del
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Posts: 1
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Post by del on Jul 24, 2019 21:29:41 GMT 1
Please can you help I am about to buy my first standard 10 ? Can anyone give me any guidelines of what to look for on the car. Thanks Del Car Reg (YKP950)
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Post by Eternal Optimist on Jul 24, 2019 22:42:24 GMT 1
Rust. Have a look at the build threads on here to see where to look. If it looks shiny be very suspicious and look for filler. The cars are not worth as much as others, and so they’re often bodged.
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Post by marshman on Jul 25, 2019 12:41:28 GMT 1
I would VERY STRONGLY ADVISE that you insist that the car is taken for an MoT. This car has not had an MoT since 2013. Yes it is MoT exempt BUT if you are unsure of what you are buying then an MoT (cost £54.85 maximum) will at least give you some reassurance it is structurally sound and the brakes work, If the seller is not prepared t do this walk away.
As EO says check for rust - mechanical stuff is not too bad to sort on 1950's 8/10 cars. Main areas to look closely at are the sills - inner and outer and the edges of the floor pans where they join the sill (front corners of the front footwells and also rear footwells. Check underneath that all box sextions are in tact and preferable the original jacking points are still there. The other area that rots is the extreme rear of the sills in front of the rear wheel and the wheel arches above the rear wheel (not the exterior panel but the bit inside the wheel arch.) you can see the top of the wheel arch either side inside the boot. Any rot here is bad news as it is time consuming to fix properly.
Have a good look at the rear springs and look for any broken leafs, they tend to snap just in front of the axle. Check for excessive play in the steering. As I said this car has not had an MoT for the best part of 6 years and the law says even if it is exempt it must be roadworthy and if it is roadworthy it should pass an MoT so the seller should get it MoT'd as part of any deal.
Roger
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Post by webmaster on Jul 25, 2019 13:23:41 GMT 1
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Post by Eternal Optimist on Jul 25, 2019 13:27:18 GMT 1
That’s a great point.....I was assuming the OP was looking at buying a project car.
Whatever the law might say about MoT exemption, there’s absolutely no way I’d buy an exempt car that didn’t have a certificate unless I’d gone over it with a fine toothed comb to know what I was buying and then got it for a stupidly low price.
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Post by Eternal Optimist on Jul 25, 2019 13:27:52 GMT 1
I don’t think the link works
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Post by marshman on Jul 25, 2019 14:18:14 GMT 1
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Post by marshman on Jul 25, 2019 14:25:26 GMT 1
That’s a great point.....I was assuming the OP was looking at buying a project car. Whatever the law might say about MoT exemption, there’s absolutely no way I’d buy an exempt car that didn’t have a certificate unless I’d gone over it with a fine toothed comb to know what I was buying and then got it for a stupidly low price. Totally agree, I wasn't sure but as the reg no. was provided I decided to look at the car history. Pretty clean up to 2013 then nothing. I would like to think that anyone looking at a project would have a good idea what they are looking at - most project cars are the same - four wheels, four flat tyres, no brakes, seized engine and rust - lots n lots of rust
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Post by petefoster on Jul 26, 2019 14:14:53 GMT 1
I think I remember this car, it was one of the fairly rare Family 10 models which had the 8 bodyshell (no opening rear boot). It was owned locally to me by a chap who had owned it for many years, originally from Kent,I think it had a fully overhauled engine when I knew him after he moved up here. I think he sold it on e bay about 15 years ago & it ended up in Manchester. I haven't seen it for many years but it was a very tidy original car back then, obviously its condition now depends how it has been looked after over the intervening years!
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Post by IceCube! on Jul 27, 2019 16:31:42 GMT 1
Yes it is MoT exempt BUT if you are unsure of what you are buying then an MoT (cost £54.85 maximum) will at least give you some reassurance it is structurally sound and the brakes work Just a quick note, don’t depend on an MOT to tell you the quality of a car. When I brought mine I got it MOT’d as a it’ll give me a list of things to fix kind of deal, and it only had about 5 failures which I sort of knew about. The MOT tester had a list of problems for me though as I told him my reasoning behind getting it MOT’d but he couldn’t fail these things because they weren’t part of the MOT, the talking to was about 25 minutes vs the small MOT requirement list. Example could be ‘structurally sound’, the MOT tester noticed the holes in the floor and couldn’t fail it because they aren’t structural... I knew about them but he told me because I told him I was looking for problems to compile a list. Brakes, they just need to be able to stop the car and be equal... hence a master cylinder leak may not be picked up. If your looking for a second opinion don’t ask for an MOT, take the car to a garage and ask for an inspection of the entire car top to bottom as then like me you’ll get a list which aren’t failures but are major problems with the car. Then once you get the car going check the little things, an example of something I over looked on my car is the split pins that go into the brake and clutch pedals... on mine they weren’t there and the main pin came loose and I lost my brakes and had to use the handbrake. Luckily it was on a hill so I noticed in time and used the handbrake. It took an entire month to show itself though. Then even once you have the car it’s old, it going to burn holes in your wallet... I’ve had mine about 2 years... for the first year it was constantly braking and constantly being repaired. Even if that’s brake cylinders all round, brake shoes as their contaminated with fluid. The voltage regulator packing in, hose clamps giving up with age, engine blowing up, leaking windscreens, exhaust falling off, mirrors deciding their pas it and turning into wind mills, chrome trim falling off, windows coming off runners, door seals leaking, clutch slave dying, speedo stops working, fuel gauge and sender dying a combined death, starter getting jammed, distributer vacuum dying, dip switch dying, starter pull seizing (could use hand crank), heater leaking, radiator leaking, gearbox leaking, water pump failing, brake lines breaking (whilst being undone)... and that’s just the stuff off the top of my head. Unless you buy a car to restore from the ground up, expect it the break. My car is my daily driver, so all the problems caused major head aches and a car being off the road for the first year longer than it was actually on the road.
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Post by standardthread on Jul 27, 2019 20:20:27 GMT 1
From past experiences unless you know and can trace the history of a car and can trace and talk to previous owners’, or going to carry out a total chassis up restoration I would be very cautious unless the price was right.
Owners on this forum have highlighted issues relating to their cars because non standard replacement parts have been used for repairs, we have had ours issues too with our cars. This leads to future problems of finding suitable parts to repair them, not to mention identifying the replacement part.
The reality is, rust, yes. Component wear, yes. Age, most certainly, so expect problems. Take someone with you who intimately knows potential issues and don’t just rely on an MOT. These cars mechanically trace their history back decades and are very robust and can be repaired.
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Post by marshman on Jul 29, 2019 9:42:25 GMT 1
I don't disagree with any of the comments on here. My comment about the MoT was purely based on the fact that the car being discussed hadn't been MoT'd since 2013 and as a bare minimum I would expect any car being sold as a running car for use on the road to have an MoT. As has been pointed out it is no guarantee but it does at least show the car was legally roadworthy on the date of the test. As we all know, or should know, the MoT is NOT a service, doesn't prove any thing about the condition of the engine, gearbox, etc other than the car will move under its own power, is not smoking excessively and is not literally hemeraging oil! It won't point out all the rust only the structural bits but it is a good starting point. The problem is everyone has a different level of understanding of cars from the novice who only knows how to drive a car, right up to the "expert" who can restore a rusty heap in their sleep and everyone in between. There is also the question of what the buyer wants. Do they want a nice weekend classic they can just get in, drive to shows and enjoy? or do they want a project?, or something in between? I am happy to buy a pile of rust if the price is right and feel I have enough experience to assess most vehicles. The problems come when someone with little in the way of practical skills buys a classic car just to use at weekends and because it is MoT exempt & is nice and shiny (with may be a few innocent rust blisters under the paint) assumes it is safe and needs no further work. Anyone who has done any bodywork on a car knows that bubbles of rust under shiny paint is bad, bad news and is rarely if ever "just a bit of surface rust", but other people can be blissfully ignorant. The same comes to brakes, who can tell the difference between a car that "just has a bit of air in the brakes and needs a bleed" and a car where the brake hoses are so far gone they bulge when the peddle is pressed - that latter is not easy to assess on your own. I could go on. The real problems start when someone who just wants a nice weekend classic buys a car and it turns into a money pit - garage bills mount and if you don't have the skill set then the temptation soon develops to cut corners, save money and DIY - even though you don't really know what you are doing. Not sure what the answer is but as always the golden rule of "Caveat Emptor" applies The ideal person to take to look at any car is someone who is a) a good friend who will tell the whole truth about the car! and b) who has done a total rebuild/restoration or at least has owned one and done a lot of work on one so will know the car and all its good and bad points intimately. Every car is different and has its own weak points and in my opinion a "generic" inspection, whilst better than nothing can often be no better than an MoT
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Post by Eternal Optimist on Jul 29, 2019 11:47:35 GMT 1
I wonder if the OP ever intends to let us know what he decides/d to do.
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