Recommissioning after standing for a while - best way?

[white16valver]

Hey all

I'm pleased to see this place is still going!

I don't know where time's gone but it's been a few years since I've been running my valver - I feared the MOT man's view of my rust so I just parked it up, and since then I imagine things have only got worse...

That said, I need a working car, so inbetween getting tempted by Mk1 MX5s I'm thinking about getting the old girl running again.

I'm assuming it would be wise to charge the battery (or buy a new one as this one is probably dead... lol), drain and refill the oil, check the sparkplugs and all fluid levels, stick some new petrol in the tank, and then take off the main HT lead so I can turn it over and get the oil round the engine before starting it up?

Anything else I should do?


I'm aware that my brakes are now more rust than metal, the brake fluid is probably more water than anything else, the rear calipers have probably seized, the wipers have perished, and the tyres will have flatspotted...

I guess the main dilemma is do I spend some money on new bits (so trying to start it won't kill it) when it may well fail the MOT spectacularly and need an entire new floorpan and sills??


I was hoping to be rich enough to give the whole thing a restoration by now but that hasn't happened...

[HYBRID_HAZ]

Welcome back, no speak for a while.

How many years has it been sitting now? Are you sure the engine has not seized up?

Also what happened to the van? Would that not be easier to get back on the road if you have it (was rust free from memory last time I saw it).

[white16valver]

Hey Haz!

I think the valver has been sitting for about 5 years now I would hope the engine doesn't seize up, they should effectively be sealed units, shouldn't they, if all connections are still intact??

The Van is also still here and is looking in a lot better shape, body-wise - I'm just getting old and resentful of being bent over for £800+ for insurance (at the last quote) when I barely drive anywhere nowadays and am an old man, not a chav boy racer!!

[y0z2a]

It's my first time on here since late last year, and I swear, I was yesterday wondering how the hell you were fella.

FFS, I haven't seen you since NYE 2008/9!!!

You were always an old man!

[northy]

any pictures of how she sits now mate. Always nice to see a old username pop back on again!

[DSilvaSport]

I was hoping to be rich enough to give the whole thing a restoration by now but that hasn't happened...

I'm feeling your pain on this one.

[white16valver]

It's my first time on here since late last year, and I swear, I was yesterday wondering how the hell you were fella.

FFS, I haven't seen you since NYE 2008/9!!!

You were always an old man!

haha!

I have been up and down the country a few times this past year and have thought it would be good to go via your old place and see if you were around - going by your location box on here, it would have been a wasted trip lol

Hope Down Under is treating you well, I'm sure your motivated-ness is serving you well in the land where hard work is rewarded! Getting well fed up with my job here - I've been doing it for far too long and any motivation I've had has long since disappeared because even doing the best job I can every day, I don't get any financial reward for it... Have been looking at swapping careers to one that pays better, but this place is so cushty (I got in at 12.30pm today LoL) that a change will be hard! lol

Anyway, you are right - it has been forever! Was it the NYE party or the wedding that I saw you last? I don't quite now where time is going... (which makes me officially old )

any pictures of how she sits now mate. Always nice to see a old username pop back on again!

By a remarkable coincidence I washed the green moss off the valver last night so I'll have to get a pic up now it's white again.

One side still looks alright, the other side looks to need inner and outer sills, possibly some of the floor, and the complete rear wing replacing

I'm scared to jack it up to check in case the jack goes through the sills, and I can't drive it to the MOT place to get it up on some ramps ("The MOT is booked, officer, honest!") because the disks look like the sort of thing you'd find at the bottom of someone's garden in a junk pile... lol

I might have to prise the rear door cards off (hopefully not breaking anything...) and have a nose down the inside of the wing to see how bad it is.

I'm feeling your pain on this one.

Just drives me nuts - all the newer cars don't appeal at all to me, apart from a few lightweight things that will cost loads - but justifying sinking £1k+ into major metalwork for a valver when I know I will never get back what I pay (which would be much easier to achieve with the 'desirable' Williams, despite being virtually the same car really ) is difficult.

Current thoughts are get a whole mk1 MX5 for under a grand, insure it for something tiny like £200, and then sell it for the same as I bought it X years down the line.

The alternative option is to spend what will likely end up at least a grand on bodywork, flush 600-800 quid down the drain on insurance (WTF? Don't they realise how old I am and how little it's worth??), probably a similar amount on a full service and brake overhaul (I realised last night I left the handbrake on, muppet, so that's the rear calipers definitely seized), and then have a car that people will only want to spend perhaps a grand on if I sold it on. The under-appreciation of the valvers of this world makes me angry/sad and I can't bear to strip and scrap something that is not crashed or a small pile of iron oxide with some engine parts sticking out the top.

*Sigh.*

[16v_paddy]

Current thoughts are get a whole mk1 MX5 for under a grand, insure it for something tiny like £200, and then sell it for the same as I bought it X years down the line.

The mk1 MX5 beat the Clio for tin worm

[Daz.]

Full bore standing start should shake off any cobwebs....

[16v_paddy]

It's amazing what a good old fashioned italian tune up can achieve