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A for sale ad for a Micra caught my sons eye the other day,it had been parked up since 2012 and for some bizarre reason he thought it would be a good project to do over a "couple of week ends" and then move on for To be fair it cost very little and fits in the corner of the drive just fine and it helps mask the fact that the expensive 2pac paint job on my Subaru has also faded somewhat after sitting outside all winter. Considering it's been idle for 4 years it don't look too bad,it doesnt need any obvious welding but the paint is really awful. So the dead battery was put on charge for three days and it seems to have come back to life. The fuel gauge was showing half a tank and the oil / water were both present and correct so an attempt was made to start it. Well being typically japanese it genuinely started first turn of the key and after a couple of mins and a few blips of the throttle it came off its auto choke and sat quietly ticking over. The clutch is super light and bites half way up the pedal,even the brakes work well albeit dragging slightly. I was well impressed that this near thirty year old Datsun (i call all Nissans Datsuns it's an age thing i guess) was sitting there purring away on stale petrol after four years sitting idle when it promptly stopped dead and refused to fire up again. It had lost its spark and after removing the distibutor for a closer inspection the problem was clear to The springy bit had snapped on the points but i had an new set gathering dust in the back of my work van that fitted a treat and now the 988cc engine runs even sweeter. I can't see my sons optimistic "two week turn around" happening any time soon and selling it on once it's mot'd for a worth while profit seems remote when nice tidy ones are about for £700. But it's seems to be a happy little thing and so deserves getting back on the road again.

Right folks its about time i introduce you all to my capri project thats been sat at my mums for a few years, ive had this car since 2008 as all of you will remember this was before they became subject to omgoldfordtax I loved driving this car looking down that long bonnet it was my daily car up until 4 years ago when i had an unfortunate accident, a roundabout was covered in diesel, i went around and understeered and hit a railing, there was nothing i could do The accident crumpled the inner wing, headlamp bowl, wing, valance, bumper, it bent the steering arm, buggered the rack and arb mount, a good mate popped up and we heated the headlamp bowl and pulled it straighter with a chain and pulley on a telegraph pole, another mate whose a breaker raided his parts for replacements for me and i got it looking like a car again so i could drive it, my insurance cat c the car but i wasnt too fussed, i drove it up until the m.o.t ran out then parked it up at my mums to work on as i had no space, i started collecting as many new parts as i could for it, i even bought another to break in my neighbours drive which i cut the inner wing out of as a repair section, the only downfall is mum works nights so i cant start tin bashing in the day, so i mainly did mechanical things, she used to get no end of people door knocking to buy it, a week ago I decided to make some space and actually fire into it, so i popped up put a battery on and she fired into life, the brakess were still free, it's like it was just waiting to be saved I then proceeded to strip it down, Look at the twist in that headlamp bowl surgery begins I also had to do a rust repair to the inner wing and the strengthener but havnt got a picture Bring in the replacement Grafted in You notice the wing rail is rotten but before i could replace that i had to repair a common rot spot, i replicated all 3 skins as i wanted it to be spot on Then it was time for the wing rail The rust marks you can see in the pictures on the crossmember etc are literally that, a tickle with the flap disk and its clean steel We're pretty much up to date with the repairs, i'll update when i can, when everything is done metalwork wise, im going to be doing an engine conversion to give it a little more go

I have had my 1 Series BMW on Scumtree this last week, it's been a difficult sell due to the mileage I think. It's got nearly 250k and no one seems to be up for a car with that mileage showing, even though it has extensive history and has been serviced every 10k in the last 6 years. I have a guy coming over to look at it tomorrow but he has a 2003 Cooper Bini. This might be a good little thing for Mrs T, what to look for and what goes wrong though. Any experience anyone? Thanks in advance!

Been a busy 6 months on my old Range Rover that I own 50/50 with Fathathastag Bit of background first.. We bought it March 2015 just as genuine early Range Rovers were starting to get noticed. Alas not early enough that we could have got it for a couple of hundred quid. The car had been owned for decades by a Land Rover enthusiast and this particular car retained a lot of features unique to pre 1973 Range Rovers. Sadly he died a few years back and the car was left outside the front of his house. I spotted it on eBay and arranged with the owners widow to view. There were no bids and my offer was good enough to take the auction off. The engine had been part way through a top end strip down when work stopped, I had no idea even if the car would move. But rented a trailer and relocated it from Watford to North Devon where fathathastag has a barn suitable for storage. The project is on the right, we towed it into the field and pushed it into the barn In May 2015 I got to do an assessment of the car. body wise most outer panels were ok, the inner wings looked ok, it clearly needed some work but was unsure how much at this point. main objective was to see if the engine was a runner. Found that the gearbox and axles were original to the car, but the engine was from an earlyish SD1 while the seat covers are not original some of the plastic kitkat seat coverings are underneath, the rear seat especially The head has some nasty corrosion very near the fire ring seal, When I refitted the head one of the bolts tore the thread out. bastard but not entirely uncommon with the alloy blocked RV8

As many of you might have read on the grin thread and my thread about yank headlights on Volvo 740's, I should have acquired myself this one. I've just got a few pics of said Volvo pre rescue as it sits. For those who don't know, it's an 88 740 estate in 2.3 auto GLE spec (my favourite!) which was owned by my sisters boyfriends grandad. He passed away this year and the cars just been sat unused since mid 2015. The family are clearing the property and I was told the Volvo and others were going to most likely go for scrap. I said I'd take the Volvo and asked for a price only to be told I could have it! The Wolseley 1300 apparently is already spoken for so hopefully that will be saved or at least donate some parts. The Volvo should become mine at some point but the caravan and Omega will probably get weighed in. So here are the few pics I have to go on. IMG_0331 by Dan Clark, on Flickr IMG_0332 by Dan Clark, on Flickr IMG_0329 by Dan Clark, on Flickr IMG_0333 by Dan Clark, on Flickr The Volvo looks ok from the little I can see and having run an MOT history check it seems a good one. It's a low miler at 90k and seems to of only done a couple of thousand miles between tests. Most of the fails seem to be for stupid stuff. So the plan at the moment will be to try to get it running and moving then try to get it back home. At the moment it's a 100 miles or so away. To be continued...

I'm on a train... ...and you know what that means. Just a short hop. No photo yet because it's London and therefore probably terrorism to take photos on the train. More in a bit. Got to get on to Dayinsure now.

Train tickets booked from a train station 30 miles away to save £9 on the recommendation of the Mrs Mrs booked and primed ready to drop me off at said train station. Mobile tool kit primed and ready, missing almost every vital component due to EU regulations about leccy tape and screwdrivers on trains (I left them all at my mums house yesterday). If I do break down, I should have something to listen to while I work out whether I'm with the AA or RAC or none of the above. Not pictured: pile of cash

Now that my 1969 Beetle 'Buzz' (kids named him) has finally passed his MOT I though I would do a build thread just to show what I have done. So rewind to 2009 hold on to your pineapples, roof racks and VAG hatred and ill treat you to many pictures and words. I have always wanted a Beetle from about the age 13 but never had the time or space to work on one or enjoy one. I bought Buzz off of Ebay and promptly got an MOT on him ready for the summer. I only used him a couple of times then I took him off the road to restore. This is how he was when I got him. As you can see it was a child of the 90's scene with horrid purple paint, smoothed dash and vile upholstery.

Images fixed up to page 9 I bought a new car. I was after a two door without a sunroof and a petrol engine that was on the small side. This new car is only some of those things. 20150720-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr It was an extremely short notice thing. Chompy and I were browsing Gumtree and ringing buyers of cars who had sold their cheapy vehicles or had scrapped them and were just about to give up. Then we spotted this one for £275 with MoT until April next year (and a clean sheet with no advisories!). It was a 2 and a half hour drive away but we took the chance on it. The drive home was entirely uneventful. It might only be a 1.4 kettle but by crikey it's surprising. Did about 130 miles on under £20 of unleaded. 20150720-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr The bad bits are restricted to a weeping radiator, a bust electric mirror, finicky remote central locking, loads of lacquer peel and wheels that are jiggly at 65mph. It may also need tracking. There's evidence of K Seal in the expansion bottle but no evidence of OMGHGF and it's done 104,000 miles. The clutch drags a bit when you're doing less than 10mph so that will either need adjusting or replacing. To drive it's excellent, it feels like a forever car because it's such a great fit for me. I do like R8 Rovers and the saloon is the one shape I didn't think I'd get. I am VERY happy with it. Toys include: - electric tilt and slide sunroof - electric front windows - remote central locking (one door doesn't really work) - factory alarm immobiliser that does work, as I found out in the service station - Remote boot and fuel filler flap release - Adjustable steering column - Xplod CD player but the original Rover radio and code too, happily I'm looking forward to giving it the proper clean and showing you the car properly tomorrow. It's been a while since I got quite this excited about a purchase.

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.

It's 7 o'clock on a Saturday morning and I'm standing at a bus stop. This means one thing, I am planning to return with another vehicle. This time it's further than I've been for a while and the vehicle is uglier than I've had before. I am off to Devon to collect the red Umm. Transportation number 1, bus.

Well here we go. Again. This was mine maybe 3 years back? Maybe. Can't really recall as long time ago and I struggle with yesterday's memories. It went very far up North initially and then ended up with Jon (formerly known as dugong). Jon did some worthy bits and bobs to it and then something happened to it and it ended up in a barn on a farm for a while. After a few hiccups the MGF was eventually pushed into the lock up that I rent from the local council and a list of jobs ensued. A good clean was in order as dust and mud happened. The car looks very much as what it did when I had it, just a couple more bumps here and there, the one on the drivers side wing was the worst. Shame as it was a solid wing. Might try and repair or just replace, as bolt on. The front bumper was skillfully repaired (before my time) with a couple of cable ties, however, the spare bumper I bought is still around and will be collected from Peterborough as soon as. Better tyres in the correct size now grace the car which is also a bonus. One alloy is now porous, so will need to be sorted one way or the other. The interior is pretty good still, just a general clean up will suffice. Tunz generator will be fitted along with a new ariel. The car has grown a hard top and whilst some folk enjoy these over the colder months, I find them a bit too claustrophobic and it will be removed and possibly sold on. Haven't looked at the floppy top yet, I hope all is well lol. The car will need the replacement starter motor and a temperature sensor fitting, a mate with a plan will help on that one. The battery is a bit dead, I think I have a suitable spare. Jon mentioned a current drain. I can't remember if this affected the car when I had it or not. The usual culprits are: Chaffed wiring in the loom that goes by the boot lid, or a duff ECU. Will search the loom. If not, then the battery will be disconnected overnight. This is an additional anti-theft device in the making. Am really pleased to get the car back and to have the chance to get her up and running again. She was bloody nippy in the day and hopefully this will put a much needed grin on my chops. Thanks to Jon for being so understanding

Car : y reg Omega 3.2 MV6 196K Rocker Gaskets replaced last summer at about 183K with genuine parts. Proper cleaned out breather tubes on top of engine. . Oil changed at 193K with genuine GM Fully Syth and Filter. (Cast Housing) No leaks until 3 weeks ago. Started small, I always check the oil before a long journey (and I do a lot of them) and I've been adding a bit more often but now on Thursday I had to top up after 100 miles into a Journey, and Then again 80 Miles later (on Sunday) and again this morning at 70 miles into a Journey, AND then another 70 miles this afternoon, and now 70 miles on it needs more. I calculate about 6 litres for about 450 miles. That's a lot of rust proofing on the exhaust and lots of it on the floor. I've not had it up on the ramps, (as Snow and rain and doesn't fit in my garage) but had it running and had a look at the filter housing area, and seems to be pouring down the back of the engine. At first I wondered if the little wiring plug next to the Oil Filter Housing is likely to leak? but seems to be above that. (Car is too low to see without ramps) When the Rocker gaskets were leaking before it was all very slow. Yes there was an advisory on the MOT, but nothing like this. And it hasn't been leaking in at least 12K since I did them. So what are we thinking ? I blame JohnK !!!!! There is oil on the rocker cover because Spillage

Right... We've had a huge amount of lovely cars and many excellent write-ups on here lately. I find this completely unacceptable and I've decided to do something about it ! I therefore welcome you all to a blog dedicated to my "private scrapyard", as Mrs.Fraud affectionately* calls my collection of... erm... not-so-mainstream classics*. If you don't like awful cars, please move on - there's nothing to see here. But if you do, I'm sure that you'll find my struggle with poverty, hoarding and mechanical incompetence truly fascinating. So let's start... ​ ​ ​

Part two of the replacement for the modern is being collected tonight! Not a very long collection, but it will lead me to my new piece of shite for commuting purposes because commuting in mrs_brownnova's KA was ruining my street cred and giving me backache. So what am I getting? It's got headlight wipers (a personal ambition of mine).... Comfy seats.... A big boot.... I've wanted one since the mid 90s.... ...and it isn't a Volvo. Place your bets!

It is horribly early. It is dark outside. I had no idea which T-shirt I'd put on this morning. Thankfully, it is actually one of mine. Stage one of this lengthy caper involves taking the Lexus to The Midlands for a cambelt change. Then, it's on to Sussex tonight, before The Big Reveal tomorrow morning. Oh I think you're going to like this one folks! Easily my most ridiculous caper yet. The subject matter has been standing in a field for years, so there will not be a 'drive home' element to this. Plan is just to move said subject matter to a safe location, though my eventual dream is indeed to drive it back to Wales. Right. I'd better get started! Dudley here we come.

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.

Now this isn't your normal collection thread. It started off like this...

Few weeks ago I realised that I haven't done anything completely and utterly daft of late. Subconsciously I decided to act before I forget how to do stupid things. The thing arrived yesterday evening. As standard, when you get a project car from PBK, it comes with some surface rust and at least one panel prepared or in need of painting. Few things are missing still need sourcing and the whole thing recommissioning (I never thought I would use this word again in my life) Don't worry people, this project will never get finished so expect no further updates until it's back looking for new owner.

It seems like it's time to have a new thread dedicated to the on-going progress (or otherwise) of the Beige BX, without people having to trawl through pages of stuff about the original purchase. All that malarkey can be found here. The new thread will make it easier to change the title as required, too. For works completed to date in the old thread go here. Today's progress at SF17 was MEGA. Much work was carried out on the fuel system by Joe and many of the assembled Shiters; the fuelling problem finally being cracked when Joe fitted one of the Pleasure Wagon's clear fuel filters! There was a stuttering journey down the ramp... Fuel was added... and it ran! A quick ride round the campsite revealed that the spheres are completely shagged, as the suspension was entirely bereft of travel. On the plus side, there are two new spheres in the boot. Dead chuffed to see it run, and have a go at piloting it across the field, though It's headed back to Castle_Cleland after SF, after which we need to have a think about the best way to go from here.

Calling all AS MOT testers and real mechanics! Sorry it's not proper Autoshite, but just Autoshit. Just took the 2005 Honda Jazz in for it's annual safety inspection - NCT - because Ireland. The tester has failed it on front suspension top mounts, both sides: 05KE16448_NCT_2016_04_25_001 by E Honda, on Flickr However, came home and in doing a quick Google to see if it was a common problem, I stumbled across the NZ equivalent of "Matters of Testing" and found this: WOF NEWS - 2010-12 - Issue 15 - Honda Jazz GD Front Suspension by E Honda, on Flickr What's the opinion on this? I will go out and check them myself, but I've a feeling that the items have be incorrectly tested and I need to go through the rigmarole of an appeal.

Greetings all. Since the w210 has departed I've had a fairly sizeable space on my drive. Never fear though, you're industrious Fife correspondent hasnt let things slide. Collection will be done this evening, all being well. Updates will follow...

Thought I'd start a thread about my old Capri since it's now reached it's turn in the que to receive a bit of attention. I've actually had this since 2001, it's an early mk2, on an M reg 1974. Being an early car it's still got mk1 rear axle and single acting type rear brake set up aswell as a few other minor differences from later cars just to use up remaining mk1 parts. It started life here in the Portsmouth area and doesn't seem to have ventured far since. Originally a stardust silver 1.6 L poverty model, which means virtually sod all regarding luxuries. Basic 2 pod dash with black 'crackle' finish facia, no radio, no sun roof or vinyl roof, not even a centre console! When I got to it unfortunately it had suffered severely from serious rust and latterly a vandal attack, having it's door and rear quarter panel booted in. Over the next couple of years I got it sorted and a cheap re paint into roman bronze, which was a favourite colour of mine at the time. For the first year or two it seemed fine but since then things have deteriorated. The respray wasn't good! It's thin in places and started to micro blister in various places, worst of which is all over the bonnet. The same bodyshop also did a bit of the bodywork I hadn't finished which was also pretty poor in some places. It's always been a great driver and never struggles at mot time so I just kept on using it and doing nothing more than collecting parts now and again with a view to sort it one day. It's also gained a few non original extras over the years like a higher spec wood effect 2 pod dash facia (which I like more than the original), a short console, brown interior instead of the utterly fucked black original, 'laser' 4 spoke alloys and a few other things. Anyway, fast forward to last weekend, when I dusted it off after winter and noticed various areas of new rust coming through or older rust that's gotten worse. So the decision was made to go for a professional resto job now before I end up finding something else to distract me (like big american cars with knackered engines!). 1974 Ford Capri BBK244M by Dan Clark, on Flickr Here it is as it currently stands. Looks ok from a distance but the reality is very rough around the edges and the paint is so bad in places it's becoming embarrassing! IMG_0509 by Dan Clark, on Flickr And the interior which I'll be re trimming into black leather at some point after the body works done. It's been taken to the same place that did my Mercury's engine rebuild, since they did such a good job and they seem a good professional bunch. I dropped it off Monday afternoon for a thorough check over to build up a list of work and get a rough quote. Today I heard back from them. Good news so far, I suppose. It is as solid where it counts as I thought it was. Chassis is fine, original strut tops fine, most of the back end is solid and just needs a few repairs here and there. The worst is the bottom of the windscreen surround due to the wrong seal being used and then fitted badly causing leaks. Inner sill to A post bottom corner very scabby, front wings pretty crap, and various paint defects etc. The engine is fine, compression all in tolerances. Suspension needs work, and some brake pipes are getting quite rusty. So far so good and no surprises! There's still more checking to do over the next few days but it sounds alright so far. This work should be made a bit easier by having a lot of panels and parts to fix things already. The big find being a new unused pair of front wings. Very hard to find mk2 items now, though I did have to pay for them! The plan here is to make the car solid, reliable and good looking. I'm not making a show car or going too mad as that stuffs not my thing and if it was I'd start with a better more original car. Some of the later add ons will be ditched like the mk3 boot spoiler that I hate! And return it to more standard looking mk2 as it should be. No go faster mods or anything like that. The main priority is to get the body sorted and painted properly (engine out job and everything) then maybe a bit of mechanical work as needed. The original idea was to re paint back into original stardust silver, but having thought about it I'm leaning more towards another favourite Ford colour of the era, Miami blue metallic, which is a lovely colour! Any opinions? This will be another expensive project but not one I think I could do at home on the drive and do justice to, so I'd prefer to farm it out and get it right this time. It also means I can carry on working on my Transit and Granada at home without another distraction! For anyone whose interested I'll try to update this now and then as things progress. I'll also try to get the old pics of the car from when I got it so you can see how rusty it was! Bear in mind though that I paid £100 for this car in 2001 with MOT and tax! Try doing that now. I'm sure this is going to be worth the expense, not that I'm even considering selling it of course but I've had it so long I kind of feel obligated to do right by the car in a weird way!

Hello friends, I've been lurking here for a fair while now, but haven't really had anything to contribute.. until my dad (henceforth known as captain_tel) came home last week with THIS: IT'S A V8, M8. And what's more, it seems to be a pretty posh one. All electric everything (and all working!) and sunroofs galore. I think a 3dr V8 with a manual box is a bit of a rarity too. I think it checks all the boxes for this place, it's: OLD. Ish.BRITISH. Check.RUSTY. Yessir.And as a bonus, it does 8mpg. But the noise makes me tingle. Hope you like it!

I thought I'd start a thread for this as I'll probably end up asking all sorts of questions, given that this is my first 'proper' Citroën. So... the ground clearance lever won't go all the way to the highest setting (all others work), which is bad 'cos the book says I need it to do that in order to check the LHM level. It feels like something's seized, so I don't want to force it. Any ideas for a plan of attack would be much appreciated. Next up are the wheels. I now have a set of 205 pepperpots that have just gone off for powder coating & I need to get some tyres for them. The handbook says the car should have 165/70R14s on, the wheels came with 185/65R14 on. Any thoughts about what size I should get please? Cheers.