Schaefft's Bargain Barge Extravaganza - Meth Lab on Wheels

[jon.k]

The reviews on tripadvisor for the museum are an entertaining read.

 

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g191260-d1590756-Reviews-or10-London_Motor_Museum-Hayes_Greater_London_England.html

[AnthonyG]

Weird that these cars seem to be on the edge of a housing estate. Unless you are one of us it’s not exactly a good view, a sort of customs scrapyard.

Shame about the Imperial but if it’s been left open for x number of years all the interior will be utterly destroyed, and all the floor pan and nearby panels will likely be in a bad way. 

Is the black Thunderbird a real one or some sort of replica? These were worth real money at one point, but it looks to be just a shell now.

Good luck on the two Cadillac saloons, they look to have survived the best. I’d be very wary of the Eldorado if the weather’s got in - a custom interior and hood won’t be easy to replace and the damp may have ruined the electrics - not sure how complicated these 80s ones were but I’d guess a Northstar one would be very dead indeed if left open to the elements for any length of time.

[yes oui si]

The calibra... Thing... 

It used to be purple, reg is h157 hbh. 

Wheels as noted should* be genuine bbs rs2 and 20" iirc. Narrow though, and not the best specs. Would need to see stampings to know exact specs. The vast majority of 20" rs2 are 5x120, but there is one spec which came in 5x112 which would make sense as that's 20 wobble bolts away from Calibra fitment. 

[yes oui si]

On 05/05/2025 at 22:51, EspenO said:

Those BBS RX(?) split rims on the yellow custom will be worth a fair chunk on their own. 

BBS RS II. About £1,500-4k depending on specs. 

[Schaefft]

10 hours ago, yes oui si said:

The calibra... Thing... 

It used to be purple, reg is h157 hbh. 

Wheels as noted should* be genuine bbs rs2 and 20" iirc. Narrow though, and not the best specs. Would need to see stampings to know exact specs. The vast majority of 20" rs2 are 5x120, but there is one spec which came in 5x112 which would make sense as that's 20 wobble bolts away from Calibra fitment. 

Awesome, that confirms a few interesting details, incl. on some of the other customs that came from the same auction this was coming up in. Looks like they've been there for 4-5 years maximum. Realistically the wheels are the only thing of value on it.

[Schaefft]

No answer from the VIN to Reg guy on FB marketplace yet, the seller of the Cadillacs is taking his time to figure out on his side as well.

Some progress on the Legend though: I've properly charged the battery outside the car and took it for a short drive to Tesco, no more check engine light! In fact I haven't seen any warning lights again aside from the bonnet open warning which will be a sticky microswitch, active cruise worked again as well. Fingers crossed my suspicions are confirmed and it'll stay that way.

I think only seeing the car in person you really notice how large it is, it may look like something Accord-sized but it really is at least one size up, if not a bit larger. Not quite Lexus LS sized but also larger than an E60 5-Series.

I've properly deep cleaned the interior over the last few evenings, with all the mildew covering the leather surfaces and airbag I felt like using the steam cleaner first was the right call despite it not being all that filthy otherwise. So no amazing before and after shots here aside from that steering wheel and some sticker residue that required a razor blade:

That's much better, and the rest cleaned up very nicely, too:

Not all that many items of interest found inside either. The glasses confirm an OAP owner, the contents of the CD player add nicely to my CD collection exclusively made up of CDs found in the cars I bought. Also pictured, ripped passenger seat (before the clean). The leather is hard and seems to have contracted badly, not sure of thats the result if some really bad choices on cleaning products there.

We can also see that he was a fan of Kate Bush before Stranger Things made her cool again!

A few interesting items in the boot. The original ski bag and what must be an original Honda supplied service kit from around the time the car was built going by the date code on it!

Space-saver spare and original jack/tools, always nice to have:

The car never received a software update, not sure what I'm missing out on but I'll see if I can get it updated to a newer version, including the map data. With the GS300 I got it up to 2018 I believe which was recent enough to be usable.

I've also had a look through the paperwork that came with the car, which was a little less comprehensive than I expected. It mainly consisted of receipts/print-outs for MOTs, service items like brakes and tires and not all that much else. Which I guess is a good thing considering its a Honda. It did also include a bill of sale for the Honda Accord Mr. F. purchased from the same Honda dealer the Legend would be bought from, a red metallic 2001 Accord SE Executive with 55k miles for a bit over 5 grand back in early 2007:

According to his son who sold me the Legend he didn't enjoy driving the Accord all that much coming from an earlier Legend. Well, the proof is right here as it was traded in just a year later to buy the 14 month old Legend, with 18k miles (I think this might therefore have been on Honda-owned vehicle instead of a simple dealer registration considering the mileage, yet Honda seemingly being the first owner according to the service book).

He lost 1700 quid on that Accord in just a year. Thats nothing compared to what Honda lost in those 14 months after its replacement was first registered. With an MSRP in the mid-30s thats a cool 10k wiped of their bank account.

Mr. F owned the car ever since all the way to the end. He clearly must have loved the thing. However, the most hilarious piece of paperwork showed that not all was well when it came to the perception of quality for what was Honda's top of the line flagship at the time:

Sent straight to the Honda UK headquarters (which has since moved out and downsized massively it seems). There's no indication that he ever got a response, the issues he is mentioning here seem to be typical problem areas found on pretty much all of them including mine today.

I'll see if I can polish up the headlights, other than that and the bonnet latch switch there actually isn't all that much that needs doing on it aside from a service and rear tires. As usual its cosmetics that will be the bulk of the work, with the seats and chrome trim/grille being the big ones. I doubt I'll be able to find replacement parts for the latter so I'll have to figure out what options I got. For the seats I might have to settle with replacements from a breaker if I can find them for sensible money. Aside from the tears in the bottom cushion they work perfectly fine.

[Surface Rust]

The perforated leather on the seats looks very similar to what you get in spaceship civics of the same age.

Might be a cheaper source of some replacement panels a trimmer could use?

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, Surface Rust said:

The perforated leather on the seats looks very similar to what you get in spaceship civics of the same age.

Might be a cheaper source of some replacement panels a trimmer could use?

Possibly, I'm wondering however wether paying someone to fix these seats would be cheaper than just buying replacements and flogging the old ones on. I guess it depends on how common it is for these to tear like this.

[Surface Rust]

28 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

Possibly, I'm wondering however wether paying someone to fix these seats would be cheaper than just buying replacements and flogging the old ones on. I guess it depends on how common it is for these to tear like this.

They haven't split in my Civic if it helps, I reckon yours had been neglected or harshly cleaned.

[primeradoner]

1 hour ago, Schaefft said:

Possibly, I'm wondering however wether paying someone to fix these seats would be cheaper than just buying replacements and flogging the old ones on. 

There's a place on the A167 at Plawsworth service station. A friend got him to repair a seat on his RoverP5c and he did a cracking job.  Station Upholstery I think 

[EyesWeldedShut]

I think your miles from Shropshire but these guys are good: https://www.visionleisureupholstery.co.uk/

Unit 10,
The Mynd Industrial Estate,
Crossways,
Church Stretton,
Shropshire SY6 6EA

Their website stresses the T5/campervan type stuff but they also retrim classics and there's always something tasty in their unit being worked on. Not the cheapest maybe but did a cracking job for us.

[Honey Badger]

The seats on both of my Legends have been fine with no splits or hardening of the leather, I wonder if he has spilt something on the seat though the back seats look a bit odd as well. The leather in my 2008 car is quite supple still and the previous Legend that went back to the dealers still had decent leather with no tears.

There are a few breakers on Ebay

Full set of interior seats

Passenger seat £125

 

I polished my lights with a 3m Kit and it brought them up a treat, it's probably oxidation on the outside of the light. 

 

 

Cox's Honda had new mirrors last time i looked but they were £200 a pop i think, the wipers are a Honda Fit item only i think, £14 for the pair from Cox's again.

[Schaefft]

Thanks guys, some great info there. Getting replacement seats might be the way to go, 350 quid OBO for the set above really doesn't sound bad at all. Getting rid of my old ones might be the trickier part.

2 hours ago, Honey Badger said:

The seats on both of my Legends have been fine with no splits or hardening of the leather, I wonder if he has spilt something on the seat though the back seats look a bit odd as well. The leather in my 2008 car is quite supple still and the previous Legend that went back to the dealers still had decent leather with no tears.

There are a few breakers on Ebay

Full set of interior seats

Passenger seat £125

 

I polished my lights with a 3m Kit and it brought them up a treat, it's probably oxidation on the outside of the light. 

 

 

Cox's Honda had new mirrors last time i looked but they were £200 a pop i think, the wipers are a Honda Fit item only i think, £14 for the pair from Cox's again.

The 3m kit is indeed the way to go. I thought about having a go at them today but got distracted by getting the Celsior started again. Turns out my original diagnosis of a faulty fuel pump module might have been inaccurate, bridging it just happened to get it running back in February. Why did I need to start it? Because:

Still waiting for the digger to arrive to put some gravel down.

With the occasional crank but no start issue still present it only occurred to me now that it could still be something completely different (despite the car never having had starting issues before). So I read the codes, with error 12 being there immediately, indicating a crank or cam position sensor (rpm) fault, pretty much what I expected as potential alternative cause. The sensors rarely go wrong (because Toyota/Denso) but the connectors sure can. Once again it could be a coincidence but wiggling the connector got it running eventually. I plugged the pump module back in and it's still running perfectly fine. So definitely corroded sensor contact/wire then.

The Celsior wasn't the only vehicle needing a bit of help to run better recently. The Stiga lawnmower was running a little rough so I took the carb off to clean it and replaced anything that I could with bits from a 15 quid rebuild kit I ordered.

I never worked on anything carbureted but it's probably as basic as any carb can possibly get. At least on the outside it needed a clean badly:

Someone already replaced the shortest spark plug I've ever seen, no fault there either, I just cleaned it up a little:

It runs a lot better now, and I needed it to. The grass got a lot taller than ideal for the poor little 8.5hp motor but it managed, with the occasionally smoking belt and everything. It shouldn't have any problem at all at reasonable cutting heights, a good purchase then! I think the sheep agree:

[paulplom]

The driver's seat of my audi cab was like your legend one. I sold it to split pin and he changed the seat base that was supplied with the car when I bought it from Robson.

It had definitley had something spilt on it imo.

[paulplom]

I noticed your jag's still on the West Road. Do you want someone to drive it to Hexham for you?...

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, paulplom said:

I noticed your jag's still on the West Road. Do you want someone to drive it to Hexham for you?...

I was thinking about bringing it over soon, it's not the only one there. The problem with that one is that it cut out randomly a while back and was a pain to start so it's not one of those cars you can guarantee to arrive in Hexham in.😂 That and the screaming aux belt due to the leaking valve cover gasket. The XK8 is parked further down the road after leaving it there last Sunday to collect the Legend, I'll bring that one back to Hexham tomorrow.

Speaking of Legend, I just had to hypermile it to Newcastle because of the GF's optician appointment (and as usual being late for an appointment...). I must have gotten over the 30mpg mark there, 4 miles to spare!

[Schaefft]

We've just had a look at this Winnebago Chieftain 5 minutes down the road from us. It's not exactly Walter White's choice of recreational vehicle but damn near close. Runs and drives, Ford 460 on a John Deere chassis (you also had the choice of a Chevy chassis who which probably would be easier to find parts for. Needs a lot of work inside but no apparently leaks. Nightmare or potential Airbnb?

It shouldn't come as a surprise that I love this thing despite not having a license to drive it. With a lot of the interior in pieces it would need a solid 2 months just to get it back into shape. I mean, look at this 😂:

[Zelandeth]

I'd love that, and it's actually a much better fit for what we'd need space wise in a camper than the last one...but no room here and also I lack the necessary licence to drive it over here.

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

I'd love that, and it's actually a much better fit for what we'd need space wise in a camper than the last one...but no room here and also I lack the necessary licence to drive it over here.

Yeah, this is the 31ft variant (which apparently is actually 33ft long), there's one that's one size up (33ft that's actually 34ft) but I don't think they'd get much bigger than that. Realistically way too big for British back roads but considering it'll mostly be static that might not be a problem. Just another big project, my gf needs to decide whether she'd want to commit to it. Financially it might make sense if we can retain the original 80s Americana charm.

[Dave_Q]

@mat_the_cat has an airstream that he is/was using as an Airbnb so might be a good man to talk to about it.

[Schaefft]

3 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

@mat_the_cat has an airstream that he is/was using as an Airbnb so might be a good man to talk to about it.

@mat_the_cat if you have any advice I'd love to listen!

[Dave_Q]

This is his thread on it in the meantime:

 

 

[mat_the_cat]

2 hours ago, Schaefft said:

@mat_the_cat if you have any advice I'd love to listen!

I've contributed in a more general way on the Airbnb thread, but relating to the caravan we've fallen foul of planning regulations. We need to have planning permission for a caravan site, which the National Park have said they currently won't allow any more. So check this before committing to anything!!

Parts availability good, and it all seems built to last but also be repairable. Obviously the tariff situation currently won't help though. Also, don't underestimate the inability of people to be unable to understand anything different to normal domestic fixtures.

I'd suggest hooking it up to mains water too - we've had people get through 240 litres of water in one evening! Condensation may be an issue too so we weren't allowing back to back bookings, to allow everything to dry out.

[Volksy]

I've just been staying in my friends Econoline Camper up in Monterey,

It's quite a lovely thing to stay in. Although as it's sat on its tyres it accentuates the many minor earthquakes, which was odd at first! 

 

[Schaefft]

2 hours ago, mat_the_cat said:

I've contributed in a more general way on the Airbnb thread, but relating to the caravan we've fallen foul of planning regulations. We need to have planning permission for a caravan site, which the National Park have said they currently won't allow any more. So check this before committing to anything!!

Parts availability good, and it all seems built to last but also be repairable. Obviously the tariff situation currently won't help though. Also, don't underestimate the inability of people to be unable to understand anything different to normal domestic fixtures.

I'd suggest hooking it up to mains water too - we've had people get through 240 litres of water in one evening! Condensation may be an issue too so we weren't allowing back to back bookings, to allow everything to dry out.

Planning indeed would be one of my bigger worries. Realistically though, with a single caravan would anyone really care? It could be a caravan for private and personal use after all...

[wuvvum]

I never knew John Deere made camper chassis.  Every day's a school day.

[Rocket88]

On 06/05/2025 at 21:31, jon.k said:

The reviews on tripadvisor for the museum are an entertaining read.

 

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g191260-d1590756-Reviews-or10-London_Motor_Museum-Hayes_Greater_London_England.html

Bloke who used to own it, Elo, was a bit of a lad. Quite a lot of the exhibits weren’t quite what they were purported to be…..

[lesapandre]

12 hours ago, Schaefft said:

Planning indeed would be one of my bigger worries. Realistically though, with a single caravan would anyone really care? It could be a caravan for private and personal use after all...

If you keep it on a road/hardstanding ancillary to your property - and use it to sleep in occasionally it's really just parked/stored. Even if you hook it up via temporary hose and extension lead. 

Rent or Airbnb it and you'd need p/p.

Site it separately on land - I think you'd get away with temporary use - 28 days no more. After that you need p/p.

"would anyone really care?" - yes the local busybodies and then the planning authority.

There are other planning experts on here who may know more but I think that's the basics.

Looks a fun thing.

MPG will be single figures.

[Schaefft]

I think the biggest obstacle to turning this into anything worthwhile will be my better half's commitment to fixing it up together, it wouldn't be something I'd want to do on my own considering how busy all the simple jobs around the cars keep me already. We shall see!

It is worth noting that the proximity to our house probably makes this the cheapest option for any similar motorhome we'll ever encounter. That makes it a little harder to pass it up.

[paulplom]

I could probably drive it if you need a hand. Passed my test in 1990.