danthecapriman

Most likely!😆 A little bit of me wants to repaint it exactly the same, but do it properly this time! Wasn’t it ‘a thing’ in the 70’s to add that stripe onto your Morris Marina or whatever you had!? Maybe this could be a replica of that!

This one’s going to get a dunk in the paint stripper and a new paint job at some point! Nobody else bid on it though!? Starting price was a fiver, which is what I got it for. Even with the high postage I don’t think it was too bad a price?

Also a top tip from me! If your welding. Do not, ever, carry this out while wearing flip flops! I got a blob of weld splatter drop in between my toes, which I then struggled to get out quickly enough. It hurt!😆

Since it’s now marked as posted, that officially makes it mine! So, feast your eyes upon this beauty*! Spot-On 1100. With a fantastic custom paint job in the famous Starsky & Hutch style. Complete with paint brush bristles set into the white paint! Yes. Yes, it is a mess! But, it’s largely complete, just damaged bumpers. And it only cost me £5. Which I think is a bit of a bargain for a solid Spot-On.

Dry day today. Allegedly! Got the first skim of filler wet sanded down. It did reveal a small low spot right in the middle though, so I’ve just mixed a tiny bit more filler and slapped it on. You can just about see the low spot with the little rough dimples. Where the paper & block didn’t touch it. Ill give it time to dry then start sanding again!

This talk of Spot-On, Ive just won one on evilbay for a fiver! Paint is absolutely awful but it’s complete and in a decent state other than that. Though I might have to resort to plastic card sculpting to put a new front bumper onto it! I don’t think new ones for this model exist.

Looks like I wasn’t the only one whose bodywork plans got scuppered by the rain today then!😁

Nice haul! Matchbox DAF car transporter looks good, Matchbox Capri in hearing aid beige too. Corgi AMC pacer. What’s the red car between the Corgi Escort and army ambulance?

Decided today to fix the rusty bleb on the roof next to the sunroof. Id had a go at this a few years ago and skimmed off the rust and then shied away from welding the roof skin last time so plugged it with some chemical metal instead. This seems to have worked, to a point. Having ground into it today with a finger sander it’s definitely not been leaking. It seems to have sealed around the metal hole edges ok, but you can see where moisture has been getting in to the metal surface at the edges and started rusting it again. So, I’ve ground the whole bit down, to bare shiny steel and made a small metal disk to fit into the hole. Then welded that in with the usual overlapping spots of weld. It was a bit shit for the first couple of spots as the end of the welding wire had gone rusty into the gun and just splattered! I should have let a few inches out of the gun and cut it off really! First time I’ve welded for a while now, and I’d half expected the welder to play up but it was fine. Instead the auto darkening welding visor played up, which I can’t get working again so I had to this job without a visor! Aim the torch, close eyes as you weld, and so on! Not ideal so I’m going buy myself a new visor I think. You can see the top few welds weren’t great! Don’t use rusty wire kids! It’s a very small repair too so didn’t take much welding. Once it’s cooled off a bit I’ll grind the weld’s down and skim it with filler, rub that down and put a coat of paint on. It’s now seam welded metal so shouldn’t cause leaks anymore and it shouldn’t be able to move/expand/contract in the heat etc either, so I’m calling that fixed! After I’m done with this the headlining material needs gluing to the board and putting back into the car. Raining now so that’s that done for today!🤬 Managed to grind it smooth and get a skim of filler on so I’ve covered the car over and hopefully it’ll be able to go off. Hopefully I can sand it down & paint tomorrow.

Why did you have to post that!🤣 I can feel an eBay search coming on… Really nice looking model. The later version I’ve got isn’t quite as fine or well detailed but still pretty good.

My grandad had a white Renault 4 in Cyprus when he was over there working at RAF Akrotiri. He bought a brand new Morris Marina while he was there and intended to ship it home after his period in Cyprus was over, but it unfortunately got written off before that happened. As a stop gap he bought the Renault 4. This was the early 70’s, and was also the same time the Turkish army invaded the island. There was a lot of fighting and it was decided to evacuate British personnel and their families so the Renault was loaded up with whatever it could carry, my grandad, grandma, mum, auntie and uncle and they joined a British evacuation convoy from where they lived off base towards Akrotiri for evacuation by air. The little 4 didn’t put a foot wrong despite, literally a war going on around it! Here it is with the Union Jack in the window shortly before the evacuation. No idea what happened to it after they left. Although knowing the Cypriots it’s probably parked up on some wasteland somewhere!

That’s exactly what I was thinking when they asked. If it’d been some gobby oik I wouldn’t have entertained it, but they were so polite and enthusiastic I just couldn’t say no! You could just tell they were little petrol heads in the making so I thought I’d let them see it and get in. I think we should give kids or even adults like this the experience when we can. Not only to be nice but hopefully encourage what is a great hobby and one that’s running a risk of dying out if it’s not encouraged. Besides that, not everyone can have these things so it’s nice share it sometimes with others.

Unregistered!?!? I’ve not heard of this! It looks brand new. My grandads one was pretty much the opposite to that! Rusty, black tide mark around sills, dents… the front passenger door was actually bent right round the wrong way one morning as my grandad reversed out their drive my grandma opened the door to get out and the door hit the gatepost bending it right back the way it should’nt open! Later the same day grandad reversed it into a tree🤣 The punishment that car got over the years. It ended its days as a rally car! Two lads bought it after grandad ‘upgraded’ to a Y reg Metro (old itself at the time) as the Talbot was getting very rusty by then. They converted it to a rally car with a hot engine.

Another find today, I actually wasn’t going to keep this one, but someone convinced me otherwise! Solido 1/43 Talbot Horizon. My grandad had a T reg one in pea green with a tan interior many years ago. The first car I ever sat behind the wheel of actually! So this will become that car eventually!

Had a weird but funny one today! Sat indoors and the door bell rings. Look out the front window and there’s two young kids at the door, must have been 12 or 13, something like that. Answer the door and they’re really nicely spoken polite kids that have been passing by for the last few months on the way to school. Turns out they’re both really into cars, and old cars in particular! They’d seen the Mercury on the drive and wondered what it was and were wondering if they could have a look at it! One of them asked if it was a Lincoln, which he was actually very very close to being right about. Since they seemed so interested and keen I opened it up and let them have a sit in it and take a few pics. They were absolutely over the moon!😁 It’s actually so nice to see the younger generation get excited about stuff like this! Reminds me of how I was at that age. Maybe, hopefully letting them have a proper look will spark a lifelong interest in cars. Hopefully it’ll be those kids looking after these old cars in the future. Im a bit surprised they had the balls to knock the door tbh, but fair play. Hopefully that’s not something that gets them in trouble some day though.

Found this today!

Mines definitely a made in England one, so it’s an early one. Im going to have to keep an eye out for the others I’m missing now. Pretty sure my chances of getting a blue one are zilch but you never know! @FakeConcern that Camaro & Firebird pair look fantastic! Nice job👍

There’s a good chance I won’t be getting that one then!😁 I’ll have to be happy with this one, which is still nice. I’m guessing it was only this one and the plain white one that were made in uk? Most of the others seem to have slightly later dates so must all be Thailand/Macau/China made.

It’s the blue one I’m after but it’s a pig to find. Looks like USA issue though according to that site, which is probably why I’m struggling!

Does anyone know of a website that lists all the Matchbox models and the colour etc variations? Just want to have a look at the Sierra and see how many there actually are.

Jesus Christ!! All that money! Who can afford to spend money like that on one tiny old toy truck! Best of luck to them and all, but I think I’ll remain content painting my own.

Aren’t they all green?

That is a very good idea actually! Definitely the way to go I think.

They are both very good. Cortina’s stripes are slightly worn at the edges but nothing that detracts. That Sierra is really nice, I love the graphics on it. I didn’t actually realise they made that Sierra in UK, I thought they were all foreign made. That one must be quite an early version of it?

Odd Matchbox ones, nothing special, but just ones I like for whatever reason. Chevy stock car is a later Macau made one which I’ll probably strip & repaint. Selection of nice China/Macau/Thailand made Matchbox. The 480 is one I’ve never had until now, and it’s a really nice looking version of that car. Made in UK Matchbox. And this one, which I very nearly just discarded… It was absolutely filthy. But, it’s actually not bad at all given it’s age and easily broken bits still being there. The wheels are very worn too so I reckon this was someone’s favourite way back whenever. The base plate is hanging off too, so I’m going to strip it and repair/repaint it.