Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

Whut indeed. Bet it wasn't even RHD.

I've only ever seen a 993 GT2 once. At a baby bottle factory in Suffolk. CSB.

It was about 8 years ago and the bloke wanted £200k. Should've bought it, but there was the small matter of finding £200k. Which I couldn't.

A mate's older brother had one and sold it after it got keyed for a second time somewhere in Fulham. That was back in about 96 - he only had it a few months. That's a bit of a regret I'd imagine...

I keep seeing this lovely 356 rolling around Santa Monica and it's slowly becoming my new favourite car..

God damn this rear engine, air cooled business.

Success!

Cool photo! - looks tidy in there.

Do you mean compound curve? Multiple curves of different radii(sp) on a panel?

I'm not going to recommend you my chap as I haven't used him in 5 years for anything worth less than the repair bill on your car. If V-L doesn't pop up, try searching on a few detailing forums as people show off there work so you can see the work that they can do for you to decide if they can do the work to the standard you require.

Also maybe worth while to chat to a second hand porsche dealer to see who they use or find out if they have a smart repair guy coming over and drop your car in to them and let the person that they use do it as he should be able to do work to a high standard.

Update to my rental car adventures: Firstly - turns out the tiny scrape I reported when picking the car up was enough of a tick on the paper to cover the big scrape.

Secondly, looking at the photos I took when picking the car up it turns out the scrape was there all along, I just missed it as it was under and below the door trim. Missed it as the cars were parked so closely to each other, though I can just about see it on photos if I zoom in. Pretty cheeky of them to not mention it, and pretty shit of myself to not notice it.

Next time - all the insurances.

Look at car hire excess insurance on the usual compare sites.

You can buy 3rd party excess insurance for pennies, but it still has its pitfalls.

For instance, when a Land Cruiser Amazon ran me off the tiny road in my rental Twingo in Morocco, and I hit a rock so hard it fucked the rim, the rental company wouldn't give me a cost, they just fobbed me off saying they'd refund the £1,500 deposit I'd paid minus the cost of one wheel and tyre (no way was that worth £1,500). I shrugged it off as I was insured for the £1,500 by a 3rd party for a cost of £7.50 or something stupid.

When I got home I tried to claim but of course, the rental company hadn't given me any sort of receipt. They kept the original £1,500 receipt - it was supposed to be returned when I returned the car un-damaged - and then because they didn't bother working out how much the wheel and tyre would cost while I was there, they didn't give me a receipt of the actual cost.

I thought, no bother, I'll just contact them, get the info, and then send it off to the excess insurance company. They wouldn't answer emails or even pick up the phone, I tried multiple times but there was no way of getting through to them. I felt quite hard done by because £1,500 is not an insubstantial amount of money, so I resorted to trickery. I contacted Barclaycard and said that the £1,500 was fraud and I didn't know why I'd been charged it. I didn't want to get out of paying it, I just wanted some sort of receipt so I could claim from my excess insurance, but the rental company didn't even bother replying to Barclaycard, even after 2 months of contact attempts, so I just got my £1,500 back.

Bit of a dick move, yes, but I didn't feel bad about it because they had ample opportunity to rectify this situation, and on top of that, here's a comedy of errors:

1. The car broke down within 20 minutes of picking it up
   
2. They didn't answer the 24/7 phone number on the rental agreement that was there
   in case of breakdowns
   
3. They didn't answer any of the other phone numbers I found online
   
4. I eventually bump started it but we wasted an hour
   
5. When I needed to change the fucked wheel, the wheel bolts had a plastic cover, which was held on by a small plastic bolt that was removed using a gas meter box style key on the car keys keyring... except for the one wheel that was fucked which was held on by an allen key bolt, which of course wasn't in the car toolkit, and nobody we could flag down had ever seen an allen key bolt before. We eventually used a screwdriver to snap it off.
   
6. When I returned the car, I explained everything that had gone wrong, how they hadn't answered the phone when I needed help that was supposed to be included in the rental price TWICE, and the whole allen key debacle - one of the men said I was an idiot in French to one of the other guys in the office and said the key was there the whole time, not knowing I'm OK at French so I called him out in French so he stormed out to the car to show me I was wrong. I said go on then, pull the wheel out, show me, which he eventually did, when he saw the allen key bolt he just went quiet, put the wheel back in the spare wheel compartment and went back inside, didn't apologise once, I had to follow him back inside and force him to tell the other guy I was right, but I didn't get a single apology.
   
   

So all in all, fuck them, rent cars, know what you're doing, and insure up to the fucking eyeballs.

In USA I was uhmming and aaahing about CDW and a lady returned a car with the front stoved in and no windscreen, she drove it back like that and just handed in the keys and walked off. Seemed worth it after that.

Why are VW T5 Combi's with two single seats up front so hard to find? Everything seems to have a 3 pesron bench seat type set up, or is a fully converted camper with captains swivel seats and costs £50k+.

Are front seats easily converted on T5's?

(complete Transporter newb BTW)

I bought 3rd party insurance that covers any rental car. It was cheaper than Alamo's CDW and it also covers Zipcar and Avis Prestige, so no need to pay the extortionate fees from those guys either.

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

Almost want to cry this is so cool

about 100 miles after fitting the larger tyres I've been having some issues with the bug, it doesn't appear to be running hot but it's been cutting out on me (usually at idle) then having a little trouble starting back up.

I'd imagine this is a fuel or spark problem so I'm going to investigate those things but wondering if any of you VW heads might have some insight/advice on what to look at first? I'm tempted to drop the engine out so I can clean it and gap the valves etc with space plus I'll have anew exhaust to fit soon!

Could be dirty fuel? have you run the petrol low?

Buy some carb cleaner and give it a squirt?

I don't know how bugs work really, but I've had a fair few carb'd cars that this has been an issue with

Blowing back the fuel lines to the tank also helped clear the blockage.

@IR

When my golf used to do that similar it was always the points or dirty fuel / fuel filter.

Once I had those things sorted + only used higher quality fuel it ran wonderfully.

To anyone interested my Dad's business are having an open day this saturday. In Alton not too far a drive out of London.

All welcome, usually a hundred or so classic cars out the front of the shop and free burgers.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1105981699509867/

Pic from last year.

Oh yeah. What sort of time? I'm going to be really hungover as at a wedding on Friday, but could make it out.

It's on between 10 - 2.

Turn up anytime!

How many free burgers ;)

Check the points and condensor, I would carry two of each as I have had new ones fail. Also check the rotor arm and cap for wear of the rotor arm tip, make sure it is clean and there are no cracks. Check the wires between the coil, points and condensor for damage. Also a dwell guage is an easy way to check that the points are gapped correctly.

‘04 plate MX5 Mk 2.5 Euphonic 1.8 in sunlight silver with 118000 miles for £1500. Is this a good idea?
Asking for the wife obviously… ;)

It has just passed the MOT and has a little rust in the n/s sill at the front of the wheel arch but it is perfect underneath and everywhere else. A twelve year old car so I expect some rust. Only £174 for wife and I comprehensive. I think it's worth buying.

If you ran the fuel low it could have sucked some crap up and blocked the idle jet of the carb, but that wouldn't make it difficult to start, just stop it idling.

It's easy to unscrew, blow up with an air line or a poke a soft bristle tooth brush into the hole and refit.

I'm with @lynx tho. It'll be pitted points. You can scrape them flat with an emery board or wet and dry, regap and try again or just buy new ones for a couple of dorrah.