Does anyone know this car?

[jamieduff1981]

Hi all,

I'm not sure if this is the done thing here or not so Mods please feel free to wrap my knuckles!

Does anyone here know this car? I've seen it advertised fairly recently but it's just reappeared. I'm on the look out for a good 4.5 and my wife especially is keen that it's purple!

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/4070276.htm

[jamieduff1981]

Thanks very much Paul - that's exactly what I wanted to hear!

I've been in initial contact with him, and am hoping to arrange a viewing soon. With a little luck I'll be a TVR owner soon

[jamieduff1981]

I didn't go to see it but I did speak to the seller. The problem is financial - I'm self employed and doing very well but I'd planned to save up and pay cash. When the right car appeared before I'd got all the cash in my own mits (as opposed to in the business) I thought I'd look into a loan, but I've not been self employed long enough and didn't want to tank my credit rating trying too many times!

Kinda hoping the car is still there in January when I've got the cash out!

[jamieduff1981]

I'm pleased, excited and slightly terrified to say that I put a deposit on this car yesterday to complete the sale / take delivery at the end of January. Since the advert has gone now, the car is a 1999 4.5 in Rolex Blue and Portland interior. It's done 27k and has a huge stack of receipts and mostly new ancillaries, clutch, gearbox rebuild and steering rack etc. The paint is in pretty good and the RL7s are nicely powdercoated. The interior is fair but we'll probably retrim it in a year or two. The chassis has never been done but it's fine for now. Most importantly, it's a car I can run for a while hopefully but it'll get what it needs while I have it.

[jamieduff1981]

Why thank you Sir! I'm strictly keeping this car "cash only". I don't mind spending on it, but I'm not going to let it rule my finances! (he says)

[jamieduff1981]

5 days to go, and a particularly crumby week in the way. I have the train tickets waiting at home, and I REALLY hope any snow has melted by then. It's supposed to be +6deg and raining on Saturday so fingers crossed.

Edited by jamieduff1981 on Monday 21st January 14:52

[jamieduff1981]

der1 said:

Tick tock tick tock lol

Oh you're not wrong. In the evenings at least. One advantage of being rather busy at work and having a crucial deadline in the middle is that those 9 hours per day are gone all too quickly.

I got your email by the way - I'll happily take you out in the Cerb. It's highly unlikely I'll have been anywhere near the rev limiter and/or had the pedal more than half way down, but it's still impressively quick when using nowhere near it's potential. I'll take you out again in summer once I've had a few months to get used to it and the roads have dried/warmed up a bit

[jamieduff1981]

Tomorrow!

Getting excited now. Please keep your fingers crossed that the snow stays away for me

[jamieduff1981]

We'll be crawling home!

[jamieduff1981]

That's just perfect. I need to stop in Perth on the way back up to drop in on my grandparents (don't think grandfather has long left and my conscience doesn't let me drive past).

[jamieduff1981]

Day 1 - Broke down

Slave cylinder packed in about 100 miles into the journey home. Will get a new one ordered in the morning and probably a new master too just to be sure.

[jamieduff1981]

Yep - still smiling lol. My neighbour came out to help push it into the driveway with a big silly grin on his face. Even more so when he sat in it...

I still think buying it was a good move - but then I never was very bright!

[jamieduff1981]

New slave ordered from Race Proved today and new master from Racetech. I've spoken to a local guy I used to work with yesterday and tonight about it. He's got a laminated copy of the How To and will collect the Cerb from mine at the end of the week. May have to lend a hand on Saturday but that's ok and far better than crawling around on my swamp of a driveway. I've also bought a pair of Goodyears for the front and will get those on at the same time.

Based upon the first 2 days of ownership, I can well believe my annual running costs will be a few grand, since I've spent nearly a grand since yesterday! (ok, that includes a new cover)

Edited by jamieduff1981 on Monday 28th January 19:18

[jamieduff1981]

Seriously - why do I get multiple posts every single time I post from my Android phone? It's fine from a proper PC.

[jamieduff1981]

That's all I am doing

[jamieduff1981]

It does look rather pretty after a quick polish yesterday.





My wife spent an hour or so with leather cleaner and conditioner and got about 2/3 of the dashboard and centre console cleaned up. The seats and A/B pillar trims are still pretty dirty but we'll get to those soon enough.

Gill enjoyed her brief drive prior to losing the clutch - she was speeding up just so she could back off with a big silly grin as it popped and banged. Atta girl...



And we've had a few visitors who have come to see the car and pretend to drive it...

[jamieduff1981]

Thanks chaps. I need to get a quantity of that paint for some minor touch ups prior to flatting in and machine polishing so I'm going to have to hunt around for someone who can mix it. I've got the codes from the paint code threads on here, but I tried Halfords on Sunday and they don't have that colour under the TVR code of PPG020 and BMW 284 is listed as Amythest rather than Rolex Blue. As it's been a very expensive weekend so far I decided to just leave it rather than buy it just to paint a test piece to look at the colour...

[jamieduff1981]

Alpinestars said:

Sorry to hear about the clutch. Did Russ give you the inspection report that I got done on the car? Might give you an idea of what else could need doing. Give me a shout if you want a copy.

Hi there,

Russ told me what most of the inspection points were but he didn't actually have a copy of the report to give me. If you'd be willing I'd be delighted to have a read. I expect to lift the body off at some point, but I'd like to leave it two years ideally as we really need a new kitchen and bathroom before we sell the place we're in and buy a new house. I had a look underneath briefly and the chassis looks in reasonable nick. A refurb wouldn't hurt of course...

The clutch itself (and slave seals) were done just over 1000 miles ago. Hopefully I'll get away with it or we're not going to have a lot of disposable income left until April, but we'll find out when the gearbox comes off later in the week. I'm sure there will be loads of meat left on the plates - I'm just hoping they've not been soaked in brake fluid.

[jamieduff1981]

Cool! Mine has Portland uppers with navy blue carpets and headlining. Yours?

[jamieduff1981]

Very nice. Did you change the dashboard or was it built like that? The walnut in mine looks a bit random and out of place and we were just talking about an aluminium dash and heater controls panel. Any idea where I can get them?