Unit Life of deanflowers

What a fantastic space, well done!

I officially hate you! Great space!

That's a great space and some fantastic looking ornaments!

Superb. I drool at the lusciousness of your workspace!

I'd donate vital parts of my anatomy to science for a workshop / garage like that,
(Keep the wife happy too, she'd never see me lol,)
Nice one, looking forward to further updates,
Nigel

Great space, very jealous

Keep the updates coming of the fit out!

Collecting the E31 in Spain did not go to plan at all.

I used to own this car 7 years ago and made 3000 pounds when i sold it to an irish guy who took it to spain. The car was too nice for where i was living so that was the only reason i sold it. I arranged to purchase it when it came up for sale on ebay for 1750 more than i sold it for. The seller was an english guy who had nonly owned it a year.

The car was described by the English guy selling it as 'outstanding condition and just had full service' but been stood a little time.






I had the option to have the car shipped to my door but fancied driving it back as an adventure.


Journey started - left my house at 10:30pm Thursday night

I flew to Murcia airport (from gatwick via the national express bus - total cost 150 pounds) where i was told there would be a shuttle bus for 1 hour or so to a hotel close to the seller's house. Landed and couldn't find it. The seller then tells me i should have booked it which i didn't know i had to do. So a 140 euro taxi drive later i get to meet the seller of the car.

He is in a rush to go collect his misses, then tells me the battery is flat on the car so it must be jump started but assured me it would be fine after a bit of a run. It wasn't so i had to buy jump leads at a service station (37 euro) and beg people to help me if i had to stop.

The car immediately had a major vibration issue on the front at 50 to 60 mph which i wasn't told about, it then disappeared above this speed so i thought it was balancing or something simple and decided to continue the journey.

I got 400 miles (70km short of Barcelona) when the vibration got very bad on the rear as well as the front at any speed. I changed the spare wheel onto the car thinking that may cure it but it didnt. Also in the process the contents of my open case in the boot of the car blew across the car park and i lost some clothes and bit and pieces (unknown to me at this time the docs for the car was part of this).

I then limped into the nearest town (8pm on a friday night) Playa Miami. In November it was like a ghost town.

Checked into hotel (73 euro) with a garage that was apparently open on Saturday mornings) Day 1 complete.


Day 2 - the garage doesn't open Saturdays. The car is in a deserted side street with a flat battery and no passing people to help start it. I called a lot of garages in the town and they were all shut except a German guy called Thomas who came out to meet me and we got the car back to his unit. New battery (150 euro) and the first problem was solved. A new part worn tyre for the spare was also purchased as it was really soft and 20 years old.

We lifted the car on the ramp and the bushes in both front upper arms are completely shot. One rear is also completely shot and causing 20mm of play of the passenger rear wheel. The garage explained that they cannot even ask about parts till Monday but said there was a cheap hotel close by (25 euro / night). The car was being driven on a set of trade plates and due to not having MOT or tax it was impossible for me to have arranged euro breakdown cover so i was on my own.

I went to the hotel and some old guy reversed into the front bumper whilst i was still sat in the car. He refused to part with any cash and wanted to go through insurance. I declined and told him to go forth as the damage was fairly minor to the paint.
Day 2 Complete.

Day 3 Sunday and nothing to do. Except this happened overnight:




Day 4 Monday - the garage can get the front arms for Tuesday but not the rear which was my big issue. They expected the cost of parts to be in the region of 1000 euro for the suspension items. I checked out cost for a recovery to santander for the ferry and that was 1400 euro. So decided to go back to the very first option of bulk transporter to my house (700 euro) a bus to barcelona and a late flight back to Bristol.


A complete disaster. Car is being collected this week some time. The garage are storing it at 50 euro a week.

The seller is very slow responding to my messages and basically said sold as seen and that he was unaware of any of the problems. What a nice guy and i hope karma comes round to bite him. The annoying thing is i still would have bought the car for the full price but would simply have shipped it back to the UK without wasting 4 days and close 500 euro in travel costs.

What a string of curse word events, feel for you man. i hope it arrives back with no further damage soon.

Got some more of the cars in place over the past week or so. I think i will need to shuffle them about a bit to get them all in.













The M3 is in for winter storage and belongs to a mate.


The E31 is still in spain and my W140 S320 is still in the paintshop but the body is painted!