Last Saturday, I went sailing with my uncle (he has an old wooden racing yacht), and on meeting him at his house beforehand, he throws me the keys to his MGA, saying that I should drive! As I needed to leave straight afterwards from where the boat is kept, he offered to followed in the Amazon
The A was quite pleasant but it wasn’t really a good test route to try it out, and I had to behave as the owner was right behind me! I reckon it goes rather well for just a 1600, and the low down torque is very impressive. However, the steering is very heavy and the throttle pedal felt very heavy at first and then suddenly ‘normal’ (he reckoned that the linkage probably needs adjusting), meaning that it wasn’t easy to accelerate away smoothly from low speeds without appearing like a boy racer
On arrival at the marina, I was very surprised to hear my uncle saying that he understood exactly why I liked the Amazon – he was very impressed by it (helped I suspect by his expectations being based on it's appearance ), & his only complaints related to the very heavy brakes - originally a servo was fitted but that was missing long before my family's ownership.
On the way up to CARS, I'll be stopping off to get some bodywork quotes (from the same guy who did the new inner wings tops and outer sill last year & who has probably restored more Amazons than anyone else in the UK) as it's finally time, after 39 years & 260,000 miles, for the body to have some serious work done. Hopefully it won't be too expensive, but I think the old heap deserves some tlc! Fortunately I already have two new front wings (one very good secondhand, the other new old stock), three doors (2 good secondhand, and one new old stock), and a very good secondhand top tailgate (these rot very badly so good ones make poor quality wobbly children's play pony poo look plentiful). I paid about £400 in total for all these panels, but would probably have cost over £1200 (new where available & otherwise very good secondhand) if I’d bought them all from a specialist, so that will help keep the cost down! All I need now is a good passenger side front door, as the rest of the panels required are repair sections. The two second hand doors and the tailgate top are complete with all fittings so could easily be fitted now, but my fiancée has vetoed this as they are the wrong colour... The paint is still going to be quite a patchwork though since everything will be done one section at a time as I can't afford to have everything done in one go - think Christine style regeneration ;D
Hopefully I'll be able to get the first round of bodywork done next month Aside from the damage to my wallet, my main regret will be losing some of the glorious patina on the paint but fans of the 'gnarly' front numberplate will be pleased to hear that it's staying ;D
Now for the big decision - should I bother to clean it before CARS? ;D
The A was quite pleasant but it wasn’t really a good test route to try it out, and I had to behave as the owner was right behind me! I reckon it goes rather well for just a 1600, and the low down torque is very impressive. However, the steering is very heavy and the throttle pedal felt very heavy at first and then suddenly ‘normal’ (he reckoned that the linkage probably needs adjusting), meaning that it wasn’t easy to accelerate away smoothly from low speeds without appearing like a boy racer
On arrival at the marina, I was very surprised to hear my uncle saying that he understood exactly why I liked the Amazon – he was very impressed by it (helped I suspect by his expectations being based on it's appearance ), & his only complaints related to the very heavy brakes - originally a servo was fitted but that was missing long before my family's ownership.
On the way up to CARS, I'll be stopping off to get some bodywork quotes (from the same guy who did the new inner wings tops and outer sill last year & who has probably restored more Amazons than anyone else in the UK) as it's finally time, after 39 years & 260,000 miles, for the body to have some serious work done. Hopefully it won't be too expensive, but I think the old heap deserves some tlc! Fortunately I already have two new front wings (one very good secondhand, the other new old stock), three doors (2 good secondhand, and one new old stock), and a very good secondhand top tailgate (these rot very badly so good ones make poor quality wobbly children's play pony poo look plentiful). I paid about £400 in total for all these panels, but would probably have cost over £1200 (new where available & otherwise very good secondhand) if I’d bought them all from a specialist, so that will help keep the cost down! All I need now is a good passenger side front door, as the rest of the panels required are repair sections. The two second hand doors and the tailgate top are complete with all fittings so could easily be fitted now, but my fiancée has vetoed this as they are the wrong colour... The paint is still going to be quite a patchwork though since everything will be done one section at a time as I can't afford to have everything done in one go - think Christine style regeneration ;D
Hopefully I'll be able to get the first round of bodywork done next month Aside from the damage to my wallet, my main regret will be losing some of the glorious patina on the paint but fans of the 'gnarly' front numberplate will be pleased to hear that it's staying ;D
Now for the big decision - should I bother to clean it before CARS? ;D