Holden up the traffic - a roadtrip

[Torsten2001]

I'm going to have to be honest here but the car looks like a total heap of shit, not even autoshite shit but proper shit, It's the sort of car I'd run a mile from and It's totally beyond me why he decided he wanted to buy it.

 

Each to there own though i guess.

 

I harboured serious & unnatural desires for that car but decided on the A35, sob, sob

[trigger]

Looking at it in the cold light of day i guess it isn't so bad, I still wouldn't fancy it but i might have been a bit over the top on my comments yesterday, A nice coat of paint would work wonders for it, Although the only paint i suspect it will ever see will be a rattle can of matt black.

[flat4alfa]

Is there a Holden in the photo then?

Oh sorry yerrrs I can see it now, the black one

 

Am joking Great save, only even seen one other running HZ Wagon over here in recent years. Bonus that it's got the 308ci - a 350 Chev can go in that hole if it's u/s. I spent a summer driving one of those (well, an HQ with a 202) back and forth Perth <> Dampier on the North Western Highway. With gas shocks it was transformed. A bit. Kipped in it , fished in it. Had column manual shift with 3 speeds if I recall right. Dependable old bus with rock-hard 'Aussie All-Rounder' tyres. On graded roads, dust came in everywhere.

 

All the best for MOT

[Station]

I like that, did you get an MPG estimate on the way back? Good work!

[flat4alfa]

Am probably out of the loop with this, but it was the Pistonheads weekly shedder in December

 

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=22926

[scaryoldcortina]

Part 4 - Day of reckoning...

 

Checked the oil - no water in it, level is fine. Used no water yesterday either, water is still anti-freeze coloured. So I tried to start it....

 

It started fine, ran fine. I went up the street to turn round, clicked into reverse... nothing. Uh-oh! Luckily it was nothing...

The indicator window thingy had slipped, I was in neutral.

So I put it back. The thought occured that maybe I had driven all the way back in second, but no, same gearing as yesterday.

Up to the MoT station (to cries of "what on earth is that") and a busy day full of tests but I found time to get it into the bay and have a good look over even though I didn't run a test on it.

Underside is all good, brakes all work fine, lights are legal. The exhaust has some small holes and previous bodge repairs, but they are just advisorys. The windscreen wipers are a bit rubbish, and there is a small amount of play in the OSF top balljoint, so it wasn't looking too bad.

 

Except...

Rear lower quarters both sides are falling apart. This is both raggy and sharp (a fail) and within the prescribed area for the towbar mounts (also a fail) But it's the only test welding that needs doing!

 

This is not to say that there isn't plenty of other stuff to fix... the doors are all rotten both in the shuts

and along the bottoms

(covered with black gaffa tape)

and this area of the NS roof looks very crumbly indeed (I didn't prod)

Front valence is also holed around the mounting bolts, but it's all routine stuff on flat or single-curve panels so I'd call this car saveable.

 

Also, I used the MoT emmission machine to "sniff" for CO and HC in the header tank to check on the mystery overheating. No sign of combustion products in there, phew. So I used the temp probe to check the coolant temperature - Gauge on half, water is at 55C (should be closer to 80) so I now strongly suspect that the problem is actually the gauge and not the engine. Hopefully, refitting the stat will make the heater work.

 

On the way home, I went to ASDA...

Volvo estate in "not that big" shock!

 

Also, a guy in the carpark asked me if it was the car from pistonheads shed of the week....

[RoadworkUK]

That thing is, sort of, magnificent.

 

I think.

[autofive]

so you keeping it then?

seen as he cant insurance

[scaryoldcortina]

I'm "minding" it while he sorts out his insurance.

[skattrd]

Good on you SOC for getting the car and looking after it for him.

 

Will you be taking PS's Delica in payment for your troubles

[eddyramrod]

You know what? I'd have had that in a heartbeat if I was still there. It's EXACTLY the kind of shite station wagon I would have used as a daily for ever and ever. Tough enough to take all kinds of abuse, big enough to be unloved by the general population, and when you have a proper engine ahead of you, who needs a stereo? Fucking marvellous, and I hope we hear tales of it for a long time to come.

[CIH]

SC looks like you've taken PS under your wing there!

Car looks alright. 'bit too far gone for me but I'm a shitbag so not to worry.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

It's not my cup of tea - twice as wide as it should be, and three times as long. But it did look pretty sweet in that shot outside your house.

[Pete-M]

Nnnnngh. When's he getting shut?

[wackywacerwill]

Prognosis sounds promising then, hopefully on the road for a few more years yet. I need a hunking great v8 in my life (and access to someone else's fuel card )

[flat4alfa]

On the way home, I went to ASDA...

Volvo estate in "not that big" shock!

 

Does look it but In order of lardiness (L,W in metres):

 

V70: 4.709, 1.803

Passat: 4.774, 1.820

Kingswood: 4.826, 1.877

Mondeo: 4.830, 1.886 <-- wot a pie eater.

 

* the excitement was too much. lies down *

[RoadworkUK]

Anorakishly, I find it fascinating that old stuff like this looks absolutely mahoosive simply because its proportions and shape are from another era. Go into a carpark with a metre-rule (as you do) and hold it up to a few motors and you'll find that loads of front ends are almost semi-circular in overhead plan view. It's all visual trickery that hides the colossal girth that most moderns are sadly saddled with.

 

Take a MK2 Granny, barely a curve on the car, 14" wheels but absolutely perfect, delicate proportions. It still looks a big car, but is positively dwarfed next to a current Mondeo.

 

[pretentious design graduate mode off]

[wuvvum]

Interestingly, when I parked the 166 (the nearest thing I own to a modern) next to the Saab 900, I was surprised to find that the Saab is noticeably longer - it doesn't look it. Alfa is much wider though.

[RoadworkUK]

Interestingly, when I parked the 166 (the nearest thing I own to a modern) next to the Saab 900, I was surprised to find that the Saab is noticeably longer - it doesn't look it. Alfa is much wider though.

 

I never thought of the 166 as being a wide car. We live in strange times.

[eddyramrod]

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but... soon after I bought my Mk1 Capri out here I parked it next to a new Focus rental car. Now the Capri grew from the Cortina, and is 14 ft long, so I tend to think of it as a relatively big car. The Focus, on the other hand, grew from the Escort, which of course was the model below the Cortina for many years. I couldn't believe how slim and delicate the Capri looked, and how bloated the Focus was by comparison.

[Claypole]

Saloon against a small hatchback:

 

 

Lardy arsed Polo.

[chaseracer]

Lardy arsed Polo.

Amazing how much bigger it is than the Jag...