Jon

I think you'd need to be 'quirky' to import some FSOs into NZ in the late 1980's. Anyway, here's the adverts, slightly wonkily scanned from NZ Car, February 1989: Love the generic wheel trims, as seen on most slightly tramped up shit cars of the late 1980's. Lol at advert barrel scraping: "Tough as old boots" "Side indicator repeaters" etc. In line with my nerdish credentials, I've run the reg plate of that blue beauty and it comes up on carjam as never being registered, so I guess that's a system glitch, or it didn't even last long enough to be remembered on a computer system. To add further to my nerdishness, I checked the price plus GST (10% before July '89, if you're bothered) and that ute would've cost almost $29000 in today's dollar! That Polonez is RHD and has the same gash trimz, so there's a chance that at least one of them made it over here. Doesn't even have a reg plate, so maybe there's a NOS unregistered Polonez kicking around in some quirky Barry's shed somewhere....

Because I'm such a spotting nerd, here's a pic I took of yours last year: And that yellow CCH one, with a 125 front end, which I took a few years ago (and totally got busted doing so by the driver): Gotta say, I much prefer the original front, as it reminds me of the way they looked when littering the streets back in my childhood in the UK. Does anyone know if a Polonez exists in NZ? I'll fish out the FSO advert in an NZ magazine I've got somewhere...

Link to discussion: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/47476-jons-vb-station-wagon-ld28-out-308-in/

With my lightning quick reactions, I pressed this plan into action a mere 21 months later than expected: Note the kayak on the roof for extra internet cool points and also the headlights, grille and bonnet removed, to make the job look more involved. That's not me on the ground doing stuff by the way; that's my cousin, who did a vast majority of the work, whilst I pondered over various bits and did a small fraction of removing stuff, plus took some terrible photos on an outdated camera phone, for the benefit of a few people who like to read about old cars on the internet. Here's a very similar photo, just prior to the one above (where 'we' were removing the Nissan gearbox) which shows the LD28 freshly removed and testing the load bearing capabilities of some old seatbelts, whilst I pause to take another photo. There's a bit more to say about the 308 motor but that'll have to wait for another time, as I've had a few drinks tonight to celebrate/commiserate the LD28's passing.

I'm working in Kingseat on the 8th, 9th and 10th Nov, so could always come up in the Commodore, if that'd fit the bill and nothing else comes up?

Here's a JDM one a mate bought last year, after I saw it for sale on Trademe: Pillarless doors and entry levels steels combo only further ingratiated it to me . 2 litre V6 for bonus #orionfapfactor. Sadly, the interior was disappointingly subdued and as an extra kick in the nuts, it smelt quite a bit of old people, since it had only had one retired NZ owner since importing, hence the fantastic condition. I should've bought it off him when he sold it and definitely would've if it had been a manual. Despite being bought and sold in Auckland, it was bought by a bloke living in the next town who has a Sigma too, so I think it's being looked after.

I hope for the sake of my bank balance that you're intending to keep this! Looks bloody good.

I'm incredibly tempted to do similar next year, too. Will have to have a chat about next time we meet.

Lot 74 was one of those things I'll never forget. Was chatting to Bigfoot and Chris R about this whilst the bidding was going on, asking about costs for re-reg, as I was really interested in it but thought it'd go over budget; I'd looked over it the day before and it seemed solid. Bigfoot mentioned the 'on hold' writing in the windscreen, which I'd forgotten about, so I turned round to put up my hand to bid but the winning bidder was putting his bidding number up a few people in front and the auctioneer didn't see me, so it went for $500, which was a bargain; the whole camper interior was still in the back, etc. Anyway, I got home and saw my overly full driveway despite being one car down at the moment and thought that I'd probably dodged a bullet, in all honesty. Being amongst so many projects yesterday also made me realise that the junk I have isn't actually that bad.

Yeah, the fifth one was dark metallic blue, so a late one perhaps? Paint was pretty scruffy and it was an auto but had WOF/reg until next year.

Wow, my hand writing really is excellent. RNM is reserve not met, by the way. Only a few had reserves.

OK, I've expertly removed Ben's bids on his fleet acquisitions using Paint, just in case he didn't want someone else spreading the news. Here goes: And no, my pen wasn't running out; the double figures I've written down really were the prices the cars sold for.......

OK, quickly. Lot 80, advertised as a Tii. $3500 reserve not met (but close, apparently) Lot 81, 2002 auto, rego on hold. $1000 Lot 86. Baur(?) convertible dereg $900 reserve not met. Lot 92 rolling body only $30

Careful now, that sounds like common sense kicking in! Wife is hangry, so best make some tea then I'll see what I can do.

Yeah, I scribbled away at my bidding sheet, so got all the prices of the cars if anyone's interested? Not sure if I can be bothered to list them all right now but post some requests and I'll let you know what I recorded.