Cornflakes Packets

Distinguishing features : The car had a new paintjob, that was nothing new with the Auction cars. It seemed low down at the back end, sort of slick and fast looking. Unknown to me the rear subframe had rotted (I didn't even know what a subframe was). It became evident that something was amiss when I went around corners, a grating noise from the back end in addition to an oil light that came on under the same circumstances.

Highlights of career : Mark put a new subframe on it and it drove great after that - almost felt like a new car. As an aside, the 65 quid it cost to foot this bill was borrowed off a loan-shark type guy - I paid it off at 5 quid a week for 20 weeks - good interest rate or what!. The oil light problem was caused by nothing more than a bad sender unit, this is the worst type of problem. The worrying red light, the doom and gloom of the unknown, the sleepless nights....3 quid for a new sender and we were back in business.

I was sitting in Skelmersdale concourse car park one day, minding my own business, pumping the brakes...when the peddle went to the metal and the contents of my brake fluid resevoir drained happily onto the tarmac. There was an amusing drive home (three miles) as the handbrake was none existant. Made my own brake pipes with a kit from Halfords and a swaging thingy from Mark.

Apart from the problems it was quite a reliable little car and that summer we went on a camping holiday in it. It was ideal for the little family man that I was at that time....

Time wore on and the signs of the underlying rot and cornflakes packets were showing. The front wings were hopelessly bodged and the more I delved with my grinder the worse it was. I took it up to Marks place and we did some serious bodywork on it. New front wings, bodging here and there and a decent paint job. Not expensive repairs at the time and it looked great.

Again, it seemed the right time to sell the machine once I'd ironed out most of the problems (I know, does not make any sense). I think it sold for the grand total of 140 quid - I was definately not a wheeler dealer...