This is why you do not buy a car off ebay without checking

[DR]

Well, a friend of mine loved my MX5 so much he decided he would get one - you might know him he is called Angus... hehe! Anyway we went to southampton to pick up his car and all I can say is I had to hold my tongue.... It is a bit of a state. Currently what it needs doing to it:

A *damn* good clean and polish
A cleaned / sorted hood and a new rear window (already known about!)
A New Exhaust (and it fires on 3 cylinders at the mo....)
A MOT... I dread to think what this will pull up.

Oh yes, the MOT - Well.... this is where the problem occurs. By law you can drive a car without tax to an MOT place (but you need insurance!) anyway, he got it to the garage (just about! - how many jump starts - 3?!)

So, this morning I wake up (10am start - jesus these sites are hard work!) anyway, get a call 'Dave..... there is a problem' (didn't like the sound of this! anyway it turns out the chassis is uhm filed in a special category (fecked!). So, we have spent the afternoon taking pix and trying to sort things out.

I think we should start a fund so he can get the £1600 which he has spent on the car and shipping back. Its crazy, the garage believe it is £500 for the chassis to be sorted, and the exhaust is another 100 or so + labour. This car has not even been submitted to an MOT test so there might (and probably is) more wrong with it.

Now... some pix!






















Now for the good things - at least he has not crashed it yet or been pulled for driving it back to his lock up today. Other good things on the car is the CD changer in the boot - nice touch, and the Momo wheel. I am also impressed to see aftermarked alloys and suspension and front and rear strut braces. What I am pondering is how many times the car has been clocked - mebbe not, 190,000 KM... thats 120,000 Miles ish!, or been used by some sort of drugs barron for his dodgy 'fast and furious' style driving antics. I might go to Angus' place later and conviscate his DVDs so he doesn't cry when thinking about it

Anyway - you win some, you lose some. This is a post just to warn you what can happen.

[Zak33]

its got lots going for it tho.

Red WILL come back, even when that faded. Soon as he wants advice get him to Post Here...I'll explain a good method for colour restorer....and DONT let him near it with T Cut or I'l shout at him

The Floor is quite damamged huh?

[DR]

Indeed, just depends when he gets a finite list of jobs which need to be done on it

[Angus]

Cheers Zak,

Was going to get the T-Cut out but figured the chassis was more important top sort out - what a bit of luck eh?

:\

The carpets are good - the damage that you can see is the dealer fit matts and the debris from trying to scrape rubbish off the windscreen so I could drive it home.

Something to put down to experience I guess; and the ebuyer I brought it from is helping to sort it out, the garage reckons that it's the sort of damage that gets done to vehicles on the ships (there's a company in the village that imports lots of cars).

Obviously this one hasn't paid off; but it could have been the other way and I could have had a sound car that would have been worth more than I paid for it.

I took a gamble and lost that's it really.

So if anyone wants a Eunos Roadster import for spares or repair.........

[Zak33]

it aint that bad....

those floor marks are from it being up and down ramps too fast, or even from transporter drivers being carelless and chaining it down fron underneath ....they use hooks and pulleys and hook into chassis legs and then strap it down from underneath....

happens to NEW cars..let alone 10 year olds.

I'd get the engine sussed first. Why is it miss firing...chassis is later really....

motive force....will it run right?

The colour is good....you'll be shocked..promise

[Angus]

it aint that bad....

those floor marks are from it being up and down ramps too fast, or even from transporter drivers being carelless and chaining it down fron underneath ....they use hooks and pulleys and hook into chassis legs and then strap it down from underneath....

happens to NEW cars..let alone 10 year olds.

I'd get the engine sussed first. Why is it miss firing...chassis is later really....

motive force....will it run right?

The colour is good....you'll be shocked..promise

Even though the garage reckon it'll take £500 or so to sort out the chassis??

[Raz316]

ouch :/

out of interest was it advertised as being a bit of a state?

[Angus]

ouch :/

out of interest was it advertised as being a bit of a state?

I knew about the paint work - as Zak says it will come up good; I was going to use T-Cut though (still waiting for your wonder cure Zak )

I also knew about the rear window - that should only cost £70 or so.

But I didn't know about the rest of the stuff; and if the chassis was bashed by the ship then the car was probably ok before it was shipped.

[Zak33]

Ref Chassis.....if you get it fixed and it the engine then costs £1k you wasted the chassis work.

other way around.......if the engine only costs £200 to get sorted...the chassis work you can get another bid on from somewhere....

Colour retreival....nothe rday...stop fretting

[Rob]

3M polishing compound Zak? And a GOOD rotary polisher... Brought my red nissan up like a fresh cherry

[Angus]

3M polishing compound Zak? And a GOOD rotary polisher... Brought my red nissan up like a fresh cherry

Sounds expensive??

[Zak33]

much cheaper way...but you're gonna ache


The thing about ALL car Polish EXCEPT AUTO GLYM (and similar resiny ones) is that they are ABRASIVE.

they are like Jiff Cream...or toothpaste.

They CUT into your paint.

The thing about T Cut is it is WORSE and STRONGER and also has a nasty BLEACHING EFFECT.

If you were to pour a glop pf T Cut onto that bonnet, then polish away....it would always have a "glop" shaped mark on it.

Its EVIL....T CUT is the work of Satan

However....as with Demonists and Devils...you can sometime use them to your own benefit

SOO>....this is what ya do....

you wash the car...get it CLEAN.....let it dry.

THEN....you get some T CUT and some CREAMY WAX POLISH (dont ask for a brand....look for a creamy polish....NOT hard....not spray on....you want thick creamy stuff....dont care what brand)

You get LOTS of clean mutton cloth (its all cotton-y and kinda like "knitted" together..Halfords again)

And you squoodge an equal amount of BOTH onto a big lump of polishing rag.

Now the car MUST BE CLEAN, cos we are gonna use the SAME bit of cloth for the whole car....and we dont want DIRT on it.....

anyway...starting on the bonnet....you rub..in small fast circles.....and the t cut "bites " into the paint and the polish stops it being too nasty.

You go round and round in a bit about 1 foot by 1 foot.....then you re apply more to the cloth..both T cut AND polish, 50/50....and you do the next bit.
You NEVER buff it off....you BLEND the original bit with the new bit.....and you keep at it.....you go over the edge of the bonnet and down the wing....same bit of cloth....over and over....more polish.

You see the cloth goes RED....the POLISH thats infused IN the cloth goes red....it all goes red.

SO do your hands.

You turn the cloth, but you use the same bit.....unless it gets DIRTY...black or brown in it...then you change.

You do the entire car.....its all in poilsh, quite thin.,....kinda "ground in"

THEN....fresh cloth....

DONT BUFF IT OFF>>.....DONT..wait.

You put fresh polish ON ITS OWN in the cloth and you rub THAT in....all over.....

what is happening is you are kinda "disolving" the t cut...stopping it being so harsh...

its like starting with course sand paper and moving to a finer grade.....it MAKES the SURFACE shiny....

If you imagine the paint, under a microscope, looking like a mountain range....its supposed to look like a dessert....flat.

you have to take off the peaks and simulataneously SEAL them with polish.

Dont use colourmagic...it doesnt last.
you have to WORK at it.

Its a good feeling....your arms and chest will ache...it'll take about 4 hours ...solid.

I did the Rally Car...its was DIRE....so flat you could strike a match on it...no gloss...

its shiny now

[Zak33]

then..once you've been over her all over with polish, THEN you buff it off with ANOTHER bit of clean cloth. This could take ten minutes or more. Change cloth is it leaves dusty residue.

Then.,....hold your breath.

Polish her one more time.....gently, lovingly.....get the final layer of polish on...buff it away as you do it.....poilshing cloth in one hand....circle...round and round...and as it dries, other hand with dry buffing cloth.

Karate Kid Stylee.....

Waxxa On

Waxxa off....


now.....Daniel San......Painta Fence

[XTR]

and once ya've done that..... go buy some wonder wheels... and some zymol cleaner wax for the overall finish!!!!!!

I'm loving this zymol stuff.... smells sooooooooo nice.. and works soooooooo well!!! I should have taken Lowe's advice a loooooooong loong time ago!!

[Zak33]

ooh.....good product

[DR]

......... Which is more expensive than whiskey