The Continuous Car Thread of S_S - Skodas, BMWs, Austins...

[surprising_skoda]

Pardon my ignorance here, but do you sell these projects on? Any road going E36 coupes of any description about you? PM me if you do.

This thread is really just for my own scrap, not for sale/work stuff.
I do have an e36 or two about, but you'd find those on my website or facebook page, which, erm, I'm not paying to advertise on here so not sure it would be courteous to post them...

 

[simy]

It's OK, I think I found it, and turns out you're not too far away. I'll be in touch.

 

[surprising_skoda]

I've managed to lose the front brake pads I bought last year for the bike. I struggled to find them aftermarket, so had to fork out for genuine Triumph, and picked them up in Cardiff last year while I was killing some time there.
That coupled with the fact the broken peg bracket is impossible to find secondhand, not stocked new any more (and £160+ when it was) and is too far gone to have it tig welded back together (if cast alloy can even be welded..) - I'm stuck on that at the minute. Still just asking every bike breaker I can find although obvs the pegs are the first thing to go, so no luck yet.

Next project up is the 740i.
I've polybushes bought for it - but on lifting it up, there's not much left where the bushes are bolted to the body.
In fact -

Oh.
So that's been shelved for a while. There is more. The carpet needs lifted to do the floor, the rear axle needs dropped to fix all the mounting areas. So that's just moved to "long-term". Which is a shame, as I wanted to take it to Retro Rides this year.
Nothing else for it, I can either take a 2002 MG, or see if i can fix the M535 up. I expected it to be pretty crusty underneath - it is an E28 after all.

To my surprise -

Nothing that would fail an MOT, and just this spot that I'll address for my own satisfaction.

Well, that's good, just have to sort out a hole in the wing and align the headlights and that should pass (due in a couple of weeks sometime). Should pass, apart from rubbing the sidewall on the 10j rears. Out comes the as yet untried roller -

A bit of heatgun to the paint, a bit of tensioning and rolling, a bit of hitting the inner arch with a big beating stick, and... nothing. Absolutely no perceptible difference. Give up on that, refit the wheels, drive it home that night, and there's no scrubbing. Even over ramps. So, somehow, it's done enough to clear. Must have been oh-so-marginal. But what ho, it worked. Inner arch lips were full of underseal as well so glad to report no imminent rusty bits of any kind there.

Back to the Austin. The silver one.
Had yet to mount the front crank cover. Had issues with bolts. It had been bodged before so we (my dad and I on this one) had to un-bodge then "re-fabricate" - not re-bodge - the cover and the 4 different size/length bolts. I helicoiled one, and made a new bolt for another with a nut welded on, flapdisced smooth then cut a slot in with a grinder. Worked perfect.

All four corners clamped down, gasket in place at second attempt, and could build the front end of the engine back up. Pulleys on, fan on, alternator mounts on and so alternator could be refitted, dizzy could now be fitted...

The reason for all of that was to do away with the badly fitted electric fan and refit a belt fan. So in doing so we had to change the front cover back to a standard one that would take the fan mount.
So now to measure up for a new fan belt.

The fuel filter was previously inside the cockpit against the bulkhead. Not ideal, but even less so now with me running lots of wires across where it used to mount.
So we extended the fuel pipe buy fitting a piece of copper pipe (left over from re-piping an E21 ages ago) and a couple of rubber grommets, pushed it through a new hole I drilled in the bulkhead, and attached a piece of braided fuel pipe on the other side, with us both putting our full strength into it so we got both sides very tight, so the pipe wont move inside the hole and wear through. Grommets also aimed at preventing that. I know there are bolt on connectors for doing that, and there is one fitted at the rear of the car, but this is sort of the same thing.

So the fuel filter can now be mounted to the engine bay side

There we go. Very nice.

I gave myself a sore back leaning into the footwell to finish wrapping the wires in loom tape, and riveting loads of clamps in place. I needed the wires to stay away from the foot mounted dip switch, and overall it's OK - could be better if I had countless hours to do it but I'm about 90% satisfied.

And the loom to the rear of the car also clamped in. Needed to use low profile P clips so they didn't cause noticeable bumps in the inner "door"cards, and they're only designed for three wires, not five, so couldn't wrap them in tape as they'd be too bulky. There's five as I've ran separate wires for each light, rather than run them in series, for safety's sake. The card will be fitted soon and these will not be seen, and I'll fit quick release plugs at the rear so the rear frame can be removed if necessary. It wont need to be again by me, but it'll be done right and I'll know that.

That's it for now.

 

[surprising_skoda]

Motoring on...

Austin got a little bit more done - a lot of little fiddly jobs that took my dad and I three or so hours and could hardly see any difference, apart from the side panels being fitted. First of all a bit of sound deadening, again robbed from an old BMW

And took the rear frame off again, to get it blasted and probably powder coated.

Moving towards the E28, and my previous gloating. My mate Stevie that was going to weld it for me one morning and I had a better poke around, and found a couple of patches that looked well welded, but when we really attacked them, found that they were badly welded. There was a seam alright, but it hadn't penetrated properly so on looking at it, it looked right, but we actually prised the repair panels completely away from the car.
Given that they are around the rear axle mounting areas, we decided to shelve the E28 for a few weeks also, and do a proper repair job on it. No point having to go under it again next year, lets do the thing right.

Speaking of which, this car was handed around a few members of the 5 series forum prior to my custodianship. Apparently affixing rare M-tech parts with tack screws is acceptable to some people...
Including this one straight through the skirt then wabbed over.

The sum total of skirt-affixing hardware:

Revealing a previous "fix" which will also be repaired properly.

If anyone is following, they'll know the M535i was to be my Retro Rides Gathering transport at the end of August. So now there's an obvious lack of vehicular transport, with the sum total of MOTd cars now being my 2001 Alfa and my 2002 MG. Or a 2006 van?
Or... buy something!!
I missed out on a very rare car at the start of this year, by just hours. I haven't seen one for sale for several years, and for about 10 years it's been on my shortlist, because my dad had one for about a week. Most of my dopey old cars are because my parents had one. They had a couple of Skoda Estelles, so now I do (and the Rapid because coupe version), they had a Favorit estate, so now I do, they had a minivan, so I want one (I've only managed Mini cars so far), my dad had a 1978 Cadillac CDV so now I do as well.
This same car came up for sale again a couple of months ago. I missed out again by a couple of hours.
The best bit is I mentioned it to my dad and he can't even remember having one so he's stumped as to what it is so far. He still reckons its a Maestro as they had a red one of those for a month once.
And then it came up again two weeks ago. So I moved fast this time and now its mine.

Then the plan formed. It's in the north of England. It's MOTd. A friend of mine who has an even better collection of awful cars than me lives not terribly far from it. So I dispatched him to go pick it up. It's now sitting outside his house, waiting for me to fly over, jump in it and drive some 300 miles to the Retro Rides show two weekends from now.
What could possibly go wrong?

Yes, I've purposely not said what it is. Any guesses?

 

[CHARLIE11]

Motoring on...

Austin got a little bit more done - a lot of little fiddly jobs that took my dad and I three or so hours and could hardly see any difference, apart from the side panels being fitted. First of all a bit of sound deadening, again robbed from an old BMW

And took the rear frame off again, to get it blasted and probably powder coated.

Moving towards the E28, and my previous gloating. My mate Stevie that was going to weld it for me one morning and I had a better poke around, and found a couple of patches that looked well welded, but when we really attacked them, found that they were badly welded. There was a seam alright, but it hadn't penetrated properly so on looking at it, it looked right, but we actually prised the repair panels completely away from the car.
Given that they are around the rear axle mounting areas, we decided to shelve the E28 for a few weeks also, and do a proper repair job on it. No point having to go under it again next year, lets do the thing right.

Speaking of which, this car was handed around a few members of the 5 series forum prior to my custodianship. Apparently affixing rare M-tech parts with tack screws is acceptable to some people...
Including this one straight through the skirt then wabbed over.

The sum total of skirt-affixing hardware:

Revealing a previous "fix" which will also be repaired properly.

If anyone is following, they'll know the M535i was to be my Retro Rides Gathering transport at the end of August. So now there's an obvious lack of vehicular transport, with the sum total of MOTd cars now being my 2001 Alfa and my 2002 MG. Or a 2006 van?
Or... buy something!!
I missed out on a very rare car at the start of this year, by just hours. I haven't seen one for sale for several years, and for about 10 years it's been on my shortlist, because my dad had one for about a week. Most of my dopey old cars are because my parents had one. They had a couple of Skoda Estelles, so now I do (and the Rapid because coupe version), they had a Favorit estate, so now I do, they had a minivan, so I want one (I've only managed Mini cars so far), my dad had a 1978 Cadillac CDV so now I do as well.
This same car came up for sale again a couple of months ago. I missed out again by a couple of hours.
The best bit is I mentioned it to my dad and he can't even remember having one so he's stumped as to what it is so far. He still reckons its a Maestro as they had a red one of those for a month once.
And then it came up again two weeks ago. So I moved fast this time and now its mine.

Then the plan formed. It's in the north of England. It's MOTd. A friend of mine who has an even better collection of awful cars than me lives not terribly far from it. So I dispatched him to go pick it up. It's now sitting outside his house, waiting for me to fly over, jump in it and drive some 300 miles to the Retro Rides show two weekends from now.
What could possibly go wrong?

Yes, I've purposely not said what it is. Any guesses?

an old skoda..?

 

[purplea4T]

Fiat Regata. And if it is and its roadworthy, I want first call when you sell it!

 

[Markhall]

I second the regatta guess
I had a bright orange one for rallying around the fields about 16 years ago and it was the only one id ever seen. I didn't know what it was when I first saw it

 

[surprising_skoda]

Fiat Regata. And if it is and its roadworthy, I want first call when you sell it!

Why on earth would you want one of those?!

Austin 7 rear frame is off, one mount welded up, and has been dropped off for blasting Friday... and picked up Saturday. There's good service. Along with 4 bumpers and a set of wheels.

More little jobs ticked off - really getting there.
Battery needed a more secure mount. Again pulled one out of an E34, small engined one, they have the battery up front, sliced it in half, and bolted it in. So now I have a tidy and secure battery mount. My dads off making a leather strap to go over it, perfect solution rather than metal clamps.

Wires extended from dizzy to coil, and wrapped in loom tape.
Horn mounted and ready to be wired up when I fit the dash in.

Also fitted reinforcement plates for the mirrors, clamped the main alternator feed cable into place, rerouted and clamped the battery positive lead. Removed the front mudguards for repairs. Fiddly little nuisance jobs but all need done.

Also, feast your eyes on what I had to pay SIXTY FIVE pounds for, a secondhand peg mount for the triumph. Still haven't found the brand new front pads, but I suppose this means I can get on with fixing it.

 

[purplea4T]

Why on earth would you want one of those?!

Austin 7 rear frame is off, one mount welded up, and has been dropped off for blasting Friday... and picked up Saturday. There's good service. Along with 4 bumpers and a set of wheels.

More little jobs ticked off - really getting there.
Battery needed a more secure mount. Again pulled one out of an E34, small engined one, they have the battery up front, sliced it in half, and bolted it in. So now I have a tidy and secure battery mount. My dads off making a leather strap to go over it, perfect solution rather than metal clamps.

Wires extended from dizzy to coil, and wrapped in loom tape.
Horn mounted and ready to be wired up when I fit the dash in.

Also fitted reinforcement plates for the mirrors, clamped the main alternator feed cable into place, rerouted and clamped the battery positive lead. Removed the front mudguards for repairs. Fiddly little nuisance jobs but all need done.

Also, feast your eyes on what I had to pay SIXTY FIVE pounds for, a secondhand peg mount for the triumph. Still haven't found the brand new front pads, but I suppose this means I can get on with fixing it.

We had a Super DS one years ago, ADZ 8423, cracking car, never gave us a bit of bother, my dad put well over 100k onto it and a bit like yourself, I love cars that I grew up in

 

[surprising_skoda]

So, as was correctly guessed, I boughted myself a stunning Fiat Regata... the collection roadtrip of which can be found here:
Collection Roadtrip ending at RetroRides, with terrible pictures

Earlier this week (or was it last week?) I spent the evening at the workshop. Was intending to do some on the bike but the special bike lift was busy being an engine crane.
So what other jobs are waiting? The S110R has a radiator that leaks under pressure. Lets get that out.

Now that is a lot easier said than done. There are bolts all round it, in various metric and imperial sizes, and the fan housing has to be unbolted and removed before even going near the rad.

And eventually

So I'll get that refurbished next time I'm passing the radiator place, as it seems to be impossible to find a new one. I like having old parts rebuilt anyway, I'm not part of the throwaway culture.


A few nights later I got my chance with the bike. Up she goes on the special bike lift.

Job 1 was to replace the sprockets. Front one, peened back the washer tab. Found a big socket and used the impact.. and it just span everywhere. Even in gear. Oh dear. Did a quick goggle and every forum says to do it with the back wheel on the ground and a tensioned chain.
Bit late for that with the rear wheel in bits getting it's sprocket done! So, jammed a wooden hammer handle into the front teeth against the engine, and it gripped just enough and off it span.
Now this bike has 12k on it. Although, I might double check that now. Both of the sprockets are not genuine, and you can see the state of the front one here

That doesn't happen in 12k, never mind that it's already been changed as far as I can tell.
Put the new one on. Fitted the rear one which was a cinch as expected.
And a moment of no return:

While we're in there, the rear brake needs done.
Sat under the bike to do this. Retaining pin came out easily, old pads were done but fell out easy, not stuck or anything.
Here goes:

First up the piston wouldn't slide back in. No amount of pressing would budge it. Releasing the bleed nipple also didn't help. So, had to let off the fluid feed line and then finally it moved. Not seized, thankfully, but still resistant. That meant my hands were now filthy but due to the contortioning required to extract myself from my seating under the bike between the frame and the engine crane, I wasn't for getting out in a hurry.

So I carefully tried to fit the pads without getting anything on the pad surface itself. And found that the hole for the retaining pin was too small. And then one pad fell onto that brake fluid spill on the floor below. To my abject relief it landed braking surface up.

As you can see these are not particularly cheap or generic pads. You'd think EBC would be able to make them right.

After that it all went back together easily enough. Wheel in, axle through, and then to fit the new chain.

Just need the tool to sort the rivets on the join link out, and then set the tension, and I'm done - on the back. Still have to find the missing expensive OEM-only front pads...

 

[surprising_skoda]

In the spring of 2014 I blew about £2.5k on a 2007 E92 325i in bright red. A Cat C with a dead engine, decent spec, but no good reason for buying it really. Apart from that was cheap at the time, they were £9k at the time for a good one in the same spec/colour/miles. An engine was £1500 though and I simply couldn't be bothered, so shoved it in the corner, where it lay until this summer when I realised the ship had sailed and that 9k car was now worth 5k. So, what to do with it?

Well, the obvious answer when you have a big engine bay and a dead engine to take out... V8.
I had a spare V8 M62 engine and manual gearbox "in stock" and Vincent needed a project to get stuck into after having fixed everything else that was ready to be fixed. Put the E92 inside, cleared the lift, put the engine in front of it and left him to it.

This is more his project than mine, I will drive the thing but don't really care for it that much. So it'll get the odd mention, but not a full build documenting. By the way, is anyone else incredibly sickened of seeing "yeah, that's my build" or "what do you think of my build m8" in relation to an E36 with JOM coilovers and some dishy wheels, or a Jetta with 19" AVAs and tints? Not even a bit of custom paint or adapted to fit Bentley seats or performance mods? Sod right aff.
Anyway first off we were going to drop it in the middle, mid mounted, as the E92 mounts weren't far off in width but very far back, and all the V8s have a front bowl sump so wouldnt fit over the E92 subframe.

So bulkhead came out. The only other V8 converted E92 we can find on goggle seems to be in Russia and a bit butchered. It too was mid mounted.

Then it kept going back and back and the driver was going to have to sit in the back seat.
I love the way Vinny works. We'd already cut the bulkhead out and were looking at welding mounts etc on, dash and carpet and wiring all gutted, and he says, can I take this wiring out too? I'm not sure I can get the central locking to work again if we do.
...And then I come back an hour later and he's ripped the whole subframe and suspension out and has an E39 V8 one mounted (surprisingly the rear bolts fitted exactly and the front rails line up to the chassis rails!) and the engine and box in.
This is better, he says, everything fits now.
Well, OK then. Have to weld subframe in (my choice, I think drilling holes wouldn't be strong enough). The gearbox mount from E39 V8 is only 10mm out from matching the E92 thread holes. With the engine at the front, the bulkhead can go back in, although I've requested a space be made behind the engine big enough for a turbo, as there is zero front gap now. Will have no airbox space, radiator is very tight but just doable.

The big worry, for me, was the suspension geometry. But, it lines up pretty well. Have to use smaller top mounts as E39 V8 ones are too large, but will be getting coilovers anyway. Might have to use spacers to run the 19"s I have earmarked for the front end. Brakes can be any choice of E39 ones, to match the E39 hubs, so 535i, 540i or M5 choice, all on the shelf.
Will get the geometry all set up once its on the ground. (suggestions on a company that knows what they're doing in this regard very welcome.)

Amm what else... oh well this week has been exciting in the new purchases dept. Not for me so much, as ones for work to turn round, but I like them, and we like pics, right?

E46 318i M Sport. Will sell rep wheels and add a little paint. Very tidy car, can see it's been looked after.

E36 323i M3 rep, also well looked after but getting tired bodywise, should be simple to make it 100% again and drop a fresh MOT on it. Drives very nice (for a 36!)

And the important one. Played roulette with my Alfa for thousands of miles, no cam belt history, always said I'd give it one if it hit 100k, well, today, halfway to work...

So that was that. Time for it to be fixed. Funnily I'm kind of disappointed that it's now in the 6 figure area. It's lost a little of it's charm - it's not a "low miler" any more.
If I remember rightly, I bought at the end of August in 2011. So five years, 17.5k and a lot of wishbones later it's still going as well as ever.
All that talk of roulette was forgotten this evening when I had a sudden place to be sharpish. Up the backroads, covered 15 miles in 15 minutes and had a delightful smell of cooked brakes after only 6 miles. Still takes a good hammering.

There'll be more developments on the car buying front later this week too I fear. Bank account is about to be decimated.

 

[surprising_skoda]

A little thing that has bugged me severely on the Alfa since I got it is the lack of a decent jump start point. Sometimes it's left lying up for weeks. Months even. Or I need something else jumped and it's the handiest thing. Thankfully all the cars on my drive start every time, and have good batteries, but I used to have to jump start the bike if I left it more than a couple of weeks, or the E28 if I left the lights on overnight by accident.

So, bored out of my tree in work yesterday, I went and gathered up the bits, and set to.

Battery remote terminal from E34

Cut down turbo actuator bracket from E46, mounted with torx bolt I found in big box of spare bolts, through a spare hole in the alfa that was just there waiting for me.

Cut a little bit of plastic out of the way, mounted cable from E34 to main positive feed. There used to be a tiny little tang that popped up here to connect leads to. It was frail, and this one had been used so much it was two twists away from snapping off (so I did) leaving room for the new lead.

And used the rubber mount from the turbo actuator, bolted it all up tight and there we are, an insulated remote battery terminal with a cover and the lead tucked in with the alfa loom.

Could be better, if many hours were spent on it, but for something knocked up in an hour with spare bits, hence a cost to me of zero, I'm quite happy.

 

[surprising_skoda]

Haven't updated this since my birthday, but on that day, as I was getting even more old, I decided to empty out my paypal buying stuff online.

What has arrived so far:
From Italy: A set of Vogtland lowering springs for an Impala SS '94-96. That's for the Caddy.
Much research over several months went into the suspension parts:

And there will be more to come, when I have another grand spare...

From Bulgaria: A set of 4x98 14" Zender Alloys. I love Zenders. They were far too dear, so I put in a cheeky offer and it was taken, and arrived in only a handful of days so well impressed with that seller. These are for the Fiat.

From USA: a new vinyl hood for the Caddy, which has been made for my car and is currently fighting its way through customs.


September saw me doing a lot of research into various wheel fitments (and suspension for Caddy as seen above). This is the wheel/tyre summary for the S110R.

All in aid of getting these wheels on

I had Jason fit a couple of tyres on our recently acquired tyre machine so I could trial them on the car for arch gap and steering lock. A 195/45/15 and a 185/45 if I recall right.

Yesterday I noticed a stain on my drive under the Fiat and got down for a look

Oh dear. Oil leak. Looks like it's going up on the ramp next time it's free.
Which will be about 2018 owing to the amount of projects in the yard right now. Jason and I were in Liverpool, Manchester and Northampton at the end of last week picking up new cars. Here's the only picture I took of that amazing*, interesting*, meticulously planned* trip.

[*none of these are true]


And I haven't had any time at all to give over to the silver Austin - that trip, the news my mum is leaving the country with my sister, other stuff - but I will give a day over to it next week and get back on it.
My dad did the strap at least

 

[big_pete]

Hows the V8 into the e92 coming along Will?

 

[surprising_skoda]

Engine is in and prop etc sorted, but on hold while we do a bit of paintwork to another car.

 

[surprising_skoda]

E92:

bracket almost fits!

E36 318is front prop, E92 middle bearing, E30 325i Auto rear half. Put the plates in to move it down a bit to keep the prop straighter, V8 engine sits slightly lower than original 2.5

This is what Jason and I were picking up in englandshire

and then I had to go sort out an E39 I'm getting brought back over, for which the key had been lost while it sat in storage waiting

BAM! hammer and chisel, no more steering lock.
We'll see that one back soon. Not sure where I'll put it, mind.

New daily:

late 01 530d auto, 6 months test. Cannot fathom how good a car these are for tiny sums of money. I'm not looking for anything to buy at the minute (reason shown above) but people keep offering you things when you're in the trade...

..like this almost immaculate genuine one owner 535i sport manual in my favourite colour of diamond black.

and Cadillac roof vinyl arrived

 

[surprising_skoda]

My mum is moving to the Scottish Highlands permanently in the next couple of weeks. I think my younger brother is claiming first dibs on her Arosa, which just left her BMW to do something with. Thought we might just keep it as its a super reliable old bus and owes us nothing now really.
Then an old friend of ours said he needs a new car as his Golf was borked. Ah hah! How about this lovely example of an E39 then? Rather than deal with all the L8 nyt $$ offers, here's someone who will believe me when I say its been reliable.
So I thought this was the "last pic"

But, three days later, he gives me a ring. Too big for him. He's gone Octavia-Mondeo-Golf-BMW, but it is some heft of car so I've been tasked to find him something else.
Thankfully no panic really as he's off to Colombia at the end of the week on a two week mission trip.
Which is good as panic is on to find a Forester for my mum and service it etc before she goes. Also I'll be taking stuff over in my Ducato van, which is due PSV at the end of the month - the very day we'd be driving over. So, that's booked for Wednesday next week, leaving two days leeway. No worries there...

Meanwhile at work the orange E36 brought back recently with scraped quarters has been getting a new bit of shiny shiny

And because all of this has made me flat broke, I decided to pick up another car on the way home from a delivery yesterday. 1994 530i Auto in Maldive Blue with a couple months MOT. It needs some work, but it drives like a peach and is so smooth, everything works perfectly (they usually have some fault by now, but nothing more than a bulb out on this beauty)

Could easily be persuaded to keep it. Must. resist.

 

[surprising_skoda]

Sorry till bore ye's all, but - I had a thread up recently looking some advice on getting a safe, practical, easy to maintain, capable vehicle for my mum. In fact that very thread was here:
A(nother) new car suggestions thread...

Anyway, I elected in the end to go after a Subaru Forester, 2.0, preferably manual, preferably the all weather model, preferably a low miler, preferably no LPG, and a nice one if possible. Wanted the 03-06 shape rather than 06-08 shape as they're more reliable. And you're thinking, so he probably ended up with the complete opposite of that then! Well, let me tell you about my car buying experience of this last week. it's my thread, and I can do what I want to! (Within the bounds of what the benevolent dictator allows of course)...

I found a very small selection of Foresters, mostly at dealers, and armed with a three grand budget I was pleasantly surprised to find I was well above market value for these.

So eyeballed a few and put them in preference order (well, my mum did). First off was this one:

I had also sent a couple of preliminary texts to the second choice seller, and he was talking about £700 p/x value on a car I am trying to shift for around a grand. Both had offered p/x on their ads so I thought I'd see. So that meant we took a drive up to Castlederg in a 1.8 BMW, about 90-100 minutes driving, half dual carriageway, and half on country roads heading for this little town which defines the erse end of nowhere.

I'd phoned ahead, and spoke to Andy at TopGearMotorsNI, and said we'd be there betwen 4.30 and 5pm. I looked at my watch as I walked in to the office and it was precisely 4.45pm.
Now, once I'd managed to find someone / attract someones attention from the office after 5 minutes, he got Andy (I think his name was Andy anyway, pardon me if not) and he said oh yes, the subaru, give me just a second please. Then he picked up the phone. "Just calling my wife here, she has it". "Hello dear. Could you bring that Subaru over? Yeah, now. Yeah. There's someone here to see it. Yeah, drive it round and get it washed when you come too. Yeah, now. OK. Bye"
Riiight. She'll be here in two minutes. Just round the road there. two miles away just. Couple of minutes.
I went back to my car and sat down. Went for a look around the stock. Mostly vans. The Transit Specialist, they were. Went back to car. Waited. Young salesman popped out, that'll be here in two minutes! Cheers!
And sure enough, 10-15 minutes later it was. She drove past us, and straight round the back.
"Shall we get out mum?"
"No, lets see how much they want a sale out of us." Canny woman.
Five min later I got out and young salesman was just walking over. All ready now folks!

So I had a good poke as my mum asked him a load of silly questions only a woman that knows nothing at all about cars can think of. What's that button do? How did it get that scrape? Can it go up mountains? Do I need to use special petrol in it?
Meanwhile I concentrated on the chassis, sound, the electrics, good, the engine, fine, the interior, nasty. The ultra-quick wash wasn't hiding the dents but it was fairly clean, no rust, no lumps of chod in the arches, nothing to worry about down there apart from the middle of the exhaust flanges rotting away merrily (cat hanging on for dear life, a good kick and the exhaust would break in two).
My mum asks why its so manky inside and if it's normal for their wives to drive the stock around. Salesboy says it would be properly valeted, and serviced, and could be ready in two or three days. I pipped up there - we're looking it today. Oh, but we have to service it first. That's ok. I do my own servicing anyway. Well, maybe we can work something out on the price if you want to do that.
Great, I thought. I'll just not ask anything right now about why it's not serviced already, ready for sale.

Off we went on a test drive and young salesman was coming up with some crackers. It's the four wheel drive version, you know, so it might be good off road - you never know until you try it, you know. It might be good in snow, but maybe not, what car is really any good in snow anyway? It's good and high up, you know. Good for towing, you know.
As we drove back in, I heard a clunk as I depressed the clutch to stop. What's that, my mum asked.
Oh - it doesn't sound serious. It wouldn't be anything to worry about, you know.
I said - sounds serious to me.
Och no, I wouldn't think it would be anything to worry about, just some wee thing.
I said - it sounds like a diff bushing. That'd be reasonably serious.
I lay down again (thankfully a dry day) and poked until I found the nearside rear half shaft had loads of lateral play in it.
Yeah - needs a half-shaft. That's kinda serious.
Oh right yeah, ok. Do you like it?
Maybe. If the price is right.
I'll get the manager!
And off he scarpered. My mum said, he's just reading that all off the advert. Doesn't know anything about it. Did you hear what he said about it driving in snow? Anyway, what's that?
We'd got to the boot and it looked like a troll had been trapped in there for a while. The parcel shelf was all gouged, as was every interior boot trim, and the rear headrests, and the offside rear door card.

Andy the manager came out, and he was willing to talk sensible. My concerns were the EML (the o2 sensor was faulty, no doubt due to the cat blowing out), the cat section would be needed, and the state of the interior.
We took a quick run in my car as a px but I doubted it would go anywhere as his stock was mainly vans and a couple of newer things, even the Subaru was older than everything else and then he did tell me it was a trade in itself. He offered me a figure I could live with, but it amounted to too much overall. I switched to cash, and offered £1500, and he was willing to go to £1600 in the end, but after having another look at the interior, we opted to leave it. In the end, with the driver seat heavily worn and stains on all seats, we would have been buying a complete new interior - and although it's not a dear car, it just wasn't "the one".
He did mention again about needing to service it, and the younger guy piped up that I would do it myself. Yes, I said, even if you did it I'd still do my own as soon as I got back. Well OK then. We haven't had a chance yet as it's only been in a week.
I said nothing about the advert being online for ten days at this point. Minor detail.

A very pleasant couple of chaps it must be said, certainly no sales pressure and willing to work around awkward people (us!). Just the car wasn't not quite living up to what was expected. I'd certainly look at them again if they had a car I was searching for, but it's a long long trip from home.

We drove back - with me mulling it over for half an hour wondering if we were doing the right thing. And then she said it.
That was the right thing to do. If I was staying here, and doing more farming, and lifting bags of stuff, I'd love that. It would be perfect. It drove really well. But for my new job, well... I deserve better than that.
And she was right. She does. She doesn't have to settle for one that's a bit rough. Any car. She needs a nice one. She should have a nice one. So, driving on, mulling that over - well, the option two car doesn't have the all weather pack but it looks really tidy, but it's on the other side of the country and it's now 6pm. Well, a text can't hurt. And sure enough, they said they'd be open till 8pm. Right, I can make that! Warp factor 9 please Mr. Data... for all of 5 seconds.
Legal speeds only! she ordered.

So motored on at legal speed back to work, to drop her off to go to a meeting, and I headed off to see what was behind curtain number 2!

 

[surprising_skoda]

Option 2 stemmed from this scumtree advert:

Listed as Dunmurry which is basically Belfast to me, the address then provided was my side of Lisburn so only 30 minutes away instead of 45. So didn't need to rush quite so much in the end.
This was the one that had offered £700 for the trade in, albeit via text so i wasn't expecting to get that necessarily, but meant I was taking that, and on my own now as my mum was off at another of the eleven hundred meetings she's had to squeeze into the four weeks of October before she leaves.

This dealer, who the advert suggests might have been called Colin, or MCT Cars Ltd, was there till 8pm and I arrived at 7.30pm - at a set of locked gates.
"i'll be there in 5-10 mins"
Superb.

There wasn't enough room in his yard, so it was parked round the back of someone elses. So we went and had a look. It was dark now but a good security floodlight was enough and I got under it. Seemed just like the first one, solid underneath, all ok down there, and round the engine bay. Only concern was the exhaust on this was far worse, and the cat to middle box flange was in tatters. Bits came off in my hand. The backbox was rusted away and one mount (of two) completely corroded off.

Took it for a drive and got the usual sales patter. This guy was putting out his stall right from the off. Here's the service book. Here's this. It's had that. etc.
What about the drivers window not working here? I asked. Oh, dunno, was working at the MOT, look here's the certificate, just a couple of days ago, got all the papers here, look at...
But what about the window? Oh, must just be the switch playing up. Can't be the motor, look here it's had one so it definitely can't be that...
I caught a quick glimpse of the receipt, remember he's flashing these past me under interior light power as I'm driving round a dark industrial estate - and the motor was indeed replaced, in early 2014. Couldn't be that then, nooo.
I told him it was for my mum and she was moving next week. I'd done my research and was buying a Forester one way or another. Great, he said, good when someone knows what they want and they're not comparing your car with a Hyundai or a Suzuki at a different place. I had this one woman... [inane salesman/customer chatter ensued, we've all experienced that]

So he took a look at my car.
I'm a mechanic by trade, he says, I know all about these. Known for burning oil. Once they do that, they're done. Needs a new engine. Rev yours up. Look, all smoky. Needs an engine.
This is at night, cold night at that, where you can tell what colour exhaust smoke is by mobile phone light, and I've done 100 miles in the car that day so far. Obviously broken then.
Offers me £400 for it. I'm like, right I can't do that, I'm here to buy this, if you do 500 on it I'll go ahead. But he wouldn't budge.
You can have the jeep [it's NOT a JEEP!] for £1850.
Aye, I said, but I'm here on my own. Came down to trade in, can't get back down here this week, no time.
Oh, sure go have a think about it.
Err, no. I'm here to buy, not have thinks.
Well, there's another customer waiting for me round the front, do you want to follow me round and take another look under the light there?

So we did that. Into his little workshop with its smooth concrete floor and fluorescent lighting.
And with the nice floor I had a proper hoke. The exhaust truly was hanging. Hanging. The rear subframe was covered in blebs of rust that didn't like being poked.
I could hear the other customer was picking up their car and were finding an awful lot of issues. They certainly didn't sound happy but once done he was back over at me asking what I thought now.
I said I'm glad I got a proper look now, this needs an exhaust right away, and a couple of other things too.
Sure why would you put a new exhaust on it, it has an MOT a couple of days ago?
Yes maybe so, I said, but as soon as you touch the middle section it will fall apart.
Why would you touch it, it has a new MOT?
Look, the exhaust is rotten. It needs replaced, MOT or not.
It's not rotten, The cars only through the MOT!
Of course its rotten. The backbox is so rotten the mount has broken off! Here, kneel down and I'll show it to you.
I'm not getting down on the floor, he scoffed.
So you know then. You know its rotten.
I don't know anything. I got a garage in Dunmurry to check it over and MOT it for me.
I thought you said you were a mechanic?
Sure you could weld the bracket back on anyway.
How? The metals too thin to even weld to!
Here, if it's not for you, that's OK, just leave it.
I said, it could be for me, but your attitude isn't. You know this is broken. Just fix your price to allow for that.
It's a great car
No, it's an OK car. It needs work to make it great.
Nah, some man will look at it and love it and not even say anything about no exhaust
I said, You mean, someone will see it that doesn't know to look where I have, and you're happy to strafe them?

Then he accused me of being the "strafer" with my car that needs an engine and kept trying to usher me out. At this point having switched over into obstinate mode, I really was annoyed at my time having been wasted, having been sent messages from him like "My forester is an outstanding example. Never worked etc. Full history!"
I was ripping. I parked right outside his gate and rang my friend Jason to blow off some steam before driving. I was massively frustrated as well as I'd set aside this Tuesday for sorting a car, already a good few days late, and now here I was at 8.30pm with no car and very little options.

 

[surprising_skoda]

So while we were talking on the phone, Jason was searching the internet (seeing as that's the only possible means to find a car these days) and came up with this piece of outstanding value:

The less reliable, not as nice looking, thirstier, heavier, option with higher miles... but gorgeous! It was £2195 when he sent me the link. I tried to ring but there was no answer. I drove home a little more hopeful.

Wednesday was chock-a-block and didn't get to look again. The friend of mine who got the E39 Touring drove his old Golf + down to me. It has some issues which were going to cost too much to resolve, so I've taken it on.
Also went and picked up a Peugeot 407 from a friend from church, who has just got a Passat as the 407 has a ream of issues, far too many to resolve, so I've taken that one on as well. He was going to scrap it, I reckon it still has some life in it yet.

So Thursday, and as yet I've found no better options, so I ring about this Obsidian Pearl Black XT and find out it's had an engine under warranty, so engine mileage on current unit is 76k. So, low miles, kinda. It's had two sets of rear shocks, common issue, and one owner from new. Sounds brilliant. Really, really brilliant. Just the kind of thing you want when you buy a "forever car".
I had a collection to make in Carrickfergus. That's 90 minutes East. This things near Bangor, which is also 90 minutes East. Ignoring that they're an hour apart in late day traffic, Jason and I head off to Carrick. I'd left a couple of hours for that job but it literally took five minutes to load up, so we were free suddenly. Time I did not have suddenly appeared. We talked it over, then I rang my mum and talked it over some more, and to my, most likely lifelong, regret, I had to accept that 256bhp was just too much for my mum, and the minimum of 17" wheels (18"s currently fitted) did not lend itself to winter tyres very well. I let the seller know, I'm not a complete sod, and he sounded as sad as I did. Someone is going to get a steal there.

And Jason and I trundled on back down the M1. We stopped off at the services for some dinner and by now I was down to the almost last choice, a 2004 Legacy Wagon in silver for £2195. 4x4 manual, not the outback, long MOT, under 100k - it looked OK. It wasn't what I really wanted though. I decided I would only pay what was in my pocket, and hoked it all out for a count. £1530 I had. That was a bit rough so rather than drive down and waste everyones time, I rang the seller to sound him out. Bear in mind the advert was two weeks old and nobody had viewed, and the ad looked to have been written in the summer. He might have been at the point of needing a sale. So I rang back and asked about price. He was willing to drop straight away to 2G but would not consider going lower. I didn't even make the offer, just thanked him for taking the call.

I do realise at this point, you're all thinking I'm absolutely wretched as a buyer and make sure to avoid me if I come sniffing around something you have advertised. I've absolutely nothing to say in my defence!
Well, it is just all pontification on my part when it comes to a keeper. On trade cars I have my decision made and deal done in five minutes. It's only on picking the right car to keep for a serious length of time that I procrastinate so badly.

So what was the right car? The right car was out of my grasp now. The Foresters I'd already looked at were the only ones for sale apart from a rough Turbo and a nicer Turbo a mate had got offered the day before as a swap for his BMW but Turbos were out anyway. There were no more for sale and really I didn't want a Legacy or Impreza wagon. Or a Freelander or Cherokee and I dallied over noodles and BBQ chicken on Thursday evening beside the motorway trying to come up with a plan that didn't involve flying to England to pick up a 2.0 Forester which would use up time I didn't have. The ones in this country - well, the black one was a mess, and the green one could have been a good base but the seller was a plank so that one was beyond getting too - or was it? We were in Lisburn again, at 7pm, this guy was open till 8 on Tuesday, maybe he would be again. He wouldn't have answered me I know, but I looked at Jason across the table merrily annoying his friends on facebook with pictures of his chinese caramel chicken and came up with a new, slightly sneaky plan.

Ring that guy for me. No seriously, you ring him. No, I can't ring him, that wont end well. You ring him.
Eventually he did, and he was still there, and we were only ten minutes away, and I already knew what he'd take price-wise.
To the cash machine! The only, slightly minor, downside to this plan was paying more than I wanted to. But, that was played off by getting it now, having time to work on it, not having to pay for flights to Englandshire, or Cork, the only other one in Ireland that would have done was 400 miles south, and as I'd already seen it two days ago, all Jason would have to do was walk in, cursory glance, pay and papers, and get out of Dodge city.

So we drove round, in the van, and I dropped him off and went to turn as the van wouldn't have fitted into his little yard. That sounds like an excuse to avoid the seller, and it was, but it was also legitimate, the yard was very tight.
So I waited at the roadside and ten minutes later a green Forester emerged and we initiated the "straight to the petrol station pronto as there is zero petrol" operation frequently needed after purchasing from legitm8 car dealers innit. Private sellers at least try to let you away with a quarter tank, and the dealers that give a monkeys do too.

Anyway we got back up the road and buried the Subaru in the yard at 8.30pm, and made off home.

 

[surprising_skoda]

Today is (was) Friday.
Today I saw the car in the daylight for the very first time.
It started which is good. And idles (low) and doesn't overheat. Good so far.

Bit by bit I need the to start working through all the issues.
The seller had told me as soon as I'd hit the first minor bump on the test drive that it might need a droplink or two. You know, four days after the MOT. So obviously it will need something major.
What I can fix is the stuff I can see.

The boot trim falling off

FIXED

The appallingly cheap rear tyres - this half inflated Matrix with 2.5mm tread was a wee gem.

The door sticker says 205/70/15 or 215/60/15 tyres are the correct sizes.
So these 215/65 winter tyres I've had saved in the back of the workshop for an age will do perfect. Avons, because I don't roll on scrap.

FIXED, TOMORROW

The washer jet that doesn't work. This is a picture of it not working.

NOT FIXED YET

The "faulty switch" that means the driver window is inop.

NOT FIXED YET.

This centre pocket has to stay open because the front falls off it if you close it.

NOT FIXED.


And you are now getting impatient. What does it even look like?

Taken in a rural wilderness landscape for maximum off-roadiness of course, as you can see, the awd system really taking over in this situation

That was just after picking up service bits

Including some "blind everyone else" bulbs which I fitted this evening

before setting the radio just how it should be, and motoring home on the start of its extended test drive before handover to my mum next week, just before she goes.

She knows only that I've bought something green, and she's in Scotland sorting out a house deal (hopefully) at the minute so has no idea whats going on. She texted "puke green or bottle green?" and I replied "green like an emerald, like the waters of a caribbean lagoon" to which she said "that's a bit long for the tax book".
So, "just green then", mum.

 

[micko]

What a read, enjoyed that!
That was the one I found for you... You can thank me later!
Hope it provides years of reliable service for new owner.

 

[robert106]

Love it. Lol, recoup a bit from the Bike carrier & bars, odd that they were left on.

 

[jincam]

Aha i cant believe you dont remember the first forrester you visited in top gear motors man!! I was in your yard not two months ago in that very car with big paddy i traded it in shortly after for a transit. I paid you for some bmw wheel nuts in ice lollys. Problem was the ice lollies ended up costing me more than the price of the wheel nuts would be usually because of you boys are to good for a polly pineapple lol good times. I have a forrester booklet left over from the sale if you need one.

 

[surprising_skoda]

Be glad you were here then, there's twice as many staff now so a lolly sale is quite expensive! Not that ye would want one now, it's turned baltic.


These photos will show what I saw on the Forester that annoyed me so much, when I was promised an "exceptional" car, and the dealer was "a mechanic by trade" but thought that this was OK to sell on. Colin @ MCT Cars LTD, Dunmurry and/or Moira Road, Lisburn - some boy.

The cat/mid section flange:

Crumbles in your hand

The backbox:

The backbox hanger - or, where it used to be anyway:

General shape of it:

Subframe

Droplinks

The Oil was utterly atrocious. We've seen thicker water. How any "mechanic" or indeed, "dealer", can think this is OK is beyond me. Hadn't been changed for 20k at least. Even cheap trade oil is only a fuppin tenner, and it only takes 4 litres. Come on man, stop being such a cowboy donkey.

It's hard to see these, but all the rear end suspension bushes were a bit too bushy and not doing enough suspending. They're on the outer end of their lifespan for sure, all of them.

They're not totally done but they will be before the next MOT. I've not the time so they'll be done in the Springtime when I'll get the car back for a week to go over it again.


Other news:
Been flinging cars around all over the place. That friend that got my mums BMW didn't want to spend out fixing up his Golf+, so he threw it my way. I did the essentials, Vinny got the heater working and the starting issues worked out, Jason sorted a couple of tyres out and after the service and sticking some diesel in, I took it round to my Pastor and gave it to him. His Touran gave up a year ago or so and another guy in church gave him a Meriva to dash about in, except it hasn't the power to dash very far, and he does something mental like 40k a year running after all of us. Any money he got together to replace the Touran just went out on something the church needed, so as it was his birthday on Friday there I rushed it on to have it ready for Sunday afternoon. I'm punctual like that.

Anyway he loves it and I drove the Meriva home, oh the joy. His wife and I were chatting as the pastor jumped around the Golf with excitement, and we both thought of another girl that comes sometimes that needs a car as well, so I'll fix up the horrible Vauxhall and ship that off her way.

Now also the assistant pastor changed his 407 for a Passat recently, and being a VW it needs some work done, so I've got the 407 what is almost at the end of it's lifespan, as a down payment on servicing and tidying up the Passat. Currently the Peugeot, which drives fine and has plenty of MOT, but needs LOADS of tidying up work and servicing and fixing lots of niggles, well it's somewhere I don't even know, a mechanic mate has it and is trying to make a deal with it to someone else, I dunno the ins and outs of that but he was supposed to call before 6pm and its 2am now, guess who's going hunting for a 407 tomorrow. No idea what the plate is so that might be difficult.


There's a right few recovery drivers around the country that know to ring me if they get anything interesting offered. I got a call on Friday from one offering me an old BMW. It's a 1990 520i, that old shape, do you want it? Of course I do. Buying old BMWs blind is my speciality. Took a chance as sometimes this approach backfires badly, but this time, not so bad.
Because this:

is not a 520i. It is a manual 535i Sport. Partially restored, if you can believe that.
Score.

M30s are brilliant. It's only been laying up for four years. Lets stick a battery on it to see.
Boom!

Double score.