Marshalls shite, recovering citroen enthusiast and now featuring a reasonably priced Lacetti

[Marshall2810]

Having had a nice and much needed break from citroens I've been enjoying little pez and dez cars. The low mileage matiz sailed straight through it's MOT with only the rear brake needing to be freed off and kindly rehomed by @chris667

The free raffle fabia did a ton of miles, many tip runs and was unbelievable fun. Sadly the instrument cluster gave up  and i was getting all sorts of warning lights which wern't. When the fuel gague finally went whilst having no LCD screen to track mileage it was time for it to go. I took the wheels off and it's now got good tyres all round at least. The steering rack has a weep and I wasn't about to get into recoding new clocks for a free car so it'll soldier on locally. 

So for the first time in 25+ years and only for a few hours, I was without a vehicle of any kind which was a wierd feeling.

This came up not too far away on scumtree...

After a few questions, I offered him £350 and to my surprise he said come on down....

So down to Long Eaton we went to pick up the bonnie little thing

So it's a Seat Arosa 1.4 TDI thing.  

Only done 263k and currently works. 

£35 tax, many mpgs and mot till end Nov.  

looks like it's onto it's 3rd or 4th timing belt, has a load of history and even a spare key

Needs a few service items and has a rumbly wheel bearing but other than that seems to go alright. 

Oh yeah and a tidy up/new wing 

Pez or rather dez shot....

Inside isnt too bad either...

Smoll parcel shelf

Mega tunes potential here too and I thought my max power years were behind me 

[loserone]

Woah is the amp still there? That means no spare I'm guessing?

[Marshall2810]

1 minute ago, loserone said:

Woah is the amp still there? That means no spare I'm guessing?

Spare present, and its now got a working radio. Amp was donated to @grogee 

[loserone]

That's much better (loving the taped repair too)

[Marshall2810]

Not been doing much shite wise recently, mainly because the 107 I found has been so well behaved and cheap. 

A couple of weekends ago I went down to see @Imhotep to pick up some wheels he didn't want or have room for. I thought its got to be worth a look and Birmingham wasn't too far away. After leaving him with some beer and admiring his project AX GT I got the rather mullered and kerbed  but free wheels home.

 

All four bizarrely were kerbed badly and one had been damaged with an air gun getting one off. 

Set about sanding then down and freshened up

pretty pleased with the results

So the last few weekends antics gave me enough dough to reinvest in more shite, namely in Korean flavour.

No one seemed to want it and sometimes annoyingly, I tend to feel sorry for cars down on their luck like this one. Needless to say it was very very reasonably priced (ta da) but it needed to be and aiming to get it back for around scrap to give it a chance. 

So on the bus to Notts I went and got on my first train of the day, weirdly quiet for a Monday morning

Doggo loves travelling, just as well cos it was a good all dayer!

Pickup was a doddle and @Dan29 was really helpful and accommodating. 

Interior pez shot at recommended Morrisons pre setting off

It must be 18+ years since I last enjoyed* the delights of J16 of the M4 at rush hour, it doesn't get any better.

After a quick stop off at Swindon and moody pic with the light dying I headed for home.

 

[Marshall2810]

Overall very impressed, it drove back the 170 miles no bother at all and feels really solid. Expectations wern't high for a less than scrap price car and I'm used to my tinny (but fantastic) 107. 

In the light of day I set about giving it a bit of a wash and maybe have a look underneath 

First impressions are its a lot bigger than I expected. It reminds me very much of an aldi price subaru legacy?

I can treat her to a new rear wiper for buttons if she plays ball. The ones on front are new bosch which is nice.

Gave it a good going over in all the hard to reach places and added the ultimate accessory courtesy of @UltraWomble

Had a look underneath the bonnet and it has oil, not as black as it could be which is a bonus. Oil and filter change will follow if it works out but could definitely be worse.

Its also got a nice bit of service history from its early days, plus a timing belt change albeit 5 years ago at least it isn't the original.  The 10 years between recorded oil changes is not so good, I'm sure it was done.....maybe

This prompted me to liberally ejaculate white grease over all the door hinges and stays. The rear doors were especially stiff but now much improved.

Right so now underneath.....hmm

Well I've seen pictures but there's no substitute for checking it out in the metal (or wob) so to speak.

Here goes

OSF bolt on wing panel has a hole and is probably the worst bit cosmetically. I'm not sure on the MOT rules if a bolt on panel being holed would fail and whether its exempt not being "structural" or what but I'll see. 

OSR inner side sill seam has a hole and will need fettling

NSR outer sill has a hole in a previous repair section which needs a sorting

NSF is wierdly very good and solid

Here's a pic of the seals....

Sorry, I mean sills

Both seem and look very solid, obviously been done to a standard at some point long ago but definitely seen worse. 

As with all rust once you start digging it'll probably turn out ten times as bad. We should get it on a ramp tomorrow for a better look and see what we find. 

Keep watching!

[beko1987]

Of all the jobs the front wing should be fine with wob and not much else to hide the hole for an mot?

Good luck! Good to see it saved

[Marshall2810]

Had a productive couple of hours up at Paul's in Retford who managed to sort the welding bits out on the Lacetti. 

Not pretty but hopefully good enough and certainly stronger than it was. Patching the front wing was easy enough so did that too. Gobbed on a load of seam sealer and sprayed it with primer when I got home to tidy it up a smidge. 

Retest booked in so see how that goes

[IronStar]

We had a Lacetti sedan as a company car 12(?) years ago, came from the company that was acquired. Our company were absolute tightwads when it came to cars, with a fleet of 9n Polos and mk1 Fabias, later replaced by Skoda Rapids.

It felt like a much nicer car than either of those, had lots of toys inside despite being low-spec, and plush seats were superbly comfortable. Plastic quality left a lot to be desired, but it felt solid, just cheap. Last time I saw it when I left the company, it had a major oil leak no one cared enough to look into or drive to a shop, so I don’t think it was long for this world.

Happy to see this one saved.

[Marshall2810]

What a result!

So picked up Monday, Welded up yesterday and MOT'd today. 

It needs a new rocker cover gasket and there's a tiny amount of play in the track rod end but I'll take it. 

Really pleased it's all worked out and could do it as I know some members on here wanted to but just couldn't time/space wise. 

[dave j]

Nice one! Nice to see it saved

[N Dentressangle]

Wow - really nice work! Well done. Worth £50 now? 

[High Jetter]

Sir Speedy! (Remember them?)