Cross European Collection Mission of Excitement and questionable Decisions

[Schaefft]

Well, I'll be leaving for Christmas holidays tomorrow. As it happened to be, this somehow aligned with the sudden appearance of a classifieds ad of a particular car that I have not seen come up for sale over the last 3 years or so either in the UK, nor in Germany. Despite having set up search alerts everywhere, I was actually made aware of that ad by a friend who's even worse of a hoarder than me (I'm just gonna post one photo below, carefully check the background, this is just part of one of the locations cars are stored in), and of course instantly made contact with the buyer, leaving a deposit without having seen anything but very crappy, lowres photos that must have been a few years old. As you do. (to be fair, the seller claimed someone would come and collect the car in a few days, so I offered 300 Euros more, which was still 500 Euros less than it was advertised for). Oh, and the car happens to be located 30mins from my parents, and happened to belong to a colleague of my brother's GF at one point. Why do all my US-car purchases involve really strange coincidences?

To keep the surprise, I will not go into too much detail but I will say this: Apparently it must have been imported to Switzerland when new, it has a V8 and it is American!

I'm not really sure if I can even call this a collection thread, I'll be taking the Galant back there and obviously have to drive that one back here to roffle it. The new car would get its Tüv sooner or later and I'd have to collect it the next time I'm visiting. But who knows! It'll be fun anyway!

There's even a carefully* planned schedule:

Saturday:

Take ferry at 5pmish from Northshields to Ijmuiden/Amsterdam

Sunday:

Arrive in Amsterdam around 10am, drive to Germany visiting my hoarder friend to collect a few parts (and probably get shown around the cars again, at least I won't miss a ferry this time...).

Arrive at parents house in the evening.

Somehow I have the feeling that one day I will own one of the these New Yorkers.

Monday:

Collect monies from bank, drive to location of new shite mobile at 11am and hopefully not regret my decisions.

A few days later:

Shite gets delivered to parents house (who are not aware of this yet) to do some fettling and have a detailed evaluation of what the hell I have done.

Since I doubt that this car can just pass an MOT Tüv like that (none of my purchases can), it'll probably stay there for a while before I collect it.

WCPGW?

[hairnet]

roffle galant but state on ad - must be collected

road triiiiiip

Fröhliche Weihnachten! (like)

is it as shonky as frogchod yank

 

[Schaefft]

I'm not sure about the level of shonkiness yet but I can tell you that the ignition key currently is not staying in the On position after the engine is started...

[Asimo]

Liking the hammer under the Cadillac's hood......?

[egg]

Ford Contour at the back there?

[Schaefft]

17 minutes ago, Asimo said:

Liking the hammer under the Cadillac's hood......?

Inspired by Clarkson

8 minutes ago, egg said:

Ford Contour at the back there?

I think all the cars you see there are LH New Yorkers, apart from the euro-spec '92 Seville (still with the old 4.9!) and the '95 Continental in front of it. He's got plenty of other shite though, this 1990 Dodge Dynasty being probably one of the most fitting of them all. Got the Mitsubishi 3.0 V6 Chrysler liked to use back then. Naturally theres another New Yorker right next to it.

[Schaefft]

And the journey begins. By going the opposite direction and picking up a battery that will fit the new car because apparently none is included. Which is fun considering a normal one won't fit (inverted terminals). Fortunately the Lincoln is no different.

[Schaefft]

Ferry has been achieved. Fortunately they didn't bother checking any of my "luggage", it would have been hard to explain why I've got 4 car batteries, airbag steering wheels, tools and a variety of other things that could look like parts needed to assemble explosives... (As an explainer, I'm taking this stuff back to Germany since it's easier to sell it there).

The Galant is looking good! Also check out my humble overpriced accomodations.

 

[hairnet]

not worth a wang down the A1 to harwich?

dfds aint cheap compared even to p and o and theyre robbing cnuts

[spike60]

Assuming it's to the same European port it's an extra 600  mile return wang  to Harwich from Newcastle.  As someone who also lives in the NE I don't usually use the southern ports.

[hairnet]

toon is nearly 4 times harwich and even more for a car

eddy will be round to nick your lincoln later

 

[Schaefft]

We arrived in Amsterdam without any complications, next stop will be my buddy's place to pick up some bushes. Let's see how well these ancient, dry rotting tires hold up on the Autobahn.

[Schaefft]

I made it! 500 miles and around 9 hours of the 4G93 screaming at 4000 rpm later and I have arrived home. Not without getting pulled over by the Dutch cops and apparently getting a ticket for not providing a V5 though (I did have my small green slip from buying the car and proof of tax and insurance, but apparently that wasn't enough...). Now I've got two weeks to show the officer the V5, which should be pretty hard considering I'll have a hard time finding him again, even if I have the V5 sent over here. Don't wanna know what the fine for that one will be...

I've also made a quick stop at my buddy's place to look at one of his newest purchases. Not many can say they've sat in a Lincoln Zephyr, not exactly one of Lincoln's finest offerings?

Also probably the fastest this Galant has ever gone in its life:

Also some other shite spotting on my way:

Reveal of the actual car tomorrow!

[hairnet]

gr12 parking m9

i can ask dutch friend how much fine might be??

meine papiere waren in ordnung aber wurde jedoch bei 166 km / h in der Zone 120 erwischt

188 euro but it took them 12 months to get it from me as they refused to speak to me via letter in english

 

[Schaefft]

I wanted to keep some space in front of that door, the curb just belongs to the sidewalk? If your Dutch friend knows how much it might be let me know, the only thing I can find online is a 45 Euro fine, no idea why I wouldn't be able to pay that right there, or why the officer couldn't tell me.

And yeah, that speeding ticket probably would be a lot more expensive now!

[hairnet]

21 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

I wanted to keep some space in front of that door, the curb just belongs to the sidewalk? If your Dutch friend knows how much it might be let me know, the only thing I can find online is a 45 Euro fine, no idea why I wouldn't be able to pay that right there, or why the officer couldn't tell me.

And yeah, that speeding ticket probably would be a lot more expensive now!

i think on the spot is only france and spain and thats only for speeding

 

[hairnet]

dutch friend asked

 

[hairnet]

He said try this lot

 

[Schaefft]

I have just arrived at the compound and can see the car now, just waiting for the seller. Of course the tires are flat. Meanwhile, check out this Chrysler Saratoga. Not what I'm here for today though, stay tuned!

[hairnet]

How shite is Saratoga

V6?

 

 

[beko1987]

After watching Hoovie's Garage I can confidently say that's not a Northstar engine in it is it?

[Schaefft]

41 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

After watching Hoovie's Garage I can confidently say that's not a Northstar engine in it is it?

No, but the car next to it has one! The one I wanted to buy. And it's another Oldsmobile Aurora!?

Only that it now didn't want to start anymore, probably an ignition/anti theft related problem that is similar to the one I have in mine. Which means I couldn't hear the engine run or transmission shift. Its also missing it's back boxes, which is a problem in Germany, it's not like I can fit just any replacement part that might just happen to fit. The seller will try to get it running but I'm having my doubts. It's not something I can leave a normal garage to deal with either. That and the exhaust complicates things significantly so I might have to pass this time, as rare of a chance it might be to acquire another Aurora. We'll see what happens next.

He's got quite a lot of other interesting stuff, this red 30k km manual Turbo Chrysler ES being particularly interesting. Photos below. Oh and I cracked the 60k mark in the Galant.

[wuvvum]

Would the TüV inspectors really notice a non-standard back box on something as obscure as an Aurora?

[Schaefft]

9 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Would the TüV inspectors really notice a non-standard back box on something as obscure as an Aurora?

If the only thing thats there is a straight pipe and no mufflers at all, Id assume so? If there was an aftermarket system under there and its all tested and in the papers, fair enough. The mufflers were removed after the last inspection though, I'd literally have to ask the guys who Im planning to use to get my TÜV inspection done to install new mufflers. Unless I want to have the car towed all over the place, while Im not here, this is a real problem. Doesnt look like the originals are still around either.

[Schaefft]

You thought it was over didn't you...

Well, over Christmas we came up with a convoluted plan to bring this car back on the road without breaking the bank (and without me actually being around). The seller knows a few owners of garages he's been customer of before (one of which is specialized in US-Imports), apparently so closely that they would be willing to fix the car up for a special* price (probably as a side project) as long as they think it's him who asked for the car to get fixed, which is the case but kinda isn't considering I just paid for the car. That hopefully means that the car will be fixed and tested by May when I'll be back in Germany to pick it up without having to invest crazy amounts of money into what is basically worthless to most. Which might actually be the case as the car refused to start again today despite me replacing the ignition switch, in the rain. Before I even bought the car. The seller seems trustworthy though, invited me to his home and I know the car received plenty of attention previously. Unfortunately no pictures of the ignition switch work but here's another one of the car.

[Mrs6C]

Is it turning over at all? If not, possibly it's a worn bush where the gearshift cable links to the nubbin on the gearbox switch that is preventing the selector from moving far enough forward to tell the car it is in Park. Many US cars need to be in Park in order for the engine to start and if the car thinks it is in gear, it won't.

My Cadillac ETC suffered with that; it was random and obviously got worse the more the gear selector was used and the bush was worn. A new bush for the linkage fixed it!

[Schaefft]

It does turn over and with the help of some starter fluid spray it does try to start, its exactly the same problem I got in my Aurora. I know mine does build fuel pressure, we werent able to confirm it with this one yet (didnt have a fuel pressure gauge, couldnt hear it humming either despite checking the fuses and relay). I was hoping the faulty ignition switch would be the fault here but apparently thats not the case. Even if the new replacement part was faulty Id be surprised if it causes exactly the same symptoms so it must be something else. Maybe the pump suddenly seized up the last time it was started a few weeks ago, the car has been standing for years and it might still be the original 158k mile one.

[Sir Snipes]

Need moar Galant

[Schaefft]

The Galant made it back to the ferry without issues. Looks like old Japanese saloons attract each other as this grimy Sunny parked right behind me. I've seen it in Germany on my way here earlier today!