Ask a Shiter

[Albert Ross]

If you're desperate for a White Sapphire. I have one here that needs work, no V5C, but no COD either.....1989 German built, 1990 reg. 1.8L CVH.

[freebird]

Whats the crack regarding "classic insurance" policies?

Elswhere on here, its been stated that some insurers are happy to accept 20 year old cars onto classic policies.

Thing is a week or so ago I rang my classic insurer ( Ive got my scimitar insured with them ) to enquire about a 1990 Merc 300 CE and they wouldnt touch it with a barge pole.

I rang another local to me who would but, price wise, it wasnt a million miles off of a standard second car policy with my modern car insurer and about double what i have paid to insure my Scimitar.

Am I missing a trick here?

If anybody has any recommended insurers that will insure 20 to 25+ year old cars and not expect the owner to have to sell their left bollock to pay for it, id appreciate the advice.

Im currently watching the usual Merc, Volvo shite, it would just be nice to get a nice cheap classic policy for one, i mean, its not like I will be doing 10,000 fucking miles a year in one, more like under 3,000!

[Richard]

Isn't it fraudulent to issue a COD on a vehicle that hasn't been destroyed?

[Pillock]

COD... I heard via another forum that it's possible to do this if you export then reimport the car. That's a lot of hassle for a Sierra. Perhaps it would be possible if you could hide the car away so it could move around on paperwork without actually leaving the country?

 

Insurance.... When I was running stuff daily on a classic policy, I was told that they accept anything over a certain age (for Flux, 15 years) as long as there is a "scene" for it. So if there's an owners club, forum, event etc they'll cover it. If it's older they don't demand that, as it's a proper classic..... It's just to stop everyone driving round in an T reg Vectra on cheap insurance. I got a 94 E36 and a 91 mk3 Golf covered a couple of years back. Flux said they'd cover a Golf GTI but not any other model at that age.

[Junkman]

Throughout the 90s we did this exporting/importing CODed cars forth and back between Germany and Belgium on a regular basis. Only the paperwork ever crossed the border, never the cars.

 

This was easy (and fairly legal) since back then Germany had a two-tier policy of vehicle documents - a certificate of ownership (Fahrzeugbrief) and a certificate of registration (Fahrzeugschein). So all you had to do is send the Belgian paperwork (minus the COD) to the German equivalent of the DVLA and request a Fahrzeugbrief, you didn't even have to register the car. The cost was 30 odd Marks IIRC, about ten quid, and it was sent to you by post. This document you took to the Belgian licensing authority and they issued you with a Belgian registration certificate and you were done. The only restrictions were that you weren't allowed to sell the car on within the following 6 months, otherwise you were liable to VAT, and you couldn't import/sell more than seven cars per annum, otherwise you were classed as a dealer and liable to income tax. No such restrictions existed in Germany should you have chosen to re-import a car you had exported to Belgium that morning.

 

Germany has since abandoned its two tier document policy for cars to 'harmonise' with the rest of the EU. I'm unsure whether this export/import trick of yore will work under the new policy, since I believe it has only been introduced for the sole reason to do away with being able to register CODed cars.

The environment, you know.

[catsinthewelder]

After a bit of a battle I've got the BX re-assembled after replacing driveshaft boots, a front strut and a bottom balljoint at the roadside and all seems well.

 

The HBOL warned me to expect to loose up to a litre of gearbox oil with the driveshaft out and I reckon it lost about a cupful. I've got a half litre bottle to top it up with so turned to the page about topping it up expecting a hole in the side of the gearbox and level ground to be involved. However there is apparently a hole in the top, two drain holes and no way of telling how much is in there.

 

The procedure is apparently to replace the whole darned lot each time with a pre-measured amount as overfilling it will kill kittens or something.

 

What would you guys do as what came out was nice and clean and I don't really fancy having to drain it all out

[Lacquer Peel]

I don't think you can overfill it, just top it up until it spills out of the filler hole.

[catsinthewelder]

Ah-ha

 

Bloody HBOL, just checked the 'supplement;revisions and infomation on later models' and they did put a filler/ level plug on the gearbox end plate on post 86 models

 

cheers Len

[Negative Creep]

Is anyone else's Quote button missing? I thought it was something to do with the upgrades but seems fine for everyone else?

[willswitchengage]

Mine has been for months. As is the edit button.

[Negative Creep]

Oh yeah, just noticed I have no edit either

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Double check your board language (user control panel > board preferences > my language). If it's set to British English, you don't get quote and edit buttons. If you change it to English (United States), you get the buttons back.

[willswitchengage]

Double check your board language (user control panel > board preferences > my language). If it's set to British English, you don't get quote and edit buttons. If you change it to English (United States), you get the buttons back.

 

Thank you!

[willswitchengage]

Why are all car engines on "that" side except on older Japanese stuff? I assume it's because they're the only captive market to have RHD cars, but what's the science behind it?

[Lacquer Peel]

Less to foul the steering column?

[Leyland Lawrence]

Why is a Chevette almost a fraction of the price of the equivalent Escort today?

 

Both were 'everymans' cars and driven by a similar customer? About the same price at the time?

 

Or was the cavalier the Escort rival? Wouldn't the cavalier be more matched to the Cortina? in any event the equivalent cav seems less pricey?

[SambaS]

FIAT STILO ESTATE 2002

 

Horrendous knocking noise coming from front suspension, when going over bump, sounds very much like the bottom arms.

 

It's my mates Mum's car is it sounds feking dangerous!

 

I jacked the front up and checked for anything obvious, wheel nuts tight, couldn't see obvious fault with drop links, bottom arm bushes, struts, springs or anything.

 

Any ideas?

 

It is going in to a garage asap but does anyone know common faults with these. I am quite sure they are full of problems these Fiats.

 

My Monza didn't even sound this bad when the anti roll bar had snapped off the chassis.

[Negative Creep]

Double check your board language (user control panel > board preferences > my language). If it's set to British English, you don't get quote and edit buttons. If you change it to English (United States), you get the buttons back.

 

Thank you!

 

Ta very much. Presumably us Brits are supposed to be too polite to quote or correct our mistakes?

[Wilko220]

Why is a Chevette almost a fraction of the price of the equivalent Escort today?

 

Both were 'everymans' cars and driven by a similar customer? About the same price at the time?

 

Or was the cavalier the Escort rival? Wouldn't the cavalier be more matched to the Cortina? in any event the equivalent cav seems less pricey?

 

You might ask the same about Avengers or Marinas. Nothing can rival the Blue Oval Tax for some reason.

[SambaS]

Also where is best to find a new rear exhaust section for a MINI Cooper S 2002, has 2 backboxes into a twin center exhaust, one side is blowing, the other side has an outer metal casing that has rotted off and makes an otherwise mint car look a bit rough

[Rocket88]

Why is a Chevette almost a fraction of the price of the equivalent Escort today?

 

Both were 'everymans' cars and driven by a similar customer? About the same price at the time?

 

Or was the cavalier the Escort rival? Wouldn't the cavalier be more matched to the Cortina? in any event the equivalent cav seems less pricey?

 

You might ask the same about Avengers or Marinas. Nothing can rival the Blue Oval Tax for some reason.

 

Perceived rally pedigree................

[skattrd]

Why is a Chevette almost a fraction of the price of the equivalent Escort today?

 

Both were 'everymans' cars and driven by a similar customer? About the same price at the time?

 

Or was the cavalier the Escort rival? Wouldn't the cavalier be more matched to the Cortina? in any event the equivalent cav seems less pricey?

 

You might ask the same about Avengers or Marinas. Nothing can rival the Blue Oval Tax for some reason.

 

Perceived rally pedigree................

 

Yes, but then you can get Lancia's cheaper than a lot of osf.

It doesn't make sense to me either, my current HPE VX cost under £2k, which wouldn't get anything reasonable with a blue oval.

[Junkman]

It's OMG etc MKII Escort mass hysteria. Obviously the people who have more money than braincells are either too young,

or too old to remember what dismal pieces of shit they really are.

 

I decided to abandon faith in humankind ages ago and a fuggin MKII Escort being bid into the same monetary territory

as a contemporary Aston Martin Lagonda in reasonable nick on one and the same auction site only confirms I made

the right decision back then.

Staying within the Blue Oval, evidently today's market values of 70s-80s Ford chod are inverse proportional to the original

purchase price.

Today you can buy a 2.8i Ghia X Granada for less than a 1.6 GL Cortina, that you can buy for less than a 1.1 L Escort.

 

Madness.

[trigger]

If you're buying a car to sell on can you fill in the trader part on the V5 or do you still have to fill in the new owner part if your aren't in the trade?

[Pillock]

There's plenty of ebay sellers fill them out as traders when they're not actual traders.

It just takes it off the hands of the previous owner without generating a new V5. I'd say go for it, but you do leave yourself open to comeback on a sale that goes wrong... "No warranty on private sales" is hard to stand by when you've filled out the trader bit.

 

I think it's also hard to tax the car unless you have trade insurance. If the tax hasn't expired, that's not a problem.

[Rover414]

Does anyone have any experience of painting plastic trim? I have some spares from the Rover so was looking at a little project and wondered if there was anything particular needed (I gather plastic primer being one) or if there are any particular techniques?

[shedvan]

Does anyone have any experience of removing matt paint from a car?

 

I'm looking at a Renault 5 that has been given the once over with matt NATO green and I have some idea that it could be polished off with some turps or something.

 

Is that actually total bullshit or would it work?

 

I don't have any desire to buff myself into a white-spirit induced coma and if it won't shift I'm thinking of a plan B that might involve some sort of razzle dazzle WW1 paint job

[trigger]

Cheers Chris, the car has tax and mot but I don't really want any comebacks so I might just register it in my name for a few weeks.

[Wilko220]

Does anyone have any experience of removing matt paint from a car?

 

I think 'theorganist' is your man - did he not rescue a matt black Maxi from matt blackness?

[shedvan]

Oh yeah I think you're right, nice one!