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Last week, one of my friends suggested I wrote a blog about my exploits involving old cars. . . .
I'm going to give it a go. If it gets boring, please tell me to stop.
Some background info about me;
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Last Edit: Oct 25, 2014 18:00:47 GMT by vonthrash
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FFS! pressed enter to soon! Bear with me . . .
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Born 1977, then in chronological order it sort of goes; Lego, Matchbox, Technic Lego, Raleigh, Scalextric, Street Machine, Tamiya, Mongoose, Schumacher, Specialized, . . . . and finally driving lessons. Once I had a licence, but no car, my desperation to drive got the better of me and an stupid unauthorised jaunt in dads Rover resulted in this; Back on the push iron for a couple of years. Then I met a girl with an Austin A40 and decided I liked old cars. They were cool. Didn't start properly messing with cars until the turn of the millennium, I was a late starter due to parents and friends with no interest, and jobs with no automotive connection. Moved cities, got a desk job in a plant hire depot, negotiated a corner spot in the workshop, start messing. Did this first; Started off as a standard 1300 ghia, left the engine alone and improved brakes, suspension, and safety. Discovered the internet and ebay shortly after that, started going to the occasional drag strip; I was a little confused as to where to camp. I had my first E30 as a daily driver at the time, this failed an MOT on lots of rust. It was moved to my corner spot, and an attempt to restore was made; I cruised round in a E28 for a bit; Gave up on the E30 and got another one (and did questionable things to it) It was around this time, 2010 I think, that I bought Grotbag. Here she is on the day of purchase; Other E30s lurked in the background; Due to the unsightly faux-rat E30, I met a lady with a beetle; Then it also got too rusty for me to cope with - I can't weld at this point - and was disposed of so the corner was free for Grotters arrival; Break while I get things in the right order . . .
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So if I remember correctly, I'm using the red Fez as a daily now, rollcages and weekly big-shops do not mix. Wanted the comparatively luxurious green one mobile as soon as poss. In to the corner she goes, and on with some second hand coilovers; Gave the wheels to a banger racer and he made them wider; The arches needed rolling now, so I made something to do that; Fit nice now; Painted the roof to match the seats; Fit extra spark plug; Some badge engineering; And roll; Go racing! Get pulled! Meet Lady fez owner! Roll daily through the snowiest winter I can remember; To be continued . . .
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choaky
Part of things
Posts: 284
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Bookmarked!
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Escort Mk4 ST170 powered sleeper Instagram: @f670_pur
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I remember you VERY well, camped outside the pod lol.
My nephew & I won the OldSkoolFord drag championship back in 2010 with my Capri.
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96 E320 W210 Wafter - on 18" split Mono's - Sold :-( 10 Kia Ceed Sportwagon - Our new daily 03 Import Forester STi - Sold 98 W140 CL500 AMG - Brutal weekend bruiser! Sold :-( 99 E240 S210 Barge - Now sold 02 Accord 2.0SE - wife's old daily - gone in PX 88 P100 2.9efi Custom - Sold
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With my corner empty, the red one goes back in for engine fettling; This involves stuff like this; And this; And this; And a BCF3 cam, and +.90" pistons, and an XR2 inlet manifold, and a 4-branch exhaust, and one of these; Going in to this; Getting there; Add one of these; Bash the exhaust around a bit; And now I can weld, fix ladyfriends mot issues; Also, buy another E30; Getting closer to the present day now, it's all becoming clearer . . .
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conair
Part of things
Posts: 268
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Bookmarked this one, looking forward to keeping up with it dude.
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Wow, The green fiesta used to belong to my old mate Patrick. I took him up to buy it off an old boy in Barnsley for about £300 probably around 2003 - Back then it was split mint, garaged all it's life. Pat was a clumsy sod, used it every day and crashed it into almost everything in his path hence the replacement front end panels!
Good to see the old bus is still around, I really liked that car.
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Last Edit: Mar 4, 2014 21:36:11 GMT by cobblers
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Wow, The green fiesta used to belong to my old mate Patrick. I took him up to buy it off an old boy in Barnsley for about £300 probably around 2003 - Back then it was split mint, garaged all it's life. Pat was a clumsy sod, used it every day and crashed it into almost everything in his path hence the replacement front end panels! Good to see the old bus is still around, I really liked that car. No way! I got her from a lad in Rotherham who realised she was too good to chop the floor out of and grasstrack. That was 2010ish. Thought she'd had a bump, front wing with no bumper hole, and a brush painted bonnet give the game away. Don't suppose you've and pics of her back then have you?
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choaky
Part of things
Posts: 284
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Oh I've just realised who you are, saw you in your red fez at the rr gathering last year, infact I almost killed you with toxic exhaust gases in the Que on the way in, I was the fool driving a newspaper covered Peugeot running on god only knows what (it wasn't my car!) God that thing stank! Lol I should be a fool in my own car this year (mk3 escort ghia)
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Escort Mk4 ST170 powered sleeper Instagram: @f670_pur
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Wow, The green fiesta used to belong to my old mate Patrick. I took him up to buy it off an old boy in Barnsley for about £300 probably around 2003 - Back then it was split mint, garaged all it's life. Pat was a clumsy sod, used it every day and crashed it into almost everything in his path hence the replacement front end panels! Good to see the old bus is still around, I really liked that car. No way! I got her from a lad in Rotherham who realised she was too good to chop the floor out of and grasstrack. That was 2010ish. Thought she'd had a bump, front wing with no bumper hole, and a brush painted bonnet give the game away. Don't suppose you've and pics of her back then have you? Yep I used to see this around regularly as it was in the next village to me. If you look thru the events and meet ups page there should be some pics of it at the Retro Rides need that used to be at Meadowhall It's looking well and again glad to see it still about
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Sept 6, 2014 10:32:39 GMT
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I was the fool driving a newspaper covered Peugeot running on god only knows what (it wasn't my car!) You must be one of Phils mates then? Just getting some photos in the right order, then I will update this.
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Sept 28, 2014 16:54:51 GMT
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Yep I used to see this around regularly as it was in the next village to me. If you look thru the events and meet ups page there should be some pics of it at the Retro Rides need that used to be at Meadowhall It's looking well and again glad to see it still about Thanks mate, and if you mean these pics; they're from after I bought her, after I painted the roof, but before the window louvre fell off at speed. . . . ....back to the plot. My short term memory is shocking, and the photos in my bucket haven't been uploaded in the order they were taken, so, here's some random happenings in pictorial form. All from the last few years, poor effort on my part in terms of "blogging" I know, but I need to catch up to the present day. Quickly. Bought an escort; Sold escort. Put horrible RGA spoiler on Grotters; Removed spoiler. Adjusted gear linkage on red fiesta; And in a completely unrelated failure, this happened first time out; 2012 was the last time the green one moved under her own steam; Garaged up waiting for new engine funds after that. Fixed the red one; Sold the sandpiper in the background. Replaced all the bushes on the E30; Renewed all bushes, balljoints and other bits, drove like new after that. Had some rust to deal with on the red one; So, at this point about 18 months ago, I had a fully functional 325i SE, one fiesta that worked, and one that didn't. to be continued . . .
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Sept 28, 2014 18:12:25 GMT
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Haha Ben that speeding ticket cracked me up!
Do like this car, but you already know that :-)
Enjoyed the life story too!! B-)
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Don't Fool with the OLD Skool
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Sept 28, 2014 18:28:31 GMT
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Aye up Jonni! The ticket was for no number plate - I don't speed . . .
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Sept 28, 2014 18:38:19 GMT
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Either way, now I know you're on the wrong side of the law I can no longer share my bacon with you at classic Ford show
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Don't Fool with the OLD Skool
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Sept 28, 2014 19:27:24 GMT
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Now Grotters comes into the workshop for stripdown; Original 1100 out! Clean off the zeibart; Holes! Chop chop chop Canibalisation; Meanwhile, bought another fez, or most of it; Stashed that in a mates garage for later. The plan with the green one is to make it much faster. That's it. Leave the outside as it is, and spend the money on go faster bits instead. Like this; Swopping from 1100 to 1300/1600 crossflow in these means changing the gearbox cradle, driveshafts, hubs, and other bits. Did a mock up; Lots of thinking about where stuff should go. Then in November last year, someone pulled in front of me when they shouldn't have done; BOSH! Written off, paid out, bought back, stripped, crushed. Bought Diesel W123; This needed very little attention. Propshaft centre bearing first; Then window switches rebuilding; Then a driveshaft failure; But it still drove! Got a shaft from a breaker, made a mess putting it in; Also, a nearly finished mk1 track car came up very cheap; Bought, stripped, juicy bits kept, shell and the rest sold. Almost broke even. Back to the green one. Messed with gearboxes; Made brackety bits; Needed a silicone hose in a particular shape, made a former; Sent it off, got custom hose sent back; Bit of paint for the red one; Got some slotmags which are too wide; Re-wiring the wiring; Everything out again so I can prep the bay for paint Made a rollover jig so I could get underneath; And now, getting much closer . . . it's becoming clearer . . . oh yes, this happened; This was resolved to my satisfaction, and not wanting to break the habit of a lifetime, without viewing, I put a bid on this; Which is now mine. Complete with a 3 litre oil burner and 207k miles. Initial poking has revealed a spattering of issues that either need fixing or ignoring. That was last week, today grotbag looks like this; Onwaaaaards!! Encouragement and/or ridicule welcome.
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Sept 28, 2014 21:45:54 GMT
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I'm sure there's earlier pics of grotbags at a retro rides meet as I don't remember the roof paint or spoiler being on it
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More happenings, priority number one with the merc was a new aerial, need tunes. I had one left over from the bmw that was made to fit with a big dollop of silicone. Also fixed a few bits of trim that were hanging off - rear window frame, interior door handles. The leather interior has been fitted as an afterthought, with too many self tappers. Wondered why the rear headrests were still the original black cloth ones, sniped a pair of leather ones of t'bay and quickly realized why they hadn't been changed. Took me and a mate an hour to work out how to extract them. The auto gearbox is starting to worry me, seems to change up whenever it likes, differing greatly as it warms up. I'm guessing (and hoping) changing the ATF and filter may cure this. Other than that, it's been a pleasant fortnight slunking around in the ol' barge. Red fiesta is running well, still making me smile. Green fiesta is consistently sucking money from my pocket, and turning in to such things as a ceramic coating for the exhaust manifold. I'm at the elbow grease stage with this now, prepping the engine bay for paint, . . . which is why progress has slowed somewhat. In other news, I had decided to get rid of all my e30 bits, was sure I had moved on to bigger, merc-ier things. Put an ad on one of the bmw forums, sold a couple of bits, including the cruise control. Here's a pic of separating the cruise from the rest of the loom; The buyer of this was just the type you want, most of the other enquiries annoyed me so much, I threw a mini-wobbler, decided to keep all the bits. . . . . and fit them and the 2.5l engine to a L-plate E30 touring I pick up tonight!
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