My life in cars - XR3i & MK2 Escort Ghia Double the Escorts, Double the pussy

[trigger]

So after all that drama i was put right off using a old car as a daily anymore and my mum was selling her mint condition low mileage Fiesta 1.4TDi Zetec so i bought that of her instead.

Brilliant little cars, and mega cheap to run.

in 2016 I was at a local custom and hot rod show and saw this 1971 Rover 2000 (with a 2.2 engine fitted) for sale for £2500 so decided it was time to scratch that P6 itch.

I really enjoyed this car, it drove far newer than it was, handled well even if it did have comedical body roll, pulled well, it had a stainless exhaust so sounded nice and was comfortable 

Sadly i found that it was a bit of a ringer, the main body started life as a completely different car and HRT3J's panels and ID was swapped over, quite common on P6's apparently but i didn't like it so i sold it back on again to someone who removed the plate and rang me to say it done 90 mph all the way up to Stoke on Trent...

around the same time i got offered this Rover 620Ti for £400 which had been off the road a few years as a project to do.

Again i chucked some money and time at it and it turned out well, it was a bloody quick car, I'm amazed these haven't got more of a following as it's a proper Q car and great fun.

That ended up selling on here to JohnF.

Whilst I was having a Rover phase i bought this 2600 SE from a local garage for £3000

Now this was a nice car, i had a few rust repairs to do, cambelt change and few other little jobs but the best thing i fitted was a stainless rear box from Rimmers, the sound from that 6 cylinder was beautiful!

[trigger]

Next up was one of my biggest projects, this 1984 Morris Ital 575 Van, my same friend who i got the Sierra off rang me to say the barn the van was in was being sold and it needed to go, did i want to buy it?. I'd known the van since 1994 when i used to work with my friend and it been of the road since 1993 and in the barn since around 1999...

I went down and we got it started quite easily and i agreed on £800 and he delivered it on the same day as the Dolomite went.

what followed was two months of working in the garage getting favours of friends and my dad in getting it back on the road again.

I won't bore you too much as there be a thread on here with more info on it

I took it to Devon for the Morris Marina Nationals in 2018, over 700 miles and the van was faultless, me on the other hand was a broken man, sitting in a traffic jam on the A303 outside Stonehenge on a hot summers day was worse than torture! and the low ratio rear diff where it screamed it bollocks out at 60 mph was the tipping point, so i ended up selling it to a Marina club member

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, trigger said:

This made a quick appearance in 2013, a workmate needed to sell it quick and offered it to me for £250, he dropped it off on the Friday, i spent the next couple of days polishing it to a inch of it's life, fixed a couple of things and sold it to another friend for £500 on the Sunday

the Mondeo ST also got traded in for this grey Focus which was a utter piece of unreliable crap, i don't get on with grey Focus's.

but back to shite in 2013 whilst on ebay i saw this 1976 Honda Civic locally to me and decided it was worth a look, i went to the owners house and this is how it looked.

He had inherited it of his auntie but only wanted the number plate, we agreed on £1000 for it and i took it home.

I spent months going right through the car, had the rusty bits repaired and polished it up, it was a lovely car, miles ahead of anything we built in the UK at the time, the engine was nippy and fairly refined, i like my BL stuff but god knows why you would buy a Allegro over one of these but Japanese cars weren't so popular back then

I then got asked to display it on behalf of Honda at the BTCC at Brands Hatch in 2014 and got to meet these too

This was one of them cars that if i had a massive barn and loads of money I'd still have it now

Uh oh... Never mind the Acclaim & SD1, an accident. Awesome thread, and a lot that coincides with my (lesser) experiences. 

[wuvvum]

I remember driving that Ital van at Shotley, I couldn't believe how old fashioned it felt for a 1984 motor and I think the low gearing (and transmission noise) was a big part of it - it almost felt Morris Minorish.

[Dan302]

Absolutely loving this thread!

[Essex V6]

10 hours ago, trigger said:

This made a quick appearance in 2013, a workmate needed to sell it quick and offered it to me for £250, he dropped it off on the Friday, i spent the next couple of days polishing it to a inch of it's life, fixed a couple of things and sold it to another friend for £500 on the Sunday

the Mondeo ST also got traded in for this grey Focus which was a utter piece of unreliable crap, i don't get on with grey Focus's.

but back to shite in 2013 whilst on ebay i saw this 1976 Honda Civic locally to me and decided it was worth a look, i went to the owners house and this is how it looked.

He had inherited it of his auntie but only wanted the number plate, we agreed on £1000 for it and i took it home.

I spent months going right through the car, had the rusty bits repaired and polished it up, it was a lovely car, miles ahead of anything we built in the UK at the time, the engine was nippy and fairly refined, i like my BL stuff but god knows why you would buy a Allegro over one of these but Japanese cars weren't so popular back then

I then got asked to display it on behalf of Honda at the BTCC at Brands Hatch in 2014 and got to meet these too

This was one of them cars that if i had a massive barn and loads of money I'd still have it now

 

[Essex V6]

I picked this wee beauty up last weekend

[Essex V6]

Trigger - thanks for putting the effort into this - prime Autoshite thread this - absolutely superb. The stuff you have owned is way more interesting to me than Ferraris, Lambos etc.

[trigger]

Thank you, I appreciate that! I was hoping to finish this thread last night as I'm away for a few days now but I ran out of time, I'll add the next several cars later in the week 😊

[skoda_fan]

+1 here for a massive thanks Trigger for this thread and the time and effort involved. Far more interesting than anything on the tele! I too felt sick looking at what happened to the Astra, especially after you'd made it so nice, but well done for moving on and continuing to save some great cars. Not many would have taken the time and effort to save that Ital van, and with such fantastic results.  I admire your skill and perseverance.

[rob88h]

9 hours ago, trigger said:

 

Feel for you there. I found it’s more than just the loss of the car too, it’s a loss of faith in people and insurance didn’t seem fit for purpose with any thought of a similar replacement for the payout was a joke.   

Mind you, shite life is full of ups and downs by nature.

Thanks for this thread; I love this kind of stuff. I’m weirdly fascinated by peoples car history.  I think what people drive can shape their character and display quite a bit of personality. 

[Jon]

Hey @trigger, as an afflicted period correct number plate pedant, can I thank you for your services to shite.

And despite being reading on here 14 or 15 years(!), I'd forgotten quite how many excellent old crocks you'd owned! So it's definitely a much appreciated use of your time.

No idea why but one abiding memory was you writing about some time waster checking the history of your Opel, who queried a missed service from 1979 or something and didn't end up buying it on that basis.

[trigger]

15 minutes ago, Jon said:

 @triggerNo idea why but one abiding memory was you writing about some time waster checking the history of your Opel, who queried a missed service from 1979 or something and didn't end up buying it on that basis.

Thank you! Ha! Yeah that did happen on the Opel, he drove the car and really liked it and when going though the service book he was unimpressed that it wasn't stamped for one year 40 odd years before and on that basis he decided not to buy it! 😂

[ProgRocker]

I think I pointed @trigger in the direct of the white 1976 Honda Civic when I posted a link of it on here in the eBay tat thread.  It was in Suffolk too, so win win.

[Saabnut]

Brilliant thread, looking forward to more!

[loserone]

13 hours ago, trigger said:

Cupra with a boot

That was me, it was a great car and brought my eldest home from hospital.

 

I swapped it with @Jim Bell for a Suzuki Alto, he sold it to @JohnK who I seem to recall killed it 

[Timewaster]

Thanks @trigger I remember reading about most of these at the time. 

I had forgotten one or two.

Very impressive amounts of work went into some of these, and the results always look great.

On the downside, you do make me look really, really lazy.

[captain_70s]

Fantastic thread.

Makes me realise I was about 5 years late to the party. Some really nice cars there bought at a quarter of what they're worth now!

[Jenson Velcro]

18 hours ago, trigger said:

Thanks, I'm just glad someones reading it as it's taking hours!  

Another one enjoying reading the thread. Some great cars and memories 

[Split_Pin]

Thanks for taking the time to create this thread, I have really enjoyed it so far. The blue MK3 Cortina is the car I always associate with you and as you say you owned it for 4 years I can now see why. 

I forgot about the Ital Van, it looked marvellous.

Some of the prices make me sad I missed the boat (£500 for a pristine MK3 Escort and so on) but I guess around 2010 or so my life circumstances did not allow it.

Looking forward to further updates.

[CrapCarNerd]

On 2/11/2023 at 9:07 PM, trigger said:

Next up in 2011 was this 1984 Ford Escort 1.3L, i was at a car show in Clacton when i saw it with a sign simply saying "For Sale" in the window.

I asked the owner how much he was after and he said he'd be happy with £500 for it, the car was near immaculate and only done 40000 miles, I took it for a run around the field.

and decided I'd be a right plum not to buy it so the deal was done at it because car number 31

I sold the blue Escort and Mrs Trig used it for a while but realistically it wasn't as nice to drive as the blue one and after hearing Mrs T moan about the clutch a millionth time i decided to sell the car on, I think i got £800 for it and it went off to Ireland

 

 

 

 

I remember when you bought this on RetroRides and followed it with real excitement! I'd really wanted a Red 1.3 mk3 Escort for years especially in 3 door form. This one was such a bargain at £500 and looked great in Sunburst Red. Did it survive do you know? I paid 3 times that for mine in 2013.

 

[Spottedlaurel]

An enjoyable trip down memory lane Trig! Quite a few I've seen, some I've even had the pleasure of driving, others I'd forgotten about or never caught up with.

The blue Escort Mk4 was a decent thing, owned by a very nice older lady from new, and I'm still a bit sad I never got to have it myself for a while but I was unexpectedly offered a Camry V6.

Can't believe it's already seven years ago since you had the Dolomite down at that amusing midwinter meet-up in Essex:

 

[trigger]

Funnily enough I was talking about that meet up with someone the other day and the travellers horse racing in the A127, that was a odd experience! 

[Joey spud]

20 hours ago, trigger said:

Funnily enough I was talking about that meet up with someone the other day and the travellers horse racing in the A127, that was a odd experience! 

I think I was at this meet with my red Brat and along with the Donkey Derby also recall there were strange characters loitering in the lane up the side of the Halfway house too.

[trigger]

Your right, it turned out to be a well known dogging site! 🤣

[RoadworkUK]

Flipping excellent fred, Trig. Making me feel like a colossal underachiever.

And I've not been anywhere near that bit of Essex since the Halfway House meet. There should be another one, but I suppose it couldn't possibly be quite the same a second time.

[rob88h]

1 hour ago, RoadworkUK said:

And I've not been anywhere near that bit of Essex since the Halfway House meet. There should be another one, but I suppose it couldn't possibly be quite the same a second time.

If there is, let me know, I’m not far away.
I think at the top of the dogging street is a cottaging spot. 
Edit: those statements aren’t linked!

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, rob88h said:

If there is, let me know, I’m not far away.
I think at the top of the dogging street is a cottaging spot. 
Edit: those statements aren’t linked!

They are now 🤣

[trigger]

I'm back from my holidays now so can carry on with updating this thread, car number 54 was in 2018 and very short lived, a girl at work posted on facebook that she was selling her Mazda MX5 for £650, i thought it was a pretty good price, I'd keep it a few months, clean it up, have some fun and punt it on in the summer for a few quid more.

Now for some reason i thought it was actually nicer than it was when i'd seen it in the works car park so i told her if she dropped it to me I'd have it and I'd run her back, well the car arrived and it quick dawned on me that it was a bit of a shitter...

I stuck to my word though and still bought it, going round the car it was a rotten as a turd, needed new tyres, ran like shit, roof fucked and generally very tired and would need a lot of welding for the next mot, bugger, thankfully a MX5 breakers around the corner from me offered what i paid for it so by the next day it was gone and i got to keep the stereo that was in it for my troubles. 

Next was another Focus, I had a second child and getting them both in the back of the Fiesta (we also have a Grand Cmax as a main car by this stage so it's only a second car) was proving to be a pain, literally to my back, so needed a 5 door, i sold the Fiesta and found this 2006 Focus 1.6 Zetec in Norfolk

It looks nice enough, drove nice, i actually think this generation of Focus is a well made, solid car but not with the 1.6 zetec engine, it was heavy on fuel and the variable valve timing on mine would rattle on start up and sounded a right bastard so i ended up selling it later in the year...

[trigger]

I was at a car show in the Ital van in 2018 when someone came over saying they had a old Marina in their barn they wanted to sell and would i be interested, obviously i was so a few days later i went to view it.

Now i know I've got a thread about this car 

 

so i won't go into too much detail about it but basically it had been of the road since 1981 only done 26000 miles and the owner wanted £1000 to see the back of it after he had nearly cut 3 fingers off whilst working on it 7 years before removing the fuel tank.

I had a lot of enjoyment with the car, the condition was outstanding and it really drove well, regardless what the naysayers say, I done 700 miles to Wales and back in it without fault and 300 miles round trip to the Festival of the Unexceptional in 2019 where i was amazed to be voted car of the show!

In 2020 lockdown started and i fancied a new car to play with and i couldn't take my children out in the car as it had no rear seat belts and no easy way to fit them so i ended up selling it for £3500 to a Marina Club Member, i do regret that decision but hey ho, life goes on.