- maxi.jpg (170.47 KiB) Viewed 3443 times
What would you buy & why?
Re: Yet another "what should I buy next?" type of thread..
Well the horses don't produce as much shite as B/L. This is the exact same colour as the car I bought my missus in 1978. Brand new, August 1st, on a 'T' plate. It was the final straw with our, all but nationalised car maker. It was so bad that it put us both off any car that is green. But I put it up here because you are Maxi mad. Maybe I should have changed the colour to rose tinted.
Re: Yet another "what should I buy next?" type of thread..
Oof! Brooklands Green. One of the Maxis Dad had during his Hardy's days was that shade. RFT897S, his second 1750HL, it was fairly rotten when the time came to pass it down to one of the reps, but still working well enough at 130,000 miles. Then it ended up being sold to Dr Robb, my Chemistry teacher and well known player of the smallpipes. I was delighted when I found "Doc", as we had unimaginatively nicknamed him at school, broken down by the side of the road one night, the Maxi's nearside suspension deflated and the car sitting perched on the verge with a rather deep dyke to its side, having failed a pipe on his way home. Remembering that he'd insisted that I wouldn't get my O grade, and had double entered me as a mark of his lack of confidence, I thought about stopping to tow him out with my A60, but then I remembered his betrayal and slowed along by, shouted something like "hello, Sir, grand night for it", then set off on my way.
(I deliberately threw the CSE but managed a B in the `O grade, by the way, which would have pee'd him right off), the green Maxi was next seen in a scrapyard on a farm not far from my place, I had its doors and all four of its bottles for my 1979 series one and a half example, which was every bit as good a car as Dad's other eight Maxis and my own early one, which I should have kept as the Hydragas ones just didn't ride as well, even if they didn't sink so far when fully loaded.
Would I have another, assuming that I had been able to drive one these days? Yes, I would..
(I deliberately threw the CSE but managed a B in the `O grade, by the way, which would have pee'd him right off), the green Maxi was next seen in a scrapyard on a farm not far from my place, I had its doors and all four of its bottles for my 1979 series one and a half example, which was every bit as good a car as Dad's other eight Maxis and my own early one, which I should have kept as the Hydragas ones just didn't ride as well, even if they didn't sink so far when fully loaded.
Would I have another, assuming that I had been able to drive one these days? Yes, I would..
J
"Home is where you park it", so the saying goes. That may yet come true..
"Home is where you park it", so the saying goes. That may yet come true..
Re: Yet another "what should I buy next?" type of thread..
It alarms me that someone has quite clearly put a lot of work into the Escort, but hey, each to their own.Meanwhile, I'm seeing another potential car purchase later today, I've lost faith in the ability of eBay sellers to be honest about their festering pile of crap's real condition so don't expect this to be worth the trip over to Ayrshire to check it out but you never know, it may be worth the time and effort because it's orange, built in the 1960s by a German manufacturer, has only two pedals and measures up pretty well in the critical dimensions. We shall see. Off I go..
J
"Home is where you park it", so the saying goes. That may yet come true..
"Home is where you park it", so the saying goes. That may yet come true..
Re: Yet another "what should I buy next?" type of thread..
Good luck mate 
lots of pics please
lots of pics please
VW Fridolin is the answer!
Yeah, thanks. I was right to be concerned. The car in question had been described as "mint" (grrrr) underneath. Aye right, bloody Polo mint maybe as they have a hole in the middle too! It was a VW Fridolin, like the one pictured below but in bright orange and equipped with the 1500cc engine and semi-auto transmission from a 1968 Beetle:
See, absolutely perfect thanks to its being within a few inches of the daily Toyota in every way; seat height, low floor, high roof, large doors, I felt comfortable in the thing and was able to get out without bending, the pedals came out in the right places and even the weird 2-speed semi auto (actually 3, but they don't publicise the extra low crawler gear that's in there too) worked well and felt less laggy than the one in my '68 VW 1500 had done. All of the electrics worked, the engine had the barest minimum of endfloat and the suspension - which wasn't quite so low as the one in that picture - felt great, well damped, yet soft enough to take the usual potholed roads along that stretch of the west coast. I loved it! Then, as you do, I decided to ask to get it up on the lift at the garage where it was being stored. This was when things took on a bad taste. The pan and every other part from the door apertures back over were very freshly painted so I gave the most suspicious looking areas an extra firm squeeze and when the lumps of pitch fell off, I could see from the print on the paper that formed the substrate that the UK is about to hold a genial erection, at least that's what it looked like but you know how newsprint distorts when it's been roughly crumpled, a bit like that trick with an old fiver where the queen can be made to wink if the note is folded just so..
So I questioned the seller's description, especially his use of the word "mint", which really ought to have triggered alarm bells before I'd driven the van and it turned out that he'd been a victim of a body repair person who'd been economical with the truth when he'd issued the bill that I saw for £1200 worth of "underside repairs to o/e standard, drill out spot welds, grind back corroded metal above, fabricate repair sections to suit, weld, grind flush, prime, paint with chassis black (this was the thick type that I last used to stick the new felt to my kitchen roof), inject all box sections with wax-oil (sic.. That too should have worried me sooner as someone who genuinely had a barrel of the stuff in front of them would have made a better fist of the name), and so it went.
I felt for the bloke, who was clearly gutted by my findings and was making noises about what he'd do to the person who'd relieved him of his £1200 as I got back in the bB to leave. I felt for him because the original keeper of the orange Rebel had been similarly bullwashed by the garage that had been taking his cash for years, only that time, muggins here was the one left with it when it was sold to someone who didn't know the old bloke or the garage and so, had no qualms about checking with a blunt instrument.
I had no excuse either, and sympathised with the Frido's owner but some good has come from this..
I now know what vehicle I want! It could have been made to measure, honestly, if the bB didn't have its engine at the front and its front wheels driven too, the Fridolin would have felt identical to drive, as it was, I liked it, it fitted me and I'm now going to find a decent one and buy it, though I'll also have to budget for a scrap VW1500 as a source of the semi auto transmission and the matching engine, then get a couple of days help in to do the conversion but it's all nuts & bolts stuff and I'm just glad to have found my ideal next old motor.
So was today a total washout? No. I reckon the VW's owner thinks that I'm crackers because I travelled some 70 odd miles to check out a rust bucket and left happy, but if he knew the vomit-filled swamp of vehicles I've had to wade through to get to this point, he'd get it!
See, absolutely perfect thanks to its being within a few inches of the daily Toyota in every way; seat height, low floor, high roof, large doors, I felt comfortable in the thing and was able to get out without bending, the pedals came out in the right places and even the weird 2-speed semi auto (actually 3, but they don't publicise the extra low crawler gear that's in there too) worked well and felt less laggy than the one in my '68 VW 1500 had done. All of the electrics worked, the engine had the barest minimum of endfloat and the suspension - which wasn't quite so low as the one in that picture - felt great, well damped, yet soft enough to take the usual potholed roads along that stretch of the west coast. I loved it! Then, as you do, I decided to ask to get it up on the lift at the garage where it was being stored. This was when things took on a bad taste. The pan and every other part from the door apertures back over were very freshly painted so I gave the most suspicious looking areas an extra firm squeeze and when the lumps of pitch fell off, I could see from the print on the paper that formed the substrate that the UK is about to hold a genial erection, at least that's what it looked like but you know how newsprint distorts when it's been roughly crumpled, a bit like that trick with an old fiver where the queen can be made to wink if the note is folded just so..
So I questioned the seller's description, especially his use of the word "mint", which really ought to have triggered alarm bells before I'd driven the van and it turned out that he'd been a victim of a body repair person who'd been economical with the truth when he'd issued the bill that I saw for £1200 worth of "underside repairs to o/e standard, drill out spot welds, grind back corroded metal above, fabricate repair sections to suit, weld, grind flush, prime, paint with chassis black (this was the thick type that I last used to stick the new felt to my kitchen roof), inject all box sections with wax-oil (sic.. That too should have worried me sooner as someone who genuinely had a barrel of the stuff in front of them would have made a better fist of the name), and so it went.
I felt for the bloke, who was clearly gutted by my findings and was making noises about what he'd do to the person who'd relieved him of his £1200 as I got back in the bB to leave. I felt for him because the original keeper of the orange Rebel had been similarly bullwashed by the garage that had been taking his cash for years, only that time, muggins here was the one left with it when it was sold to someone who didn't know the old bloke or the garage and so, had no qualms about checking with a blunt instrument.
I had no excuse either, and sympathised with the Frido's owner but some good has come from this..
I now know what vehicle I want! It could have been made to measure, honestly, if the bB didn't have its engine at the front and its front wheels driven too, the Fridolin would have felt identical to drive, as it was, I liked it, it fitted me and I'm now going to find a decent one and buy it, though I'll also have to budget for a scrap VW1500 as a source of the semi auto transmission and the matching engine, then get a couple of days help in to do the conversion but it's all nuts & bolts stuff and I'm just glad to have found my ideal next old motor.
So was today a total washout? No. I reckon the VW's owner thinks that I'm crackers because I travelled some 70 odd miles to check out a rust bucket and left happy, but if he knew the vomit-filled swamp of vehicles I've had to wade through to get to this point, he'd get it!
J
"Home is where you park it", so the saying goes. That may yet come true..
"Home is where you park it", so the saying goes. That may yet come true..
Re: Yet another "what should I buy next?" type of thread..
i have had a quick look & they dont seem to be about over here.. but saying that i had never seen one until today..
meanwhile this is available but might require some welding
http://www.outdoorrevival.com/instant-a ... agons.html
having looked at more pics, would a leyland sherpa be suitable?
this is german ebay
http://www.ebay.de/sch/i.html?_from=R40 ... sacat=9801
http://www.oldbug.com/nosfrid.htm
http://www.thecoolvw.com/Aanbodeng.htm
they seem to be as plentiful as your plastic mini john! go back & buy the one you saw & get someone you trust to rebuild it properly!
meanwhile this is available but might require some welding
http://www.outdoorrevival.com/instant-a ... agons.html
having looked at more pics, would a leyland sherpa be suitable?
this is german ebay
http://www.ebay.de/sch/i.html?_from=R40 ... sacat=9801
http://www.oldbug.com/nosfrid.htm
http://www.thecoolvw.com/Aanbodeng.htm
they seem to be as plentiful as your plastic mini john! go back & buy the one you saw & get someone you trust to rebuild it properly!
Re: Yet another "what should I buy next?" type of thread..
Much as I love a Sherpa, and I do find them attractive , their floor is far too high for daily use and getting up into the cab is quite a feat, then, when I'm successfully installed, the seat is far too close to the floor so I have trouble with finding space for my legs. The Fridolin, as can be seen in the interior shots of that lovely Bundes Post one in the link, has a very low floor even in non-slammed form, but also has a good seat height, which makes the getting in & out, the driving and the general living with the car so easy, or will when I find one that's suitably well preserved.
It would be possible to restore the rotten areas of the one I went to meet, anything is possible after all, but its asking price was already £3 over my intended spend, allow maybe another £3k-£5k for the professional help I'd need from someone and the numbers just won't stack up. I could spend a total of around £20k and still not have something whose long term future would be assured with a simple dose of Ensis V in the vulnerable sections of the shell (so that'll be a 40 gallon barrel to add to the costs then..).
Nope, I'm holding out for a good one and may well end up spending an unjustifiable amount of wonga on its purchase and ongoing preservation, but bodging that one up safely and with its future in mind isn't part of the plan to find something that can be put into occasional use as soon as I get it home and register it, so I'll let some other mug have that pleasure. It's an unusual, old aircooled VW so it'll sell soon enough to someone with far more stamina than I can muster these days.
I think it's probably a far less commonplace vehicle than the mini, those things are everywhere in Venezuela and other countries in that corner of South America, a fact that I allowed to warp my judgement as availability and the ease of getting mine out of the country are very different things. However, as long as we're still an EU member and probably even after the decree absolute has been enacted, getting a European car from Germany or Switzerland to the UK should be a piece of cake. I already asked my yahoo.jp proxy agent to find out whether any Fridolin are living in Japan and apparently, there are half a dozen that found their way over there and nobody's selling, but I'll find one.
Don't let my having found the right car get in the way of posting mad, totally unsuitable or otherwise not fit for purpose vehicles though, I'd have that crazy American motorhome if I thought I'd get away with parking it on my drive! Meh, the house can be demolished and I could stay in the motorhome instead, now will a Fridolin be as easy to find?
Edited:
OK, so I just had email in reply to my wanted ad on a couple of VW sites. This email informs me that there's a RHD one with a full history on sale just now. It looks to be in much better condition than the orange one and is already UK registered, which it has been since it was a mere 6 years old (it's a 1971 example but there were no age-related plates before 1983, hence the S issued on arrival). At first glance, it certainly needs a spot of elbow grease but I'm told that it works and comes with enough unique parts to allow the buyer to avoid having to attend any VW-only meets for many years to come. Asking price is (just) under my original budget. It's further from me than the orange one but only by a couple of hundred miles, I've replied to the message but my reply bounced so I've left voicemail on the bloke's mobile and I'll go and see it once I've heard from its owner.
Worryingly, a quick web search has thrown up that same image and it's dated a while back, so chances are the van may not be in such a relatively straight condition now but we'll see..
, their floor is far too high for daily use and getting up into the cab is quite a feat, then, when I'm successfully installed, the seat is far too close to the floor so I have trouble with finding space for my legs. The Fridolin, as can be seen in the interior shots of that lovely Bundes Post one in the link, has a very low floor even in non-slammed form, but also has a good seat height, which makes the getting in & out, the driving and the general living with the car so easy, or will when I find one that's suitably well preserved.It would be possible to restore the rotten areas of the one I went to meet, anything is possible after all, but its asking price was already £3 over my intended spend, allow maybe another £3k-£5k for the professional help I'd need from someone and the numbers just won't stack up. I could spend a total of around £20k and still not have something whose long term future would be assured with a simple dose of Ensis V in the vulnerable sections of the shell (so that'll be a 40 gallon barrel to add to the costs then..).
Nope, I'm holding out for a good one and may well end up spending an unjustifiable amount of wonga on its purchase and ongoing preservation, but bodging that one up safely and with its future in mind isn't part of the plan to find something that can be put into occasional use as soon as I get it home and register it, so I'll let some other mug have that pleasure. It's an unusual, old aircooled VW so it'll sell soon enough to someone with far more stamina than I can muster these days.
I think it's probably a far less commonplace vehicle than the mini, those things are everywhere in Venezuela and other countries in that corner of South America, a fact that I allowed to warp my judgement as availability and the ease of getting mine out of the country are very different things. However, as long as we're still an EU member and probably even after the decree absolute has been enacted, getting a European car from Germany or Switzerland to the UK should be a piece of cake. I already asked my yahoo.jp proxy agent to find out whether any Fridolin are living in Japan and apparently, there are half a dozen that found their way over there and nobody's selling, but I'll find one.
Don't let my having found the right car get in the way of posting mad, totally unsuitable or otherwise not fit for purpose vehicles though, I'd have that crazy American motorhome if I thought I'd get away with parking it on my drive! Meh, the house can be demolished and I could stay in the motorhome instead, now will a Fridolin be as easy to find?
Edited:
OK, so I just had email in reply to my wanted ad on a couple of VW sites. This email informs me that there's a RHD one with a full history on sale just now. It looks to be in much better condition than the orange one and is already UK registered, which it has been since it was a mere 6 years old (it's a 1971 example but there were no age-related plates before 1983, hence the S issued on arrival). At first glance, it certainly needs a spot of elbow grease but I'm told that it works and comes with enough unique parts to allow the buyer to avoid having to attend any VW-only meets for many years to come. Asking price is (just) under my original budget. It's further from me than the orange one but only by a couple of hundred miles, I've replied to the message but my reply bounced so I've left voicemail on the bloke's mobile and I'll go and see it once I've heard from its owner.
Worryingly, a quick web search has thrown up that same image and it's dated a while back, so chances are the van may not be in such a relatively straight condition now but we'll see..
J
"Home is where you park it", so the saying goes. That may yet come true..
"Home is where you park it", so the saying goes. That may yet come true..
Re: Yet another "what should I buy next?" type of thread..
JPB wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 9:50 am I'd have that crazy American motorhome if I thought I'd get away with parking it on my drive! Meh, the house can be demolished and I could stay in the motorhome instead.
- john's little bus.jpg (98.79 KiB) Viewed 3382 times