Sunbeam

My dear wife gets bored sometimes and then puts her mind to ways of highlighting my vehicular acquisition habits with a particular sarcastic bent. She has produced this “helpful” flowchart for me.

Post accident pics aren’t showing? I admire your perseverance.

Are you going to be able to get your hands on the O.G. high compression engine or have you severed all comms with the seller?

4.6 it.

Plush upholstery, impressed.

Churz @azzurro for creating the conversation lounge for this.

I do enjoy getting wads of paperwork with a car. The last owner before it was de registered was a receipt hoarder. My favourite bit though is this. The most comprehensive original document wallet ever. Containing a mint owners manual, Safe Motoring Hints book, original warranty booklet, worldwide service centre directory, and service coupon booklet (only filled out to 12,000 miles)

a. I know, and I’m ok with it. edit: this is also the pot calling the kettle black… b. I am aware of this. I also became aware of another 1500 5 minutes down the road in a paddock full of dead Mercedes however I dare not breathe a word of this around home til the dust settles… c. Not so fast mio amico, this bad boy sports aluminium drums out back.

Last year with great haste and excitement I bought a 1966 Fiat 1500. During Covid lockdown. On the wrong Island. 1095km by road and sea from my house. In my defence, a few years ago I also obtained an MG that was 1000km from my place and fetching it was a fun lads’ mission, so confidence in a repeat mission was high. However, lockdown dragged on. Then when it lifted, the ferries had no capacity, the Interislander was down a boat etc…. The seller was good about it, happy to hang on to it but it was being moved outside due to a lack of room. Months down the track I still couldn’t get a ferry to mesh with my days off, and I wasn’t going to pay for a transport company either because the car was a non runner in a tricky location. Eventually the seller decided the best thing was to give me my money back and hence I un-bought a car. A month ago I received an email from the seller. They’re moving and need to clean up to put the house up for sale and btw I never got around to re-homing the Fiat. I would like to gift it to you because you’re the only sucker who showed any interest I think if you took it, it would be going to a good home. I’m a sucker and can’t resist a free car so of course I said yes. Now, I still can’t get a ferry to coincide with my days off, so I flew to New Plymouth, got ol mate to pick me up from the airport and lend me his Hilux and trailer and some barn space and voila! Temporary home With a flatmate that @kws will appreciate.

I was starting to wonder if you still had this… 285/70r16 is massive…. 235/75r16 I believe is as close to 7.50r16 as you can get, and still wider than the o.g.

Look what the postie dropped off today! Going straight to the machinists. I love NOS.

Cool video! Gee you don’t muck about do you? Nice wee shed.

Significant wallet-lightening action has taken place. These are on their way from Straya. Also NOS main and big end bearings.

Aaaaaaaaargh! I had a cluster fly infestation in the shed so I bombed it. The picture does not do justice to the carpet of dead flies. I then set about vacuuming them all up. They are so gross, the vacuum cleaner hose now has a thick buildup of goo on the inside with the consistency of tar from the filth that these flies excrete. My cleanup revealed a bigger problem, a mouse plague. They’ve had such an abundant season thanks to the mild, moist summer that the numbers have exploded. Anyway, they have made camp inside the Fiat and MG, and have been gnawing on bits of car. Quite demoralising.

Wash your mouth out. I bet you can’t even type that with a straight face.