Hi everyone,
first of all thank you so much to the 25 or so people who took the time to
write me such friendly and helpful e-mails (in reply to my "sensible advice
please" message)... I guess I was looking for disausion, but you all
actually pushed me the other way (i guess i got a resounding 90% of people
advising me to take the plunge, specifically because they felt that the car
could be reliable enough for my needs if properly maintained, and that it
was not markedly less safe in a freeway crash than any other small car)...
Meanwhile, some of my friends are now expressing their true reservations now
that they realise that i might actually be serious about this!
Anyhow, for those of you who feel like giving me more advice, read on, for
those of you who don't that's fine too, but bail out now cos I'm about to
tell you about the car when we went to check it over this evening....
So I printed out and read all the buyers guides i could find on the web. I
took my friend Josh who nearly bought a TR6 last year before he chickened
out, and we took all his buyers guides books, and i took my friend mike who
knows a lot about cars. Together we felt prepared for lemon spotting. To be
honest none of us really believed that we might see a car that might be
worth buying, but we weren't going to let the opportunity slip buy. The
problem is... i think we might have found a bargain...
The car is a 1974 spitfire 1500 with overdrive. It's recent history is 700
miles since 1996; and eight years in storage prior to that (apparently due
to having to be re-worked to meet smog regulations). The present owner
bought it for next to nothing from an old friend who runs a british car
buisness. He has done a lot of work on it, in a make-it-do sort of way, but
not a show-model sort of way. The car has 50,000 miles on the clock, and we
rather stupidly did not go through the whole paper work to make sure the
clock hadn't been all the way round. Since 1996, it has had a new smog
system fitted (possible mark against the car: the smog system is
non-standard, and i certainly didn't have the know how to figure that one
out), complete replacement of the clutch hydraulics, new soft-top (it has a
hard top too), new radiator, and a semi-professional re-spray (there are
hard to see blemishes from doing a not brilliant job on preparing the
undercoat).
so for the car itself... cosmetically it could be better. The interior is a
mess. the carpets have been taken out, and some fiddling has been done to
the dash, leaving that fiddled-with dash wires look. The seat bottoms have
been replaced but the original seat backs are there and need replacing soon.
It has original seat belts, steering wheel etc. which look tatty but have a
certain charm. Both doors have clearly been messed with too, the panels look
like they have not been put back on properly (i suspect that this is the
present owner trying to correct for the windows not winding all the way up
properly) Behind the seats is also scrappy, partly due to the addition of a
rather sturdy-but-basic roll-bar, and the remains of an extremely manky
carpet. Like i say the exterior is superficially extremely good (new
soft-top, new paint job, no obvious dents) but on closer insepction the
antenna is missing, the paint job is not great, and the front wing (dunno
the right term-sorry) behind the bumper which makes up the front bottom
half of the front wheel arch droops about 3/8" from the bonnet at its point
nearest the wheel.
Now for the good stuff. The frame is immaculate. we were all over it and
could hardly find a spot of rust, certainly not a single bubble on the whole
car. We paid special attention to trouble spots such as the windshield
posts, the door sills and the boot lid and bottom and they were clean as a
whistle, though they could probably do with an interior paint job. There
were no twists or crinkles, on any other signs of abuse or major repair. The
suspension was solid on all four corners, we gave it a hefty bounce, and it
didn't wobble an inch (apparently the kitty keeps pointing to fords in the
paper.... BAD KITTY) anyway, no obvious visual mechanical problems, a small
amount of oil on the engine. No muck in the oil once you looked inside.
Similarly, nice clean radiator water. the steering had virtually no play,
and felt very secure. It looks like the gas tank has been recently replaced,
but i'm not too sure. The engine started first time, and didn't make any
horribly suspicious noises....
...so we took it for a test drive...
well first off i had to remember double clutching from driving my old
landrover, and that and driving with a righthand shift took about 5 minutes
to get used to. the brakes were solid... no sponginess, no obvious pulling.
Second gear occasionally ground when you down shifted from 3rd (and that was
proabably just me), but otherwise gear shifts were smooth and easy. The car
handled nicely (i felt really safe), and was very happy at 65mph. The
overdrive was fine (although operated by a switch underneath one the bottom
of the dash... so i would guess it is a retrofit). The car was bloody noisy
though, and i mean really really noisy. Now i'm sure this was partly due to
the absence of carpet and driving with the soft-top, but that alarmed me a
little, especially, as i got that familar warmed up 70s car smell which
suggested that there were some grommets or caps in the firewall that were
letting in a little bit of engine odour! The engine sounded downright wierd
from inside the car. It certainly wasn't pinking or knocking, but it sounded
very strange, almost like there was a moped engine underneath the dash,
certainly whatever noises it was was a high-pitched harmonic with the
regular engine rumble, which made me suspicious of a crack in the exhaust
pipe, or maybe a problem introduced by the wacky smog fix. The engine
sounded louder and harsher at low revs and low gear, on the highway it
sounded far far happier. The other alarming noise was a really loud rumble
when you downshifted and let the clutch up, this was definately coming from
behind me and sounded like a transmission noise... actually, once we got
into Josh's regular car and started home, i could hear that his was doing
exactly the same thing but it was muffled to almost nothing by the sound
proofing of his modern car. anyway, it was way louded than anything which my
old landrover used to make (which i figure is a baseline yardstick). again,
it could be a side-effect of the lack of carpet and interior padding... but
i doubt it.
So....
Pros:
great chassis... low miles... some recent mechanical work... it runs... it
handles really nicely... present owner seems to have done his best by the
car... new soft-top... overdrive and gearbox test drove fine... there are no
obvious problems when the car is sat in the garage or started up... oh, and
it was the most amazing fun to drive!!!!!
Cons:
alarmingly loud engine, with weird noise... very strange rumbling noise when
you down shift and let the clutch up... both may be made worse by the lack
of carpet... interior is really shabby... paint job is not 100%...
mysterious droop behind the bumper (doesn't seem to be a chassis problem
though)... windows don't wind properly... and other cosmetics
I'm not sure if the retrofitted roll bar is a pro or a con.
I'm certainly going to take it to a specialised garage for a more thorough
look over... but i am still having the head versus heart dilemma i told you
all about earlier... Josh figured that HE woudln't buy it because of the
interiors and the cosmetics... Mike figured that HE would buy it becuase he
felt that any imminent mechanical problems we well within our expertise (i
think he's being a little confident, but he is an engineer) and that it was
a beautiful car... I will be VERY VERY VERY sorely tempted to buy it if the
mechanic gives it a clean bill of health, but i am concerned about the
noises i was talking about, and the fact that i will have to sink
considerable $$$$ to clean up and sound-proof the interior. Anyway, i guess
I moved one more step towards buying the car... the owner and i are fixing a
date to take it to a mechanic tomorrow.
So what do you all think? How does this sound to you? and most importantly,
how much would you pay for it?
Meanwhile i will continue to wrestle with my sensible and impulsive sides
and try to figure out what the hell i will do if the mechanic comes back
with a clean bill of health!
;-)
thanks in advance
cheers
Joe.
|