mht
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 123
Club RR Member Number: 185
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4 seat convertible £3k maxmht
@mht
Club Retro Rides Member 185
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I'd be looking for an E36 or E46, 328i or 330i. E36 might be a bit of a push now at 4k. This 330 is £3.5kIf you like to live dangerously 6 Series cabs list on Autotrader from £5k wish so one might pop up in your budget.
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Mark
1977 MG B 1992 Lexus LS400 1998 VW Golf VR6 1999 BMW 740i
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mht
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 123
Club RR Member Number: 185
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MGB Cylinder Head (5 Bearing)mht
@mht
Club Retro Rides Member 185
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My mate has just put an MX5 lump in an MGB GT - he might have a complete engine avaliable but don't know how many bearings it has but can ask I'd love to have that conversion! MX5 engine in a GT would be a perfect classic daily. If you think it might be available option I could well be interested If it's a 1971 or later engine it'll be 5 bearing "18V" engine code mht apologies if I'm teaching to suck eggs here but if you find a head from a chrome bumper, 5 main bearing car you should get a slightly bigger inlet valve than would have been standard on your 77 B if you want a little performance boost. Look for a 12H2709 casting number on the top of the head No sucking eggs here, I didn't know of the difference so appreciate the input. Basically, for the past four years or so my engine has sounded like someone dropped a bag of spanners in the engine bay. The mechanic at the time said the compression was ok, but keep it below 3k if I could and nurse it along until I got around to getting it rebuilt. I've hardly used it for past couple of years (probably a mix of not wanting to push my luck it, and partly because of the arrival of twins). A member of the local MGOC has an engine available as a result of an engine swap, but without a head (hence the post). I don't have any mechanical experience, but I'd like to learn so I thought this could be a good opportunity to pull the bit of engine that there is there apart which would mean I could keep the car on the road and then try and cobble one together at leisure. If there's another engine available via bstardchild then maybe I'd change track, but that's the plan for now. Edited to add: I think 2021 might be the year that tips the balance in that I would have owned the car for more years than I've lived without owning it so it only seems fair I get around to sorting the engine out!
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Last Edit: Mar 9, 2021 13:25:16 GMT by mht
Mark
1977 MG B 1992 Lexus LS400 1998 VW Golf VR6 1999 BMW 740i
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mht
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 123
Club RR Member Number: 185
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MGB Cylinder Head (5 Bearing)mht
@mht
Club Retro Rides Member 185
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Does anyone have a MGB cylinder head available? It looks like I'll need one shortly so just thought I'd check on here first.
Mark
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Mark
1977 MG B 1992 Lexus LS400 1998 VW Golf VR6 1999 BMW 740i
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mht
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 123
Club RR Member Number: 185
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Buying an SORNed car abroadmht
@mht
Club Retro Rides Member 185
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Not without a UK address to get a V5 sent to, does the seller not have one? Are they able to tell you what address it is registered to? As dodgerover says I don’t see how you could do this without you having access to a UK address. Assuming you did, you should be able to request a logbook via a V62 application (https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-log-book) that would then send a new one in your name to the address you’ve provided. That should at least be a decent starting point to then get it exported to Norway.
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Mark
1977 MG B 1992 Lexus LS400 1998 VW Golf VR6 1999 BMW 740i
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mht
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 123
Club RR Member Number: 185
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Feb 25, 2021 20:55:15 GMT
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I’ve not used them but came across this place the other day that does period dealer plates. Not sure on the legalities of what they produce though, but the results look good. m.facebook.com/prestigeplatesales/
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Mark
1977 MG B 1992 Lexus LS400 1998 VW Golf VR6 1999 BMW 740i
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mht
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 123
Club RR Member Number: 185
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Import car and being careful... mht
@mht
Club Retro Rides Member 185
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Feb 25, 2021 10:35:37 GMT
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I don't know the sort of thing that you want to do or not but I was thinking about importing a Toyota Alphard. I found an agent through the owners clubs that has an English Toyota trained mechanic living in Japan that does inspections and can do things like add a fog light and KPH to MPH conversion before they load it. They don't typically hold stock (sometimes have one or two) but position themselves as acting on your behalf so if a car is a dog, the theory is they've got no incentive to push you to buy it. I didn't use them in the end, only because I decided agains the Alphard. I spoke to the guy, Paul, a couple of times and seemed nice enough. Service starts at £700 (it was a % of the purchase price with that as a minimum I think). They've been going for about 20 years IIRC. It might give a bit more protection as they are UK based. www.japautoagent.com
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Mark
1977 MG B 1992 Lexus LS400 1998 VW Golf VR6 1999 BMW 740i
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mht
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 123
Club RR Member Number: 185
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Feb 23, 2021 11:38:03 GMT
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I'm more of a pro-level lurker than a regular contributor but RR is probably my most visited site. A few threads over the past few days have been mulling over in my head, and wary of posting a non-retro thread and having to think about creating an awesome one as penance I'm hoping that this can sneak under as relevant for events. The three threads I'd seen were: Restaurant RefitTime to jump offRetro rides or interesting ridesThe thing that came out of those threads to me were twofold; one - people are here for interesting cars, but mostly for the community that RR is. Secondly, people within that community have businesses, thirdly we can get out and drive again soon. I hope he won't mind me using him as an example, but geordie has two cafes that are 4 hours away from me. I'm not going to pop in on a day-to-day basis. However, I could combine a road trip and a visit to an RR member business. The cafes are both close to the North York Moors. A quick search throws up this site with the best driving roads in Yorkshire . Crudely plotted you get this I look at that and I can see two figure of eights waiting to be mapped out. I would potentially go up there for a road trip and as a bonus of support an RR member. I could plot that out to make two figure of eights and either leave it as that so that if anyone is in the area there's a driving route mapped out. And/or, if there's a set route it could be taken a step further and say on the XXth of June there's a concerted group effort to complete the loop and stop by the cafe(s). The bonus being you'd probably seem some other interesting cars along the way as everyone is doing the same route on the same day, but its not an event as such with organisation just a 'if you want to drive this route you'll probably bump into others on the way' sort of thing. I saw merryck's restaurant refurb thread too - he's in Folkestone on the Kent Downs so the same thing could be done there too. Just thought I'd put it out there and see if there was any interest? If so I could put a route together from the picture above and release it. I don't have anything to promote, and hopefully geordie and merryck don't mind me mentioning them - I just happened to see their threads on the same day.
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Last Edit: Mar 14, 2021 17:10:40 GMT by mht
Mark
1977 MG B 1992 Lexus LS400 1998 VW Golf VR6 1999 BMW 740i
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mht
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 123
Club RR Member Number: 185
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Feb 18, 2021 19:42:58 GMT
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I've used Brentacre for about five or so years for the VR6. As mentioned above there's no additional fees for anything that doesn't add major power (ie cosmetics, exhaust, induction kit etc). I usually do a comparison site check each year against the renewal and it was cheaper than anything else that came up. I was thinking about SORNing the VR6 so called them up and asked them to quote to remove the Golf and add something else that is incoming. I also got a suggestion of trying LV Classic for the new car. It was cheaper to take out a new policy with LV Classic for 12 months than change the VR6 with Brentacre for the remaining 6 months. No internet quoting so you have to call them; www.lv.com/car-insurance/classic-car-insuranceI also use Hagerty for the MGB who are good for older stuff but not really for modern stuff. MGB is £120 pa.
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Mark
1977 MG B 1992 Lexus LS400 1998 VW Golf VR6 1999 BMW 740i
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mht
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 123
Club RR Member Number: 185
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Feb 18, 2021 13:16:46 GMT
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My X350 XJR was really quick. With the cats having lost their newness and the back boxes removed it sounded evil, too. It was supposed to be around 420bhp with a few intake mods and they're not as heavy as you'd expect, being of aluminium construction. Even with coilovers it was all in at under £2500. Really nice thing to daily. *edit for pictorial evidence of its magnificence* I didn’t know you could buy them that cheap. I’ll definately have to get one at some point. Great buy 👍
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Mark
1977 MG B 1992 Lexus LS400 1998 VW Golf VR6 1999 BMW 740i
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mht
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 123
Club RR Member Number: 185
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Feb 17, 2021 22:33:28 GMT
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8P is the second gen so 2004 - 2013. Not exactly 2021 looks but less 90s hatchback than the original 8L
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Mark
1977 MG B 1992 Lexus LS400 1998 VW Golf VR6 1999 BMW 740i
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mht
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 123
Club RR Member Number: 185
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Feb 17, 2021 21:50:12 GMT
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Audi S3 8P Stage 2. A friend has one, it's running 360bhp, AWD, launch control. He spent £5k on the work about 5 years ago. The whole car is probably £5 or £6k now.
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Mark
1977 MG B 1992 Lexus LS400 1998 VW Golf VR6 1999 BMW 740i
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mht
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 123
Club RR Member Number: 185
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Feb 17, 2021 10:24:06 GMT
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These threads seem to pop up from time to time and I had thought about sticking up a readers ride thread for the solution I bought but then thought it's not really interesting or retro! My solution isn't for everyone, it's a bit OTT for the problem really. We've got 18 month old twins. Day-to-day the LS400 was fine for this. Their journey home from the hospital was in the LS400, starting them on retros from the start The problem was that if we wanted to go and stay with family / overnight we were stuffed. A double buggy, two travel cots, two car seats, and luggage in a saloon just doesn't work. Additionally, it would be nice if we could take my parents out too without needing two cars so I wanted a 6+ seater. I looked at every option; Disco 3 or 4 / Merc GL / Q7 are all fine until you need to use seats 6 and 7. For example the Q7 has a 775 litre boot with 5 seats, but 330 litres with 7 seats used. The LS400 is 400 litres so I'd no better off. Looked at Elgrand and Alphard, but again luggage space isn't great. Hyundai i800 was an option but I read about too many problems with them. VW T5 Transporter / Caravelle was another obvious one but the scene price tax is stupid. I'm not getting involved in that. I just wanted to get something I wasn't worried about. In the end I went with a known quantity - Mercedes Viano, 8 seats, extra long wheel base. I previously owned them through work and knew their faults. You can set the rear up for conference style seating (three facing three) which we find really good when we're out with the kids. We can easily jump in the back and feed them lunch / change nappies and they can stand up and run about. I wanted the 2.2 (it's actually a 2.1) OM651 - it's a commercial engine used in the Sprinter / Vito / Vito taxi so you'll see them with 300k/400k come up for sale now and again. Averages just over 30mpg combined, mid 30s on a run. Is it glamorous? No. Is it an engaging drive? No. I like driving it though, and it's nice to have something that I'm not worried about. I bought one that was cheaper than others as it had a couple of dents from the previous owner. He was an academic at Oxford University with four children and said he did them all in the first two weeks as he wasn't used to the size of it. It is long - just over 5m. They came out in 2004. 2006 was mild-facelift (it has updated dials is the easiest way to spot it) but more importantly they galvanised them 2006 onwards, the early ones suffer from rust. There's a bigger facelift from MY11 onwards but that has DPF and I couldn't be faffed with another thing to go wrong. There's 1400 litres of boot space and if we haven't got anything else in the boot the double buggy will go in without folding down. On collection day. This is the good side, only the one dent! Rear setup Loaded to a four day trip to Norfolk with my parents in September. This is before we picked them up and shows how much stuff we have for three nights away. Mercedes cool box on the right for their food is powered by the 12v in the boot. I didn't need something so big, but there's no compromises now. Plus, I have the most practical car I could have bought so now if I want to get something stupid this gives me air cover. Bought within your budget.
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Mark
1977 MG B 1992 Lexus LS400 1998 VW Golf VR6 1999 BMW 740i
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mht
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 123
Club RR Member Number: 185
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Al's WARM garage!mht
@mht
Club Retro Rides Member 185
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Feb 14, 2021 20:55:56 GMT
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Great build! Jealous of the underfloor heating and the car!
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Mark
1977 MG B 1992 Lexus LS400 1998 VW Golf VR6 1999 BMW 740i
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mht
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 123
Club RR Member Number: 185
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Underbody protectionmht
@mht
Club Retro Rides Member 185
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Feb 10, 2021 12:53:17 GMT
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I think I read about that company in a classic magazine - they did a staff / long term car I think. Maybe a W124.
Yours looks great, I do like the FJ!
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Mark
1977 MG B 1992 Lexus LS400 1998 VW Golf VR6 1999 BMW 740i
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mht
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 123
Club RR Member Number: 185
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DA Polisher kit recommendations mht
@mht
Club Retro Rides Member 185
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I’ve got the DAS 6 V1 (https://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/das-6-v2-dual-action-polisher) and it’s been a hoot bit of kit! It’s probably 6 or so years old I guess and wasn’t too expensive. The V2 is on the site fr€$h&m1nt¥ suggested at £90. Pads and polishes kinda depend on what your working on and how bad the damage is.
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Mark
1977 MG B 1992 Lexus LS400 1998 VW Golf VR6 1999 BMW 740i
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mht
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 123
Club RR Member Number: 185
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BMW 750i XIL 5750mht
@mht
Club Retro Rides Member 185
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Mark
1977 MG B 1992 Lexus LS400 1998 VW Golf VR6 1999 BMW 740i
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mht
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 123
Club RR Member Number: 185
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I thought I'd give this thread a bit of CPR. The Autobianchi A112 was designed by Bertone. As was the Lamborghini Miura.
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Mark
1977 MG B 1992 Lexus LS400 1998 VW Golf VR6 1999 BMW 740i
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mht
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 123
Club RR Member Number: 185
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That looks epic!
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Mark
1977 MG B 1992 Lexus LS400 1998 VW Golf VR6 1999 BMW 740i
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mht
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 123
Club RR Member Number: 185
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Jan 17, 2021 18:35:41 GMT
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This is going to end up as nice as this one Good luck with the sale once it and you are ready. That’s my evening gone! There’s seven videos in that series so naturally I’ve started at the beginning
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Mark
1977 MG B 1992 Lexus LS400 1998 VW Golf VR6 1999 BMW 740i
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mht
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 123
Club RR Member Number: 185
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Project P38mht
@mht
Club Retro Rides Member 185
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Jan 15, 2021 10:49:41 GMT
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I have had one for a few years great cheap 4x4 but you have to be handy with a spanner Better than being handy with a welder! Amazingly the P38 seems to be the only LR product that doesn't suffer from massive rust issues. Instead it's plagued with other issues! (former P38 owner) "The Gods give with one hand and take with the other"
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Mark
1977 MG B 1992 Lexus LS400 1998 VW Golf VR6 1999 BMW 740i
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