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You will have seen from my "Contemporary" thread that I am in no rush to buy a donor, but how on earth do you find one for £750? Richard's advice is to not worry too much about mileage and concentrate on condition. I think there is a lot of learning I have to do yet.
I thought I overpaid! It was on Ebay and the seller was fed up because it had already been sold once but the buyer never made contact, a common problem. It was £775 or best offer.
The pictures all looked good, went onto DVLA's MOT history and the last MOT had no advisories and all the previous MOT's had been failed or had advisories for very minor items, so I was pretty sure it wasn't a rust bucket. It was listed with no MOT and although it started and ticked over perfectly it wouldn't rev over 2k. He couldn't get it to the MOT test because it wasn't running properly.
I then checked the sellers feedback, 100% and all very good, I had asked for the address so I knew how far away he was, using the address I use google maps, drop the little man in front of the buyers house and have a look around. Are there piles of rusty cars on the drive, does the road look like something you would expect to see in Syria. This all looked good except the car was 140 mile away.
I was going to offer him £675 cash transferred into his bank account straight away, but he was driving home and wouldn't be back for 2 hours and would phone me as soon as he was back.
The advert was a buy it now so if I waited for 2 hours someone else may well hit the buy it now so for the sake of £100 I hit the buy it now button.
I then had the car collected £160, 140 miles away, There are lots of car delivery services on Ebay, just don't take the first price, this much cheaper than the train fare, days insurance, petrol, and a day to do it.
Buying a car like this is a risk, it is doing everything that you shouldn't. Always speak to the buyer, this will tell you a lot, if you feel unsure walk away, there will be another.
I'm hoping to get back about £500 in the parts, don't be greedy, list them at a reasonable buy it now price and they will sell, be greedy and you'l have bits of scrap around your garden this time next year.
When buying a car Ebay is always best, be prepared to take a risk and be prepared to travel. Don't wait and think about it, hit the buy it now button or call the seller and make a decent offer. Most buyers are lazy, it needs to be the right price, distance and need nothing doing. Keep searching Ebay every hour or so, my car had only been up for 40 minutes, it wouldn't be there in a couple of hours.
Condition is always important but so is mileage, this one has a full service history and 120K on the clock. I wouldn't be happy about buying one with much more mileage, especially an auto box, with an auto I wouldn't buy one with more than 80k on the clock. I had to get a recon auto box fitted to a 525 that I used to own, cost £3500 to replace and that was cheap and 15 years ago Manual gearboxes tend to go on for ever and clutches aren't too expensive.
I've fixed the revving problem, it failed the MOT on the handbrake, have fitted two new handbrake cables £35, pig of a job but now Mot'd and I can start stripping it in preparation of my kit in 2 weeks time.
On balance, sounds like a dream ticket, a donor vehicle in decent nick for a couple of hundred net. As you say though, it is not risk free. I'm glad you were able to address the niggles quickly and cost effectively. I have used the google street view trick before.
I have been gathering prices and details off gumtree today, and am getting a better idea of price range and mileage for the 2.2 and 2.8s. I will probably get the doner earlier rather than later so as to drive it and get it fettled before using it for the kit. I am aiming for something in the 50k to 80k range, as I plan to keep the re-modeled car for quite a few years.
My wife thinks it is OK for me to have a fun car, she just doesn't know the whole plan yet. She thought the NG was a waste of time, but softened as the sale value paid for her dental work.
Anyhow, the whole Tribute thing is tremendously exciting, both as a kit development, as well as the fun it has given to all the individuals building them. Long may it last.
Gumtree always seems to be more expensive and there seems to be a lot more scammers than on Ebay. The good thing about Ebay is the feedback, if it's poor just walk away.
Managed to spend the afternoon on the car, first time I have done any work on it to prepare for the kit which hopefully I will be collecting on Monday.
Spent 4 hours on it and managed to completely strip it all except for the bonnet which I will leave until the replacement is here.
One thing I did do was turn the rear crash bar upside down and I think that this will allow me to have the new section of boot floor level. I could also be naughty and trim the boot aperture at the rear and make the boot appear as if it were one boot without the divide caused by the old rear lights and lock panel.
i will try and post some pictures later.
It's only a single skin panel. Below it is a double skin panel which holds the crash bar and boot floor. The single skin above appears to be there simply to bolt the rear lights to and for the boot latch.
Any links on how to post photo buck pictures, ideally a idiots guide.
Just removed the rad fan to find no cooling pipe for the power steering. The soft hose has just been joined together, must have had a leak at some time. Should be able to make a replacement from copper pumping pipe. Might have to buy a thinner fan as well but will wait until I trial fit the bonnet.
Strip complete and it took 4 hours to get it done. No problems, very straight forward. Collecting the kit from Chris tomorrow morning.
I expect the first job will be to fit the boot hinge assembly, I will take some photos of this as I don't think it has been covered before.
Strip complete and it took 4 hours to get it done. No problems, very straight forward. Collecting the kit from Chris tomorrow morning.
I expect the first job will be to fit the boot hinge assembly, I will take some photos of this as I don't think it has been covered before.
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You are right about the boot hinges going on first. See you tomorrow.
Drove to Chris's today, normally when I buy something, something has been lost, one part of the order is incorrect etc, etc.
What a breath of fresh air to find everything better than expected, all fitted to mule so that I can get an idea of how it all goes together and lots of good advice.
His order list is getting longer so if you want to order a kit now is the time.
Thanks again Chris for the fantastic service.
I'm limited to what I can do for the next couple of days as I'm in the dog house for wasting £750 on a body kit without the correct permissions! If only she knew!!
However i have managed to order a pair of uprated custom bonnet struts. The originals are rated at 750 Newtons and I have ordered 1200 Newton adjustable with have a thicker rod, all for just under £60 including carriage. I will report back when they arrive which should be tomorrow. They said that if you can quote my invoice number they can easily duplicate them, I will post this up as soon as I get it, providing of course that they work.
I'm limited to what I can do for the next couple of days as I'm in the dog house for wasting £750 on a body kit without the correct permissions! If only she knew!!
However i have managed to order a pair of uprated custom bonnet struts. The originals are rated at 750 Newtons and I have ordered 1200 Newton adjustable with have a thicker rod, all for just under £60 including carriage. I will report back when they arrive which should be tomorrow. They said that if you can quote my invoice number they can easily duplicate them, I will post this up as soon as I get it, providing of course that they work.
Aaaah, the old long haired Guv'nor permissions!!!! I know all about those mate.
Just had a bid on your BM lights on the Bay. They look like an old / odd bulb fitment - are they easy enough to get hold of? I presume you were going to cunningly fashion some fibreglass bowls for them to sit in?
The bulbs are just standard single filament 21w bulbs, the same as you find in a standard indicator or sidelight, very easy to find.
If you look at the pictures you will see the mounting threaded bar, this will unwind from the light fitting and I was going to replace it with a longer threaded bar so that it went straight through the fibreglass, that way you just undo the 2 mounting nuts and you can remove the base from inside the car to replace the bulbs. Fit with LED bulbs and the chances are you will never have to replace the bulbs.
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The bulbs are just standard single filament 21w bulbs, the same as you find in a standard indicator or sidelight, very easy to find.
If you look at the pictures you will see the mounting threaded bar, this will unwind from the light fitting and I was going to replace it with a longer threaded bar so that it went straight through the fibreglass, that way you just undo the 2 mounting nuts and you can remove the base from inside the car to replace the bulbs. Fit with LED bulbs and the chances are you will never have to replace the bulbs.
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