An epic story so far, particularly for one so recently to the fold. It's been a pleasure to read of your travels to date and I await further developments with eager anticipation. Well done!Passed with no issues and ran very cleanly which I was delighted about. Impressive given the MOT was its first drive on the road for well over a year, if not more. Drives pretty well, very well considering it's been laid up for so long. I'm sure it'll all loosen off and improve with some use.
So, new MOT, good boots all round, good starter, good driver. Webasto and stereo work well. OSS doesn't and we've got lights on the dash and no remote locking as consequence of immobiliser needing reinstating 'at the appropriate juncture'.
Car £250
Wheels: £100
Fuel: £110
Valeting materials: £10
Rear springs: £33
Key cutting (no chips, manual locking only): £25
Rear bump stops (pair) £14
Various paints / abrasives from stock: £10.
MOT £37
Air freshener £3
Parts taken from Lasi (price reduction to dealer as result of) £100
Upcoming but already bought:
Timing belt (bare, as full kit done 15K ago but belt on limit for time), Dayco: £35
Oil Filter £4
Oil let's say roughly £35.
Less value of spare 15"'s (£75)
Running total at this point: £691
Plus I'd say about 40 hours plus so far (more if we put in the travel).
Jobs still to do:
OSS (could I, would I? I hate things that are there but don't work, so probably won't be able to resist having a go).
Climate: try a bit more gas, failing that start diagnosing.
Timing belt and service.
Perhaps replace the rather tired speakers.
A full seats out wet-vac.
Oh yes, mend the broken glovebox lid.
Possibly repaint the lower console area (scratched).
Replace the missing tailgate trim / liner.
Refurb the alloys.
Sort the NSR window.
The inevitable A2 starter motor scream.
There's more, I know there is, but you get the idea. £700 and a lot of hours has got me to the starting line, not over the finish. Not yet anyway.
More to come when there's more been done ...
An epic story so far, particularly for one so recently to the fold. It's been a pleasure to read of your travels to date and I await further developments with eager anticipation. Well done!
Cracking save and excellent work lovely colour ????
Sounds like you have a plan of sorts...yes cobalt blue not rarely seen and not a bad spec really ...3L rare if you find one and well FSI if you have the time to strip engine down and rebuild as lots are good specs good luck going forward nice to save and not scrap.Thank you! Yes, it's the colour that's saved the car really. It's been on a knife-edge all the way through and there's almost no logic to doing it other than for the satisfaction. Even so, I've always done the cleaning first as there's no point doing all of the mechanicals (which is often where the most money is involved), only to find out later the body's all ripply or it's had bad paint. That first day of cleaning especially when the evening light hit the rejuvenated paint is what kept the project going.
In this case I did almost drive back from Devon with an empty trailer: it was very, very close. It was peeing with rain, there was issue after issue and it would have been oh so easy to have just got back into the warm truck and driven away. But ... it was in Cobalt and under the 'patina' it looked pretty straight. Plus I'd committed to it and I'm not one to back away from something I'm signed up to. Logically, it should have been broken. If someone had bought it and then needed to pay any sort of labour it would have been a write off several times over. That would have been a shame as actually, it's going to end up a pretty good car.
Ironically, I'm not even sure what the plan is for it. I like things to be right, and this one will never be perfect. I don't like big sunroof's (too heavy / complicated / leaky) either. As I've just brimmed it with premium diesel and have quite a few jobs to work through I'll run it for now. The original plan was to back-to-back it against the 1.4 Petrol (Lasi) until Lasi's engine noises sudenly became intolerable. A car dealer I know was keen to show me it was a big fuss over nothing and a flush and thrash would resolve. I suggested he put his money where his mouth is and buy it, so he did, just leaving the Devon car to wave the A2 flag.
So ... I'll keep ticking jobs off the list (I thought of some more overnight), run it and see if I prefer it to the petrol. Then take a view: 1) keep this one as I've obviously put a lot into it personally so there's an element of friendship there (hopefully it'll be repaid). 2) Sell this and try a Sport of some flavour. 3) Sell this and try a 1.2 (quite fancy a 1.2 project actually). Or indeed keep this and try another project: ooh, what about a 1.6FSi Sport perhaps?
Looking great, Barry, well done. It’s certainly looking a whole lot better than the sorry looking beast you appeared with the other weekend. Very impressive work, can I just clarify though, you actually jet washed the door cards?! And no immediate side effects to the upholstery?This is what you end up after all the slurry (literally) has been blasted out. Works a treat on floor mats as well. Just don't turn on the stereo for a few days in case the speakers are damp! I'm careful to avoid actually blasting the speakers or switches but the odd drop is fine: after all, a car is designed to have a door opened briefly in a rain storm:
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Looking great, Barry, well done. It’s certainly looking a whole lot better than the sorry looking beast you appeared with the other weekend. Very impressive work, can I just clarify though, you actually jet washed the door cards?! And no immediate side effects to the upholstery?
if you get round to looking at the OSS, I’d be interested to see how you get on. @Kleynie does a service/repair which sounds amazing and I’m sure is well worth it, but at £600-£800 it’s pretty much what I paid for for my car, so I’m struggling with the economics. I recently watched a German chap on YouTube repair his and it was most enlightening, but I imagine you need a big pair of cajuns plus a garage to tackle it in confidence. The video also shows the metal plates which need replacing which are to my limited understanding the main issue and cost, however I’m more than happy to be corrected on this point.
I’d love for my OSS to work but sadly my pockets are quite shallow, so for the foreseeable I’ll just have to enjoy the lighter cabin and view of the sky through the glass!
Kleynie offers two options on the OSS. Circa £400 sorted mine last year. Got to admit though that the OSS is not the quietest sunroof when open. Personally I think the closed panoramic aspect of it is the best part.
Very nice job and nice looking car!
l see you are just up the road from me (albeit a long way in present circumstances!!) Another East Sussex member.......