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eternaloptimist
Posted a lot
Too many projects, not enough time or space...
Posts: 2,578
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I'd happily sacrifice a kidney for the space you've got there. V. envious! Oh, nice CX as well. I miss mine. Started looking on Auto Scout 24 and idly thinking about a road trip and coming back with an early series 1 Gti with the two tone leather interior. Luckily I've not seen one yet.
Added a yellow car to my driveway now - early R50 Mini Cooper.
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XC70, VW split screen crew cab, Standard Ten
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Feb 17, 2016 16:26:56 GMT
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The R50 has aged well - stays out of the bargain bin, too. Would love a Cooper S in yellow with black or white stripes...
Two tone CX interior = much envy. My GTi has the normal tweed-like cloth, not even the nice VIP interior.
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The SLK continues to survive culls and fleet changes - update on it soon as it's getting some attention XJS has gone, CX has gone, Beetle has gone, 406 has gone... In their place... it is a 500 SEC, not an S500 Coupé, and it reinforces that I am generally just happy with Mercedes. So the next small car I get will also be Mercedes-made.
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Aug 14, 2016 21:58:56 GMT
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The cruiser Leviathan now has a shuttle pod... the oldest Smart in the UK, chassis number 647
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Looks good, is that a bike rack on the back of it? If you ever have to do a front Spring swap, keep your sense of humour about you
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It's not great in detail - but given how compact and simple these cars are, as long as I can find the parts I need it won't be too difficult to get it up to the standards I want. At the moment it's in the "accessory gathering" phase, which means CD changer, under seat drawer, pods for the dashboard, and if I can find an intact one (it might already have it but missing tweeters) the audio upgrade with ported bass boxes under the dash. I need a good seat foam for the driver's seat (from a RHD passenger car maybe). a sun blind, and early rev counter pod. Really surprised by how well it drives. Not as surprised as I was when collecting it and I had a blowout at 70mph on the M1 at 10pm - AA helpfully dropped me back two junctions at a BP station, then a tyre fitter came out and charged £130+callout to put a Continental on at 3 in the morning, by which time I was too tired to think or drive straight anyway. It is a bike rack! Clever bit of engineering, the example I got is damaged so I'm on the look out for an undamaged one or undamaged cross piece. Annoyingly the tyre incident means I can't afford a discount black and yellow mountain bike from Halfords to go on it! Front spring on this is a transverse leaf
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Not sure if that's sarcasm or not lol.
I've done two now and wouldn't rush to do another!! Many modifying of tools to do the job although that may of been down to what we had around at 9pm at night, can't quite remember.
My dads had these for the past 5-6 years and they've needed nothing other then a few springs and servicing. His were both über low mileage examples though <2k when he got them so that may of helped.
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Aug 15, 2016 10:11:05 GMT
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You've had failures of the front leaf, though? I did go looking to find out about these 'cause I'd heard about the front coil springs (hey, it's Mercedes, standard fit insta-snap springs) - those do sound like a pain, but the leaf sounds like it's reliable, but all the bits attached to it can cause much misery. Not sarcastic about it being good to drive - it's not too slow once you figure out the gearbox, and the ride quality on motorways and fast A-B roads is good. What it's awful at is potholes and speedbumps; never have i driven a car LESS suited to Britain's cities and towns This one has 86,000km on it, and has had a new clutch, sump pan with drainplug, etc. If people are interested I'll put more pics up when I've got time, I thought the SEC would be more Retro Rides style. The Smart is very much me going "I'm having an all-Mercedes fleet now".
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Aug 15, 2016 10:31:17 GMT
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You've lost me on the whole leaf thing I've swapped a few front springs on these, unless they changed the set up at the front? The ones I've changed have been on 52 plate cars. Either way I think they are cool cars and quite underrated for what they are, just fun to drive. Speed bumps are a weird feeling though lol
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Aug 15, 2016 11:01:19 GMT
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The setup changed on Mk 4 - I think - which is around 2000ish? Mk 1-3 Smarts have a transverse leaf spring. Mine's rare for being a Mk 1 Smart in itself, but also yellow, and also - if the 'average production per day' stats are to be believed, probably from the second day of production, almost certainly the first week of production - depending on how many pilot builds there are and how chassis numbers are allocated. smartmaniacs.co.uk/forum/the-cars/fortwo-450-sept-1998-oct-2007/57423-leaf-spring-lowering
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Aug 15, 2016 11:29:44 GMT
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Ah right - school day today . Speaking of school days I remember second year at senior school I'd walk past an upmarket dealer who was one of the first to catch onto these, all lhd in strange colours, varying from bubble paint designs to all sorts of paint schemes. I remember everyone at the time discounting them, just look at them now!
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Aug 15, 2016 13:04:44 GMT
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I'm learning about them rapidly as I want to preserve this one! Yeah, they appeared when I had my first new cars, and I thought they were ridiculous - tried a new City Cabrio in 2004 and hated the way it lost power on gearchanges going up hills, and how it handled. For the £500 I paid for this one, I was ready to forgive a LOT of quirkiness, and actually - the original suspension works incredibly well - DeDion rear, transverse leaf front (which I didn't know until I was looking up what bushes and things I might want to replace, I just thought it handled a LOT better than I remembered them doing - it's not like I'm an expert!). The 599 engine with softtouch auto programme works well, the gearing on the six-speed box is perfect for relaxed-but with nothing much to spare if you need to pass - 70mph progress, the seats are a work of art - metal backs, lightweigh, breathable net backing... I got the launch Smart Swatch promo item, and am slowly gathering bits relating to it. Silly stuff, like the cupholder in the back of the seat - mine's missing one, and the new ones are shallower and have slots in, so I had to track down one of the correct design to make sure the car remains as "Mk1" as possible. The Hello Yellow panels are faded with signwriting - but I'm going to keep them like that, it's part of the car's history. Love all the mad print/design panels they did
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Aug 15, 2016 13:53:35 GMT
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That bike rack is something indeed, do bikes sit 'on it' or strapped to it somehow?
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qwerty
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,416
Club RR Member Number: 52
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Aug 15, 2016 14:04:05 GMT
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We had SMARTs as pool cars at work. I flipping loved them. Great fun to drive. I may consider getting one in the next couple of years as we may need a cheap commuter car.
Tom
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Aug 15, 2016 14:07:29 GMT
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That bike rack is something indeed, do bikes sit 'on it' or strapped to it somehow? The stick out bits are wheel supports, one bike goes either side of the crossbar (high up to leave lights and plate clear) and then there are clamps - not fitted - that match the grey/orange style of the rest of it. I got it purely because of the Swatch/Smart design of it, though the idea of taking the Smart to a country park then going for bike rides is very appealing
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MiataMark
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,969
Club RR Member Number: 29
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Aug 15, 2016 16:00:16 GMT
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That bike rack is something indeed, do bikes sit 'on it' or strapped to it somehow? I was curious so did a quick image search...
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1990 Mazda MX-52012 BMW 118i (170bhp) - white appliance 2011 Land Rover Freelander 2 TD4 2003 Land Rover Discovery II TD52007 Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon JTDm
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Aug 15, 2016 16:05:27 GMT
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That's unusual - modified I guess to fit a cabrio, or they did a cabrio version! I haven't installed the top mounts on mine but they're little brackets that bolt onto the hatch support struts.
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MiataMark
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,969
Club RR Member Number: 29
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Aug 15, 2016 16:39:14 GMT
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That's unusual - modified I guess to fit a cabrio, or they did a cabrio version! I haven't installed the top mounts on mine but they're little brackets that bolt onto the hatch support struts. Not just cabrio, must be a bit odd having the bike so high.
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1990 Mazda MX-52012 BMW 118i (170bhp) - white appliance 2011 Land Rover Freelander 2 TD4 2003 Land Rover Discovery II TD52007 Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon JTDm
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Mar 22, 2017 14:59:58 GMT
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Another winter gone. The SLK continues to be awesome, except when it's not. In the meantime my 500 SEC's indicator relay has gone haywire and the MoT ran out, so it's just lurking, about to be replaced with a Sera, and the Twingo headgasket continues to be procrastinated on but having found that I can buy a whole low mileage engine for £150, I think it'll just be getting an engine swap. I've had the use of a Citroën DSuper for nice days, a Mercedes 230TE for days before Halloween, and bought a Mk III Citroën C5 Tourer (most modern car I've had in a while) that got into a bump on a roundabout and will probably be written off. Joy. It has been a year of entropy and constantly firefighting! With the C5 off the road, 500SEC not MoTd, 230 TE interior partially stripped to trace water leaks and Saab 9-3 Cabriolet without MoT too, the SLK has had to get into daily use again. Yesterday it got to lurk in a big shed. On the way home the gearshifts seemed harsher. No limp home mode, just very abrupt changes. So, it looks like the SLK is now going to have a big repair - the valve body and conductor plate will have to come out I reckon, because most likely candidate for that symptom is a snapped pressure control spring. It'll be happening though; no matter what, this car stays.
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Last Edit: Mar 22, 2017 15:04:18 GMT by Deleted
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