a cheap car, the cheapest on the market in italy in fact, but after spending the day with it today I must say, it’s not as disappointing as I imagined it would be. It drives nice, and I dare say it sounds a bit throaty, has plenty of room, and it’s nice and simple. If it was my money, I’d probably have a new Sandero, but it’s not completely terrible. I think this is the 13th year of this model on the market!

Lastly for today: I’m back in Rome for a bit, and picked up my new company car for while I’m here. Also my first brand new car, driven off the forecourt. I think it’s positively shite: 30 km on the clock, and that’s when I got home: 20th century tech: I peeled the plastic off the interior dome light and the whole unit fell out of the roof, while still sitting on the forecourt, so off to a great start. I probably won’t have much to say about it, but here’s its place in the thread anyway.

Turning back the clock a bit, this is what I sold in order to make room for the Volvo. A really lovely car in every respect, but a bit boring. 92 Camry 3.0 V6:

Now onto the Wolseley: I was browsing the classifieds last week and came across the ad not 10 minutes old. I have been on-and-off looking for an automatic landcrab (I even had a wanted thread here in 2021), so there was no question that I had to have it. Call made, arrangements set and this is how it the next day (ominously, perhaps, being sold by a funeral director…and promisingly, to a priest) Home the same night: The only real issue was a perished suspension hose: And we were back in business. First drive a few days later: And a slight improvement on the interior today: Whether or not it’s 100% period correct I don’t know, but it’s a big improvement on the old new one that was in the dash (see above pic) And that brings both the Volvo and Wolseley up to speed. I’ll do my best now to update this thread with news and happenings…

A couple of interior shots (it is cleaner now mind): And under the bonnet; impressive old lump:

Greetings gents, Instead of clogging up the news thread any more I have decided to contain my shite escapades to a single thread of my own. I’ve never been much good at being faithful to a project/ownership thread before, but I’ve noticed that my updates in the news thread of late have been reasonably frequent (perhaps too frequent) so I said I’d give it a go. So without further ado… Currently in the shed are the following two steeds: 1973 Volvo 164 and 1971 Wolseley 18/85 I bought the Volvo in April from the third owner who had it for just under 20 years. From what I can gather it has never been off the road for any extended period of time and it seems to have been in continuous but sympathetic use for all of its 50 years and 80,000 miles. It is a fine old barge and feels surprisingly modern/capable for its age and size. Fuel consumption aside it is more than happy to undertake daily duties with no major incidents, whether it be sitting in rush hour or cruising at legal motorway speeds, it takes everything in its stride. Here’s a couple of pics and a few words on what has been done so far: The day I picked it up: Lots of history; how bad can it be? Answer: bad.. Straight to work: I could post a million photos of this bit but none of it is my work, it is instead that of my very skilled (and patient) brother. The end result was very satisfactory for me and I was glad to be able to give the old thing a few more years yet on the road. First outing with the new windscreen scuttle: The car was/is otherwise very solid and didn’t/doesn’t require any more bodywork for now. New shocks and springs: Battery and alternator: Some fiddling with wires and we had clock lights once again: And that’s more or less where we’re at. It’s been a lovely, reliable old thing since. A few more pics: It does the shopping: The odd Sunday spin: And even a rare car show: That last picture was taken yesterday. Not really much else to say about it for now. I don’t have a way with words and this thread probably won’t be very interesting but hey-ho… I like this pic:

First show today in the 164. Nice experience.

The last Z Dublin plate was ZU 9999, issued in 1954 (Z 1 was issued in 1927 for reference), then for a few years they tried some other combinations (ARI 1 came after ZU 9999) until 1971 when they went back to the classic Z plates for Dublin, and they just inverted the old series, so instead of Z 1 there was 1 Z etc

Maiden voyage in the Woolley this evening

Out for a spin in the Woolley and this 3 series pulled up beside me

Authentic* BMC ownership experience

Bought a new stablemate for the 164…

Not sure if anyone is familiar with Cycling Mikey on YouTube, check out this recent victim with nice taste:

A lovely Sunday spin in the Volvo. Covered 70 miles in supreme comfort and sat comfortably at motorway speeds. I love this car

Out to B&Q today for odds and ends and while sitting in the car park noticed this chap making a beeline for me. Turned out to be a junior sales exec from a Volvo show room across the road; he saw me pull in as he was queuing for lunch in McDonald’s came over to ask if I’d bring the 164 over to their showroom for their social media person to take a few pics. Definitely a first for me, but a lovely experience. Really good to see young guys si enthusiastic and knowledgeable about their marque //takes off flat cap and slippers

Honestly, I didn’t realise there were no vents on the new scuttle until it was too late. In any case, the budget definitely didn’t allow for the effort required to put them in. Will have to see how it affects things

Quick recap on the 164: Is it an amazing, factory finish job? Far from it, but I’m glad that there is actual metal under the windscreen now and I hope it has given the old girl a few more years yet. Maiden voyage to Halfords yesterday for bulbs and trinkets:

A Fiat 500….hearse

Wow! What was it like?

Not quite a Today, but I had a City:

Or a Rayton Fissore Magnum, Italy’s answer to the P38. I see this one often in central Rome