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Mazda Fiesta rides again


Ben_O

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Made me feel quite sad. In 2013 an old boy down road, in his nineties had a V reg. Fiesta 1.3 Finesse,the facelifted model. He'd owned it since it was almost new and done under 50k miles. I asked how he was, said he was ok, but his car had died. It had broken down, been brought home and the recovery guy told him the timing belt had broken. A quick look under the bonnet revealed the trusty Endura pushrod engine, also a lot of oil, and very little water. The engine seemed to have siezed. I investigated buying a s/h engine and getting a local guy to fit it, but he decided to give up driving and told me to take the car. I'd been looking for a project, ideally something small and VAG, but hey ho. Towed it home, it'd a long Mot and tax. Investigation revealed a catastrophic oil leak from an exploded oil pressure switch, a coolant leak from the core plug inside the bell housing, various hoses silted up,  and a valve seat had fallen out the head. Managed to get the engine freed up, fitted a s/h head, sorted the leaks and got it running nicely. It'd got a new clutch and exhaust fitted very recently. However the sills were very poor, with a lot of patches for past Mot's. I like a no pressure project, so cut the rotten sills off, completely on one side, up to the b pillar on the other. Repaired the inner sills and membrane, bought a full sill for one side, made a repair panel for the other, more for practice than anything. Dressed and filled over all the welds, used that textured stuff and painted over it to give a fair approximation of the factory finish. It then became a family spare car with various offspring borrowing it and one son actually running it for 3 years when his marriage ended and his wife took the car(it was hers anyway!). Used it myself for 3 months in 2019 when my work Kangoo died and I was waiting for some pension money to  pay some debts off and buy something else. It then sat on the front for a year, what spoilt it was dent in the bonnet and bumper where my son had ran into the back of a pickup truck. It'd passed several Mots like that, so no problem. Anyway a fellow knocked on the door who bought scrap cars, and settled on 70 quid. He seemed impressed by the condition of the bodywork, and said he'd probably do it up for his wife. I rang him later to say I'd found the spare key and the handbooks etc. but he said not to worry as he'd decided to break it. All very sad,and I felt I'd let it down. This was before I discovered the wonders of AS. 

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15 minutes ago, Dobloseven said:

Made me feel quite sad. In 2013 an old boy down road, in his nineties had a V reg. Fiesta 1.3 Finesse,the facelifted model. He'd owned it since it was almost new and done under 50k miles. I asked how he was, said he was ok, but his car had died. It had broken down, been brought home and the recovery guy told him the timing belt had broken. A quick look under the bonnet revealed the trusty Endura pushrod engine, also a lot of oil, and very little water. The engine seemed to have siezed. I investigated buying a s/h engine and getting a local guy to fit it, but he decided to give up driving and told me to take the car. I'd been looking for a project, ideally something small and VAG, but hey ho. Towed it home, it'd a long Mot and tax. Investigation revealed a catastrophic oil leak from an exploded oil pressure switch, a coolant leak from the core plug inside the bell housing, various hoses silted up,  and a valve seat had fallen out the head. Managed to get the engine freed up, fitted a s/h head, sorted the leaks and got it running nicely. It'd got a new clutch and exhaust fitted very recently. However the sills were very poor, with a lot of patches for past Mot's. I like a no pressure project, so cut the rotten sills off, completely on one side, up to the b pillar on the other. Repaired the inner sills and membrane, bought a full sill for one side, made a repair panel for the other, more for practice than anything. Dressed and filled over all the welds, used that textured stuff and painted over it to give a fair approximation of the factory finish. It then became a family spare car with various offspring borrowing it and one son actually running it for 3 years when his marriage ended and his wife took the car(it was hers anyway!). Used it myself for 3 months in 2019 when my work Kangoo died and I was waiting for some pension money to  pay some debts off and buy something else. It then sat on the front for a year, what spoilt it was dent in the bonnet and bumper where my son had ran into the back of a pickup truck. It'd passed several Mots like that, so no problem. Anyway a fellow knocked on the door who bought scrap cars, and settled on 70 quid. He seemed impressed by the condition of the bodywork, and said he'd probably do it up for his wife. I rang him later to say I'd found the spare key and the handbooks etc. but he said not to worry as he'd decided to break it. All very sad,and I felt I'd let it down. This was before I discovered the wonders of AS. 

You didn't fail it. You extended its life way beyond what 95% of others would have. Much like @Ben_O with the Maziesta, you should be proud of the fact you saved a car which was/will go on to be enjoyed beyond a reasonable sell-by date. 

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  • 9 months later...

Depends how quickly you want to sell it I guess. I'd echo what everyone above says 

If you are happy to wait for someone who specifically wants a Mazda 121 then £1200 or so as above probably isn't unreasonable via eBay/C&C

If you want a quick sale then it will probably just go to someone who doesn't care what banger they have and what the mileage is so £700 is probably more realistic in that instance via FB/Bumtree

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Just remembered, last Friday picking up my holiday reading from the nearby paper shop, (Car Mechanics and Practical Classics),the owner asked me if I knew of a small automatic car for his wife. He said he had a budget of £2k.Best of luck, said I and didn't hold much hope. If I'd got a few more details,and pictures, I could run it past him. He's got a Zafira B, so by no means a car connoisseur. 

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On 4/20/2022 at 8:22 AM, Dobloseven said:

Just remembered, last Friday picking up my holiday reading from the nearby paper shop, (Car Mechanics and Practical Classics),the owner asked me if I knew of a small automatic car for his wife. He said he had a budget of £2k.Best of luck, said I and didn't hold much hope. If I'd got a few more details,and pictures, I could run it past him. He's got a Zafira B, so by no means a car connoisseur. 

It's reasonably presentable  for its age, done only 20 something thousand miles and mechanically very good.

I've remembered that he has hit it again so there is some damage to the back panel directly under the rear lamp on the drivers side and on the tailgate directly above the rear lamp but it doesn't affect anything. Broken rear lamp has been changed.

Mot until October but I'm considering putting a fresh one on as it's sure to pass hamburg only covered probably less than 100 miles since the last one.

I'll get some more pictures of it once I get it over here.

It's located on the Isle if Wight though so unless your guy is prepared to travel?

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6 minutes ago, Dobloseven said:

Yes, the distance might be a problem. What did you say when you found out it had been bumped again? I'm guessing he's giving up driving. 

Pretty disappointed to be honest as it just had to be the side I repaired.

It's the fact that the claim against him from the 3rd party has pushed his premium up sufficiently to make it too expensive for the amount he uses it so he decided to pack in driving.

It's been used once since I repaired it and that was the day he backed into someone...  🙄 

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