stevek

@Billy - Medhurst - I see your thinking but I don’t think I want to put that much time and money into it for it just to be ‘another’ 309. As you can probably tell I’m not one to just frag it, I want to hang onto it but not start a project on it now. @JMotor - ahem 309 wheels you mean! Yeah I think they suite it well. It was a bit of a bugger to fit them despite the pcd and offset being correct, needed to convert the Peugeot m12 flat seat bolt fixings to standard conical seats to use m14 bolts into the Porsche hubs. @SunnySouth - I’m not against that vision, 100% no stick on tat bollox. Or sanded paint either, ew. Blue one first though. -Steve-

Hi there morrisoxide, yes I still have the 924. I had to take it off the road at the end of last summer to save some pennies but it’s ready to roll when I sort my finances out. Actually that’s a small fib, it needs tyres desperately and a bonnet catch return spring but that’s all. It’s still as rough and ready as ever but it’s a blast. -Steve-

It seems like a busy forum, cool. Time to answer those comments: @BeEP - It’s nice to find someone on my wavelength. @N Dentressangle - ‘smarter and more interesting’ you say. I think it was more a case of ‘uglier and boring’ to the masses, though I’ve always preferred it myself too. @grogee - I wish they were Gti’s that i’d hoarded but heyho. And yes the gold one is probably a dead car. But my might never happen secret hairbrain plan, that isn’t a resto, wouldn’t care about the rustyness or most of its other problems either. Shame it’s a secret really. Thanks for the welcome. @sutty2006 - ‘how bad is the gold one?’ It’s bad. There is plenty of rust, probably the same amount as the blue one, just distributed differently. But no windscreen has trashed the dashboard, door cards seats and carpet so it can’t easily return to a standard car. Always fond of a mk3 fezzer, my mum had a j-reg one and the first car I welded to get through and mot was my old housemates n-reg. @Hertz - ooh a 1.6 as a first car, swanky, I couldn’t get the insurance! @motorpunk - Sri’s do look good and probably sporty enough for most. Cheers. @SunnySouth - ‘Fascinating tale, love stuff like this!’ Lol. It’s a little peek behind all those decaying cars you see doted around and wonder WHY! Garage wall art, bbq conversion, trailer, many ideas have been bandied around and have not been ruled out. @SEATMad - ‘must be shit to see something that holds so much sentimental value in that condition’ I’ve had almost 20yrs to come to terms with it. Thanks for the welcome. @cort1977 - My mate at school crashed his mk2 Astra 1.3, I didn’t really like his car I’m afraid. But I did admire his three way SQUARE driver parcel shelf speakers. @rob88h - You might need to get your head checked! But I know what you mean. I’ll get some more ‘deterioration’ pics up at some point, get the Kleenex ready. @dozeydustman - I know I derated them earlier as rattly and rolly polly, which I stand by, but yeah they’re still a decent drive. Better than the mk6 escort that followed it for sure. @Tenmil Socket - ‘Why didn't you do this sooner?’ LOL good call. But I actually did, I think it lasted a few years before the UV got it and the wind shredded it. Should have replaced it Doh. -Steve-

Ok some interest then, great. I’ll answer some comments soon but first up another round of catch up… The blue one. About a year ago I tickled the engine back into life after it’s 13 yr slumber. This mainly involved chucking a fresh battery on it and sticking the send and return fuel lines into a pop bottle of fuel. First startup video: https://youtu.be/R-tsokrxPUQ?si=ADZhWxv9PShV9AaS It started pretty easily considering, mind it sounded dire without an exhaust and the accelerator linkage was stuck so I could only hold it running on the choke, oh and it was pissing fuel from every hose at an alarming rate. Since then I have: rigged up a temporary fuel tank, just a 5ltr fuel can with two barbs added on. replaced the fuel hoses unstuck the carb accelerator linkage stuck the exhaust back on cleaned up the rotor and cap contacts. …it now starts ok, sounds ok, idles reasonably well, the fan kicks in when it gets hot and it responds to poking the accelerator. Nice. Next is to set about making it move, I’ve done some work on this front too but have not achieved motion yet. I’ll cover this in another post shortly. -Steve-

Hi, I’ve been aware of the brown forum for many years, but generally hung around on another well known blue hued forum, sort of on and off anyway. Most of my ‘fleet’ (if you can call a collection of long term broken cars that) is probably more at home on here but my most recent car tinkering finally pushed me over the line to sign up on here. Ya see I’ve been spending a bit of time recently poking and tinkering with the longest standing, many years abandoned, heaps in my collection and I suspect this is the only place I might scrape some interest in what is basically a hopeless cause. Said heaps have been abandoned rotting on my drive for 17 and 19yrs respectively, but the house where they languish is going on the market soon so their existence hangs precariously in the ballence. Friends and family have been telling me to scrap them for about a decade now so their calls are almost deafeningly loud now. It would certainly be the sensible thing to do. For reasons beyond common sense I want to move them to my current house which means making them mobile again. I mean ‘mobile’ as in I can load them onto a trailer and preferably drive them up my short but annoyingly steep driveway, not as in make them ready for the road. Anyway, so what do you make of these two beauties? Artefact 1 - The gold one - 1989 1.3 XL special equipment This was my first car, bought by a much younger self circa 1999. I saved up the £600 by working weekends in Burger King while doing my A levels. It was well used and abused until 2005, but it’s been parked up ever since. It was retired as a fully functional car on 109k miles, I just replaced it (with a 34k miles 1.3 mk6 Escort I bought as Cat D salvage and returned to the roads). It donated its windscreen to the blue one around 2009 after vandalism so it’s been open to the elements for a while too, it’s become home to some ferns growing in the carpet. Artefact 2 - The blue one - 1987 1.3 GR Profile This was my mates car for a year but he donated it to me when the MOT ran out, in 2007 according to the MOT history. The original idea was to fix this one up using the gold one for spares. After a couple of years ignoring it I did drag it to an MOT test in 2010 which it failed due to much more rampant rust than I had given it credit for, it’s sat ever since. So what ya thinking of doing with them I hear you say! Well, the gold one has probably (though not certainly) had it’s day as a regular 309, but I’m sentimental about it and have a very harebrained idea for it in the back of my mind. It might never happen but I want to hold on to the possibility, so the goal is to just move it and sling a car cover over it. The blue one however is calling out to live once more, I want to get it back on the road. I’m better skilled to weld it back up now than I was back then, and once the old house is gone I should be blessed with more time and lower outgoings which should help. I just kinda fancy fixing it up a bit, I want to feel the mighty power of the Simca rattle box engine and savour the rolly polly handling on skinny tyres once more. But firstly I just need to move it so I can achieve priority no1 which is to get the old house up for sale. There you go lots of waffle, I’ll post about where I’m up to and what I’ve got stuck on soon, if anyone cares. -Steve-