Hi everyone, more tales of woe
So i thouhgt i had stumbled across a bargain... the ad came up a couple of
days ago... "spitfire for sale runs, needs tune up", and was coincidentally
just round the corner from my girlfriend's house in palo alto. So i rang the
guy up, and he was at work but said to go round and check the car out. It
was '79 1500. And it seemed too good to be true: the bodywork was pretty
immaculate (though it wanted a new paint job). The interior was fine.
Overdrive switch (wooo-hooo). not a spot of rust. straight frame. The engine
looked good, and the brake and clutch cylinders and the oil filter had
obviously been replaced recently. the guy said it was his
every-other-daily-driver and that he had too many cars for his new place...
anyway, so i rather stupidly took a day off work today to test drive and
take it to a mechanic. It drove great, OD worked, not any horribly
suspicious noises (bit of rear diff. whine), brakes worked.
Now, if it was in sacramento i'd of come over to see laurie, but as it was
we were in palo alto... so i hope you can excuse the infedelity ;-)
So we get it to the shop and the mechanic looks it over, and then says he
wants to take it fro a drive to listen to everything, and gets me to jump
in. We're just out of earshot of the owner, and he says "it's going to be a
lot of work". Bugger.
So, the moral of the story is, get the car up on a lift, cos then you can
spot all the stuff that hasn't been maintained because it's hard to get to:
the transmission was leaking horribly, the rear suspension was about to die
on one side (which probably explained why the car twisted alarming along its
long axis when it started), and the brake lines probably needed replacing.
oh, and the electrics were on the way out, and the engine WAS making a funny
noise (once it was pointed out to me... it was just a funny noise i hadn't
heard before). passed smog though.
So current score: 3 spits, 2 mechnically iffy, 1 sold too quick to see. Joe
is getting proggressively a)wiser b) dispirited.
On the upside, i am learning one hell of a lot about these cars, and i have
just met a very nice, up-front, and good mechanic.
Oh and advice for anyone else hunting for the first time:
1. see a bunch of these things before you buy. uou learn one hell of a lot
2. take it to someone who knows british cars, and is a triumph fan. it will
save you a lot of heartache.
ho hum
cheers
Joe.
_________________
Dr. Joseph Garner
Department of Animal Science,
University of California,
One Shields Avenue,
Davis,
CA 95616
USA
tel: + 530 754 5291
fax: + 530 752 0175
_________________
|