Cheezey

I saw the longest car in the world the other day. I have more museum pics if any one is interested. 

Randomly we got a message of a lady down my road who got our details from the antique centre because she had her departed husbands old Escort to sell and asked if we knew anyone interested in it, me obviously being a sucker for a old Ford and having just sold the Mondeo agreed to take a look.
I was surprised when she opened the container where it had been stored since 2010!

So the story is her husband used to work for Tescos and cashed in his shares in 1989 to buy this XR3i Cabriolet from Dagenham Motors, It was his pride and joy and he used to go cruising on Southend seafront and around Romford and Dagenham in it during the 90s before getting a company van in 2000 and parked it, his plan was to recommission it when he retired but he sadly passed away in 2021 aged 59 after laying down for a hour as he felt rough and passed away in his sleep, very sad indeed.

For a car which hasn't seen the road for 24 years it seems VERY good, there no rust on the body or arches or behind the kit that i can see, the rear floor has a lot of surface rust but I'm hoping that will clean up ok.

I agreed to buy it so yesterday my mate came over so we could collect it, it was a bit of a faff as the rear brakes had locked on but we managed to drag it onto the trailer, eventually!



The first time it had seen light for 14 years! as you can see it's very of it's period! I personally think it's a Dagenham Motors demonstrator as its shows two previous owners, not one, i know his wife registered after he died but I'm thinking the garage owned it for a bit too, especially as it's all skirted up, shame that the paperwork hasn't turned up yet and carbaba doesn't give keeper change dates anymore as I'd be really interested to know if it had a keeper change in 1989.




What's peoples thought's on the wheels? they are 15" Oscam Windy alloys which have been on it since new, I'm quite tempted to get them refurbished again.

Half leather Recaros! very posh! and check out the hifi!


big Alpine speakers in the car too, just a shame the stereo isn't in it, the lady thinks it's in the loft and will let me know when she finds it. i think it's a special edition model as they only made a few in Aquafoam blue and with the high spec of leather and electric roof back in 1989.

we managed to push it into the garage, tomorrow I'll make a start on seeing what parts i need and the condition of the belt before turning it over.
and here it is in it's glory days when it was brand new

Not bad for a C reg maestro...

Being an old timer myself, I'm working on a Daimler V8 (Jaguar MkII body shell) at the moment.  Turner's 2.5 ltr V8 is a sweet motor, and I like this particular car because she's the less-than-usual spec with manual gearbox with overdrive. I'm presently working on various mods including a sliding sunroof for summer cruising ..which I find particularly excellent when driving along avenues of trees such as through Thetford forest. 
 

^ I'm also converting an MGB front under-bumper valance panel to fit (..originally they didn't have a panel under there),  and soon I'll be modifying the rear wheel arch spats to my own design.   These are wonderful old-school cars and the Daimler branded cars are presently still affordable.  I'm simply modifying certain aspects to my own tastes.
This car was well less than £10,000, as a scruffy but roadworthy sub-90k mile example.  In fact there's one on ebay now for half that price (also a manual with overdrive) but needing a clutch.
The jobs I'm doing would be well within budget.  However I've now blown it !    ..because she's booked in to be stripped down for a bare-metal respray with epoxy primers, inside and out, and underneath..  oops !   
Work in progress < Here >
Pete

Just a new shell is teh £10k blown.
Back in 2007 I took this £1,300 Mini


and spent another £7,000 and ended up with this

The seats are from a mid 1990s Mini that were retrimmed in red leather.


I'm not a fan of big wheels on Minis so went down to 10s in the end.

Sold a few years back after another wheel change.

I should get round to finishing this one that has been in a lock up since 2020 stalled




 

I always thought a modern cruiser Capri build would be cool. Rather than the usual ‘stick a V8 and wide arches’. 
Mk3 shell. Painted lightish metallic blue.  No spoiler. Modern lights. Maybe a few chrome or brushed bronzey coppery brass trim touches (those would need careful consideration).
Almost tan interior. Modern comforts, electric everything, air con, nice radio etc.
1.6 Ecoboost engine and maybe even an auto box.
A push for £10k. You need to start with a junk shell and DIY every last bit. 

This:

Plus the mechanical bits of this:

With the remainder to be spent on paint (purple flake with white stripes), wheels (normal size alloys with teal paint), adapted body-kit and sensible single exhaust setup.  A few tweaks ought to be made to the engine, too.  

Don't forget this:

We all know about badge engineered models, think bubble fiesta and mazda 131 etc, we also all know of earlier designs carrying on in production like the Dong Feng chinese citroen ZX's but can we think of many cars that bear a seriously striking resemblance but werent  anything to do with the original design (allegedly)
I'll start us off, I give you the skoda favorit that, to my eyes must be a kind of rip off of the Citroen Visa basic outline
Exhibit A

I always thought a modern cruiser Capri build would be cool. Rather than the usual ‘stick a V8 and wide arches’. 
Mk3 shell. Painted lightish metallic blue.  No spoiler. Modern lights. Maybe a few chrome or brushed bronzey coppery brass trim touches (those would need careful consideration).
Almost tan interior. Modern comforts, electric everything, air con, nice radio etc.
1.6 Ecoboost engine and maybe even an auto box.
A push for £10k. You need to start with a junk shell and DIY every last bit. 

I'd turn my 645 into a sort of CSL
£3k for the car
£1k wheels/tyres
£500 brake upgrade (4 piston calipers from an F30)
£2k Interior upgrades (Cobra Nogaros (re-trimmed, throw away rear seats and some i-drive crap etc) 
£1k LSD and new hardware to suit
£1500 suspension Eibach springs/Bilstein shocks/Meyle HD arms etc.
£1k various engine refresh bits (maybe a remap if any funds left)

Fairly base looking standard Sierra Mk1 but with a 2.0 Zetec fitted, using as many Ford parts as possible. 

For a number of years I also fancied building a mk2F Polo Coupe. Painted pinky raspberry, colour coded bumpers but black rubbing area. Ronal turbo wheels. Lowered. Red tinted rear lights. White front indicators. Nothing too wild engine wise, 1.6 or something. 
Interior would be some nice Recaro recliners from the Demon Tweeks catalogue. 

I think I would be fairly safe and possibly boring with this. 
MGB GT. Chrome bumper or rubber bumper and convert. 
Upgrade suspension and brakes. Nice steering wheel, nicely trimmed interior, DAB radio with hands free. 
 Nice wheels. Maybe some modern lighting. 
The big thing would be drive train. Some sort of modern multivalve four cylinder engine, 5 speed gearbox and an LSD. 
Excluding labour, if you can get a half decent base car for £5-6k it should be achievable. 

A Volvo 245 with a 2.5 TDI stuffed in it, with the pump wound up.
I can't decide if it should be hearing aid beige or metallic midnight purple.

I really want a Volvo P1800 with a T5 engine.
Am I allowed to buy a rotten base car? I reckon £10k would cover a poor condition P1800 shell and a working b5254t.
Edit:

Pre facelift Rover P6, ideally an Estoura but a saloon would be fine. Converted to run a 3.9 litre EFi Rover V8 with a ZF 4HP22 or 4HP24. Probably uprated brakes just to be on the safe side but the rest left as stock as is practicable.
If there's anything left over it can be spent on fuel.

I'd buy an IMP with the 'BMW Bike engine' mod...
And, likely, 4 cans of Stella with the change...
🚙💨

How about a mid engined 1303 on a 914 floorpan?
Apparently once you've removed the rear seat it's just four bolts.

For a number of years I also fancied building a mk2F Polo Coupe. Painted pinky raspberry, colour coded bumpers but black rubbing area. Ronal turbo wheels. Lowered. Red tinted rear lights. White front indicators. Nothing too wild engine wise, 1.6 or something. 
Interior would be some nice Recaro recliners from the Demon Tweeks catalogue. 

I think I would be fairly safe and possibly boring with this. 
MGB GT. Chrome bumper or rubber bumper and convert. 
Upgrade suspension and brakes. Nice steering wheel, nicely trimmed interior, DAB radio with hands free. 
 Nice wheels. Maybe some modern lighting. 
The big thing would be drive train. Some sort of modern multivalve four cylinder engine, 5 speed gearbox and an LSD. 
Excluding labour, if you can get a half decent base car for £5-6k it should be achievable. 

There’s interesting cars from after 1990 for sure but I think it’s the people at these car shows
Ford Enthusiast - Has the Ford Motorsport jacket, always goes ‘shame it’s not a 2.8’ or whatever when someone has brought a lovely old 2.0 GL out.
MGB Man - always farting about with something and never washes his hands properly, constantly ingrained with EP90. Knows exactly how many rivets a 1967 Roadster should have on the top hat something or other
Family Bullshitter - Cannot help himself with quoting an absolute horseshit fact like ‘The police actually still have over a 100 unregistered Rover SD1 as part of a strategic reserve for when electric cars come along’
My A3 would piss all over that - We know that a 1983 Capri wouldn’t win a raffle, it doesn’t renew it completely pointless against your A3.
The liar - Furtively looks at something then interrupts mid conversation with some shite about how his dad had a Mondeo Cosworth, Ford only made one of them and what with his dad stacking shelves in Fine Fair, he was chosen to test drive it. It had 426 horsepower and he did 185mph on the Dymchurch bypass with it. It’s in his dads lock up and he takes it out at night when nobody can see it. And it would piss all over your fucking Tesla on a race! 

More shite has arrived!

Cheeky little chappy...

Nice!
I'm going to enjoy wafting around in this.