It looks like we've come to the end of the road with this V123. Simply because the current owner is looking for around £1500 for it. I don't doubt for a second that on the open market someone will probably have their arm off at that price to break it for parts as it's worth a lot more than that in bits. However I made it quite clear what I was willing to get into this for, and dropping another grand on top of that just wasn't going to happen.
We're still on amicable terms though. I fully understand that this situation with the car being vandalised has left them way out of pocket and they need to try to recoup at least some of their costs. I just can't justify spending that much. I'm grateful they took the time to contact me and let me spend a few hours crawling over it. They're grateful I've given them a bit of an insight into the reality of the situation with it. I got to do one of my favourite bits though, and that's actually breathing life back into something that everyone assumed was a completely lifeless hulk. At the very least they now know that with a jump start she will start and drive onto a trailer just fine.
I had been planning to take a better look at it last week, but with the weather being so dismal I only dived over very briefly the one day to get the replacement window installed and to do a real quick stock take to confirm that all the bits of the forward rear seating row were there.
Fasteners scattered all over the floor and one support needs a whack with a hammer to get it back into shape, but yes everything was there.
Looks a mess there, but I could absolutely transform that in a couple of hours. That rear seat is so, so comfy. Given we as a family actually do quite often want to transport four adults plus luggage and occasionally two dogs, especially on holiday runs the layout could actually be really well suited to our needs...for all I initially looked at the car and thought "what on earth would I do with that?!?" It's not unusably large either - being well over a metre shorter than the camper, which I quite happily used as a daily driver for a period last year when the S123 had an engine in bits and the Jag lacked a charging system. If you're not comfortable driving bigger things, yes it's one to avoid. I'm not bothered about that though so reckon I could use it daily no bother. Guess that's the difference with it being a factory built car designed to transport people in the real world rather than movie stars from one glitzy hotel with a purpose built collection point to another. In actual car terms, it's a smidge over 10cm longer than a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow/Spirit. I've done plenty of miles behind the wheel of one of those, so it doesn't put me off.
I returned today to take a closer look at it. I wanted to get the engine running long enough to get some heat into it and make a proper list of what worked and what didn't, and see if we could move it away from the fence to get a better look at the nearside. Oh, and to attack the crusty bits with some violence to see how much bigger I could make the holes.
The inner arches under the bonnet were pretty much exactly as they looked. I was able to punch a pinhole in the offside one in one spot, the nearside didn't go through but they both want that bit cut out and new metal let in as it's obviously thin. There's nothing in the way though save for needing to cut a few cable ties to get the wiring loom out the way. I'm calling that about a 1.5 out of 10 on the difficulty to fix scale.
The bit of most concern was obviously the B pillar. I was kind of expecting a substantial portion of the surrounding metalwork to vanish and to find myself staring into the void where the inner sill used to be. I was quite surprised that I only poked one hole in the actual sill structure and peering through there with a torch showed everything in there to look fine. So while it's still quite an involved repair it doesn't seem to be as drastic as I was honestly expecting. I was kind of expecting to end up going halfway along both door apertures.
The camera always makes rust look way more dramatic than it does in person.
Don't get me wrong, it's bad...but not nearly as catastrophic as it might have been.
The hole by the rest jacking point was pretty much exactly as expected. Not the worst I've seen by a long shot.
Pretty standard "old car rust" there I think. Unlike the B pillar though repair panels for the sills are readily available.
Same spot on the nearside isn't nearly as bad, though I was able to punch a tiny hole right next to the jacking point tube so it'll want a repair in the same place.
That slightly wider shot shows what the underside looks like though. There's a bit of rust around one of the bungs (again it resisted being bludgeoned by a screwdriver) but by and large the underbody protection seems to have done a pretty good job.
The nearside I originally thought needed the same repair to the bottom of the B pillar from what I could see when trying to view it sandwiched up against the fence, but it turns out there's not actually a hole there. Was a lot of flaky stuff along the seam (which is obviously the offending water trap), but despite getting quite aggressive I didn't manage to poke any holes in it.
A little more grot was found along the edge of the boot closure on the one side, so that'll explain where the water that's rotted out the boot floor came from.
Fiddly but not unexpected as they often go there.
I was worried spotting this in the nearside front wheel arch, but after some digging it honestly does just seem to be the seam sealer having got to that age where it starts failing.
I knew the offside had a repair done here for a previous MOT...not thrilled by that so a good session with the flap disc would definitely be in the future of this corner. I'd be budgeting on cutting this out and redoing it.
Mechanically given the car was running and driving fine when the break-in happened I had no reason to expect any issues - but that *was* in 2016.
Having it idling like this with precisely zero work beyond reattaching one fuel hose which had been dislodged wasn't expected.
That's on six plus year old fuel, not touched the carb, and started first touch today.
Speaking of the carb, this thing seems somewhat overkill for a 2.5 litre engine. Hard to convey as there's nothing really for scale in the photo. It's a big old beast though.
She sounds a bit rough there because the exhaust has been damaged, I'm guessing from the looks of things from when the thieves dropped it off the truck they carted it off on, as the whole system has been pulled back by a couple of inches - which also has mangled the rear valance.
The pipe leading to the rear manifold has pulled out of a slip joint, the forward one however is responsible for the racket.
Yep, that would do it!
Despite the noise she's running beautifully smoothly, throttle response is instant and showing zero smoke or anything. Which also meant I was able to confirm we had drive. Smoothly engaging gear, and even more surprisingly given the handbrake has been on since it was parked up, after a brief blip of throttle the brakes freed off - and then also worked. Not much you can really test on a driveway but definitely seems like a good start.
At the very least that will make loading it when it comes to move easier.
Aside from the windscreen wipers everything (including the electric radio antenna) seemed to work - though I didn't try the windows as that seemed like tempting fate.
This is where we part ways though. I'm sure a lot of parts from this car will see further service on other 123s, but if they're wanting that sort of money for it I really can't see anyone taking it on as a project. Even if they delivered it to my doorstep for free it still wouldn't make sense anyway!
Does now mean that the V123 is very much on my radar as something to possibly consider in the future though. So even though it looks like this one will be going elsewhere another may pop up here one day.
Which I'm okay with to be honest. If that one had *just* the damage from the break in, the rust or had been sitting since 2016 I'd be happy enough to just dive in...but having all of those things against it really does make it more of a project than I wanted to get into this year. Especially as I've already got one lined up. The Cavalier is probably more conventional content for these threads I think...
It's been a fun little diversion though and I've enjoyed my brief encounter with it. I think we've come to the right outcome at the end of the day.
We're still on amicable terms though. I fully understand that this situation with the car being vandalised has left them way out of pocket and they need to try to recoup at least some of their costs. I just can't justify spending that much. I'm grateful they took the time to contact me and let me spend a few hours crawling over it. They're grateful I've given them a bit of an insight into the reality of the situation with it. I got to do one of my favourite bits though, and that's actually breathing life back into something that everyone assumed was a completely lifeless hulk. At the very least they now know that with a jump start she will start and drive onto a trailer just fine.
I had been planning to take a better look at it last week, but with the weather being so dismal I only dived over very briefly the one day to get the replacement window installed and to do a real quick stock take to confirm that all the bits of the forward rear seating row were there.
Fasteners scattered all over the floor and one support needs a whack with a hammer to get it back into shape, but yes everything was there.
Looks a mess there, but I could absolutely transform that in a couple of hours. That rear seat is so, so comfy. Given we as a family actually do quite often want to transport four adults plus luggage and occasionally two dogs, especially on holiday runs the layout could actually be really well suited to our needs...for all I initially looked at the car and thought "what on earth would I do with that?!?" It's not unusably large either - being well over a metre shorter than the camper, which I quite happily used as a daily driver for a period last year when the S123 had an engine in bits and the Jag lacked a charging system. If you're not comfortable driving bigger things, yes it's one to avoid. I'm not bothered about that though so reckon I could use it daily no bother. Guess that's the difference with it being a factory built car designed to transport people in the real world rather than movie stars from one glitzy hotel with a purpose built collection point to another. In actual car terms, it's a smidge over 10cm longer than a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow/Spirit. I've done plenty of miles behind the wheel of one of those, so it doesn't put me off.
I returned today to take a closer look at it. I wanted to get the engine running long enough to get some heat into it and make a proper list of what worked and what didn't, and see if we could move it away from the fence to get a better look at the nearside. Oh, and to attack the crusty bits with some violence to see how much bigger I could make the holes.
The inner arches under the bonnet were pretty much exactly as they looked. I was able to punch a pinhole in the offside one in one spot, the nearside didn't go through but they both want that bit cut out and new metal let in as it's obviously thin. There's nothing in the way though save for needing to cut a few cable ties to get the wiring loom out the way. I'm calling that about a 1.5 out of 10 on the difficulty to fix scale.
The bit of most concern was obviously the B pillar. I was kind of expecting a substantial portion of the surrounding metalwork to vanish and to find myself staring into the void where the inner sill used to be. I was quite surprised that I only poked one hole in the actual sill structure and peering through there with a torch showed everything in there to look fine. So while it's still quite an involved repair it doesn't seem to be as drastic as I was honestly expecting. I was kind of expecting to end up going halfway along both door apertures.
The camera always makes rust look way more dramatic than it does in person.
Don't get me wrong, it's bad...but not nearly as catastrophic as it might have been.
The hole by the rest jacking point was pretty much exactly as expected. Not the worst I've seen by a long shot.
Pretty standard "old car rust" there I think. Unlike the B pillar though repair panels for the sills are readily available.
Same spot on the nearside isn't nearly as bad, though I was able to punch a tiny hole right next to the jacking point tube so it'll want a repair in the same place.
That slightly wider shot shows what the underside looks like though. There's a bit of rust around one of the bungs (again it resisted being bludgeoned by a screwdriver) but by and large the underbody protection seems to have done a pretty good job.
The nearside I originally thought needed the same repair to the bottom of the B pillar from what I could see when trying to view it sandwiched up against the fence, but it turns out there's not actually a hole there. Was a lot of flaky stuff along the seam (which is obviously the offending water trap), but despite getting quite aggressive I didn't manage to poke any holes in it.
A little more grot was found along the edge of the boot closure on the one side, so that'll explain where the water that's rotted out the boot floor came from.
Fiddly but not unexpected as they often go there.
I was worried spotting this in the nearside front wheel arch, but after some digging it honestly does just seem to be the seam sealer having got to that age where it starts failing.
I knew the offside had a repair done here for a previous MOT...not thrilled by that so a good session with the flap disc would definitely be in the future of this corner. I'd be budgeting on cutting this out and redoing it.
Mechanically given the car was running and driving fine when the break-in happened I had no reason to expect any issues - but that *was* in 2016.
Having it idling like this with precisely zero work beyond reattaching one fuel hose which had been dislodged wasn't expected.
That's on six plus year old fuel, not touched the carb, and started first touch today.
Speaking of the carb, this thing seems somewhat overkill for a 2.5 litre engine. Hard to convey as there's nothing really for scale in the photo. It's a big old beast though.
She sounds a bit rough there because the exhaust has been damaged, I'm guessing from the looks of things from when the thieves dropped it off the truck they carted it off on, as the whole system has been pulled back by a couple of inches - which also has mangled the rear valance.
The pipe leading to the rear manifold has pulled out of a slip joint, the forward one however is responsible for the racket.
Yep, that would do it!
Despite the noise she's running beautifully smoothly, throttle response is instant and showing zero smoke or anything. Which also meant I was able to confirm we had drive. Smoothly engaging gear, and even more surprisingly given the handbrake has been on since it was parked up, after a brief blip of throttle the brakes freed off - and then also worked. Not much you can really test on a driveway but definitely seems like a good start.
At the very least that will make loading it when it comes to move easier.
Aside from the windscreen wipers everything (including the electric radio antenna) seemed to work - though I didn't try the windows as that seemed like tempting fate.
This is where we part ways though. I'm sure a lot of parts from this car will see further service on other 123s, but if they're wanting that sort of money for it I really can't see anyone taking it on as a project. Even if they delivered it to my doorstep for free it still wouldn't make sense anyway!
Does now mean that the V123 is very much on my radar as something to possibly consider in the future though. So even though it looks like this one will be going elsewhere another may pop up here one day.
Which I'm okay with to be honest. If that one had *just* the damage from the break in, the rust or had been sitting since 2016 I'd be happy enough to just dive in...but having all of those things against it really does make it more of a project than I wanted to get into this year. Especially as I've already got one lined up. The Cavalier is probably more conventional content for these threads I think...
It's been a fun little diversion though and I've enjoyed my brief encounter with it. I think we've come to the right outcome at the end of the day.
