B13 Thread

[Des]

This used to be mine: #3904



I.

How long ago was that Ian?

how long did you have her for?

Did you do much to her etc..?


Kind Regards
Des

P.S. I will look for that book tomorrow, your name popping up has reminded me I still haven't found it for you

 

[B13]

I had it from 1998 until mid 2004, it was a pile of sh!t and it went like a rocket. I loved it! Of course I didn't have those awful wheels on it, but I did put the awful american headlights on... maybe the kid who bought it wanted to enhance the awfulness of the car...

I paid too much for it....
While I didn't do much in the way of restoring it I spent about $5K in "upkeep" over the years I had it, and covered some 20,000km.
I sold it on eBay in 2004 for $3300
Every night the car sank just like in the picture, and every morning the car lifted within 30 seconds. Never bothered to fix it.
In all the years I had it there was only one time it let me down, the fuel pump failed on the freeway home one day...
Its a Euro.
I was told it was a 1979 but it had the early style ignition key and the Vin# is consistent with mid 1977 models. It came from the UK so someone must have changed the speedo at some time, or the speedo decal... because I thought the Odo travelled slowly, and distance measured it one day and discovered the Odo was turning in miles. (I'd drive 400 km, but the Odo and Trip meter only said 250).
Some bastards tried to steal it out of the front of my house and busted up the ignition barrell. From then on you had to know how to find the sweet-spot to get it to start.
They did get the stereo out which was an aftermarket Phillips CD stereo which had a fake wooden facia... I've never seen one since or before.
It had rust, the interior was terrible, the paint was ordinary.
I sold it because I hit on hard times and needed an economical car so I bought a 1985 Ford Laser S Twin Carb for $800. A month later I got the job I have now which meant had I kept the car I would once again have the $ to continue to drive it.
#5440 (Des' old car) is 10X better..

I.

 

[Michel]

What a nice story Ian,

Thanks for sharing.

Any idea where that car is now?

 

[B13]

Some kids from Northern NSW came down to buy it in 2004, I picked them up from the airport... being eBay savvy and knowing what they were looking for they just started the car, handed over the cash and drove off...

Car was unregistered by that time but still had the plates on it and good road manners* so they just drove it straight home.. no permits, nothing.

* Except for the crazy cruise control, which if you tried to use it or test it would just accelerate the car infinately until you hit the brake to turn it off... it probably would have gone right into the tacho red-line it was that stupid. I was thinking I should disconnect it before letting these kids take the car but as Des' picture shows, they must have got home alive...

I.

 

[Des]

* Except for the crazy cruise control, which if you tried to use it or test it would just accelerate the car infinately until you hit the brake to turn it off... it probably would have gone right into the tacho red-line it was that stupid. I was thinking I should disconnect it before letting these kids take the car but as Des' picture shows, they must have got home alive...

I.

Nice one Ian



The only details I have is the car was for sale on ebay on 31st July 2006, price unknown,
might have been around $4-5k from vauge memory

 

[Des]

 

[Des]

Two things tell me that is a UK car

the velvour seats, seen that in another 6.9 from UK here in tassie


and the amount of rust under the car

 

[B13]

The rust is (or was) all superficial. When I discovered the rust shortly after buying it I went on an all out rust-hunt to see the extent of the problem, and yes there is lots of places with surface rust, none actually turned into holes. And there was no rust in structurally important places.

I had to decide whether to fix the problem, or just drive and enjoy the car and not worry about the rust. Since the interior was tired I decided to go with the latter. I'm betting if it was left outside constantly or lived by a beach it would get pretty rusty pretty quickly.

Funny story: I was stopped at a roundabout once and went to move but another car flew through the roundabout so I stopped after moving 1 metre. The Telstra tech in the Holden commodore ran into the back of me probably at 5km/h... The who plastic front fell of the commodore onto the road and my towball went into his radiator... damage to the 6.9? The rubber on the rear bumper had been dislodged.

I.

 

[Des]

towbars are a requirement these days if you want to keep your rear bumper intact, regardless if you ever intend to use a trailer.

Last two weeks I have had two idiots "tap" my towbar, once in the KFC drive through and the other in the hospital car park. Is it not obvious where exactaly the back of a large volvo is? with a towbar sticking out?
People just want to get as close as they can to your car.



Maybe it is too much of a gap to tell, but do you think Ian there is a noticeable difference between the AU spec engine and the Euro engine in a 6.9?

 

[116Benz]

There seems to be a western habbit of touch parking, someone "tapped" the nose of the MX-5 2 weeks ago, no damage, just pushed the number plate into the nose of the car. Dunno how you can miss a bright red car behind you in an open air carpark.

 

[SELfor50]

Great story's Mavric!!

Except, those wheels are pretty pimpin!!

Classic bout the Telstra tech in the commodore.. Working in telecomms i've heard so many ol' stories bout mates who worked at Telecom, rally bashing the work car's and even rolling them and just walking away from them etc.. so i'm guessing it didn't bother him....though if they had to do any major repairs to the Merc, he'd probably be out of a job.

....cruise control from death!! hahahaaa... that's pretty classic.

 

[Michel]

R U sad to have let it go?

 

[Des]

There seems to be a western habbit of touch parking, someone "tapped" the nose of the MX-5 2 weeks ago, no damage, just pushed the number plate into the nose of the car. Dunno how you can miss a bright red car behind you in an open air carpark.

Yep and if the carpark is nearly empty someone has to park right next to your car. they can't park 2 spots over,

 

[B13]

R U sad to have let it go?

I was at the time... but no more than when I had to let go of the RX2 (rally accident), RX4#1 (written off), red RX7S1 (wife said get rid of), RX5 (rallied to death), red 450SE (driven until it had no compression with 1,000,000+ km on the clock), or my white RX7.

Maybe it is too much of a gap to tell, but do you think Ian there is a noticeable difference between the AU spec engine and the Euro engine in a 6.9?

They both have, as you would expect, the same torquey lazy drive and low frequency V8 burble all 6.9s have. Your one with the Aus engine but new timing chain definately breaks rear wheel traction heaps more easily... so I'm guessing the timing chain was stretched god knows how much on the Euro. I think the Euro got better petrol economy but that may be the nature of the driving at that point in my life was mainly freeways, so easy to get 450-500km/tank, whereas now I'm stuck in traffic both to and from work, so I average 400km/tank in this car.

I.

 

[B13]

Here's some more pictures of the old girl...

Looking at these old pictures the car looks much worse in the hands of its current owner, than before I sold it... may she rust in peace.

Ian.

 

[Michel]

Here's some more pictures of the old girl...

Looking at these old pictures the car looks much worse than before I sold it... may she rust in peace.
Ian.

Did you do the US headlight conversion?

 

[oscar]

It's odd but the towbar on my 350 has caused a couple dings and scratches on the rear bumper. From years ago when it was backed up to a double axle trailer quite often, the hitch sailed over the the towball, glanced the side sometimes and somtimes hit the number plate or skipped off the bumper.

BTW, I still like US lights and euro bumpers. I must be one of not many.

 

[Des]

BTW, I still like US lights and euro bumpers. I must be one of not many.

B13 mentiond he added the lights himself, it does look good, gives the car a more classic look to it. Something needs to be done to the panel behind the lights, not sure what though. Maybe painted the same colour as the car?

 

[B13]

Can't remember exactly why I did the light conversion... but from memory I was unhappy at the time with the 6.9 badge being the only thing differentiating the car from normal 450SELs... that and the front spoilerette which can hardly be seen except by purists anyway.

The 6.3 has a quad-round setup anyway... added to my decision.

Also around the time I put it on more and more sporty and performance cars (new ones I'm talking about) were going back to quad round headlights (think XR6 and XR8 Falcon, Magna VRX etc.)

One of our american friends needs to show us some pictures of the setup but basically theres the "bucket" which mounts to the body where the oil euro headlight was, then theres the "sealed beam units" (the lights themselves) which mount in the bucket), then clear perpex "doors" which surround the lights and make everything flush and pretty. I guess you could experiment with colouring the buckets or doors to achieve the look you are after.

I took the opportunity to install 100W high-beam aircraft landing lights in the drivng light buckets... could blind oncoming motorists on the freeway from 2km away...

As a modification to a club race car the holes could be converted into some form of cold-air intake like they do on RX3 drag cars:

I.

 

[Styria]

I hate to say it, but most people just don't give a #### (edit.-just don't care) what damage they may do to your car or property for that matter and, yes, a good sturdy tow bar is mandatory especially considering my reversking skills with stiff neck and terrible 116 ergonomics-you know, no room to move your knees when turning around to see where you're backing...

Good story Ian, and a most satisfactory summary of an item you were glad to see the back of. Personally, I think you handled it well, although I did see you spent 5k. smackeroos on that car - it's amazing how quickly it goes. Wow !

On a similar note, talking of 'money', I see where S-Class would be up for $200.00 to renew the exhaust system on his 'trusty rusty' - I am glad that there are some good things in SA. Anyway, I must not digress - B13, very informative and good story. Regards Styria