Free Mazda 6 car from a very generous PH'er
Discussion
Hi all
A very long story cut short, through some nonsense with an insurance company and some terrible luck, my brother is currently car less and money-less! With a wife and two kids and a 30 mile cross country commute, this has proved to be somewhat of a pain. Step in a PH'er who I won't name here unless he pipes up to say hello, who after exchanging emails with me privately, offered up his wife's no longer needed Mazda 6. It was described to me as mechanically sound, but cosmetically terrible on account of the owners living in the middle of the countryside down some very narrow country lanes.
After a bit of a mission on the trains found me meeting up with a very nice gentlemen, who handed the car over with a wedge full of history. It's a 2.0l petrol, 104k miles, with a Mazda history up until 80k. It had failed its MoT on some welding and two tyres, and the PH'er in question decided it was time for a replacement, his wife liked this so much, she has another Mazda 6!!
So, here it is as it stands today:-
It parted with it's numberplate on the owners driveway, but i didn't notice!
I had a good crawl under the car this morning in the daylight and found the suspect weldiing which failed the MoT. I have a very good odd-job welding man who will have this sorted in a couple of hours for very little outlay.
So, the plan is to get the two tyres sorted and the welding, and get a new MoT on it. Then my brother will press it into service straight away as his daily. When the weather is right, he will set to work on the body work, and I of course will update accordingly. The challenge with this car is to get it running as cheap as possible, my brother is stuck waiting for a payout from a foreign insurer, so far costs stands at £0 thanks to the aforementioned generosity, but rough target costs to get this on the road:-
Welding - £100 ish
Plate (ordered) - £6.20
Tyres (have one spare in the garage) - £40
MoT Fee - £35
I'll be back when the welding is done and let's hope my MoT tester feels the same as the one 200 miles away who tested it last week.
A very long story cut short, through some nonsense with an insurance company and some terrible luck, my brother is currently car less and money-less! With a wife and two kids and a 30 mile cross country commute, this has proved to be somewhat of a pain. Step in a PH'er who I won't name here unless he pipes up to say hello, who after exchanging emails with me privately, offered up his wife's no longer needed Mazda 6. It was described to me as mechanically sound, but cosmetically terrible on account of the owners living in the middle of the countryside down some very narrow country lanes.
After a bit of a mission on the trains found me meeting up with a very nice gentlemen, who handed the car over with a wedge full of history. It's a 2.0l petrol, 104k miles, with a Mazda history up until 80k. It had failed its MoT on some welding and two tyres, and the PH'er in question decided it was time for a replacement, his wife liked this so much, she has another Mazda 6!!
So, here it is as it stands today:-
It parted with it's numberplate on the owners driveway, but i didn't notice!
I had a good crawl under the car this morning in the daylight and found the suspect weldiing which failed the MoT. I have a very good odd-job welding man who will have this sorted in a couple of hours for very little outlay.
So, the plan is to get the two tyres sorted and the welding, and get a new MoT on it. Then my brother will press it into service straight away as his daily. When the weather is right, he will set to work on the body work, and I of course will update accordingly. The challenge with this car is to get it running as cheap as possible, my brother is stuck waiting for a payout from a foreign insurer, so far costs stands at £0 thanks to the aforementioned generosity, but rough target costs to get this on the road:-
Welding - £100 ish
Plate (ordered) - £6.20
Tyres (have one spare in the garage) - £40
MoT Fee - £35
I'll be back when the welding is done and let's hope my MoT tester feels the same as the one 200 miles away who tested it last week.
Edited by eltax91 on Thursday 8th December 16:15
Bill said:
It's a wreck! I've shown Mrs Bill this and she's mortified at the state of it. Glad it's going to live on and in all honesty the hassle and logistics of getting rid of it mean you did us a favour. 
Thanks once again bill. It was a pleasure to have met you. Glad it's going to live on and in all honesty the hassle and logistics of getting rid of it mean you did us a favour. As others have said, a shed vs the bus is no contest, ill put some more pictures up as it improves and mrs bill can get less horrified.
P.s. Tell her I hope the mince pies turned out ok.
Vitorio said:
Kringle said:
The rust on these is shocking. Mine is just eating itself all over. The rear arches fold under at 90 degrees and habe the arch liners pressed up against them which makes the perfect resting place for crud. What adds to the problem is the liners being made from a flock material which is probably the worst material possible. They may as well have made it from sponge! At least the sound proofing would have been better.
My dad has a 6 of this vintage, hope his doesnt do this.lesstatt said:
That's a very nice thing to do indeed well done, might I suggest that when it is truly dead and possibly scrap that your brother "pays it forward" and gives the money the scrap man gives him for it to a charity of his choice.
He kind of already is. We've both been brought up to believe in karma. I said in my OP it was a long story, but that story culminates in him currently in possession of a very broken zafira. His currently plan is to strip that, make as much cash as he can, and then, after paying me back for the costs of putting the Mazda back on the road, hand the remainder over to charity (help for heroes most likely). He sees it as exchanging a broken car with 5 months ticket for one with 12 months that more suits his needs.
Ultimately, by the time the next MoT is due on this car, he should have finally finished the legal wranglings with the German lorry driver that left him in this situation in the first place. Assuming he has, then he'll have a newer car on the drive on account of finally being paid out and this one may well love on with someone else. Who knows.
Kringle said:
The rust on these is shocking. Mine is just eating itself all over. The rear arches fold under at 90 degrees and habe the arch liners pressed up against them which makes the perfect resting place for crud. What adds to the problem is the liners being made from a flock material which is probably the worst material possible. They may as well have made it from sponge! At least the sound proofing would have been better.
OP, is it just my 6 or do the doors feel suspiciously light and tinny to you?
Congratulations on a free car, even bigger congratulations on knowing someone who can weld. Mine will need such a friend shortly...
On the doors front, I agree with you. It feels a little like someone has been in there and taken all the deadening out. I have a 55 plate 6 some time ago, it was the same. OP, is it just my 6 or do the doors feel suspiciously light and tinny to you?
Congratulations on a free car, even bigger congratulations on knowing someone who can weld. Mine will need such a friend shortly...
pits said:
eltax91 said:
That said, this is cool as poo, good bit of barge and for less than a few hundred on the road, can't fault it at all
Bill said:
eltax91 said:
Thanks once again bill. It was a pleasure to have met you.
As others have said, a shed vs the bus is no contest, ill put some more pictures up as it improves and mrs bill can get less horrified.
P.s. Tell her I hope the mince pies turned out ok.
The mince pies were great, thanks. As others have said, a shed vs the bus is no contest, ill put some more pictures up as it improves and mrs bill can get less horrified.
P.s. Tell her I hope the mince pies turned out ok.
That gouge on the bonnet happened just as it is. She was following a trailer loaded with hay when it stopped. She was about a car length back so had time to react when he went into reverse to back into the farm yard on the right.
She panicked a bit and couldn't find reverse so slammed it into first and pulled forward to the left into the verge. So the wing almost slipped under one corner of the trailer.
The farmer heard all the hooting from in his cow shed but unfortunately the farmhand driving the tractor had music in at full volume.
By way of an update. Welding booked for Tuesday, tyres Wednesday morning and MoT Wednesday afternoon. The plate is 'supposed' to arrive before Tuesday. If it doesn't, then I guess I'm putting back the MoT or letting it fail (to make sure this MoT man doesn't pick on something else) and retesting when the plate arrives.
So, Dom the (Landy) welding man got to work on this beast today.
Up on sticks
He made me get my hands dirty taking the front wheels off whilst he started to cut back the rust
Then he showed me what a real man he is, with his heath-robinson tyre changing set up, consisting of a self-fabricated upright, an air ram and a couple of tyre irons. Dom is a co-driver for a land rover eventing type and a proper landy beard, he has this for the MANY tyre changes he goes through.
I had a spare tyre in the garage to fit and bought a 6mm bridgestone this morning from a guy on eBay. So yes, PH, this car is being fitted with PART WORN tyres, and you know what, i didn't die in a ball of flames on the way home!
Next up was the cutting out of the old metal, the second picture is the nasty looking offside cill
And all plated up and under sealed
So, just the MoT to go tomorrow. Total costs so far:-
£6.20 - plate
£120 - Dom the mad welding man
£25 - part worn tyre
£35 - MoT fee
£186.20 - Grand Total. Fingers crossed the MoT man is full of christmas spirit, and my kid brother is back on the road soon.
Up on sticks
He made me get my hands dirty taking the front wheels off whilst he started to cut back the rust
Then he showed me what a real man he is, with his heath-robinson tyre changing set up, consisting of a self-fabricated upright, an air ram and a couple of tyre irons.
Dom is a co-driver for a land rover eventing type and a proper landy beard, he has this for the MANY tyre changes he goes through.I had a spare tyre in the garage to fit and bought a 6mm bridgestone this morning from a guy on eBay. So yes, PH, this car is being fitted with PART WORN tyres, and you know what, i didn't die in a ball of flames on the way home!
Next up was the cutting out of the old metal, the second picture is the nasty looking offside cill
And all plated up and under sealed
So, just the MoT to go tomorrow. Total costs so far:-
£6.20 - plate
£120 - Dom the mad welding man
£25 - part worn tyre
£35 - MoT fee
£186.20 - Grand Total. Fingers crossed the MoT man is full of christmas spirit, and my kid brother is back on the road soon.
Monkeylegend said:
Bill said:
Monkeylegend said:
Shaw Tarse said:
Looking better already.
I don't think Bill knows what a clean car is
He does now.I don't think Bill knows what a clean car is
Monkeylegend said:
You hope. Good luck with the MOT
That's what I was (badly) saying. He doesn't want it until its been through one. HaA general question, should one give the MoT man bills fail sheet in a kind of 'look I've fixed it' way, or is mr MoT man gonna be pissed off with me for telling him his job?
I really don't want it to fail on something that's a fail in his opinion but not in the other guys'
What's the general opinion?
Bit of an update here.
The car is performing excellently. It had a bit of a wobble last week whereby once warm it would cut out at traffic lights and junctions unless you kept the revs up. Tested my brothers heel and toe capabilities for sure.
After a bit of research we discovered one or two issues that can manifest itself in this way, and as he needed it for work Monday, we chucked plugs, leads and an air filter at it. Also did the oil and filter whilst it was in the air.
Then I casually checked the last possible culprit which is the throttle body. It was very gummed up in there, so whipped it off and gave it a good degrease and clean. Car is now running sweet again.
Brother has also treated it to discs and pads all round as it was getting desperate. So parts spend now almost double what was spent to get the car on the road.
My brother does an annual family trip away at Easter, from Notts to some 600 miles away in Ullapool, NW Scotland. Normally he takes my Accord tourer on account of the space it affords and I get left with whatever nail he's driving at the time for the week.
This year, he's searching out some cheap bars and a roof box and taking his own car. A real leap forward.
The car is performing excellently. It had a bit of a wobble last week whereby once warm it would cut out at traffic lights and junctions unless you kept the revs up. Tested my brothers heel and toe capabilities for sure.
After a bit of research we discovered one or two issues that can manifest itself in this way, and as he needed it for work Monday, we chucked plugs, leads and an air filter at it. Also did the oil and filter whilst it was in the air.
Then I casually checked the last possible culprit which is the throttle body. It was very gummed up in there, so whipped it off and gave it a good degrease and clean. Car is now running sweet again.
Brother has also treated it to discs and pads all round as it was getting desperate. So parts spend now almost double what was spent to get the car on the road.
My brother does an annual family trip away at Easter, from Notts to some 600 miles away in Ullapool, NW Scotland. Normally he takes my Accord tourer on account of the space it affords and I get left with whatever nail he's driving at the time for the week.
This year, he's searching out some cheap bars and a roof box and taking his own car. A real leap forward.
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