Zel's Motoring Adventures...Volvo, Renault, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - Updated 13/11.

[timolloyd]

Could you not launch a museum of specially adapted vehicles to recoup some costs? The campervan, Invacar, Polo and now this stretched Mercedes will bring in thousands* of visitors. 
 

Seriously though, I’d love to read your methodical posts about saving this. Even if you repaired the dash and ignition and got it weathertight and running well, it’d be amazing.

[Zelandeth]

4 hours ago, Mrs6C said:

If you did have it, it would be a superb way to transport four people, two dogs and all the luggage you could possibly need, in supreme comfort... 

I do have to admit this is something of a draw.  It's a layout you just don't see often.

Van: Have space for...many...passengers.  Seriously I reckon there is seating for six passengers in the back in reasonable comfort.  However realistically I can only have one passenger along in what's considered decent safety in 2022 as all of the seating in the rear is side facing.  It's also difficult to find a way to reasonably secure the dogs that isn't a nuisance at other times.  It also has the downside of every upholstered surface - of which there are a lot - are velour.  So are basically permanently covered in a fine film of dog hair, no matter how often I vacuum it.

It's also 2.6 metres tall, 2.4 metres wide and six and a bit metres long so not exactly the easiest to daily... especially as there's an ever increasing number of places round here with height barriers on the car parks.

Caddy can carry two people plus either unfeasible amounts of cargo OR the dogs.  The rear seats are also really only good for short journeys as they're really cramped.  Plus I still need to get some seatbelt extensions as it has the shortest belts I have ever seen.  I've a 36" waist and I can *just* get them fastened and no more.

Like when we had the run up to Glasgow a couple of weeks back we did briefly discuss taking one car as I'd definitely have had room for four people and everything we took.  However there was no way I'd force people to endure six hours in the rear seats!

Being able to take the whole family, dogs and more than a backpack or two isn't something I ever pictured as being feasible, never mind in any degree of comfort.  Even something like an Espace (Mark I please, preferably in that lovely dark metallic green) it would be a case of luggage or fluffy passengers.  Plus the idea of fuzzy Renault velour and dog hair...just no.  An estate isn't exactly pleasant for rear seat passengers either as they have a dog breathing (and in Tesla's case, screaming excitedly) in their ear the whole time...never really figured on that being something I could really do anything about - one bonus of the Caddy is at least there's a bit of room between you and them...so you only go -mostly- deaf.

1 hour ago, timolloyd said:

Could yu not launch a museum of specially adapted vehicles to recoup some costs? The campervan, Invacar, Polo and now this stretched Mercedes will bring in thousands* of visitors. 
 

Seriously though, I’d love to read your methodical posts about saving this. Even if you repaired the dash and ignition and got it weathertight and running well, it’d be amazing

It did occur to me as quite a random bit of happenstance that I ended up with two wheelchair adapted vehicles (does the Invacar count as adapted given it was designed from the start to carry one?).

[LightBulbFun]

41 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

It did occur to me as quite a random bit of happenstance that I ended up with two wheelchair adapted vehicles (does the Invacar count as adapted given it was designed from the start to carry one?).

im glad im not the only who thought that! (although it took me a couple days to realise the Caddy was a wheel chair adapted vehicle! rather then just a well specced van!)

and I agree im not sure id call the Invacar or the Limo for that matter "adapted" vehicles

since they where both built from the factory to serve their special purpose, rather then any sort of after-market cut and shut or adaption job

(and in the Model 70's case, built and designed completely from the ground up not being based on any one pre-existing base vehicle)

perhaps purpose built vehicles is a better term for them  (much like how someone would say purpose built coach built camper van ie "a purpose built coach built camper van rather then a converted panel van would be better for your needs" )

I was thinking of mentioning this but I did not want to come across as even more pedantic then I already do LOL

[Crackers]

I'd hate to be one of "those" people, and I do appreciate that this is a fairly unusual and interesting vehicle, but both my heart and my head are saying "run a mile" from this.

[beko1987]

Oooft that limo is nice! 

That rust though... But I think a few days kf your general work would possibly help it be saved by someone else? You'd at least get it presentable, seal up the windows and get many amazing posts out of it as you go? 

[Zelandeth]

6 hours ago, beko1987 said:

Oooft that limo is nice! 

That rust though... But I think a few days kf your general work would possibly help it be saved by someone else? You'd at least get it presentable, seal up the windows and get many amazing posts out of it as you go? 

Being totally honest the rust doesn't really scare me too much as it's all relatively easy to get to and that's what always tends to put me off repairing things like that.  Nothing like trying to weld while laying on your back being eaten by ants with the workpiece two inches from your nose.  The B pillar repair panels are pretty large so should be plenty to replace the metal there.  Which I don't think will have spread all that far, there's an obvious water trap in the design there which will make the seam between the pillar and the sill rot from the inside out.

Whether I'm still saying that after I've spent some time battering those areas with a hammer (which I will be doing next time I see the car) is another matter.  That should enlarge the holes enough to give me an idea what state the inner will structure is in, as if we're having to rebuild large chunks of that it rather changes the picture a bit.  Likewise if it turns out that large portions of the sill below the B pillar vanish, which is entirely likely.

It's definitely better than the T25 I took on a few years back where we discovered that the inner and outer sills were basically entirely made of a crust of paint and underseal.  Progress on that basically stopped when I discovered quite how bloody expensive parts for them are!  I've already looked and confirmed that the bits for the pillars and the sills are available and at sensible enough prices.

Still not kidding myself, it will obviously be worse than it looks and there's a buttload of work needed, but there's nothing there which outright scares me into running for the hills.  Yet.

[Zelandeth]

Finally got around to having a bit of a look at the van today.  I noticed that it seemed down on power during a long run a few months back.  Partly that was definitely down to it really not liking el cheapo diesel, as switching back to V-Power did produce an immediate noticeable improvement.  However comparing it on some roads I know she's definitely still down a bit on what used to be normal.

In we go...

Annoying to see the cam cover gasket I changed when I got the vehicle is already leaking again, and looks like it has been for a while.  Will add that to the to do list and use a tiny smear of sealant as well this time.

There was a not insignificant amount of free play in the throttle cable, so I reckon foot to the boards was getting me about 90% on the throttle at the fuel pump.  

Having a nose around I also spotted this.

Having a look at the clear fuel line to the pump when cracking the throttle open revealed that yes, there is definitely air being drawn in somewhere as there is a clear haze of bubbles being pulled through.

Never would have spotted that from outside as it's buried right under the air intake filter to manifold hose.

Time to go through the system end to end I think.  Aside from one quick connect I deleted a couple of years ago I think the fuel system is pretty much untouched, so it's probably due a refresh.

That's a job for once the rain stops though rather than today.  Nice to have found a couple of things which are very likely to have contributed though.

I do keep meaning to do some research to see if the max fuel adjustment on this pump is easily accessible, if so I'm absolutely certain it could be dialed up a touch without any ill effects.  This is about the only old school diesel I've seen that even at full throttle, full rpm under load produces absolutely zero visible smoke, so I'm sure she could deal with a bit more fuel.  I'm not talking about going daft and rolling coal, but I reckon there's a bit more to give.  Let's face it, every little gain you can get on a vehicle this heavy with this little power (78bhp by the book) is something not to be wasted.

 

[Zelandeth]

Spent a little bit of time this afternoon sit down actually firming out some of the numbers in my original estimate for the revival of the Mercedes.  The vast, vast majority of the numbers I'd plucked out of the air simply based on having been meddling with cars for a long while.

The one bit which turned out to be really annoying was that the B pillar repair panels which I'd originally found turned out to be completely wrong - because Google is a complete and utter moronic piece of excrement these days and had in the query "Mercedes W123 B pillar repair panel" it had ignored the whole Mercedes W123 bit and the results it had turned up were actually for a plethora of VWs, Fords, Rovers - I think we were on page 3 before a Mercedes actually made an appearance.  That does up the difficulty rating a little as that's not a particularly easy bit to fabricate without the right tools.  If I do need to call in a little bit of help for one bit, I'm not above doing that.

Turned out though that I wasn't that far off with my overall estimate though.  With the exception of the exhaust and fuel lines, everything here is based on real numbers.

So the bill for stuff I KNOW will want doing is going to be £2493.84.  Which is pretty much spot on my guess totted up to.

Obviously, it won't actually *be* that number, I know there will be things that get added to this list, likewise some things may be usable and not need to be replaced - brake calipers for example are £300 worth themselves, they might be serviceable, they might not.  I'd rather assume they're junk than go the other way.

The exhaust I need to get a better look at to try to confirm if it's a standard W123 250 system at the front end - it looked to me like a standard system for the first six feet or so before the stainless took over.  However a quick bit of Googling didn't turn up a source for a 250 down pipe anyway so we're probably back to where we started.  I did find a few places with it *listed* but all showing no stock.

This however is why there are so many cars out there that people have bought as projects in a fit of enthusiasm before having a sharp intake of breath when they've realised what it's really going to cost to get a car that's been sitting around for a few years back operational again!  At least in that regard (provided there aren't any major issues with the SLS) there isn't anything particularly scary on this car.  While looking at it you might go "OMG Limo!" it's just a W123 that's been stretched a few feet...mechanically it's a pretty conventional car for its time.

The other thing I will state right up front is that I am sure some of these prices can be bettered with a little shopping around.  I'd probably do that before actually clicking "order" but I wanted to get some real world numbers on the board, and honestly I've always found AutoDoc pretty competitive.  I know their customer service are absolutely diabolical if you do need to return anything, but touch wood - in seven years I've never had to deal with that YET.  I did get one wrong part delivered once, but it was something utterly trivial so I just shrugged and ordered a replacement through my local motor factors.

I had originally been planning to visit the car again today for round two, but the seller had a schedule conflict come up.  Given the weather was also pretty awful we decided to postpone until Friday when they're available all day.  Though the weather forecast does make me even more anxious to get that window put back in.

[richardmorris]

8 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Spent a little bit of time this afternoon sit down actually firming out some of the numbers in my original estimate for the revival of the Mercedes.  The vast, vast majority of the numbers I'd plucked out of the air simply based on having been meddling with cars for a long while.

The one bit which turned out to be really annoying was that the B pillar repair panels which I'd originally found turned out to be completely wrong - because Google is a complete and utter moronic piece of excrement these days and had in the query "Mercedes W123 B pillar repair panel" it had ignored the whole Mercedes W123 bit and the results it had turned up were actually for a plethora of VWs, Fords, Rovers - I think we were on page 3 before a Mercedes actually made an appearance.  That does up the difficulty rating a little as that's not a particularly easy bit to fabricate without the right tools.  If I do need to call in a little bit of help for one bit, I'm not above doing that.

Turned out though that I wasn't that far off with my overall estimate though.  With the exception of the exhaust and fuel lines, everything here is based on real numbers.

So the bill for stuff I KNOW will want doing is going to be £2493.84.  Which is pretty much spot on my guess totted up to.

Obviously, it won't actually *be* that number, I know there will be things that get added to this list, likewise some things may be usable and not need to be replaced - brake calipers for example are £300 worth themselves, they might be serviceable, they might not.  I'd rather assume they're junk than go the other way.

The exhaust I need to get a better look at to try to confirm if it's a standard W123 250 system at the front end - it looked to me like a standard system for the first six feet or so before the stainless took over.  However a quick bit of Googling didn't turn up a source for a 250 down pipe anyway so we're probably back to where we started.  I did find a few places with it *listed* but all showing no stock.

This however is why there are so many cars out there that people have bought as projects in a fit of enthusiasm before having a sharp intake of breath when they've realised what it's really going to cost to get a car that's been sitting around for a few years back operational again!  At least in that regard (provided there aren't any major issues with the SLS) there isn't anything particularly scary on this car.  While looking at it you might go "OMG Limo!" it's just a W123 that's been stretched a few feet...mechanically it's a pretty conventional car for its time.

The other thing I will state right up front is that I am sure some of these prices can be bettered with a little shopping around.  I'd probably do that before actually clicking "order" but I wanted to get some real world numbers on the board, and honestly I've always found AutoDoc pretty competitive.  I know their customer service are absolutely diabolical if you do need to return anything, but touch wood - in seven years I've never had to deal with that YET.  I did get one wrong part delivered once, but it was something utterly trivial so I just shrugged and ordered a replacement through my local motor factors.

I had originally been planning to visit the car again today for round two, but the seller had a schedule conflict come up.  Given the weather was also pretty awful we decided to postpone until Friday when they're available all day.  Though the weather forecast does make me even more anxious to get that window put back in.

I think all in with some paint work and interior sorting as well that’s more like £5000 plus the car cost. If car is free, then good, it’s break even but if they think it’s worth money then no.

 

presumably you know about the Mercedes breaker specialists ?3 pointed parts etc

 

[Dobloseven]

Spotted one in Leicester today. B reg 250.

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

I think all in with some paint work and interior sorting as well that’s more like £5000 plus the car cost. If car is free, then good, it’s break even but if they think it’s worth money then no.

 

presumably you know about the Mercedes breaker specialists ?3 pointed parts etc

 

That's going to be the big question really isn't it!  That's one of the main things which will need to be asked on Friday.  Of course we've no idea how many more holes I'll manage to poke in it yet!

Already thinking of things I've forgotten on that list.  Probably another £150 or so for transportation to name one.

[Zelandeth]

Only very briefly stopped by the V123 today as the weather was pants.  Only thing I did was to get the replacement rear window installed and to check all the dismantled bits of seating were all there.

Yep, all present though the fasteners are scattered all over the footwells.  One support has been bent where the thieves wrenched it out (that bit isn't used on a normal W123 so was seen as being of no value), but wouldn't be hard to fix.  The seller is going to pull the carpet from that footwell and mop the bit of water in there out.

It's seriously comfy in that rear seat.  

Getting the window swapped was a ten minute job.  One screw to remove the trim on the pillar, six screws on the window hinges, two on the catch, then lift old one out.  Reassembly is reverse of disassembly.

It looks a mess there, but it is in pretty good shape and I could transform that in a few hours.

Still undecided to be honest... I've said I'll go back one day next week when the weather is better to continue investigation.  If I don't find the rust has spread much further than it looks (which I fully expect it has), and they don't think it's worth actual money (sounds like there's some differing views there between the two folks) I might take it on.

As realistically it's worth what, £300 in scrap metal probably?  I know full well they don't have the time, space or inclination to strip it and sell the parts, and that's what 99% of people who might want it will be intending to do.  Probably cost me £150 to get it transported too.  So really if they're after much more than a gesture of good will of a couple of hundred quid I think it'll be time for me to walk away.  Which will pain me, but it's *clearly* going to be a money pit!

If they're on board with that though we might still be able to work something out.  We'll see.

It makes zero sense to save, but I'm still inclined to try...because if we all did what makes sense in this hobby it would be bloody boring and some of the most interesting cars out there would be bean cans.

[PhilA]

It's not the type of car that'll ultimately earn you money for taking care of it.

However, that's where terms like "minimum appreciable cost" come into play.

 

I like it. It's everything Mercedes should be. Once it's fixed.

[Zelandeth]

6 hours ago, PhilA said:

It's not the type of car that'll ultimately earn you money for taking care of it.

However, that's where terms like "minimum appreciable cost" come into play.

 

I like it. It's everything Mercedes should be. Once it's fixed.

The W123 in all its variations to me really was peak Mercedes I feel.  

[LightBulbFun]

12 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

It makes zero sense to save, but I'm still inclined to try...because if we all did what makes sense in this hobby it would be bloody boring and some of the most interesting cars out there would be bean cans.

this is why above all else I am hoping you will end up getting it, because even if it turns out to be more of a basket case then you want/can take on

at least by having it on your driveway in your name, even if you did 0 work to it, its chances of finding a good home would be infinitely higher then they where before, much like how you saved the BX  

 

[timolloyd]

There’s some nice attention to detail in the back of this, by the looks of it. Extra grab handles for the middle row, ashtrays, and electric windows at the very back?

Also are those reading lamps in the c posts?

[Zelandeth]

3 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

this is why above all else I am hoping you will end up getting it, because even if it turns out to be more of a basket case then you want/can take on

at least by having it on your driveway in your name, even if you did 0 work to it, its chances of finding a good home would be infinitely higher then they where before, much like how you saved the BX  

 

I wouldn't be so sure.  The BX isn't really that far from being roadworthy.  If you've got the right kit to do the work, a few days dedicated to it and you could probably have it into a state where you could at least safely drive it to a test station and present it for an MOT I think.  Might end up with another few things you then need to fix before you get a pass, but it's really not far off.  Just that the main job that needs doing is one that I simply am not interested in getting involved in.  Unless you're chucking into a specialist to have the hydraulic work done, there's not a huge amount of money needs to be thrown at it.  Only thing I'd be budgeting in my head for might be a set of brake discs and pads just because it's been off the road for so long.

Also important is that once it is roadworthy again, especially if the seats are sorted out it's probably going to be worth a fair chunk more than the sum of its easily saleable parts.  An early BX these days, especially in an unusual colour like this once in good mechanical order wouldn't be at all difficult to sell I'd think.

The Mercedes is a very, very, very different kettle of fish. 

Even if I took it on, got it looking more tidy, running well etc, took some decent photos of it and put up the best advert in the history of the world for it, it doesn't change the fact that 99.99999993% of the people who look at it will see several grand's worth of easily saleable W123 spares and some scrap metal.. Heck, even once it's on the road with an MOT it's never going to be worth more than it is on the spares market - even *before* I've dumped a few grand into dragging it back to life. 

I've not actually sat down and run the numbers, but with the market for good interior parts and things like exterior brightwork these days for W123s it wouldn't surprise me if you could buy a decent enough V123 that's on the road, split it for spares and still end up quids in.

Unless I end up being the one to drag it kicking and screaming back into the land of the living and back onto the road I really, really don't see this car having a future beyond being a parts donor.  I'd love to be proven wrong, but that looks to be the reality of it to me.

2 hours ago, timolloyd said:

There’s some nice attention to detail in the back of this, by the looks of it. Extra grab handles for the middle row, ashtrays, and electric windows at the very back?

Also are those reading lamps in the c posts?

The electric windows are the ones in the rear door, there are just switches for operation from either the rear or middle row of seats.  The rearmost windows are the pop out type.  Something for which I was most grateful when I was swapping that one out yesterday.

Don't think there are any additional reading lights or anything like that, just a standard one in the headlining between the rear seats - though not sure if that itself might be above what's in the standard car.

It is far more thought out than pretty much any aftermarket limo conversion I've ever seen (not that this surprises me from Mercedes in that era), and just looks like it could have been designed to be a LWB car like this from the start.

[richardmorris]

[Noel Tidybeard]

why do you need to spend £150 on getting it transported?

this is autoshite where people use a solid bar and tow shit!

[Zelandeth]

On 3/6/2022 at 1:48 PM, Noel Tidybeard said:

why do you need to spend £150 on getting it transported?

this is autoshite where people use a solid bar and tow shit!

Mainly because I'm me, with a poor relationship with Mr. Murphy, and it's just too busy an area down here to take chances.

A few years ago when I lived in the middle of nowhere I'd probably have made sure it was running on most of the cylinders, that the gearbox worked, we had something resembling a braking system, and headed for home at a quiet time of day and crossed my fingers the tyres held together.  Living here though, just no.  It's busy 24/7.  It's a heavy old barge to tow too... I'm always nervous towing automatics too without the engine running...which given the exhaust has been chopped off at the downpipe would kind of draw attention to us!

After getting rained out last week I'm going to be taking a better look at it tomorrow and we'll see where we end up.  The big question I think will be whether the seller is after real money for it.  Having done a fair bit of snooping around the market since I've been looking at this car it's become quite obvious that the V123 is far less sought after than other variations - so if you've got a bit of patience picking one up in decent shape for around £3 grand if not less.  So there's really no logic to spending this much money on restoring this thing.  However that's not why we do things like this is it?

No, it's the satisfaction of resurrecting something that's by all rights beyond hope and solving the problems which come with that.  

I quite like this car, and I'd like to save it.  However if it's far beyond free that's going to be the end of it I think.  I will obviously offer them something as a good will gesture for taking the time to actually contact me and because the guy has been an absolute pleasure to deal with.  However I'm making it very clear that the cost of reviving this car is going to well exceed the market value as it is, so if they think it's worth a grand, I will wish them the best of luck with it and be on my way. 

I've made it quite clear from the get go that one of my main targets here is to NOT break this car for parts, as that's what really makes the most sense to do and is probably the fate which has befallen a huge chunk of the V123s which originally ended up in the UK.  If they want top money for it, it'll be coming from someone who's going to break it.  I'm sure someone with that in mind would have their arm off at a grand or so.

Tomorrow we'll (hopefully, given how easily it fired up unexpectedly first time!) get it running properly, see what works, see if we have drive and brakes, and batter the heck out of the crusty areas to see how big the holes end up.

Then we'll have a final chat over what they think it's worth and try to make a decision.

-- -- --

In other news a bit of car related hardware was finally retired today.  Back in 2009 I made myself an office chair out of an old Jag XJ6 seat.  It was out of a >100K mile car which had been scrapped, and I've used it day in and day out pretty much since then.  I wonder how many miles that number of hours equates to?

The seat base has been falling to bits around the bolsters for the last couple of years.  It's just worn out.

The fate though has been sealed by the base itself failing.  Firstly that it squeaks incessantly which has been driving me mad, though even more so it's been developing an increasing list to the left for about the last six months...

To the point that it was becoming quite uncomfortable to use.  

Being totally honest it's too big for this room too... it's horribly bulky and I keep crashing into things with it.  It worked fine in my flat in Aberdeen because the room was arranged with open space directly behind me, but in this room it just doesn't work.  I'm sick of knocking everything off the top of the shelf just out of frame right by reversing into it.

Time for a replacement.  Caddy once again proved itself immensely useful as I could just chuck a box that big in the back along with a few other things from Costco without even needing to really think about arrangement, folding seats or moving parcel shelves etc.

Really is a bloody useful thing.

It's astonishing how quickly you get used to having a load bay this big.  I can't see us going back to not having something like this on fleet now.  Just a hugely useful vehicle.

Hard to believe we're up to 2000 miles already!  Even though admittedly 600 plus change was one trip.  Even so it's passed quick.

New seat sadly isn't as car themed, but is bloody comfy and has made my room feel about twice the size as the footprint is far smaller!

Did have a somewhat amusing moment while putting it together though.  Putting the base on the lower cushion I dropped a bolt.

Two guesses where it went?

Yep... straight down that middle pocket.  That's what I get for using the table as an impromptu workbench.  

Thankfully retrieval took all of 20 seconds.

Was just one of those moments which I couldn't have made up.  Fumbled the bolt and it just went straight down the middle of the pocket...could have tried to do that 50 times and never managed it.

Sorry there hasn't been much car activity over the last week, got a couple of things I want to do next week.  Invacar carb minor overhaul for one.

[JimH]

With regards to the Merc may I sound a note of caution. Leaving aside the question of structural soundness there is a much more important issue to consider. 

This should start at the correct time.

Yes, he is talking about a 600 but I think it holds true. 

[dozeydustman]

2 hours ago, JimH said:

With regards to the Merc may I sound a note of caution. Leaving aside the question of structural soundness there is a much more important issue to consider. 

This should start at the correct time.

Yes, he is talking about a 600 but I think it holds true. 

I’ve added that to my watch later list - a good find.

[Zelandeth]

I don't think looking like an idiot is something I worry much about, bearing in mind I'm regularly seen buzzing around in an Invacar!

I think we have come to the end of the road with the V123 though.  Simply because the current owner is looking for around £1500 for it.  I don't doubt for a second that on the open market someone will probably have their arm off at that price to break it for parts as it's worth a lot more than that in bits.  However I made it quite clear what I was willing to get into this for, and dropping another grand on top of that just wasn't going to happen.

We're still on amicable terms though.  I fully understand that this situation with the car being vandalised has left them way out of pocket and they need to try to recoup at least some of their costs.  I just can't justify spending that much.  

I did have another look over it today in better weather though and have to admit to being quite surprised.  I was expecting when getting a bit of violence involved to make the rust holes a lot bigger, but I really didn't.

The damage to the B pillar really does seem to be limited to where the outer panel meets the sill.  I really did go to town with this and the only hole there we could already see.

Camera flash always makes stuff like this look way more alarming than it does in person.  Peering down through that hole showed the inside of the outer sill to be pretty much spotless below this.  So the repair while still complicated doesn't involve quite as much reconstructive surgery than I'd expected.  I was figuring on pretty much cutting out that whole section and rebuilding about a foot in every direction.

The seatbelt inertia reel is about 2" up from that rust hole and the bolts on that are still shiny as though they just left the factory.

I know it's still a bloody involved repair and obviously is worse than it looks on the surface, but I was really expecting a lot more of this area to disintegrate when poked than actually did.

I thought we had an identical repair needed on the nearside, as I wasn't really able to get a proper look at it last time.  Turns out I was wrong.  There was a lot of flaky rust on the seam, but try as I might (and I did) I couldn't actually poke a hole in this side.

Offside rear sill was pretty much exactly what I expected.  Has blown out forward of the jacking point for a few inches.  Inner sill looks okay though, and the back where it meets the wheel arch is fine.

This wouldn't be the worst to repair and repair panels are available so I wasn't really too worried about that.  This is the sort of corrosion which I kind of expect to see on things this age if it's not already been repaired.

Nearside is less widespread but I was still able to poke one hole in it just by the jacking point.

That's pretty much what the underside looks like though.  They did a pretty good job with the underbody protection it seems.

One crusty looking bit by a drain just like on my S123, but again this completely resisted my attempts to poke holes in it.

Did find a bit more grot in one of the edge rails for the tailgate.

Which has let water in, probably why the boot floor needs sorting.

Did find a couple of worrying looking areas in the front wheel arches where the seam sealer has started to fail.

Though again this resisted my attempts to find anything crunchy.  The offside has clearly had a plate let in here before and the sealant adjacent to it has blown out.

I'd be wanting to go over that whole area with a flap disc and examining it very carefully as I'm not thrilled with the quality of that old repair.  I know there was a previous MOT fail for rust in this area so finding the patch wasn't a surprise.

Mechanically...well...

That's running on fuel from 2016, and I've not even touched the carb.  Which still looks like overkill for a 2.5 litre engine...

She sounds a bit rough because the exhaust is knackered...but only on one downpipe.  So you're hearing there being zero exhaust on the front three cylinders.

I reckon they've whacked it when rolling it off the flatbed it was stolen on.  Whole system has been pushed back a couple of inches, which has also made a mess of the rear valance.

So another item on the "stuff they broke" list.  Which also includes the nearside seatbelt that they've cut.

At a bit of a loss to explain why as it doesn't get in the way of anything!

Despite the handbrake having been on since 2016 it only required a brief blip of throttle to break the pads free then she was rolling happily around the driveway...and we even had a normal feeling and working brake pedal.  Tyres definitely are shot though.

Gearbox seems to be happy enough.  Shifts smoothly and silently between drive, neutral and reverse and provides drive... can't really test beyond that on a driveway!

Throttle response is instant and clean, and on all cylinders.  Definitely seems like the engine is in a decent state from what I can tell.  No smoke either, once I poked the auto choke anyway.  It was a bit sticky initially but behaved once I'd jiggled the linkage in a very technical way a bit.

This is where we part ways though.  I'm sure a lot of parts from this car will see further service on other 123s, but if they're wanting that sort of money for it I really can't see anyone taking it on as a project.  Even if they delivered it to my doorstep for free it still wouldn't make sense anyway!

Does now mean that the V123 is very much on my radar as something to possibly consider in the future though.  So even though it looks like this one will be going elsewhere another may pop up on this thread someday.

[Crackers]

Thank christ for that.

Run away and be glad you did.

[Zelandeth]

31 minutes ago, Crackers said:

Thank christ for that.

Run away and be glad you did.

Not sure what it says about me these days, but there's still nothing there which really scares me!  Lot of work, yes.  Nothing terrifying though.  Just tackle each bit in turn methodically.  Just because the car is 5.5 metres long doesn't really change much.

Just the parts bill really.  If it had been basically free I'd have liked to give it a shot.  Not getting involved at that money though.  No chance.

Not that I'm wanting for a project for this year anyway, still have the Cavalier lined up.  Even though the welding on that sadly does involve me having to stand on my head!

A friend on another forum has offered me the use of a car roller though, so that may help at least.

[LightBulbFun]

Woo an update on the Limo! am obviously sad to see that your not getting it in the end* but I completely understand why! 

(*well you never know maybe after trying to sell it to the wider public the seller will get so hacked off with all the idiots that float around your area that he will just go "fuck it just take the fucking thing!" )  

but it was a fun to see it anyways! and I imagine was a nice little distraction from boring normal and depressing life things  

(it certainly was for me ) 

twas like autoshite version of a week long fling

 

and of course I am still very much looking forward to see the Cav turn up and work commence on that!

and also of course very much looking forward TPA's carb rebuild, with all the fine tuning you have managed to do to TPA, I bet @dollywobblerwill be in for a good shock next he has the opportunity to pilot her

 

[Zelandeth]

I reckon it'll be gone pretty quickly.  There's a heck of a lot of value in the parts on it - wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if you could net north of five grand from breaking it with a bit of patience. 

As it is I reckon properly sorted it's probably a £3-3.5K car given what they seem to sell for at the classic auctions I've found completed listings for.  Very few people would be interested in even looking at it as a project.  If it was *just* the damage from the theft, the rust or fact it's sat since 2016 it would probably be more viable...but with *all* of those counting against it, just not going to happen.

Thinking of TPA, I really need to go shake the tree in Microcar World again as I still need an air cleaner housing to get things properly sorted on TPA.  My zip-tie-a-cone-filter-to-the-housing solution really isn't a long term fix.

[Andyrew]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

A friend on another forum has offered me the use of a car roller though, so that may help at least.

I Have roll over jig your welcome to borrow if im more local than the other chap. It belonged to Ian who used to own your cav.  Ive never used it bit it looks complete.

This type i belive. 

 

[LightBulbFun]

5 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Thinking of TPA, I really need to go shake the tree in Microcar World again as I still need an air cleaner housing to get things properly sorted on TPA.  My zip-tie-a-cone-filter-to-the-housing solution really isn't a long term fix.

if push comes to shove dont forget about haflinger technik and https://prokschi.at/

who I noticed recently added invacar to their Steyr puch engine service kit  

and who rather topically uploaded a youtube video comparing all the different air cleaner assemblies (but still no mention about the left or right hand positioning of the filter, or your unusually short one)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU_8K83ZqC8

(theres english subtitles)

[Zelandeth]

3 hours ago, Andyrew said:

I Have roll over jig your welcome to borrow if im more local than the other chap. It belonged to Ian who used to own your cav.  Ive never used it bit it looks complete.

This type i belive. 

 

May well take you up on that, I can't remember off the top of my head where the other guy is based right now.  It's a bit of kit I really should probably pick up at some point.  While nerve wracking to use, they are handy.