Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Rick]

.. more than you can chew, with regard to a car project young or old, and had to admit defeat?

One that springs to mind is a Vauxhall Carlton estate I once bought. At the time I thought that running a shabby old estate would be a good idea, so a local ruin with a duff engine was bought for not-a-lot, and towed home. This must have been about 15 years ago.

Another engine was sourced, and much time was spent swapping parts over to make it compatible. Other, much more interesting, pastimes quickly took over and the work was never completed. It was last seen on the back of a scrap man's lorry, being hauled away to the crusher.

RJ
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[Rootes75]

Years back when I was at University I saw advertised locally a mid 30's Minx. It was unusual in the fact it was a four-light saloon body which is ultra rare. I didn't have space or really the money but bought it anyway. She was in bits and the body was off etc so it was like a jigsaw puzzle. I had it tucked away for about ten years but had to admit defeat in the end and sell her on. Wish I hadn't as I later saw that instead of restoring the subsequent owners sold her off in bits as spares. What a waste of a rare car.
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Various Rootes Vehicles.

[D4B]

Yes my father and I bought a Citroen Berlingo van as a non runner from a neighbour after it broke down one day for £200.

Thought it was gonna be an easy fix, but that soon turned into a head gasket job and of course cambelt / water pump etc.

However then we couldn't get it to start no matter what we tried.

So it got left in his rickety old barn collecting moss from 2010 until earlier this year, here we are on the way to weigh it in!!





We must have gone on the wrong day too as they only gave us £90!!

What makes it worse, is that in hind sight, we think it was an immobiliser causing it to not fire up

[kevin2306]

I once bought a 'robin hood' kit car, unseen due to a long story. It was in the design of a lotus 7 with a 2 litre pinto.
It had previously been road worthy but laid up.
Had a few weeks of perusing it before deciding it was quite a dangerous and badly put together example. It was moved on quite quickly and easily.
Didn't loose on it either.


Kev

[52classic]

Renault Vel Satis. Stunning looker and low mileage. On free loan from a mate whilst my Pajero was off the road. The understanding was that I would sort out a few gremlins along the way. AIRC an 04 or 5 so the newest car I'd ever had!

First problem was that it leaked to the extent that the water level rose even with holes drilled in the footwells. Radio was great - except that it required the code putting in every time you wanted to hear it. Tyre pressure monitors, electric handbrake, electric windows, in fact most electric stuff played up on a regular basis and the credit card 'key' took an average of 3 attempts to activate. Try as I did, faults came too thick and fast for me to beat them.

Fuel consumption was so bad that it was arguable whether a taxi would have been cheaper. Last straw was the front spring mountings failing and shredding the tyres.

Ironic ending too. The garage who recovered it 'parked' the car on their hoist overnight and by the morning the iffy handbrake allowed it to roll off the ramp and onto another car. Total loss payment made the owner very happy!

[goneps]

My first motorcycle was a thirty-quid banger, a BSA C12 with one careful owner and several others who should have been locked up for cruelty to harmless machinery. It was my first encounter with a motorised vehicle, so I was ignorant and innocent in equal measure, but as a struggling apprentice on four quid per week it was all I could afford.

I won't bore you with the catalogue of woe with which that benighted machine complicated my life and drained my pocket. Suffice to say that after a few hundred miles it stopped with a distressing clonk one night. From its innards the local mechanic retrieved a con-rod that someone had managed to bend into an S-shape, so that one of its bends had been scraping against the flywheel on that side and the shortened distance between big- and small-ends meant that the piston skirt had been whacking the flywheels at BDC. Scarcely credible, but true.

Concerned that there would be no end to this catastrophe my parents took pity on me and loaned the money to buy a new Suzuki 80. On the trip to Comerfords to trade it in the engine was leaking like a sieve with no mesh, and it was quite difficult riding with all fingers and toes crossed. Remarkably we made it, and I prayed the sales chappie would not notice the spreading puddle of oil as I parked the beast in their yard and walked away without the least regret.

Richard

[JC T ONE]

Nope
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[Dipster]

Many mechanical challenges but so far no defeats!

[badhuis]

My very first car may fall into this category. Bought (saved) in 1982 from the scrapyard, without registration but I took pity of the car. A Morris Mini 750 from 1969, still with sliding glass and external hinges. Drove it a couple of times in a field behind our house, then sold on to a Mini specialist. It still lives.

A Jaguar XJ6 series 1 2.8 bought from a car dealer for very little money. The engine did not run. I got it running but could not pay the insurance money so sold on, never drove it on the road. That was in 1984 I think.

Lastly a white Triumph 2000 Mk1, again saved from a scrapyard in 1984. This had replacement dark green Mk2 doors. It did run but I sold it on to another student who's parents had a big farm. He restored the car and sold it to someone in Den Haag. Fast forward to 2001 when my brother also wanted a Mk1 (I used another Mk1 as a daily car). I found the white car in Den Haag and remembered the number plate...
A few years later I spoke to a friend who lived in the same town where I found the car on the scrap yard. He said he took it to the scrap yard because there were no takers for the car when he tried to sell it!
My brother still has the car, but it has been standing in our shed for the last 8 years.
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[emmerson]

Sad to say, but yes. My Morris Minor Traveler has gone to a new home.After seven years and buckets of cash, I decided that age and infirmity were against me ever finishing it.
The chap who bought it has done a couple of Moggy saloons, so knows just what he's got, and the complete set of new wood was the deal-clincher. He has estimated two years to complete.