CreepingJesus

Right, now I've had a drink and vented a bit.
We were out for a drive yesterday and I was having quite a lot of fun with it, in other words it was getting chucked around every corner.
Rolled up to a roundabout near Bathgate, saw it was clear and floored it, only to hear a massive bang and what felt like the car bottoming out on the road. Thankfully still had a small amount of control and managed to get it close to the kerb although I was blocking a lane of the roundabout.

At first I thought the spring had snapped, but when trying to winch it onto the truck, the wheels splayed out. Fuck.
I had to take the wing off to prevent it being chewed up by the wheel, at which point I noticed the brand new bottom ball joint was no longer being a bottom ball joint.
Thankfully we're fine, just very rattled. Also massive credit to Autoaid, the service was top notch. Picked up in less than half an hour, and in that time I'd had many calls from them just to check up on us.
I'll have to get the wheel off and have a proper look at what happened. I'm particularly confused by this as I checked the suspension over as recently as Friday, including putting a spanner on anything critical just for peace of mind.
I'm particularly angry as I was doing passenger rides in this 4 up on Saturday and this could have ended very badly.
Trying to be grateful no injuries happened, and so far it appears no damage to the car.

</grumpy>

Regal Garage, Upton-upon-Severn. I stopped by there after collecting a big batch of old magazines in 2010:
 
 
 
 
Just seeing that last photo brings to mind the smell of these places.

Meanwhile in the colonies... Australian transport regulators are currently testing a double stacked three trailer road train. Impressive!

Grain silos, Petropavlovsk, Kazakh SSR. The lorries, left to right - 2 x Kamaz-55102, Kamaz-5410, KAZ-608B and a ZIL-MMZ-554 on the ramp at the back.

Today's surprise classic truck spot, a 1972 AEC Mercury fire engine. It's now a rather twee mobile champagne bar and the emphasis on their website on it providing a unique backdrop for Instagrammable moments is a bit cringey, but the truck itself is nice and still looks outwardly original. Good reg too.

Monaco in the UK, Baccara in most of continental Europe.

Well, it's too late for advice now seeing as @Puglet has phoned up the seller and agreed to buy! It does mean though, that it'd be possible to recreate a similar photo to this one from 2001:

We dropped off a vehicle at my local garage recently, and my wife happened to spot this awaiting work in their yard...

I enquired about it, and turns out it's in for a few jobs before sale. Started out life in Cyprus, and has had long periods of dry storage over here so the shell is very good - better than the ones she had when they were 10 years old.
It's also had a documented engine rebuild from a specialist, who she's been in touch with to confirm. The garage put it up on their ramp so we could check it over today, and although not perfect, it only seems to be minor stuff.
One trackrod end and lower ball joint
CV joint 
Fuel hoses
Temperature gauge inoperative and high idle when warm (I think seperate sensors so possibly not linked)
Sticking handbrake cables 
Low alternator output 
Coolant level sensor telling lies
Missing jack
Missing door pocket but otherwise great condition interior.



I know most will just say get it bought, but any sober voices of reason out there to say why not? £7.5k which although is a lot, now seems towards the cheaper end of the range. And I'd rather be changing suspension and brakes than welding a rotten shell!

She probably can't take it past Nutbush City Limits.

Oh didn't know she'd done that.
 

Today, I got to find out what I have bought. That and make some improvements.
First up, obviously, was the improvements..
The headlights on this are like piss holes in the snow - £11 got me 2x Nightbreakers.
Fitting was simple - for the driver's side, all I had to do is move the valvesaver reservoir and then pull the light holder out.


The passenger side requires the removal of a trim panel above the air box. This reveals a wheen of relays, ideally located right in the path of all the road spray. Excellent engineering.


All changed and the piss holes are a bit larger now. A noticeable improvement on the drive home.
I took the opportunity to take a picture of heritage in action. Both British cars with their front hinged bonnets up!

The next thing was servicing the LPG filters. There are two on the feed lines to the injectors, and they both looked pretty old.

The first step is to shut off the LPG feed at the tank- a simple screw in valve.

Then run the car on LPG til it switches back to petrol. 
The filters are simple to change - and the new ones were easily installed. I also went round all the clips and ensured they were completely snuggled up. This seems to have reduced the smell of LPG.


I also made a point of remembering to open the tank valve again - so I could make it home!
The gearbox fluid was also checked and 500ml of DEXRON 111 eas added to bring it right up to the HOT marker.
Trepidation then filled the air - time to have a look under the car and see what the structure of the car is like.
Assume the position:

All good thankfully - sills and floorplan look in greAt condition, easily the best of the 4 jags I have owned.
Bouyed by this good news it was time to have a look over the brakes and suspension.
At the rear all is in good order - the subframe is tidy, the shocks appear to be the correct green Bilsteins, and the disks and pads appear new and only lightly worn.
I also managed to ID where the grease nipples are on the half shafts - something for me to do soon.

All was much the same at the front - correct shocks in decent condition and barely used brake discs and pads.
Overall it looks like I have made a reasonable investment, and it's possible to see where a lot of the servicing costs over the last few years have gone. I am extremely pleased by this!
Now I had some confidence in the thing, it was time to put in the effort to get it a bit more pleasant.
Removal of the rear window blinds was a priority - they are well made and fit well, but I don't like them. 

Blinds removed, then it was time to do the windows - the glass seems to be fairly free from scratches despite the significant mileage, and it all came up well.
Lastly, I cleaned all the shut lines, door cards and door frames - the leather wipes pulled some amount of grot off the doorcards.
My brother made a grand job of hoovering out the car - and the carpets came up lovely.
The boot was packed and it was time to set off home.

So there we are. Fundamentally a reasonable buy, with a relatively short list of things to improve/update or resolve. 

Minari:

An interesting feature of this car's construction was that it was a bonded assembly. The pop rivets along the hand bent (no sophisticated equipment, just a hammer and dolly) were only there to hold the panels in place while the adhesive set.  Only in recent years, and with modern adhesives, have glued together car panels become more commonplace.  Tony was doing this 55+ years ago, for a car which was to be pushed to the limit with regard to cornering, steering & braking, forces. Like contemporaries of the time (Ford GT40, Lola 170, E-Type Jaguar, etc, etc.) the car's sills were very deep for overall structural rigidity.  But Tony, for sake of easiness ! ..had it's doors hinging up from the windscreen pillars. It was also a road car and so the roof was an essential practicality to everyday motoring. 
I think it turned out to be a good looking / well balanced car, not least considering it was mostly made up from a few flat sheets of aluminium (probably 16swg) and off-the-shelf (..or scrapyard) proprietory parts, by one man, in a home garage, all within months rather than years. 
Another useless tid-bit of trivia is the owl logo seen on the side of the car was derived from Athens. Ann Tony's good lady wife was a researcher of antiquities and they loved to holiday there. The owl (..albeit in a slightly more friendly looking style) was used on the Cipher (..save those which had Lada badging) and then again on his electric vehicles.
Pete