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Craig the Princess reacted to paulplom in The new news 24 thread
Agreed in principle to buy this with a nearly full mot for £650. I'm going tomorrow to give it a good check over. I'll give it to fil to use till the boy passes his test at the end of the year. It doesn't look too bad but it does have one rusty wing. I wonder if they bolt on.
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Craig the Princess reacted to trigger in The golden buttery base Astra
I've been chipping away at jobs on this, I went a saw the previous owner again last week to collect the fuel cap key which he forgot to give me, i printed off the photo of him and his family on the day i bought the car and framed it and he was over the moon with it, i got the original dealers key fop in exchange.
Which was nice, since then dad's been helping me with some of the mechanicals, it's been serviced (£4.60 for the air and oil filters!), changed the fuel pipes and fitted a inline filter, cleaned the carb, drained the old fuel and replaced with fresh, it runs sooo much better now, replaced the coolant and water pump, replaced a rear wheel cylinder and serviced the brakes and chucked a pair of Uniroyal 155/80/13's on the front.
I still need to get my mate to repair this bit but that's all that holding me up from moting it now.
I've also binned the knackered old radio and wired up a new UBS type which is much lighter so it doesn't pull the dash out any more and i also fitted a aerial now too.
But it's looking better, unfortunately it's a little 50 shades of gold which is a disappointment, the front wings have been replaced and painted more bronze but it is what it is.
Check up my opening boot!
I'm thinking of putting on a pin stripe to take the eye of the patchy paintwork but not sure on what colour, thinking the black is better?
I don't think I'll be keeping it but I'm pleased that I've hopefully saved it.
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Craig the Princess reacted to GrumpiusMaximus in The golden buttery base Astra
It's Astra season. Spotted this in Dover this evening. 1300 'L' spec.
MOT records suggest it was parked up for a very long time before 2017. 33,000 miles or so.
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Craig the Princess reacted to trigger in The golden buttery base Astra
Wow, i didn't expect that response! It is the same 1196cc unit as was in my old Kadett
I'm not sure if that's a good thing or bad think but at least it should be simple to work on and reliable, the car is basically a Opel Kadett D i believe, the body is made in West Germany and the engine is Kadett so for all intents and purposes it's a rebadged Kadett.
I've not had chance to work on it yet as we had a car meet today but I've ordered a new water pump, thermostat and fan belt for it at a grand total of £28 delivered so that i can at least get it running and outside to wash the dust of it.
This belongs to a lad called called Paul who told me yesterday that he's still got it so that's two we know of in Ipswich now, i hope to get a photo of them both together one day.
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Craig the Princess reacted to trigger in The golden buttery base Astra
As this got so much interest on the News 24 thread i thought I'd start it's own one.
During the week a friend of mine messaged me to ask if i knew if anyone in our car club was interested in a Mk1 Astra, he had meet them at Morrisons whilst in his 1940's Austin and they told him about the car that they had since new in the garage but due to old age and poor health it had to go, naturally i jumped at the chance even though i needed another car to a hole in the head.
I popped round and meet them yesterday and learnt the story behind it, whilst staying in a hotel called the Albemarle Hotel in Scarborough in 1982 the receptionist asked if he fancied entering a competition to win a Vauxhall Astra, he filled it in, had a lovely family holiday and forgot all about it. 3 weeks later he gets a call telling him that he had won, he couldn't even remember entering! So they drove back to Scarborough from Ipswich again to collect their prize.
He said the photo was in the Scarborough newspaper and the Ipswich Evening Star, he was so proud that he felt he couldn't ever sell it! Just lovely, obviously i took this opportunity to recreate this photo today!
Such a lovely family, the car hasn't ran for a few years so the battery was flat but my small jump pack and some easy start soon got it firing into life, out of the garage and onto dad's trailer.
It was at this point that it dropped it's water contents! this was the first time i'd seen the car outside and i had already paid for it and if I'm honest i was a little disappointed as the paintwork is a little patchy, i think it's had new wings and the colour match is piss poor and its had some arch repairs that aren't particularly painted well, but for a 40 year old Astra i probably should have expected that.
To be fair it's pretty good really, we found the reason that it lost it's water was because the stat was solid with crystallised anti freeze and so was the water pump so I'll get them replaced.
Shame about the zebartted engine bay but that's what has saved the car. It's only done 53000 miles, only 10000 of them was in the last 22 years!
The interior is really good apart from the dash trim that's popped out, unfortunately the radio doesn't work and the aerial needs fitting but that's no biggy.
and the very rare saloon boot!
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Craig the Princess reacted to barrett in Richardson Cyclecar
Through various circumstances I am currently working on a book about British cyclecars, which will cover every type built up to about 1930. Currently there is circa 250 marques on my master list so lots of work ahead of me. At some point I'd like to have a chat about the family, the cars and anything of interest you may be able to help with no matter how small...
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Craig the Princess reacted to andyberg in Unexpected collection in progress
Collectioned. Thanks to @Cookiesouwest for shuttle running.
Wish me luck with the best that China can offer 😂
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Craig the Princess reacted to BeEP in Anglia Classic Car Auction
I was likewise concerned about their ability to sort out the deposit refund so decided the solution was to buy something! Namely this, probably the cheapest lot to go through today...
Was good to catch up with @wuvvumtoo
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Craig the Princess reacted to andyberg in Unexpected collection in progress
Collection vehicle, proper shite
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Craig the Princess reacted to andyberg in Unexpected collection in progress
Well faceache marketplace threw up an unexpected vehicle. I was after a bigger scooter for my son and found a sinnis 125 for a bargain* £175. Needs a new exhaust but MOT until July. So with the help of @Cookiesouwest we are on a mission very shortly.
Poo count 1
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Craig the Princess reacted to mk2_craig in Datsuncog's Heaps: Sept 2023 - Another Year's T-Met Exemption Certificate...
Splendid.
Did ye find out how much?
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Craig the Princess reacted to Datsuncog in Datsuncog's Heaps: Sept 2023 - Another Year's T-Met Exemption Certificate...
Heh, maybe not an ideal place to park a Subaru, from a rust prevention perspective...
In other news, stay tuned tomorrow morning for what will (hopefully) be a very short and uneventful collection thread.
I really need some uneventful cars for a bit...
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Craig the Princess reacted to brownnova in Am I overdressed for a collection?
I’ve not driven an F… but will try to soon to compare the two!
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Craig the Princess reacted to brownnova in Am I overdressed for a collection?
So… why an MGTF?
Its all the fault of an Austin Allegro…
Some of the money from sales of the Elgrand and MX5 was spoken for, but some was not. So I knew that I had a bit of money to buy something nice. Having narrowly missed out on a Saab 900 Classic for very good money I popped into a local car dealership which had this on the forecourt.
Having sold my MX5 I realised pretty quickly that I was missing the two seat fun, but also that I’d done with MX5s for now. This one seemed nice…
But I wasn’t convinced I wanted one enough. So I looked at the Allegro…
Which was a bit crusty and had the valve seals needing doing. I called up my mate who also happens to be an MG Rover specialist so knows his way round an A series for advice. Then whilst just catching up he asked what if looked at and I mentioned the TF… he said “If you want one of those pop down to me, I’ve got a lovely one I bought off a customer who emigrated which is up for sale”
So down I popped last Friday and had a lovely catch up with him (known him years but not seen him since before covid). And he showed me another black TF. But this one was an Anniversary special edition, so had a burgundy hood and red seats, and had a few little upgrades including a sports exhaust. It was also lower mileage, and most importantly the rear subframe was in much better nick than the other one I had looked at. He had also done the head gasket himself, so I know it was done properly.
It was a touch more than the other one (in fact I went over budget 😬), but for a 60k special edition car which has been looked after by the specialist, I think it was worth it.
Impressions…
It drives really well, but has a couple of minor foibles: the rear screen is cloudy, the passenger side wiper doesn’t work… however, it goes like a rat up a drainpipe and will do me for a bit of weekend summer fun for sure!
It does have random stickers on it though… I’ll need to remove those.
As a nice extra bonus… he had this Healey which has done Mille Miliga in his unit when I went to pick it up today!
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Craig the Princess reacted to wuvvum in Am I overdressed for a collection?
Ooh, not only is it a TF but it also has Lexus rear lights! You boy racer you.
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Craig the Princess reacted to brownnova in Am I overdressed for a collection?
All of the stickers…
(I’m safely home… just having a spot of tea before the big reveal)
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Craig the Princess reacted to brownnova in Am I overdressed for a collection?
Most of the way home… this is good news given this models reputation.
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Craig the Princess reacted to brownnova in Am I overdressed for a collection?
My destination is the market town of Mold, where in 1869 the Mold riots took place. They broke out over local woman Myfanwy Evans’ decision to wear a dress which showed her ankles to church on Sunday. Warring factions of the local Presbyterian chapel warred with the local Anglican congregation. 7 hymn books lost their lives.
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Craig the Princess reacted to brownnova in Am I overdressed for a collection?
The electric car is an MG…
MG was founded by the Chinese in 1903, the octagonal badge was a symbol of luck, prosperity and fortune. However a travelling missionary Malvern Gingerbottom from the Lutheran church in Oxford was so taken with the design for the badge that he stole it for his own personal ensign. Sadly his boat sank en route home and the badge was only later discovered and used. MG was then purchased back by the Chinese.
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Craig the Princess reacted to brownnova in Am I overdressed for a collection?
According to a study, in times of crisis people with beards are perceived to be stronger leaders…
Which is why Jeremy Corbyn won such a convincing victory in the last general election.
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Craig the Princess reacted to brownnova in Am I overdressed for a collection?
Leg one…
Volvo:
Warning light count: 1
It’s only washer fluid. Carry on.
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Craig the Princess reacted to CaptainBoom in Am I overdressed for a collection?
Not at all, nothing wrong with a well dressed gent collecting something, if you are riding on a train or bus, look carefully for chewing gum on the seat before you sit down.
Good luck on your collection mission!