The Continuous Car Thread of S_S - Dream Car #1 Achieved '23

I also managed to track another thing down this week. I keep in with certain local people that others would not necessarily want to, and they like to keep me happy too, for whatever reason I don't know. So when I went asking about a wing for the 405, to replace this buckled up thing, I got a phone number for a nephew that has a stash of spares for his own couple.



I got an answer from him after a day or so, and yep, he had one for me, and better yet, told me that the "big bumper" and "small bumper" cars have different wings, but mine was the big bumper and that's what the wing he had was for.


So now I have a wing for it from 3 miles away, when I had begun to wonder where I was going to get anything for it.




Last bit of news, the Rover, I mean, the MG, is up on the lift.
The brake hoses have all been changed for new, the brake lines were a little scabby in places so they've been taken off and new ones made, and bleed nipples are freed off ready to pump through a fluid flush.
The handbrake cables were bought, but only the small front one needed replaced, the rears were as new. The handbrake hadn't been working but that was down to poor adjustment by the look of it. All the discs and pads were very good - no need to replace. The handbrake shoes look like they're not long in it.


Now I'm waiting on complete front struts being built to order by DMGRS, and they have new rear springs ordered for me too as those were cracked. The front struts will include the top mounts and bearings which apparently are a known weak spot, as well as the drop links which I need. So that will be a complete suspension overhaul. The exhaust has been welded at the front where it had cracked in two places, and the rear section removed entirely. It looks rather similar to a BMW one so I'm going to try and use a S/H one seeing I have dozens of those and they tend not to rot badly being stainless steel.

In good news, the car appears to have fairly sound bodywork. We haven't found any holes in the metalwork yet despite some vigorous wire-brushing.


I don't often get the luxury of a free lift space, so it's really nice just to put the car up and keep it there until the job is done, and get everything done in one go. It's costing a fair whack, but the end up will be a car I hope will be trouble and maintenance free for 2 years at least. I can foresee me putting 20k a year on this thing if it doesn't explode, and knowing it's all sorted underneath will give me the confidence to do that.
Going through one car start to finish is yielding dividends in efficiency and focus, and I'm making plans to be better able to do that come next year. It's a way of operating I've wanted to bring from the methodology of customer work over to my own cars for a long time, and also next year I'll combine that with some apparatus I've wanted to install as well, which will allow that to happen. So now, it's just wait and see how we go for the next chapters.

Glad you got your LR back.
By stopped, do you mean you have chase?

Oh I see! I thought it had been stolen and you were chasing it haha. And it came back with a busted mirror.

Meanwhile the Land Rover has had a few more people asking about it, but every time I do something with it, it reminds me why I'm in no panic to sell. It's just sitting 'right' here, in it's natural environ.



and some cars arrived. Up until the 20th of January I'd actually managed not to buy a single car since the start of the year! I was getting a little bit anxious about that (joke) so I had a poke online and found an E36 for sale.

A particular E36.

This one.
That was the last car that my friend Ali drove, and the car we used as the centre-piece in the display at his funeral last February.

It was sold on by the family after a while, and has passed hands a few times. Finally it arrived with someone in October who realised it was a bigger bite than he could chew and it's come this way to have the treatment - a full overhaul.

It's running an M44B19 that Ali and I fitted in my workshop, but unfortunately the FSH that the car had has been lost.

Because I bought some of his project cars and parts from the family, I actually have the original M43B16 from this car as well. I could put it back to totally standard, or leave it with the M44. Either way it needs an exhaust and a little bit of bodywork and generally a good tidying.


I'll show you also what I've been test driving in the last few days:

This is a "Neon Edition", a limited run of E30 Cabriolets with unique colours and interiors. We were tasked with resolving a poor running engine and electric problems - actually the customer thought the engine was bad and wanted it replaced. We did some cursory examinations and found the engine was sound - and over the last couple of months have been removing and replacing the complete immobiliser system, alarm system, and ignition system - all of which were faulty. The PAS was also inoperative. All of these have been fixed and it's undergoing a bit of test-driving to make sure that everything is good and there are no more intermittent ignition issues. Nice to keep the original engine in it, and changing it wouldn't have fixed any of the problems anyway. When you get the freedom to really investigate and iron out issues it can often lead to a more preferable result.

And lastly, there is a NEW CAR! Something very exciting, so exciting I have been driving it for the last week and have not actually stopped long enough to take any pictures... I have to run it on super-unleaded so it's been a costly week, but still lots of fun.
Will update soon.

Wow, 2 months. Time has been been busy.


So you will remember that I was having difficulty with not enough fully working cars.
One of the guys in work was dealing with a young girl that had phoned in looking to sell her Mini. It had been smashed at the rear and was only good for scrap. But being nearby and assured that it was not smashed so bad to be undriveable, my dad and I went over after work one night and I knocked on the door. I had to wait in the sitting room with the girl's parents until she was out of the shower, because she'd totally forgotten that I was coming, or that she was selling the car, but anyway I set the £200 on the coffee table and made off, it was getting late and a hot dinner was on my mind.


The battery was totally flat and the car wouldn't even start on a bump so we had to go get a battery then. So the dinner had to wait, and we ran about getting jump leads and a battery and tools. We needed all of them in the end, but once the Mini spluttered into life, it soon started remembering how it felt to be on the open road and it got better as it went on. Electrical parts that didn't work at first started to kick in as the alternator woke them up, and the energetic drive home loosened up the stiff undercarriage.

By the time I'd done the 10 miles back down the roads towards home, I decided I'd just drive this for a while instead.



I mean, there is actually nothing wrong with it, under than lots of lacquer peel.



And this is the damage:


It's not even bad enough to be bothered trying to fix it.


It's running around on an old 063 battery I had that could only muster 200A. Now, that is low. Originally these have a 460A or so. That means, you only get a couple of goes at starting it. Thankfully it is a really easy starter and takes no effort. It's a peachy one to drive, and I've driven a few rough ones now. The alternator puts out plenty of current so it runs the electrics while the car is running.

There's only one story to tell. The battery was not only underpowered, it has worn terminals and the leads would not clamp down tight. So every so often they would bounce off, like the Land Rover does. One evening I went over to football training and bumped over a pot-hole on the way. The alternator kept the car going but the battery was now disconnected. Also, another thing that this Mini has is auto-locking when it goes over 10mph. So the doors were locked, and the battery was off...
Yeah.
I pulled up at football, and switched the car off... and could not get out. I knew what had happened immediately and so my mind started at the most obvious choice first, smash a window open. But then I grabbed my phone and called one of the other guys who hadn't arrived yet, and asked him to rescue me.
Often I didn't bother taking my phone to football so I was glad that I had this day!
When he arrived I pulled the bonnet from inside, they connected the battery lead and I was able to hit the unlock button and escape.
Still, I didn't fix that for another 6 weeks, I just made sure to hit the unlock button every time before turning the car off!


I went round one Sunday afternoon to some friends for lunch, and there is a ford at the end of their road. I'd desperately wanted to take the Land Rover through it but this was in mid-Feb when the rain was heavy and the rivers were high. Very high, this tributary runs past his house and we worked out it had risen 12 feet...



It was scary looking out at it in a Mini that sits less than a foot off the ground with the little 15" wheels.



Since that, the wheels have been replaced with 16" Cooper wheels in white, to make it a little nicer looking, and mainly because I'd been doing loads of burnouts and handbrake turns in it because I'm not a proper grown-up yet and so the 15" tyres were getting low.


So, that's the Mini, the "spare daily", which has clocked up several thousand miles in the last 10 weeks or so.

Towards the end of February, I hired a Telescopic for the day and stuck the long toes on. We arranged to stay in work late and just keep going to try and clear some space.

We hauled off a Mini Cooper and an E46s and this E36 compact, and a rusty 2002 and one of the Skoda Rapids I bought last year for spares - and moved some other stuff around.

Eventually we made enough space to fit another lorry container in, so I was able to call a guy (after tracking him down again) and get him to deliver me a trailer over.

Another job needing tackled was the case of the seized solid locking ring. The Makita 9" grinder uses a larger hole spacing than our other grinders, and the tool for it was nowhere to be found, so eventually, I just figured I would make one.
This is why we keep old broken tools lying around...


And it fitted perfectly!

Alas though - it bent. It bent real bad. I straightened it and strengthened it a couple of time but it just wasn't going.

The next step was to weld something to the locking ring.

That was welded to the side in the hope that I could then break or cut it off afterwards and re-use the ring. But after much heaving, it snapped off.

Hours were passing by.
Next step.
A bit of bar welded straight to the ring.

Many extensions were used for leverage, but this solid 12mm steel bar bent rather than release the ring!

Eventually I had to call in the professionals and the grumpy old engineer that works for me smacked it off with a massive mallet while I held the locking pin in with one hand and the grinder still with the other - and tried not to take a hammer to the temple.

Well who cares, you say? Well, it was needed, because the days of the Stihl saw were coming to a close. Hundreds of hours of work over 5 or 6 years were making the stone saw a little tired, and I'd spent hundreds on keeping it serviced over the last couple of years, so a new saw became more and more enticing. So I needed the 9" working in order to release the Stihl from duties.
The Skoda Rapid was moved into the "kill zone" and over St Patricks day, I took a couple of days off and stripped it to a bare shell.


Unfortunately the welding of a lump of bar to the Makita locking ring meant I had to wait on a new one to be sent out to replace it, and the noisy orange beast had to be called upon again.


But it was worth it to save a rust-free non-sunroof roof-skin for a car that went out of production almost 30 years ago.


And what remained was carted off to the recycling yard. It was good to finally finish that off.
A couple of days later the fellow that sold me those last two Rapids stopped by and told me he'd made contact with someone he had been trying to get hold of, and there were two more to be dragged out of another field. Just what I needed!

The next story is an interesting one.

It begins about a year and a half ago. A girl that was happy with any excuse to spend time with me drove me down to Kilkeel and I bought a "white" "M3". In fact we had to go down twice in one day as I didn't expect to do a deal on the spot.

Anyway I got I got it back up the road. It was originally a red 318is and although the paintjob was good, the engine conversion wasn't. I stripped the running gear out of it, put it back together as an iS, and stuck it up for sale. But it was one of those "bogey" cars, where no matter what, something would happen it every time it was taken out. And then it had constant views and test drives with people insisting they were going to come back in a few days with the money. None of them ever did - it got to the point where I thought it would never sell. It came round for MOT and it took three attempts to get through because each time I went up, a different indicator would fall out (common issue on E36s). The third time I went up with them taped in with clear parcel tape - to be sure. But the MOT centre manager got very shirty with me - ending up in letters to and from head office and threats of police action. The car was damaged underneath by him and the exhaust pulled out of line.
At this point I was fed up with it and thought I'd break it. But with no need, it sat around, still getting test drives and interest but with no real intent from me to sell.
I sold a VERY nice 318is within a couple of days of advertising to the first viewer, and the second viewer, well, he came anyway as he knew the white one was there, and he took a drive, and again it started mucking around, started pulling around at the front (needing tracked). I said we'd sort that and he left a deposit.
When he came back - we took it out again and it was fine for a while, until it started misfiring. AGH!
So we drove back and I said, that's it, it's getting broken.
We discussed a lower price but it wasn't coming together, so I gave him back his deposit and said I'd give him a call next time I got one in (which was very soon afterwards).

So on a Saturday around midday in late January I looked at this white E36 and thought, I am so sick of you.


In January I was also back and forward over various car ideas. My buddies and I had talked long about cars that were disappearing, ones we would want to get and stick away before they all disappeared. A Mini Cooper S, Fiesta ST, 106 GTi, things like that. My list had a few other things on it like a Lancer Evo 6, FD RX7, Supra MkIV - all the stuff that's fast getting out of reach to someone who's idea of saving money is not buying another car that week. So I tempered down my budget and started looking. And I found something I liked. Something dark blue, two owners, FSH, cool, nearby, and petrol. It even had a big spoiler and it's something I'd wanted another, good, one of, since the black one I'd had before had disappeared along with the girl that I'd bought it for... anyway, different story.

So, I was poised to go see this car in Belfast. In fact, the cash from the white E36 was allocated to pay for it, and I had arranged to go down after work that day. So, that plan was scuppered.

And so I made a cup of tea and sat there with my glum face. Just as I'm doing now (the tea, not the face!) and so should you, this goes on.



A Facebook ping sounds.
A message reads... do you still have the white E36?
A second message... would you be interested in my car as a swap?
A third message... a spec list that includes an upgraded turbo and intercooler.
This can't be real, I think. Phone me, I reply.
A call comes. It is for real! Can you make it today, I ask?

An hour or so later and this guy and his girlfriend are standing looking around the BMW. He throws me the key of his car. Take that out for a spin he says. See if you like it.

I mean, I already do, but I'm not going to pass up an opportunity to drive a loud Japanese turbo car I've wanted for, like, forevaaaar...

Five minutes later I'm back. I don't think I could had hid how excited I was. He had looked around the E36 that at this point could only be described as a basketcase. It was like it was possessed or something - totally at random, it had started refusing to open the driver door, so his girl had to climb in the passenger side and reach over to open the door.

He asks me, are you happy? If you're happy, so am I.
And I say - wait, no, you're not serious. Your car is worth twice what this thing is up for.
He says, yep. If you want my car, I want your car, and I'm happy to swap.

I stand there perplexed, and his girlfriend says, he does this all the time, if he gets it in his head he wants a change, then he just gets rid of whatever he's got and gets the new one.

So we do the paperwork and I'm still gobsmacked. This is too easy, I say. But it's all fine.

The conversation progresses. I've shown him every bad spot on the BMW and he's still happy. He doesn't care about the misfire or the exhaust because he wants to do an engine swap to it anyway. I say, I can't let you go at that. There's a couple of parts the car could do with just to tidy it up, a new grille for example, and I said, I will get one for you and bring it up to you.
Why bring it up? Because I asked him about the wheels that used to be on the car, and he says he still has them, but took them off as one got bent and he couldn't find another to replace it. So I said I would buy the wheels, as I know a great refurbishing place that can fix that.

And that agreed, off he went. I sat there totally dumbfounded. How did this just...?? Well, the favour of God, that's how. I know that. I knew that immediately. Because, yes, I could have went and bought one outright, but I couldn't have engineered swapping one for a BMW worht half as much that I had been categorically unable to get rid of like a leech for the past year.

So I called up a good friend and gushed down the phone at her, then arranged to pick her up later on that evening. Because, like any proper first trip for a max-power-era hero car, the first place I was going was... McDonalds. Straight down to Lurgan and round the drive-thru with that 5" pipe crackling away. Blap blap blap like it was 2002 again.
My friend, she gets on the phone to her friend, the cute blonde one -ahem - and then she says, listen to this... meaning I have to sit a rev a little 4-pot in the carpark like I did when I was 20, and then we arrange to go up to her (the other girl's) house via collecting some pizza, and I won't say how fast I got there but I used a quarter tank of super (which isn't hard), rounding off an unbelievable day.

So instead of the immaculate FSH 2000 Subaru Impreza 2.0 Sport AWD I thought I was going to buy that day, I ended up with a slightly shabby 2000 Subaru Impreza Turbo 2000 with a VF22 turbo and supporting mods.


Which also turned out to have pretty good history as well:


Day two of Impreza Turbo ownership: it was leaking fluid. Oh no. I thought I had been sunk.
But it was just a bottle pump had come loose.

It was also unplugged for some reason. Stuck it all back together.

Noticed and fixed battery clamp issue at the same time:


And a week later as arranged I collected the wheels. I met the previous owner half-way and gave him the spares for the BMW. Dreading the answer, I asked him how he was getting on with it. Oh, great, he said. I put another coil-pack in from one I broke, and it's running fine now. I might just keep it like this for a while and leave the engine swap till later.
No regrets! Threw the wheels in my van, had to call him back as he went to drive off before I had a chance to pay him for them, and after he and girl had a smoke and we talked cars, we departed into the night.


And so an Impreza Turbo was added to my collection.

I got popular with the teenagers at church suddenly - I think they put videos of the exhaust note on instant-gram or snappy-chat or some other communications portal I don't understand. A couple of them bundled in for a rake up the backroads along with their dad and we spent the rest of the day looking up rally videos on youtube via their TV, however they managed to do that.
A friend of mine that had also been talking cars with over the previous few weeks/months got a spin in it too. I threw him the keys and suggested a race between him in the Impreza and his wife in their 1 series coupe. Which he won, despite going for an extra lap around his "triangle" when he was nearly home. We've all got a "triangle", right? Those three twisty roads near your house that form your own personal test-track? No? just us?
So now ever since that, he's been trying to find an Evo 6 to pitch up against it. Of course, we both know only a Tommi Mak edition will do, but there ain't none of us can afford one of those any more.

And then the bearing started whining. A rear wheel bearing. Nobody can hear it, especailly with that ridiculous exhaust, but I can feel it. I'm certain of it, so I've parked the car up until I get at that to fix it, and also service the brakes. I've had experience of both on Subarus before so it's not unexpected or annoying, but I'll take no chances and give it a full overhaul.
Once I get some lift space, that is. Soon.

Meantime I went to see my dad for the weekend as he's cooped up in isolation due to a rare viral disease eating his immune system up 15 years ago.

Off I went in the V6 MG - to do a 120-mile round trip. It is going to happen soon!



When I got back I squeezed a few overdue jobs into a busy week:
Replaced broken light on Mini


started prepping the replacement replacement [sic] mudguard for the Triumph


And then made a slight error of judgement - bought another car I don't want or need. This is where I acknowledge that I have an addiction and it sometimes gets the better of me, whether it's a pick-me-up when I'm a bit down, or a kick when I'm bored, but it's definitely not always smart to go car-buying.
So I bought another MG ZT. At least it was cheap enough and I'm not going to lose my shirt (or much sleep) over it but it does annoy me when I do something stupid without thinking.

It's a silver cdti with 6 months test, but somehow when looking at it I missed the bust front shocks, perilous cracked tyres, and several electrical niggles. I drove it later that evening and the next day and to be honest was quite appalled how badly it drove and how I'd missed it.
So the rest of tonights posting will be about how I used bits off it to make the blue ZTT better.