I just took a ride… in a silver machine… and I'm still feeling meanI've got a silver machine...
etc etc.
Broke a few rules in the book on this one. Bided for it blind on ebay, picked it up on Friday the 13th in the pouring rain and paid cash. But I’ve gotta say even with what I initially missed, I’m absolutely over the moon with it.
I’ve been on the look out for a ‘12E for a while now but didn’t fancy the prospect of sending all my hard earned overseas and having to keep my fingers crossed for how ever many weeks it took to ship over. That said the £ versus $ does make an attractive proposition at the moment. The ideal car would be a high mileage, mechanically tired example but good ‘n straight. This one fits the bill exactly even though the Type 4 lump is too good to tear down just yet and it drives really well. I’d actually seen this one up for sale 4 years previous at Towers’ but it had gone when I’d got my backside in gear.
Anyway about the car, originally brown with tan interior and a/c, it had a full engine rebuild in the states in 1990 at 178k miles, imported from CA in 1997, painted silver in 1999, not exactly a 1st class paint job but a blind man on a galloping horse wouldn’t notice anything amiss. It’s got a couple of small blisters on the scuttle and the corners of the doors have a small patch of filler but that’s about all.
Current mileage is 232k, and is still running L-jet but I gave it the kiss of death when I proclaimed in another post it was still running sweet. After fixing a leak on the smog pipe work I found it was running way too rich. Turned out temp sensor 2 was duff so a 1k resistor is keeping things going for now, not a problem as I’ve got megasquirt on the way.
The a/c compressor & as usual the smog pump have long been lifted, no big deal but it’s nice to have all the original parts boxed up.
The tan dashboard has a crack in it.
Some parts of the rubber trim have gone hard.
Either the fuel gauge or sender or wiring is u/s but I have seen the low fuel light come on. Probably get round to this after I’ve run out of petrol!
The seats are 2 different shades of tan but have matching pasha inlay so most probably has had some re-trim work done. There’s a file full of invoices for work done in the States but unfortunately no handbook nor the elusive original bill of sale.
Wings, drivers door & bonnet need a bit of re-align here and there, presumably they were removed for the paint job and reassembled by some monkey.
Brakes not the best, even with the non-servo factor there’s something amiss somewhere and this probably should be the next job on the list, (after megasquirt
).Exhaust reactors have let go so will need to fab some stub pipes with 90’s & flanges to suit.
Rear n/s wheel bearing possibly needs replacing.
Wheels are in a bit of a state but this is one of the few jobs I would consider paying to have done. There’s nothing worse than having to do the same job more than once -or four times for that matter, can’t think of anything more boring. Maybe a week on the moon with a chartered accountant.
The original steering wheel has been replaced with something that looks like it came out of a mini, it’s got to go. Anyone got a suitable replacement?
The drivers door mirror (well spotted Nige) is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard. Kinda looks cute with its chrome shiny-ness but that’s all it does.
I’ve only just managed to get the garage cleared out enough to squeeze the E in so work can now start in earnest, keep you posted.
