Bargain hunting the Autoshite way.

[Cavcraft]

I should probably put this in 'News 24' but I'm extra specially chuffed with a little touch I had today. My lad said he wanted a car to buy and do up then knock on for a few quid as a project.

Enter eBaY stage left and 'cars and vehicles within ten miles'. Spotted this with no pictures, a piss poor description and a reserve. It'd been bid up to £104 or something like that, reserve not met and was unlikely to ever achieve much dosh. Mailed the seller yesterday, got his 'phone number then prayed it wouldn't hit whatever reserve he'd put onto it. The advert merely said something like the make and model and the fact it didn't run as the fuel pump was knack'd.

 

Anyhow happy days it ended (still at around £104) reserve not met so we belled the owner this afternoon and asked if we could come and look. He'd told me yesterday he wanted £150 for it so we figured we'd go and look at it and take it from there.

So went to see it this afternoon, expected some incredibly hideous heap that would need a dustpand brush to take it away and for it to be riddled with problems.

We pulled up outside, had a look round and it was way better than expected. Owner was there waiting for us, he'd shoved some fuel down the carb to show it would fire it and it ran for about 2.1189 seconds then died. No problem, not too arsed as it ran and looked half decent. Asked for his bottom dollar price, he said he'd get £120 scrap (which I don't think he would have to be honest) but said we could have it for a hundred quid. Happy days, got my lad to get his money out and he'd only brought (bought?) £80 with him. No bother we had to go back home to borrow a mate and get my towing pole. Bloke then says 'no worries, £80 is fine' so a good job made better.

Goes home, tows it back, seller had said fuel pump was knack'd so we whizzed it off, played round with it (it's a mechanical one) and then noticed he'd put the pipes on the wrong way round after he'd toyed with it. Pipes back on the correct way, 2nd turn of the key and up she fires sounding sweet as a nut. Banged down to Halfords to get some jubilee clips for the fuel lines, whanged 'em on and good to go. Quick test drive (did I mention it's MOT'd for a montha nd has tax for two months?) reveals all is exceptionally well in all mechanical departments. Tyres all good (except shagged spare) brakes good, engine and gearbox good. Wheelarches, sills and rear quarters all in place too.

 

So here it is after we'd dragged it back.

Pre-clean up...

 

Check out the inner wings...

 

Mid clean up...

 

 

 

When done...

 

 

Known faults are some surface rust (but really not too bad at all), tailgate's been sprayed at some point in the past, door mirror broken, the usual comedy driver's door lock syndrome and the temp gauge doesn't seem to work, so hopefully just the sender 'thing'. Even the underneath looks pretty solid and the seller reckons the mileage of 50,000 is genuine. Trying to persaude my lad to keep it and learn to drive in as the insurance should be cheap and hopefully he'll do just that.

Tell you what, best eighty quid I've spent in ages!

[Parky]

£80 ????? Christ man, I spent more than that in Sainsburys yesterday. What a top result, looks like its cleaned up nicely too. Well done!

[dollywobbler]

Nice one! Who said there's no such thing as a cheap car? Proper shite Popular spec too. Funnily enough, the temp gauge in my Mk2 Popular never worked either...

 

Looks really rather tidy bar the missing mirror and odd touch of surface rot.

[boobydoo]

You've T-cutted that to within an inch of its life aint ya!! What a difference!

 

Wedgewood Blue.... quite a popular colour at the time on basic Fiestas and Escorts. Always thought those ones had a nice, well designed dash, too.

[Lord Sterling]

Great stuff. What a bargain. Got a soft spot for mk3 Fiestas as my Mum had a G-reg Popuar-Plus in 'Radiant Red'. Yours looks proper shite minge-bag spec, not even a rear wiper to behold.

[Station]

That's excellent, I love the colour. The mk3 is the best Fiesta ever, I never lifted the bonnet on my 1.1 in one year's of ownership!

What are his plans for it, I take it it's not going to remain like that, being a youngster?

[Cavcraft]

To his credit he's not interested in neons, bodykits, shopping lists and shit like that. He's on about flogging it to save for his dream car (I'd tell you what that is but I'd get crucified on here ) but hoping to persaude him to keep it.

[Rusty Pelican]

Cant beat that for £80 , Top buy , I recon a new front number plate would finish that off lovely as it looks a bit cracked ,

Perfect purchase

[HillmanImp]

Looks like a right deal. Not a fan of them myself, have spent many an hour welding up the rear arches and rear quarter sills on them but for that cash who cares? And you have got a solid one for sod all.

[Angrydicky]

3DR GR8 SHELL GR8 FOR RS TURBO REPLICA ETC

 

Nice work Cavette, love these low-spec MK3's. Does it still have the manual choke and non-airbag steering wheel on a K reg?

 

As HI says they can rust though, badly, so if you're intending to keep it long term it'll be worth rustproofing the sills and arches. Has it been welded before? Looks very straight.

[Cavcraft]

4 on the floor, no power steering, manual choke GR9.19 4 MINGEBAGS. Couldn't see any signs of previous welding or any that wants doing but he's going to get it into work next weekend and put it on the ramps.

[ProgRocker]

Proper Autoshite bargain!

 

Top buy , I recon a new front number plate would finish that off lovely as it looks a bit cracked ,

 

Agreed. I'd be keen to replace the driver's wing mirror too and that would look as good as new.

[Negative Creep]

Wow a mk.3 without rust around the filler cap is a very rare thing. In fact the mk.3 is getting pretty thin on the ground now; up until recently they were everywhere. To be honest they're dismal to drive but hey it's £80 were talking about here which is an absolute bargain

 

 

 

 

he'd only brought (bought?) £80 with him

 

 

Brought

[Angrydicky]

Oh yeah and get some security on it as well, these things are like a magnet to joyriders.

[Station]

Get some engine oil rubbed on the bumpers and it'll look AMAZIN.

[Lankytim]

I was lying in bed the other day thinking how all these bog spec Mk3's have dried up. What a top buy!

[retrogeezer]

Top work Billy & Billy Jr!

 

As already said, new set of those cheap number plates off ebay (£7.50?) and some Teak oil from wilkos (£2.50) for the black stuff and it will look even better.

[retrogeezer]

double post laptop madness!

[Cavcraft]

Ta.

 

Bumpers are not too bad as it goes AND there's a very abandoned 'G' plate one in someone's drive about 150 yards from our gaffe. Might go on the knock tomorrow, nothing ventured and all that.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

NICE WORK CAVETTE!!! Looks very unmessed-with, a nice thing to look at. Get some whale blubber squished into those bumpers at once!!!

[mk2_craig]

Top buy, they obviously boosted the spec a bit by K-plate seeing as it has a passenger side mirror. Which was optional on the first F-reg mk3 Populars!

 

As was a radio. Does this one have a DIN sized blanking tray where the stereo should be?

[Lankytim]

If you want to completely mong this Fezza up theres a dead XR2i up the road from me you could pilfer parts from.

[Richard]

I think the passenger door mirror was a legal requirement by then.

[Cavcraft]

Top buy, they obviously boosted the spec a bit by K-plate seeing as it has a passenger side mirror. Which was optional on the first F-reg mk3 Populars!

 

As was a radio. Does this one have a DIN sized blanking tray where the stereo should be?

 

It's got a (Ford) radio cassette fitted, no idea if it's the priginal but quite possibly a dealer option job.

 

Tim: cheers but prefer to keep it standard, I reckon pissing about making it look more snazzy would ruin it's appeal.