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So to recap. After a painfully long time (well a month) I finally bought a MGB GT. I've always fancied one and after seeing one at a local garage (which turned out to be a bit shit) the urge sprang up again. Anyway after a lot of searching I ended up with this. Seems pretty straight and underneath don't appear to not been welded too much. Worst point that I've found in the leaf spring mount. I'm not going to cover all the different things and stuff just yet as its already in the thread, so I shouldn't make this too long! I've not owned a car this old and never something with a carburettor. So I don't quite know what I'm doing with a lot of this, and will have plenty of questions! Part of the reason why I bought it was so I had something that I could fiddle with and learn on. As the other thread got a bit long, I thought it would be a better idea to split and start here.

What have I found? Busy day at the SiC household. With the Rover gone, it was time to pick up it's replacement. Due to an insurance timing fuck up on my part, @N Dentressangle kindly delivered this for me. Just done four hours of driving going back and forth so I'm now a bit knackered. I'd usually sit in it and have a fiddle but I might end up falling asleep in there.

Hi folks, As I threatened in my first post in the 'introduce yourself' thread, I will slowly be getting the fleet posted up on here for everyone to admire/ridicule. I will be the first to admit I have a hoarding problem, and at one point I had around 18 cars in addition to the stock that I was trading at the time... I eventually listened to those close to me who had been constantly nagging over the years, weaned myself back to one car for a year or so, realised that without projects to play with I was constantly bored and miserable and so decided that having one car was a crock of shit and I should buy more again. Always just one more, never more than that 😆 At the moment we have the following, some running and on the road, some not so much... Nothing irreparable though, and I will try my best to document the work I do as I pick away it on them all. So, on to the cars that we've got currently: 2007 mk3 Renault Clio 1.2 - mentioned for completeness, and because I put a new engine in it recently and effectively got the car for £150 I'm still feeling sort of smug. I got given it for free with a snapped cam belt after helping someone out, I bought the cheapest engine I could find, put a new cam belt on it and hoped for the best. It's now my partner's daily, and she's happy enough with it. I'm wary of it, as it contains computers, but whilst it runs it means I can delay welding my partner's Subaru! After driving it for a bit myself, I actually don't mind it and I've come to think it's an alright car for what it is despite being incredibly dull 😯 2000 Mk1 Honda Insight - I bought this around 2015/2016 when I was importing cars from Japan and put it in storage. It was tipped to go up in value... It didn't really. Before the world fell apart we used to drive on the continent a lot (my partner is Slovakian, we try to drive to see family rather than fly) so I recently took it out of storage and put it on the road in anticipation of getting some road trips in once the borders open. This is currently my daily driver. 2001 Mitsubishi Shogun Sport 3.0 V6 - This is our thunderbird, useful for rescuing the other cars when they shit themselves. So thirsty on fuel that you barely notice the change in economy when driving it unladen or with 1.5t dragged behind it 😆 Typical Japanese reliability, the engine and box are always well behaved but I'm forever welding bits into the holes in the body. I keep thinking of selling it, but it saved our arse when another car died just before a road trip to Zurich so I like to keep it around. It's quite good fun to take to pay and play days too, when I'm not busy throwing money at other stuff. 1994 Skoda Favorit Silverline Estate - I swapped another car I wanted to get out of for this one. The main attraction is that it horrifies my partner, as she had one as her first car and hated it. I've replaced quite a lot on this to get it running right, as it had some issues when I picked it up, I've also spent a good few days welding the underneath up. It still needs some bodywork and a tidy but it was a perfectly good daily up until the head gasket let go. It's still taxed and tested, the cylinder head is sat in the boot of the Mitsubishi ready to take for a skim, so hopefully I'll have her up and running again soon. I don't know why, but I've grown pretty fond of it over the time I've had it, despite the fact that it is fairly crap to drive by modern standards! 2001 Subaru Legacy Outback 3.0 H6 - Bought cheap with a short MOT, it was all going so well until I started picking at the inner arches. This was my partner's daily up until the MOT ran out, and ever since it's been on the 'I'll get round to it' list. Other than some crustiness, it's a pretty decent car. The flat 6 engine sounds beautiful through the stainless exhaust. It's rapid for a wagon, and has all the creature comforts you could want. It's fairly straightforward to work on. I think this is about our 6th or 7th Legacy, I keep getting rid of them and then regretting it. I'm told we are selling this one once I fix it... I may just buy my partner out of it, save us buying another one in a few months time 😆 2001 Mercedes E430 V8 Estate - £250 facebook marketplace special. Ran great for 6 months, providing loads of V8 fun. Bloody quick in a straight line, and huge inside. Easily one of my favourite shit heaps I've ever owned. Then the gearbox took a dump before we left for Zurich in 2019 (yes, I am stupid enough to plan a 3,000 mile foreign trip in a £250 German car...). I've since bought a replacement gearbox, which conveniently came attached to a 5.4l AMG lump from a CLK55 AMG that a mate was breaking, plus all the other bits I wanted to grab off of it. It's currently sat up at my parent's farm, firmly on the 'I'll get round to it' list. 2001 Mercedes SLK 320 - Bought off the mate who sold me the AMG lump, I got this as something to work on with my younger brother. It had a snapped control arm, and subsequently a knackered engine and gearbox. My mate chucked in a spare engine and gearbox, and we are most of the way through the repair work. The hardest part of this project has been both mine and my brother's working hours changing, making it hard to find the time to work together. 1992 Honda Prelude 2.2 Si VTEC - Another Japanese import, I bought it when I was 21, ran it for years and then took it off the road and left it up the farm until I was ready to do the restoration work it needed (I couldn't weld back then... Some people might say I still can't 😅 ) as the rear quarters and sills were going to crap. I started her up the other day and noticed she wasn't charging, so I'll probably strip the alternator and repair it over the next few days. As for the welding, you guessed it, I'll get round to it! 1992 Citroen BX Break 1.7 TZD - Well, it was free to a good home, and I had just dropped a car off and had an empty car transporter... What would anyone else do?! She's done nearly 300k miles, and has lots of holes for me to weld up. Otherwise runs fine, no trouble starting, suspension goes up and down as needed, doesn't spray green fluid all over the shop. I've had all the interior out and cleaned it thoroughly, removed most of the spiders, fitted the missing trim - basically done anything I can to avoid the harder jobs. It's due to become our holiday bus though, so I've scheduled some time over the next few months to get stuck in to the welding. This is probably one of the cars I'm most excited about running, as I reckon it will be a pretty decent estate to run around in. 1988 Zastava 311 - A bit of a random one, but I've always wanted a Zastava just for the obscurity. This one came up in January, and had been sat in barns since 1996 apparently. It didn't run when I got it, but I've slowly replaced pretty much everything in the engine bay, along with all the brake components and lines, and she runs now. Just the welding left to do, and she's ready for MOT. I have been fairly productive with this project, up until several cars within my family broke at the same time and I ended up working on those in my spare time instead of my toys. Only one family car left to fix and I'll be back on my projects again hopefully. I will try to put an individual post to follow for each car, as and when I can be bothered to do a write up of what I've done with each of them to bring them up to date, and then after that I'll try and get posts and pics up as I do jobs on them. I suspect the first thing to get up will be the Skoda, as that's what I'm actively working on currently. And seeing as you made it this far through my rambling, here's a picture of the Favorit:

Well I've been meaning to sign up here in forever, but kept forgetting. Thanks to someone over on another forum I frequent poking me about it recently the subject was forced back into my very brief attention span for long enough to get me to act on the instruction. I figure that my little varied fleet might bring you lot some amusement... So...we've got: 1993 Lada Riva 1.5E Estate (now fuel injected, as I reckon the later cars should have been from the factory...). 1989 Saab 900i Automatic. 1987 Skoda 120LX 21st Anniversary Special Edition. 1985 Sinclair C5. 2009 Peugeot 107 Verve. Now getting the photos together has taken me far longer than I'd expected...so you're gonna get a couple of photos of each car for now, and I'll come back with some more information tomorrow when I've got a bit more time... Firstly...The Lada. Before anyone asks - in response to the single question I get asked about this car: No, it is not for sale. Took me 13 years and my father's inheritance to find the thing. Yes, it's got the usual rusty wings...Hoping that will be resolved in the next couple of months. Next, a proper old Saab. One of the very last 8 valve cars apparently, and all the better for it. I've driven two 16v autos and they were horrible - the auto box works sooooo much better with the torque curve of the 8 valve engine. Just wish it had an overdrive for motorway cruising... Next up a *real* Skoda...back when they put the engine where it belongs, right out the back. In the best possible colour of course...eye-searingly bright orange. Seat covers have been added since that photo was taken as it suffers from the usual rotting seat cloth problem that affects virtually all Estelles. Then we have possibly the world's scruffiest Sinclair C5... Realised when looking for this that I really need to get some more photos of the thing...I use it often enough after all! We have a dog who's half husky, so this is a really good way of getting him some exercise. Finally - again, I really need to take more photos of - we have the little Pug 107. Included for the sake of variety even if it's a bit mainstream! First (and probably to be the only) new car I've bought, and has been a cracking little motor and has asked for very little in return for putting up with nearly three years of Oxford-Milton Keynes commuter traffic, before finally escaping that fate when my housemate moved to a new job. Now it doesn't do many miles and is my default car for "when I've managed to break everything else." I'll fill in some more details tomorrow - I warn you though that I do tend to ramble...

I've seen a few people do this here, so I thought I would jump on the band wagon and talk about one of my cars. Which just so happens to be a Commie Red 1976 Lada 2101 from Lithuania. Here's the obligatory photo: I've also written about it here on my website: https://www.mywifehatesthiscar.com/the-fleet-avtovaz-lada-2101-nikita/ For those who won't click on it, let me tell you the story about this car. I bought this over a year ago, and it's sat under a tarpaulin on my mom's drive way ever since. She doesn't mind, because she's an Irish mammy and doesn't drive. I bought the car as I liked it's classic design and the fact the wife absolutely hated it. I also sought out something over 40 years old, as Birmingham was/is introducing that daft ULEZ thing and at the time I worked in the city centre. Since then though I'm starting a new job so the whole ULEZ thing doesn't matter now, especially as they haven't bothered to bring it in yet. The Lada itself is from Lithuania, has been in the UK since 1997. I didn't buy it from the original owner, it's been through two owners before it got to me. Neither of which did what the original owner should've done and register it, so that's currently with the DVLA at the moment. What started as me buying a classic Lada to stick two fingers up to Birmingham City Council and my wife has now turned in to a longer term project. I have a Rover 25/MG ZR that I'm taking the engine from, along with an MX5 gearbox, and I'm putting that in to the Lada along with the half leather seats from the Rover. It's going to be a daily, and I want a daily that looks a bit crap and old that will surprise those clowns in their PCP BMW's. At the moment nothing's been done to the car as I haven't the space. Currently in the process of cleaning a garage that hasn't been cleared since I bought the house 5 years ago, and I've a Peugeot 107 and Toyota Corolla that need attention in there before the Lada even gets moved in there. So I'll update this post as well as the website and YouToob with the work on the car as and when, but I just wanted to say how bloody happy I am to be part of the forum with like minded people who won't give me the agro I get from the wife about these cars. Also, FYI about the site, the name doesn't come from the wife's reaction to the Lada. It comes from her reaction to my Corolla!

Introduction: I am an idiot. I buy lots of crap. Keep it for about 6 months and then sell it for another project that most people would consider scrap. Join me on my ramblings as I keep old cars going that most people would sooner turn into washing machines or bean tins. Index: Page 1 - Austin Montego Estate 1.3L Base Initial Assessment. Many years of slumber and many rusts Page 12 - Lands End to John O Groats in a Montego. What could possibly go wrong...? Spoiler alert: It went wrong Page 17-18 - Bonus Mini content x2 Page 19 - LEJOG part Deux. The return of the Montenogo Page 24 - Goodbye to the Montego/Mini engine build/Arrival of an Impreza/Departure of my daily/Collection caper of a Volvo 240 - Busy page that one! Page 26 - Scooby departure & Arrival of a new modern-ish daily/track car Page 27 - NC500 2022/Headgasket on the roadside Page 28-30 - A wild Cavalier mk1 appears! A wild MGF appears! Plus bonus Montego content! Departure of the Cavalier. Acquisition of a Rover 414 and a 1979 Mini. I need to stop buying cars... Page 30 - Mexican Beetle Page 34 - Rover 25 GTI arrives Thread: What do you get after 16 hours and 800 miles of driving on a Sunday to collect two cars? Well @sharley17194 picks up a 1997 Citreon AX from the depths of the Lakes on the North West coast past Keswick. However, we actually started the day by driving to just near Cromer on the East coast to pick up this! An Austin Montego poverty spec estate with a 1.3L A-series engine! Yes you did read that bit right! Yes I know the DVLA lists the model as 1.6... Yes its correctly registered as 1.3L. No I dont know if its a factory 1.3L! 😂 My favourite part of all this??? (Apart from the doom blue colour and the absolutely terrible interior!) 281,000 miles on the clock! Collection went really well and the below posts follows my initial assessment of what is quite frankly the best car I have ever purchased.

Didn't bother to do a collection thread as was a 30min drive so fairly boring. Yesterday I won this Which is effectively going to replace the civic and the xantia. Picked car from a bodywork guy in foreign lands (Yorkshire). First thoughts are that I think it has been sitting for a while but started straight up. Apart from service bits and potentially a cambelt everything seems to be good with it. Comes pre dented. Current is differently abled tax so that will need to be changed. Windscreen has small crack in passenger side. Runs really cold, this is after 30 miles of motorway Mind you it honks. Properly honks. Not as much as the focus I got from Shadow but not far off. List of jobs Oil change Spark plugs Air filter Thermostat Rear boot struts Front discs and pads Cam belt plus bits Ball joints Drop links Rear anti roll bar bushes Stereo code Windscreen crack Swimming pool emptied from boot wheel well Seal rear light clusters And a big does of cleaning

So many broken picture links! I'll fix it one day. I feel I can finally unlurk properly now that I have something worthy of Autoshite to post about. Day One In the cold light of Day Two Came with some great features. The best thing about vinyl is that you *can* scrub it clean and with this old boat that was needed; everything was sticky and left a black residue on the hands. I've only been able to bring myself to spend an hour on the driver's door, the rest will have to wait for now. Doesn't look as big as it feels, weirdly. This is going to be my new daily in a few months, just got to get through a lot of cleaning and a bit of fettling. She's actually not that bad overall and only cost me £450 (plus £25 day insurance to collect her). The problems? >Quite a few rust blebs, but nothing serious or structural >Handbrake needs adjusting, I have to chock the wheels when parked on the drive >Driver's door window doesn't work >Probably decades of hand grease and silicone spray, built up in alternating layers. The engine bay is cleaner than the cabin. >Bonnet rams don't hold up the bonnet. >Neither do the boot rams. >Garage fitted electric fuel pump has no supressor, interferes with the LW/MW radio >PYE tape deck needs new belts, music played on it sounds like it's underwater >Bad previous respray with water contamination. But you know what, none of that matters. She's supremely comfortable and with some TLC over the summer should be in fine fettle. I'm not sure whether or not the people that look with face agog and jaw slack as I drive past are impressed, worried or amazed that a beige Princess with a brown roof still exists and is out on the road with someone a long way from pensionable age driving it.

As with many of the members on here, I tend to read and comment a lot, but haven’t done much in the way of my own shite related posting. The onslaught of miserable teenage goat bummers (©Bollox2019) has encouraged me to share a little more, rather than look at the screen and shake my head. As my fiancée once told me, Dick is for sharing. Or something. Updates are likely to be sporadic, and not necessarily ‘car project work’ per se. Sometimes it may just be the odd photo. Anyway, now the disclaimer is out the way, and without further ado, I’ll start with this. I bought my Lambretta just over ten years ago. I’ve had a few over the years, and even dabbled with the dark side, or as they are sometimes known, Vespa. Collection of this scooter involved a fucked Transit, and a day trip to Stoke from sunny Cornwall. Breathing in diesel exhaust fumes which permeated the van through the rusty gaps under the back doors was becoming tiresome by the twelfth hour of driving. We managed it though, and the scooter was well worth the journey. It’s an Italian 1967 SX150, with a 186 Imola kit, plus various other trick bits. It was originally Verde Mela - a rare Innocenti colour - which is basically apple green. Unfortunately the previous owner stripped every last trace of it from the frame, and repainted it in a Peugeot metallic. Not something I could ever bring myself to do, but it looks good all the same. I had plenty of fun with the scooter, and even made it to the Isle of Wight rally on it (I’ve done this a few times on previous scooters). However, as with many of us, life and house got in the way, and it’s sat in the garage under a cover for way too long. I hadn’t fired it up for well over 12 months, so decided to drag the old dear out into the sunshine, fire her up, and give her a blast around the estate. I did a quick video of getting the scooter started - no sound because time lapse - startup was a bitch as the fuel was really stale, half evaporated and leaving the oil/ratio mix completely oil heavy. You can make out when it eventually fires up in the video - wait for the smoke around the back end! I’ll end by adding the startup video. I’ve got a load more photos somewhere on the external HDD, including some of my previous Lambrettas. I'll have to dig them out when I get chance. TTFN.

Day booked off for a car collection tomorrow. Just need to figure the best way to get from Nailsea & Backwell (near Bristol) to Bebington (near Wirral). Split ticket is about £60 standard or £97 first class which I'm tempted to do. 3 changes and not sure what happens if I can't get the next train - presumably loose out? No point hiding what it is as I'm sure many who have seen any of my recent posts will know already!

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, The Burd and I went to see the Skizzer to start getting a MK1 Golf Convertible that had been off the road for 10years.. After a couple of sessions in deepest darkest Wales , coupled with some sterling help and fettling by Skizzer himself, it was time for us to head down and bring the thing back up. This went well: New tyres were procured and fitted The in-game tank pump was pulled out and a new filter fitted Then I got in touch with my Inuit side, using brand new* magnets to undertake "tank shite" fishing A full check over and a couple of test drives showed it fit to play. We set off for sunny Oswestry, only to have both front calipers sticking after 120 miles. Some water and time to collect down saw them free off and cause no further problems. Upon getting just past Tebay, it started running rough - nicking into Todhills rest area and luzzing in 10L of fuel had it running bang on for the next 70miles before it died. This was the final scene on the way home. I got to bed at 00:45, and left it to sit until today.

Collected on Page 2 here: https://autoshite.com/topic/57354-2006-golf-20tfsi-gti-bargain-basement-high-miler-tfsi-club/?do=findComment&comment=2940644 Mrs SiC is deeply unhappy with me. Apparently I should at least let her know that I'm buying something. However I did show her the advert the other day when she asked what I was doing. Turned her nose up by saying it's old looking and thought I was buying something decent next. Well I thought it was decent ... In truth I was intending to spend a good few grand on something far more modern. Except I was thinking about it while on the long walk to the garage to pick up the TT from it's MOT. Decided to message the chap to have at least a gander. Problem is that I tend to just buy if I see a car. So I tend not to see cars otherwise I'd be in even deeper multi-car doodoo. Seller took it in as a part ex. Got his dad to weld the sills up and then listed it. No interest at the original price. So knocked £195 off his asking price and offered it to me at a price with £500 off since Xmas. I'm a cheeky sod at times and knocked another hundred quid off despite being no offers. 😇 So it's cheap. It's done 197k. Zero history with the car. There is a massive hole where there should be a stereo. It runs, it drives and no warning lights. As there was no tax or insurance, I got the seller to do the test drive. Seemed to drive okay with no untoward noises and no apparent clutch slip. There was a weird grinding type noise when turning sharp out of a corner but I pretended I didn't hear that. While it's cheap, that doesn't mean it is a bargain. So it could be an absolute bargain or just as much an absolute turd that someone has used up all it's life. I'm catching the bus into work as handily there is a direct bus to his. Collection will be tomorrow afternoon/evening after work. Or probably today by the time you are reading this. P.s. someone buy my TT as I have too many cars again.

Folks. I don't care that the subject matter of this thread is, relatively-speaking, basically a new car. I'm calling it shite and anybody who disagrees after letting the pictures do the talking can vanish off up their own arse as far as I'm concerned. With that out the way, here's the first bit of the tale. I'll be brief. Up until last August my wife was running this Astra Twintop of 2007 vintage. Luxurious with the top spec "Design" trim level complete with comedy useless early built-in satnav tech, quick with the 2 litre Turbo motor. Just about 34k on the clock at that point, and it had been treated to four new tyres the previous month. Drove lovely. She then decides that a Mini convertible would be the way to go. Here's the newest one she could find within budget : R57, registered mid 2010, Cooper S with the 1.6 turbo engine. Looks alright eh? Ok, it has some wheel and tyre-related issues. Admittedly, some perished rubber seals would want dealing with. Granted, those wipers are shagged. And those shitty, SHITTY "Cooper script" decals are way past their best, as are the faded and peeling bonnet stripes. Chunk missing outa that A-pillar trim, and what about that aerial? Oh. Someones only gone and nicked the COOPER S badges, but at least the bodywork's tidy, right? Hmmm. Well, at least it still has a full set of locking nuts, doesn't it? OH COME ON!!!! So the background is that one of our local Polish car traders took it in as a part-ex against something better. Usually he would smarten it up to punt on at a nice profit, but with his bodyshop man out of action he wanted this one off the books pronto and put it up for a couple of grand below the going rate. I think most on here would have probably recommended walking away as rapidly as possible, but I can only conclude that I was high that day, because apparently we agreed a deal in which he took the Astra PLUS CASH against this tatty BINI. Therefore it's been on fleet strength for the last seven and a half months. WCPGW??

This. By popular* demand* here is a thread about the least popular VW van around. The photo is as bought, back in 2006. Purchased with a year's MOT, 6 months tax, and a caravan all for £600. To his credit, the seller had received many enquiries from people wanting to buy either the caravan or van, but not both although refused to end the auction early when there were bids already on it. So it failed to go anywhere near what I thought it would sell for. The combination suited us well, as we could live in the caravan wile we carried out major house work, and use the van for carrying building materials. This we did, enduring a sometimes cosy but often cold winter in the caravan while I used the LT as my only road legal vehicle. It was already carpeted inside, with a simple electrical system as it had been previously used as a motorbike race van. It saw a little bit of use as a 'tent on wheels', seen here in Scotland in 2007: I'd always wanted to build a campervan, although I kept this quiet when seeking domestic funding for buying it in the first place! So when the bulk of the work was done, I suggested using some fittings from the caravan to convert it. This was met with approval (to my surprise), and we planned to take it to a festival one August. I waited for a forecast of dry weather, but none came and I was running out of time so ended up booking time off work a week before the festival. The reason for dry weather is that I wanted to tackle some welding... As it turned out, I had one dry day to work on it! After much searching I'd bought some genuine VW panels (despite forum experts saying there were none remaining), which fitted very nicely Managed to get that far on Monday, then it was time to tackle the floorpan but I'll leave that tale for another day...

None of my vehicles are really interesting enough for their own thread, so I'm going for a tat blog style consolidated thread. The modern* - Citroen Berlingo 2.0 HDi The best and only photo I have of it. Generally reliable but showing it's 153k miles in various areas. It's good at hauling people and things around, that's about all I can say. Current status - off road for fixing of torrential oil leak and floppy gear change. The classic* - BMW 318iS Photo stolen from seller's ad. A recent £292 ebay purchase. I thought I would strip it out and do some track days but after driving it for a while I'm not sure now. 112k miles, some sort of service history, far from a creampuff but hasn't been messed about with like so many. Check out the orange indicators and standard 15 inch rims. SOAVE. Current status - daily use. Motorbike 1 - Honda VFR750 Has done me well as a 'first big bike' but it's replacement is already lined up. Current status - Awoken from winter slumber and with MOT station pending results tomorrow. Motorbike 2 - Honda Fireblade Bought cheap as needs gearbox looking at - jumps out of second (they all do that if they've been ragged sir.) Current status - gearbox repair is after Berlingo on to-do list, hoping for on the road by June. So there they are. Not very interesting but I will update the thread with my with my various spannerings/misadventures/getting bored and selling them all etc.

After several years here I'll fully admit I am not a seasoned chod-veteran like many, but I'll begin with my dad and American chod. During my teenage years this was the toy barn: My first adventure in rebuilding began with my dad's 1952 GMC truck. Started like this. Freshly imported from a dry state with a solid body. Rear axle had been dragged around for a while and the drums were worn half away. 228 cubic inches of straight six with knackered rings. Rebuild commenced. Spent a year rebuilding the engine with all fresh bits imported from the states. Neglected to acid dip it, and turned out one of the splash oil bores was clogged with crud. 500 miles later the big ends melted and fused. Much swearing, much vehicle aimed violence. Out comes that lump. This prime piece of chod donated it's heart. 350ci of v8 muscle*. Actually originated in a smog tune Camaro, so about as shite a v8 as you can pick. Truck now owned by a family friend looking like this: My own first motor was this. 1972 VW Beetle 1302s Lasted 500 miles. Failed on rust. Got it on the ramp and it had rusted right across the rear end. Engine was about to damn fall out. Whole thing needed a new floor plan. Got broken for parts. That got replaced with this: Golf 1.4i cl In around 2006. 72,000 miles on it at the time. One old lady owner from new, giffer driven, full VW service history. Bargain at £1k. Much work was done Now at 156,000. Syncromesh dead in 2nd and 3rd. Very noisy tappets. Engine mounts shot. Rotten jacking points. Bugger won't die. MOT runs out next week, and I feel really bad at the idea of breaking it. Going to stick it in and see if it will pass an MOT, but I'm getting fed up of having squeaky bumhole journeys that it will drop a valve. 18 months ago, added this to the fleet: Scirocco 1.8 8v carb £1k on ebay, advertised with one line of information. 67,000 miles, FSH, 3 owners from new, mainly giffer driven, but owned by a young guy for a year before I bought it. Solid body, decent engine. Mk2 Golf GTD gearbox with a massively tall 5th gear (2k RPM = 80mph). Saving the pennies while commuting yo! Issues have been that it has not had it's perishables repaired in a long time, so since I've had it it's had: New hard brake lines New braided soft brake lines De-rusted and waxoyled fuel lines. New timing belt and aux belt. New temp sensor. A new CV Carb rebuild. In between I briefly flirted with a a Renault 4 van and a BMC FG350 Ambulance (converted to a camper). No photos of these. There's also been this 1987 Scirocco GTX 150,000 I bought locally as a cat C write off with the intention of repairing. Then found out the A-pillar, the B-pillar and rear chassis were buckled. Would never have been right again. Broke her for parts. Finally Jaguar S-Type 3.0 v6. Recently bought this for a charity rally. T-reg 1999, so think it still counts as chod. Plus it cost £750 and has done 165,000 miles.

First some background: I was brought up with no car interest, a car was transport and nothing more which resulted in a selection of poor cheap cars being the cars of my youth. Fast forward many years (just over 9 years ago) and I have a wonderful* Vauxhall Vectra estate to carry us about. Unfortunately it is crap and throws fault codes at us with nothing being there when it is checked (even at Vauxhall) As Mrs T is the main pilot of this chariot with the two little miss T's on board, it has to go. The hunt is on for the new steed to safely and comfortably carry the family around. I have a company car at the time so big journeys are not an issue. ebay is my weapon of choice to find the new family car. It has to be good value cheap for no other reason than I am tight. Weeks of research with lots of cars that are too expensive and too far away for easy collection end up in my watch list. Finally a possible is spotted in Fife. I go and have a look and find a poor looking but solid car. One previous owner and lots of history. The auction was to end on the Saturday at midday, we were going to be out! I decided on how much I was willing to gamble on it and on the Saturday morning I put in my max bid but straight away it went to my max bid, I was winning but it had three hours to go with no room for me to go up! We went out anyway. I spent the next three hours kicking myself for not bidding more while we were out as it was the first car I had seen that fitted my criteria. Fate was in charge. On returning home I go straight on ebay to find 'Congratulations.............' For the grand total of £500 I had just won this fine vehicle! It has 5 months MOT and after fitting seat belts in the rear for the girls car seats it is pushed into daily service. My gamble and subsequent use results in a perfectly reliable car that actually does what it is supposed to do. Even more importantly Mrs T loves it so a win all round. All my cars have names (most are earned over a bit of time) and this one is called 'Gwendolen' ( G reg car and from Wales originally. I hate the name but I am not going to argue) That sums up part one, more will be along later (probably much later)

This will be a short term project so going to start a thread rather than cluttering up my ‘Current long term car’ diary thread. So, after the shit storm of Corsa B to roffle ownership it got me in the mood for another project after the bargain Volvo last year. Had a look on FB marketplace and stumbled across a 2010 new* shape Seat Ibiza. Pretty poor photos, unwashed, unhoovered, just a lazy effort but I could see potential. So what do we have on offer here? 2010 ‘60 plate Seat Ibiza ‘Sport’ 1.6 Pez, N/A, chain driven. 7 speed DSG ULEZ friendly 134k with full stamped history from new, only missing this year as it’s due now. MOT’d last month, runs until 19/03/2025 2 keys Whats wrong with it? The main thing is NSR quarter, they scraped a post in a car park. Unrecorded. Air con isn’t very cold. It was up for £750, I threw a cheeky £500 offer and they replied £600, we met at £550. Here are the advert photos:

Right then, this is the ex @SmokinWaffle and @StinkwheelBX that was free in the summer but I paid £250 for last month. Im not too much of a story teller but want to show what's been done and any updates etc for those interested. I've not owned a Citroen for 15 years and that was a *normal one so jumped at the chance to save this beauty. She was rough, slammed to the ground and left everywhere covered in LHM piss. When @SmokinWaffle messaged to say he was struggling to get it off his drive I honestly thought what the f*@k have I let myself in for 😆 @worldofceri delivered her on time and was very helpful throughout, almost like hes done it before. And a huge relief when it fit into the garage fine I'd been briefed the leaks were likely plastic return pipes which they were but also weren't. First tackled the "small octopus" which handles all the return lines and literally disintegrated on contact. Managed to bodge improvise a repair until a more permanent solution be found. Not pretty but it's done the job. The next leak was found to be the NSR brake pipe which was sourced for about £40 from ebay and got this fitted. Surprisingly straight forward to do! All fitted along with a few return pipes I thought I was home and dry, filled her with LHM and up went the front end shortly followed by the back. Brilliant until......another pipe burst. This was a long front to back line and covered a load of the cars underside aswell as the garage floor. Was a bit disheartened as the price of this pipe seemed to be anything from £65 up to £138 which had me questioning if it was worth doing. I managed to find a local Citroen specialist near me and asked if he could help. He made up a pipe for me while I waited with right flares and connectors for £15, absolute hero. I fitted it back home no problem and was certainly a lot easier than taking it off. She's now able to rise and fall and without drenching everything in LHM....yessssss Next up was the nicer to do bits, x2 tyres which were included were fitted Door lock and card replaced easily enough and inside looking much nicer now although the ICE probably isn't up to much - a job for another day Did a mini service on here, probably at least 8/9 years since she's had new oil and filters so had to be done. Definately looked ready. Sounds like she's running alright tho.... https://youtu.be/NEQMb4BUzv4?si=AGBXNIWV9FZuz6zd Had an interesting time sorting out some bodgery in the rear light clusters mainly due to when the towbar was fitted. Dad thankfully helped fix a couple of connections I couldn't manage to trace the fault. Changed a few bulbs, cleaned up connections etc and a bulb board. Here is the donor car at the specialists (new best friend) I mentioned earlier...🤣 I was warned about a bad clutch cable/clutch but adjusted the bite point and seems to be holding up at the moment. After sorting out a washer jet for her I booked an MOT and packed a few breakdown essentials. Only a short distance to the garage but noticed a blow from the exhaust unfortunately en route. We stopped for fuel and love the way she looks back out in the wild again I've never seen the boys show so much interest in a car going for an MOT....😬 All was going well until we found a bearing/Bush loose but not the end of the world so.... After 8/9 years in a barn to only need a bush, exhaust patch and brakes adjusting I'll take it. Absolutely buzzing 🥲 Booked in with my Citroen guy on Wednesday so should have some news by end of week fingers crossed 🤞