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Just finished the entire thread having started yesterday evening. What a marathon! Promise I won’t get behind again, my head couldn’t stand it. Thoroughly enjoyed the journey (so far) though.  |
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Dec 12, 2017 21:08:11 GMT
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There's a little job I've been putting off since, ohh, April or so, that I mentioned a post or two back - the 156 Timing Belt. Finally I freed up some ramp time (yes, I know it's actually a lift, but lift time doesn't sound as cool as ramp time) so I dug the very sorry looking Alfa out of the corner of my driveway. And what it a mess it looks:  I've probably broken some sanctimonious AR owners by-law; I mean, just look at this...  Anyway it's washed now. I would say it looks much better, but when it's washed, it just reveals how severely faded that front bumper actually is. I bought the TB kit ages ago (from France) and set Vinny on to getting that job done while I did something else much less complicated. It was originally intended to be an engine-drop job but he figured he could do it in situ and it would be much quicker. It means I can't sort out one brake pipe that should run down the bulkhead but is currently diverted around the strut tower. OK, it will just have to stay there. He dug in a bit and found the idler pulleys for the aux belt were all in bad shape too. One was seized tight, one was wobbly and loose. The tensioner was tensioning and the belt was only £11 so all of that had to get ordered too.  The whole kit (from France) would have been over £135 but I managed to buy the bits singly (pulleys from England, tensioner from Poland, belt from Newtownards) and save myself £20. Was it worth 2 hours of cross referencing? Probably not. All still genuine and/or OEM supplier made. I don't like putting curse word on my car. Which is probably why I was so annoyed when ordering a water pump from the dealer, they said they had one coming in a couple of days and we stripped the engine down ready to fit it. When a pump came for a 2.0 twinspark came, which is entirely, entirely different, in shape, size, part number and weight - I mean the V6 one is absolutely massive with big wings, it's over a foot wide - I was pretty annoyed. Rang the dealer back and the guy that had made the mistake literally could not muster one single toss, and had no solution other than to tell me one would arrive on Dec 20th if I ordered one. yes, that's right, it hadn't even been ordered. It's not like I hadn't given him the VIN off the car or anything, and I know the Alfa EPC is pretty good. Gah! So I ordered the only one available, a Firstline one, yesterday, from the local factors. Which arrived today at noon. That's better - but also worse. Anyway, need to get the car built. Let's move on. My silver Austin 7 was up for sale and someone from France got in touch who spoke only slightly more English than I do French - that is, exceedingly little. Through emails over the course of a few weeks we managed to understand each other and finally after money had transferred and cleared, (without ever meeting or viewing, because that's how proper vintage car owners roll), Philippe and Francoise embarked on an extended camping weekend avec la campere, et une trailure, sur l'Irlande. Is that correct? I doubt it. I'm not joking we spoke barely a word of each others language, but they caught a ferry to the south of Ireland, camped over, drove up to mine on Saturday morning and there we met, in front of a dishevelled looking Austin as I searched frantically for the radiator cap and tried to jam some charge into the battery. Prepared, I am not. Anyway after a few minutes looking around it - not examining it, just admiring really (that's all I did when I bought it too you know, that's how proper vintage car buyers roll) he someone indicated that he would reverse his camper and trailer up so we could push it on. What! said I, and the couple of staff that were in that morning - we shall drive it on! So it quickly fired up on the 8th attempt, and I 9-point turned it out of the workshop and off to his rig parked just up the road.  And it went on on the second attempt. It was very slippery so it slid back off the first time. I disconnected the battery, showed Philippe were the kill switch and fuel cut-off were, and because I never used it and had totally misplaced the tonneau cover, I said to the workers to wrap a bit of pallet wrap over the seats. But they didn't stop at that...  Sigh.  Our delightful French couple loved the humour though and looked both delighted and excited the whole time.  He emailed me this (Tuesday) morning to say they'd got back home safe (must be using google translate) and I must read it again, either inviting me to come out to France, or look them up if I'm over there. Either way - that's how proper vintage car owners roll. You can see it's thick with snow too. On Sunday I cleared it off the windows of the MG before driving off. I was waiting for it to melt and as soon as I would see it moving I'd of stopped and brushed it all off, but it has stayed so cold here that even after 25 minutes of driving it was still frozen to the car.  Ah well. The good MG has the black wheels off the broken cheap MG I bought a few months ago, because they have good tyres. Eventually I will replace the bulged Bridgestones on the silver wheels and put them back on. And a buddy is trying to get me to swap the black 330d E46 I'm driving for a diesel X5, but I'm resisting that move. I like the 330d too much. |
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In the end, a buddy of mine, not the above-mentioned one though, did take the black 330d off my hands. I've been a little bit miffed about it ever since, but he needed a good car with minimal fuss and to be honest he's probably the only person I would have let have the car off me. I did initially offer to lend it to him for a while but he wanted to keep it. Ah well. That meant I had no winter hack when the snow fell so I spent the days getting the MG filthy instead. Much sad face.  Then I remembered I had another E46 I don't like on the for sale lot that a relative of a buddy was supposed to be buying but that deal was a couple of months overdue and the car was out of MOT, so I chanced it through and it was a dirty, freezing snowy night at about 7:45 that I got a MOT booking for. The testers (2 of them, doing several cars at once for speed) basically looked at it, wiggled the underneath, checked the headlights worked and threw a pass cert at me. (I'll point out that the car is up to standard anyway and they did test all the important stuff, just really quickly.) Job done, MG spared the daily grind. So with a fresh MOT on that E46 I decided to stick it up for sale and look at this Alfa. Vinny had done the timing belt and I'd hoked at some other stuff on it before Christmas. T'other day I stuck in a decent battery as the old faithful Varta in it had died a death in the cold (as did the Varta one in the van as well). One big problem was that ages ago some berk had jacked the floor under the driver footwell and bent the floor up. The solution to that was to pull out the drivers seat, lift the carpet and take a sledge to the floor (with a protective layer so as to not do any worse topside damage). There is a picture of me doing that somewhere but I'm not sure it's wise to publicly release such a violent image. It worked though, and I got a mid-afternoon MOT slot, whereupon it failed. Not surprising after 15 months lay-up, but surprising on what it did fail on. And no, the fail sheet was contained on just one page, thankyou very much all you funny people. and no, none of it was rust, or electrics. My friends all think they are highly amusing. Major defect #1: Can anyone see anything wrong with this plate?  Well it failed because the gap between the 0 and the F is too small. Which it is. Although it's passed like that for the previous 3 or 4 years. Anyway we all know exactly how I'm going to resolve that issue and it'll cost me £5.40 for a standard plate, but I attempted to have a bit of banter with the tester. "But sure a full size plate doesn't fit!  " "Doesn't matter. You need a proper one." "I know, but there's nowhere to put it, the ends will be flapping around!" "It doesn't matter if the ends flap around. It's made to fit small Italian plates, but here in the UK we have bigger plates, and that is how it is sold, and that is what you legally have to fit, so get it done or you wont get an MOT."ZERO humour. major defect #2: Top wishbone! Now there's a surprise (sarcasm). This'll be down to the last mechanic I used before I started doing everything in house. I told him to hold on while I got a genuine wishbone ordered, but he went ahead and fitted a cheapo pattern part anyway. "Oh, I thought you wanted it done really quick"I couldn't be bothered arguing (or paying to have the genuine one fitted) but as evident by this MOT fail, pattern ones at under £25 don't last a crack. It might be three years or so, but it'll be about max 10k, maybe less. Anyway, this isn't my first (Alfa) rodeo! Here's a wishbone I have "in stock"! handy, eh?  And at the same time, the MG had the bonnet lifted, for what I almost called "servicing", but more accurately, it's "fluid replacement" as, as detailed in previous posts, the MG is a self servicing car that simply does away with whatever fluid it doesn't need and all you have to do is periodically re-fill. Mainly petrol, and lots of it (I used a 1/4 tank doing 26 miles on Saturday night, that was fun!) but also some oil and some coolant. Very little consumed this time, so it must be on a diet.  The only other news is that I've been 'corresponding' with DVLA for 11 months now trying to get my Cadillac registered a little more properly. It was on a Q plate and listed as 'date of first registration - 1991'. It's a '78 car and I had a dating cert. to that effect. I sent it in and they both lost it and used it, and managed to create two registrations for the car at once, so middle of last year it had two issued V5s and was both a Q plate and a KXZ plate. I gave up on the letters and wrote emails hoping for a quicker response but the replies came from DVLA in letter form so that was utterly pointless. Then they said the rules around Q plates had changed and I couldn't change it (even though it was already not a Q...) Then I took to ringing and they (she, the lady dealing with this all along, the one who answers the phone with "What??" (yes, really)) said, oh, you just want to change the date of manufacture, no problem (after 10 minutes of trying to persuade/remind her that I'd sent in a Cadillac owners club dating cert), I'll just re-issue that (after another 10 minutes trying to persuade/remind her that she had ALL the copies of the V5 and I had none, even though I'd been reminding her about that since last September in letters...) After a week a V5 arrived, with the KXZ reg on it, and the date of first reg listed as... yep, 1991. Rang up again, ("What??") to explain, which was met with, but you have an Irish reg now, so the date doesn't matter. OH RIGHT, (sarcasm) so you want to change the date of first registration then, not the date of manufacture? Then I said, it doesn't show the DOM anywhere. Yes it does. Eh, no it doesn't. Yes it does. On the front. Under special notes. No it doesn't. Let me check. Oh, it doesn't. Doesn't matter anyway, it's on an Irish reg now. So can I put on my private reg if it's a pre 1991 reg? No. So we've achieved precisely nothing then. Nope.Ugh. |
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Did I not just put a post up on Thursday night extolling the virtues of my ZT?  The coolant became not very cool and was steamed out while the radiator stayed cold (so thermostat most likely). Thanks very much, ungrateful brute. MG out of action now. Alfa wishbone changed on Saturday, MOT Wednesday evening. Several E39 530ds bought in for work (seriously, like 4 in 8 days, got offered another one today too) so transport crisis averted. Once the Alfa is sorted, will sort the MG, then might respond to the claims of an old acquaintance that called in last week. "Your E28 looks abandoned." Yeah, well, yeah... OK then. Time to focus. Stop looking at cheap Subarus on ebay. |
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Umm, OK. The cheap Subaru comment was sparked by a friend of mine who I am hunting a new car for, and she said she liked the Legacy she used to have when she lived in the US. I have an ebay search set up to show me any cars in NI under £4k or so (just in case some bargain old Toyota shows up) and I idly clicked "show results" a few days ago. Up pops this silver Forester 2.0X with 9 months ticket for way too little, sitting there at £600, about a third of what one is worth really. I thought, no way am I letting that go that cheap, if it's going to sell for that, it'll be me that buys it. So I starting flexing my 'manual sniping' fingers, got ready, and stuck in a £700-odd bid with a mere 48 minutes left (that's how you do it, yeah?) and it increased the bid to a huge £620. And there it stuck. It was mid afternoon so one of the guys spotted me looking at it and asked did I really want it? Not really I said, it's just cheap. Then I found myself checking it every ten minutes, and getting annoyed at the thought of losing it. He spotted that too, and made me admit that, actually, maybe I rather do want it. And then it ended and I'd won, and I did allow a little satisfied smile to sneak in. So he offered to drive me up that evening, so that's precisely what we did. Weather was pretty miserable on the way up but we stopped and gathered nutrition in one of those wee shops where you say "How're you doing the eavenin'?" to the shopkeeper as you walk in. So on the way up, we were joking about needing a campfire and some marshmallows, then we got some marshmallows, and used a rusty screwdriver as a pokey-stick, and a lighter, and made perfectly decent toasted mallows. Finally we arrived, and drove around this exclusive housing development, one with iron gates and individually designed red brick houses, until I spotted my new steed in a driveway. We pulled in and were shown into the garage as the weather closed in, with a quick introduction to a restored TR7 rally car in Tony Pond livery, and then back on our way as the driveway began to turn white. A quick fumble to re-acquaint myself with the backwards controls of a Japanese car and off we set. At the end of the main road is where we then discovered that the tailgate doesn't always close that well - as I moved off it sprang open and as I felt the cold and tried to check all the electric windows were up, that's when i discovered the drivers window doesn't work. Then I looked in the mirror and thought, that's a very clear view! We got a few miles away only before the weather got really serious. That skirting of snow on the ground became a couple of cm..  Visibility became insanely bad - down to 20mph at one point, and even that was dicey enough. It was at this point that we decided that using an old BMW to travel there might have been a good idea at the time, but there might be certain issues pertaining to the return journey.  He went first so I could match his speed rather than him trying to unsuccessfully keep up with me. Any remotely upward ascent and his back end stepped out - several hills were spent entirely broadside with the clocks showing 3 figures, while actually doing 15. I was sitting in my Forester in third gear with the 4WD in the high setting. Which brings me to the gloating section of the post, where I draw on an old credit card advert for inspiration. Buying an old Subaru: £620. Buying fuel to get there: £15. Buying an old 4WD, literally moments before a snowstorm envelops the country (after a week of clear weather!): Priceless.So we got back in the end, it took two hours to do about 30 miles with several stops to clear snow off the headlights, while my friend drove like Marcus Gronholm, and I listened to a bit of country music. Oh, there is already a National Trust sticker in the back window, and the radio already tuned to Downtown and U105. There's a non-detachable towbar fitted and I have a flat cap "in stock", so I think we're all sorted. The next morning I sent this other friend that had had the Legacy this picture  saying This is almost entirely your fault.To which she replied You mean, my fault for reminding you how awesome Subarus are? Not sorry.So now I have my fifth Subaru, second silver one, with only a minor exhaust blowout, faulty window and annoying self-locking when you move off. It also has a 1500kg tow rating, good tyres, 9 months MOT and grey leather. And I don't need it. Because the Alfa passed the MOT on Wednesday after fitting the gash plate.  That'll be short-lived. Oh wait, I do need the Forester. Because on the way back from passing the MOT, the Alfa decided that a squealing rear passenger caliper would be just the thing to celebrate with. So, more brake work to do. At least I'll have an excuse to do a tyre rotation while that's being sorted. Cars are fantastic...aren't they? |
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Quote, by me, earlier: Oh wait, I do need the Forester. Except, that decided to start humming from the rear too. Seriously, between thermostats, calipers and bearings, I had six cars out of action in one fell swoop. Including the spare spare reserve car, a crappy E39 530d with close on 300k, which also then decided to start heaving around the front suspension. Which turned out to be an engine mount totally falling apart and letting the engine fall over at a kilter which then rocked back every time the car stopped or moved off, unpleasantly. It also stinks inside of fumes, exhaust is leaking. It made do for about three days until this was ready for a test drive:  So I drove that a day or two - couldn't go far until heating and electrics checked over as this was a complete new build, with an engine conversion using a later engine meaning much wiring adaptation; and the Subaru got investigated. Rear wheel bearing totally hanging out of it. Only done a few hundred miles in it so far, but you can never tell when they are going to go. The exhaust also could be looked at:    Someone's been at that before. To be fair my welding is not much better, but this is leaking now and leaves me thinking about it. I can replace and repair - or, I can open it up a bit. Now that it's confirmed that it's going to stick around, should I give it some warble? I have to fix it anyway, I might as well fix it with some 2" or 2.25" pipe instead of the pea-shooter. And last bit of news is that two blue Skodas are soon to join in the fun. I don't need them, didn't particularly want them, but a guy I know who is very adept at digging out old treasures found this pair in neighbouring houses in Belfast and nobody else has stepped forward to tackle them and get them on the road again, so he contacted me asking if I wanted them. Nope, but the price came down and delivery was offered and I find it very hard to refuse old Skodas that need a bit of love. Not much of an update but not much has been done. And yet I'm still working 9am to 3am nearly every day. Explain that :/ |
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dikkehemaworst
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,636
Club RR Member Number: 16
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thanks for your write up. really enjoy reading every new episode!
Thanks
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Latest delivery:  Two more Skodas. That's it, I've lost count. Darker ones needs some welding - minor to me, but serious to anyone that's looked at it before - and some minor fettling, and it will be on the road again, hopefully within 4-6 weeks is my estimation if I can get a couple of days at it sometime on the ramp. The light blue one needs serious welding (read: terminal) and lots more fettling, but is mechanically very good. It's definitely going to be a donor in that there are panels off it needed for the dark one, but I am not sure whether I actually want to just kill it off, given it's a rare colour (yeah, people care about stuff like that on Favorits now!) and it's managed to cover 314k already!! The dark one only has 58k. Parking has become a serious issue at work. There's several more due next week, but, um  Just for anorakism's sake, I think the dark blue is faded Ocean Blue (standard colour) and the other is Metallic Sea Blue, only an option on the Flairline GLXiE (top spec) model. The Flairline is what these both are, and it's basically the highest normal spec outside of the Blackline and Silverline models which were rare low volume ones with different alloys and extra driving lights in the grille (neither of which I like), and the super rare Flairline CD which was just a Flairline with a CD player installed, which was big news in 1995 but sounds ridiculous now. One of my green estates is a CD, but the CD player has long since gone walkies before I got it in 2005. The Subaru is back on the road - After the bearing went, it was parked in the corner while I priced one up (£40!) and opted to wait on an ebay one (£17!). When it arrived the hub was set into but wouldn't come apart easily. Checked in with Paul Conlan, a local IDC drifter that we sponsor and works as a mechanic, a very good one, with a very good knowledge of Japanese stuff and he said yeah, when they go they wear the hubs out inside, just get a s/h hub. He also said they come off easy - not a hope! Seized bottom hub bolt meant between Jay that works here (90%) and me (10%) we took off the whole hub with arms, handbrake cable and shoes. Seeing as I'd already got the bearing, I figured I'd get it swapped over anyway and that meant a drive to another garage a couple of miles away. Given we do about one bearing a quarter, it's pointless buying a Press, especially when a mate of mine runs a proper garage in the next village and I also vaguely sponsor one of his employees in amateur drifting, I get free bearing press work done. That's supposed to be "sure, go ahead and use it" but I always get away with "I don't know how, erm, you do it" which so far has worked every time But handily enough I took the hub up in the E36 with the big stupid spoiler on it and remembered it needed the castor and toe-in sorted on the rear, and conveniently they'd bought in a new and very expensive lift with all that built in so got that done there too. Bearing back in, hub back in, and brakes bled (as the hose had been off the cylinder, remember this is drum rear not disc like most stuff we work on) and today after testing the brakes and then getting Jay to re-bleed them on the ramp as they weren't too good first time, and it's back in a usable state - but that exhaust is still blowing, so got to decide right now whether it gets opened up, or I keep the pea-shooter. Any opinions? And just before we went home today, the Alfa got back inside. Wheels off, will look at that sticky rear caliper, and probably give the underside a good going over and then underseal it, and start prepping it for sale.  Found five cross-threaded bolts in one wheel as well, excusable in ones but not all five, so whoever put that wheel on last has done something really stupid - if nothing else, not noticed five bolts missing half their threads. On a 190hp FWD car too, those bolts have to hold together under all that torque and all that steering too. OK, not all that much torque to be fair. Anyway, five new bolts to find. Hopefully the 164 spares car will have some that fit, as I think they are different, definitely shorter, than anything else I have around. |
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Mar 12, 2018 12:47:07 GMT
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Love those Skodas! My dad had a hatchback in that rarer darker blue colour that was a Flairline GLXiE - built like a tank. I think that's what gave me my love of boxy 80's/90's cars! There is an estate that drives around my area that is mint and has a something SKO number plate - obviously well loved. Good to see you want to keep them. Always had a soft spot for them. My dad had a Rapide before that too. Favourite was replaced with an Octavia but that was curse word so then they went off Skodas (damn it VW!). I recently put some pages up on my wall from a Czechoslovakian motorsport magazine I got at an autojumble of a cool looking one to make a little collection:  Sorry for the crappy image quality. Do you have any hatchbacks? Would love one of these - don't know if they were ever produced though. I love how utilitarian the interiors were - brings me back to my childhood. |
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I have never come across that camper thing! Must be a potatoshop as it is elongated also. I do have a hatchback one still, although it is pretty forlorn parked over at the old farm at the minute.  It was parked there after failing the MOT on rampant rot, so it's kind of irrelevant that it's overgrown - either way, welding in a foot square plate (for example) is the same amount of work as welding in a 6x6" square. |
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Mar 24, 2018 23:09:52 GMT
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So after having though I was back on the road with the Subaru, it instantly went foot to the floor again and the brakes were beyond appalling again. New fluid required all round, it's looking decidedly unchanged-since-new, and possibly get a couple of new rear cylinders into it too, just in case - they look fairly rotten, and this thing is losing all it's pressure somewhere. The Alfa has it's front bumper off and away to be painted - Rosso Alfa paint is expensive! That should be back next week. All the bumper bolts were really, really easy to remove - even the ones that normally ring off. That my friends is because I copper greased them all five years ago when I fitted this bumper, and that was proof if you ever needed it, as those bolts are a pain in the butt. There's some especially dicey Torx ones holding the bumper to the wing from underneath which never normally fare too well. While they're waiting then I'm driving around in another £200 E39 530d. Half the doors don't line up straight and the sills are all dented stupid, but it half a tank of juice and some MOT, and three new tyres, so it's just about ideal. Except I found out on the way to work the other day that the fuel gauge is dodgy, which was fun when it started chugging coming off the motorway. I kept it planted and got another 1/4 mile before it was truly dying, and then I just clutched in and managed to coast the rest of the way to work, stopping right at the gate. Tidy, right? It was only yesterday I had some spare time to get a bit of diesel into it and try it. Battery wasn't up to it. So today, hooked up another diesel car for the amperage, and started cranking. I was offered a 17mm spanner by one of my workers but that would have meant getting out, taking the engine cover off, bleeding it... eugh. A piggy, dirty job, much less preferable than sitting in the car, in the sunshine, cranking incessantly until it bled itself. It was £200 man, come on. It only runs on 5 cylinders when it's cold anyway lol. Eventually it fired up and so that's getting used over the weekend again, to see if it can be trusted again. If it breaks again it'll be consigned to the graveyard. Completing our full 4-make round-up, as part of the deal on the 2 Favorits I bought recently, I was linked up with a previous owner of one of them - both of them actually, if the previous previous owner info on the V5 is right. Whatever, the point is - big stash of spare parts. Collected and delivered to me on Friday. Many good parts, including several NOS repair panels, which is much excite. There may also be more.   Yay! Old Skoda stuff! Actually, making this a 5-make post, I glanced out of the upstairs window earlier and it looks like there is a big area of lacquer peel on the roof of the MG. Much not excite  Could possibly be because of the inclement weather recently - the East from the Beast, as my Lithuanian buddy keeps calling it. |
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Here's a few photos which prompted another short post. I came across someone looking for some Minilite style 13"s for a Skoda and knowing I wanted to get the set I have off the orange 110 eventually, I seized the opportunity and made contact, so those are sold and had to come off.  This spurred on the fitting of alternative wheels to the car seeing it still needed to be held up somehow. So now it's on the pink and white Apollos I pictured a while ago. They actually suit the car OK, even in the dodgy paint scheme.  I'm still waiting on the Alfa bumper to be finished painting - it's in primer at the minute but has several little bits that need re-done, thankfully the guy painting it understands that I want it right and would rather wait for a good finish than rush and have a poor job. Just today, at last, the Forester got it's brakes re-done, Jason emptied it of old murky fluid (mostly brown, some milky white he said, in the back right, which if I remember means it's moisture contaminated. So hopefully that has eliminated the spongy / non-functional brakes and i can go back to using that again. I haven't been too panicked as the extremely ropey 530d has been doing a sterling job, even gaining a bit more "character" last weekend. I think one of the very best things about a car you truly don't care about is being able to bang it about, or in this case drag it across some metal and ruin the side of it even more. The boys in work pulled a couple of panels off it - the only straight ones left - before I ruined those, so now it's got dented, different colour front end bits on it too. I won't have it long enough to get attached to it, but it will be fondly remembered alongside the "Scania" and the "Tank", two previous 530d's that were also totally ruined but utterly brilliant. And tonight the dark blue Favorit went on to the lift in work, and that should take only a few days to sort out so we might even have that MOT-ready by the end of the week while we wait on parts for a couple of other big projects.  |
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Apr 12, 2018 23:40:53 GMT
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It has been told to me by Jason what took this photo that it absolutely must be added to this thread.  Work on the Favs starts tomorrow. |
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Apr 22, 2018 18:40:55 GMT
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This forwarded email promised a lot of grief... Hey Rob,
Just had phone call from Anne ****** she does not want to weigh in their 2 old skodas as scrap but realises that they may both be too far gone to save.
Barn is collapsing on top of cars. 135 is full of dash parts dials etc in front boot plus other parts.
Both cars were complete when parked up. Clutch is shot on 136 Black. Red RIC is ex Skoda GB demonstrator.
Anne and Stan hope cars can be used to provide spares to keep others on road
Location id near Ballymoney.
She said she would send me pics.
She would like a small donation if we recover parts or cars but is realistic.
Family are moving back to main land NW so need to sort this out.
Does Wilf still keep in touch?
Good luck in sorting this.
Will forward pics when they turn up.
MarkThen a series of promising photos starting arriving in my inbox:  So I left that a couple of weeks then decided to face up to it. Yeah, I've no space, and I don't need them, but this thing is a compulsion as much as making any sense, isn't it? That's what makes us "enthusiasts" and not just "people that have a car". I'm not going to start trying to tell the whole story, because it's long and laboured and I haven't had enough sleep this week, but the short version is - that picture doesn't reveal the whole story. The door to that old cowshed is to the left side, not behind the camera as you might imagine. Both cars were of course completely seized up - old Skoda experience told me that in advance, so I dispatched a couple of guys (as I had a Favorit to weld up and clear off the lift, remember?). Bringing a tanked up compresser would be no use for the tyres, likely would not hold air, and I had no spare wheels with tyres that would fit as I'd just sold the ones off the S110. To simplify the process in a roundabout awkward way, we put my too-high-to-be-a-cool-Impreza Subaru on the trailer as I suspected the 4wd might come in useful, and it did when it turned out the shed was located in a slippery grass covered back yard, not a nice concrete one as might be expected.  So the two guys spent many hours dragging out the red car first. It was then forced against it's will on to the trailer and dragged the 60-odd miles back to the yard.       A "135 RiC" is a rare fuel-injected version of the Rapid, UK market only (or poss Canada too?) that I think was a trial run for the Injected Favorit engine that was to come, although VW getting involved in the early 90s meant the Favorit ended up on troublesoms Bosch electronics, not the Czech PAL stuff that had been tested already. They are a rare model nowadays and even rarer if they work. We'll never know though as this one was retrofitted back to carb.   I went up the next day with Jay to get the other car and it was just as seized but Jay had the bright idea to bring our bodyshell rollers and we simply jacked the car up and swung it through ninety degrees. Again the tyres were utterly destroyed, so no amount of air blowing would have helped.  The black one looked decidedly more solid than the thoroughly unsound red RiC, and the tow strap was hooked up to the front eye which comes off the drivers side front chassis rail. The Subaru easily pulled it out of the garage on the rollers but of course they were not going to work on the grass outside. That's when the 'bang!' happened and the ENTIRE front end of the black Rapid detached itself from the shell and collapsed in a heap!  So it was strapped around the lower wishbone and unceremoniously dragged across the grass. Then it was pushed on to the trailer, all by the overpowering traction of AWD, and shipped back to the yard, while I drove the Forester back in the most unpretty convoy ever seen.  AND I had to pay the woman for the privilege! Parts obtained will be a real minimal amount, and there's not really enough video footage obtained to do anything useful with, so really the only benefit of doing this was - erm - was, uh, actually I'll get back to you on that. |
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Apr 23, 2018 12:07:32 GMT
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At least you're halfway to a garden ornament already. Just bust a window and add a few extra plants!
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Apr 23, 2018 14:48:09 GMT
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A red Rapide, that brings back memories. They look thoroughly mullered though. Good on you for taking them in the spirit of....something
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Apr 23, 2018 14:51:36 GMT
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Love the Estelle, always have ever since my dad and granddad had a slew of them when I was growing up.
I still aim to own one at some point but the scope is getting smaller and smaller.
Love the Favs too!
Keep up the good work!
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Apr 25, 2018 21:47:52 GMT
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Things can escalate quickly sometimes. All that Skoda stuff came at me very suddenly, with no deliberate attempt on my part to add any more hassles to my repertoire. In fact I consistently tried to get out of them, look how well that turned out. I forgot to mention earlier that I'd picked up a set of Alfa 147 wheels, eventually to go on the 156 so I can keep the Momo wheels for the 164. Unfortunately one has a massive bend in the rear of it so they are away to be fixed by a professional and then refurbished as well, not cheap but should boost the cars value, although I am still tempted to pick up some 16" teledials as it would have originally come with.  And finally, I was sent an ebay link for a car I've wanted for a while, and I had a moment of "don't think, just bid" and 5 days ticked by until I "won" for the opening bid, unchallenged. I went to see it a couple of days ago, it's in NW England and sure to cost me vast fortunes of money in both the short and long term. So now I'm carefully poring over how I can reduce my fleet, perhaps raise a few pounds towards this new one. Unfortunately everything can make a very good case for staying. I'll need to do another recap now. Bear with. 1930 Austin 7 Ulster - still needs restored. No way am I selling this in dismantled form. 193x Austin 7 Special - still a bitsa. Worth much less in bits than a complete car, and it's all there. Do that one later. 1978 Cadillac Coupe De Ville - don't want to sell, and not worth much in current slightly dismantled state until i fix, uhm, everything. 1979 Skoda S110R - probably my most valuable car in my head, and close to road-going. Simply not for sale, ever. 1985 Skoda 120L5 Estelle - would sell, will sell, but right now is a non running slightly rusty heap. It needs fixed to be worth selling. 1985 Fiat Regata - I really should just MOT this again, only needs paint really, and that can wait. Not worth actual monies and many changes of hands before I pounced prove that. 1985 BMW M535i - this brings me a lot of joy, when it's on the road. Its mechanically fine but the rubbish body repairs other people have done to it have caught up at last. I need to fix it, and then I wont sell it. 1987 Skoda 130LSE Estelle - my first car, which I still owe a restoration. Worthless as is. 1987 Skoda Rapid - this is a rot free shell, but worthless as it's just a bare frame. 1988 Skoda Rapid - I waited a long time for an original NI car in white and this one has 5k on it. Would have to be pried from my hands with sharp metal tools. 1989 Skoda Rapid - few too many of these now - this is a complete, accident damaged car. Will be needed to help make the 87 shell a real car again. 1992 Skoda Favorit - totally rusty, will come alive in some frankenstein super-build some day in the distant future. 1993 Alfa Romeo 164 - waited many years for my ideal 164 and not about to give it up now. 1994 BMW 740i - this is the black one I've rebuilt all my spares up for and it's waiting for a manual conversion. This car I do not need, and I could consider selling this - but it's only worth the sum of it's parts right now. Breaking it seems rude. 1995 Skoda Favorit Estate - does not need escessive amounts of repair, just time. Worthless until fixed, and a keeper thereafter. 1995 Skoda Favorit Estate - spares car for above, no value otherwise. 2001 Alfa Romeo 156 SW - this is finally going to be sold once the parts are ready. The money from this was already earmarked for repainting the 164 though. 2001 MG ZT - currently thermostat is unfixed, but I miss driving it. I am not sure I could deprive myself of the V6 - and it owes me very little, I would kind of like to keep it. If i sold it I would only buy another one later. 2001 MG ZT - identical spares car for above, worthless in any other regard due to HGF. 2002 Triumph TT600 - I could let my bike go, but it needs some fixing done. And if it was fixed, would I want to sell it? On the cusp of summer? P'raps not. 2005 Subaru Forester - my only J car, my only AWD - and reliable and sturdy. It's a bit rough, needs a few things sorted, and is a good spare towcar - but I will not need it to daily any more. This could go, unfortunately it's not worth very much either. Perhaps though, now would be the time, as I do not love it dearly like an old faithful dog just yet. On the peripherals, as always: 2001 BMW 530d - hanging together, occasional daily. Would scrape another MOT but way too rough to sell to an actual person. 2001 BMW 530d Sport - making a demo car for work out of this one, so will have an auto, diesel, towcar available shortly. 1995 Skoda Favorit Estate - still mid-refurbishment, will be for sale once done. This will help free a few quid up but not the most valuable of machines, and only done to save the old girl, not to make the big bucks. 1991 Skoda Favorit Pickup - a long way off, and needs so much work it would surely be scrapped by anyone sensible. 1996 Alfa 146 - this is hiding away waiting for the time I rip out the front end and stick it in the above pickup. However I've just got hold of a good, spare, complete engine for the pickup which is 1000% easier, and thereafter I would sell it, so the 2.0 Twink could be spare and shove the shell off to the scrappy. Lot of work for little money though, will maybe do that later. Not looking good, is it? Definitely looks like the time is up for the Subaru, which is a shame. This new car is definitely worth it though. Now to carefully think about the future of the MG, but, hmm, I would really rather keep it... |
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I think the problem is not the money. It's the headspace. You have all these projects all vying for time, money, space and brain processes. And you are just getting overwhelmed by it all. It shows because you've had a lot of them sitting around too long without any progress.
As a person prone to taking on too many projects, I can only suggest you let some stuff go. You may lose/not make money in the process, but it's very liberating freeing up the space and the mental relief that comes with it.
Judging from your list, I'd be letting go of the Caddy, the '85 Estelle, the '91 Favourit pickup, the TT600, the 146, the rough 530d and the ZT's. The subaru, you've already given up on, so that can go too.
That would bring your fleet from 27 down to 18 including your new car.
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Last Edit: Apr 26, 2018 9:56:01 GMT by sciclone: misformed sentences..
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Apr 26, 2018 11:05:08 GMT
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If you sell the Caddy....gimme gimme
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Could possibly be because of the inclement weather recently - the East from the Beast, as my Lithuanian buddy keeps calling it. 
