As of 24/12/2005, I once again own a 75!
I decided in early December '05 that it we needed a second car in case the 155 had to go off the road for repairs. I had been swithering for a while over what to get as the insurance for another 155 was going to be too expensive. After I saw a nice 75 on ebay, I decided to get an insurance quote of it just to see if a 75 would be an affordable way to go. I was delighted to discover that classic car insurance is now available for these cars and as such is very cheap. The decission was made! A 75 it would have to be. I put a bid in on the one I'd found on ebay, however, I had been unable to view it, so I kept my bid low and not surprisingly failed to win the auction.
A
while later, I was talking to my friend, Brian, and mentioned to him that I
was on the lookout for a 75. He told me of a car that was sitting in not for
from where I stay in Glasgow. The tax disc had run out a year previously and
it had not moved in that time, posibly longer. He suggested that I go and have
a look at it and if it was looked ok, to try leaving a note on the windscreen
for the owner expressing my interest in the car.
On brief inspection the car looked to be in reasonable condition. The bodywork was fairly sound with only a few smal dings and a bit of damage to the front bumper. The interior looked clean, however, it was sporting a bright red leather interior, which I have to say didn't go too well with the exterior colour! As I atill possess the Recaro interior from my last 75 though, it would be a simple matter to swap it over. The car also had the factory steel wheels on it that look pretty naff, once again though, I still had the Ronal A1's from the last 75.
I decided that the car may very well fit the bill, so I left a note on the windscreen and waited to see what would happen. I have to say that I thought it unlikely that I would hear from the owner anytime soon, if at all as the car may just have been abandoned there. The very next day though, I got a call from him and aranged to meet up and have a more detailed look at the car.
The
owner (Dave) had bought the car from his father-in-law in late '03. He had run
it for a while but had run out of money to keep it going when the clutch had
failed and had been forced to park it up. In the mean time he had bought another
(cheaper to run) car and was not in a position to get the 75 repaired. I had
a more detailed inspection of the car and it looked to be just what I was after.
I was certainly going to need a fair bit of work to get it going, but hopefully
nothing too drastic! The obvious problems were a very wet boot which had caused
a few holes to appear in the floor. The front NS jacking point also had a small
hole and doughtless there would be some rot in the inner rear wheel arches.
The front bumper was hanging off and the car had a totally flat battery. The
gearbox had a significant amount of oil round it suggesting a failed oil seal
may have lead to oil getting on the clutch.
As the car had been sitting so long its doughtful it would have started at all
and an oil change would probably be wise before trying it. Dave assured me that
the car ran well apart from the clutch before it was parked up.
On the plus side, the car appeared to have been maintained regardless of cost prior to this. The gearbox had had new syncro's fitted. The propshaft couplings had been replaced, it had brand new rear brake calipers, discs and pads. It was also fitted with an HBE 29mm front anti-roll bar and had uprated Bilstein shocks fitted. Only the rear shocks remained though, as the fronts had failed sometime previously.
A deal was done and I arranged to hire a trailer on Christmas Eve and get the car collected and back to my house. From there the fun would really commence!