Bringing cars back from the dead*

[Matty]

To be fair one of the things which promotes value is rarity. So it either had to be rare in the first place of loads of em have to die to make it rare.

[spike60]

I'm an occasional resurrector,  two relatively recent ones were a BMW 530d touring well out of test, a smashed manual gearbox, 233k and general hard use and Mercedes 300SE parked on a pig farm for 8 years, blown exhaust etc.

The BM was a stop gap but stayed for nearly 4 years and 36k miles in the end, the Merc a couple of years and 5k miles.  Both are still about locally, the Merc has passed a second test without me recently  and the BM failed it's first, brakes and a bush.  At 270k!

Here's the Merc scrubbed up for it's sale 18 months ago.

And here's  a dusty BM at the Nurburgring  campsite 2017 N24

I don't think it counts for this thread but a couple of months ago I bought another 126 Merc. This one had been off the road  since 2002 and the previous owners family got it tested before I bought it but then the fun starts as 17 years worth of problems start coming to the surface. Plus why ever it was parked as well of course...... no dinosaur killers yet tho.

TBC probably......

[Kerr]

I've never truly brought something back from the dead, but I've sure spent too much time and money keeping cars going. Case in point is my wife's Rover 200 - I don't really want to add up everything I spent last year (and equally don't want to think about how much it'll need this year to keep it on the road...)

[lanciamatt]

All my 4 current cars were bought with now mot, the thema V6 was off road, no mot, pissing oil out and generally unloved. Removed box and fitted a new rear main seal, new arches welded in and sprayed, still have it today. Dedra turbo was stood 15 years before I got it, nothing at all worked, paid 450 for it, spent about 900 on it now, MOTed last week for 2nd time in 15 years. And my thema TDS was stood 10 years before I got it, that's now the daily driver, genuine 90000km on clock too. Nowt for the 2.5 sofim engine. 

[brownnova]

I’m currently attempting save #1 with this Saab 9000. Not been on the road in nearly 3 years. And the picture flatters it greatly! 

 

Should be quite straightforward. But I’ve not got very far yet! Must do something on it today! 

[spike60]

I paid good money for BMW 540i  then about 3 years later a friend was using it when 300 bhp, no traction control and 12 hour nights bit him and he felled a lamp post with the bonnet badge. He bought it off me, stripped it all out, got it jigged and the panels painted at a Vx dealership a friend managed and left it in his leaky garage for a couple of years.  Then his wife said " when are you coming to get your car?"  Me "not my car anymore" Her " yes it is, come and sort it"

So over about 4 weekends I put the front back together including a weekend routing the wiring loom the wrong way and then after a few false starts it lived with me another 6 or so years.

Have a sale pic from about 10 years after I first bought it.

 

 

My son bought a dead Corsa from a friend despite not having a driving licence so I took it to my house from his mothers  to remove temptation and used lots of TLC and servicing to get it MOT'd . When I started using it it became clear it was lacking 5th gear, the linkage was toast. I priced one at the dealers as nothing was available anywhere else, - £147. Hmm... I built a cats cradle of heavy duty cable ties  and it drove fine for a month or two locally then the the son sold it to a friend, and we split the money. It hardly rattled but wasn't a nice thing to drive. 

 

 

 

[strangeangel]

Not really back from the dead, but I've now spent about 10 times the purchase price on keeping this alive:

 

 

And I would confidently expect to recoup almost none of it were I to sell the car. I don't begrudge it a penny, it brings much happiness and it's become part of the furniture around here.

 

[omegod]

I won a Calibra on ebay that had sat on a driveway in Runcorn for years , think it was £200. It was covered in moss and had a starting issue, seller acted quite dodgy as he thought it was a lemon and was having me off. Massive clean up,basic servicing, a new ignition switch and intensive paintwork renovation revealed a lovely motor 

 

 

 

[purplebargeken]

Have been buying/saving shite since 1981. Too many to bloody mention.