Practically Classics Forum

Message sent to the vendor, just awaiting their response. I'm actually quite pleased with myself for finding an excuse to import yet another motor from the south, it has a Toyota Diesel so - apart from a cracked cylinder head and the associated woes that sometimes affect the HiLux-sourced 2.4 litre engine found in this car - what, as any Top Gear presenter would ask, could possibly go wrong?
I'm wondering whether, in the event of an arrangement being arrived at and the cab becoming mine, I should take out breakdown cover. I didn't bother once I'd ditched the Mk 7 Golf in favour of my 1990 Corolla and the bB doesn't seem to justify the cost of such an expense as it too always works just fine, but these plastic taxis do contain lots of Ford DNA. Maybe fitting that Reliant badge will fool the thing into behaving itself as I never had a moment's bother with any of the eight kittens or three working Rebels that I've owned . OK, make that very little bother apart from the broken crankshaft in the "Staffordshire Racing Brown" kitten estate; NNL437R, the equally broken rear springs at various, usually inconvenient, times in each and every one of the wee darlings and not forgetting the incident with the then red but now blue Rebel 750 estate; GUS265L, when his passenger footwell carpet and glove compartment lid caught fire on a campsite on Skye in the summer of 1997, meaning that I had to drive home with a car full of white powder from the extinguisher{s} that I annoyingly (have you seen how much a decent one of those things costs?) had to deploy at the time.

great news mate! lots of pics please
ive given up on the idea of a sports car as there is no room for the kids. i find my self dreaming about these
https://www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/1369343419.htm
or something like this
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified ... SHI&page=1

while your at it you could get this too
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lamar-mono-C ... rmvSB=true

JPB wrote: Sat Jan 20, 2018 10:03 am Message sent to the vendor, just awaiting their response. I'm actually quite pleased with myself for finding an excuse to import yet another motor from the south, it has a Toyota Diesel so - apart from a cracked cylinder head and the associated woes that sometimes affect the HiLux-sourced 2.4 litre engine found in this car - what, as any Top Gear presenter would ask, could possibly go wrong?
I'm wondering whether, in the event of an arrangement being arrived at and the cab becoming mine, I should take out breakdown cover. I didn't bother once I'd ditched the Mk 7 Golf in favour of my 1990 Corolla and the bB doesn't seem to justify the cost of such an expense as it too always works just fine, but these plastic taxis do contain lots of Ford DNA. Maybe fitting that Reliant badge will fool the thing into behaving itself as I never had a moment's bother with any of the eight kittens or three working Rebels that I've owned . OK, make that very little bother apart from the broken crankshaft in the "Staffordshire Racing Brown" kitten estate; NNL437R, the equally broken rear springs at various, usually inconvenient, times in each and every one of the wee darlings and not forgetting the incident with the then red but now blue Rebel 750 estate; GUS265L, when his passenger footwell carpet and glove compartment lid caught fire on a campsite on Skye in the summer of 1997, meaning that I had to drive home with a car full of white powder from the extinguisher{s} that I annoyingly (have you seen how much a decent one of those things costs?) had to deploy at the time.

John,

I actually don't think it's likely that you will find a Reliant-built Metrocab, after all they really didn't make that many, and a Toyota engine and box will be light years better than the Transit concoction most had. These engines were fitted towards the end of production by the way, I have a friend who runs a 2003 reg one, unusually in white. He did have an earlier Ford powered one previously and reckons that the fuel consumption on the Toyota one is very much better than the Ford one, which in town only just got into double figures.

Ah, the trials and tribulations of Reliant ownership which you well know I know all too well. That said, the "Flying Jaffa" has never really broken badly, only once in my ownership has it had to be recovered by the RAC, for an annoyingly minor breakdown which I couldn't repair on the spot having "donated" the spare I always carried of the broken part to another owner at the previous weekends ROC national rally!

Compare this to the diesel Suzuki SX4 4x4 that I bought brand new in late 2013 - 5 times recovered by the time I finally gave up and sold it - wiring fires, due, I was told by the dealer, to rats mice or squirrels chewing the wiring loom. Post 2011, an EU dictat decided that European built cars (mine was built in Hungary) had to have "recycleable" wiring insulation made from soy, a "Michelin star" to creatures that nibble. Then the power steering completely seized up... The main reason I outed it though was that it was bleeding me towards bankruptcy. Both the MOT's I put it through cost well into 4 figures in parts alone. First MOT at 3 years and 20,000 miles found all 4 tyres cracking up around the tread grooves and on the inner walls. Second MOT at 28,000 miles found seized front calipers requiring replacement along with discs and pads plus leaking rear shock absorbers!!!! The one I had previously, same model, just a different colour and '06 reg, was trouble-free for well-nigh 130,000 miles but that was a Japanese built one.

John

Rich, I love that green thing but would it not be in danger of falling into the pit at MOT time? Yeah. OK, so a 1949 car doesn't strictly need to be tested but wouldn't it be fun to try? Also, could they not have made the twin tailpipes exit in a more aesthetically pleasing way?

More worrying than that, the seller is known to members of a watch forum that I visit on a not infrequent basis. Why that, you may well ask.
I took a screen grab of his feedback to illustrate that very thing and bear in mind that there are two sides to every story :


I shall gladly remove that screen dump if the watch buyer can be shown to have been in the wrong, but sometimes, when a seller accepts a "best offer" for a piece that later turns out to be slightly adrift of its description, a seller will say anything rather than accept that they were in the wrong. Just saying.

John, I hear you, but if a certain Netherlands-dwelling RKR subscriber can find a Reliant cab and take it abroad, is it not even more important that I find and attempt to keep a surviving specimen in the UK? OK, so by now I have realised that this is a pretty thin reason to chase after a particular vehicle but short of travelling over to the land of cheese, windmills and other stereotypically Dutch things, buying a Daf and bringing that home, how else am I to redress the balance?
It's only taken me a few extra months of careful consideration to acknowledge the fact - and sadly there can be no debating it - that both yourself and Pete, who made a similar point long before this thread had grown so random, ( ) are absolutely correct about the ease - or lack thereof - of finding that elusive Reliant with four wheels that isn't a Scimitar or a small one.
That said, my daily transport is only present in the UK in double figure numbers and I've never been afraid of a challenge.. The possible exception being the challenge involving the acquisition of that (very) elusive, rear engined German device, which I may yet accept has gone nowhere and taken whole months of my time that could by now have been used to capture several rare Reliants, though one would suffice from a storage space point of view.

I may yet end up going back to the Japanese online auction scene for an older car, the small-but-tall Mitsubishi pictured below precedes, but bears a remarkable similarity to a certain Reliant product, especially in the door tops and rear side window areas, but I have recently sat in one of two which are thought to represent the UK's entire population of the things, and I fitted easily. Better yet, I recently discovered that the Aisin/Warner autobox from 1970s Toyota Corolla autos is a "nuts & bolts" drop-in transplant solution, but then I remembered that when I was searching for a Datsun A-series engine and autobox donor for a Morris Minor shell that I had stashed away for a while, I ended up buying the 1990 Corolla Liftback so I won't rubber stamp any plan just yet, I'm apparently fairly indecisive!





Separated at birth, eh?

JPB wrote: Sat Jan 20, 2018 1:48 pmSeparated at birth, eh?

More like abortions.

Nurse! More pain relief for the grumpy patient with the recently replaced leg upper ball joint please!


I ask you; if these fine motor vehicles are "abortions", then where is the bucket that one would expect to see nearby in both images?

JPB wrote: Sat Jan 20, 2018 2:12 pm Nurse! More pain relief for the grumpy patient with the recently replaced leg upper ball joint please!


I ask you; if these fine motor vehicles

Fine motor vehicles? Nurse! Book an urgent appointment at Specsavers for John.

GHT wrote: Sat Jan 20, 2018 2:18 pm

JPB wrote: Sat Jan 20, 2018 2:12 pm Nurse! More pain relief for the grumpy patient with the recently replaced leg upper ball joint please!


I ask you; if these fine motor vehicles

Fine motor vehicles? Nurse! Book an urgent appointment at Specsavers for John.

I see ght is feeling much better

rich. wrote: Sat Jan 20, 2018 5:45 pm I see ght is feeling much better

If you say so mate, if you say so.


In other news, there's no reply from the taxi selling geezer as yet.