£400 Gold MGF, it's not all I want, but is it all I need?
Discussion
So i spotted an MGF local to me, suspension sagged on one side, very few miles in the last couple of year, 64k all in and clean MOT passes, seemed like an enthusiast owner, bit of work done. £400. I took a bet that I could pump up the suspension and punt it on after the summer.
I went and had a look, the paintwork was very tired, but the owner had a Aston Vantage volante on the drive, and he'd done the head gasket and various other bits, so I thought it worth a gamble.
I took along a mate who had borrowed a trailer and spent £60 on a fluid pump for the suspension, and with the seller looking on, pumped it up and drove it on to the trailer. I was confident that I could have driven it home, but with no MOT and a mate happy to drag it home, why bother?
In the boot was a spare headlight, lashed that straight on ebay, £70. Now owes me £330.
Decided I wanted a more modern stereo, so bought something from ebay that doesn android auto and it's plenty good enough.£35.
Sold old Blaupunkt MG head unit for £65.
Car owes me £265 and it drives great. I actually prefer it to the MX5 ND2 i had - suspect due to that being a 1.6. The K series sounds pretty good, there's a sports exhaust fitted, which I am sure helps.
It needed an MOT, which I think helped with the low price, but as it hadn't been far and has been mostly looked after, i though it would be ok, sent it off and it failed on poor rear handbrake, with advisories on underneath corrosion....that's where the work began ( nothing horrendous, all works out)
I went and had a look, the paintwork was very tired, but the owner had a Aston Vantage volante on the drive, and he'd done the head gasket and various other bits, so I thought it worth a gamble.
I took along a mate who had borrowed a trailer and spent £60 on a fluid pump for the suspension, and with the seller looking on, pumped it up and drove it on to the trailer. I was confident that I could have driven it home, but with no MOT and a mate happy to drag it home, why bother?
In the boot was a spare headlight, lashed that straight on ebay, £70. Now owes me £330.
Decided I wanted a more modern stereo, so bought something from ebay that doesn android auto and it's plenty good enough.£35.
Sold old Blaupunkt MG head unit for £65.
Car owes me £265 and it drives great. I actually prefer it to the MX5 ND2 i had - suspect due to that being a 1.6. The K series sounds pretty good, there's a sports exhaust fitted, which I am sure helps.
It needed an MOT, which I think helped with the low price, but as it hadn't been far and has been mostly looked after, i though it would be ok, sent it off and it failed on poor rear handbrake, with advisories on underneath corrosion....that's where the work began ( nothing horrendous, all works out)
So the suspension held up for a couple of weeks, but then slowly begun to sink on the driver's side. There's two pipes that connect the front suspension unit to the rear one and the union between them looked a touch ropey, so I bought a full set of used pipes off ebay and replaced them. Not an especially tough task, and now the suspension stays up.
Lots of the paintwork was quite faded, so i set about trying to cut it back with some wet and dry, then bringing it back to a shine with the polisher.
And after, not a perfect job, but a good start.
Next step was to take of the Lexus style lights, I think the originals were much nicer, so off to ebay and I managed to do the swap at no extra cost. I also picked up a hard top for £75. It's silver, but a quick respray to black should look good I reckon.
I live in fairly rural Kent, the lanes around here are tiny, anything faster than this heap would be frustrating I reckon as you'd never be able to fully stretch it's legs. So I think I have decided to stick with it, despite the colour, and slowly do the things that could do with being replaced.
The list of jobs isn't too long, so I'll get these done and just enjoy it for what it is.
New discs (as noted above they are pretty rusty)
Replace the steel coolant pipes with stainless ones.
Rust proof the rear subframe.
Cambelt change - I don't know when it was last done.
It probably needs tyres as the current ones are a touch old.
I've already coated the front subframe and changed the plugs and there's fuel and oil filters ready to go when it cools down.
Lots of the paintwork was quite faded, so i set about trying to cut it back with some wet and dry, then bringing it back to a shine with the polisher.
And after, not a perfect job, but a good start.
Next step was to take of the Lexus style lights, I think the originals were much nicer, so off to ebay and I managed to do the swap at no extra cost. I also picked up a hard top for £75. It's silver, but a quick respray to black should look good I reckon.
I live in fairly rural Kent, the lanes around here are tiny, anything faster than this heap would be frustrating I reckon as you'd never be able to fully stretch it's legs. So I think I have decided to stick with it, despite the colour, and slowly do the things that could do with being replaced.
The list of jobs isn't too long, so I'll get these done and just enjoy it for what it is.
New discs (as noted above they are pretty rusty)
Replace the steel coolant pipes with stainless ones.
Rust proof the rear subframe.
Cambelt change - I don't know when it was last done.
It probably needs tyres as the current ones are a touch old.
I've already coated the front subframe and changed the plugs and there's fuel and oil filters ready to go when it cools down.
I had one like that but it also had a gold coloured hardtop... so I nicknamed it the Golden Dildo. It was obviously an impressive vehicle because some chav booted a football at it (it had a muddy football pattern on the rear window when I had parked up near a playing field; the window was facing away from the pitch so no chance it was an accident). Imagine being envious of someone who has a £200 car.
Anyway, the suspension was half full so it felt so good to drive round corners, and sometimes I'd go round a roundabout twice... although that was before the roads got so potholed.
Before putting more work into it, I'd check to see what might go - one day just before joining a motorway, my clutch pedal went straight to the floor and stopped moving - the bulkhead was so rusty that the pressure of changing gear had pushed the housing through. This was because water was leaking through to that area when it rained.
Still, it was a lot of fun while it lasted.
Anyway, the suspension was half full so it felt so good to drive round corners, and sometimes I'd go round a roundabout twice... although that was before the roads got so potholed.
Before putting more work into it, I'd check to see what might go - one day just before joining a motorway, my clutch pedal went straight to the floor and stopped moving - the bulkhead was so rusty that the pressure of changing gear had pushed the housing through. This was because water was leaking through to that area when it rained.
Still, it was a lot of fun while it lasted.
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