My cars...

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Chris x

Original Poster:

271 posts

187 months

Wednesday 7th January 2015
quotequote all
I have been a lurker on here for years. I thought it was about time I started a reader's car thread as I love reading other peoples!

Wish I started one years ago, so every car had all the photo's and information rather than the brief pictures/explanation below.

My story...

2007 age 17:
1993 1.2 Corsa B 1.2 8v - My great Aunt had it from brand new, I did a great job in trashing it!

Before:



After:




2008:
1999 1.6 16v Corsa B Sport - At the end of 2007 I had started an Engineering apprenticeship which resulted in 60 miles a day commuting. The slowness of the 1.2 8v was tiring and being unable to overtake was painful. I purchased this from a dealer not long after my 18th birthday in February. Resulting in the insurance being a bargain at £2400! frown

I had this car until 2010 and took it from 56000 miles to 94000 without a single thing going wrong with it. I had the cambelt and water pump changed as soon as I got it and serviced it my self every 12000 miles.

I fitted a GSi kit , Speedline Alessio 2's, V6 brakes, Sportex exhaust and lowered it on FK coilovers.

Someone crashed into me in 2009 which wrote it off, bought it back and someone wrote it off again in 2010 so scrapped it.

Before:



After:





Land Rover Series 3 1982 - I wanted a project car as I had finished doing the Corsa up and couldn't play with it to much as I needed it for my daily commute. I wanted a Defender but picked this Series 3 up cheap, plus the insurance was cheaper being 18 years old.

I fitted a Defender windscreen, 200TDI engine out of a Discovery 1 I bought, parabolic leaf springs, extended shackles, defender seats, power steering, soft top, defender wings, front and rear winch, defender doors and probably more.

I ended up splitting the chassis doing a jump whilst at a pay and play day. Could of repaired it but I really wanted a Defender with the coil springs so split it up for spares.

Before:



After:





2011:
MK4 Astra 1.7TD - The Corsa was written off for the 2nd time. I was coming up to my 21st birthday so the cars boy racer image was becoming a bit embarrassing! Plus 40k+ miles on a rock hard suspension was tiring! I was coming up to the end of my apprenticeship and had decided to go to uni for the final year to top my HND up to a degree. Purchased this MK4 Astra for £400 with rotten front brake lines (failed its MOT). Replaced them myself with copper, put some SXI alloys on it and run it on vegetable oil for the 6 months I was at uni for. Got bored of the slowness and age of the car so sold it on for £900. It had served its purpose.



Ford Escort XR3i - Saw this on e-bay for £300 so bought it. My Mum had one and I liked the thought of owning one myself. Ended up scrapping it after a few months as I had just bought a Land Rover Defender so couldn't realistically insure three cars at 20 whist at uni! Shame really.



Land Rover Defender - Purchased this whilst at uni to replace my split/snapped Series 3. The rear crank seal had gone so picked it up cheap, but it had just been fitted with a 200TDI engine from a discovery. Whilst driving it home the flywheel came loose. I fitted my 200TDI from my Series 3, painted it black, fitted the rear axle from the discovery that I originally bought for the Series 3 (to convert this from rear drums to disk), hard top, winch e.t.c. did it all in 10 days! (had so much time on my hands when at uni smile ). Sold it because I made about £3k on it!

Before:



After:





2012
Mk3 Mondeo Titanium X - Wanted something cheap, with lots of toys (this had bluetooth, heated and cooled seats, auto wipers/lights e.t.c). I wasn't sure how local I would find a new job so bought the TDCi version. Had it for around 8 months. The water pump went leaving me stranded but replaced it my self. Cleaned the EGR and inlet manifold, fitted a decat, factory OEM Xenon's, and resprayed the wheels (photos are before the respraying). Sold and replaced by an ST220 after a few months.




MK3 Mondeo ST220 - Loved the Mondeo but hate diesels. I had found a job 4 miles from home so the ST220 made perfect sense. Heated leather recaro's, factory fit Xenon's plus the normal ST spec. All I did to this was have it serviced (to keep the FFSH), fitted an OEM Desnso satnav and resprayed the wheels graphite grey. It was perfect for my house renovation as I bought my first place in 2013.






So on to my current 'garage':
MK1 Audi TT 225 - In 2013 I started looking at buying my own house. Come February I had viewed loads but liked nothing. Decided to give it another year so bought a MK1 TT for my girlfriend in February 2013. Its the facelift 225 version on an 04 plate with Bose, heated leather and Xenon's. It came with 12 months MOT and FASH. It had 108k miles on the clock but I know these things can go on forever. Straight away I sprayed the wheels Ford Graphite Grey as the wheels were terribly curbed. She was 19 at the time and managed to insure it for £800!

Got it home:













I had an oil change at Audi (£159) to keep up the FASH in November 2013. I mentioned that there was rust between the side skirts and wings. They replaced both side skirts, scuff plates and various fittings and had them sprayed at a total cost of £1500 under the 10 year corrosion warranty. I was well impressed.

It is now nearly on 130k miles. The service indicator came on again last month but this time round I did the plugs, pollen filter, oil, oil filter e.t.c myself. The value of the car isn't really worth taking it to main dealer and I have kept all the receipts and photos of me doing the work. I also took the sump off and cleaned the oil pick up pipe. I had 4 new Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2's fitted February last year at MOT time, meaning that the MOT is due again in the next few weeks!


Jonway 125 Chinese Scooter - The day I bought the TT, I had a call from an estate agent saying that a property had come on the market, do I want to have a look? (the plan was to leave it a year and get some nice cars -The TT to replace her Corsa C and I wanted to replace my ST with an M3!). In the end the M3 obviously didn't happen as I now have a mortgage to pay (she's going to get a buy to let this year). The ST was shocking on fuel and I would spend most of my 4 mile commute stuck in traffic. I bought this Scooter for £400 in December 12. It was 1 previous owner, however it had sat in a garage for 3 years and had covered just 100 miles. I picked it up after the owner had got it through its 1st MOT. I still have it now and it has done 6000 miles. Iv'e had to rebuild the gearbox, few wheel bearings, couple of accelerator cables but it doesn't owe me much more than £600 (including original purchase price). It does 100 MPG and guarantees me to get to work on time, whilst being loads of fun! + it was the exact same colour as my ST!



W220 Mercedes LWB S55K AMG - My baby! My Granddad bought this in 2007, he was 75. I have no idea why he bought it! It was on 37k miles when he got it, in 2010 he put it in his garage where it sat until its yearly MOT and 2 year service. It has FMBSH, has done around 1000 miles in between the last 3 services. When I got my Corsa in 2008 I was with Quinn Direct insurance. They were the only insurance company (that I know of anyway) who would let you drive TPF&T whilst under 25. He would let me drive this aged 18! - yes 500BHP, RWD at 18! I was happy! Every year I have asked to buy it off him and last May, aged 81 he said yes! Mixed emotions really as he has been battling Cancer for the past 5 years and it really has caught up with him over the past year. I wasn't sure if he thought he didn't have long left and wanted me to have it (although ££££ was exchanged for it), the fact that my girlfriend was pregnant and he thought I would have this and she'd sell the TT and have the ST, or the house renovation was complete so I couldn't trash this.

Anyway...the ST was replaced as I couldn't get her to sell the TT (bloody women!!!). So its now on 52000 miles, so I have done 2000 miles in it since May. I have taken out a service plan with Mercedes where they will service it for the next 6 years (3 services) for £75pm over 2 years. As soon as I got it required a service (well it didn't really as it had done about 20 miles since the last one), hence the service plan. I took the wheels off and resprayed them Ford Graphite Grey (same as the TT and ST), as they were corroded and curbed.




It wasn't perfect but I liked the look more than before. I hadn't really used it at all (1500 of the 2000 miles were holidays) until November when my daughter was born. Audi TT's are fking st for more than two people. The TT has isofix in the back, but the chair only fits if the front seat back is touching the dash board. So the little one goes in the front as you can turn the air bag off, leaving and adult to go in the back - im 6ft 2. Kept fking telling her that we should of kept the ST!!!

Anyway, carrying my daughter now, everything needs to be perfect. The rear tyres were microns away from the illegal limit, fronts were almost new despite doing 10000 miles, because I don't think my Granddad ever got it above 50 miles an hour. He's the slow driver that winds everyone up!

In November after having a flat front tyre that was ruined because I had driven on it, I decided to replace all 4 tyres. Apparently where the tyre seals against the alloy was badly corroded any this time round they needed doing professionally! Plus all 4 of the TPMS's were flat so it made sense to do them as well.

So 4 new Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2's - £600
4 new Huff (Huff make them for Mercedes now rather than Beru) TPMS's and valves imported from Germany - £290
4 Alloys refurbished - £350

right before Xmas!

The finished result (taken with my Canon):














Interior pics from when I first got it (Iphone 5S):











and there we have it!

So plans:
Audi - Cambelt and water pump need doing. Don't want to do that myself.
/////AMG - Dynamic seats only work for a minuet maximum then stop, need to look into/research that. Rust around the sunroof. Luckily the rear arches were done in 2008 and then again in 2009 under warranty. st really considering its not been used much, has been garaged for 7 years and 50k mileage. (W220's rust for fun!)
Scooter - Replace it with something that has gears and maybe do my bike test this month!


If you've got this far, well done! smile


y2blade

56,029 posts

214 months

Wednesday 7th January 2015
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That S55 AMG is lovely.

Bluehawk

494 posts

165 months

Wednesday 7th January 2015
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Nice collection! Some interesting choices smile

Out of curiosity, and off topic, BUT What paint did you use on the wheels you resprayed? (going to refurb a set myself shortly)

Amirhussain

11,486 posts

162 months

Wednesday 7th January 2015
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Love readers cars threads like this. The S55 is uber cool cool

crosseyedlion

2,170 posts

197 months

Wednesday 7th January 2015
quotequote all
Big fan of the Landies and that S55k is lovely, I would have kept the wheels silver though. But you enjoy it so each to their own (y)

anonymous-user

53 months

Wednesday 7th January 2015
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Muchos respect for posting pics of the god fking awful looking corsa's

The rest are really quite nice. AMG Included! biggrin

Palmers

478 posts

110 months

Wednesday 7th January 2015
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You were born the same year as me! And we both own an S55 AMG kompressor. And judging by your user name our first names are both Chris.

Coincidence... lol

I really need to do a thread like this, unfortunately i have 16 cars to sift through. Probably why i dont own a house yet.... LOL

y2blade

56,029 posts

214 months

Wednesday 7th January 2015
quotequote all
Amirhussain said:
Love readers cars threads like this.
Same here, probably my second favourite section of PH.

InfamousKeiran

697 posts

189 months

Wednesday 7th January 2015
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Good Lord that S55 is so imposing, I doubt your Daughter could waft in anything more special for the money!

TheAngryDog

12,394 posts

208 months

Wednesday 7th January 2015
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As per the other thread, fantastic car. They seem really cheap as well to buy?

Remagel2507

1,456 posts

191 months

Wednesday 7th January 2015
quotequote all
Amirhussain said:
Love readers cars threads like this. The S55 is uber cool cool
+1 always love seeing how people progress from their first cars right up to their current cars and this one is no exception. Have a Corsa myself and would love to end up in an AMG one day smile

SimesJH

768 posts

150 months

Wednesday 7th January 2015
quotequote all
I rather enjoyed reading that.

I winced when you broke your Series, though. Poor old thing.

The E55 is rather lovely. I'm biased.

BUT, after all that work you've done, WTF have you used rusty wheelnuts? Spend s few extra £ and get some nice silver ones, or just polish yours.

zedstar

1,735 posts

175 months

Wednesday 7th January 2015
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Enjoyed that read, lovely S55 AMG.

Benbay001

5,794 posts

156 months

Wednesday 7th January 2015
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That S class.
bounce

Ben Jk

1,591 posts

165 months

Wednesday 7th January 2015
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wavey

Hi Chris!

Think I've seen most of these on CS.

Love the Merc still.

s3fella

10,524 posts

186 months

Wednesday 7th January 2015
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Great looking merc, but I'd wager the best ha sling car you've had is one of them Momdeo estates! They're flipping ace steers!

james64

33 posts

113 months

Wednesday 7th January 2015
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That merc looks mega very nice

samj2014

552 posts

111 months

Wednesday 7th January 2015
quotequote all
Palmers said:
You were born the same year as me! And we both own an S55 AMG kompressor. And judging by your user name our first names are both Chris.

Coincidence... lol

I really need to do a thread like this, unfortunately i have 16 cars to sift through. Probably why i dont own a house yet.... LOL
You were both born the same year as me, and I drive a 14 year old skoda and still have no money! tongue out

jimmyt1202

211 posts

182 months

Thursday 8th January 2015
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Great history! Again, I'm the same age as you and have had 24 cars. None of my friends are really into cars like I am so it's great to read threads like this and see how other people my age have fuelled their obsession like I have!

Timbola

1,956 posts

139 months

Thursday 8th January 2015
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Good read! Thanks for posting.

Just one question about the S55; Electric seats in the rear??