stroppy mazda collectioning

[gm]

I posted yesterday in the news that "I'm sitting on a train with an envelope full of ££s, this can only mean one thing - it's collection time".....

 

....and then it went very quiet.....

 

The day started well, the queue at the bank was only ten minutes this time, I got a parking space within less than a mile of the station, the 10 o'clock train arrived at 10 o'clock, so far, so good.

 

 

Less good was that the only available seat was right in the middle of some sort of school trip - bunch of noisey little sods - I blanked it out with some King Crimson

 

Train number one pulled into Haymarket station just in time for me to watch train number two pull away as I ran down the platform swearing. A quick check of the timetables and there wasn't another due for an hour - balls. Time for plan b

 

 

A tad slower than the train but got me to the sellers house just in time, accompanied by a bit of Pink Floyd on the headphones

 

Beer tokens were exchanged and I was on my way

 

I stopped for pez, as is the fashion

 

 

A quick check under the bonnet and a top up for the washer bottle and it was home time, best to stay off the main roads as I was on 'get you home' insurance and tax

 

The car was going well, time to take it on an empty country road and see what it can do. The car, however, didn't take well to this new 'drive the nuts off it' regime and threw a massive tantrum

 

 

Yes, I shat my pants - the bonnet slamming into the windscreen, even at 30ish, makes one hell of a bang !

 

some nugget, it seems, had been checking the fluids recently and hadn't fastened the bonnet pins properly

 

I was planning to replace the bonnet at some time anyway, bonnet pins are pretty ugly and not exactly secure, it looks like I'll be taking a trip round the local breakers a bit sooner than I'd planned

 

 

Thankfully the windscreen survived, that would have really pissed me off. A passing cyclist seemed unconcerned with my stamping the bonnet back into shape, maybe this sort of thing happens more often than you would think.

 

Choosing very quiet back roads now, I nursed my new pride* and joy* back to base, flung it in the garage and stormed off to work in a mood

 

Maybe it'll polish out ?

 

 

The plan for this one is to move all of the good bits over from the red one which is getting a bit crispy underneath, should be a fun project for a few weeks

[nisfan]

I think you got lucky. I think the bonnet is aluminium? Mine was certainly very light and yours thankfully saved the windscreen

[Supernaut]

It'll look good* with a red bonnet. You said you were going to swap the good parts over anyway.

[dollywobbler]

Eesh! Maybe forward opening bonnets DO have advantages after all.

[gadgetgricey]

Happened to me once in an old Mitsibushi Galant.

Annoyingly I'd been in a crash (at the rear of the car) and had taken it to the assessors over in Brown hills.

They had checked the car front to back to estimate the damage.

 

Annoying the f***ers had not closed the bonnet fully and I found out at 50mph on a dual carriage way,

No warning, just a massive bang no vision. A cracked windscreen, damaged roof and a bent over backwards bonnet.

 

Luckily it was a scorching hot day, and I had the windows open, and was on a straight bit of road.

Head out of the window and pulled the car to a stop.

 

Possibly the scariest driving experience of my life.

 

Straight back to the assessors to add this new damage to the previous damage, and the car was written off.

 

Glad your car came off relatively unscathed.

[320touring]

wooop! Kollekshunn fred winnings!

 

you should get together with Beko1987 to see if you can dent every panel on a car in one journey:)

 

looks a nice wee thing- enjoy

[gm]

I've got the afternoon off so will have a proper nose round and make a list - this one has a lot of potential, it's a 1.8 v-spec so already has decent brakes, diff and body bracing, I shall add a decent exhaust, roll bar, bucket seats, harnesses and get rid of that caramac interior - should be a nice little track toy by the time I'm finished

 

the bonnet is indeed aluminium, probably saved the windscreen. it might bend back into shape but I'm definitely refitting a proper latch mechanism, those pins are crap (or maybe they are just badly fitted, or maybe I didn't fasten them properly like some kind of goon)

[beko1987]

wooop! Kollekshunn fred winnings!

 

you should get together with Beko1987 to see if you can dent every panel on a car in one journey:)

 

looks a nice wee thing- enjoy

I only did the front passenger wing and my underpants in during my collection adventure!

[HillmanImp]

Eesh! Maybe forward opening bonnets DO have advantages after all.

My GT6 bonnet lifted up forwards at speed the day I first picked it up when the air got underneath it. It was so far up, if I braked it would've just opened fully and probably snapped off so all I could do was slow down gradually and hope nothing happened on the road directly ahead of me until it sat down again.

 

Obviously it was fine, i just tighted the clips on the bonnet when I got home with some mole grips but did result in some sphincter tightening.

[Station]

Saw the bonnet flip thing in Spain, an e-type coming the other way did it and then his Great Dane type dog was trying to jump out of his car at 70mph because the noise startled him. He was trying to restrain the dog while manoeuvre his car blindly onto the hard shoulder.

Must've been the worse day of his life!

[xtriple]

Is the interior tan leather? Is the drivers seat any good? If the answer is 'Yes' to both these questions... 

 

I had a 'lovely' MK2 Cortina 1500GT estate that I bought from the auctions for fuck all to get me through winter (soft biker type that was fed up of riding through snow and ice for 4 months), it had huge wheels and bubble arches and was painted Modena green with Parsons re-paint and then loads of stickers to cover the run on the back wing... it was joy to behold...

 

Taking my girlfriend to work (about 30 miles) one morning I had the dreaded bonnet flip up on me... I was on little country roads, driving like the absolute 'hero' I am (was) and it all got a tad scary for a while!

 

Damage was bonnet (jumping on it got it closed eventually!) windscreen, 'A' pillars and the inner wings where the hinges ripped out of the rusty metal...  Windscreen was left as it was, 'A' pillars got pushed back roughly into shape so the front doors would open/close and the bonnet got painted black and treated with care when opening/closing so it didn't actually fall off! It lasted months like that before making it's final trip where I got more for it than I paid as the headlights (not standard) were rare and in demand!

[brownnova]

Is the interior tan leather? Is the drivers seat any good? If the answer is 'Yes' to both these questions...

 

 

Damn! You beat me to it! I was just about to ask about the interior too!

[gm]

Tan interior, lovely, isn't it

 

 

Drivers seat any good ?

 

 

Nope, they never are

 

Passenger side is tip top, I might have a go at swapping the seat backs over

 

 

All of the tan and wooden bits will be coming out, this one's going to be a back to basic racer

[gm]

I nipped out to have a look at the ginger interior and got a bit carried away

 

 

The dash is an absolute pig to remove, I've been fighting with it for a couple of hours now, it has drawn blood more than once

 

I'll have another go after some pizza and beer, that always makes things better

[gm]

time for an update on the mazda

 

the bent bonnet was removed

 

 

a suitable* replacement was sourced and collected

 

 

hmm, not so sure about that colour but it'll do for now

 

 

now for a bit of attention to that interior

 

remember this ?

 

 

after quite a lot of hard work, it is much more suited to purpose

 

 

 

I took a trip down to the borders for a mate to collect his new car, the seller happened to have a black bonnet spare so the purple one was abandoned in his workshop and the car came home looking so much better. Mine is the one at the back, the front one is Paul's new supercharged toy, what a car that is

 

 

the red one now has a new owner, I hope he enjoys her just as much as I did.