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For nearly 20 years I've owned a lovely pink plastic pig, or as it says on the back a Citroen BX 16Valve. Earlier in the year I figured, why have one when you can have TWO! stupid, stupid, stupid. The new one (on the left) is a G-reg (G553 XPO) and has been off the road since 2008 when the engine was borrowed to go into a 205 (don't say Pugged, its a derogatory term) I want to guarantee you that this is a true shitter (for now), with a few pictures; A touch of rust; A less than perfect engine; Best day ever working on a car, not one, but two; Hmmm, this is getting interesting; I wont bore you with all the gory details, unless you really want me to. But If you're struggling to get to sleep, you can read about the project so far on the BXProject; https://bxproject.co.uk/blog/category/automotive-adventures/citroen-bx-articles/xpo_restoration/

Right as you have gathered, the Kudos has arrived at Bezza towers (cheers WOC for that).. Looking over her I have noted that arches are fooked Hope to get a hammer to them tomorrow to see if they need sparky stick, or fibreglass and wob.. NOW... seeing as I'll be doing all 4 arches, and the surrounding paintwork is actually in pretty good condition. I intend to do a good old fashioned 80's tidemark, starting at the top of the arches, down to the sills.. Car is a dark grey - so what colour do you reckon the tidemark should be... GLOSS BLACK SORT OF SAME COLOUR AS BODY SATIN BLACK SILVER OTHER.... Really not sure what colour as I know I won't be able to match the original, and it will be rattle canned too.. Cheers all, will update as and when anything happens to the old barge Still trying to find a name for her!!!!

Placeholder topic for now. Currently in @Steve79 mums garage but hopefully transported sometime this month. Mostly down to when @worldofceri passes by next. No rush as I have plenty of other projects on the go, just with Spring coming up quick, I'm looking forward to buzzing around in this. So don't expect anything too exciting to happen for a few weeks yet. I was hoping the Dolomite would be drivable by now but that's not looking likely. So I'll have to either do the work on this on the drive, cart the Dolomite down to storage over spring/summer or send this off to a professional for it to be sorted. It'll need an MOT anyway, but I'd like to get some of the key things sorted before then. Main issues for the MOT: Dash clocks don't work. Battery has leaked in the original board and damaged the traces. Have another set of dash clocks here and I hope to make a good one out of the two. Something I'll definitely have to do as most mechanics won't want to touch soldering up PCBs. Brake pedal doesn't fully go to the top of its travel, unless you assist it by pulling it up. I believe the Rev mentioned corrosion at the top of the pedal or something that just needs cleaning odd. Cambelt. This one scares me everytime the engine is started. Label under the bonnet says last changed in 1998 and that's almost certainly true. Steve has done a few hundred miles on it two years ago, but I don't have the guts or will to do a cambelt roulette myself on it. Plus I don't believe they're that difficult to change. Possibly needs some welding on the NSF. I'll clean the area up and if it's small I may do it myself. Alternatively let my local garage pickup on it at MOT time and let them sort it if it's a problem. So hopefully a quick project to get back on the road. That's the intention anyway as I don't have time for too much more, given the Dolomite is taking my time up and the others need fettling too (1100 front calipers and also selling it, MGB service). Likely scenario is getting the above list done so I can drive it to the MOT station and let them sort anything else out needed for that if anything other comes up.

You can never have too many project cars, right? Good job, then - this turned up this afternoon! I absolutely love it. It’s battered and bruised but that’s the whole point of a Panda is it not? Used and abused. More to follow 👀

Since my life has followed a nearly unrelenting course in project, “good-intentions”, “nice ideas” and general chod accumulation ever since I was about 14, I’ve decided I’d concoct all my projects into a haphazard fleet diary, for your amusement and viewing pleasure. My reports are likely to be sporadic, as and when I find time. Coverage predominately will flit around my current stable, but I'll show some past vehicular activity too. I'll go into each in turn in the coming days and weeks, but briefly for now my current fleet comprises: 1959 Ford 100e. Bought as a rolling shell in 2015. Built it up myself with all-Ford bits: 2.0 Pinto, type 9, GP4 MK1/2 Escort goodies up front, Bilstein 2.8 Capri struts on coilovers, 105e axle out back, RS turbo Recaros. Looks rough as fuck but it's solid and sorted underneath. Some don't like it because it's old, noisy and smelly. I love because it's old, noisy and smelly. Want to build a fast-road head for this soon really, but skint. Hardly needs to be quicker anyway. A lot of work to build, about 3 years, but immense fun to drive. 100% never selling!!! 1991 Saab 900 16v Turbo. Bought last Summer, suspiciously cheap with a hot running issue and a heap of paperwork. I did the head gasket and rebuilt the head with new exhaust valves, stem seals, thermostat etc over lockdown. Also fitted new calipers, discs, pads and hoses all round, and replaced the NSF inner wing/driveshaft tunnel back in February. Embarrassing MOT last month reveals more weldage is needed elsewhere, so that’s next for it and shall be reported in the coming pages 1995 Citroen AX Jive. 1.0 4 spd. Hilarious to drive, immensely French, ripe but not rotten, wearing something akin to a peeved expression. Needs a few odds and ends but otherwise a goer. Back-up car in case my existing daily shits itself or something. Anyone spare a boot latch actuating rod and gear knob? 2005 Clio 182. As close to a daily as I get (cycle to work). Not really Autoshite, or even very “me” frankly, but I’m convinced these are the last proper French hot hatch and soon to be daft-money, so I finally snubbed two years of looking-not-looking at them on eBay and bought this the other week. I'm 27 so many could argue it's a "quarter life crisis". Newest and quickest car I’ve ever owned, so probably not the wisest first choice to exercise modern car ownership. But my current main project, sapping funds and time and social life in equal measure, is my 1963 Ford Falcon 2dr sedan, so I'll post up the progress to date of that in the coming days. or now, here's a seller's shot of when I bought it.......

So, i always wanted a 3 wheeler as to me they are everything that's wrong with a car and should never have existed - ok so ive opened with a really strong statement there but bare with me. 2 years ago i bought the green whistle as it became known, it never ra n right and always seemed to break without 2 miles of my house. I royally lost the love for it as it clearly hated me so the one day it ran right i promptly sold it, picture of it below. At the same time i bought the green machine, my friend bought an equal terrible blue one. We long dreamed of doing long road trips of misery and really finding out what its like to nearly die on every corner. Sadly his didn't run well either so that was also promptly sold just after i sold mine. . Recently Tom and i have been thinking about the Reliants we never gave a fair chance too and started to feel like we never gave this brand a true chance. Fast forward to 4th November, Tom and i were innocently browsing ebay when he came across a pair of Robins (nope not Peter and Paul but that is what these are now called!) He automatically claimed the blue one on the grounds its mot'd and to took the white one on the grounds it was cheaper....yes im that tight! I guess this leads me onto what are we going to do with these....i really do not know!!! First step will be to get mine MOT'd but im quite looking forward to the journey and lets hope it doesnt all end in tears again!!! If anyone also has a love for life at 3/4 full please feel free to contact me!

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...

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... ​ ​ ​

Hi all, new to the forum. Thought you might be interested in what I've got myself into I'd been after my first classic car for a while. If it's big and made in the 70s I'm interested. Looked at few things like P6s, Zodiacs, Victors, SD1s and various other things. Problem was I didn't want to spend a boatload of money on something that looked alright but underneath was actually a total heap. The solution was to buy a complete heap in the first place and spend the money fixing it. So in January I went ahead and bought this from a colleague at work who was moving away and needed to get shot of it. It's a part finished restoration (I prefer not started) and it needs a whole load of help if it's going to stand any chance of using a road again. Pros It's right up my street. Granada Coupes are quite odd and certainly stand out from the norm. It still has the original engine, box, interior and most trim. It came with loads of panels I need to repair it (mostly original Ford stock). It came with so many spares I could probably build a few Granadas and still have stuff left over. It was cheap. Cons Most of the front end has been cut off. Most of the body structure is quite rotten. It's going to take me ages. I work at a restoration company and my boss kindly allows me to keep the car there. So I've got access to all the gear I need to restore it. I've been busy on the car for a while now so will post more pics over the coming days. Cheers

Hi all i thought i would share this with everyone after my friend triplerich posted his granada coupe. i bought this about 2 years ago after selling my dolomite wanting something with a bigger engine. the person i bought this off collected various cars and had about 20 rover p6s on the same bit of land.when i first saw saw it looked bad it had been sat in grass up to the sills for about 4 years and had been of the road for 10. the drivers footwell was full of water and had moss growing on the carpet as well the in the boot. the headling was hanging down full of mold and mouse nests, but it started with a bit of petrol down the carbs and ran ok. so i went back about a week later bought it. the first pictures i took when it arrived home on trailer. it wasnt too bad the sills were soild and the floors looked good, it had some rust in the rear wheel tubs and the boot floor had some big holes in it but it was better than my dolomite. me and triplerich did some youtube videos of getting it ready for the road here is the link. it is now having a full restoration as my boss kindly let me have some space at work. thanks for looking Ryan.

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

I have an increasingly rare night off tonight, so I went out to have a prod around the 205 to remind myself what needs doing. It stills amazes me how utterly rust free it is, certainly the bits I can get at with it on the ground anyway. Minor grump about discovering the rear drivers side wheel has been rubbing on the inside, but I'll see to that in time. There's not much else to say right now, so have a photo of it before it was off the road! And another!

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.

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

Hope there is some interest on here for my old Slaaaag Bought it 2 April 1994 and have maintained a love / hate relationship since. Two engine rebuilds 2 and a half body restorations and much shenanigans in between. Story starts 1 April 1994 towards the end of an evening of light refreshments, consisting mainly of 20 Marboro Red and about 12 or so pints of Flowers Bitter, down at the Hogsmill Tavern in Ewell where I used to live. One of the lads was whinging about getting married and buying houses and raising money. He mentioned he had a Stag part restored which he didn’t really want to sell and I kind of said “yep i’ll have itâ€. To be honest I don’t actually recall saying that I would have it but he called me next morning in the midst of a thumping hangover to arrange a visit. I walked round to his house and he had it outside his garage. I checked it over and the body was sound but the mechanicals and interior had been loose fitted together. Here are some of his piccies of it as he bought it and then some of his body restoration stuff For some reason it ended up being test driven back to Ma and Pa thestags house, Ma was out but Pa looked over the car and nodded. He agreed it could be stored in his garage on two conditions; He be "allowed" to stump up half of the £4k asking price (complex financial support story for my Siblings) All mechanical oily work be done by a mechanic – the drive and garage were at this point littered with bits of Moggie Minors, 105E Anglias and P6 Rovers. How could I refuse, hands shook and Lloyd walked home happy while I wandered what the fuck had just happened. Here it is on that very day Note not only the complete lack of cars parked on the road but also the quality of mid 90s chod

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

This evening I venture forth into hitherto unknown lands (Kirkintilloch) to collect my latest acquisition. Which, naturally, has issues. I have purchased my first line of defence. Which appears to have antigravity properties More will follow this evening...

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!

Greetings all. After lurking here for a short while, frankly liking what I see and enjoying the various shite, the site has well and truly struck a chord with me. I'm a serial buyer of ropey sub £1k vehicles, don't have to but genuinely enjoy it. I feel like I might (Just might) have found my 'spiritual' home here I've been posting across the web on owner specific forums (Usually using either my JoeyEunos or RandomPrecion handles) for a while now, but from here-on-in I will pull my threads together and merge them here into one ghastly topic. My current steeds... Lupo 1.7 SDI SAM_5560 by and the work/story so far...http://forums.clublupo.co.uk/index.php?/topic/102863-joeyeunoss-sdi-beater/ Golf Mk4 SDI SAM_5531 by and the thread.... http://uk-mkivs.net/topic/597074-project-slow/ Early (1989) Mk1 Eunos (This one was recently sold) SAM_4656 by the thread...http://www.mx5nutz.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=213274 Other shite I've owned and moved on in the last year include this ropey Passat... SAM_6011 by and this legendary £300 Fiesta Finesse... Festa by Cars I'd like to own/actively looking for in the forthcoming weeks/months/years... Rover 75 (Dizzler) Peugeot 405 (XUD) Mk1 Octavia (Estate/dizzler, pre pd or SDI) Honda CRV (Gen1) Volvo 240/850

Things happened today...

Woke up this morning, had a little time before I had to leave the house for work, had a quick look at what’s new for sale on Retro Rides and saw an ad for a W124 200E manual, located 15 miles from home. I had no intention of buying a car today but I had to have it! I called the seller and arranged a viewing. Faults: 2 x rusty front wings (TADTS) 1 x rusty rear arch Needs a polish Tracking is out because new track rod end was fitted for MoT Engine has oil leak/s Good points: It’s a W124 200E! 5 speed manual transmission New clutch Brand new MoT Superb MoT history 4 x as new Continental tyres Last owner for 15 years, her husband before that for 4 years Very tidy MB-Tex interior Drives well All electrics work The dealer kindly delivered the car to my house but I managed a pez station shot on route: Plans: Remove front wings, cut away rust and apply plenty of wob. In-situ similar repair for rear arch Clean and polish Service engine Adjust tracking Leave patina and enjoy the car as it is I will update this thread once progress is made. Hopefully these two will become good friends.