Not sure how much it's up for - there is a contact number for anyone who's interested. Solid apart from a bit of bubbling on a wheelarch. It's a 2.0i Ghia in Mills-o-matic flavour. Looked alright from what I saw.
Not sure how much it's up for - there is a contact number for anyone who's interested. Solid apart from a bit of bubbling on a wheelarch. It's a 2.0i Ghia in Mills-o-matic flavour. Looked alright from what I saw.
Not sure how much it's up for - there is a contact number for anyone who's interested. Solid apart from a bit of bubbling on a wheelarch. It's a 2.0i Ghia in Mills-o-matic flavour. Looked alright from what I saw.
Not sure how much it's up for - there is a contact number for anyone who's interested. Solid apart from a bit of bubbling on a wheelarch. It's a 2.0i Ghia in Mills-o-matic flavour. Looked alright from what I saw.
Not sure how much it's up for - there is a contact number for anyone who's interested. Solid apart from a bit of bubbling on a wheelarch. It's a 2.0i Ghia in Mills-o-matic flavour. Looked alright from what I saw.
Brilliant, I just happened to be looking for a car with that exact number plate. I mean really! Who says "what are you driving these days" expecting the reply "I have one of those L876 KNO's"
Here it is. The final story of yesterday's epicness that was the collection of a Volvo 760 Turbo Intercooler from Brighton all the way back to central Scotland by SVM Industries CEO, davidfowler2000. The story is long. It spans about 6 weeks. It involves ebay. Planes. Trains. Busses. Nostalgia. A very long arse drive. Garfield. A lot of fuel. Electrical gremlins and to top it all off - !!!OMGSNOKAOS!!!
Could this be the most epic OF EVAR domestic (as opposed to international) collection of a car on these forums? I'll let you decide.
A very sketchy precursor to this story goes back months, about 6 to be precise, where a 760TIC turned up on fleaBay in Brighton. It went reasonably cheap and I had a big grumpy that I didn't go for it. When it reappeared about mid December, I just had to didn't I?
Chapter 1 - The buying Bids went flying and I finally got it -
Auction Win by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
Buggerations. £700 down and I'll have to go to the south coast to get it. That'll involve cost and a big fuel bill to get home. During bidding I had already e-mailed the man and he says there's no hurry to shift it so I had plenty of time to organise travel through John Candy Promotions - a wholly owned subsidiary of SVM Industries.
Immediately it had been suggested that I partake of staff privileges at Stagecoach Glasgow and get a freebie ticket to London on the overnight sleeper bus but I had already done that to get the 740 of much loveliness. It was quickly decided upon a flight from Glasgow to somewhere...but where? Stansted was cheap but it was 2 trains and a tube through London to Brighton. Southampton was reasonably cheap and the train wasn't too bad but it was 2.5 hours on the train. It was finally decided upon Gatwick and a train which also turned out to be the cheapest of all 3 options - at £35 all in per person you can't really complain. Immediately cms206 and rml2345 were contacted and both were thrilled* with the opportunity to partake in another SVM collection...
Itinerary by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
..but as you can see from the itinerary, cms206 was unable to attend because work so a mate from work (Paul. Current owner of my previous red 960) paid for a name change on the plane ticket and joined instead.
Once the plane was booked, it was on to the trains. Plane lands at 0930ish and the fastest train to Brighton after that was 1010 - excellent. I was also most pleased with the amount of title options when registering on the site...
Options by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
I would love to see any genuine "Sir" or "Lady" registering to buy pleb tickets themselves. ROLF! LAMO! Anyways I opted to collect the tickets from a train station and got them sent to Aberdeen where I could pick them up on a tea break...
Tickets by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
Chapter 2 - The intermediate stuff Car bought. Travel arranged. 4 weeks to wait to get it. The man has sent off the V5 and sent me the V5C/2 to perform tax duties...
V5C/2 by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
FUCK! Disabled tax class. Doesn't this need all sorts of stuff to change it? I couldn't do it online or by phone 'cos it wanted an awful lot of details and contact with the Department for Work and Pensions to assess my eligibilty for free car tax. It was Christmas eve and I knew DVLA contact would be a ballache so on my way to see a chum and deliver his Christmas cardboard greeting thing, I popped by my local GPO to ask the question. About 3 minutes later and after filling in a V62, the car was taxed. Panic over.
Next job - insurance. 1 x addition please thank you very kindly Mr Footman James. £48.61 including 25 quid admin fee to add the car to my existing policy which runs out in August. That'll do nicely.
What next? Purchase thread on these forums. Done
Chapter 3 - The Collection
10/01/15, 05:45, House So how's it working? As cms206 originally wanted to go and he lives a 10 minute walk from the airport it was decided to park at his house and do the walk. rml2345 went direct to Andy's and my mate Paul came to get me. Ended up being a bit late due to OMGWINDANDRAIN. The walk to the airport took longer than expected due to said wind and rain, rml2345's iffy back and my utterly ruined off side knee. Approximate arrival at the airport and security clearance at 0650...
Glasgow Departure Lounge by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
10/01/15, 07:30, Glasgow International Plane Station Gate 6 Boarding has commenced and we're on our way. Sir rml is rather excited as he's never been on one of those flying busses before...
Easyjet A319 by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
...and was immediately introduced to standard class seating...
In seat view by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
...but that said, Garfield was pretty buzzed about the whole thing...
Excited Garfield by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
...and after the initial bumpy takeoff it was a reasonably boring but pretty flight...
Brighton Volvo Pickup by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
10/01/15, 09:30, Gatwick International Airport Not the smoothest landing it has to be said but it was a landing nonetheless and we have arrived in very south Britain...
Gatwick Arrivals by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
Next task is to find the train station. We're in the north terminal and have to get the internal monorail thing to the south terminal...
Gatwick Internal Shuttle Station (North) by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
Gatwick Internal Shuttle by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
10/01/15, 10:00, Gatwick Airport Train Station The board says what I expected - the train to Brighton is at 10:10 and is on Platform 3 so we head off in that general direction and decide to partake in some 3rd rail spottages...
Gatwick Express by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
The board on platform 3 then changes to say that the next train on platform 3 is the 1016 to Three Bridges with a bus to Brighton. A quick enquiry confirms that we will be getting a rail replacement bus from Three Bridges to Brighton. Arses. How ironic as cms206 was doing Raillytrane Buses around Ayrshire.
10/01/15, 10:30, Three Bridges Station, Crawley
Arse Biscuits!!! We are presented with a thoroughly* lovely* Volvo B7TL with Plaxton President bodywork for the rest of the trip south...
Rail Replacement by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
The seller had sent a message the day previous to say his dad (Taxi driver) would pick it us up from the station so I give him a phone when we're nearly at Brighton station. He informs that he'll be in a VW Phaeton near where the buses drop us off.
10/01/15, 11:10, Brighton Station Picked up, we're on our way to the final pickup destination - Bell Tower Industrial Estate - to pick up the car. A quick text to Gary Cox to meet us there as well...
Brighton High Street by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
ARRIVAL!!!
Brighton Volvo Pickup by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
The Phaeton Taxi...
Taxi by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
10/01/15, 11:50, Bell Tower Ind Est After a short spell of small talk with the seller and Father seller about the Volvo and their own love of old VWs, Gary Cox made a timely arrival and we made a hasty retreat round the corner for a nosh up and chin wag...
Mac's Cafe by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
Then we did some bus spottages on the way back. The Big Lemon use what would normally be regarded as end of life vehicles which they refurbish and retune to run on 100% bio fuel...
Big Lemon Buses by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
Being a rather nice chap I offered to take Gary home but we went via ASDA to get snacks for the road home. We encountered much shite (Brighton is full of it) and performed a crap Abbey Road homage in the car park...
Brighton Volvo Pickup by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
Brighton Volvo Pickup by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
10/01/15, 13:15ish, Chez Cox; Brighton Cheerio Gary! We've got some fuel to get us a good bit up the road. I already knew about this and had already planned a little detour on the way home to visit somewhere and get fuel.
10/01/15, 14:15ish, Shell Garage; The Street; Ashtead Hold on a minute...
Yep. I worked out I had enough fuel to get to the same Shell Garage in Ashtead, Surrey where I bought my inaugural shite Volvo 740 almost 2 and a half years ago. It's only just inside the M25 so it just had to happen didn't it? A minor detour was also made to go past the dealer, Volkspeed, where I got said 740 from. There was of course the obligatory petrol station shot because traditionshite...
Obligatory Petrol Station Photo by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
55 litres, an oil check and various setup later and we're ready to go. We've already done 50 miles and it's another 410 back to chez cms206 to drop the guys off.
10/01/15, 14:30, M25 Clockwise Now for the big bit. The car has already proved that it will be a comfy ride home. The route from here is the M25, M40, M42, M6 Toll, M6, A74(M), M74 and M8 to Paisley.
Time to get the tunes going SWEDISH STYLE!!!
Retro FM by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
And now for the boring bit. 400 odd miles of motorway driving with some banter, intermittant tunes (internet depending) and the snacks...
Cherryade by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
Yes. It seems I managed to go all the way to Brighton and for my drink of choice on the road back I plumped on Cumbernauld (The home of Scotoshite) manufactured cherryade by Barr AG Ltd. Oddly enough, we don't seem to get packs of it in our ASDAs but all the local chip shops seem to stock it.
10/01/15, 17:30, Stafford Services Pee stop at Stafford. No bad trannies to be spotted in W.H. Smith. There was spottages in the car park though...
Brighton Volvo Pickup by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
10/01/15, 16:30, M6 north of Lancaster GREMLINS!!! The headlights, both of them, have went out. But with much fucking about with main beam they come back on. Sounds like a relay needs replacing. Anyways, press on to Tebay services for dinner.
Then about 2 miles south of Tebay with much random headlightage, this happens...
Dash FAEL by davidfowler2000, on Flickr
All dashboard illumination went. With a pop too. Anyways, dinner.
10/01/15, 19:30, Tebay Services Dinner had and fuelled up again. 24.5mpg so far (Yikes) but this could be a slightly dragging handbrake, the iffy tracking and lack of thermostat. The failed dash illumination was traced to a fuse. It was replaced but blew again while the car was moving. When the car was picked up I noticed the little bulb holder in the driver's seatbelt buckle had falled out and died when the dash board did. I reckon this had shorted on a seat frame and done the fuse but will need further investigation.
10/01/15, 21:00ish, M74 Beattock
!!!OMGSNOKAOS!!! Down to 20mph at some points and the random headlights didn't help things. Luckily the fog lights still worked perfectly so they saw us up the road. rml2345 had fallen asleep ages ago so no more photos to come.
10/01/15, 22:00, Chez cms206 Home! Well nearly. I drop rml2345 and Paul off and they jump in their cars. Adrian goes straight home whereas I follow Paul along the M8 to near his house and then high tailed it home from there.
10/01/15, 22:30, Home Done! 480 miles! About 100 litres of fuel! Tired. Sore. Worth it? YES!!!
The car performed admirably but I think the niggles got to it in the end. I'll sort these out in time but it should be a pretty decent conveyance in the future.
Many thanks to Chris (The Seller) and his dad (Mick) for a good eBay experience and the pickup from the train station. Thanks to Gary Cox for some catchup and some stuff that will be delivered to cms206 soon for the 740 that was traded the day before Chumly. A well done to the accompanying chaps on the journey for much banter. And a great job from John Candy Promotions getting us there as convolutedly as possible.
Photos of the car will follow in time. It's fucking grim up here just now with the weather and will probably take a few days to clear up. Also remember the grey 960 will be up for sale soon if anyone wants it once I sorted out a few issues. I'm looking for £650 and you'll get a bootful of spares.
Well done for getting this far and heres to more SVM Adventures in the future.
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