Anyone had a Reliant Scimitar?

[marcus]

Am looking at a couple of Scimitars this afternoon (runner plus donor), with a view for a little resto project with a mate.Anything to look out for in particular on these?

[warren t claim]

Jalopy did an excellent feature on them many years ago.IIRC Fuel tanks rust, and lots of electrical gremlins...

[Cheggers]

Rusty outriggers, fragile seat tilt mechanisms, bad earth connections...their big problem is that they're so cheap that very few people are prepared to spend money looking after them.The upside is that they probably offer more grin-per-£££ than any other similar sized car.What ones are they (Se5, 6a, 6b)??

[Rocket88]

Funnily enough, spent some of today trying to get one going. Hadn't run for ages, but eventually staggered into life, bugger all oil pressure, and clouds of blue smoke, so engine rebuild time! Anyhoo, SE5's pretty, but a bit cramped, more of a "vintage" feel to drive. SE6's are not as good looking, and are heavier and wider. Front suspension is from the stone age [TR3/4 from memory] and requires constant greasing and general looking after, rear axle is trailing arm, and very strong. Usual 3 litre Fraud, Essex, 2.8 Cologne's on the later ones. Chassis is strong, but outriggers disolve, as do the interiors, avoid anything with a sun roof, it will leak. SE5's had no power steering, and are bloody heavy, most se6's do have pas. Gearboxes [both manual and auto] tend to be ok, but the overdrives suufer from electrical silliness, as does everything else. I've had 3, and on only on one of them did every involving volts work. They do catch fire, due to cheapo fuel line connections, although most will have been sorted by now, overheating almost always due to standard crap electric fan, easily changed. SE5'S are a better Sunday car, SE6 make a perfectly reasonable everyday runner. Parts are available, and not too pricey, although the V6's are not cheap to rebuild. Engine bay is vast if you sling out the spare wheel and associated mounting gubbins, loads of Rover V8 conversions have been done.To sum up. £2000 will buy you a cracker, runners with a ticket start at about £500, but you will be under it for a considerable amount of time. Buy the best you can afford........

[warren t claim]

Don't they have a LHD Austin 1800 rack mounted upside down or did I just dream that?

[marcus]

Thanks for advice so far.The cars are SE6 autos, guy's after £300 for the pair, as the 'runner' no longer goes. Gave them the once over, chassis looks ok, bit of corrosion on some of the round tube parts of the suspension. Oil/transmission fluids are correct colours which is a good sign. Thinking the non starting is prob electrical. Got brand new tyres and decent alloys. There are new stainless back boxes on the donor.Wish I'd got pics really. The donor is in a barn, with an inch crust on it and a minging interior. The newer one is fairly intact body and interior wise.Might be worth just breaking them... Essex V6 anyone?

[Rocket88]

Non starting will be either manky petrol [depends on how long it's been syood] or electrical earting probs. We had same problem on Saturday solved by running a wire from battery positive to plus side of coil, and chucking a load of sniff down the carb............

[FredTransit]

Legend has it they were self igniting.....

[Rocket88]

The one we got running Saturday had really interseting oil pressure gauge readings. 50 PSI when started from cold, [should be about 70] dropping to bugger all within 15 seconds. Clouds of blue smoke, and the distant, but getting ever nearer, sound of the galloping horse from the bottom end of the engie, plus a monumental oil leak from n/s rocker cover. Funny thing is, if you ignored all that, it ran very sweetly, with a rock steady idle!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I am not a fan of those old things. Horrible boat anchor engine, shitty wiring which has inevitably been mauled by cretinous former owners, shabby interiors and the aforementioned stone age front suspension. Cant see the attraction! I suppose an early SE5 looks OK, if you can see past the star cracks and mould in the window seals etc.

[Rocket88]

Point taken, but a good one is a nice car, and about a thid of the price of a Crapi in similar condition. [no scene tax]! .Beliee it or not, they're about the same weight as a Capri, due to a seperate chassis, and thick fibreglass, if it wasn't for the Fred Flinstones front suspension set up, they'd be a better car to drive than any Capri.

[Alpineandy]

Engine bay is vast if you sling out the spare wheel and associated mounting gubbins, loads of Rover V8 conversions have been done.........

Aren't the chassis rails a little tight for most engines?

[Rocket88]

You can get Rover V8 in without major surgery, someone has fitted an Omega V6 that virtually dropped straight in [mounts and all] a modern Beemer straight 6 diesel [although the electrics were a bit of a 'mare.......

[marcus]

Funny, I was just thinking about a petrol straight 6 from the BMW. 197 BHP in my old 525, might be fun in the Scimitar!

[55bloke]

Of no real relevance, and probably of even less interest, but I believe they share their windscreen with the Ford Consul Classic, of all things! Lots of other bits from the '60s Ford parts catalogue, I think.

[whitevanman]

Of no real relevance, and probably of even less interest, but I believe they share their windscreen with the Ford Consul Classic, of all things! Lots of other bits from the '60s Ford parts catalogue, I think.

they do indeed share that vehicle windscreen