stilo_active

In and out:
Morris Ital 1.7 HLS. A mate and I bought this early in the year as we liked the look of it. Got it back on the road, used it daily for most of the summer, went to North Wales for the Marina Club annual weekend. Had our fun, but overstocked on Itals..

Out:
Waved goodbye to my 405 which I had owned since 2017. Loved this car dearly, but I hadn't really used it in four years. It was a waste to leave it parked up gathering dust. Genuinely shed a tear when it went, but it's found a good home.

In:
Back in April I took loan of this Ford Model Y through the Classic Car Loan Project. Sadly I haven't had time to use it quite as much as hoped, my loan has been extended so hopefully more adventures next year.

In May I acquired this Ital as a rolling shell from a mate of mine. It hit the road in October.

In May I also ticked off a car I have always wanted, a Triumph Herald. Not been touched yet and won't be for a while yet!

In September I bought my Bedouin Marina 1.3 saloon

In October I took delivery of another rolling shell Ital which was too good to be scrapped

Non-movers:
The oldest surviving* Marina is still awaiting restoration, awaiting a date for it to go in for bodywork as it's beyond our skills!

My Limeflower Marina, my dream Marina, now owned for 8 years and I have still never driven it. Hopefully 2024 will see it finished off and back on the road, if I stop being distracted by other cars...

The black Ital, a joint project. Should be back on the road next year.

The Traveller, which has been in semi-regular use going to work and we went on holiday in it back in May

There's also the DGAF 206, although despite four years of ownership I'm not sure I have a proper photo of it... you can see a bit of it behind the Herald. It keeps doing what it was designed to do.
Not sure what else 2024 will bring. I really have too many, the rolling shell red Ital will probably be the first to go. Toying with selling the Traveller, I don't really want to but it would be one less car, and would probably pay for a respray on the Limeflower Marina. Decisions...

I have been without wheels for two weeks since selling the BMW.
Having trawled ebay and marketplace it became apparent everybody believes there car is worth much more than it actually is.
I was looking for a BMW e61 - plenty in budget but too far away geographically. Those closer to home were overpriced for 16 - 17 years old with over 160k - plenty of bork factor. I wanted a six pot diesel - I would never have the awful four cylinder. A few XF jags were in budget but advisories for corrosion put me off.
E91's in my budget were 4 pot petrol and diesel - again overpriced. A lot of the adds made me laugh - pointing out the good bits and at the end of the text chucking in that basically it was fucked.
I looked at A6's/ mondeo - even insignias.
This morning an add popped up on ebay. I made contact with the seller and headed to Bickerstaffe with much haste.
I bought this - 

It's a 2.0 cdti SRI. It's minging inside and out but comes with one of the most comprehensive histories I have seen - the service book is stamped up to 175k. It has just passed 181k. It came with a sheaf of bills and all the books. Clutch replaced 10k ago. Timing belt in 2019. Oil pick up seal done in 2021. Ticket until September '24. Somebody really loved this car despite it now looking like it had been yanked from somebody's ringpiece.
Deal was done. I had insured the BMW with Swinton - it was less than £300.Unbelievably the thieving fagins wanted just short of £700. For an insignia. I have been driving for over 30 years.
They were told what they could do with their quote. Swinton will get no more business from me.
I actually  got a policy for two hundred and odd quid.
I put £30 worth of diesel in the car and headed straight for our caravan.
Observations? It's not quick - more brisk - I am certain it picks up quicker than the mondeo but it has less weight.
Through the new 20 mph zones I can leave it in 3rd - the mondeo needs 2nd. Brakes are sharp but gear change is not ford - smooth and has a bit of throw to get it over to 5th gear.
I have not tested all of the onboard functions cos' I need to read the book.

Filthy. But all the levels are correct and I cannot see oil anywhere.

Did I say it was filthy? And it stinks of cowshit having lived on  a farm. The seat bolsters are intact but the trim at the base of the drivers seat is broken. The aircon does not blow cold - looking through the bills it has been regassed a few times so this suggests it loses pressure over a couple of years.

Boot carpet will need to be removed and cleaned to assist with getting rid of the whiff.

No spare wheel. But bonus breaker bar and adaptor.
I doubt the expensive VXR alloys were standard - the tyres are legal but not for much longer. 
Road tax cost me £35 - much better than the £395 for the BMW.
It needs a monster of a clean and some refrigerant. And a spare key. Given the mileage I won't be putting much money into it and due to this it means when I am done with it I can P/X with no guilt rather than deal with scavengers on tinterweb.
You may be wondering how much the bovine excrement smelling GM chariot cost me?
I paid £2k. The alloys are worth near 50% of that.
There is still the odd bargain but you need to be quick.
It seems that £2k is the new £500.

Well, I say new, we've had it since November last year. It's my wife's daily driver. I have known this car for the last five or so years and borrowed it five years ago as a mate helped me out when my Micra exploded. My mate sold it to another shiter who then did a deal with another mate and we bought it from him. Anyhow, here it is, we collected it from Chatteris and brought it back down to Cornwall. Pretty uneventful journey except the bodges on the passenger window (knackered regulator) dislodged part way so required some wood readjustment and some nifty use of folded cardboard. 
Anyhow, here it is:

When we picked up the Punto, I had a go in my mate's Marea 2.0 20v. He had this lovely Cinquecento SX, too. 
 

Well, I say new, we've had it since November last year. It's my wife's daily driver. I have known this car for the last five or so years and borrowed it five years ago as a mate helped me out when my Micra exploded. My mate sold it to another shiter who then did a deal with another mate and we bought it from him. Anyhow, here it is, we collected it from Chatteris and brought it back down to Cornwall. Pretty uneventful journey except the bodges on the passenger window (knackered regulator) dislodged part way so required some wood readjustment and some nifty use of folded cardboard. 
Anyhow, here it is:

With these nineties Fiats you are really spoiling us Ambassador. 
Something about the Marea, it's a nice looking car. Maybe it's just unusual and therefore interesting. The Cinq looks ace, watch them 'do a Panda' and rocket in value. 

When we picked up the Punto, I had a go in my mate's Marea 2.0 20v. He had this lovely Cinquecento SX, too. 
 

Well, I say new, we've had it since November last year. It's my wife's daily driver. I have known this car for the last five or so years and borrowed it five years ago as a mate helped me out when my Micra exploded. My mate sold it to another shiter who then did a deal with another mate and we bought it from him. Anyhow, here it is, we collected it from Chatteris and brought it back down to Cornwall. Pretty uneventful journey except the bodges on the passenger window (knackered regulator) dislodged part way so required some wood readjustment and some nifty use of folded cardboard. 
Anyhow, here it is:

Bloody handy car, this.
 
 
 

When we picked up the Punto, I had a go in my mate's Marea 2.0 20v. He had this lovely Cinquecento SX, too. 
 

Were those last two pics at a defunct filling station? If so, @motorpunk may be interested it it's location, if he's not been there already.

I still have this old bus as it happens. It's been a dependable old hack. Back in January it had the timing chain replaced. Partly because @twosmoke300 kept putting amusing advisories on my invoices but also because it was unbearable to drive the bastard thing. 
It's a useful and quite endearing old hack. Unless it majorly shits itself on the MoT later on this year, it'll be here for the foreseeable.
Some up to date photos of the Labia, but first off, a couple of photos of all three motors of the Renowden household. 
 

Bloody handy car, this.
 
 
 

When we picked up the Punto, I had a go in my mate's Marea 2.0 20v. He had this lovely Cinquecento SX, too. 
 

When we picked up the Punto, I had a go in my mate's Marea 2.0 20v. He had this lovely Cinquecento SX, too. 
 

Well, I say new, we've had it since November last year. It's my wife's daily driver. I have known this car for the last five or so years and borrowed it five years ago as a mate helped me out when my Micra exploded. My mate sold it to another shiter who then did a deal with another mate and we bought it from him. Anyhow, here it is, we collected it from Chatteris and brought it back down to Cornwall. Pretty uneventful journey except the bodges on the passenger window (knackered regulator) dislodged part way so required some wood readjustment and some nifty use of folded cardboard. 
Anyhow, here it is:

Despite the looks, everything was secured in place with little room for movement. Plus plenty of padding behind the front seats, too. 

I think you mean, it's wheely good? I like that one has it's seat belt on, but would worry about the others if I were the driver in a head-on incident.

I wanted to start with the car that’s been with me the longest, my much loved £900 Jaguar XJ40.
She’s been with us since March 2009, I was on reduced hours at work due to the impact the global banking crisis was having on the manufacturing sector. This meant I had time to burn, the 2006 Citroen C1 that I was driving was OK, but it was too new and far too reliable to be anything like exciting. I ignored that I was earning 20% less than normal with a huge mortgage to pay and promptly set about hunting for a new (old) car. I saw a worn-out Jag for £900 and thought "I’ve always wanted an XJ40", So I set about selling the Citroen C1 immediately.
Afterall, what could possibly go wrong?
The Jag was no near as worn out as I’d expected and I bought her from 10 paces away from a thoroughly decent and honest bloke who had enjoyed his time with it but wasn’t using it anymore. This was one of the pictures from the sale advert...

She’d done 40k miles then and she’s done around 60k miles now and has never needed to be welded nor have any major repairs. She’s got the AJ6 3.2 in-line 6 coupled to an auto box, shes goes well and looks good to my eyes! The ride quality is superb, I’d go so far as to say it’s the XJ40’s party piece, excellent ride with great handling and road holding, why modern cars can’t be this good I don’t know.
The Jag was now renamed ‘Elsa’ by my wife, she ran us to and from hospital when my wife was in labour with our daughter, she has taken us on family holidays, got me to work every day and provided 3 years of reliable daily driving from early 2009 to early 2012. She’s never been worth much to anyone else and the low value was probably what kept it with me in the early days, house moves, hard times, good times, 2 kids etc. Her value has gone up a bit over the last couple of years, but she’s part of the family now and although we don’t really use her very much (other than the odd show here or there) the value is irrelevant, I would struggle to part ways with her now.
Over the years I’ve reconditioned the alloys, changed the drivers seat cover due to bolster wear, fixed a few leaks (diff and rocker cover), replaced V-mounts, replaced suspension bushes, sourced a set of replacement fog lights, and generally tried to stay on top of the cosmetics. She was vandalised in 2012 which saw her taken off the road for a year or so whilst I got the paint repairs sorted out.
A major minor issue in 2018 with dry solder joints in the fuse box affecting the fuel injection rendered the Jag undriveable. This caused some interesting virtually untraceable and seemingly random running issues and a lot of head scratching before she was eventually sorted out 6 months later. Embarrassingly, at the height of the issue we had to have some support from a nice man at the AA with a low loader, he had to help us get home from the National Jaguar Day in Warwickshire! Luckily the show was at quite a nice hotel and it was an exceptionally nice day, so the two hour wait for the man from the AA was spent on the hotel terrace sampling one or two of their range of refreshing beers!
Fingers crossed she’s been very reliable again since having the fuse boxes resoldered.
She needs some work this year. She could do with a service and a set of tyres which are just running maintenance but do require some funds to be set aside. She also needs the aircon sorted out, it works well, but the compressor is squealling or causing the belt to squeal. It needs some investigation when the weather improves and allows some tinkering. I’m sure I’ll report back when I get to it. It could just be the belts need tightening or changing, writing this up has highlighted to me that the belts were last serviced in 2010! How time flies!

I still have this old bus as it happens. It's been a dependable old hack. Back in January it had the timing chain replaced. Partly because @twosmoke300 kept putting amusing advisories on my invoices but also because it was unbearable to drive the bastard thing. 
It's a useful and quite endearing old hack. Unless it majorly shits itself on the MoT later on this year, it'll be here for the foreseeable.
Some up to date photos of the Labia, but first off, a couple of photos of all three motors of the Renowden household. 
 

Well, I say new, we've had it since November last year. It's my wife's daily driver. I have known this car for the last five or so years and borrowed it five years ago as a mate helped me out when my Micra exploded. My mate sold it to another shiter who then did a deal with another mate and we bought it from him. Anyhow, here it is, we collected it from Chatteris and brought it back down to Cornwall. Pretty uneventful journey except the bodges on the passenger window (knackered regulator) dislodged part way so required some wood readjustment and some nifty use of folded cardboard. 
Anyhow, here it is:

Thought I'd best update this thread. Here's some Cornish tat
 

I still have this old bus as it happens. It's been a dependable old hack. Back in January it had the timing chain replaced. Partly because @twosmoke300 kept putting amusing advisories on my invoices but also because it was unbearable to drive the bastard thing. 
It's a useful and quite endearing old hack. Unless it majorly shits itself on the MoT later on this year, it'll be here for the foreseeable.
Some up to date photos of the Labia, but first off, a couple of photos of all three motors of the Renowden household. 
 

When we picked up the Punto, I had a go in my mate's Marea 2.0 20v. He had this lovely Cinquecento SX, too.