Someone talk me out of it....

My eldests sister did when she was 5 or 6, she still has the scars.

 

Usually your taste in cars is pretty shonky but in this case I'd say get
it.

 

Right. Reply from seller this morning.

MOT advisory - 'corrosion to nearside and offside vehicle structure'

<runs away very quickly>

 

A narrow escape, I call that.

 

/me adopts 'Told you so' expression.

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Just means that the original stuff had rotted away.
They all do that sir.

 

I quite like 70s escorts. RS1600s/2000s and Mk1 Mexicos in particular.

 

Yes, I've seen your girlfriends.....

 

IIRC, the Mk1 RS1800 BDA is the one apparently made from unobtanium, even
going by the puffed up values of the rest.

I had a Mk2 Escort for about a year when I was 18... managed to kill the
gearbox in the end, and went through two clutches (1) thanks to the massive
1300cc 'Crossflow' it had under the bonnet.

Good fun, anyway - I used to be all over the back of more powerful FWD stuff
round the local 'circuit' all the local boy racers used to hoon round,
opposite locked in second with the back wheels spinning up.

I dread to think how much fun I'd have had in the tatty webered up 1600 with
an 1100 diff I was offered when it died. :-D

(1) To be fair, the second one was an el cheapo 'Mr Clutch' special, so
shite in the first place.

--
JackH

98 Yamaha Fazer FZS600
03 VW Passat TDI Sport (Resting)
00 VW Golf 1.9 TDI SE Estate

 

But not quite as ugly as you.

Which is something, I suppose.

--
JackH

98 Yamaha Fazer FZS600
03 VW Passat TDI Sport (Resting)
00 VW Golf 1.9 TDI SE Estate

 

**** yes. The time to have bought one was ~20 years ago, when they were
at the bottom of their price curve; they were just another old rally car
then and even though they had a residual value that was far higher than
other ShiteOldFords, they were still quite affordable and outclassed by
many other rally wagons of the time, so appealed to nobody but the
Classic Rally guys and that wasn't such a big thing then. I was tempted
several times by ads in the rally /comp mags of the day, but sense
prevailed. I wish it hadn't.

 

Hah! The whole thing's floating on ferric oxide, then. No real
surprise there, then.

Get some non-Italian running shoes, FFS - the laces look very nice but
the soles won't last more than five minutes.

 

I did suspect it wasn't quite what it seemed given the price.

Looks like it got a cheap and nasty blowover to make it look pretty in
preparation for selling it, then.

Heh.

 

Our '81 Alfasud 1.5Ti rotted away within 3 years from new; the bonnet,
scuttle panel, rear window frames and filler cap flap, to name a few of the
bits that reverted back to iron ore.

I had a theory that it was all about maintaining power:weight ratio, so as
the engine lost power due to wera, more bits fell off the bodywork to
compensate.

By contrast, our 1750 GTV from the mid sixties only suffered from a rotten
boot floor due to a leaking seal and the rubber boot mat.

 

SWMBO Sprint's wings started rusting 6 weeks after a respray.

Our first Giulietta lasted 6 months before the rust set in from new. And
it was Ziebarted. No wonder they went bust.

Seems reasonable.

Nice.



--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Our (SWMBO's) Sprint is basically a higher powered model, with some
gentle suspension mods. Shows no tendancy to do that. Most fun I've ever
had in a car.

Well, not *quite* but that was an Astra....

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

We changed the rear shocks for uprated Konis, tweaked the brake bias linkage
and put alloys on from a Sud Sprint.
It could make Golf GTIs and "sports cars" look very silly in the twisties.

 

1980 AwfulSod 1.3 - it handled very well.
I liked the way they reduced weight by making the exhaust thin enough to
last 13 months before falling off. And the first rust appeared around
the holes drilled for the Ziebart rustproofing....

 

Heh. I did hear a theory that part of the Fiat-Russia collaboration that
resulted in the Togliatti car plant involved a barter deal by which Fiat
was partially paid n Russian steel. Which turned out to be a bit
sub-standard, but was made into Fiats and Alfas of the 1970s and 1980s
anyway....

I'd love to know if it's true or just an urban myth. There were some odd
barter deals going on at the time[1]. Anyone?

[1] And more recently. We did a barter deal with Indonesia five or six
years ago for arms that involved us being paid, at least partly, in
pineapple. Covered it in the paper I edit, but for some reason the
nationals failed to pick up on it.

 

(The Older Gentleman) gurgled happily,
sounding much like they were saying:

I think it was an industry-wide thing, with strikes and the like causing
a shortage across most of the west. As a result, eastern european steel
was used widely, but was poorly recycled, so included a lot of bits of
junk - which is why there's relatively few R/S/T-reg cars of any make
about compared to earlier or later.