Thread: Help I have money and no S1

Mick,

If you read the letter it has a Holden motor and rust in the chassis and a few other issues. I don't think it is a good buy

Mrs hh

Colin, I have thought about IIs, I don't really have a good reason to prefer a I (except that silly curve in the door on the II). I absolutely love your PTO welder! Sounds like a good post-restoration project, although that will be many years away no doubt...

Mick, I was very quick. Mrs hh, maybe I was too quick! Arranged to look at the car the weekend following this one. The owner sounds like a great guy. Still drives the car around his farm with only a handbrake and two gears. He has kept the car under cover although previous owner(s) have not. Firewall rust free but significant rust somewhere in the front part of the chassis, so it'll require stripping and welding.
Handbrake works but wheel brakes have frozen wheel cylinders and no hose, so brakes will basically need replacing. Steering box sounds pretty dire too. It has a holden 186 which is running well. Unoriginal engine is a little bit sad but the idea of a more reliable engine that is cheaper to repair (I believe that is correct?) is somewhat appealing... Price also seems pretty reasonable. Also probably going to head out to Bathurst this saturday and look at a couple.

I saw the one on the LROCV website last night and considered it myself but a divorce would be looming.

Even a series III is OK if you don't mind the headlamps in the wings.
Full synchro (except reverse), heater as STD.
This one has a small Isuzu motor fitted Isuzu C240 powered Series 3

I prefer to keep them reasonably original but the conversion was done to quite a few in the 70's (I think I've tripped over about a dozen now). This one seems to go okay, looks old and was a bargain price. I've painted a few panels with the 4 year old paint supplied with the vehicle. grille should be plastic but the previous owner changed it to a metal one.

Best of luck with the 88"


Colin

Originally Posted by Nut Tool

Colin, I have thought about IIs, I don't really have a good reason to prefer a I (except that silly curve in the door on the II). I absolutely love your PTO welder! Sounds like a good post-restoration project, although that will be many years away no doubt...

Mick, I was very quick. Mrs hh, maybe I was too quick! Arranged to look at the car the weekend following this one. The owner sounds like a great guy. Still drives the car around his farm with only a handbrake and two gears. He has kept the car under cover although previous owner(s) have not. Firewall rust free but significant rust somewhere in the front part of the chassis, so it'll require stripping and welding.
Handbrake works but wheel brakes have frozen wheel cylinders and no hose, so brakes will basically need replacing. Steering box sounds pretty dire too. It has a holden 186 which is running well. Unoriginal engine is a little bit sad but the idea of a more reliable engine that is cheaper to repair (I believe that is correct?) is somewhat appealing... Price also seems pretty reasonable. Also probably going to head out to Bathurst this saturday and look at a couple.

It is cheap but will require a LOT of work. Holden's don't have the low down power of the little landy motors, they go everywhere. Price is reasonable, BUT, you will spend a heap to get back to original, brakes alone will cost a lot. Then there is the gearbox, 2 gears only. From experience $500.00 for brakes and lots$ for gearbox. Think before you buy.

Mrs hh

Seeing you're new to this game, may I suggest you need something like my second MG... and I offer this as an inspirational tale.

She was an MGB GT, straight out the container from the US so I had to convert her to RHD - that was the big job. There were no brakes - oh sure, brake like components were fitted but none of them worked (at all). Similarly, the suspension - had to pull all that apart and rebuild. No usable interior. Really scary electrics.

What made this a good buy was that she was cheap and I bought her from a trusted MG dealer who made a lot of money selling me second hand parts. He also gave me a lot of his time and support and you can't put a price on that.
Secondly, there was no rust, none at all. While rust can be repaired, it's cancer and there is always more rot than you think. In the Landy, you're only looking at the chassis and the firewall, but PROPER rust repairs can get expensive.
Thirdly, we suspected (but didn't know) that the engine and gearbox were okay. We were sort of correct and I wound up completely rebuilding the carbies, the starter and the alternator.
Finally, I didn't have to paint her.

This vehicle ticked all the major boxes which left me with a relatively simple rebuild... and it took two years, cost more than I really wanted to think about and gave me more pleasure than any vehicle has a right to I spent my weekends scouring the for sale ads looking for spare parts. My toddler son, would wake up from his nap and the first place he'd look for daddy was in the shed (where he'd play happily with my tin of nuts and bolts).

That MGB went on to be my son's and my only form of transport for the next three years

It can be done... but don't be too ambitious for your first restoration and yes, it will only be your first - if you finish one, you will start another.

Originally Posted by gromit

?
Tom stated he wanted an original engine.....


Colin

Yup, he sure did. Second from last line in the very first post.

Let Tom go and make his own mistakes, if the bug bites so be it !!. If not there is allways a cheep jeep in the new year.

Yep I am the classic excited kid on the internet. Can't help getting too keen about the first thing that comes along, but we're all guilty of that sometimes

It is cheap but will require a LOT of work. Holden's don't have the low down power of the little landy motors, they go everywhere. Price is reasonable, BUT, you will spend a heap to get back to original, brakes alone will cost a lot. Then there is the gearbox, 2 gears only. From experience $500.00 for brakes and lots$ for gearbox. Think before you buy.

Thanks for the advice Mrs hh. Having a look at parts costs it does sound like an expensive repair. I have to admit I am attracted to the idea of rebuilding a gearbox, I'm sure that any series 1 I end up with will be enough work without needing a gearbox rebuild though! Dad reckons it'll take me five years to get any series 1 on the road (speaking from experience, his FX Holden spent a good few years idle in the shed).

She was an MGB GT, straight out the container from the US...

Great tale crackers, definitely has me keen. Nice looking car, reminds me of a Jaguar E type a little.

Went to look at a couple of S1s over the weekend. All largely original with a couple of fantastic mods (custom exhaust with two mufflers, nice. Custom lift kit that involves extending the spring mounts by 6", welds on which are now cracked, really?). Chassis and/or firewall repairs on all, haven't leapt in yet.

Edit: Speaking of mods, it was somewhere on here that I saw the S1 with a bench vice attached to the front of the bullbars, right? That looks great and highly practical. Sad that you couldn't register it like that. Probably the pedestrians are happy though.