I'm sure I've told this tale before but picking up some old pics off an old HDD I was reminded of it again, so here's the photographc evidence of when I went to Devon to buy a car I'd never seen off a guy I vaguely knew off the internet....
This car really was a barn find. It was in a barn on a farm in Devon. The plan was to go down on the train on the saturday, be there for like 11 am, check it out, get a tax disc for it and drive it home, be home for about 6. Have tea, get changed, go out.
well, surfice to say it never turned out quite that way.
These were the photos sent by the vendor.
who could resist? He blew the doors in in white before I picked it up.
and this is what I found when I got down there
Well, it ran and he'd got a fresh MOT on it but it had not been used for 7 years or more. I wasa already running late by the time I saw the car and had missed the last train back up to Nottingham so I decided I should buy the car anyway! This was due to a combo of the rail network letting me down (shock! horror!) and the speed stuff happens in Devon. With a newly acquired tax disc in hand I set off.
But the thing was after years in a barn it was FILTHY even after being washed. And the interior was full of straw. If I drove with the top up I could not see out of the rear windows, the back screen was totally opaque! But with the top down I could not drive at more than like 20 without the straw and straw-dust flying up everywhere like a cyclone had just hit.
The gauges were caked in something too. But the speedo was one of those which just waves wildly between 10 and 70 whatever speed you are doing and the fuel gauge never worked... Meh, who needs to be able to see though the grime...
So I stopped at a petrol station to use the car vac - and burnt it out!
I also discovered the fuel filler leaked as I got a litre of pretrol straight down the lower half of one leg (I still smoked back then too. So I am doused in petrol in a car full of straw with a lit fag. Great plan.... Thats what REALLY happened to those tibettan monks you know)
well the fuel gauge didn't work either and I wasn't sure if I'd got the tank much over half full so I decided to drive for 100 miles and then fuel stop again.
Well, to cut a very long story short... I got as far as the M5 before it roke down the first time. Just as I was about to come in for my first petrol stop the temp gauge went up to the red. As I pulled into the fuel area of the service station the thing boiled up and dumped the coolant in a huge cloud of steam. A young girl came over and said "why is your car doing that mister" and before I could explain anything her panicking mother screamed "GET AWAY FROM HIM" and dragged her child into a nearby Zafira.
Well, the AA arrived 90 minutes later. They though that the jury rigged electric fan had stopped working and this was the cause. I was unconvinced but they re-jury rigged it and sent me on my way.
Well, more petrol on my feet when I fill up and by now its dark, and I discover there is no dash illumination so I am trying to make a vague judge of speed from the wavey speedo and keep an eye on the temp gauge using a cigarette lighter which keeps blowing out because of the wind blowing in through the flapping holes in the convertible top.
I keep providing Em with status update son my progress but she is sounding less and less amused by this, and by this time its like 10 PM and I've had no tea and will not be joining her on a fun packed night out. I am however having a fun packed night out myself.
And then the car starts to overheat again.
Arrrghhhh
and then, on an unlit and no-hard-shoulder-section of what I now suppose to be the M40 the headlights went out.
So I call the AA again.
as I am waiting for them the overhead signs go on and say "Motorway closed ahead!"
Arrrgh
Well, the AA truck had to take a huge detour round Birmingham, we got lost, at least once.
It was 3 am before I got home with the car and luckily EM and her mate had just returned home themselves and were merry with drink or I would have probably been a dead man.
Turned out the problem was a stuck thermostat.
Over the next year or so I set to and cleaned and tidy'ed the old beast up and she came up quite nice.
Swapped it with a mate - thats when I got the Oldsmobile - and he painted it satin black, sold it to a mate who put it on eBay and it ended up in Germany after that.
This car really was a barn find. It was in a barn on a farm in Devon. The plan was to go down on the train on the saturday, be there for like 11 am, check it out, get a tax disc for it and drive it home, be home for about 6. Have tea, get changed, go out.
well, surfice to say it never turned out quite that way.
These were the photos sent by the vendor.
who could resist? He blew the doors in in white before I picked it up.
and this is what I found when I got down there
Well, it ran and he'd got a fresh MOT on it but it had not been used for 7 years or more. I wasa already running late by the time I saw the car and had missed the last train back up to Nottingham so I decided I should buy the car anyway! This was due to a combo of the rail network letting me down (shock! horror!) and the speed stuff happens in Devon. With a newly acquired tax disc in hand I set off.
But the thing was after years in a barn it was FILTHY even after being washed. And the interior was full of straw. If I drove with the top up I could not see out of the rear windows, the back screen was totally opaque! But with the top down I could not drive at more than like 20 without the straw and straw-dust flying up everywhere like a cyclone had just hit.
The gauges were caked in something too. But the speedo was one of those which just waves wildly between 10 and 70 whatever speed you are doing and the fuel gauge never worked... Meh, who needs to be able to see though the grime...
So I stopped at a petrol station to use the car vac - and burnt it out!
I also discovered the fuel filler leaked as I got a litre of pretrol straight down the lower half of one leg (I still smoked back then too. So I am doused in petrol in a car full of straw with a lit fag. Great plan.... Thats what REALLY happened to those tibettan monks you know)
well the fuel gauge didn't work either and I wasn't sure if I'd got the tank much over half full so I decided to drive for 100 miles and then fuel stop again.
Well, to cut a very long story short... I got as far as the M5 before it roke down the first time. Just as I was about to come in for my first petrol stop the temp gauge went up to the red. As I pulled into the fuel area of the service station the thing boiled up and dumped the coolant in a huge cloud of steam. A young girl came over and said "why is your car doing that mister" and before I could explain anything her panicking mother screamed "GET AWAY FROM HIM" and dragged her child into a nearby Zafira.
Well, the AA arrived 90 minutes later. They though that the jury rigged electric fan had stopped working and this was the cause. I was unconvinced but they re-jury rigged it and sent me on my way.
Well, more petrol on my feet when I fill up and by now its dark, and I discover there is no dash illumination so I am trying to make a vague judge of speed from the wavey speedo and keep an eye on the temp gauge using a cigarette lighter which keeps blowing out because of the wind blowing in through the flapping holes in the convertible top.
I keep providing Em with status update son my progress but she is sounding less and less amused by this, and by this time its like 10 PM and I've had no tea and will not be joining her on a fun packed night out. I am however having a fun packed night out myself.
And then the car starts to overheat again.
Arrrghhhh
and then, on an unlit and no-hard-shoulder-section of what I now suppose to be the M40 the headlights went out.
So I call the AA again.
as I am waiting for them the overhead signs go on and say "Motorway closed ahead!"
Arrrgh
Well, the AA truck had to take a huge detour round Birmingham, we got lost, at least once.
It was 3 am before I got home with the car and luckily EM and her mate had just returned home themselves and were merry with drink or I would have probably been a dead man.
Turned out the problem was a stuck thermostat.
Over the next year or so I set to and cleaned and tidy'ed the old beast up and she came up quite nice.
Swapped it with a mate - thats when I got the Oldsmobile - and he painted it satin black, sold it to a mate who put it on eBay and it ended up in Germany after that.