Inspiration needed please....

S

soupdragon

New Member
Those of you who trawl the "spotted on ebay" section will have seen the green/red/brown P6 3500 that i have just bought.
The story goes that the seller was quite unhelpfull from the start and on the day it was collected managed to smash the n/s/f door in getting out the garden on a post.
This caused a huge row as he was blaming the recovery chap (who i have used before via shiply) who never touched the car till it got into the road.
So basically the sellers lying, the cars damaged, he changed ALL the tyres for bald ones and it's crap inside.
To add insult to injury both paypal and ebay (so much for buyer protection rules) don't want to know and i wish i hadn't bothered.
I have had some answers to my wanted advert for front wings,but now need to nearside doors (don't think the rear is any good either)...

The good bits:- the interior is savable, the underneath is superb with only 1 bit to weld inside the front arch, the brake all work and according to the recovery chap it runs fab....

Question to i carry on with it and bite the bullet or does it end it's days round the oval track.....( not my first choice) and the last bit of good news is the mrs doen't mind me having it/spending money on it.....

Advice/support and samaratans number appreciated as i'm sure you've all bought worse!!!

Cheers

Joe
 
You have a solid base unit, a saveable interior, and a V8 engine. Just needs a couple of wings, a door and some paint , for £204.

I would say you did ok.

Stick with it
 
It does sound like you've had a slightly tough time, but for the money, I think you've done well. A solid base unit is what everyone wants, and a decent interior is a huge bonus. Selling it for banger racing would be a waste really. My P6 has caused me quite a few problems, but I decided early on, that I may as well brave the storm, because, at the end of it, I'd have a really nice car. It's not anywhere near that yet, but it's a goal. Try not to get too disheartened, just tackle it one small step at a time. Worst comes to the worst, I highly doubt you'll sell it for a loss at the price you paid! Keep your eyes on ebay for panels, plenty go through every month. It won't be amazingly cheap, but this forum is a wonderful source of knowledge, and in cases, parts, that you won't get anywhere else, and you should be able to do the job for a reasonable amount. I'd say you should wait for the weather to pick up a little, and then assess the car again. If you think it'll help, do some sums, work out what you think it'll cost, and try to stick to that. I tried, and failed miserably, spending a lot more than I paid for the car on bits, and labour. If you can do everything yourself, it shouldn't be too expensive.
One way you could make yourself feel better is to go and see some cars priced at say, £1k, and examine them thoroughly. When you see how bad some of these are, you'll be spurred on with your work.
Good luck with the project and do what you can, piece by piece. :)
 
Finding a spares car with good panels an a rotten base unit shouldn't be too difficult?
 
Get yourself to Beamish in May for all the inspiration and encouragement you'll need. A solid base unit is the best starting point for a keeper. Everything else just bolts on. Have a good trawl through some of the project threads on the forum for inspiration. I spend hours doing just that and pick up something new every time. Mr Task and quattro's are particular favourites of mine but there are many more stories of cars at all stages of restoration from full strip and rebuild to just a bit of light fettling. If you want to see some serious engineering then look at sowen's P6 muscle car thread.

soupdragon said:
the mrs doen't mind me having it/spending money on it.....
Click to expand...

That's the key point right there. As long as you have that then anything is possible.

God luck

Dave
 
Hassle on purchase does rather sour one's view of a car! But as everyone else says, a decent base unit is worth its weight in gold, never mind £200 sheets! An interior and an apparent runner is a further bonus! Had it had all the panels on he could have got pushing £1,000 for that. I'd have been cross about the tyres though, even though I'd have changed them anyway on grounds of age alone.

Let's face it, you were going to have to apray it anyway, so changing a couple of doors extra prior to doing so is relatively a five minute job! You'll find that the P6 is far more of a "kit" car than any other classic and the work isentified so far is relatively minor compared to the huge amounts of welding folks on here are tackling on apparent minters!

I agree you need to recover your enthusiasm by coming to a P6 event and meeting all of us guys. Where are you located - perhaps one of us can pop round and show you how brilliant they are to use and give you an informed opinion on yours?

Chris
 
Joe, you've done well to get a car with a solid base unit for that price. You could have spent ten times that and still have the same jobs to do that you are looking at doing now.

If you're family are on side and you like the P6 in general, keep it and you'll soon start to feel the love for it.
 
Try not to be too downhearted about it Joe, as everyone says you know you have a good base unit to go forward with, something that I'm sure many of us have never been certain about even after buying a particular car. I had this 'worry' with my first P6, I'm now on my third and loving it so keep the faith, it'll be worth it once you've got the outer panels sorted out. It's great that you have support from the mrs too.... mine didn't like the 'sickly yellow barge' sitting on our drive for the first few months but got used to it in the end, especially when she realised how many bags of sand, cement and compost we could get in the boot compared to the Mini!

Good luck :wink:
Nidge
 
I would stick with it, I'd give my right arm for a solid base unit, spent £700 on a 2000TC with a years ticket off ebay, turned out to be the most rotten car I've ever seen, scrapped it last year, still looking for a good solid runner, just need to get rid of my '73 mini first.
 
Joe, keep it, if she who must be obeyed is behind you, all is well. Buy her a compressor and a night school course in spraying for her birthday, job sorted.
John.
 
Well i must say that i am impressed by all your replys and have been encouraged to say the least and today have been to see various classic car mates and have sorted the following

1) found an advert on google and have managed to buy 3 doors,wings back and front although only 1 front wing (have sourced another pair) and am off to norfolk tommorow to collect.
2) offered a spray booth to paint it.
3) a mate who runs a tyre centre is going to do me budget tyres at cost plus vat
4) have a mate whose a dab hand with a connoly kit and can uholstery repairs done local.

The idea is to panel it up despite the colurs and make it roadworthy now for the summer and first thing is to get it in the lock up and out the rain and work will start as soon as the weather improves

So thanks to you all and will post a restoration thread as soon as i have accumalated some photo's and have some progress to report.

Got to think of a suitable name for it, did think Christine but this one 'aint gonna fix it itself!!

:D

P.S took great delight in telling 2 people who phoned up today from an advert i'd placed on another site who wanted to banger it, that it was sold....
 
A name. Mmmmmm. Rising from the dead. Phoenix maybe. Have fun with your car we have all had the odd problems but when it's on the road their really is no better feeling than starting her up hearing that engine burst into life and then away you go. Good luck with it and don't forget this forum is a fantastic source of information and advice. Hope to see you at one of the shows
 
christine well thats the name of mine and i would love mine to fix her self but fat chance in that lol
 
christine well thats the name of mine and i would love mine to fix her self but fat chance in that lol
Click to expand...

dont give up... give yourself a little break from it and you'll see that it's easier than you think at the moment...


Rich
 
Actually now i'm on the trail of bits i'm all fired up if anything so def won't be giving it a rest....... thanks chaps.
 
Hi im glad your starting to enjoy your car , my car was the other way round looked great to look at but was hiding lots off rust in the tub, and poor wiring ,brakes gearbox and loads more ive been on with it for 1 and half yrs now and i must say ive enjoyed every minute of it, and im getting there now and im more attached to the car now than ever even thou she pushes her luck sometimes. there lovely cars to work on and very rewarding.
so just to add enjoy your car and i wish you good luck
marcus :D
 
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