What’s missing from this picture?
If your answer was “John Cleese and a big stick”, have a biscuit – you’re right.
This was the only BMC-anything 1100 at the 2010 Portland All British Field Meet… and it’s immaculate and red.. and the wonderful staging opportunity of a six foot seven cardboard cutout of John Cleese and a big tree branch has been sadly missed!
Remember that Stag from a few posts down, and a few weeks ago? Well, this is what it looks like now:
OK, so that’s not exactly a great deal different… but under that California-faded paint is a good paint job struggling to get through. It also belies the amount of work that’s gone on under the hood – and under the car, as it happens.
This one is right hand drive (as is given away by the steering wheel being on the correct side and the British license plate, duh) and has a Rover v8 conversion. The engine conversion is actually pretty good – it’s still got the Triumph 4-speed o/d box mounted – but the ancilliaries could’ve been done better by a five year old. All fixed now.. well, as best as I can fix it, anyway.. and aside from spongy brakes and no choke cable it’s almost ready to hit the road again.
There are project cars, and then there are project cars. I’ve never broken a car, but I’ve had plenty of bits off of other people’s parts cars. This little beauty above isn’t really either of those things, but it’s much more of a project than anything I’ve attempted before – except for the Stag, but that kind of goes without saying.
It’s a 1998 Jaguar XJ8. It’s got 130-something k miles on it, and it doesn’t run. It has one of the more fantastic Jaguar quirks – a gearbox that’s stuck in fourth. The previous owner sensibly didn’t drive it like that, which is a rarity in itself – but unfortunately, it sat for a while.. and thanks to the awesome Northwest weather, the fuel tank got water in it. This means the entire fuel system got waterlogged, so it won’t even start now. Not that you could go anywhere in it anyway.
Aside from this (admittedly fundamental) problem, there’s very little wrong with it. The roof paint is a bit faded, but it’s such a weird colour I don’t think that’s an issue. It’s one of the first “pearl” paint finishes – Anthracite Pearl – which is really just “grey metallic”, but we’ll leave that one for now.
Anyone who knows Jaguars would know that 1998 was the first year for the v8 in the XJ – and the 1998-99 years also suffer from having Nikasil cylinder liners. I’m going on the principle that it’s survived twelve years without a problem, so this is likely not a bad one. That, and it’s not supercharged – which tends to finish the liners off sooner rather than later.
Onwards and upwards, eh.
I finally did it. I bought a (non-fun) Range Rover.
After years of laughing at them, this one was just too good to turn down. I couldn’t help myself. Obviously, by “good” I mean “cheap”. Failed air suspension, pulling to the left, saggy headliner, no climate control, broken exhaust, busted radio, burnt-out fusebox, light guards wood-screwed direct to the tailgate.. it’s got the lot.
It’s a 1995, and is build number 0000000000000076. I wouldn’t call myself an “early adopter”, but that number seems pretty low. Hopefully the rest of it will stay working long enough to fix all the stuff that’s broken!
…and a Jammie Dodger to anyone who can identify all six.
I was idly walking around British Auto Works, and saw this little gem in the corner. Actually, it was a vomit brown Morris Marina that actually caught my eye – as well as a “Tobacco Leaf ” (OK, also vomit brown) P6B. I have no idea where they find all these cars from, but it’s starting to give my barn some serious competition.
This is what happens if you take a 1971 Stag, drive it until 1978 when the engine gives up, and then store it until 2007. You will of course remember to carefully drain and replace all the fluids, seal the interior, and cover the car correctly. What you will forget is to remove the original British Leyland battery, which over the next 29 years will disintegrate, filling your front valance with battery acid.. which in turn will disintegrate, taking the entire battery box, half the radiator, the fan, and most of the front bumper with it.
I have a 1986 Jaguar XJ-S. I dragged it out of a hedge in Seattle in late 2008, where it had sat for a good few years. Someone had attempted to “upgrade” the headlights (to modern H4 lights) and had burnt out most of the front electrics… and inevitably lost interest in the poor car.
It’s only got 65k miles on it.. and drivetrain-wise, it’s all original.. which means a 5.3 v12 mated to a GM TH400 transmission.
It didn’t take too much to get it running – a new ignition amplifier, new rotor arm, and a good fuel system flush. It did, however, take *months* to track down a persistent misfire (note: a v11 doesn’t sound anywhere near as good as a v12), and a good bit longer to get the electrics working well enough that the headlamps work.
Unfortunately, after all this work, it turns out that the transmission’s toast – it reverses just fine, but slips horribly in any forward gear now. I managed to put about 500 miles on it before this manifested itself, so I’m guessing one of the clutch packs has just had enough. This is a colossal shame, and is hugely unfair.. but I guess I can’t really complain… or can I?
…I think 50% of Oregon’s Sterlings now live in my barn. I found this little beauty on CL a couple of weeks ago:
Given the “rippling” around the driver’s door panel, there’s obviously a story behind this one.. and a story it is. It was hit in the side several years ago, and given the value of the average Sterling in the US, it wasn’t worth fixing – so a minor panel-beating with a hammer and it was back on the road. Last month, that came to an abrupt end when the radiator sprang a leak, emptying coolant all over Clackamas County by all accounts. Given that a replacement radiator costs upwards of $400, the car sat where it was, radiatorless and full of hay (yes, really).
It’s a 1990 827SL in Steel Grey with a grey leather interior. It’s *never* had any sort of dash lift, and the electrics all actually seem to work.. which is a minor miracle.. as is the complete lack of any evidence of leaks. It took a little coaxing to get it going.. but it does seem to run pretty nice, and yes – the radiator is toast.
I wanted it for the wheels – my 827SLi should have those wheels – but if I can round up a cheap door and front wing from somewhere, I’ll fix it up and keep another cheap Sterling on the road for a while longer. It’s only got 130k on it; it’s barely run-in!
This is a 1998 Freelander. It’s red, and was ours for about three years. It’s a 2.0 diesel, and is still on the road twelve years later. It had criminally poor A/C, but got 40mpg consistently and never broke down. It would pull just about anything, and was superb both on and off road.
This is also a Freelander. It’s a 2002 2.5 v6, and we’ve owned it since 2006. It’s currently got 87k on it.
Despite these cars look pretty much identical, the difference between them is like night and day. The 1998 was a joy to own, and the 2002 has been an absolute nightmare from start to finish. Just search on any Craigslist or eBay for v6 Freelanders, and you will find hundreds described as “mechanics special” or “for repair”.. largely because the problems these things have are so chronic the cheapest thing to do normally is to sell it to some poor unsuspecting Internet buyer who sees the Land Rover badge and thinks the worst they’re in for is some finest British electrical problems.
Oh no. Not even close. Head gasket failure, timing belt failure, thermostat housings that crack leading to either of the above, slipped cylinder liners, rattly manifolds, broken VIS motors, wobbly differential mounts, seized viscous couplings, dodgy ABS.. and all of that before you even hear the magic words “Lucas Electronics”.
A truly rewarding vehicle if you maintain it meticulously (by which I mean throw the factory schedule out of the window and at *least* double the amount of servicing work you do). If you ignore it for a *second*, it will spew all of its coolant all over Highway 30 and leave you stranded in a foul-smelling cloud of coolant and oil fumes.
Shame on you, Land Rover.
A: A 1993 Range Rover with two disintegrated plug leads.
…and a leaky steering box, a broken steering coupling, no bonnet catch, an alarm that unlocks and locks randomly, an air filter from 1993, and no heater.
Yes, I’ve got a new toy. It’s a 1993 Range Rover County LWB, and (aside from the heater) I’ve now fixed all of the above. So I’m just waiting for it to warm up a bit before I actually drive it. It’s got a 2″ OME lift kit, a spring conversion, and about three grand’s worth of stereo in it… which doesn’t *sound* $2950 better than the $50 stereo in the Sterling.. but there you go.
It’s a choice between this or a pickup of some kind – I need something *proper* for towing with.. and it was only after bringing this baby home I realised it doesn’t have a towing hitch. Whoops.