I would just like to say

DevonGuy said:

Mornin all, early start, breakfast, shower and off for a check-up. See yer.

Click to expand...

Morning all

Plus Hope all goes to plan my friend

kevstar said:

Yer ive got one attached to my shed.

Click to expand...

That was the labourers fist job on site to dig the pit for the tin shed to go over and a bag of lime down the hole

kevstar said:

How much would you get for the speedster the way it sits, how much once its done up. Is it really worth the time & effort/costs
to put right or will it balance itself out.

Click to expand...

If it was purely down to money, I'd try to flog it as is. But of course it isn't mine, it's Wifeys. And she wants to get back at least what she paid for it.
They have gone up a heck of a lot in value since she bought it, and hers is/was a particularly nice one. I have put up pics of it before, it made the centre fold of the Speedster Calendar one year.
BUT, it had an accident where some stupid person ran into the back of her. As it was an insurance job we thought there would be no better peeps to put the fibreglass body right than Chesil themselves. BUT in the interim the original owner had sold up and the bunch who bought the thriving business were a bunch of twits. We didn't hear back for ages from them and it turned out they had subbed it out to another bunch and they, not getting paid, were hanging onto the car. So I threatened to go round there with the poliss unless we got our car back.
So then they pulled their finger out and got it back to us. But the paint job was substandard, so back it had to go yet again.
Eventually it was obvious that W could not longer drive it due to her paralysed left foot, so we cast around for a solution and in the end decided to obtain and get fitted an autoshift box, from the USA. The seller was a gearbox specialist and he refurbed it and sent it over. A bunch of Beetle fanatics who ran a specialist garage took it on and fitted it, they didn't find it easy and at one point accidentally reversed it into their compressor, so yet again they had to repair it. So that would have taken their profit out of the deal.
So there it was, two lots of accident damage to the rear.
Then we decided to sell it, so we drove it to a body guy who was prepared to re-repair the body damage which was showing signs of cracking, plus other bubbles in the gel coat which had occurred over the years of being kept outside under car covers and tarps, driving it back from showing him what work needed doing the clutch started to slip.
I talked to Andy Saunders about this as the original garage that had fitted it didn't want to tie up a lift with it on while parts arrived etc. "We don't do that sort of work anymore." they said.
Andy said they'd change the clutch. They fought like heck to get the engine and box out as they couldn't see how to separate them. This turned out to be due to the fact that a top bolt wasn't a proper bolt and in fact wasn't holding anything togther.
I got the clutch relined by a specialist up norf. They fitted it only for the clutch to refuse to release. It is a pull clutch which is a bit unusual on a car. So the clutch all had to be taken apart again, I researched with peeps all round the world to get the right dimensions for the clutch, the clutch peeps did too and in the end thought they had found the right size, which agreed with my research. (one guy was good enough to get his out and measure every single leaf of it!) so the clutch was relined yet again and refitted.
AGAIN it wouldn't free off, by that time Andy was fed up of having the car in his place and charged us £1500 for not getting the job done! In the meantime, unasked for, he had had a bloke "tune" the engine as it sounded "awful". I explained to him that it was a specialist engine built by Arnie Levics and that it did sound a bit rough when cold but when warm it sounded fine. Anyway we got charged another £40 for this, done apparently by a VW engine tuning specialist who "drags" the cars etc.
So, as it was semi-auto and I knew that it could be started and driven in any gear, I just started it and drove it off, the whole distance home, about 5 miles being a 40 mile limit or lower. As soon as the engine got warm it become a death trap as, thanks to Mr Poophead the tuner, it just died if you tried to pull away from lights or at a roundabout. The twin Weber carbs and the lack of vacuum to the dizzy really doesn't help anyway, when geared it had always been a bit dodgy and I had never quite elininated all this. But it was driveable when I took it to them.
So it got driven home and left.

So it needs bodywork, TBH returning back to a manual box with the high ratio final drive for easier cruising, and for me to retune the engine back to how it was. The rest is pretty much OK although it'll need a new set of wheels as the others are rusted beyond repair. Just one tiny repair to the leatherwork on the side of the driver's seat.
This is what they go for, ours is VERY like the top middle one as it has the 1800 engine which is the best combination for power and economy.

So it would be nice if we could get even half of that.
So, fixing the bodywork? Pain in the rear but it'll have to be done.
Changing the box, again it'll need some work to things like the transmission tunnel as clutch cable etc has been removed and box plus pedals will have to be sourced and modified.
Engine tune, not a real problem.
Wheels, just money.
Seat repair, doable by a specialist.

Plus once the autoshift box is out it may be sellable as they are rare as rocking horse poop.
So how much would it cost? not counting my labour. The paint job would be the money and it is finding a reliable person to do it. The guy we had planned to do it has lost his "prepper" but I would so that with him if nec. (Yawn). But he still needs to be in business. his quote wasn't bad but the bodywork has got worse since so £2-3k I expect.
No idea on the cost of the gearbox and bits, again some of them are getting very rare.

How long is a piece of string and do I want to do it? Well yes and no. W only gives a monkey's about the money. But she isn't prepared to flog it as is, as she is "sure she will get ripped off" So, as the French would say, I am between the hammer and the anvil!!
A shame really cos it looks very nice and goes well when running right. A real head-turner especailly for wimmins for some funny reason.




Short answer to your question then??

I just don't know. It would depend on finding the righ buyer, but they are rare and going up in value. I think she'd get jher money back flogging it as a project but'Id deffo have to get to the bottom of the gearbox problem.

kevstar said:

Your still here off to get your beauty sleep then you do need it.

Click to expand...

That makes two of us then!!

DevonGuy said:

Mornin all, early start, breakfast, shower and off for a check-up. See yer.

Click to expand...

Best of luck mate.

Stone56 said:

That was the labourers fist job on site to dig the pit for the tin shed to go over and a bag of lime down the hole

Click to expand...

Now it's a plastic Tardis that you can rock and roll around when a bloke is inside it!!!

I think we are off to pick cherries today, get them afore the birds for once.

Now where is my cherry picker?


Have a good one folks!

Mornin
Beautiful morning here
Lunch with brother and sister as it's Monday
Motorcycle trailer repairs afternoon
Stay cool all

Back from hospital and they’re all pleased with me. Either I heal well or the nurses are dazzled by my charm. Time will tell.

After morning all, its so clammy norf of the wall im sweating

Catch up later im off............... Found a nice D1 on begay now its been removed & all the bids cancelled.
I hate when peeps do this. lol

kevstar said:

Catch up later im off............... Found a nice D1 on begay now its been removed & all the bids cancelled.
I hate when peeps do this. lol

View attachment 320019

Click to expand...

Looks good.
They must have sold it some other way.
all you can do is keep watching to see if it comes back on due a sale that has fallen through, I suppose.

Picked a load of cherries, mostly by cutting branches off first. The boyds have had all the really ripe ones. But still got a lot.
Still got a bit to do but indoors nowhaving a spot of lunch and a shandy.

Have a good arvo!

All cherries in 3 wine boxes ful, from two trees. but yep, as usual de boyds got the decent ripe ones. for every good one we threw 3 or 4 away.
Huge pile of cut off branches, they really had got huge, W's new hand held chainsaw came in very useful!
So here we go with cherry jam! Never made it before. (Never managed to wrestle any cherries away from the boyds before!)
W making gooseberry crumble at the mo,
Mexican chicken thing for dins tonight, yum yum!.
Have a good evening folks!

DevonGuy said:

Back from hospital and they’re all pleased with me. Either I heal well or the nurses are dazzled by my charm. Time will tell.

Click to expand...

Good news keep it that way

I put that "under-bonnet insulation" under the sink.
You never know, it might work very well.
Only used 5 of the 10 sheets. I expect the difference will be readily observed.

Stanleysteamer said:

Picked a load of cherries, mostly by cutting branches off first. The boyds have had all the really ripe ones. But still got a lot.
Still got a bit to do but indoors nowhaving a spot of lunch and a shandy.

Have a good arvo!

Click to expand...

Bit of a drastic way of picking cherries Stan you will make them crop bi-annual if at all keep me posted next year would be interesting to see the outcome

DanClarke said:

I put that "under-bonnet insulation" under the sink.
You never know, it might work very well.
Only used 5 of the 10 sheets. I expect the difference will be readily observed.
View attachment 320034

Click to expand...

Same stuff I have on LR all inside and under bonnet works well no drumming and warmer and water proff should work well did you lay on your back on the floor to take the picture bet the W thought you wer mad

Stone56 said:

Same stuff I have on LR all inside and under bonnet works well no drumming and warmer and water proff should work well did you lay on your back on the floor to take the picture bet the W thought you wer mad

Click to expand...

I laid on my back to apply the stuff, but used the "Selfie" side of the phone camera for the picture.

Stone56 said:

Bit of a drastic way of picking cherries Stan you will make them crop bi-annual if at all keep me posted next year would be interesting to see the outcome

Click to expand...

Hey up!
I'm not the gardener, I'm the grunt!
I do as told!!!
TBH the trees are high as heck, or were!! So we cut off the branches holding cherries which were obviously the high outer ones and left the rest of the tree alone. I ought to have taken before and after pics.
I'll tell W and jump back. But I don't think she'll care. As I mentioned above we have never been able to beat the birds to them and couldn't pick them at all as they were so high up, she is expecting them not to fruit next year, so we 'll see.
But the bi-annual thing is interesting. If this happens when would they crop? I can't imagine it being easy seeing as how they get quite a hard winter here. (My stars that sounds as if I know something about gardening, when I really don't!
Just looked up "Bi-annual cropping of cherry trees" and found that there is a difference between bi-annual which I took to mean twice a year and "bi-ennial" which means every two years.
Doh!
So I put this up, wot I found.
"Home gardeners can effectively thin cherry trees by hand if needed. During the spring, cherry trees may will start to drop or abort underripe fruit. This is a natural process that allows the tree to mature the remaining crop load. If not corrected through thinning, cherry trees may bear biennially (fruits only every other year) or bear heavily one year, then bear a comparatively light crop the next year. Thinning may seem counterproductive in theory, but it really is a benefit to your cherry harvest in the long run." (This from Stark Brothers a Merkin company.)
So it would appear that if we had been here to do it in the spring or the autumn we'd have been doing right. Doing it now may well mess things up. We'll just have to see!

Flip me "Gardener's question time from the Tarn!"