how to tell the wife?

[Xcore]

Not a bad price As tin tops seem more popular then moon roofs and webastos.
Are you planning on running it daily?! I don’t think I could adjust to the horrific sluggishness of a 4spd no o/d and the manual brakes although that should have o/d and a servo.

[BJWoods]

for a budget of £2500 - you could have a pick of a load of Minis, under 90k miles, lots more fun to drive, looks modern, and no other half would feel silly in it.

ie.

MINI Hatch Cooper Mini 1.6 3dr
FSH Long MOT Low Mileage

2005 (55 reg) Hatchback 87,242 miles 1.6L 116bhp Manual Petrol
Trade seller - See all 32 cars
£1,990

---

MINI Hatch 1.6 Cooper S 3dr
2002 (52 reg) Hatchback 69,983 miles 1.6L 163bhp Manual Petrol
1 Years Mot, Full service history, 2 Keys, Handbooks, 6 Speed gearbox, Drives …

Trade seller
Camberley - 11 miles away


£2,249

---

note trade sellers, so you'd get a bit of a warranty, etc., etc...

dozens at that sort of price. and they are great handling modern looking cars..

Edited by BJWoods on Tuesday 24th April 22:14

[Justin Case]

We drove past a car at the roadside with a 'for sale' sign at the weekend. I stopped to have a look at it and was very tempted, although she was not over-impressed. I did not buy it, but on the other hand I will be sleeping in the house tonight

[EazyDuz]

Justin Case said:

We drove past a car at the roadside with a 'for sale' sign at the weekend. I stopped to have a look at it and was very tempted, although she was not over-impressed. I did not buy it, but on the other hand I will be sleeping in the house tonight

Can you come over? I need a new doormat but instead of a boring trip to The Range to buy one you can just come lay on the floor by the front door.

[Heaveho]

This probably won't help, but a couple of years ago I bought a car 150 miles away from where I was based at the time. Told my other half I needed a lift to pick something up. First she knew about it was when we pulled up next to a MK1 MR2 and I said " Just hang on while I get the keys ". Yeah, I know, she's lucky to have me! It's important to base your relationship on trust, I always say. Only took about a year for her to calm down.

When she did, and I thought she wasn't looking, I bought a Boxster. It's her own fault for letting her guard down..............got my mate to take me over for that though, nothing wrong with my memory!

Anyway, all the best, looking forward to comparing how our respective divorces go.

[jamesters]

i have decided unless he lets me take car for £1250 or £1500 max just not worth the asking price he wants

[Pat H]

jamesters said:

i have decided unless he lets me take car for £1250 or £1500 max just not worth the asking price he wants

Have you ever driven an MGB?

[Terminator X]

alorotom said:

jamesters said:

normally my wife lets me spend my money on what i want

Quoted for prosperity right there lol

Has he come in to some money?

TX.

[psi310398]

Pat H said:

Have you ever driven an MGB?

To be fair, a well sorted MGB is a likeable car to drive for all its agricultural underpinnings. Nothing to get the blood up, but likeable.

[ChilliWhizz]

Shortly before I sold my V8 BGT I had new sills fitted on both sides.... many thousands to have it done properly with good paint job after! More rust was found when the old sills were cut out in the inner arches at each end of the sills... This was the only rot on the whole car. If a rubber bumper BGT needs new sills they'll cost you more than the value of the car.. And they are structural part of the monocoque

[jamesters]

i say there a good chance the sills were rotting on ones i saw the outter body shell looked fine but when i got on the floor look under it the sills def had rust on them, how bad it was is hard to tell without going for a 2nd look and look further but i guess really you rather see zero rust right?

[corozin]

"Lester Burham what is that on our drive? What happened to the Honda?"
- "I traded it. I am man. I rule!"

[sr.guiri]

Do it, dude, but speak with her, get her motivated, get her on your side.

Car looks nice but do your homework. In my experience of classic cars, there's nothing better than original metal and original paint. Doesn't matter if it needs an engine or gearbox rebuild, you'll probably want to do that anyway, but there's no substitute for original metal, preferably in it's original paint.

And don't listen to these people saying "money-pit" etc. You will spend money undoubtedly. But over time you should get all that money back plus more. Buy right and you'll be OK.

Will this be your daily driver?

[Ructions]

Just do what I did and tell her it belongs to a friend, but he doesn't want to tell his Mrs as she'll be none too pleased.

[ChilliWhizz]

jamesters said:

i say there a good chance the sills were rotting on ones i saw the outter body shell looked fine but when i got on the floor look under it the sills def had rust on them, how bad it was is hard to tell without going for a 2nd look and look further but i guess really you rather see zero rust right?

Always a gamble... there's quite a few 'box' sections/hidden spaces in the B monocoque, and invariably they rot from the inside out. If the car has had a good resto, interior sections properly treated, and regular wax style treatment (look for wax injection holes/bungs in the sill top and other places) then they'll last for a good few years. A photographic record of a restoration is a good thing to have too... Like others have said though, drive one for a few miles to get a feel for it.. They can also be pretty rubbish in the winter too, steam up a lot inside, standard heater is pants, etc...various stuff comes through the bulkhead too so its not unusual to get ice cold air blowing up your trouser leg and freezing your nuts off... And you probably won't see much more than 23/25 mpg, in fact on a run the V8 was a tad more economical than the four pot...

All that said, it makes an easy to work on classic, and it can be as much fun round country stuff as something a lot more modern with twice the power...

[jamesters]

sr.guiri said:

Do it, dude, but speak with her, get her motivated, get her on your side.

Car looks nice but do your homework. In my experience of classic cars, there's nothing better than original metal and original paint. Doesn't matter if it needs an engine or gearbox rebuild, you'll probably want to do that anyway, but there's no substitute for original metal, preferably in it's original paint.

And don't listen to these people saying "money-pit" etc. You will spend money undoubtedly. But over time you should get all that money back plus more. Buy right and you'll be OK.

Will this be your daily driver?

i would like to use it as much as i could maybe not every day but def at least once or twice a week along with the other car, yeah its very hard to get my wife on side with it. susposed to be viewing it again tomorrow then make a decision. i guess main concern is how bad is the rust while he claims its rust free were some bits near windscreen that were rusted on body work, small patch by the bonnet lid and some bits under the car were rusting, could all be minor bits or could be really really bad, he showed loads of photos of it being restored in the 90s but means nothing after 23yrs even lying in a garage it could of since re rusted under the body

Edited by jamesters on Wednesday 25th April 13:08

[Pat H]

psi310398 said:

Pat H said:

Have you ever driven an MGB?

To be fair, a well sorted MGB is a likeable car to drive for all its agricultural underpinnings. Nothing to get the blood up, but likeable.

Back in the late 1980s I bought a rubber bumper BGT V8.

In standard form the handling was pretty hateful, but with a telescopic damper conversion, a fatter anti-roll bar on the front and an anti-roll bar on the back, it was completely transformed.

It made a lovely noise and went quickly enough. In fact, it was a hoot to drive, as it was a real wolf in sheep's clothing. I used to go out hunting 2.8 Capris in it.

It was pretty reliable, apart from a huge and inexplicable appetite for those crappy electro mechanical fuel pumps. I also recall having to fit tubular exhaust manifolds when one of the original cast manifolds cracked. That was a bh of a job. Accessibility was a problem on the V8, but that's not an issue on a standard B.

Mine had been Dinitrol treated when new, so the corrosion wasn't too bad.

I was a penniless student at the time, so trying to run an MGB GT V8 was always going to be an uphill struggle.

I kept it for five years and sold it for a bit more than I'd paid for it, having spent relatively little along the way.

I always thought the BGT V8s were rather undervalued. Not sure whether they have made up any ground on TR6s and the like?

[jamesters]

going to give it a 2nd look tomorrow and inspect far more and then decide

[F1GTRUeno]

I don't even really know why you made the thread?

Do you want to drag it up on an phone/iPad/laptop to show that you showed you cared when you went and bought the thing?

If your relationship is at such a stage that you have to come onto a forum and make a show about buying a car then perhaps it's not the car you're worried about.

Or maybe your wife is actually Hitler, genuine reincarnation of the square moustached wker and we're all in trouble if you buy that car.

Maybe?

Thought not.

Just buy the damn thing, you've already convinced yourself you will and you know the consequences aren't going to be the end of the world. If you actually, genuinely thought your wife would do something drastic because you bought a car then you shouldn't be married.

[Murphy16]

F1GTRUeno said:

I don't even really know why you made the thread?

Do you want to drag it up on an phone/iPad/laptop to show that you showed you cared when you went and bought the thing?

If your relationship is at such a stage that you have to come onto a forum and make a show about buying a car then perhaps it's not the car you're worried about.

Or maybe your wife is actually Hitler, genuine reincarnation of the square moustached wker and we're all in trouble if you buy that car.

Maybe?

Thought not.

Just buy the damn thing, you've already convinced yourself you will and you know the consequences aren't going to be the end of the world. If you actually, genuinely thought your wife would do something drastic because you bought a car then you shouldn't be married.

+1