MOT Prayers for Oxford + price is right death game

[Lankytim]

The Oxford (Rotford, Poxford e.t.c) is with a retro friendly bodyshop as I type this. I trailered it there yesterday for the dude to weld, replace some bushes and MOT. He popped round a few months ago to see what needed doing and it didnt seem too bad, just a couple of patches and replace the front outriggers. Simple.

Anyway....

He rang me this morning, "iya maate. ah just found yer Oxfords a bit softer underneath than ah first thought. Its gonna need a quite ah bit more than ah thought". (I still find the Stoke accent a bit novel)

Basically, hes sending it for MOT to see what it fails on and will get back to me later with a quote. He says theres going to be quite a bit more bodywork than I first thought....... This puts me in a dialemma again.

If its over say £500 I cant afford it. I was banking on around £300 worth of welding. I wont have any choice but to cut my losses, and flog it off cheap, or break it and sell the good bits and take the shell and running gear to pre '68 (pre 68s coming!)

Grrr....... I love and hate old cars in equal measures!

[Robinxr4i]

£500 of welding is a serious amount Has the guy quoted you any figures yet?

Hope it work out mate

[Lankytim]

He had quoted "no more than £300 on welding" but that was before he had it up on the ramps for a proper poke about.

[archieboy]

Fingers crossed for ya.

Whats this pre 68 thing i keep hearing about?

[dugong]

lankytim said:

He had quoted "no more than £300 on welding" but that was before he had it up on the ramps for a proper poke about.

so that'll be £299's worth of welding then.

best of luck mate.
you should get it MOT'd at the place I take my Volvo to. They're like the Russian police. 'Firm but fair'.

[Lankytim]

archieboy said:

Fingers crossed for ya.

Whats this pre 68 thing I keep hearing about?

Banger racing- but only cars built before 1968 are eligible to race, i.e classic car banger racing.

Old farinas such as this are the weapon of choice thanks to being hugely over engineered body wise and being very strong. Classic banger racing doesnt have many fans on this site,but its the ultimate deterrent for any naughty classic thats thinking of failing its MOT

[archieboy]

I see, cheers for that,

Well i think it that will put the frightners up the ole exhaust pipe ;D

[dugong]

hmmm pre 68....

how do amazons fare in that sort of conflict?

farina vs amazon, who would win?

i'll use this to scare the wibblepoo out of the volvo so she behaves.

[Marc]

Good luck dude. I'm experiencing a world of rot/welding related pain at the moment with one of my BMW's. Seems to be never ending and is costing a fortune, especially when one sill turned out to be mostly filler...

As I said before, good luck and I share your pain mate.

[akku]

I have a mate who has a garage. I was looking at a Wolesley 16/60 which defo needed a sill (supplied). I asked for a guesstimate for a sill fitting and he said, full sill, fitting £150 per side if I supply the parts.

So a pair of sills is £300.

So a pair of sills, plus a few other bits could quickly run to £500...

is learning to weld not an option?

[Lankytim]

Amazons are no good for banger racing because of Volvos famous crumple zones. If you look under the bonnet the chassis is designed to collapse where it bolts onto the front axle, also the steering column is designed to be bent in half by the chassis as it bends. Clever stuff as this stops the steering wheel being pushed back into the driver but it also means that even in a low speed impact you lose the steering. Great out on the road but not so good out on the track.

Amazon Vs BMC farina? I'm afraid our finned freinds would win every time on a banger track although an Amazon would run rings round it in the handling/speed department.

AK, learning to weld is of course an option, but in the time scale involved its not really viable. I'm kicking myself really because if Id learnt to weld and bought a decent welder years ago when I should have done I wouldnt be in this situation now. Theres always more grot the further you look too, so if the welder quotes £500 to do all the welding hes bound to find some more once he starts cutting old bits off. My strategy was to get the car MOTd, then later on in the year have the sills replaced, then next year the wings and carry on until the car was made good. If I'm getting stung like this on "phase 1" I hate to think what its going to be like when the sills and wings come off. Its all a bit much when I consider £1500 would buy a minter to start with.

[Seth]

Unfortunatly it sounds like your car is like many Farinas. "Oh its just a little here and there" quickly turns into "Oh my god" as rot is found everywhere.

[Lankytim]

seth said:

Unfortunatly it sounds like your car is like many Farinas. "Oh its just a little here and there" quickly turns into "Oh my god" as rot is found everywhere.

Haha- Yes! although this feature isnt exclusive just to farinas, I think its true of ALL old cars.

Lets see wat the MOT throws up. I may be plesantly suprised but I think ill need a good sit down and a stiff drink afterwards TBH.



Poor thing.....

[popuptoaster]

I was always being told i should "get a volvo" when i was banger racing, got really fed up with explaining they are not built like tanks they are just heavy and slow (usually, i know there are exception) and i'm happy with my 3 litre grannies thank you very much.

Good luck with the Oxford by the way, learning to weld don't take long if your welding where it cant be seen so don't have to be pretty, and a reasonable welder can be had for 200 quid and will last years.

[tigran]

Where the hell do you people get your welding prices!1!

A bloke i know in bournemouth (kevin) does alright welding at nowehere near that price.

[dean36014]

Good luck with the MOT Tim. Hope it doesn't cost you to much to do. if you decide to cut your losses give me a shout as I did like it very much.
Dean

[dugong]

Same goes for Amazons.

I'm kicking myself for tunring down my uncle's offer of him showing me how to weld when younger....and ICME certified welder also trained in TIG and arc.... but at the time I was psychotic with stress from my GCSEs and didn't have the time.

And now I have a 'bit' of time, he's now too old and can't be arsed.

Fair enough, he's 80 next year and had been doing things on cars until last year.... when he fell through his garage roof (narrowly missing a parked mower) and knackered his leg up.

Because of that, and everything else, he now really can't be arsed.

Dammit.

[Lankytim]

Ive noticed an Oxford in a similar condition on ebay today, its going for £400....

[dugong]

popuptoaster said:

I was always being told I should "get a volvo" when I was banger racing, got really fed up with explaining they are not built like tanks they are just heavy and slow (usually, I know there are exception) and i'm happy with my 3 litre grannies thank you very much.

I think it really comes down to design philosophies. In their own way Amazons and ADO 9s are very well made and tank like, only the former was built to protect the driver, the latter with the old victorian maxim of 'over compensate than brace by 10 percent until sufficient' (just to make damn sure).

I had no idea the Amazon had a collapsible steering column tim, or deformable chassis legs (mine hasn't even got headrests, so hello crippling whiplash if someone does you from behind), although I do know it was one of the first cars in '56 to have brutal looking fitted seatbelts as standard (they weren't three point, they were two, with the buckle up round your stomach).

People have raced them though, on that A to Z of bangers site which makes most people's curse word boil. I suppose until you try, you don't find out, although I'm surprised so many Grannies have been raced, because generally Fords of that era were engineered with the maximum profit margin in mind rather than proud principles.

I suppose you don't see many AD09s being rallied or TC'd, but plenty of Amazons and 544s. Driver centric, rather than tankified.

Is it the same thing with W124 Mercs and the like? I'd imagine they'd be pretty hard in a banger ruck, but then I thought that about Amazons......

[dugong]

Tim, in DP mode, you're not a million miles from me, but I'd try giving Alan Reece Motors a ring in Sale (0161 973 2320) as they're pretty safe when it comes to MOTs....not illegal, they're just more shall we say... understanding of older cars like yours and mine.

....they failed my Amazon on corrosion of the floorpan though.