and today i have mostly been...

[FarmerPug]

No-one's mentioned pogo sticks yet either... I had a look when they had one up on the ramps - dinky 'ickle dwive shafts aww The inside was HiDeOuS

pogo stick , is the interior really that bad, i had my panda a year and didn't notice.
Is it a 4x4 you'r after?

[steve_earwig]

Seriously, bodywork by Fiat, transmission by Mattel, interior by QuAsImOdO

It's the high up & short we're after really but, after once more ending up in the middle of road works complete with massive pot holes and huge rocks, I really think we'd be best off with a 4x4.

[FarmerPug]

Renault offered the scenic and kangoo with a 4x4 system.
though suzukis are much more reliable than renaults, here is a cheap jimny, tough as nails, or at least its rear bumper is :
http://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-moto ... p/89248544

[steve_earwig]

Let's see, 2001 and petrol, so that'll be about 5,500€ Am I close? Am I f"ck

[FarmerPug]

The prices over there are mad, is the tax bad on importing a car, obviously uk cars have the steering wheel on the wrong side, but if you went to france or germany to buy the car, would it work out any cheaper?
What do you think of the jimny by the way?

[steve_earwig]

For 600 quid I'd buy it over the phone

It's a lot of paperwork and a heck of a lot of money, even if I bought it from GB by the time I'd paid all the duties I wouldn't be making much. That Jimny is too old to import, it'd only be good for spares.

[FarmerPug]

sorry to hear that, its the same as relatives of mine from down south (i.e. south of ireland) they can buy cars here in ni but the VRT usually adds a right chunk to be paid on top of the price of the car.
Though if you did buy yourself a local jimny is there tax say if you want to get parts or a breaker one from the uk, is duties put on them?

[steve_earwig]

Do you mean legally? If I drove it through the border here they wouldn't know if I drove it out again but legally I'd have to declare where the parts came from and get taxed accordingly. If I didn't and got caught it's tax evasion, fraud, whatever - do not pass go, do not collect 200 ferrets... Nah, I'm pulling your leg, they'd just deport me.

[FarmerPug]

That doesn't sound nice at all. Tax on secondhand parts, its just nasty.

[steve_earwig]

I'm back! Still without a car. This time I took it for a drive. My mate reckons the clutch is fine but I'm not so sure, the road was damp and the tyres are so old they have no elasticity left but it seemed to me that either the wheels were spinning or the clutch was slipping, I'm not sure which. I found somewhere to stop, dropped it into 4H and on full lock it was pretty obvious the car didn't like it but no unusual noises, the same for 4L. I then stuck it in 4H again, straighteren the wheels, into 1st floor it and dumped the clutch: It stood stationary for a moment, then the engine revs dropped and wahay! off we went. I'm still not sure if this is the clutch so I'll be asking on difflock.

Onto the bodywork and, armed with specific instructions from Colin(406exec) on difflock, I went straight to the boot carpet. Once I'd figured out how to open the wigwam and roll the setas forward, I lifted up the carpet on the left and found a little rust, there's a felt pad that the seat rests on and it looked like this had got soaked and rusted the body under it. Ok, rhs - holy dog's doo dahs :


Then under the bonnet where I looked around the battery and spotted some corrosion by the suspension, which I prodded and it made that traditional crunchy biscuit sound I showed my mate and said not to poke it too hard or his finger will go through. Then the owner came, looked and said it was surface rust So my mate pushed his finger through to show him that it wasn't:


Then I went all the way along both sills with the mirror but couldn't see any holes. I did see a patch on one of the chassis rails and some spray underseal (you can see it in the original picture I took of the side step hanger) so I'm not 100% sure this isn't a bit of cosmetics.

Anyway, armed with these pictures we first went to see a guy my mate trusts and asked in the worst case scenario how much it would cost to fix. 400€. Ooh, not so bad. We then went to the guy who fixed my D9 after my adventure in Lidl car park (who I don't trust) and he reckons 1,500 weasels (200€) which could go up or down, depending on what he finds. Both of these guys have done Vitaras before so I don't think there'll be many surprises but the second guy asked how bad the rust in the doors was. What? We didn't even look at them! Apparently this could be more expensive

Pop quiz: what's this?

I think today I heard the Croatian expression for "money pit"

I'm off to have lunch now, then I'll post this on difflock to see what they reckon. Then I'll go and see my mate who is looking up the cost of a new clutch for me. I can wait

[Welly]

I always thought 4x4's were hard on the clutch wear as they can't really spin a wheel so spin the clutch instead should be an easy job on one of those though?

The tin worm's a bit of a shame but I guess it's all about finding one with the least amount and taking it from there

[FarmerPug]

The clutch sounds like the way it went on the vitara i had, 4H was most noticeable, 4L didn't slip as much, but the vitara engine comes out quite easy, a clutch kit on ebay does the job quite well.
That rust doesn't look too awful compared to some of the vitaras that i have seen and had, they normally just have a big hole round the suspension tower, but if you can get a rust free one all the better.

If your looking info about the suzuki difflock is good, but i think it might have even been the ones on difflock who sent me over to suzuki club uk, most of the difflock people are on it aswell, it does seem to be a better place at getting replies.

About the pop quiz, is it a trumph stag it had a T over the roof, but then the back was bigger, might be some american car mad guess pontiac trans am firebird?

[steve_earwig]

Bugger it, with the price of the welding, clutch and tyres it puts the cost into la-la land We calculated at between 5 and 6,000€ and that's before we get it up on the lift & see what else it needs. FOr a 20 year old Vitara

Time to have (another) rethink.

Almost right Frank - it's a Camero. I thought it was from the other side of the workshop but then thought it must be a Trans Am from the T top but I asked and I had it right the first time. Note the plating - you'd think if they were going to all the trouble to strip it & flip it they'd do something better than that, it looks like something I'd do!

[FarmerPug]

ah squat I've just noticed the picture of the thing on the side, suppose thats a clue. Though american cars are not my speciality.

About the vitara that sounds like a right bit of money and they do have other parts that need attention, the seals round the steering ball on the front axle is away on mine, diffs need oil, shocks etc it is 20 years old after all.

[steve_earwig]

And that'd be after I've found what other sins had been hidden with lob.

I didn't pay much attention to the picture, I think it's how the owner wants it to look. Oh yes, it'll look like that, just don't go bumping into anything. By the way, thanks for the holiday to the Bahamas...