Schaefft's Bargain Barge Extravaganza - Renault VelSatis 3.5 V6

[Schaefft]

I failed to take a proper photo of the entire dash, but everything still looks and feels like new although it would benefit from a thorough clean. The factory "wood" trim actually doesn't look bad, definitely not like these horrible aftermarket glue on kits you sometimes see in cars of this age. Unfortunately no AC, however I do get a RED LED of unknown purpose and an aftermarket radio which supports pretty much no modern technology. Check out that shifter rubber gator though!

A reasonably sized glovebox. Its not as blurry in real life:

Electric windows, locks and mirrors. The driver side one even is automatic, how decadent!

Simple, easy to read instruments. Mitsubishi cheaped out in the coolant temp gauge it seems.

Electric glass sunroof, anything but common in a car like this in 1995. Loving the tint:

Mitsubishi has been at the top of their 90s seat fabric game when they chose these. You could get leather as well but who in Europe would order a Galant with leather in '95?

Its the details that matter. Check out the chrome bezel around the rear ashtray. There is no chrome anywhere else on the car.

Naturally the rear seats fold down in the hatchback, very similar to the Safrane. With the headrest removed they fold flat. The rear parcel shelf can be removed as well, all the space you could ever ask for.

The engine bay. The 4G93 1.8 produces around 126hp. I would have prefered Mitsubishi's ubiquitous 4G63 or one of their V6s but at least I won't have to worry about accessibility to ANYTHING.

I mean look at the amount of space in front of the engine! My S-class doesn't have that much room up there, and they stuffed V12s in them!

Also check out this funky intake manifold. That totally makes up the loss of power compared to the other engines!

Radiator looks like new:

Its got a Cobra alarm retrofitted. It comes with a remote with two unlabeled buttons: Yellow and Green. Protip: Dont press the yellow button.

I'm wondering if this sticker is related to it. Did "Diamond Collection" Mitsubishis get a Cobra Alarm fitted from the dealer?

A fire extinguisher, Washer fluid and the factory toolkit. What more could you ask for?

Just look at the abundance of space!

Spare wheel and jack:

For some reason the car came with two identical owner manuals. A well used one and one that can only be the replacement for it?

The owner manual promises "the utmost in driving pleasure". I have no doubt this fine Mitsubishi motor vehicle will provide me with nothing but that.

Period correct breakdown service will give me street cred from those in the known:

This seems to be the original manufacturing/export sheet, I absolutely love finding stuff like this for my cars. If anyone has more information about it, please let me know. It contains all important infos about the features of this car.

And thats it! The car is now taxed and insurance will start on Tuesday. Cannot wait to get to know this car a little better, so far I'm hyped!

[scdan4]

 

31 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

More than a slight whiff of SD1 about that. 

Gurt lush sir, well done 

[DVee8]

The really is ace,well bought..

[Jim Bell]

Apart from the sunroof, that looks absolutely outstanding. 

Must be the bargain of the fleet at that price?

[Spottedlaurel]

Looks like a great buy, well done!

Been a while since I last saw one, was surprised to see one in France back in 2017 (a diesel, inevitably).

May have a brochure out in the shed.....

[Schaefft]

4 minutes ago, DVee8 said:

The really is ace,well bought..

Thanks for making me aware of it in the first place!

1 minute ago, Jim Bell said:

Apart from the sunroof, that looks absolutely outstanding. 

Must be the bargain of the fleet at that price?

It easily is. Its cheapest car I ever bought, the car with lowest miles I ever owned, and probably the cleanest car with the least issues. If it doesn't cause me any issues and I can control myself and not start throwing parts at it over the next few months it might beat the A6 and Xedos 6 in the best-cheap-car-I-owned department!

[Schaefft]

1 minute ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Looks like a great buy, well done!

Been a while since I last saw one, was surprised to see one in France back in 2017 (a diesel, inevitably).

May have a brochure out in the shed.....

I'll buy it!

[Spottedlaurel]

37 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

I'll buy it!

Sadly no brochure even in my own collection. Got several on the previous model and even a JDM one for the Diamante, but not a standard UK issue.

However, I did find a Car magazine Giant Test from October 1993. They pitted a maroon 1.8 GLSi 5dr against Rover 620i and Citroen Xantia 1.8 SX.

[Schaefft]

9 minutes ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Sadly no brochure even in my own collection. Got several on the previous model and even a JDM one for the Diamante, but not a standard UK issue.

However, I did find a Car magazine Giant Test from October 1993. They pitted a maroon 1.8 GLSi 5dr against Rover 620i and Citroen Xantia 1.8 SX.

If you could upload some scans of it on Flickr that would be great!

[Spottedlaurel]

Easier for me to upload them here:

[xtriple]

My sadly missed wife had a MASSIVE hard on for these, made me buy one just like the one above in about 2000. White with alloys and an auto and it was as she predected, a brilliant car. I swapped it for a huge 4X4 thing and cash *from him) and then sold the 4X4 thing for twice what I paid for the Galant! I was properly in the doghouse for doing that but it was a hell of a deal and I bought her a newer one all of her own.

 

Excuse the mess, it was my 'restoring' cars period - Beetle and a convertible Mini under the cover!

[TooManyPeopleMovers]

That looks awesome! Well done on that buyage. I have a real soft spot for 1990's Mitsubishi's. My first car was a 1994 Mitsubishi RVR. 

I think this era, and the early 2000's produced some of the best looking Mitsubishi's! Though the modern (2018 +) looks are starting to come right as well. 

Does that 4G93 growl/whine like a good 4G should? Video for example: 

 

I appreciate that's the 2 litre 4G63 - but having ridden in 4G93 engined Mitsubishi's, they sound very similar. Such a delightful noise!

Good luck, I hope it gives you many "utmostly pleasurable" driving miles  

[Schaefft]

Thanks guys. I think Mitsubishi, along with pretty much all other Japanese manufacturers at the time, were absolutely at the top of their game in the very late 80s/early 90s. The technological advancements they brought to the mass market in just a few short years was quite incredible, and Mitsubishi was going all out with the tech in their high end cars, including this Galant. I mean, if you wanted to (and were Japanese), you could have ordered this exact model with a Biturbo V6, AWD, 4-wheel steering, electronically adaptable dampers, traction control, GPS (!) along with all the other typical luxury car goodies like automatic climate control, 6-disc CD changer and even a freaking LCD monitor for the back passengers, in 1993, and even before that in other models like the Diamante. Mercedes didn't have GPS in their S-class until 1998 if you ignore the JDM W140.

The problem is, Japanese manufacturers never really had that hightech image in the European car market so a lot of these options were never offered here or if they did, nobody bought them, so you really often only got the bare bones variants of an otherwise incredible car. You can still see those technological advancements in other details of the car though so Im happy about that. This is my first Mitsubishi (Im more of a Mazda/Honda guy when it comes to Japanese manufacturers), my brother had a 2g Eclipse though, although that came with the Chrysler 420A, not the 4G63, as it was a Canadian market GS. It'll be interesting to see how it compares to my Xedos6 I am missing a bit at the moment (if anyone finds a clean manual V6 for cheap, this becomes available immediately ha). That was a slightly more powerful, slightly more upmarket car but essentially very similar.

A few images of the JDM brochure for the 7th gen Galant sedan, check out some of these options:

[spartacus]

I think the Cobra alarms were fitted at the importers, Spart senior had a Galant Estate, the same shape as Xtriples, it was ace, that came with a Cobra alarm, retro fitted from new, if you see what I mean.

[TooManyPeopleMovers]

By the way @Schaefft , when I've owned older - or any - Mitsubishi - for that matter, I've always found this website really helpful:

http://mmc-manuals.ru/Старые_автомобили_Mitsubishi#Mitsubishi_Galant  

I've linked you directly to the Galant section of that page, but there are manuals there for every single Mitsubishi produced since about the 1980's I think? If you look around that website.

The website is in Russian, but it's nothing that Google Translate can't fix.  The manuals themselves are mostly in English - if the file name ends with "....eng.pdf/zip" - that will be what you need.

If you already know about this, please feel free to ignore me! 

I imagine this will be useful for any Mitsubishi owners on here generally. 

[Schaefft]

5 hours ago, TooManyPeopleMovers said:

By the way @Schaefft , when I've owned older - or any - Mitsubishi - for that matter, I've always found this website really helpful:

http://mmc-manuals.ru/Старые_автомобили_Mitsubishi#Mitsubishi_Galant  

I've linked you directly to the Galant section of that page, but there are manuals there for every single Mitsubishi produced since about the 1980's I think? If you look around that website.

The website is in Russian, but it's nothing that Google Translate can't fix.  The manuals themselves are mostly in English - if the file name ends with "....eng.pdf/zip" - that will be what you need.

If you already know about this, please feel free to ignore me! 

I imagine this will be useful for any Mitsubishi owners on here generally. 

Thanks man, much appreciated. I came across this website a few days ago and instantly grabbed everything that could come in handy in the future!

Today was the first time I took the car to work and Im surprised how nippy it feels, at least around town. I assume thats mostly thanks to the gearing of the 5-speed, which also results in higher rpm at motorway speeds than Im used to (3000rpm at 70, 3500 at 80). It feels extremely nimble though, probably also due to the fact that I only drove cars several size classes above a Galant. There's an annoying rattle coming from underneath the driver side dash that I need to investigate, the dash itself feels solid but there must be something going on behind the cluster. I will keep reporting as things go!

[wuvvum]

They do have a nice shape to them those hatchbacks, although I still prefer the front end treatment of the saloons.

0-60 in 9.7 seconds seems respectable enough - would leave my 1.8-litre Carina in the weeds anyway...

[Zelandeth]

Had a few of those Galants through the garage while I was there.  Seemed nice enough motors, but just like Nissans of the time, we struggled to shift them. 

I remember reading that group test when it was current too...which makes me feel a bit old...

[Stanky]

8 hours ago, TooManyPeopleMovers said:

By the way @Schaefft , when I've owned older - or any - Mitsubishi - for that matter, I've always found this website really helpful:

http://mmc-manuals.ru/Старые_автомобили_Mitsubishi#Mitsubishi_Galant  

I've linked you directly to the Galant section of that page, but there are manuals there for every single Mitsubishi produced since about the 1980's I think? If you look around that website.

The website is in Russian, but it's nothing that Google Translate can't fix.  The manuals themselves are mostly in English - if the file name ends with "....eng.pdf/zip" - that will be what you need.

If you already know about this, please feel free to ignore me! 

I imagine this will be useful for any Mitsubishi owners on here generally. 

FAO @mitsisigma01 - if not on your radar already?

[Schaefft]

Time for a quick update!

As it turns out one of the sunroof drain hoses in the 528i disconnected itself when I reinstalled the headliner. A few week later and you can imagine what followed. Thankfully I caught the problem just in time before the entire interior was covered in a moldy green layer of disease, I still spent an hour or two cleaning the inside yesterday... No photos unfortunately.

Other than that the Galant is doing its job as daily driver perfectly fine. I still haven't checked what tires are on the car, I will take it home to visit family over Christmas so it might see the Autobahn for the first time in its life! Cannot wait to listen to this poor little engine scream at 4500rpm for 6 hours straight... I might also have to get some winter tires for it, or chance it and get them there if really necessary.

Also, its now clear that I will be moving 90mins further up North to Edinburgh in February, which means I currently really don't have much time for anything other than preparing the house for a potential sale (so I can buy something similar up there). Thank god my new employer will pay for the moving costs. That also includes the transport for all my cars? The Galant will go up for sale/roffle sometime in January or February just to reduce the number of cars a bit at least!

 

[Fumbler]

18 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

Time for a quick update!

As it turns out one of the sunroof drain hoses in the 528i disconnected itself when I reinstalled the headliner. A few week later and you can imagine what followed. Thankfully I caught the problem just in time before the entire interior was covered in a moldy green layer of disease, I still spent an hour or two cleaning the inside yesterday... No photos unfortunately.

Other than that the Galant is doing its job as daily driver perfectly fine. I still haven't checked what tires are on the car, I will take it home to visit family over Christmas so it might see the Autobahn for the first time in its life! Cannot wait to listen to this poor little engine scream at 4500rpm for 6 hours straight... I might also have to get some winter tires for it, or chance it and get them there if really necessary.

 

Also, its now clear that I will be moving 90mins further up North to Edinburgh in February, which means I currently really don't have much time for anything other than preparing the house for a potential sale (so I can buy something similar up there). Thank god my new employer will pay for the moving costs. That also includes the transport for all my cars? The Galant will go up for sale/roffle sometime in January or February just to reduce the number of cars a bit at least!

 

Depending on whether I get my apprenticeship, this might be perfect for cruising up to Somerset wafting back after every semester. I R tempt.

[Schaefft]

I finally tore down the old shed that was rotting away in my backyard. Turns out a practical car can be practical. Look at all the junk in that trunk!

Also I may have agreed to buy another car I'll pick up when Im visiting family over Christmas. Here's a little hint...

[Schaefft]

I think I should update this thread a little more regularly.

Of course the mystery car above has been the Oldsmobile Aurora I have revealed during my Cross European collection thread. The car currently stays there to be prepared for its Tuv inspection, hopefully being ready by the time I'm back in early May to pick it up.

With the Galant being picked up by its new owner on Friday, its time to get the E39 MOT'd and all documents filled out to have it officially registered here in the UK. My question regarding the necessary V55/5 form (example below)  to anyone who might have some experience with this:

Do I need to fill out all white sections that ask for vehicle details, including those I have no information about (i.e. emissions stats in #36, 39 and 40)? The guide that came in the document pack says these numbers can be taken from the Certificate of Conformity. The thing is, with this car being far older than 10 years, those type of type approval documents are not required anymore. I assume that means I do not have to give those details, but I want to make sure that this is the case so my registration application does not get rejected by the DVLA a few weeks down the line. Please let me know!

 

[Schaefft]

Well, as it turns out most of these sections probably weren't needed! I've received my new V5C from the DVLA yesterday, 2 weeks earlier than I expected! In fact all of this went surprisingly quick and smoothly, without much hassle at all really. The whole import procedure is little more than getting an MOT, filling out one form, with most of it probably being completely optional, throw in the original title, 55 quid (postal order) and a few copies of your ID/utility bill. That's it! If I compare this with the absolute pita it was to register my Lincoln in Germany...

And here it is, with an N-reg (May 1996), probably making this one of the oldest E39 still on the road. Those plates really transform the look of the car I was so used to. Time to give it a little tlc again.

It still needs the sport rear bumper, rear wheels are just temporary as well (it not a drift car).

[garellikatia]

Glad the importing process went quicker than expected! Your right about the plates they make the car look completely different! What do you prefer the look of? German plates or the British ones? 

[Schaefft]

19 hours ago, garellikatia said:

Glad the importing process went quicker than expected! Your right about the plates they make the car look completely different! What do you prefer the look of? German plates or the British ones? 

I wanted to get German style aluminium ones but apparently they are illegal. I'm just glad to be back in a car so I took what I could get on a Saturday morning!?

[Schaefft]

I can't believe its been 3 months! With the lockdown in place I don't have access to some of the cars, but that doesn't mean shite-ing is slowing down, quite the opposite! Theres even another new car, bringing the car count to a sad new record of 10... More about that a bit later. I'm still working from home every day but the good weather and no commute gave me plenty of time to get around to do a few jobs that got neglected in the past. I'll stick to the Toyota Celsior in this post.

With all this free time I thought I would give the engine bay a little clean, something that was clearly needed. I used the chance to paint a few bits that have gone rusty over the years. The car is generally very solid so my favorite tool and a bit of kurust, zinc primer and paint are enough to get most things back to shiny again. There's also a fairly local LS400 of the right year being broken right now, so I used the chance trying to get a set of front ABS sensors from it. That plan failed, as expected they were nearly impossible to get out without destroying them. I stopped before I did any serious damage, and I would like to give it another go soon, but I'm really not sure how to get them out without soaking them in the right fluids for a week or so, something that the owner doesn't appear to be willing to do. I still was able to grab a few other pieces like the battery box and hold-down although I later realized that Im still missing a panel.

Dirty engine:

Less dirty engine. I wanted to see if I could polish the intake manifold. As it turns out that would take absolute ages just using a dremel, I limited myself to the grooves on top of it. You gotta love the brutalist look of the 1UZ-FE.

The battery shelf was damaged so I replaced it with the new one I got from the breaker. Naturally one of the 4 bolts holding it down was rounded off, so a bit of gentle force with a cutting disc and way too much time helped getting it out. This rubber isolated bracket looked a bit tired so some tlc was applied.

Thats better:

The interior finally received a proper clean as well. I noticed the handle of the driver door card being lose. I knew the plastic frame was cracked but after removing the door card and taking the handle off, which was pleasantly straight forward (only had to google once), I realized the whole handle was fucked. If anyone knows a place where I can find one in blue, please let me know. None on Ebay.

No, I don't know what happened to the steering wheel. The odometer shows around 125k km btw...?

All held together by phillips screws, how convenient.

No point in gluing any of that, there are more cracks than you can spot in the photo.

And thats it for the Celsior for now. It still needs new suspension on all 4 corners, and my plan still is to go for BC coilovers as they wont ruin the ride. Since its impossible to find a used set for such an early LS400/Celsior I might have to bite the bullet and fork out 700 quid for a new one. Or buy the 250 quid Ebay special just to get it on the road for now...

As I don't have a decent somewhat recent photo, this one from over a year ago must suffice. Just imagine the car sitting on a level surface...

Senator, 528i and new car updates at a later time!

[Schaefft]

Its later time, so here's an update on the Senator which has received quite a bit of attention recently, despite barely moving at all!

The state of the rear bumper with its faded plastic, missing chrome trim and rusty trailer hitch really annoyed me for a long time as it brought down the appearance of the car quite a bit. Below you can see what its been looking like up until recently (that photo has been taken shortly after my escape from Dunkirk, check the earlier posts in this thread about the ordeal I went though there...).

Similarly to the Celsior I thought I'd give the engine bay a proper clean as it was badly needed. Its a very satisfying job that rewards with a nice view, especially if its a beautiful straight six that's sticking under the hood of your Opel. The previous owner must have applied some sort of coating to most the components as everything was covered under a faded, yellowed waxy coating. I couldn't bother with cleaning  all of it off by hand so that'll need to happen at another time, Im still happy with the results though, I might even paint the battery tray if Im really getting bored.

The rear end of the car needed some attention badly though. I replaced the lower rear quarter window trim before (which was a proper pita to do, I have no clue how they managed to do this in any kind of reasonable time at the factory) and the bumper was next. I still had the center chrome trim, the problem was that the clips holding it on was made from unobtainium, and I had little chance of finding them for a remotely reasonable price up until very recently when a member of the Carlton/Senator FB group started to sell off his late father's stash of NOS Senator parts (I got a few other things from that as well, it really was a unique opportunity, still plenty left, too).

The bumper had to come off to do this, which surprisingly was only held on by 2 (yes) bolts and a plastic bracket left and right the bumper just slides into. The old rusty trailer hitch I knew I'd never use again came off at the same time, not without snapping a good number of the bolts that held it in.

I knew the trailer hitch was original GM equipment, would probably clean up fairly nicely and is hard to find. I  threw up a for sale post in the same Carlton/Senator FB group I got the clips from, it was quickly snatched up for the 20 quid plus postage I advertised it for so I'm glad that it didn't go into the bin. The hitch and reinforcement plate had quite a bit of weight, enough that its probably noticeable when driving with them gone now.

With the bumper removed I had the chance to look at a few areas of the body behind and underneath it and while some corrosion was noticeable, it was still in great condition considering its age and the fact that its an Opel. Thats partially thanks to the previous owner who must have invested quite a lot of money into restoring its bodywork professionally at some point. I wouldnt be surprised if the entire left rear quarter panel had been replaced before as it is pretty much rust free, something that you cannot say about the rear door on either side.

The spot below was the worst area that was noticeable from the outside, someone welded in a patch less professionally on the right side of the trunk before as well, both areas were ground down to bare metal, treated with kurust and painted with zinc primer, a can of basecoat I got with the car (surprisingly good paint match) and even some clearcoat on the outside.

Witness the professional* masking job.

I know ideally some filler would be used to smooth out the pitting, but since these areas are never gonna be visible I thought I might as well just stick to some paint. I've also treated all bolt and drain holes the same way to prevent any future corrosion and plugged them with fresh new or properly cleaned original grommets.

Obviously this was a good chance to give the rusty exhaust tips a bit of attention as well, so once again: grinding to bare metal, kurust, zinc primer and paint:

Before:

After:

Much better. The undercarriage around these areas received a little attention as well. It was clear that it needed a lot more time than I wanted to spend on my back covered in rust so I really just concentrated on the spot welds around the rear valence and spare wheel well. Same story there, just with underbody sealer instead of paint. There was some light perforation in some areas which will need welding eventually, since I've never welded anything before this will be a job for another time. For now everything was treated as best as I could to slow down deterioration.

With the bumper off I could disassemble the whole thing, only to find out that all of this was once again a total pita. What is it with Opels and trim? The black plastic trim would only come off with extreme force, despite the fact that it was apparently partially held on by double sided tape from the factory. And yes, there is no other way of fixing that trim to the upper area of the bumper...

At this time I should note that all of this prep work had been taken place over the course of at least two weeks, with attention given to it all almost every evening. Cleaning, painting, cleaning and painting again, while waiting for everything to dry, takes a while. It actually took long enough for this little package to arrive all the way from Russia, as this was apparently the closest place I could get this highly recommended Japanese plastic restorer from:

Its called Nano Hard Plastic Coat from Soft99 and is supposed to hold up for half a year (and hopefully longer). I wanted to make sure that Im doing this job properly as I wouldnt want to take everything apart again if I wanted to reach every crease. And after properly cleaning the trim and removing any remains of old gunk just a few drops of this absolutely tiny bottle were enough to  mostly even out  the grey tone of each piece. It does have its limits though as it cannot remove marks or stubborn stains. The results can be found below.

First I had to take care of the chrome trim though, it was easier to polish them now so I used some of the polishing paste I had left from another job years ago and gave them a quick whirl with the Dremel and a wire wheel, which btw was involved in almost all of these jobs at one point. Its just so versatile!

I think the result looks quite good!

At this point I thought things would be quite straight forward. How hard can it be  attaching a strip of chrome? Absolutely fucking I hate every Opel engineer hard. That is, if you try to push these elusive plastic clips into the strip upside down...

And here we have the elusive Opel Senator bumper chrome trim clips. It took me about two years to find these as they are indeed impossible to find now, and the old ones (bottom row) are prone to crumple due to their poor design.

It literally took me an hour of pain and swearing pushing these 10 clips into their little rail for this single piece, and there would be two more to go. I really thought that this would be the way to go as the clips would be fairly lose any other way. I've only realized after another 10 clips on the corner pieces that they wouldnt clip into the plastic trim like this, so basically after I've been shredding my finger tips on the sharp edges of the metal trim countless times.

The wrong way of installing the clips.

And the correct way. They actually hold the trim in place as they are under quite a bit of tension. Which is probably the reason they all fail now. Its just a piss poor design.

Trim all dyed and reassembled:

 

And finally, after god knows how long, everything was put together, and despite lacking a wash, I think it really turned out great. I can still go back for more trim dying at a later point, but I am very happy with the results.

Compared to earlier the car's appearance really has improved massively, and has received much needed attention in other areas to make sure it'll stay this way for much longer. The next big job would involve replacing the rotten rear doors and cracked front bumper, but those have to wait until I find the right parts in the right color. For now my attention has moved on to the BMW and yet to be revealed new car, so stay tuned for those. I promise the post will be shorter again...

 

[hairnet]

mmmmmm german barges

[Schaefft]

8 minutes ago, hairnet said:

mmmmmm german barges

I can reveal that the new car will follow the same trend, with now 5 German barges, 3 American and 2 Japanese (counting the Toyota Corona that I've seen only seen once since I got it lol).