With a growing family I found I needed a car with six seats, I really didn’t want to end up with a people carrier so I looked at estates with seats in the boot. I really wanted a diesel V70 after owning an S80 but I couldn’t find one I could afford. I looked at 307 SW/estates and found an estate being advertised seriously cheap that just needed ‘brake pads’.  I had the slightly stupid idea of fitting the rear seat mounts and seat belts from a 307 to this estate to save money as the estates are so much cheaper than the SWs.
 
Before even seeing the car I sent a cheeky text offer of just slightly more than half the advertised price and the owner accepted, it had been her grandad’s car then she had been using to transport her dogs around but now didn’t need. The viewing was a bit mixed it had obviously been sitting for a while as all the discs were rusted up, the ‘brake pads’ it required turned out to be an ABS fault, both this and the stability control lights were on. It had some giffer parking marks on the bumpers and one of the rear doors. The inside stunk of fag smoke and dogs and there was dog hair all over the back half of the car. The clutch/DMF made a slight squeaky noise that went away when you pressed the clutch, whilst the spare wheel was lying in the boot as the carrier mounts had dropped off.
 
However it was my OH that discovered the best bit, whilst sitting in the car she pressed a button next to the hand brake and the electric roof cover rolled back, this wasn’t an estate, it was the more expensive glass roofed SW complete with all seat mounts and belts in the boot and better than that it was the SE edition so second top of the range! I gave it a quick drive around their estate as it wasn’t taxed and insured and it seemed to go ok. Back at their home I haggled another £50 off due to the ABS fault and the car was mine.
 
A days insurance purchased and I started to head to my dad's, the drive home resulted in more dash light bingo.
 
 

Hi all, new to the forum.  Thought you might be interested in what I've got myself into
I'd been after my first classic car for a while.  If it's big and made in the 70s I'm interested.  Looked at few things like P6s, Zodiacs, Victors, SD1s and various other things.  Problem was I didn't want to spend a boatload of money on something that looked alright but underneath was actually a total heap.  The solution was to buy a complete heap in the first place and spend the money fixing it.
So in January I went ahead and bought this from a colleague at work who was moving away and needed to get shot of it.

It's a part finished restoration (I prefer not started) and it needs a whole load of help if it's going to stand any chance of using a road again.
Pros
It's right up my street.  Granada Coupes are quite odd and certainly stand out from the norm.
It still has the original engine, box, interior and most trim.
It came with loads of panels I need to repair it (mostly original Ford stock).
It came with so many spares I could probably build a few Granadas and still have stuff left over.
It was cheap.
Cons
Most of the front end has been cut off.
Most of the body structure is quite rotten.
It's going to take me ages.
I work at a restoration company and my boss kindly allows me to keep the car there.  So I've got access to all the gear I need to restore it.  I've been busy on the car for a while now so will post more pics over the coming days.
Cheers 

I think the Broadsword fleet has become sufficiently complicated to merit a combined thread so that gradually all new additions will appear in one place.
 
As of Sunday 17th March the situation is interesting.
 
Two Citoren Xantias (remember the white Xantia of Excellence is for sale people!)
http://autoshite.com/topic/34699-w-reg-citroen-xantia-20-hdi-xantia-of-excellence-%C2%A3999/
http://autoshite.com/topic/34596-citroen-xantia-double-madness-rust/page-2
 
A turquoise XJR6 pending overdue-collection (need that gone now!)
http://autoshite.com/topic/34003-jaguar-xjr6-double-madness-double-sold
 
An XJS 3.6 manual project which will get in high gear soonish. Wont be a keeper but will be fun getting it back to something presentable. Drivers fantastic!
http://autoshite.com/topic/34664-jaguar-xjs-36-manual
 
A Range Rover P38, which is turning out to be really rather good.
 
And to mix things up even more I'm off on a collection caper today. Had first refusal on it and was expecting it to come around in a year, but things soon changed and no way was I going to pass up on it. It may well render the second Xantia redundant as I've got a really good feeling about this motor.
 
In the meantime here are some snaps of the Range Rover. As usual it was a car I said I would probably never buy due to their reliability*. I have said the same of Jag XJR, XJS, XK8 and I have had all of those now. Basically the moment I declare buying a particular car is impractical or improbable, I end up buying one.
 
Things to note on the P38. It's a nice colour with tidy body. The EAS has been removed. It runs and drives lovely and it doesn't have enough electrical problems to hinder progress. The main one is the driver's side window not working, but that should be fixable. I've tried changing the outstation, that didn't fix it. Might be wiring under the seat. Other than that I bought it and took it for an MOT the very next day, and it passed. Since then it had what seemed like a battery drain, but since unplugging the RF thingy for the remote locking and putting on a proper lead-acid battery, which the car can actually charge, unlike the modern lead-calcium batteries, it has been perfect. I will treat it to a full service soon.
 
Stay tuned for the latest collection later today!