19-12-2020, 10:49 PM
About ten years ago I decided to replace the Ruby I had put back on the road in 1999 (after it spent 22 years under a tarpaulin in a garden) with a 'better' one. I bought a car that looked promising - needed one or two things sorting out - like oily rear brakes - but had shiny black paint, a lovely matching interior, full history from new (6 owners) and the original engine.
But a few weeks of living with the new car made me realise that the mechanicals were much more worn than my original, including the drive-train and bottom end of engine. Also, the body structure was not as good as there was corrosion in the lower body - this had previously been sorted out on my original car with solid metal welded in everywhere. A lot of work was going be needed to properly resolve these problems in the longer term. In addition, the paintwork was not as good as it looked after its recent respray. The black had been put directly on top of a red primer, rather than a proper high-build primer. It didn't look like it would last. The car had been rewired about 1970 using PVC point to point - not well - so this needed doing again with a proper loom. And the car had a persistent misfire that eventually turned out to be a fault with the new Bosch distributor - the last place I looked.
Once I had fixed up the new one and got it running properly, I had to decide which car to keep? I chose the original car I knew over the new one, despite the old one's scuffiness inside and out and lack of history prior to 1970, and so was back to square one - which is where I remain. The grass isn't always greener.
But a few weeks of living with the new car made me realise that the mechanicals were much more worn than my original, including the drive-train and bottom end of engine. Also, the body structure was not as good as there was corrosion in the lower body - this had previously been sorted out on my original car with solid metal welded in everywhere. A lot of work was going be needed to properly resolve these problems in the longer term. In addition, the paintwork was not as good as it looked after its recent respray. The black had been put directly on top of a red primer, rather than a proper high-build primer. It didn't look like it would last. The car had been rewired about 1970 using PVC point to point - not well - so this needed doing again with a proper loom. And the car had a persistent misfire that eventually turned out to be a fault with the new Bosch distributor - the last place I looked.
Once I had fixed up the new one and got it running properly, I had to decide which car to keep? I chose the original car I knew over the new one, despite the old one's scuffiness inside and out and lack of history prior to 1970, and so was back to square one - which is where I remain. The grass isn't always greener.