F*ck All!!!! Other than a £70 dent in my wallet for train fare to sodding Lancashire. Being a Yorkshireman you cannot imagine just how that hurts. Bloody LANCASHIRE.
Yes another day totally wasted. These guys have been quite good at keeping in touch. I am not about to blame them. Yes they are monkeys, quite stupidly so, but not rogues. I arranged to be picked up at the station by them at 13.50. I mailed them to say I was on time. At 14.10 I rang them and they said 'oh are you here, we'll come and pick you up' Great start. Already not liking Blackburn. Some lad standing outside the station with blood pouring down his face - outside the cop shop. Nice.
5 mins later a blue 80 pulls in. That's the one I have come to see. No tax in the window. Inside is tidy and fresh. All the seats are quite cracked which is odd, but the nets on the seat backs are perfect. Everything seems OK but my mirror glass is wobbling around all over the place. It sounds good and changing gear doesn't seem to be giving the guy any problems. Inside really IS very clean and tidy, but not in an artificial way.
We get to their place and I start to look around. Paint needs a T cut badly. Covered in tree sap I think. No dings in the roof. No rust on tailgate, but above the DS TURBO decal there is a very clumsy rattle can repair. Right by the light cluster. Doors all shut well. Hmm, rust where the sill meets the rear wheel arch. Quite bad. A little around the screen but not too bad. Tailgate etc all open and shut like new. So underneath then. Horrible. Utterly horrible. Thick black bitumen everywhere with what is very clearly rust underneath. So overseal really not underseal. Oddly one hockey stick is coated but one is not. Completely uncovered but rusty. ARB bushes are like donuts. Exhaust is like Gruyère cheese. Rotten and full of holes end to end. Tyres match but all pretty thin. No matter. This will clean up with a good blast, wire brushes and scrapers. I am still interested despite the steady drip of engine oil.
Let's pop the hood. Interesting, it doesn't have aircon. Well it did but there is no condenser. The pipe are there but no rad. The engine rad is aftermarket, well 180k I am not surprised. But what's this? The ends of the fan blades are all chavelled. And the cowl is missing. Hmm, no AC belt either. UUuuurrrrr, bottom pulley is bent and 'crimped' so a belt wouldn't go on anyway. Now I see that the very tatty grille is held in with self tappers. And in a way that it is bent to make it flush with the lights. The top front cross member (the bonnet shut) is bent too. I reckon the PO has hit a deer with this! Honestly, something has gone through the front of this car. The EGRs didn't seem to be moving like they usually so (who cares) and there a lot of oil on the engine top near the injector pipes. Where the brake line comes from the ABS block, down to the DS wheel, there is a whole section that has been replaced with copper pipe and compression fittings that look like airline couplings.
Looking inside again, the lockers seem ok but then I notice that the dash has been out. There are no screws anywhere and the binacle is wobbling about all over the place. I'm now in a position where I am not happy with the provenance of this car. I have shown them everything and plainly they hadn't got a clue. I really think they were surprised at what they thought was a really clean car. So we get to haggling. I really don't want three trains and three hours to get home. At the right money, I could perhaps have it as a project. It could be nice again and I'd be working with something that was good in places. We talk money. I get them to a place where I think I might do a deal, as long as it was taxed too.
They now realise that if they sell it to me I am not going to come back with trading standards, but sell it to Tom Noddy and they will be back with pick axe handles assuming they are not cruiser experts like wot we are. I am a safe bet.
BOMBSHELL
They can't find the logbook. Then the dancing begins. In my mind I am already resolute that I will not be buying any car ever without a log book. Cue dream sequence music - So the deal goes south and I come on here looking for sympathy and you're all saying - you bought it without a log book, what are you six?
So I start to back away. They offer to deliver it for me on a deposit, they offer to order a replacement log book etc etc. I say 'Just take me back to the station please'
And so I am home. They have rung me. They have found said log book and are deeply ashamed. They have offered to sort some more off the car for my trouble if I come back. I tell them not to hold the car. Sell it if someone comes along.
Sigh. It looked so good in the pics I really thought 'This time!' I didn't expect immaculate, we know how it works, but yeuch. What a dog. Maybe I could have lived with one of the faults on its own, but all together. It just wanted too much work. It's all work I can do, but I don't want it! I just want something that I can start the project with, without having to rebuild the bloody thing just to pass an MOT and be safe on the road. I never drove it. I couldn't see the point.
Right. Off to look at some Discos on a Pikey caravan site. Feeling lucky.
Yes another day totally wasted. These guys have been quite good at keeping in touch. I am not about to blame them. Yes they are monkeys, quite stupidly so, but not rogues. I arranged to be picked up at the station by them at 13.50. I mailed them to say I was on time. At 14.10 I rang them and they said 'oh are you here, we'll come and pick you up' Great start. Already not liking Blackburn. Some lad standing outside the station with blood pouring down his face - outside the cop shop. Nice.
5 mins later a blue 80 pulls in. That's the one I have come to see. No tax in the window. Inside is tidy and fresh. All the seats are quite cracked which is odd, but the nets on the seat backs are perfect. Everything seems OK but my mirror glass is wobbling around all over the place. It sounds good and changing gear doesn't seem to be giving the guy any problems. Inside really IS very clean and tidy, but not in an artificial way.
We get to their place and I start to look around. Paint needs a T cut badly. Covered in tree sap I think. No dings in the roof. No rust on tailgate, but above the DS TURBO decal there is a very clumsy rattle can repair. Right by the light cluster. Doors all shut well. Hmm, rust where the sill meets the rear wheel arch. Quite bad. A little around the screen but not too bad. Tailgate etc all open and shut like new. So underneath then. Horrible. Utterly horrible. Thick black bitumen everywhere with what is very clearly rust underneath. So overseal really not underseal. Oddly one hockey stick is coated but one is not. Completely uncovered but rusty. ARB bushes are like donuts. Exhaust is like Gruyère cheese. Rotten and full of holes end to end. Tyres match but all pretty thin. No matter. This will clean up with a good blast, wire brushes and scrapers. I am still interested despite the steady drip of engine oil.
Let's pop the hood. Interesting, it doesn't have aircon. Well it did but there is no condenser. The pipe are there but no rad. The engine rad is aftermarket, well 180k I am not surprised. But what's this? The ends of the fan blades are all chavelled. And the cowl is missing. Hmm, no AC belt either. UUuuurrrrr, bottom pulley is bent and 'crimped' so a belt wouldn't go on anyway. Now I see that the very tatty grille is held in with self tappers. And in a way that it is bent to make it flush with the lights. The top front cross member (the bonnet shut) is bent too. I reckon the PO has hit a deer with this! Honestly, something has gone through the front of this car. The EGRs didn't seem to be moving like they usually so (who cares) and there a lot of oil on the engine top near the injector pipes. Where the brake line comes from the ABS block, down to the DS wheel, there is a whole section that has been replaced with copper pipe and compression fittings that look like airline couplings.
Looking inside again, the lockers seem ok but then I notice that the dash has been out. There are no screws anywhere and the binacle is wobbling about all over the place. I'm now in a position where I am not happy with the provenance of this car. I have shown them everything and plainly they hadn't got a clue. I really think they were surprised at what they thought was a really clean car. So we get to haggling. I really don't want three trains and three hours to get home. At the right money, I could perhaps have it as a project. It could be nice again and I'd be working with something that was good in places. We talk money. I get them to a place where I think I might do a deal, as long as it was taxed too.
They now realise that if they sell it to me I am not going to come back with trading standards, but sell it to Tom Noddy and they will be back with pick axe handles assuming they are not cruiser experts like wot we are. I am a safe bet.
BOMBSHELL
They can't find the logbook. Then the dancing begins. In my mind I am already resolute that I will not be buying any car ever without a log book. Cue dream sequence music - So the deal goes south and I come on here looking for sympathy and you're all saying - you bought it without a log book, what are you six?
So I start to back away. They offer to deliver it for me on a deposit, they offer to order a replacement log book etc etc. I say 'Just take me back to the station please'
And so I am home. They have rung me. They have found said log book and are deeply ashamed. They have offered to sort some more off the car for my trouble if I come back. I tell them not to hold the car. Sell it if someone comes along.
Sigh. It looked so good in the pics I really thought 'This time!' I didn't expect immaculate, we know how it works, but yeuch. What a dog. Maybe I could have lived with one of the faults on its own, but all together. It just wanted too much work. It's all work I can do, but I don't want it! I just want something that I can start the project with, without having to rebuild the bloody thing just to pass an MOT and be safe on the road. I never drove it. I couldn't see the point.
Right. Off to look at some Discos on a Pikey caravan site. Feeling lucky.
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