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

I have an old peugeot 406 which I run on recycled cooking oil when I can get it. I am moving away, not sure for how long yet, and I am looking for someone to take care of it for me. Either as a sorn farm vehicle or on blocks if you have the space or as a run around (it goes and has a fresh mot). Not sure how best to arrange that but potentially buy it for free and then promise to give it back?! I’m open to ideas but naturally only trusted forumites need apply.

OE tyres so not going to be the best I guess.

I was thinking more along the lines of "the rubber has gone bad." Most OE rubber is pretty good these days.

Was it wear or cracking that was the end of these particular tyres?

But still. Expensive. We had to replace 2 front as they cupped rather badly on <15k miles due to poor pressure. Also. London Roads are shit.

when you say "perished", what does that look like?

tyres should last min 5 years, so a little surprising that a 2020 car needs new purely due to the age of the tyres.

having said that, tyres every 4/5 years isn't unreasonable. I wouldn't want to go older than 6 years.

@Howard echoing everyone else's comments.

However, there are tyre detailing products. No solid evidence, but I think if you washed and applied those every couple of weeks you would maintain the oils in the walls and slow cracking.

😂 i knew it was a Vauxhall but yep a slight difference to the Chevette

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I'd thought the ShoveIt was just a hatch version of the Viva, hadn't realised it was the successor. (I learned on one, and we had friends who'd only just got rid of their Viva, so I thought of them as being available in parallel.) And I definitely thought there were slant front Vivas, but I reckon I was thinking of the droop snoot Firenze.

Still thought of the Macc Lads and their sexist versions of nights out when I saw the original pic though -

Vauxhall Viva's covered in rust
But you can't fuck a girl on a 29 bus

Oh cool. Nice one, cheers for the info.

Chevette is mega, Street Machine had some great builds BITD

Billy Bragg's From a Vauxhall Velox is slightly more nuanced:

She said "do these seats fold down"
And I said "if you pull that handle"
All the time she'd been waiting for
Something with a little more
And all her mates on the new estates
Were walking out in confetti and sunshine

I did a course that included this system on BMW and it is surprising you have to be foot down no reaction for it too work , we had a cardboard cut out stood in the car park we had to drive at and he got run over more than we stopped because, we knew and could see it when driving at it you think this isn't going to stop in time, the second you react by lifting the throttle off the ecu thinks no need for me they have seen it and bang under the car it goes but be brave keep your foot planted and the car slams the brakes on so hard if you didn't have a belt on you would be kissing the screen :D

There’s a lad round here with a Nissan turbo powered shuv, hearing aid brown and tartan seats on banded steels.

, is it fully restored?

The Singer

Thanks for your comment.

I don't think it's restored in the sense of being left in a barn for fifty years and then taken to pieces and rebuilt - it's been a running money pit for at least the past 40 years. There is a magazine article (The Automobile 1988), which reports it as being in similar condition to how it is now.

How much needs doing now? Well, it's had a lot of money spent on it recently, but there's still some fettling to do. However, I'm hoping to get some use out of it this summer.

Photo with this post shows the driver's eye view - you may notice there's no fuel gauge, and that is because the tank is over the driver's knees feeding the carburettor by gravity - so you check the fuel level with a dipstick (the filler cap is visible just in front of the windscreen, pic in first post).

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Rod brakes?

I have a interesting story about meeting him on a train to Brighton... Where I'm either a genius of repartee, a rude arse or a fucking idiot for crossing a man that has beat someone into a wheelchair.

Not ulez compliant is it..

How long will you be gone for?

See my comments.

I have proper off roaded with bigger toys like tatras and stalwarts.

@skinny ah forgot the I have more money than you golf clubesque

Was more about the location, as there is a famous left to rot car there at st pancreas station.

@nick_h. Thought it might be, but looks like it may have started life as a road car not one of the homologation rally cars.

absolutely not but i don’t mind paying when i rarely drive in town. i guess when i said run around i hadn’t thought about this/imagined outside of london. still, all this would depend on the other party

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202406231049645

This is a madness right?
I "need" a car for the summer.

A car that doesn’t have an MOT?

If it's the valve body that's borked it'll be a few grand to fix and a few more to replace. Looks tidy tho'.

Just buy it, Subarus are great. In my totally unbiased opinion anyway.

I obviously missed that bit. all i read was "solenoid, battery, exhaust, apart from that it's great"

Big nope on that Subaru.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202406060461154
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202406120680035
but yes: this sort of thing is what I'm after.

0-1.5 k and petrol (ULEZ)

I had one of those Accord estates with the 2.2 diesel. Really liked it, most comfortable seats in any car I've owned. Drove it from Barcelona to Santander to catch the ferry (400 miles) in about 6 hours and felt fresh as a daisy.