Hello. New owner here.

[Nefarious]

I know I've already posted twice in this forum, so I'm not strictly a newbie. Neither am I a newbie to Pistonheads, as I've lurked and occasionally posted over a good few years (my profile still says London, even though I moved out over 5 years ago!). Neither am I, strictly speaking, a new owner yet, as the car doesn't arrive until day after tomorrow. But hey, work's quiet this afternoon and I've got serious itchy feet waiting for the car so I thought I'd post to say hello.

I believe the car is known to you guys, as it was previously owned by GazzaB (I think) - blue/purple 4.5. I've had the best test drive imaginable, as my friend Derek (DkennedyVXT) was kind enough to let me share the drive (both on and off track) on a trip to the ring a few weeks ago. I fell in love and made him an offer on our way home - now that's how to sell a car!!

List of jobs over the weekend include:
Sorting a paint match and painting and re-fitting a missing headlight surround
Installing my shiney new Optima battery
Cleaning and conditioning the leather

Other soon to be done jobs are:
Replacing the big fuse with a 120amp audio-spec one (like in Southendpier's photos on the other thread)
Repurposing some of my old audio gear to fit a small sub in the helmet hole (not that I'm that into big audio installs, I just want to occasionally hear the thing)
Full respray (after the winter) and full leather re-tan (got a mate of a mate, y'see)

I'm sure I'll be pestering you all with problems (hopefully not too many) and hare-brained ideas over the coming months...

[Dev255]

Good luck with the new car, I'm now green.

When you clean and condition the leather, make sure you don't park under any dead poplar tree's as I did, doh!!! (take a look at my post)

[Nefarious]

Yeah, saw the news of your unfortunate incident. My folks are currently embroiled in a legal battle with their neighbours after a similar incident with a 90ft coming down over their summerhouse and pool enclosure. At least it seems that your/you neighbours insurance are doing the right thing.

Hope you're not out of the fold too long!

[julian64]

Nefarious said:

I'm sure I'll be pestering you all with problems (hopefully not too many) and hare-brained ideas over the coming months...

If you are intent on hare-brained, may one suggest this

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Electric-Supercharger-Turbo-...

Welcome, by the way.

[Nefarious]

I said hare-brained, not stupid

At least most of my schemes have half a chance of working for five minutes (before killing everyone concerned in a horrible fiery deathball) - see jet-powered turbo idea that I will probably end up recounting at some point.

Edited by Nefarious on Wednesday 26th September 16:00

[julian64]

Nefarious said:

I said hare-brained, not stupid

At least most of my schemes have half a chance of working for five minutes (before killing everyone concerned in a horrible fiery deathball) - see jet-powered turbo idea that I will probably end up recounting at some point.

Edited by Nefarious on Wednesday 26th September 16:00

Interestingly nothing wrong with a jet powered turbo idea. Some very powerful model jet engines that would do just nicely. I was messing about with some sketches last year. The idea of having one tank full of petrol and another full of diesel in the same car was a bit odd though.

Or possibly even the stepper motor powered aerofoil for the back of the car. Now theres an idea I had worth shelving.

[JensenA]

Nefarious said:

.............I believe the car is known to you guys, as it was previously owned by GazzaB (I think) - blue/purple 4.5. I've had the best test drive imaginable, as my friend Derek (DkennedyVXT) was kind enough to let me share the drive (both on and off track) on a trip to the ring a few weeks ago. I fell in love and made him an offer on our way home - now that's how to sell a car!!...

Thats a dead cute story, this Derek must be a nice guy, but what did you think of the car ?

[Mr M]

Good luck with your new Cerbie. I've found that I never bother with the audio at all, plus the Kenwood CD can never sit still for more than 2 minutes without jumping.

[southendpier]

wotcha,

retanning the leather, there's a thought...what, who, where and how many dollar for mere mortals without knowing a man who can

also after the respray are you going to put a protective film over the front? was reading a few adds in evo, seems like neat idea.

[dkennedyvxt]

Only 1 more day to gaze at the beauty before i hand her over after only 5 months of ownership......obviously if the judge had let me keep the licence i'd never have sold but it's pointless having the car sitting on the street for 6 months till I serve out my ban......and basically I don't trust myself not to succum to temptation

I WILL be back to Cerbera ownership before too long as in terms of pure smile factor it's the best car i've owned.

[morebeanz]

southendpier said:

wotcha,

retanning the leather, there's a thought...what, who, where and how many dollar for mere mortals without knowing a man who can

also after the respray are you going to put a protective film over the front? was reading a few adds in evo, seems like neat idea.

The last time we all talked about protective films, I recall the balance of opinion being that a front end respray was about the same cost as the film, and that they probably had about the same lifespan.

Of course, if you have one of those fancy cascade jobs, the economics are probably a little different!

And to the OP, Welcome to the madhouse!

[Gazzab]

dkennedyvxt said:

Only 1 more day to gaze at the beauty before i hand her over after only 5 months of ownership......obviously if the judge had let me keep the licence i'd never have sold but it's pointless having the car sitting on the street for 6 months till I serve out my ban......and basically I don't trust myself not to succum to temptation

I WILL be back to Cerbera ownership before too long as in terms of pure smile factor it's the best car i've owned.

Derek - nooooo!!! Sorry to hear you have sold her on already! Hope you didnt make a profit! Glad I didnt know it was avail - I might well have tried to buy it back! Did you get caught in the Cerb?

[Gazzab]

Nefarious said:

stuff

Congrats on buying my old car! Previously owned by Beemer. By the way it isnt full leather and so only bits of the seats need 'leather' treatment.

[Nefarious]

southendpier said:

retanning the leather, there's a thought...what, who, where and how many dollar for mere mortals without knowing a man who can

The chap is called Steve Merit, and he's based in Warrington. From memory, his website is www.leathercaredirect.com (might be a variant on that).
I think the "full" process he does is called reconolisation (although, again, I might have got that wrong). It's basically removing the plasticised coat on the top of the leather, making sure the pigments is completely even and re-coating it. If there are any really deep cracks, they use a filler, but the *vast* majority of the cracks you see on leather are there because the plasticised coat is less flexible than the leather underneath, which in turn is less flexible than the foam of the seat.
I think the price on a normal 4 seat car is about £350, which IMO isn't bad considering most of the interior has to be removed.
A friend had it done on his 10 year old M3 GT, and the results were superior IMO to the full retrim he had done on his Schnitzer with exactly the same seats.

To everyone else, thanks for the kind welcome...

[dkennedyvxt]

Gazzab said:

dkennedyvxt said:

Only 1 more day to gaze at the beauty before i hand her over after only 5 months of ownership......obviously if the judge had let me keep the licence i'd never have sold but it's pointless having the car sitting on the street for 6 months till I serve out my ban......and basically I don't trust myself not to succum to temptation

I WILL be back to Cerbera ownership before too long as in terms of pure smile factor it's the best car i've owned.

Derek - nooooo!!! Sorry to hear you have sold her on already! Hope you didnt make a profit! Glad I didnt know it was avail - I might well have tried to buy it back! Did you get caught in the Cerb?

Hi mate...yes.....day I bought the car from you on the way home...in dire need to answer the call of nature....quick squirt to overtake for .46 of a mile in a 40 that was previously a 60 and unfortunately there was a cop car behind. Dragged it out as long as i could before the 6 points were awarded and the ban came into effect.

Don;t worry...didn't make a profit...I think Neil got a good price for her considering the recent trip to Track Car for the special Joo treatment. Neil is a mate who lives about 1/4 mile from me so i'll be going for regular passenger rides until i get my licence back......when i'll be buying another Cerbera or the Exige i've always wanted...however I have to say the Cerb wins every time at the moment as it's handling and power were just fantastic.

[Nefarious]

Hey Derek
See you tomorrow!! (not that I'm like a toddler on Christmas eve or anything)

[dkennedyvxt]

Nefarious said:

Hey Derek
See you tomorrow!! (not that I'm like a toddler on Christmas eve or anything)

Look forward to the daily passenger rides mate and hearing the car start from my place