In message <9406221552.AA01391@akamai.sps.mot.com> Jennifer Joy writes:
>
>
> One of the worst (british) car diseases is that it is hard to keep from
> buying more than just one vehicle. The worse perhaps, if you ask
> your spouses and neighbors. More fun if you ask most of us. :-) The
> disease is capable of spreading via the written word.
>
> Some of the many symptoms:
> -buying a parts vehicle but then deciding it just has to be keeper
> -attemping to buy a car and sell it for a profit (haha!)
> -buying one, and finding a better example for less [it's a deal], buying it
> too
> -finding one in a barn, convinced it is a deal, rare, or just darn exciting
> -the inability to ever fully part out a parts car or throw anything away
> (this rusted out floorpan makes a great cheese grater, and I may need it
> later anyway)
>
> jen
> (who, for a while there, was having trouble not buying a car every
> 6 months)
I have learned my lesson (Besides I couldn't find the location of that $600
100-4 Big Healey).
I purchased The Green Rover for $350 as a tow home basket case, spent the
minimum money to get her going and every time I needed to work on her I try to
do a little extra. She is essentually sound after16 years, but she still
usually has the worst paint and upholstry at a Land Rover gathering. For at
least a dozen of those 16 years she has been regulated to a farm car/short range
car. I didn't trust her to make it back from a long trip. Had I spent about
$3K more up front, i would have had a car I could have taken anywhere and would
have looked nicer.
I purchased my TR3A in '86 for $1000. She just had a new paint job but the trim
was never reassembled afterwards & the engine wouldn't idle. I drove her home,
blowing the brake hydrolics approaching the driveway (luckally my driveway is
uphill). I rebuilt the brake cylinders and cleaned the carbs. I purchased the
missing trim and put the rest on. She was a good driving car for 3 years, well
except for the bad steering, the oil fouling on the #3 cylinder at the end, the
howl of badly worn ring an pinion, and the fact that no one would ride with me
because there was not enough metal on the floor to bolt the seats to. I '89 I
started my rebuild. The scope of the project kept getting bigger as I removed
each part & saw what was underneath. The previuos owner had wire brushed rust
and fibre glassed over it. Well It been 5 years without driving the TR3. She
has about 60 to 70% metal new to her. Not a rust spec left. Everything new or
like new. I'm only about $10K poorer because I did most of the labour intensive
work myself. Had I spent an extra $4 to 5K back in '86 i could have purchased a
very nice TR3 and have driven it the last 5 years.
I purchased the BGT in '88 for $1500. I was after a cheap dependable year round
commute car that wouldn't be too bad to drive over the Santa Cruz mountains
twice a day. I lucked out on this one for what I wanted. The owner of a British
car repair shop bought the car for his girl friend and was fixing it up for her.
The broke up and the car sat for a year or so befor he decided it was taking up
room in the shop. The engine was fresh, and the carpets were new. The interior
was nice. It just had tired worn paint and a couple of dents. She was a
dependable commute car for almost 4 years before I replaced the transmission
because the flywheel was getting ready to escape (A problem with purchasing
parts based upon diagnosing a sound instead of looking).
Then my county got hit with regular SMOG checks for '66 & newer cars, and she
failed, and failed & failed. It seems the original SMOG certificate I got when
I purchased the car we faked. The carbs had bedly leaking carbs and a long
duration cam. She is about to get a new cam, timing chain & rod bearings...and
front clip and paint. I'm getting close to spend the $3+K needed to make her
look prety. I could have spent an extra $1 to 1.5Kup front and got a car with
good paint and a good body.
I guess whaat I'm trying to illustrate is that there is no such thing as a
bargin fixer upper. You pay for it now or pay a LOT more later. The fixer upper
is right for two kinds of prople. Those who enjoy spending their spare time
taking a neglected LBC and returning it to its glory, and those, like me at the
time, who otherwise could not afford a good condition car and made car payments
over a long time in the form of parts purchases and many, many hours. If you
want to drive a car & just do the regular maintnenece to slow entropy, spend the
extra money to get a good condition example of the kind of car you want.
Normally the differnence in price between a car with good paint and upholstry is
nowhere near the price of having new pant and upholstry put in, especially if
you are dealing with a leather upholstry Jag fixed head coup.
Well, I think the TR has not only kept me from being able to afford this newly
diagnosed disease of purchasing a LBC every few months (but I've been keeping
the accountents at Moss & TRF happy) but has shown me the value for spending
more $ upfront for as good of a car as i would be happy with (I just hope I do
not run across a dirt cheap BN7 fixer upper)
Its amazing how many diseases are associated with LBC ownership!
TeriAnn Wakeman Large format photographers look at the world
twakeman@apple.com upside down and backwards
LINK: TWAKEMAN
408-974-2344 TR3A - TS75519L,
MGBGT - GHD4U149572G, Land Rover 109 - 164000561
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