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A 1971-2 Ford Mustang Mach 1 fastback. I have always wanted one, since I saw this one driving around Clacton in the mid 1980s. Sounded like God gargling rocks. I know it's likely to be a bit slow, will handle like a truck and will doubtless be ridiculously uncomfortable and impractical. But "want" does not take into account all those things. It was from an impressionable time of my young teenage years, and it remains one the coolest cars in the world for me. Not many will agree with me, but it does have that special "something" as far as I am concerned and I will always strive for one despite never having the means to pick one up. A Mini Pick-up. I almost bought one in 1998, but an engaged telephone made me miss out on it by (probably) about 15 minutes. I've had 7 Minis, and one Midas, but the cutesy little pick-up has always passed me by, and now prices are stratospheric (there's a pattern emerging here), so it's a lottery win motor. And the final one is a Mercedes 123 CE Coupe. I've always wanted to get hold of one of these as they're a classy-looking vehicle but have never had the space to do one. I also really like the idea of grafting the running gear from a C Class, CLK or SLK 230 Kompressor or 320 V6 into one, as the extra oomph would suit it. One day...
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Cracking read Ben - I have loved reading about your exploits over the pond. I have a trip to Florida booked for September 2022 so can't wait to go back there. Will be doing a road trip down to the Keys, but not on the scale of what you did!!
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Dec 30, 2021 21:04:13 GMT
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I quite like the variety I have with some of my USA Plates - I have Farm Vehicle, Disabled Veteran, Truck, Dealer, Bus, Motor Home and Public Service Commission plates (still don't have a Judge...yet). What I didn't have was a personalised plate. That is, until today. I saw this at a very reasonable price from my usual supplier - I liked the plate but the best bit about it is that it's either been in an accident or it's been run over, or both. It's bent, battered to hell and back and certainly has a few tales to tell - just how I like them. I wonder what it was fitted to? And who owned it? Did Justin Hawkins ever live in New Hampshire??? Darkness falls across the land...
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Dec 27, 2021 22:25:43 GMT
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I am now well stocked with angle grinder discs thanks to the Mother-In-Law, and had an unexpected gift of a mini battery-powered angle grinder. Seems to work ok. Have also acquired a fire blanket and some new welding gloves, plus another USA plate for my collection (Georgia this time).
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Dec 26, 2021 20:36:06 GMT
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That's looking really good Rian. Look forward to the next installment
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Dec 26, 2021 19:09:32 GMT
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The Bounce Garage has been a proper state for several months, due to situations out of my control. Now that I have a bit more time on my hands again, it was time to get in there and actually do some tidying up, re-jigging and re-organisation. First thing on the list was to get the Midas down from its axle stands, where it's been sat for at least the last 8 months. Once I had done that, I moved the car half outside so I had more room to tidy up near the workbench as well as to do point 2 of my "to do" list: Hang the recently acquired US Plates in the rafters. This included the Georgia plate that my niece acquired for me as a Christmas Present. Considering that she's a really poor student, this was a lovely gesture on her part. I had angle grinder discs everywhere, as well as new ones being bought as Christmas presents courtesy of the Mother-In-Law. What to do with them?? Looking up into the rafters presented me with an obvious solution: a rack of coat hooks on a wooden board. So out came the angry saw to shorten it by a 1/3, then the hammer drill, some rawlplugs and screws, and I had the perfect solution for where to put all the flap, grinding and cutting discs as well as the knotted wheels of death. Excellent. I also hung my new battery-powered Mini Grinder (surprise Christmas Prezzie - seems to work well so far) in place of the frankly seriously dangerous one that I found in there when I moved in. It had a switch problem and also seemed to have a balance issue with HUGE vibrations - it's was really difficult to control. That now has no cable and is in the pile for the dump. Mr Noisy was found where he'd fallen (covered in dust and dirt - well it is a garage!), so this time I used double-sided number-plate tabs to stick him to the cupboard. I also did the same with an oil level sign I found on the ground at Curborough circuit about 20 years ago. Finally I made a wooden plinth to hang one of my Dad's long steel rules on as it's difficult to put a nail into the brickwork, and screw heads were too big for the rule. There's still a lot to do, but hopefully by the end of this week it will be a far more hospitable place to be New plates up in the rafters. 18 states to go. Discs all neatly arranged and ready for plucking. Mini Grinder And the oil level sign and Mr Noisy, now back on the cupboard.
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Dec 25, 2021 18:25:54 GMT
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Can I have the 1958 Plymouth Belvedere please? If you PM your Paypal details over I'll chuck you some funds.
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Last Edit: Dec 25, 2021 18:54:36 GMT by mrbounce
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Dec 24, 2021 15:52:43 GMT
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Guilty on my daily. My SLK's front bumper had a crack in it, and then I hit some debris in the road (it was dark and I didn't see it til it was too late) which made quite a hole in the front spoiler. Given that Mercedes bumpers for the SLK are ยฃ609 + Vodka and Tonic, I had to wait a while until I could afford to get it fixed. Secondhand ones were a non-starter as they were usually about ยฃ400, always 200 miles away, and were often damaged anyway. I drilled holes in the end of the cracks and made it more "aerodynamic" by using black gaffer tape. Good enough for the BTCC, good enough for my Merc!! It was on there for 15 months... The offending hole...
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Last Edit: Dec 24, 2021 15:54:00 GMT by mrbounce
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Dec 24, 2021 15:42:15 GMT
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I am planning at some point over Xmas (probably Boxing Day) to venture into the garage and do a huge clear up - this will include doing something with the pressure washer "in the way", getting the Midas down off the axle stands it's been on for at least 8 months. Get it outside and have a good sweep up, and probably find the bits I thought I'd lost 2 years ago... Clean garage, clean start for 2022. (I am back at work on the 29th December so no long break). The garage in question - yes that is a mop bucket on top of the car which shows that I have much to do...
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Dec 23, 2021 23:52:58 GMT
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Judging by the positioning of what looks like the side repeater I would say that's a Lancia Delta with an aftermarket kit. Difficult to be certain though as the picture quality isn't brilliant.
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Last Edit: Dec 23, 2021 23:56:06 GMT by mrbounce
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Dec 20, 2021 22:22:05 GMT
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Slightly more expensive to insure and in the result of any loss, the total payout would be less than normal from the insurance company.
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Dec 19, 2021 11:38:00 GMT
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Sadly due to the loss of both my parents this year, family stuff has taken over and I have done precious little on the little orange beast. I did however buy him some wheels in September.
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Dec 15, 2021 23:23:06 GMT
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Several spring to mind for me. We'll start with the 1970 Mini that I bought for parts in 1994, to which I gave the nickname "Basket Case". It was 25 years old, and - how can I put this politely - the years had NOT been kind. The front floors were rather crispy and the crossmember the seats bolted to had rotted away from the inner sill. When you sat in the car there was a rather alarming amount of flex. The sills were an amusing mixture of underseal, newspapers, lots of rusty bran flakes and had the structural integrity of toasted marshmallow. Oh and did I mention the brakes? There weren't any. Well, not that worked anyway. Now, as I had already taken what I wanted from the car I had no intention of putting it back on the road as it would have been a nightmare and hideously expensive. What I needed to do was get it to the breakers' yard. So my mate Bob gave me a tow behind his Mk2 Granada 2.3. We used a bit of rope round the subframe. No working lights, no footbrake, the worry that my big butt was going to fall through the floor. Of course the amusing thing was that I was having to slow the thing down using the handbrake and only the handbrake. It was only a mile or so, but remains one of the more challenging trips of my driving career. How we didn't get stopped at 7pm I will never know. We dumped the car at the yard with a scrawled note on it stating they could break it up because it was a proper POS. Rewind a few months to when my friend was driving to London for an important appointment at an Embassy and did I fancy coming along for the trip? Yup no problem. So the next day he turns up and says he's got a sickness bug (he was BAD), so would I mind driving his Dad's car? It was a cold February morning and peeing down. Did he mention that the reason he had his Dad's Mk2 Astra was because it had been hit by a scaffolding pole that had fallen off the back of a truck and he was going to fix it at his mate's body shop. Where had the pole hit the car? The top of the windscreen and roof. That's right, directly above my right hand on the steering wheel. The rain came in through the large HOLE, yes a bleeping hole in the windscreen, which also had cracks wherever I wanted look. Got my friend to Newbury Park (70-odd miles) where we parked up and eventually I got him home later after his appointment, in MORE rain. Turns out that although I had drive other cars cover on my insurance, this only works if there is a valid policy on the car you're driving. Which there wasn't apparently. I was one lucky boy that I didn't get stopped because they had every right. It looked terrible! Finally, I give you the incident with the Mini 1275GT and the diesel spillage. I was driving to work one drizzly morning and there was a part of the country road which was a 90-degree right hand bend. I always approached this with caution due to the camber, and the fact that the road surface was never that nice. Anyway, at 25 or so mph I suddenly did a complete 180 degree spin to the other side of the road where I hit the kerb quite hard. The guy in the house opposite came out and told me there was a diesel spillage (and boy could you smell it). The car seemed undamaged other than a slight scrape to the nearside rear wheel. Oh, and the fact that it suddenly had about 15 degrees of positive camber. Given that I was about the same distance from home and work, I took the option that work would be better, and drove the rather oddly-handling car the remaining 8 or so miles to my place of work. I then called the AA and "booked" a recovery truck for when I finished for the day. I got the local garage to replace the rather bent radius arm - they were a bit worried that they might have to charge me the exchange surcharge, but they somehow managed to get away with it , presumably by burying it at the bottom of the box with all the other exchange items in it...
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Dec 15, 2021 14:38:29 GMT
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I was born in the Home Counties and spent most of my life around the Essex/Suffolk and Sussex areas, bar one year attending an aborted University course in Hull.
Loved that place, and (most of) the people in it. My Grandad lived in Sheffield for a few years so that's really my only other link oop North.
Following with interest ๐
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Dec 14, 2021 19:58:38 GMT
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Lovely Mini in Tesco's car park.
Reminds me. I must get on with the Midas...
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Probably my Mini 25. I needed a "new" car as my then current Mini was an unreliable piece of excrement. In true enthusiast fashion I drove 60 miles to buy a "cheap" car from the Free Ads with no pictures and of course there were issues that should have made me turn around and walk away. V5 not in the guy's name so probably a back street trader, spare wheel was a bald 10" tyre for a 12" wheel car, the car had a vinyl roof, cheapie Halfords mirrors, stripes were in the wrong place and the speedo under-read massively (Metro engine or gearbox). Plus the guy was big and scary and had a massive snake in his house. Yet somehow I still bought it for ยฃ700 (back in 1996). The boot seal did nothing of the sort, the windscreen ALWAYS leaked, and then there was the weird thing with the rear suspension in the final year I owned it: it sort of collapsed, but even a new knuckle joint and donut still made it sit lower on one side than it should than it should. I could never figure it out. After 2 1/2 years and 25k miles I sold it as an ongoing project for ยฃ225 as the MOT was looming. Oh, and did I mention RUST? The 25 was one of the many silver Minis from the mid 1980s that literally fell apart as you looked at them. Doors, wings, roof, sills, boot floor, they rotted everywhere - maybe there was something really rough under the vinyl roof! The guy who bought it (in the dark in February!) tried to get me to take it back the day after because it wasn't as good as he thought. Caveat Emptor is a wonderful phrase... Eventually it changed hands at least twice more before going to a Ministox racer who presumably destroyed it round the ovals. I never did fix the boot seal, or the speedo.
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Last Edit: Dec 8, 2021 23:20:13 GMT by mrbounce
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The best Retro I have owned is my 1985 Mini Mayfair. This was much customised to the point til wasn't really a Mayfair, but an interpretation of the best Mini that I could afford at the time. Late model Cooper front and rear seats (very comfy for a Mini), 1302cc engine with MED head and twin 1 1/4" SU Carbs and K&Ns, full Maniflow exhaust, grooved Cooper S brakes & EBC pads, lots of chrome and Cooper Reverse 10"rims with Yokohama A008 tyres. It had a handmade dash that me and my friend Tink built with the big speedo in front of the driver as well as a decent stereo and a CB! It also had a KAD Quickshift and Koni shocks. The only thing I didn't do was have adjustable suspension - that would have been next. It also had a flip paint roof - it looked red most of the time but in direct sunlight it would change to orange, green, gold and blue depending on the angle you were looking at it. Clever stuff but not something I'd do again - very much an early 2000s thing! It may have been the best, but was it my favourite? No. Like old Top Gear preferring Alfas which were massively worse than their competitors, I'd choose the fast 1330cc 1275GT Mini I had in the mid 90s. Horrifically unreliable, noisy, uncomfortable and it ate tyres, as well as never being properly set-up, both in the suspension and engine departments, it was everything the red Mini was not. Yet I utterly adored it. To this day it remains the only vehicle I wish I had never sold.
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I was going to suggest looking at alternative ways of reaching the same goal. As pauly22 says, stable builders are an option. Also, American style โpole barnโ style garages could be an option. All of the above of course tempered by rules and finances. Concrete sectional garages are hard work to disassemble and move, but the usual ยฃ1.00 on Ebay or free on local sales sites are tempting options. I helped disassemble one, and a year later my mate got rid of it again, never having built it. A friend of mine got one locally from a friend of a friend and got him to deliver it. I helped him put it up and roof it over the course of a bank holiday weekend. We built it in his old house (well, next to it!) in 1997. It's still there.
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Last Edit: Dec 7, 2021 22:00:57 GMT by mrbounce
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I still have not done any more work on my project car. So, naturally, this meant I was scouring the internet for various Christmas presents (and stuff for me too), when I came across a type of US Plate I hadn't seen before, namely this one: A "PSC" plate. "What's one of those?" I hear you ask. Well, PSC stands for Public Service Commission, which usually are the state-run services that look after things like the water, electricity etc - a utilities commission, effectively. So I probably have a plate from a 1974 electricity services van, likely a Dodge Tradesman or a Ford Econoline - what's often referred to these days as a "Creeper Van" . Probably doesn't sound quite so special now!!
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