Big Vern retirement.

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Plum said:
Just spent an hour on their website, fascinating! Never knew there was such a market for old oil/petrol cans! It's always surprising what people see value in.
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Petroliana is a big thing
You ever watch American pickers? Very popular
 
Red top reader said:
In a bid to carry on the thread drift a few years ago I bought a silver Astra GTE, non runner for 50 quid. All I actually wanted was the seats but thought I’d try and get it running to see if the engine and box were worth removing and selling. I had a friend, passed a few years ago god rest his soul, who was a diagnostic expert. He told me during winter a lot of them just stopped running, apparently they have a design fault, there is an electronic unit that is situated in the footwell bolted to the inner wing. Water gets in there and freezes up in the cold weather. He told me to unplug it, take it in house, remove the cover that had about 12 small screws holding it on. Then absolutely flood it with WD40. Drain it out and leave it in a warm place over night. I followed his advice and the next day put the unit together and plugged it back in. Well **** me it started straight up one turn of the key. Went like a rocket, fast as fook, needless to say the seats never came out, sold it literally the same day for a very healthy profit. I cannot believe what prices you can get for old cars that back in my day we were almost given….
I could not count the amount of punters that turned up asking me to come and pick up XR2s, XR3s and a fair few sierras for ****all. Bought a 4x4 sierra for £150 once that only needed a clutch.
Weird thing though those Renault 5s always kept their money, personally I thought they were **** and not that fast.
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I had an XR2 and an astra GTE also.. cost around £2000 each when they were about 5-6 years old. They were already fully of rust - modern cars today are still just about under warranty at that age. My girlfriend at the time had a Renault 5s and wrote it off, sliding off Tranby lane after a few glasses of wine, the police officer at the scene told her to get a lift home and to try not to drink drive again.

My neighbour inherited a Volvo 240 that hadn't been driven for 20 years and stored in a warehouse, charged the battery, put air in the tyres and drove it for about 10000km before it needed any work...

Probably having a resurgence in collectability as it's far easier to get parts and cheap tools than it was.
 
Red top reader said:
In a bid to carry on the thread drift a few years ago I bought a silver Astra GTE, non runner for 50 quid. All I actually wanted was the seats but thought I’d try and get it running to see if the engine and box were worth removing and selling. I had a friend, passed a few years ago god rest his soul, who was a diagnostic expert. He told me during winter a lot of them just stopped running, apparently they have a design fault, there is an electronic unit that is situated in the footwell bolted to the inner wing. Water gets in there and freezes up in the cold weather. He told me to unplug it, take it in house, remove the cover that had about 12 small screws holding it on. Then absolutely flood it with WD40. Drain it out and leave it in a warm place over night. I followed his advice and the next day put the unit together and plugged it back in. Well **** me it started straight up one turn of the key. Went like a rocket, fast as fook, needless to say the seats never came out, sold it literally the same day for a very healthy profit. I cannot believe what prices you can get for old cars that back in my day we were almost given….
I could not count the amount of punters that turned up asking me to come and pick up XR2s, XR3s and a fair few sierras for ****all. Bought a 4x4 sierra for £150 once that only needed a clutch.
Weird thing though those Renault 5s always kept their money, personally I thought they were **** and not that fast.
Click to expand...

I bought an xr2i, 90k on the clock, 2 owners from new, full service history for £150 in 2007. Sold it a week later for £650 and spent the profit on a nice little 2 stroke crosser (which I still have).

That car would have been worth a fortune now. Was mechanically mint other than faded red paintwork.
 
Red top reader said:
In a bid to carry on the thread drift a few years ago I bought a silver Astra GTE, non runner for 50 quid. All I actually wanted was the seats but thought I’d try and get it running to see if the engine and box were worth removing and selling. I had a friend, passed a few years ago god rest his soul, who was a diagnostic expert. He told me during winter a lot of them just stopped running, apparently they have a design fault, there is an electronic unit that is situated in the footwell bolted to the inner wing. Water gets in there and freezes up in the cold weather. He told me to unplug it, take it in house, remove the cover that had about 12 small screws holding it on. Then absolutely flood it with WD40. Drain it out and leave it in a warm place over night. I followed his advice and the next day put the unit together and plugged it back in. Well **** me it started straight up one turn of the key. Went like a rocket, fast as fook, needless to say the seats never came out, sold it literally the same day for a very healthy profit. I cannot believe what prices you can get for old cars that back in my day we were almost given….
I could not count the amount of punters that turned up asking me to come and pick up XR2s, XR3s and a fair few sierras for ****all. Bought a 4x4 sierra for £150 once that only needed a clutch.
Weird thing though those Renault 5s always kept their money, personally I thought they were **** and not that fast.
Click to expand...

I'm gonna drift this thread even further...


I've got an old Bose Wave CD/Radio which gives great sound. So good that for years I ran the TV through it and binned the Soundbar I'd bought.

A few years ago it just stopped working so it got left to rot.

A couple of months ago I thought I'd try to fix it; everything seemed to function correctly except no sound came out of it. (A pretty big fail in a CD player to be fair). A quick Google and I discovered the model was notorious for having diodes that failed if they weren't warm. The suggestion? Hairdryer in the CD slot.

Works a treat. The only problem being that before each use I've got to give it a 45 second blast with the hairdryer. Works fine after that.
 
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Ernie Shackleton said:
I'm gonna drift this thread even further...


I've got an old Bose Wave CD/Radio which gives great sound. So good that for years I ran the TV through it and binned the Soundbar I'd bought.

A few years ago it just stopped working so it got left to rot.

A couple of months ago I thought I'd try to fix it; everything seemed to function correctly except no sound came out of it. (A pretty big fail in a CD player to be fair). A quick Google and I discovered the model was notorious for having diodes that failed if they weren't warm. The suggestion? Hairdryer in the CD slot.

Works a treat. The only problem being that before each use I've got to give it a 45 second blast with the hairdryer. Works fine after that.
Click to expand...

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Ernie but you & BigV go way back...
 
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Plum said:
Just spent an hour on their website, fascinating! Never knew there was such a market for old oil/petrol cans! It's always surprising what people see value in.
Click to expand...
There's a program on itv 4 called Junk and Disorderly.
The price that old Oil ,Petrol cans go for us crazy .
The old style petrol pumps and also the tin signs is even crazier
 
balkan tiger said:
Called in there last summer, the only bit open was the old shop front looking part. The room was full of their own merchandise and copy chinese tat. One worker who I'd never seen on the telly. Not impressed.
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You were extremely unlucky then, Derek is generally around when I have visited. The cars are mostly all at the Pickering site.
 
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originallambrettaman said:
On one of those classic car auction sites I mentioned earlier, just stumbled across this, previous owner a certain Assem Allam…

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Click to expand...
Passed that on the M1 once and he wasn't impressed so whizzed by me, clogged mine to pass him again and he bottled out at 110mph. :emoticon-0111-blush



The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.
 
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My brother had a 1964 Mini Cooper S. It had a ‘1’ number plate as well. **** knows what that’d be worth now.
 
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