So I've been lurking on here for while now after hankering for a car with a little more character than my 1.4 2009 Astra. The wife and I used to own a few classic minis between us, and I had originally planned on getting another, as we've only got a small garage, and the car needed to fit in there.
I started looking, and quickly realised that with my budget I had no chance of getting a mini in any reasonable shape. I'd seen a few Metro's on here that I quite liked the look of, and as it was supposed to be the replacement for the mini, I began looking for one.
I went to look at a few, but nothing really stood out to buy, until I saw a local one on Ebay that had been off the road since around 2011. Went to have a look, and offered the guy £450, he stood firm at £500, so I decided to wait for the auction to end. My luck came in and I won it for £395! Booked it in for an MOT and insured it, and had planned to drive it home. The brakes were non existent, so I pulled over and got a mate to trailer it home rather than crash it!
Safely in the garage I began to have a better poke around, and found that there was zero coolant in it, and the previous owner had wedged a bit of glossed timber in front of half the radiator!
Visible here:
The rad was also rotten, probably fried from the lack of coolant and half of it being covered by a bit of timber!
I whipped it out after draining the small amount of water I'd added before trying to set off for home, which came out a lovely shade of rust. It looked even worse than first glance:
So I've got one on the way to me from the 'bay which looks in a lot better condition!
I'm really pleased with the over all condition of the car, it needs two wings, but not desperate, and a bit of rust treatment on the sills and possibly a small bit of welding near the petrol cap but other than that the body is pretty nice.
Plans are to keep it standard body wise, 12" minlites or revo's and maybe lower it an inch or so. I've got new vented discs and pads on the way to give it an overhaul before getting it mot'd but hopefully will be ready for a few months of summer driving fun. Long term I'd like a tuned engine, I had a quick 998 in one of the mini's that had about 85bhp at the wheels, which my brother in law now owns in his clubby, so maybe keep my 998 and tune/turbo it just so it's a bit quicker than his!
Just so pleased to have an older car to fettle with in the evenings after a stressful day at work, nothing beats it!
I'll update the thread as I get bits done on it.
Oh also found the original casette player behind a plastic panel, time for some mix tapes!
Tom.
I started looking, and quickly realised that with my budget I had no chance of getting a mini in any reasonable shape. I'd seen a few Metro's on here that I quite liked the look of, and as it was supposed to be the replacement for the mini, I began looking for one.
I went to look at a few, but nothing really stood out to buy, until I saw a local one on Ebay that had been off the road since around 2011. Went to have a look, and offered the guy £450, he stood firm at £500, so I decided to wait for the auction to end. My luck came in and I won it for £395! Booked it in for an MOT and insured it, and had planned to drive it home. The brakes were non existent, so I pulled over and got a mate to trailer it home rather than crash it!
Safely in the garage I began to have a better poke around, and found that there was zero coolant in it, and the previous owner had wedged a bit of glossed timber in front of half the radiator!
Visible here:
The rad was also rotten, probably fried from the lack of coolant and half of it being covered by a bit of timber!
I whipped it out after draining the small amount of water I'd added before trying to set off for home, which came out a lovely shade of rust. It looked even worse than first glance:
So I've got one on the way to me from the 'bay which looks in a lot better condition!
I'm really pleased with the over all condition of the car, it needs two wings, but not desperate, and a bit of rust treatment on the sills and possibly a small bit of welding near the petrol cap but other than that the body is pretty nice.
Plans are to keep it standard body wise, 12" minlites or revo's and maybe lower it an inch or so. I've got new vented discs and pads on the way to give it an overhaul before getting it mot'd but hopefully will be ready for a few months of summer driving fun. Long term I'd like a tuned engine, I had a quick 998 in one of the mini's that had about 85bhp at the wheels, which my brother in law now owns in his clubby, so maybe keep my 998 and tune/turbo it just so it's a bit quicker than his!
Just so pleased to have an older car to fettle with in the evenings after a stressful day at work, nothing beats it!
I'll update the thread as I get bits done on it.
Oh also found the original casette player behind a plastic panel, time for some mix tapes!
Tom.
