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An awful collexun thread


drewd

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I've acquired a new car. It's not the first time I've done this since joining Autoshite, but I've never done a collection thread so thought I should do something to rectify that. I don't think I've quite got the hang of it though so I'll apologise now. I viewed and bought it Sunday, collected yesterday and am posting now. With very few pictures.

Backstory

After rattling through hopefully the most pressing jobs required on my daily 307 prior to the MOT next month I started thinking to myself that I was happy with the car. Then over the bank holiday weekend I headed down to Dorson Towers to visit my brother @DaveDorson for  a car show and a BBQ at his. It was a hot bank holiday weekend, like really hot. And my lack of air con made the 160 mile journey less comfortable than it could have been. I parked up in town and headed to the car show.

After browsing some cars, Dave, our cousin and I headed to my car which I'd parked in town with the plan of buying some last minute BBQ supplies then proceeding to Dave's place to prepare for the OMGBBQ! At this point the 307 decided it didn't much enjoy being a 5 door car and was refusing to unlock the rear doors. After I'd just spent the last few hours looking at some very cool and varied cars I was feeling that the little Pug ought to buck it's ideas up as working rear doors isn't asking too much of a 5 door car. Eventually we all got in and aside from the on board temp reading 46 degrees and the air con not working all was well.

The following day on the return trip home I decided that I do actually like the 307, it's mostly reliable and generally does what a daily should whilst being cheap to run. And so like any sensible shiter I started browsing the cars for sale board ?

Steed Selection

A car had already caught my attention, I'd been trying to ignore it as it was high miles and had some bodywork issues. However anyone that knows me knows that I'm not bothered by mileage so long as the engine has been serviced and runs well. The body issues do not yet require welding, so I should be able to sort those out without too much drama. So I messaged the seller to ask if the car was still avialable. It was so a viewing was arranged.

The next step was to get an insurance quote for it. Our current cars are insured on a multicar policy so I logged in to see about sorting out a quote. My insurance didn't recognise the reg. Arse. Euro Car Parts and the MOT history worked with the reg so it was just a problem with my insurer. One phone call later and a quote was in place, they told me that they'd be able to swap cover by calling them up and mentioning this quote.

The following afternoon my wife and I headed off to sunnny Bolton to view the car. The seller seemed sound and has a good reputation on here, the car was present, started and drove fine, although I requested to just be a passenger for the test ride as I hadn't yet swapped my insurance over. I had a cursory look under the bonnet but there wasn't really space to have a good look around the car so I agreed to buy it and transfer the funds with a view to collect the following evening.

Collection

I had a few things to do on collection day, some of those had fixed times and others were more flexible. The seller had offered to collect me from Bolton train station and take me to the car so that was the initial plan. However plans change. I felt bad for asking them to meet me as I'd already bought the car and the agreed time was close to when they had other things to be getting on with. I decided that if I picked the car up early afternoon I could do the rest of the stuff I'd planned for the day later on.

I checked the public transport times and my options were a bus, two trains and a walk across what looked to be a field, or 3 busses I'd never used before. Both options came in at just under two hours assuming I didn't miss a connection somewhere. I'll be honest, I wasn't overly keen on this. So I considered option 3

 

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My bike. 22 miles with around 1000 feet of elevation, that didn't seem too bad. Google suggested it would take just over 2 hours, but I wasn't tied to bus or train timetables so for me it was the option of choice. What could possibly go wrong?

The photo above was taken a few miles into the journey, beside the Ribble and under the M6. Things were going well, I was making good time and I was coming to the end of the cycle path before using roads for the rest of the journey, so hopefully my progress would be a bit quicker. I got into the rhythm of cycling and was enjoying taking in the scenery along the route and looking forward to the drive home. Inevitably, this happened.

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That milky splatter up the back of the seat tube (ooh err) was sealant. Sealant that's supposed to remain inside the tyre and fix any small puctures as they occur. Unfortunately it was escaping. I was 9.5 miles in to the 22 mile ride so thought a road side repair with a plan to continue was the best course of action.

I stopped by a bus stop to see how flat the tyre was and although it still had some air in it I'd lost a fair bit so thought I'd top it up. Once the tyre was inflated enough to commence riding I disconnected the pump, rotated the tyre and saw more sealant escaping under pressure. Bugger. I'd bought a tubeless repair kit with me and although I'd not used it before the principle is that it's a rubberised piece of sticky stringy material that you force into the hole in the tyre and it helps seal it. My first attempt did not go well. The sticky rubber strip did not want to fit in the applicator and ripped as I tried to shove it in the tyre. I pumped the tyre up and it help air so I thought I'd see if it work as a repair. Around 30 metres down the road the tyre was deflating, and much faster than before. Arse.

Attempt number two was a little more successful. I was able to get more of the horrible rubber strip into the tyre and it felt like it was a snug fit. I reinflated the tyre again and gingerly rode down the road. This seemed to be working, although I could hear the repair strip hitting the road with each rotation of the wheel. I was hoping the loose section of the repair strip would wear down and break off, but was concerned it could get pulled out the tyre. Fortunately for me the repair held out, and I completed the journey in around 2.25 hours, 1 hour 53 moving time.

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Brown and sticky tyre repair.

The car

So, as you've probably already worked out I bought the high mileage Bora Highline that @jamiechod had for sale. I bought the car and the wing, as the original wing really needs replacing. Once collected the car drove home OK, but I've not had a chance to look over it properly yet as the puncture delayed me more than I had hoped and I had other stuff that needed doing. Today was my wife's birthday so we've been out doing birthday related things. I'll take a look at it tomorow. I didn't take any pictures of the car as I was covered in bike tubeless sealant and didn't want to cover my phone in it. I did manage to keep the car interior clean though ☺️

Here's a pic from Jamie's original ad

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