635CSi

By the time the car actually manages to get back on the road I will have had her for almost two months.  In that time she has had her valances repainted along with her sides - below door/scrub rubber level - one of the previous owners had painted her lower sections in black gloss hammerite smooth finish paint, which I have redone as it was looking a bit tired and chipped.  I will be taking her to a local vehicle graphics company to have her '635 CSi' graphics replaced on both lower sections as they too were a bit ratty, and dog-eared.  All of the welding will have been done, including a very strange bit of damage on the inside valance doorskin between the hinges on the drivers door, the over-extension preventing bar had pulled its mounting plate clean through the skin.  Also totted up the receipts for the last 10 years...£10054.11, with 10000 miles covered in that time.  She may not be fully sorted body wise by the Beaulieu event in July but she will be around 90% there, all things being equal.

Managed to open the boot today, it refused to open cos the battery was flat.  Very odd seeing as the central locking has been disconnected, but she now has a heavy duty battery and hopefully no more problems in that department.

Next job will be to sort out the leather which is a bit cracked up and the speaker pods on the rear shelf have delaminated, so they are going to have to be ditched and replacement speakers cut into the shelf instead.  May well look into having the rear window and rear quarters tinted out with limo black, mainly to save any more damage to the shelf and the leather.

 

She will be ready just in time for the nice warm summer evenings...

 

 

I am not happy...far far from it infact.

 

The car is still waiting for the welding to be carried out...only been at the garage for 6 days!!!!!!

 

Any ideas I had of having her road legal by June 1st is now entirely out of the window.  Rescheduled to July 1st now.  Reason for the delay???? HAYFEVER!!!!!!!!!  The flaming mechanic has hayfever...

Goldryder wrote:   ... HAYFEVER!!!!!!!!!  The flaming mechanic has hayfever...

Why is he not taking "Clarityn" ???

Pity you're nowhere near London. I could've sent you to Frank Taylor at MacMetals, Mill Hill NW7.

His team will restore anything within reason, even though their main business is insurance repair work. They even created half-wing panels for a Riley One Point Five! The owner specified steel panels (which normally you just can't get) because he didn't want GRP/fibreglass reproductions. Frank's team had it all done in about four weeks. Brilliant job.

-oh dearie me, many a slip twixt cup and lip and all that....

-incidentally the rear speaker pods/headrest cubby covers often delaminate. Mine did a bit, and I repaired them with glue and held it together with clothes pegs while it set. Seemed to work OK. I don't know if you are concerned with originality or not, but if you are it seems a shame to go making holes in the parcel shelf if it can be avoided.

-I hope your various bits and pieces get sorted out soon....

cheers

 

Right, well the car did indeed fail the retest.

The welding turned out to be nothing more than packing covered with filler and underseal and a few more electrical probs popped up on the dashboard.

 

Idiot who did the mess is back from his holiday at the weekend and he will be instructed by my solicitor to make good the damage he has done at his own expense and on my driveway so I can supervise what he is doing.  The cost of the reteast and the subsequent full test is also to come out of his pocket and not mine.  The written instructions from my solicitor will be waiting for him on his doormat upon his arrival back home.

 

I won't be able to attend the Retro meet at Pod, but will be at Beaulieu.

The rear lights have been bridged from offside to nearside with inline fuses.  Not the best way to do things but they pass MOT, so for now they will be staying as they are.

The welding problem is the priority at the moment.  Thanx to Sohlman, I will have a replacement dash at Beaulieu.

I am extremely angry with the idiot who did this, I just hope he puts things right.

No joy with legal action threat, idiot hasn't taken notice.  So back to square one again.  Car sat outside not going anywhere fast.  Did have coach company say they would help, but theor workload has gone thru the roof, so thats on hold til the Autumn if the car still requires work.

 

Looking unlikely to be attending any shows this year, at least with the car.  Hope to go to Beaulieu with a friend of mine in their Supra instead.  Nothing finalised yet tho, may still get the 635 legal in time.

I think as anoying as it may be you should walk away from this guy and get the car sorted somewhere else.  Getting legal etc costs money. Might be worth taking pictures and report him to the TV's Rogue trader, but i would not let him near your car again.

Just my opinion

James

P.S. I must get your dashboard bit out for you

Upside to this is that the individual is a guy who does work for himself and doesn't advertise.  Downside is due to being an Island and that it is so blatently obvious that the car has been badly done, I can't get anyone over here to touch it for the moment.  Large patches of black underseal sort of give it away...not to mention the patches of white dusty areas where the filler is dropping out.  The bill wasn't paid cos the arrangement was payable on successful MOT pass which hasn't happened.  Trading Standards chose not to want involvement cos he is an individual and nothing written by way of contract was done before the work was started.  But then it isn't a common practice to do that with anyone thesedays.