Well, yesterday was D-Day for moving the Capri, a job I have not been looking forward too. After considering all manner of options including a rented trailer and borrowing a mates van which has a tow hitch I settled on using a local recovery service to move the car. Trailer hire £35, recovery service £40. No contest.
Havig free'd off the brakes at the weekend I thought this would be no bother. And it was nice & easy getting the car rolling. I had the key in the ignition and then we turned the wheel and "click". The steering locked and no matter what we did would not unlock.
This is how far we got before the first hitch..
Turns out the only set of keys I can find for the Capri are the wrong ones!
Luckily the professionals come equipped. These natty hydraulic dollys are just the trick.
and so the old knacker is moving again!
The only problem is that the castors on the dollys ground out going from pavement to road, and because I removed the rear drums we have no brake... Some fun just avoiding the traffic. Did Imention that this is a main road?
But no police to bother us, no accidents, all went well..
The tip back truck is easy as anything to load onto. No messing about with angle-iron ramps in the cold. Also they have plastic skids to go under the front wheels meaning you can still position the car easily on the back even with the steering locked.
Eventless trip to the new lockup
And welcome to your new home!
The only issue was that the garage door doesn't lock! So I had to chase the council up about that and it is apparently being done today. I didn;t sleep so easy last night with my car in an unlocked garage which the locals appear to have taken to using as a junk store. I had to dispose of the remains of a fitted kitchen before I could get the car in there.
I dread to think how bad the job would have been if it was just me and a mate with a rented trailor. Those dollys made life SO easy.
Alistair's tip of the day - use the professionals when ever possible.
Also best not to lose your car keys...
To finish off the day I took the Chrysler up for an MOT. Which it passed after some tut-tutting and the usual round of "why don't you just buy a decent car". I think I set the world record for advisories on the test (like six advisories on about 8 or 10 items). So thats a good to-do list
or 
<-- not sure which...
But generally its been approved as "not bad, just a bit neglected"
Theres a couple of prize bodges on there to correct. Those ones where "technically" its acceptable for an MOT etc, but really, its not big and its not clever...
Also need to get her running right too, definitely running rich.
Here's a picture of the not so good side. Planning my "scheme" for this too. Makeover in the spring maybe.
I also appear to have sold off all my excess Vauxhall tat which should raise a few quid for stuff I need.
So all in all, not too bad a day.
Havig free'd off the brakes at the weekend I thought this would be no bother. And it was nice & easy getting the car rolling. I had the key in the ignition and then we turned the wheel and "click". The steering locked and no matter what we did would not unlock.
This is how far we got before the first hitch..
Turns out the only set of keys I can find for the Capri are the wrong ones!
Luckily the professionals come equipped. These natty hydraulic dollys are just the trick.
and so the old knacker is moving again!
The only problem is that the castors on the dollys ground out going from pavement to road, and because I removed the rear drums we have no brake... Some fun just avoiding the traffic. Did Imention that this is a main road?
But no police to bother us, no accidents, all went well..
The tip back truck is easy as anything to load onto. No messing about with angle-iron ramps in the cold. Also they have plastic skids to go under the front wheels meaning you can still position the car easily on the back even with the steering locked.
Eventless trip to the new lockup
And welcome to your new home!
The only issue was that the garage door doesn't lock! So I had to chase the council up about that and it is apparently being done today. I didn;t sleep so easy last night with my car in an unlocked garage which the locals appear to have taken to using as a junk store. I had to dispose of the remains of a fitted kitchen before I could get the car in there.
I dread to think how bad the job would have been if it was just me and a mate with a rented trailor. Those dollys made life SO easy.
Alistair's tip of the day - use the professionals when ever possible.
Also best not to lose your car keys...
To finish off the day I took the Chrysler up for an MOT. Which it passed after some tut-tutting and the usual round of "why don't you just buy a decent car". I think I set the world record for advisories on the test (like six advisories on about 8 or 10 items). So thats a good to-do list
or 
<-- not sure which...But generally its been approved as "not bad, just a bit neglected"
Theres a couple of prize bodges on there to correct. Those ones where "technically" its acceptable for an MOT etc, but really, its not big and its not clever...
Also need to get her running right too, definitely running rich.
Here's a picture of the not so good side. Planning my "scheme" for this too. Makeover in the spring maybe.
I also appear to have sold off all my excess Vauxhall tat which should raise a few quid for stuff I need.
So all in all, not too bad a day.
My old house was actually one ofht e navigation points on a local paper chase thing that the rotarians did it was that well known as the place of tat.
