greengartside

Things that make me happy #172. I’m one for owning a press car - there just seems to be an extra bit of pride and ‘pub bragging rights’ in having a car that Clarkson has revved the bollocks off or been launched around Silverstone at 104.8 mph. It’s also nice to see it when it was new and what was fitted on the car before an acquisition. I found this picture of a Focus TDCi Titanium estate on t’interwebs… ET57 OAA - Focus 2.0 TDCi Titanium Estate. Imagine my delight when I was driving through town yesterday and spotted this very car going up a side road. Annoyingly I was driving at the time so no photo opportunity, but I have seen it before at least twice so I know it’s a local car to me. It’s sister, ET57 OAB, is also a 2.0 TDCi Titanium but a hatchback and was a tow car in Practical Caravan magazine many years ago. And I’ve found out my mate is selling this very car at the moment. What are the chances! GRIN FACTOR : 1627372975.

Here’s something that I’ve never seen or heard of until today. A 2012 Dongfeng Sokon Automobile (or DFSK for short) Loadhopper pickup truck. Powered by a 1.3i Petrol engine of unknown origin. These are Chinese-made and shipped over whole to the UK for distribution here. Not a very good seller by all accounts. Rather too much like a BMW at the front which may have upset the Germans a bit.

The SportKa in happier times, last September… According to the advert, it was on the Isle of Wight so it’s done a few miles since then!

I need a Mini in my life now. So many little fun mods to do on them it seems!

“Campbell done”?? “DONE, M9”.

I’ve got a real hankering for one of these now. I’ve always liked them and my bezzer had a ‘03 One 1.6i and now has a 16-plate Coupe. I bet they are a bloody riot to drive. I sat in one this morning and was still surprised as to how much room there is inside.

SMOL update on the Modus. First major drive of it, and I am very impressed. The little 1.6 16v ran like a sewing machine. Nice and comfy as well. I was waiting for dad to finish his hospital appointment and was bored. I found a secret compartment in the passenger seat and when I flipped the base up…. Treasure! The last owner had left his CD collection in there. Luckily it seems him and my dad share the same taste in music - sadly the CD on the top must have broke when someone sat in the seat. It was quite grubby despite looking clean… So we called in at the local hand car wash and they went to work on it. They even cleaned out all the green slime from the window rubbers and other areas. Shiny as a penny. Next job is the timing belt (and dephaser pulleys) which is scheduled for next week. Also having a new set of front pads put on it. There is a creaking noise coming from the OSF which I believe is the top mount which really should have been replaced when the spring went, but hey ho. I haven’t told dad yet.

@BorniteIdentity I didn’t realise you had kept it. Glad you have, it really is a stunning little car.

Cheers Wuv, yeah I’m sure they were replaced for a reason. I don’t think dad’s too fussed either - I’ve done the hard bit of putting the adjuster in so at least it’s MOT-acceptable.

Major news in the Greengartside fleet. FATHA has since disposed of the troublesome Skoda Octavia and has bought this fine machine.. A 2006 Renault Modus 1.6i Initiale in Ron Atkinson Gold with nearly a full year’s ticket and a stack of receipts for everything, right down to a wiper blade. All OAP owners before my dad and it is clear to see it was cherished in the past. It was advertised on facefart marketplace for a few weeks and there were no takers. It was only ten minutes in the car so on my week off I decided to go and have a look. A test drive was done and money exchanged hands. Bizarrely, the front coil spring broke as I moved it off the guy’s driveway. He offered to fix it at no cost to me so I didn’t chip him down on the price as it seemed fair and it was a genuine stroke of bad luck. A thoroughly decent chap who was into his cars too. Anyway, I picked it up Thursday morning. No pez station shot as there was half a tank of fuel in it already. Amazingly, everything works on it. FULL LEVVER INTERIA. Made from real French cows, dontchaknow. Even the quirky little ‘boot chute’ works! However, there were a couple of three bits that needed sorting. Firstly the front towing eye cover needed replacing as it had broken tabs. Luckily, my local scrappers has a Modus in exactly the same colour so I managed to salvage the cover and replaced it. This Modus also helped donate a few other parts too. I didn’t realise that it was missing the rubber lip that goes across the top of the bonnet/bumper. The donor car came up trumps here again. Evidence this hasn’t been cleaned under here in a while. Sorted, much better. It’ll also stop the water running down the inside of the bonnet etc. I also disconnected the rear parking sensors as they were constantly bleeping whenever reverse gear was selected. GINUWINE RENNO SENSRS, too. It’s only a temporary fix and I will look into getting it sorted. I also found an original dealer sticker out of a scrapped Renault so I put it back in it’s correct place. Originally sold at Mitchell’s of Lowestoft, it then went to Hornchurch in Essex, then Clacton and amazingly back to Norfolk in a little village near Norwich, and we bought it from there. And for some bizarre reason, the aerial whip was spray painted silver! I assume that was because of the OAP owner’s difficulty in locating their car and that was done to make it stand out? A quick splash of satin black and lacquer brought it back to standard. As it is the Initiale model, it should have Xenon headlamps but there is a receipt from 2017 stating that they were replaced for standard units because of a fault in the system somewhere. A great shame and it will be something I will try and get sorted. As a consequence, the Xenon’s operated with an automatic headlamp leveller of some sort - basically there was no internal adjuster fitted. Again, the scrap Modus came to the rescue and I managed to retrofit a headlamp adjuster and this now works. Dad paid £750 for it, which I think is worth every single penny. It drives absolutely brilliant and I am seriously impressed with it - one of the best cars he’s purchased in a long time. I’m on the hunt for a set of genuine mats for it so if anyone has some I’d be very grateful. Next big job will be to replace the timing belt and dephaser pulleys. VERDICT: SOLID GOLD SHITE.

Definitely an early one with the ‘SJE’ plate. Build date of 9.2.93 and registered 4.3.93.

I’ll need a brush and dustpan, the whole rear quarter is separated from the rest of the car…

That’s bloody nice! Unbelievably, there is one down my local scrapyard at this very moment in time…

SWMBO is sat on the steps of our local junior school waiting for minigreengartside to finish her day at school, which I thought was pretty cool!

I’ve still got the launch brochure and the pamphlet about the Ka Phone which was an optional extra (of course), IIRC the brochure had a sleeve that was made of corrugated paper. My dad’s next door neighbour had a Ford dealership at the time and he brought one of the very first Ka’s home one evening. I remember going round to his for a look as I’d never seen anything so revolutionary for the time.

Project Nigel on YouTube would love this! I may email him actually. Location?

Doesn’t have anything for a spec sheet but build date was 22.6.94.

There is a little bit, I sent the deets over to @dollywobbler but it confirms what he already knew to be fair.

Can’t go wrong with Mundesley, a superb part of the world. Definitely my go-to place.

There’s a classic car auction going on near mine tomorrow. A casual flick through of the website revealed this little gem, formerly of @DodgyBastard. It’s come a long way!

Yeah!! It lives again! Well done!

Mileage definitely unknown, it had a new speedo fitted in 1996 at just over 60k so add that on to the 94k and then 10 years of mileage. Probably knocking on 200k I would say. I’ll be over there at the weekend so can quote you something by then 😊

Wasn’t that the S-Class that had that problem?

Yes, sorry it’s not to return to the road 😢😢😢

Need any Ovlov spares, guvnor? 92k on the clock, a criminal waste but 100% complete. No radio though, soz.