The Purple Peril and other dreadful cars I need to fix

[catsinthewelder]

I just won the Purple Austin 1100 from the Ebay tat thread. I saw it there while under the influence of a little too much cider and dropped it into the watch list. SWMBO saw it there and fell in love with its green interior and purple coachwork. Apparently the other mums on the school run have been dropping hints about BX being a bit old, so she wants to piss them off.

The faintly logical excuse for buying it is that we can keep it on the road all year round as a second car and have either the VW or BX on Sorn. The saving on tax might pay for the insurance.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 1498wt_932

Just got to pay for it and get it home, we have a tow pole and a Bx diesel if all else fails though I'm hoping to negotiate an MOT with the seller.

I also now imagine that my motorbike is for sale again. Anyone after a 125cc project bike? Its a Yamaha SR engine in a Ducati style trellis frame with apparently Ducati style (broken) electrics. Dirt cheap ono

[Des]

I bought my missus an identical one, only it's white with black interior, and auto. I used it a lot more than she did and ended up considering it my car that I would lend her under duress, very handy fun little things around town, poor things been sitting in a garage now for years, I started some piddling little job on it and fell ill, must dig it out soon.

[trigger]

Your misses sounds great Cats! I hope the engine really smokes so she can leave little Jonny and his snotty mother covered in fumes as she pulls away from the school.

[Cavcraft]

Listing says it's taxed/tested and a good runner. Get the train there and drive it back!

[catsinthewelder]

I've been really dense here. I completely missed that it was still MOTed after reading that he would put a new test on if it reached £750

 

 

He's messaged back that he got the dates wrong, its tested until November.

 

Family outing to Nottingham on Saturday then

[mnde]

That is brilliant Cats!! Seeing the pictures has brightened up my morning

 

Mark.

[Cavcraft]

That's amde a good situation even better then Cats, longer MOT is a right old bonus.

[HillmanImp]

Thats cool as milk. Great price too. Hopefully it will all go swimmingly. Good luck.

[flat4alfa]

He's messaged back that he got the dates wrong, its tested until November.

Double-bargain!

[dollywobbler]

Nice one! Looks corking value and a stunning colour. I really like the two-doors as well. Look forward to reading the collection story!

[michiel]

Purple and green... mad. Great purchase!

[theorganist]

That looks great, what a funky colour. They are really fun cars to drive and always turn heads, definately want to get another myself one day.

[tonedepear]

That's ace!

[The Moog]

I think that my missus would like that as well

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Purple and green... mad. Great purchase!

 

Purple paint, green seats and a harvest gold engine bay. It's what Joseph would take his coat to the cleaners in.

 

Love the look of 1100s, and the two doors are even better. A+ PURCHASE.

[myglaren]

Great purchase that, should give the BX haters something to sniff about

 

What an excellent ebay ad too. I reckon he would fit right in here.

 

[Off Topic -ish]

Cost less than my dad paid for a brand new Morris 1100 the day they were released (£999). He worked for the company that owned the dealership and got first dibs on it .

 

Never saw it's second birthday though. I'm afraid that I tangled with a Morris Oxford and wrote it off.

Did try and find the registration - 302CVN - but it seems to be long gone.

The number was coincidentally significant as my dad worked in 302 building at Fylingdales BMEWS not long after he bought it.[/OT]

 

Anyway, hope it lives up to your expectations and you and your wife both enjoy it. Bugger the rest of them.

[jakebullet]

Pretend to break down outside the school directly in front of the entrance. Ask yummy mummies to help you push. Have a man hiding in a nearby bush, Beadle style.

[catsinthewelder]

Thanks for all the nice comments guys.

 

We've just got back, it runs like a dream and I have fallen in love with the handling

 

I'm properly knackered though, so proper write up tomorrow

[KruJoe]

I'm looking forward to that! I have a soft spot for these, and this one looks ace!

Your missus is a true shite heroine if ever there was one. Good work.

[catsinthewelder]

Right then

 

We set off not quite as early as intended on Saturday morning, my organisational skills were on their usual par and I'd forgotten to go to the bank on Friday. As Saturday opening has not reached Ludlow's banks a swift belt round all the large shops getting cashback on bags of crisps etc was in order before we could set off.

 

The journey across was fairly uneventful, the AA's directions were very good so despite a few panics we didn't actually get lost. The BX is great on the motorway once you're up to speed it'll happily sit at 80 sipping fuel compared to anything else its size. The rev counter is being a bit odd though, randomly over-reading which did give me some concern about the clutch. Does it at idle too though so probably just gallic charm

 

Got to the sellers house only a few minutes late, nice guy in his thirties. Took me for a test drive round the block, slightly worrying brakes and gearshift after the BX but it is 39 years old. The speedo is also u/s, apparently snapped its old cable quite some time ago. He'd been driving round quite happily without it but had tried to fix it that morning without success. No worries, hand over cash and call insurance company to start policy that I sorted out online which of course took about 15 mins as they had based their quote on a 62-68 mk1 1100

 

So we set off in convoy with me leading, my 4 year old daughter strapped into the front passenger seat as company and to keep the noise down in the other car. After about 10 minutes I was lost. Being a tit I ran an amber light while Imojen rightfully stopped in the BX. I pulled into a bus stop to wait and started to fiddle with the vent controls to try and get some cold air. Not much happened so I looked back to watch for the BX, "whats all that smoke for daddy?" ARSE, Ignition off explain to the now arrived Citroen driver that I may be some time setting off. Think logically, what caused it? Probably moving metal levers. Ignition back on, that's the cause, main positive lead resting on metal lever and getting hot. Tease wire out the way, no more smoke, excellent. Engine on off we go or rather off we don't as 3 buses tried to get into a bus stop that was full of old cars

 

So once the public service vehicles and their tutting drivers had departed we were off again, after about 30 minutes we found our way out of Nottingham and started following signs for Birmingham. I'd been worrying about it being hard work on the Motorway but it seemed fine, no idea how fast I was going so aimed at being overtaken by everything but not going that much slower than it. A beige B reg Jetta slowly overtook with thumbs up from the young guys that were driving, followed him in a proper shite convoy for a couple of miles with the BX behind but had left my camera in the Citroen.

 

As arranged I turned off the motorway and followed the signs to the Battle of Bosworth battlefield. SWMBO likes her history and wanted to visit. Country lanes are fun in the 1100 As we went through Market Bosworth itself I spotted something a bit special, more on that later.

 

Visitor centre car park

 

 

Nice look round but we were all feeling tired and hungry so went back to Market Bosworth for a bar meal. The smallest child was acting up so I took her out for a walk. I was rather pleased to see that the car I saw earlier hadn't moved so I nipped back to the Citroen for the camera.

 

 

 

Now I'm not much of a GM fan but that was nice too see

 

From Market Bosworth we ended up heading south down some very enjoyable country lanes then taking the A5 across to Tamworth and re-joining the M42. I now had the camera in my possession but typically there was nothing much to point it at so

 

 

Back in enjoyable if uneventful style through Kidderminster and over Clee hill and back home

 

[coalnotdole]

Thats brilliant, are you going to change the colour?

[Albert Ross]

It's a fair way from home now.... I'm amazed it hasn't dissolved from the sea air!

[catsinthewelder]

cnd

 

No it's staying purple, look at the dub we like bright

 

Albert

 

Where's it from then? The survival might be to do with the thick layer of underseal that it was covered in when the previous owner got it

[Cavcraft]

Class, enjoyed reading that. Don't worry about it not seeming as good as the BX in the braking and gearchange department, very few cars can match or beat a BX for that.

[Shep Shepherd]

It looks delightfully odd painted purple with green seats. I'm surprised that BL never offered such a paint/trim combo when the ADO16 was current

[dollywobbler]

Excellent. Has to stay purple. It's ace!

[Albert Ross]

Brighton. PN.

[catsinthewelder]

Thanks Albert

 

I have borrowed the 1100 today on the pretext of getting another set of keys cut which I havn't got round to. On the plus side I'm now getting fairly good at finding the gears and have remembered why I like small cars so much

 

I need to get my finger out really and fit some seatbelts in the back. The next job is fix the bus, then the BX can come off the road for a couple of months weldathon

[jonathan_dyane]

I am so jealous; excellent result!

[Gompo]

I really like these, dont know why they're not more popular/desirable.

 

In that colour and with that plate if you ever fancy getting rid I'm sure Gok Wan would be interested.