Sold my last remaining Vauxhall.
The buyer and his mate were coming to collect on Sunday. I had warned him that the car had been in the lockup for years and moving it would be a pain.
So Sunday his mate turns up and not him. Oh dear, I thought, at least its going though and two of us should be able to do it OK with the right equipment.
The caveat was "with the right equipment".
That was what was lacking.
The trailer has no winch...
So one sunday, two idiots, one defective trailer and one dead car...
At this point I should have said "go home and come back when you have a trailer with a winch".
But instead I said: we'll work something out...
I knew the tyres were all flat so I had a set of spare rims with tyres which would hold air.
Car is burried with stuff which we had to shift...
As well as someone haing dumped a matress in frot of the garage which has obviousl y been there a while. Moving it by kicking it (no way was I touching that) a huge splurge of brown liquid came out of it and soaked on leg of my jeans. I don;t even want to think what that might have been....
So we get there and of course the tyres are all flat and the car now sits too low to get the trolly jack under it...
So we have to lift the car onto the jack.
get the wheels off, brakes sized solid. And then I notice the wheel nuts on the current wheels will not fit the wheels I have brought! Argh. So I dash back home (20 mins each way) to get some more wheel nuts.
Well we thought we'd got them all free'd off so we tried pulling the car out with Shaun's Mondeo. One wheel was still locked right up!
So we ended up just taking the drum off. This was about the point I purt my hand in some dog doo (for the first time...)
Anyone remember to bring a hub puller to get it off with? Thought not...
So we got it rolling eventually and hoped we could push it onto the trailer. Ah, no.
So we thought if we lined it up and pushed it right across the yard, and took a good run up we might just be able to...
Ah, no...
So can you tell what is happening here...
Note careful use of plastic sheeting to stop the rope chaffing...
How well do you reckon this worked?
That well?
Ha!
About so. Much wheel spinning later we decided to give this one up as a bad job.
Its worth pointing out that about now was when we piqued the interest of the local kids. "what you doing mister" "whats that car mister" "my dads got a fast car" "why do't you just start it up and drive it on" "why is it so rusty" etc etc. and generally nicking the car keys and being "helpful".
So Shaun decided to reverse the Mondeo thus forcing the Victor up the trailer...
How well do you reckon that worked?
The air was thick with clutch smoke and...
The Victor did not move.
By this time we have been arzing about trying to load the car for 3.5 hours.
So can you guess what we did next?
Yeah, those are mini ratchet straps...
By lowering the bed on the trailer we were able to get in moving...
We got it this far and then it just became too much!
Also note the gap we have to get the car up! Nice.
So we then lowered the bed down again and tried to ratchet it (would not move) and tried to push it (would not move over the "flaps" of the trailer. Just sat there.
In the end I m anaged to get hold of a mate Graham and the three of us (aided by local ragamuffins) managed to LIFT the back end of the Victor onto the flat of the tralier where we could push it the rest of the way.
No more photos. It was 4.5 hours in now and I was done.
That was just the living end.
I was in so much pain, I'd pulled muscles I didn;t even know I had.
Hot bath and thank goodness its gone.
Sad thing is I miss the car already! I fear I might need another FD....
Bah...
The buyer and his mate were coming to collect on Sunday. I had warned him that the car had been in the lockup for years and moving it would be a pain.
So Sunday his mate turns up and not him. Oh dear, I thought, at least its going though and two of us should be able to do it OK with the right equipment.
The caveat was "with the right equipment".
That was what was lacking.
The trailer has no winch...
So one sunday, two idiots, one defective trailer and one dead car...
At this point I should have said "go home and come back when you have a trailer with a winch".
But instead I said: we'll work something out...
I knew the tyres were all flat so I had a set of spare rims with tyres which would hold air.
Car is burried with stuff which we had to shift...
As well as someone haing dumped a matress in frot of the garage which has obviousl y been there a while. Moving it by kicking it (no way was I touching that) a huge splurge of brown liquid came out of it and soaked on leg of my jeans. I don;t even want to think what that might have been....
So we get there and of course the tyres are all flat and the car now sits too low to get the trolly jack under it...
So we have to lift the car onto the jack.
get the wheels off, brakes sized solid. And then I notice the wheel nuts on the current wheels will not fit the wheels I have brought! Argh. So I dash back home (20 mins each way) to get some more wheel nuts.
Well we thought we'd got them all free'd off so we tried pulling the car out with Shaun's Mondeo. One wheel was still locked right up!
So we ended up just taking the drum off. This was about the point I purt my hand in some dog doo (for the first time...)
Anyone remember to bring a hub puller to get it off with? Thought not...
So we got it rolling eventually and hoped we could push it onto the trailer. Ah, no.
So we thought if we lined it up and pushed it right across the yard, and took a good run up we might just be able to...
Ah, no...
So can you tell what is happening here...
Note careful use of plastic sheeting to stop the rope chaffing...
How well do you reckon this worked?
That well?
Ha!
About so. Much wheel spinning later we decided to give this one up as a bad job.
Its worth pointing out that about now was when we piqued the interest of the local kids. "what you doing mister" "whats that car mister" "my dads got a fast car" "why do't you just start it up and drive it on" "why is it so rusty" etc etc. and generally nicking the car keys and being "helpful".
So Shaun decided to reverse the Mondeo thus forcing the Victor up the trailer...
How well do you reckon that worked?
The air was thick with clutch smoke and...
The Victor did not move.
By this time we have been arzing about trying to load the car for 3.5 hours.
So can you guess what we did next?
Yeah, those are mini ratchet straps...
By lowering the bed on the trailer we were able to get in moving...
We got it this far and then it just became too much!
Also note the gap we have to get the car up! Nice.
So we then lowered the bed down again and tried to ratchet it (would not move) and tried to push it (would not move over the "flaps" of the trailer. Just sat there.
In the end I m anaged to get hold of a mate Graham and the three of us (aided by local ragamuffins) managed to LIFT the back end of the Victor onto the flat of the tralier where we could push it the rest of the way.
No more photos. It was 4.5 hours in now and I was done.
That was just the living end.
I was in so much pain, I'd pulled muscles I didn;t even know I had.
Hot bath and thank goodness its gone.
Sad thing is I miss the car already! I fear I might need another FD....
Bah...