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The Car Thread

EpsomWolf said:
I bought a different Mk3 Cortina for £50 once, lime Green this time! Had it for less than a week and vividly remember driving carefully through a recently resurfaced road with loose chipping, 10mph limit, and some loon in a builder van came racing towards me. Sure enough, bang, shattered screen. £63 to repair. 42 years on still wince about that.
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Paid 100 quid for a lime green Proton, about a month later whilst pulling into a car bay, the bloke in the next bay reversed out on full lock and put a tennis ball sized dent into passenger door.

He didn't want to fuck up his insurance so told me get 2 quotes and would give me the higher one. Mate was a mechanic so got me a couple between 2 and 300, phoned the other driver and was around my house with 280 within an hour.

Scrapped the Proton and picked up a volvo 440.
 
My dad, my brother and all their friends always had old cars that needed regular fettling. Same thing for me. Must admit I never really enjoyed it, lying underneath the car in the rain fixing stuff after a 12 hour Friday night shift wasn't my idea of fun but it was something that just had to be done. I was quite happy when I could afford a better quality, newer car and get it serviced by a mechanic.
 
pagey said:
Paid 100 quid for a lime green Proton, about a month later whilst pulling into a car bay, the bloke in the next bay reversed out on full lock and put a tennis ball sized dent into passenger door.

He didn't want to fuck up his insurance so told me get 2 quotes and would give me the higher one. Mate was a mechanic so got me a couple between 2 and 300, phoned the other driver and was around my house with 280 within an hour.

Scrapped the Proton and picked up a volvo 440.
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Haha, nice one. Reminds me of a very similar tale some time ago:

The wife had a knackered Picasso that was due to be scrapped at the next mot. Parked it at a retail park and came back to it with the wing stoved in. Pretty pissed off no one about but found a beautifully written, hand-written note under the wiper.

Some incredibly apologetic guy had forgotten to put his handbrake on and his car had rolled back causing the damage. He explained he’d waited as long as possible but had to get back as his wife was very ill. I contacted him through the email he left and turns out he’s the U.K. correspondent for the New York Times! He didn’t want to stress his wife so similar to you agreed to pay cash, I said I’d get three quotes and go with the cheapest as he was very honest all along. Cheapest quote was from a backstreet place at £620, so just pocketed that, scrapped the car and put it towards the new motor.

The contrast between then and now where I’m paranoid about leaving the car anywhere or even getting a door ding. I know we tend to reminisce fondly but I do miss that easy way of things sometimes.
 
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sycophantia said:
My dad, my brother and all their friends always had old cars that needed regular fettling. Same thing for me. Must admit I never really enjoyed it, lying underneath the car in the rain fixing stuff after a 12 hour Friday night shift wasn't my idea of fun but it was something that just had to be done. I was quite happy when I could afford a better quality, newer car and get it serviced by a mechanic.
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Repairs did seem relentless and yes, it was a relief to get to more reliable cars and be able to pay someone to do the dirty bits when necessary but funnily enough, I’m really starting to miss it. Probably why I enjoy repairing my bikes myself now when I could probably just take them to the shop. Looking back though as fun as it seemed, the diy repairs were a necessity as there were no funds for garages. Trips to the scrappy are long gone and with motors so complex nowadays and garage bills so high it must be nigh on impossible to keep an old car on the road on a tight budget.
 
EpsomWolf said:
Repairs did seem relentless and yes, it was a relief to get to more reliable cars and be able to pay someone to do the dirty bits when necessary but funnily enough, I’m really starting to miss it. Probably why I enjoy repairing my bikes myself now when I could probably just take them to the shop. Looking back though as fun as it seemed, the diy repairs were a necessity as there were no funds for garages. Trips to the scrappy are long gone and with motors so complex nowadays and garage bills so high it must be nigh on impossible to keep an old car on the road on a tight budget.
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I've got my motorbikes if I want to do mechanical stuff, mainly just routine maintenance cos not much goes wrong with em, it is very satisfying doing a good job for yourself.
 
TBF, when I had the Moggy (same with my A35 van), no need for a piece of wood, broom handle, etc. just engage the starting handle 😉.

The second Moggy I got cost me £30. I drove it for a couple of years and sold it for £80.
 
Thinking about this…

1) Mini van, paid £120, sold £35
2) Mk 1 Escort, paid £100, scrapped £10
3) Mk3 Cortina, paid £50, sold £50
4) Mk3 Cortina, paid £125, Part ex’d for Suzuki GSX250
Then several more rusty cheap duffers, Fiat 127 x 2 (one of which was bought from Sylvan Ebanks-Blake’s cousin (who I played football with (SEB was about 2 at the time))) Fiat X/19 (Bought from Sylvan Ebanks-Blake’s uncle!!), Mk5 Cortina, Renault 5 Gordini, before eventually getting a couple of quid put by and starting the move away from heaps with a nice Ford Orion and on you go.

Only ones I miss are the minivan and the Gordini. Both be worth a few quid now.
 
My first car, Ford Anglia estate cost me 75 quid with tax and mot (a 1967 model I bought in 1976). Got bored with cars after a year so bought a bike and gave the car to my dad, he ran into the ground for years.
 
1. Austin A35 Van
2. Morris Minor 1000
3. Morris Minor 1000
4. Ginetta G15
5. MGB Roadster
6. MkII Escort RS1800 (lent it to a mate who got T-boned by a Rover 2500!)
7. Minivan.
 
Im doing a lot of mechanical fiddling around on ride on mowers at the moment. Rewiring, replacing belts, starter motors, stripping and cleaning engines, swapping out borked differentials, that sort of thing. oh, and replacing blades. Lots of replacing blades. Swapping a diff in 40 degrees today was just BOILING.
 
Very hard these days to find a balanced assessment of where we are, why we are here and the sensible way forward without all the usual agendas trying to influence opinion, but another terrific update from Harry here.

Quite an eye-opener and interesting learning how different government strategies are playing out and ultimately kiboshing attempts to solving global environmental problems whilst causing chaotic knock-on effects everywhere. Some very fair questions asked about the UK’s exposure in putting ourselves at the forefront of legislative change but we’ll all have our own opinions about that.

Harry’s review on a different video of the brilliant new electric R5 is worth a look and gives a real indication that we’re finally there with EV’s people really want and need, and the focus on the hyper-fast, hyper-expensive and hyper-depreciating tax-advantageous cars for the benefit of only the wealthy is changing rapidly.

If Harry’s right looks like we could be having a big upsurge in smaller EV’s this year but might be having to accept the goals of only pure EV manufacture and ownership a pipe dream. Seems like something for everyone and a balanced solution to me, but I guess is still miles off targets and enough to send the environmentalists into meltdown.

Anyway, it’s all taking shape regardless of who wants what and thought it a very fair view through an impartial lens:

 
I should have mentioned this before
We built a derby car
Ancient Ford falcon Ute.
Much welding. And a sick paint job
I welded some 0.5 inch steel between the bullhead and the diff
That drive train was going nowhere
We got featured by the national association
Sadly we came third as we lost reverse in a big hit
Stronger next year I will build a tank
 
Paddingtonwolf said:
I should have mentioned this before
We built a derby car
Ancient Ford falcon Ute.
Much welding. And a sick paint job
I welded some 0.5 inch steel between the bullhead and the diff
That drive train was going nowhere
We got featured by the national association
Sadly we came third as we lost reverse in a big hit
Stronger next year I will build a tank
Click to expand...
Is that a form of banger racing? Always thought that looked a hoot.
 
Paddingtonwolf said:
I genuinely never knew I could do this shit
Brilliant fun
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Serious envy, would absolutely love to do something like that.

Motorsport in any form is the one big itch that never got scratched. Never had time/resources or know-how and it’s a ship that’s probably sailed now. Funnily enough was at the F1 karting at Tottenhams new ground yesterday and notched the 2nd fastest lap this month so that’s probably about as good as it’s going to get.

Can’t imagine how good it feels to be building a car and having your sort of fun. Kudos, enjoy.
 
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