Spottedlaurel

It has leather*, but no wood* sadly.  The leather* is about half a step up from a Project Drive Rover, so not the worst ever used in a Korean car but not exactly Connolly hide either.
Well this probably isn't the best example, being an ex-taxi with 280K on the clock, but it's not dissimilar to the Camry in some ways, being a big roomy slightly bland barge with not a great deal of feel through the steering.  Ride is firmer than a Camry, though not overly hard.  It has the typical Korean feel of being well screwed together from relatively cheap components.  The diesel engine pulls well and seems pretty good on fuel (did the 200 miles back from Congleton on £20 of diesel), but you do have to work the gearbox as the gears are very close together (it's a 6-speed, but 60mph in 6th is 2,000rpm so it's not particularly high geared by modern diesel standards).  I imagine a V6 auto petrol would be a relaxing beast, but the VED on those is a bit silly.  Seats are comfy, although the driver's seat only just goes back far enough for me - I do like to drive stretched out though.
Apart from a bit of vibration at idle (don't think the DMF is in the first flush of youth), a slightly feeble heater and an occasional noise which sounds like a wheel bearing on its way out, I can't really fault this one.  Yes it's been well maintained being a cab for most of its life, but the fact that a 280K Korean car can still drive so well means that they must have done something right...
Anyway, it's booked in for an MOT on Monday so we shall see what we shall see.

Spent today continuing on the exterior trim work.  I've now completed the vinyl roof.
Started off repainting the door frame trims.  These are chrome but series 2 cars (like mine) have black ones.  It's the same chrome part, Ford just rattle canned them black for the series 2.  Most of the black had come off so I decided to repaint the lot so it all matched.

I also cleaned and fitted the front screen.  Needs a more thorough clean but it's nice to have it back where it belongs.

Treated myself to some new number plates.  Period correct item having the plastic letters, just looks right on the car.  Pictures of this car will circulate on the net when I've finished it so I see no point in obscuring the number plate.
 
Took the sunroof apart and applied some fresh vinyl.  I also cleaned & checked the various parts that make it work and fitted a new seal.

The new seal is fatter than the original so despite overhauling everything it is very stiff to operate.  It does fit very nicely though so I'm not that bothered.  I'll just wind the window down.

Very pleased with the roof.  Probably start some wiring next time.

If you made to the NEC this year you may have seen a certain Ford Consul GT at the entrance to hall 5.  I reassembled it after the shell was painted.  It's one of the reasons why I'm making good progress on the coupe as I know where a lot of the bits need to go.  Will be heading to the show tomorrow so hopefully it's still where we left it!

Collected.  Newest car I've owned. 

I have many, many additions for the Shite Postcards thread to come over the winter....

spotted this on the bay of fleas....
how fuppin' ACE is it!
now, just for good measure its in Aberdeen, of all places! yes i know, it might as well be friggin' MARS,
i mean, aberdeen, 
FFS....... still i'd love to give this a home!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-ESSO-Addington-Service-Station-Wooden-Toy-Garage-Petrol-Pump-Gas-Retro/233390812745?hash=item36572d2e49:g:kd0AAOSwEGBdI3Cw

Also on a crazy-paved driveway.

Giffer dented-saloon-auto-garaged-suburbia-sunny for £350.
AS bingo!
(Except no pogweasel, because garage)
https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1174255

All you’re 95 RON + E5 are belong to us. 

I was in Derby today with ten minutes to kill. So how about a ‘then and now’?
ca. 1987:

November 2019:

Can’t quite get the same angle as the trees have grown so you can’t stand any further up the bank. Also the original photographer had a better zoom lens than my phone!

I've been greatly enjoying some hot aircraft carrier action ever since Friday's tat market.

I absolutely bloody loved MkIV Zodiacs when I was in my mid-teens.
Although I'd been lusting after a MkIV Cortina for years, I didn't know anything at all about the last of the Z cars - Ford's vast and ungainly 'Project Panda' - until I encountered a derelict Executive parked up at St Comgalls in Bangor in 1994 or so.
On enquiry, this car was apparently the former official transport for the Bishop of Down and Dromore, although why it was lying at the side of the church on flat tyres with a tattered blue tarp covering a smashed-out windscreen was never clear to me. But I was in love with the metallic bronze paint (falling off it in sheets), the full-wraparound rear lights and the sheer presence of that grille topped off with the 'gun sight' emblem.
I pictured it rolling on a set of Wolfrace rims, abundant chrome sparkling... oh yeah baby.

The ludicrously, pointlessly long nose married with the comically short boot did not, it seems, deter me one jot. Nor did the prospect of 18mpg.

The fact it was beyond fucked - with the doorskins having long since parted company with their frames, and holes in the rear quarter panel big enough for Eamonn Holmes to fit his ego through - didn't bother me. I schemed about how I could conceivably acquire it for my very own.

I doodled Zodiacs all over my school files, priced up jumbo-size tins of U-Pol in Motortune, and wondered just how hard it would be to strip down a V6 on a driveway, anyway...
Then one day, it was gone. Naught but a substantial heap of rust and a lot of green streaking on the tarmac to mark where my love had lain.

Probably for the best, to be fair. It was hanging.
But, I'd also turned up a Dinky police version of the MkIV at a car boot sale, so that was kinda the next best thing...

Although it was missing its bonnet, and the all-opening doors were more trouble than they were worth, to be quite honest.

Still, any MkIV was better than no MkIV at all, amirite?
But then I bought my own full-size Cortina (fucked) , and then followed it up with a freebie Mini Clubman (even more fucked) and then a Viva HC (moderately fucked, but at least repairable), and diecast took a bit of a back seat for a while...
...although I experienced a pang of jealousy when John Simm rocked a suitably shite Executive in Human Traffic.


What better vehicle to waft around the dodgy Cardiff club scene in?
 
I didn't even know that Matchbox had made a MkIV Zodiac model until I encountered a Superfast version at a car boot sale in Brighton Station car park in 2002. Which I bought, of course.

It's the green one on the right, which isn't cosmetically perfect (and suffers from a bonnet that never wants to close straight) but wasn't bad going for £1.
It lived on the dashboard of my Fiesta for a few years, secured with Blu-Tac, until the real Ford proved itself to have less structural integrity than the smol Ford - and the Zodiac found itself hidden away in a carry-case, while the Fiesta found itself being fed into a fragger at Shoreham docks.
But, after finding a regular wheels version at the Charity Stall Deluxe Tat Box last week, I was moved to dig it out for a little comparison exercise. So! Here we are.

Other than the eye-popping green paint (a slight nod to Hot Wheels' Spectraflame finish?), the main difference is the transition from Regular wheels to Superfast wheels - requiring a re-working of the baseplate. Lesney opted to bring the wheels further inboard to facilitate free running

The result is a model that looks a bit weird on such a narrow track when viewed from the front - but, after exhaustive testing, I can confirm that the Superfast wheels are much better for scooting along the kitchen worktop. It also sits a fair bit higher, as you can see in the earlier pics.
Like the later BMC 1800 Pininfarina though, it appears that later on the wheelarches were expanded to accommodate wider Superfast wheels, losing the original lines in the process.
Narrow wheels Superfast:

Wide wheels Superfast:

You can see the arches now extend above the side crease, and the arch edge of the rear door has been obliterated.

The base casting remains unchanged. Like the 1800 Pinin, I think the wider arches kinda spoil it.
 
So what's better? I reckon the blue Regular wheels version is the more accurate model (and quite a bit better than the slightly awkward Dinky effort), but the green Superfast is certainly the better toy, in terms of colour and free-rolling.
The opening bonnet, complete with detailed V6 unit and spare wheel, is also a nice touch.

So I'll be keeping the green Superfast version for the foreseeable, but I believe @Tenmil Socket had put his hand up for the blue regular wheels? Plus the all-orange Capri? All yours, dude.
The car itself may have been a bit of an ugly duckling, but this model's a real winner.
 
But then, while comparing the pair, I also noticed...

Ah, now.

Something I'd failed to spot previously, but which a rummage through my box of cars confirmed - pretty much every Matchbox car of the 1960s and 70s had some means to attach it to a towing hook.
Sometimes as a numberplate, sometimes as a lip cast into the base.
Genius.
Looking at one of my other prize finds, the Lotus Europa, it seems it was designed with a dedicated slot for just such a purpose.


It's such a small touch, but added a helluva lot of play value when your breakdown truck can be used to rescue stricken miniatures.
Corgi Juniors, it grieved me to note, did not. Quite a few of their models would be incapable of receiving such assistance.
It pleases me to finally be in a position to spend a bit of quality time with my collection, and notice these details!
 
I'm not sure that I'll ever own a real MkIV Zodiac, but I just wish Vanguards would produce a decent 1/43 version... in bronze.

My local Tesco has restocked on Matchbox, I picked up the Mercedes 220, VW Thing and Caprice tonight. They had at least one more of each, plus a few Ranchero and Thunderbird. Several Mini Cooper and an Alfa too.

As usual with a used car,the first port of call is the local petrol station. 
Seeing as this is an Itiallian car please meet Piccolo Eddy!!
"You like this little Fiat then smo...I mean Piccolo Eddy?"
"Mama Mia,magnifico m8"
Erm...I think that means he likes it!

 

Some of the trucks in that Siku catalogue are amazing.
Great to see Lesney's view of what a typical gift set recipient was like.....

Some of the trucks in that Siku catalogue are amazing.
Great to see Lesney's view of what a typical gift set recipient was like.....

Some of the trucks in that Siku catalogue are amazing.
Great to see Lesney's view of what a typical gift set recipient was like.....

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TOYOTA-CAMRY/174029518352?hash=item2884f7b610:g:SYQAAOSwc~1de2c6
i'm seriously thinking of going to look at this. with a view to replacing the Rover with it, cos i  like these Camrys, and the Rover, well after 187,000 miles and counting, its starting to feel old, and become a money pit.
its got the proper engine and gearbox, one owner, history, and a super clean mot history.
the only issue is the "cat d" on the hpi check, though on a car of this age that could be anything, even that scrape down the n/s back bumper......

its a nice colour too.
 

Crap weather, nothing on the telly - time to see what our German chums had to offer in 1979
 
Siku 1979 1 by RS, on Flickr
Siku 1979 2 by RS, on Flickr
Siku 1979 3 by RS, on Flickr
Siku 1979 4 by RS, on Flickr
Siku 1979 5 by RS, on Flickr
Siku 1979 6 by RS, on Flickr
Siku 1979 7 by RS, on Flickr
Siku 1979 8 by RS, on Flickr
Siku 1979 9 by RS, on Flickr
Siku 1979 10 by RS, on Flickr
Siku 1979 11 by RS, on Flickr
Siku 1979 12 by RS, on Flickr
Siku 1979 13 by RS, on Flickr
Siku 1979 14 by RS, on Flickr
Siku 1979 15 by RS, on Flickr
Siku 1979 16 by RS, on Flickr
Siku 1979 17 by RS, on Flickr
 
I especially like the Transit, Passat and Trekker. I have the last (and a Beetle) but it has a wheel missing

@Spottedlaurel
chertsey 1980

Can’t remember where or when this was but full marks to them.

Looks do-able to me! Thanks Trigger.
It'll be the first one I've gone to since the Bubblecar Museum weekend back in 2008.
No staying over for me, but given how local I am I should be able to pop back and forth in whatever is on the road at the time. I haven't yet thought about whether we're doing Ips-Fx, but it sounds like there's the ability to combine the events and make a great weekend out of it.

Yo! I've been nominated (many times) to organise a shitefest next year, considering i can't even organise my own life then this could be a challenge but I'm happy to try and arrange something if there enough interest?.
I've made enquiries at the Rose pub where we hold our East Coast Retro car meets on in Shotley near Ipswich, Suffolk (IP9 1NL) and she's more than happy for us to use the field over weekend for £5 per person per night if sleeping over, there are toilet facilities and the pub does good grub plus they have a large room for us to have a meal or maybe a quiz on the Saturday night?.
I've also spoken to a friend who's a volunteer at the Ipswich Transport Museum and even though the museum is closed to the public on a Saturday he can't see no reason why we can't have the museum to ourselves for a private tour around and even the possibility of a bus ride on one of their historic buses which I'm sure a few on here would really enjoy.
Now it's obviously early days yet but what i need to know roughly is how many of you shitters be interested in this and i need to give the pub a date as their field is getting booked up so that we can secure for our chosen weekend.

https://www.autoscout24.fr/offres/toyota-camry-solara-cabrio-3-3-v6-automatik-essence-blanc-edd12337-eb3a-4072-af7b-4a4fa8f7d90c
A Solara? No me neither. I thought clattery saloon. Just a Camry.


 

"Is that him, Batman?"

"Let's see... bundles of envelopes and ballpoint pens, cheap silver plate jugs and Hitler biographies. It's him alright."

"Hmmm... using my Batvision contact lenses, I can see he's trying to flog a boxed Solido Parisian bus for £25, even though it still has a €4.99 price sticker on it and it's not particularly rare."

"Urgh, the sicko!"
"Let's go dispense some justice, Robin!"

"Yaaargh! It's Batman!"

("Here pal, how much is on this big oul cow?")
"Shut up! My nemesis has arrived! Err... the big gold cow, thirty five quid."

"You're going to sting that citizen for thirty-five quid? That cow's made of bloody fibreglass!"

"Say your prayers, Giffer!"







"Errr… Batman, I'm not really sure what you're doing to The Giffer with that big gold cow is appropriate for a show mainly aimed at children and young adults."

"He brought it on himself. Lock him up."

"Um... alright..."
 
"Anyway, Robin and I are off home... It's hungry work fighting crime, and I've just scored a bagful of diecast tat to look through."


"Yeah, so that's a half and half with curry sauce... large prawn dhansak with pilau... peshwari naan... coupla vegetable samosas... what, a whole friggin' hour for a Deliveroo?!"
"Tell them to stuff it, Robin, I'll stop off at China Kitchen instead."

"Gee, Batman, what a day. I don't think The Giffer will be giving us much trouble again."
"Nope, Robin. Not until they manage to remove that cow, anyway."
"So what did you get?"
"I'm glad you asked me that.. because crime might not pay, but decent diecasts come to those that persist."

"Aw FFS, not again..."

 

"You really are a bastard at times, chief. Can't you just try to find your slippers yourself?"

"We've got to put a stop to The Giffer's overpriced diecast hi-jinks, Robin, once and for all!"

"But how, Batman? He's the tricksiest supervillain around. I hear he managed to palm off a scratched and unboxed Atlas Dinky reissue with a missing headlight for £10 to a confused Dutch student."
"We'll get the drop on him Robin - never fear."

"You mean - we have to go up there? But how?"

"Using my official cheap plastic tat, Robin. It never fails me."

"Up we go."
 
"Scuse me, fellas, but you do realise this is a listed building of special architectural and/or historical interest under Section 80 of the Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011, and as such your Bat-rope may risk damaging its double-height single-storey red brick covered facade, built c.1890 in Romanesque style to designs by J.C Bretland?"

"I appreciate your deep concern for Belfast's built heritage, Sammy Davis Jr, but right now we've got a diecast supervillain to apprehend."
"Fair enough so. If you see any decent Corgi Rockets or blackwall Hot Wheels, grab 'em for me, yeah?"
"Certainly, Sammy Davis Jr."
"Cheers guys. Love the show!"

I attacked the wheels with wire brush on an angle grinder, gave them a couple of coats of some rust eater, then used the Trigger method of wheel painting.

Had the new tyres fitted and balanced, I still can't get over how cheap these Toyos were from Demon tweeks, £20.49!! (Plus vat).
Tyre fitter thought the wheels were for a trailer!
 

Polished the hub caps and the front wing.
This old thing is going to look pretty smart!