I haven't been here for a while. After I sold on my Humber Super Snipe I continued to enjoy life without a project/hobby car, and focussed on earning some money and enjoying weekends with my family without having to haggle for some weekend time to myself to wrestle with an old car in the street. It was good. I felt like my days with old cars were over. I honestly didn't miss it. I have barely thought about the Humber since I watched it drive away and I have no idea what has become of it since.
Then a few weeks ago I started casually cruising the usual websites looking to see what I *could* buy if I wanted to. I found I really enjoyed the freedom to look at everything and imagine owning it, without the hassle of actually committing and owning anything. That became my new hobby. Not-owning. I haven't owned about 50 different cars since then, and I have not owned cars across all categories. I had a great time not owning some pre-MOT 50's classics that I thought about turning into road-bangers. gassers and racers, I spent a few enjoyable weeks not owning a variety of retro Ford and Vauxhalls which I didn't turn into mild hot rods & not rods. I've not owned a wide variety of vans, ex military vehicles and 70's Brit tat, and then I decided to get seriously stuck into not owning extreme off-roaders... stuff that has been bobtailed, traybacked... stuff that looks like it's already been through the apocalypse and drove home to show people how rough life is in the future. In particular, I didn't own a number of Suzuki SJs that looked like absolute hell, but irresistibly so.
Not owning all of these things has allowed me to really enjoy a wide variety of retro-autos just by drooling over ebay pictures and committing the sales descriptions to heart... looking up locations on maps... checking MOT histories... sending serious sounding enquiries to the sellers (I was serious, just not ready, emotionally speaking, to make another commitment).
As the last few weeks have gone by, my slutty one night stands with knackerboxes on the internet have become more serious. My sessions have become longer, and I've found that at this point now I am once more aching for a more serious relationship where I actually get to sit inside the vehicle, play with it's wheels and levers, stroke a few oily bits and playfully kick some rubber. I'm almost ready to buy something. I have the funds. I'm just not sure which way to go.
I have made a serious enquiry into a sweet little Suzuki SJ that had been seriously modified just up the coast from me, but by the time I got back from my holiday (last week, Barcelona. Yeah it was nice, thanks) it was sold. There is a quite seriously dodgy looking Austin Maxi 2 for sale at a very reasonable price, and I have always like the Landcrab and Maxi desert rally cars and fancy doing a cosmetic tribute even if I don't get into any mechanical upgrades. I'm really interested in messing about with a sturdy but knackered MGBGT. There is a Mk1 Austin Metro two door, lowered, de-grilled, sitting on Minilite style wheels with a nice frontlip that... ooooh, I don't know... it does something for me... I grew up on Austin Metros so they have a special place in my heart. There are old Transits, Scimitars, P100s, Subaru Brats, various Rovers of different eras, Vivas and Magnums, Morris Marinas, Morris Minors, Oxfords, XR4is, Jaguars, big old V8 Mercs going for a song. I'm intrigued by the possibility of a Ford Probe and what might happen if it was Mad Maxed a little bit. There are minis to be had. There's a nice looking knacked-up 90's Chevy Monte Carlo that would look a beast with the right wheels and tyres and a banger paint job on it. I could go on. Hillman Imps. I could go on. Ford Rangers. I could go on.
What I've decided though is that I want to return to what I used to do before I ventured into more serious territory with the Humber. I want to return to the following rules....
1. What I buy has to cost less than £1000
2. It has to be British, or at a push American (never ventured into American though. The thought of having to wait two months to get a brake cylinder or a Fothergill slide-perambulation toggle calibrator sent over from the US just makes me shudder).
3. It must be from the 80's
4. It has to be on carburettors, petrol, and hopefully rear wheel drive (so much for the Austin Maxi then, but I could make an exception for a mini or a metro)
5. Ideally, manual gears.
My old rule was that I would buy something cheap that was essentially sound. I'd make it run doing my own level of tinkering (ie not taking an engine apart or a gearbox out, but dealing with ancilliaries, sticking a double barrel 32/36 or 38/38 Weber on (< never lets me down), doing my usual grey paint job and hand painting some kind of utilitarian livery lettering on it, getting the fattest rims possible as cheaply as possible and shodding them in cheap but nice looking Hercules white letter tires... then once done and once I've had enough of driving it around, selling it at a nice little profit and moving on to my next adventure.
Trouble is, I'm now lost in the bewildering world of options. My slagging around these last two months has made it very difficult for me to make a firm commitment.
Anyone got any firm directives, advice on how to move from online flirting to co-habiting, or suggestions of cheap, unloved, curse word British cars that might look good with a little dab of the old apocalyptic paintbrush?
Then a few weeks ago I started casually cruising the usual websites looking to see what I *could* buy if I wanted to. I found I really enjoyed the freedom to look at everything and imagine owning it, without the hassle of actually committing and owning anything. That became my new hobby. Not-owning. I haven't owned about 50 different cars since then, and I have not owned cars across all categories. I had a great time not owning some pre-MOT 50's classics that I thought about turning into road-bangers. gassers and racers, I spent a few enjoyable weeks not owning a variety of retro Ford and Vauxhalls which I didn't turn into mild hot rods & not rods. I've not owned a wide variety of vans, ex military vehicles and 70's Brit tat, and then I decided to get seriously stuck into not owning extreme off-roaders... stuff that has been bobtailed, traybacked... stuff that looks like it's already been through the apocalypse and drove home to show people how rough life is in the future. In particular, I didn't own a number of Suzuki SJs that looked like absolute hell, but irresistibly so.
Not owning all of these things has allowed me to really enjoy a wide variety of retro-autos just by drooling over ebay pictures and committing the sales descriptions to heart... looking up locations on maps... checking MOT histories... sending serious sounding enquiries to the sellers (I was serious, just not ready, emotionally speaking, to make another commitment).
As the last few weeks have gone by, my slutty one night stands with knackerboxes on the internet have become more serious. My sessions have become longer, and I've found that at this point now I am once more aching for a more serious relationship where I actually get to sit inside the vehicle, play with it's wheels and levers, stroke a few oily bits and playfully kick some rubber. I'm almost ready to buy something. I have the funds. I'm just not sure which way to go.
I have made a serious enquiry into a sweet little Suzuki SJ that had been seriously modified just up the coast from me, but by the time I got back from my holiday (last week, Barcelona. Yeah it was nice, thanks) it was sold. There is a quite seriously dodgy looking Austin Maxi 2 for sale at a very reasonable price, and I have always like the Landcrab and Maxi desert rally cars and fancy doing a cosmetic tribute even if I don't get into any mechanical upgrades. I'm really interested in messing about with a sturdy but knackered MGBGT. There is a Mk1 Austin Metro two door, lowered, de-grilled, sitting on Minilite style wheels with a nice frontlip that... ooooh, I don't know... it does something for me... I grew up on Austin Metros so they have a special place in my heart. There are old Transits, Scimitars, P100s, Subaru Brats, various Rovers of different eras, Vivas and Magnums, Morris Marinas, Morris Minors, Oxfords, XR4is, Jaguars, big old V8 Mercs going for a song. I'm intrigued by the possibility of a Ford Probe and what might happen if it was Mad Maxed a little bit. There are minis to be had. There's a nice looking knacked-up 90's Chevy Monte Carlo that would look a beast with the right wheels and tyres and a banger paint job on it. I could go on. Hillman Imps. I could go on. Ford Rangers. I could go on.
What I've decided though is that I want to return to what I used to do before I ventured into more serious territory with the Humber. I want to return to the following rules....
1. What I buy has to cost less than £1000
2. It has to be British, or at a push American (never ventured into American though. The thought of having to wait two months to get a brake cylinder or a Fothergill slide-perambulation toggle calibrator sent over from the US just makes me shudder).
3. It must be from the 80's
4. It has to be on carburettors, petrol, and hopefully rear wheel drive (so much for the Austin Maxi then, but I could make an exception for a mini or a metro)
5. Ideally, manual gears.
My old rule was that I would buy something cheap that was essentially sound. I'd make it run doing my own level of tinkering (ie not taking an engine apart or a gearbox out, but dealing with ancilliaries, sticking a double barrel 32/36 or 38/38 Weber on (< never lets me down), doing my usual grey paint job and hand painting some kind of utilitarian livery lettering on it, getting the fattest rims possible as cheaply as possible and shodding them in cheap but nice looking Hercules white letter tires... then once done and once I've had enough of driving it around, selling it at a nice little profit and moving on to my next adventure.
Trouble is, I'm now lost in the bewildering world of options. My slagging around these last two months has made it very difficult for me to make a firm commitment.
Anyone got any firm directives, advice on how to move from online flirting to co-habiting, or suggestions of cheap, unloved, curse word British cars that might look good with a little dab of the old apocalyptic paintbrush?
