eternaloptimist
Posted a lot
Too many projects, not enough time or space...
Posts: 2,578
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Mar 30, 2014 13:45:43 GMT
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Great story!
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XC70, VW split screen crew cab, Standard Ten
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randywanger_
Part of things
Nissan Bluebird P510 SSS Coupe
Posts: 946
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Mar 30, 2014 15:47:39 GMT
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Great story and road trip to have  |
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Mar 30, 2014 17:16:52 GMT
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Ahh this is what R&R is all about what a story and to top it off you should end up quids in!!
Frantastic!!
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Well this story has taken an unusual twist! I did 'an insane' and agreed to swap this xantia for a 306 GTI-6 for sale on here. Only trouble was it was in Glasgow, which is 400 miles from me! I agreed to do all the travelling with the 306 seller (Paul) paying me £75 towards fuel costs. So at 5am on Sunday morning Bruce (mysterymachine) and I started the trip up to Glasgow. We got there in good time at about 10:45, met Paul and signed the documents over and then headed straight home. We had a slight detour through Wolverhampton as google kindly informed us that the motorway was jammed due to an accident and got home at about 7:30. The car seems good, lot's of history including a full engine rebuild in July this year! It got us back without issue and was pretty economical too. Anyway it is booked in for an MOT tomorrow morning, I know it will fail as it has a hole in the sill/floor and the wipers are naff, but once I have the fail sheet I will work through the list this week and hopefully have it fully on the road by the weekend, well that's the plan! First impressions are it isn't quite as quick as I was expecting, but that might be because I am used to my 3.0 205! Also the gearing seems very odd, in fact I really dislike the gearbox if I'm honest, the first 3 gears are really long (3rd gear goes up to 90mph) and then 4th 5th and 6th are so close there is hardly any difference! (slight exaggeration). Having said that I do find it fun to drive and am chuffed, it suits my needs (wants) far better than the Xantia (which was no use to me really and thus wasn't being used). Anyway, here it is:  |
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I found with that, third gear was by far the most useful and fun to use. First and second as you say seemed a bit odd. It did quite well bimbling about in 6th though but with the temptation there of me losing my licence doing four car swoops on the way to work it got well used shall we say.
I'm happy with the xantia, it fits my gokart in the back and i managed to find some scenic wheels for it. Due to me losing the drive space theres no way i could get this sorted outside the house (my offroad parking is about 30 metres away from the front door now), and tbh with the welding it would probably set me back more than it was worth to me for a garage to do - so off to you, glad you like it, hope you enjoy it. Ill probably put a thread up for the xantia once i get back from sea.
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Last Edit: Dec 2, 2014 17:31:30 GMT by oasis6x
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I took it for an MOT yesterday, it failed on 7 things: 1, Battery insecure 2, washer jets aimed over roof 3, missing front wheel bolt 4, Welding OSF 5, Welding NSF 6, OSR brake efficiency low causing: 7, Brake imbalance. I had a go at tackling it today, got the battery secured and the washer jets aligned properly and welded up the patch on the NSF. Going to do the rest tomorrow if I can get some sleep soon! The tester said the handbrake worked fine it was only the foot brake ineffective on that wheel and causing the imbalance so not quite sure what is up there, have been advised to bleed it and lubricate/free up the compensator valve so will be trying that tomorrow. Anyway here are some pictures to keep you interested  Cut back to clean metal.  Cardboard template.  Traced and cut.  In place.  At this point my phone battery died so no more pics, but I cleaned up the inside vertical edge and then welded it on, I was very pleased at how well it welded, nice and clean and easy. I then primed and painted it with 2 coats of underseal stuff. I'll get some finished pics tomorrow. |
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Last Edit: Dec 4, 2014 1:56:33 GMT by goliath
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rod6e
Part of things
Posts: 94 
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Are you continuing the swap-up or keeping it.
I have a 2004 Signum...........
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Not sure what my long term plans are as yet. I will be keeping it into the new year and then go from there! No real plans either way.
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Welded up the other side today, put the missing wheel bolt in and 'think' I have freed off the rear compensator enough to sort the brake balance out. No way of testing though so will have to keep my fingers crossed for the retest tomorrow! I managed to find a good harmony with my welder whilst doing these patches, really pleased with the outcome.  And then covered it in underseal, bit of a naff pic I'm afraid.  |
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djefk
Part of things
Posts: 844
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Great welding!
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Thus the reason i got rid, my welding doesnt compare! Good work mate  |
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Urgh, had a nighmare day! Took it for the retest, turns out the rear brakes were no better. I had no idea whether the caliper or the compensator were at fault but either way I had to get it MOT'd today (that will become apparent later) so went on the search for a new caliper and compensator. I managed to shop around the motorfactors and got a new caliper for £65 ish (once I trade back the old one) but no where had the compensator, nor could anywhere even order it! So I trawled the 2 local scrappies but no luck there either so I gave up on the hunt for the compensator and hoped that the new caliper would fix the issue! The MOT guy had loads of stuff still to do but let me put the car in the workshop and fit the new caliper myself which was kind of him. Once fitted he then retested in and the rear brakes were perfectly balanced! Hoorah! He wouldn't even charge me anything for staying open late and letting me use his tools, but I bunged him some cash anyway. I've never had an MOT at 19:30 before!  Oh and the reason it HAD to be MOT'd today is that we are going on a impromptu trip down to Italy in it starting on Sunday and the MOT place isn't open on Saturdays! |
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Dec 19, 2014 16:38:02 GMT
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Well that was an adventure and a half!
My other half and I set off in the 306 on Sunday 7th, headed down through France for a couple of days then across to Monaco, down to Rome for a few more days where the car got towed from the hotel parking and I had to rescue it from the impound! Then back up through Switzerland for a couple of days and up through France and back home late yesterday evening. So the car has done 3000 miles since the MOT... 2 weeks ago!
Very pleased the car didn't miss a beat, the exhaust seems to be hanging lower than when we left so will look at redoing it at some point.
I definitely need to 'CTRL Z' the rear wiper delete, it's very annoying not being able to clear the rear window!
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Jan 17, 2015 13:00:18 GMT
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UPDATE TIME! And time for a new car, the 306 was short lived but was great fun and did the job of getting us round Europe very well. The latest trade wasn't strictly a swap, but I bought a new car and sold the 306 this week, so I'm counting it as a swap (kinda)! So the 306 went today, sold it for £1000 and have bought and mx5 for £750, so I'm quids in! The mx5 is in good nick and came with a fresh mot so plans are just to enjoy it for the time being whilst tidying little bits and bobs up, but no major mods planned as yet. Here's some pics:    |
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Jan 21, 2015 16:15:03 GMT
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I would think that Number Plate would fetch £750 on its own?
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96 E320 W210 Wafter - on 18" split Mono's - Sold :-(
10 Kia Ceed Sportwagon - Our new daily
03 Import Forester STi - Sold
98 W140 CL500 AMG - Brutal weekend bruiser! Sold :-(
99 E240 S210 Barge - Now sold
02 Accord 2.0SE - wife's old daily - gone in PX
88 P100 2.9efi Custom - Sold
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Jan 22, 2015 14:10:20 GMT
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I would think that Number Plate would fetch £750 on its own? I'll be thrilled if it does, I currently have it advertised on ebay for £250 (with me paying the £80 transfer fee) and not had a single bit of interest! People tend to think that private plates are worth a fair bit of money, but in my experience unless it is something really special or dateless then they are worth next to nothing. |
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Jan 22, 2015 17:40:01 GMT
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I would think that Number Plate would fetch £750 on its own? I'll be thrilled if it does, I currently have it advertised on ebay for £250 (with me paying the £80 transfer fee) and not had a single bit of interest! People tend to think that private plates are worth a fair bit of money, but in my experience unless it is something really special or dateless then they are worth next to nothing. Have you been onto the MX5 Owners club or forum etc? Someone will happily pay what you are after I'm sure |
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96 E320 W210 Wafter - on 18" split Mono's - Sold :-(
10 Kia Ceed Sportwagon - Our new daily
03 Import Forester STi - Sold
98 W140 CL500 AMG - Brutal weekend bruiser! Sold :-(
99 E240 S210 Barge - Now sold
02 Accord 2.0SE - wife's old daily - gone in PX
88 P100 2.9efi Custom - Sold
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Jan 22, 2015 18:00:17 GMT
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Mate bought a brand new car (Orion Ghia) many years ago and dealer allocated B666***. He refused to accept the car as 666 is the number of the devil and cursed / unlucky so they had to get it changed before he took delivery !
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Jan 23, 2015 12:52:19 GMT
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I'll be thrilled if it does, I currently have it advertised on ebay for £250 (with me paying the £80 transfer fee) and not had a single bit of interest! People tend to think that private plates are worth a fair bit of money, but in my experience unless it is something really special or dateless then they are worth next to nothing. Have you been onto the MX5 Owners club or forum etc? Someone will happily pay what you are after I'm sure I have, but can't post stuff for sale yet as I'm a newbie! |
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May 10, 2015 21:43:53 GMT
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Just to keep you in the loop the xantia flew through its test and I put some pics up in the readers rides section. My brothers getting it, but I had some good miles with it, no problems. Did the gti6 stay on the forum? Found some headrests for the back of it in the garage last week.
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