Motorway Mile Munchers

mjheathcote

Centenary Club
Messages
9,033
There is something about having something to play with at the 'bottom end' budget.
Doing lots of little things to the Pinin at the moment to bring it up to my standard.
Bought a full complete front bumper from a breaker. Absolutely mint fully painted not a mark on it, complete with fog lights. £90. Bargain!
Bought a fill in panel that goes between the bumper and lights but needed respraying. Did it with rattle cans, full strip, primer, paint, clear coat, wet sand ect. Can't believe the final finish didn't think I had it in me! (don't tell the Mrs I did it on top of the kitchen table and hung it above the aga between coats when she was away for the weekend!) Replaced the rear lights and one of the headlamps for 'as new ones' again all three for £90.
 

Wanderer

Member
Messages
5,791
There is something about having something to play with at the 'bottom end' budget.
Doing lots of little things to the Pinin at the moment to bring it up to my standard.
Bought a full complete front bumper from a breaker. Absolutely mint fully painted not a mark on it, complete with fog lights. £90. Bargain!
Bought a fill in panel that goes between the bumper and lights but needed respraying. Did it with rattle cans, full strip, primer, paint, clear coat, wet sand ect. Can't believe the final finish didn't think I had it in me! (don't tell the Mrs I did it on top of the kitchen table and hung it above the aga between coats when she was away for the weekend!) Replaced the rear lights and one of the headlamps for 'as new ones' again all three for £90.
When I was poor in one of my many financial disasters I got:

1. H-reg Alfa Romeo 164 Lusso Auto - green with red/brown leather - sounds shiitt but was actually a good combo, £100 from Beer in Devon, chap wanted it to go an Alfisti as I was then, I live in Dumfriesshire, train down, magical drive back. 115k miles, it crapped out with loads of electrical probs at 185k, cost me little apart from petrol.

2. Alfa 75 2.0TS, slight dent NSR, free in Reigate, picked up a load of parts from another broken 75 in Coventry, great car, straight through pipes, unchuckable, still living in DFS, lent it to a girl I fancied, tall, jet black hair, fantastic tits, bit of a hippy, she said it was too fast. Not even the 3.0ltr! I don't know, went off her then...

3. Straight after got another free 75 from Guildford, it crapped out at Leicester services on the M1, AA home, tried it on with the (female) pick up driver, she was ex-Army, and she was up for it but had to get back, I'm no two pumps and a squirt man so we swapped numbers and never bothered. She was a smoker and that always puts me off. And I was married but that was on its last legs. Anyway engine wouldn't run for longer than about 20 mins, garage fixed it eventually, £300 bill, sold it for £300, never liked it, too front heavy.

I should write this stuff down!
 

zagatoes30

Member
Messages
20,759
So collected the latest bangernomic from AndyK and what a lovely little car it is. Andy had cleaned and polished it inside and out and it looks much better than it age would suggest. A nice drive back from Chepstow reminded me how nice a 6 cylinder 3 series really is, super smooth, sure footed and spritely enough to be fun.

Thanks Andy, I do think I have got a little belter and for a bargain price, happy chappy.


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Andyk

Member
Messages
61,038
Hi Andy, good to see you today. Glad all is well and you like her. As said it’s a cracking engine and a decent car for what you need her for. Liz still wishes she could have kept it but we had no use for her now.
 

Oneball

Member
Messages
11,075
That does look nice. Six cylinder manual with cloth and 16” wheels, proper OAP spec but super smooth and comfy.
 

zagatoes30

Member
Messages
20,759
Hi Andy, good to see you today. Glad all is well and you like her. As said it’s a cracking engine and a decent car for what you need her for. Liz still wishes she could have kept it but we had no use for her now.

Likewise, I can see why Liz wanted to keep it, it drives really well - very happy but even so I will start compiling the fault list tomorrow for you to fix under the warranty ;)
 

dunnah01

Member
Messages
648
There is something about having something to play with at the 'bottom end' budget.
Doing lots of little things to the Pinin at the moment to bring it up to my standard.
Bought a full complete front bumper from a breaker. Absolutely mint fully painted not a mark on it, complete with fog lights. £90. Bargain!
Bought a fill in panel that goes between the bumper and lights but needed respraying. Did it with rattle cans, full strip, primer, paint, clear coat, wet sand ect. Can't believe the final finish didn't think I had it in me! (don't tell the Mrs I did it on top of the kitchen table and hung it above the aga between coats when she was away for the weekend!) Replaced the rear lights and one of the headlamps for 'as new ones' again all three for £90.

The QPV is a bit like this at times - the challenge of not paying full Maserati price and finding the same parts elsewhere floats my boat. Do I pay £600 for a new (Bosch) brake master cylinder or £4.99 for a Fiat Stilo repair kit??
 

Andyk

Member
Messages
61,038
Likewise, I can see why Liz wanted to keep it, it drives really well - very happy but even so I will start compiling the fault list tomorrow for you to fix under the warranty ;)

Did I not mention it wasn't a 24 month warranty but a 24 hour one It does drive well And....smooth, sure footed and a great handling car for the pennies. Not many cars with a lovely six cylinder engine at this price range with only 86k miles on them.....Well ones that go anyway.

Was the bridge shut Andy...? ..... If not you must have just got over on time as we left 30 mins after you left and it was shut so had to go the long way around.
 

zagatoes30

Member
Messages
20,759
If it does I haven't found them yet
Did I not mention it wasn't a 24 month warranty but a 24 hour one It does drive well And....smooth, sure footed and a great handling car for the pennies. Not many cars with a lovely six cylinder engine at this price range with only 86k miles on them.....Well ones that go anyway.

Was the bridge shut Andy...? ..... If not you must have just got over on time as we left 30 mins after you left and it was shut so had to go the long way around.

Bridge was shut and then some muppet got on the M4 heading to Cardiff, so had to spin back at the next junction.

I bought my Alfa GTV 6 from a dealer who had a fully inclusive 20/20 warranty, 20 minutes or 20 miles whichever came first - so a 24hr warranty is a step up from that
 

Andyk

Member
Messages
61,038
Hahahaha...20/20 now that's novel. That's probably the most miles that gone on the car in a year Andy.
 

Oneball

Member
Messages
11,075
Surely perfect OAP spec would have to be auto.......

The properly old didn’t have autos in their day. When you look at e39s that some 90 year old has owned from new they’re always 523i or 525i with cloth and a manual box.