Overall Thoughts.

With this being my first car, let alone my first landie, my thoughts are , overall, great! I love it! I love the fact that it sometimes doesnt start, that it's straight 6 engine probably isn't at straight or six as it was, that the wiring leaves ALOT to be desired, as well as the interior. I expecially love the fact that the brakes are non-existant, as well as the rear shock absorbers and floorpan!

I love it because it's a project. This landie will never be perfect, and I will bodge bits up whilst fixing her up, then once it's complete I'll start REALLY doing her up. For now, I'm content with tinkering. I bought her off an irishman called Terry from Stoke-on-Trent. A nice fellow, we sealed the deal at £650, with £20 fuel thrown in. As I have yet to pass my test, I brought along my fellow landie nut and best mate Evan to drive it home for me. Once we'd said goodbye to my parents, who were driving the back the long way looking at boring old trees and footpaths, we had to face the realisation that we had to get this thing back 150 miles on a Saturday Lunchtime. So, after ALOT of clunky gear changes, hairy moments on roundabouts when we found out the brakes didn't not only not work, but pulled the vehicle violently from side to side if going any faster than 27 we hit the m6. We then realised that the fuel guage didnt work, that the windows were so covered in paint mirrors were useless, the radio didnt work and the wipers were worn down to the plastic so if it rained we were shafted! We took her up to a steady 70, then cruised at 60 for the rest of the way, a big change from the steady quiet 90 we were doing on the way up in my stepdad's Zafira!

Fuel time came when we worked out that it was probably averaging 20mpg and we'd done 30 miles on £20, so we pulled in. I proceeded to put £70 in for the rest of the journey, and lost £10 on the forecourt through a perished fuel filler pipe. Wonderfull! Upon further rustling over the weeks that followed I unearthed the fuel lift pump, the first stage of the fuel's journey out of the tank, and almost fell over with horror!Exhibit A - One Ful Lift Pump. The green live wire is held one with the friction of the rubber grommit against the plug, the earth isn't held on at all and the rubber hose is rusted on. Upon breaking the metal locking washer into a gagillion peices, and hoovering the whole thing clean so nothing would fall into the fuel tank I gingerly lifted it up to see a rusted dry 'thing'. Needless to say, a new one will be on order next week for the bank breaking sum of £13, and will upload pictures along it's replacement. I reckon, going by the state of the pump that the main pump is just sucking the fuel up without assistance, which would explain (or go part of the way to explaining) why it splutters and sometimes stalls when idling!

Anyway, I'm rambling! We made it home without too many other problems, and proceeded to give it a thorough going over. There was no:

• Gearbox Oil
• Engine Oil
• A hole in one of the coolant pipes, leading to there being no water
• The brake shoes were worn right down and cracked, hence the interesting brakes
• The wiring was all over the place, luckily the lights almost 100% work!

Currently, I've re-wired the rear work light, overhauled the rear side lights and wired up the RH side fog, the LH one has no bulb which needs to be bought. I've also fitted new seatbelts nad fixed the front seats in properly, which will stay until I source some new, proper seats. The chassis has been sanded down with an angle grinder at various points to see what condition it's in, and apart from a totalled rear crossmember is pretty good. Eventually, I'll take the rear tub and other bodywork off and thoroughly sand down, prime and hammerite the chassis, and fill it with waxoyl.

It's payday on Thursday, so I have a long list of goodies to buy, including brake shoes and cylinders, brake and clutch fluid, engine and gearbox oil, washer pump, fuel lift pump and 2 new front sidelights.

That's all for now, more tomorrow when I finish tidying the cabin wiring and finish the coolant pipework!