s series for around £2000 is it possible?

[Flat-eric]

hi peep's, not been on for a while as have been mega busy but next year i will be coming into a lil bit of money and was wondering if its possible to get a scruffy but solid s v6 for around £2000 as a project? will be looking around june time.

any tips or pointers appreciated.

rob.

[tozerman]

I should imagine you could get a scruffy car for that money but not a solid one, after all if the chassis was solid then £2000 wouldn't be enough IMHO unless you are very lucky. At the end of the day an S with a bad chassis will cost a not inconsiderable amount to put right, in which case why not pay a bit more and buy a good one in the first place. Unless that is you can restore them yourself and save a lot of cash, good luck
Cheers.....Tony..

[Barkychoc]

You could get lucky if someone needs to sell quickly.

I'd put a wanted ad in the classifieds a couple of weeks before you're ready to start looking.

[Flat-eric]

anything interior i can handle, anything electrical i can handle, and bodywork im ok at.

if it needed structural work id could do the prep but i cant weld all that well, but im ok at fabrication.

i'm not a fan of the wedges that you see going cheap as i think they look to blocky and square, i really have my eye's set on the s2 2.9 as a fun weekend car.

£2000 would be to buy the car and then each month id put more into the project.

I'd be looking to do some amateur track days with it too.

rob

[Barkychoc]

I thought the same - I had done virtually nil welding before I refurbed my car - my plan was to sort the chassis and I had 2 thoughts - if I couldn't get my welding up to a decent standard then I'd tack together whatever needs welding (anyone can do this with a couple of hours practice) then get someone who knows what they are doing to do the final welding.
My other thought was to do all the welding myself if I could get it to a decent standard.
I did the latter, I had a couple of instances where the welding was, honestly, terrible.
So I just ground it off and did it again.
You can pick up a mig welder on ebay for £100 or so, you have to go for a local one though as they are effin jeffin heavy. Get some scrap metal and have a play - but it must be rust free as rust and muck plays havoc with mig welding, and one of those auto darkening masks mean you have 2 hands free.

Have a look at http://www.mig-welding.co.uk the videos are worth a look if you want to teach yourself.

Buy a welder on ebay, have a play, if you can't get on with it sell it again.

[The Lukas]

For £2000 I would suspect a money pit. Better off spending double and saving yourself money and allot of stress IMHO

[phillpot]

Barkychoc said:

Buy a welder on ebay, have a play, if you can't get on with it sell it again.

Did you go for the "gas-less" type ?
From what I've read they're better for outdoor work (wind doesn't blow the gas shield away) but down side is not so easy to see weld pool because of flux fumes ?

Of course, if you have a nice big garage to work in gas not a problem !

[Barkychoc]

phillpot said:

Barkychoc said:

Buy a welder on ebay, have a play, if you can't get on with it sell it again.

Did you go for the "gas-less" type ?
From what I've read they're better for outdoor work (wind doesn't blow the gas shield away) but down side is not so easy to see weld pool because of flux fumes ?

Of course, if you have a nice big garage to work in gas not a problem !

I actually got one that would do both - though I could do my welding indoors so I used gas, I haven't tried gasless but from what I've read its much harder as you can't see what you're doing.
If you read up on that welding forum they recommend using CO2/Argon mix gas as it spatters less and you get a better weld.
You can use plain CO2 which is also cheaper but I haven't tried it, I figured I needed all the help I could get so have always used the mixed gas. I used the little bottles from machine mart they are about £12.
You can get big bottles which work out far cheaper, but its a bit more work to source the bottle etc.

My welder is a Clarke (machine mart) EN160 if you're interested, I think it was about £120.
I bought a new auto darkening mask from welders warehouse LINK, I didn't go for for an ebay special incase they don't do something the branded ones do, you only have one pair of eyes!

There's a guy called weldequip on that mig welding forum above thats pretty competitive I discovered later, previously I bought bits from http://www.thewelderswarehouse.com and machine mart.

Also manufacturers tend to make bold claims for what they can weld in terms of thickness - if you're doing chassis welding you need a decent amount of current - I'd try and buy a 150 amp welder anyway to be honest to give ourself some flexibility. Any bigger than this and a 13 amp supply isn't enough, so bear this in mond if you're indoors with your 3kw heater keeping you toasty - I have to turn my heater off to run the welder.

Again look at the mig welding forum - I learnt pretty much everything on there.

Edited by Barkychoc on Sunday 15th November 13:07

[Steve H]

Agree with the comments but I paid that for mine, she is tatty and needs work but to me thats half of the fun and I get to learn a lot along the way. Also as she is a 2nd car and not used a great deal I dont have that feeling that I have a lot of money sitting on my drive doing nothing.

Thats jujustt me though
Steve

[GreenV8S]

Barkychoc said:

You can get big bottles which work out far cheaper, but its a bit more work to source the bottle etc.

The gas is cheaper, but you have to rent the bottle which works out quite expensive if you only use it occasionally.

[Barkychoc]

There are cheap solutions using straight CO2 if you use an old pub gas bottle - you can get hold of these without rental, though its not something I've looked into. Look on the forums on http://www.mig-welding.co.uk

Example here (and not far from you Pete!)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CO2-BOTTLE-WITH-GAS-1013_W0Q...

[mikea4tdi]

For the amount of welding you'd be doing, a couple of disposable bottles will do the trick, really dont bother with the gasless welders, IMO the welds are pretty rubbish.
I bought my s1 for that money as a part finished resto so the chassis was mint.
This might be a better option as often a lot of the work on money may already be spend. A 2k runner will be ropey.

Edited by mikea4tdi on Monday 16th November 21:28

[Flat-eric]

I'm already looking into getting a welder as i like to do a bit of fabrication now and again and since purchasing a grinder i haven't looked back!

I'm dead set on getting an s and just need to fix the current project (se9 calibra v6 auto) and sell that to free up some space and i'll be all set ready for one.

what sort of mpg would the v6 get on a good run guy's? and i've seen this question thrown around a few times on here so before anyone asks i'm 26 years old and think the s is an amazing car and defo not for old people!

rob.

[Gerald-TVR]

Flat-eric said:

what sort of mpg would the v6 get on a good run guy's? .

Who cares its just gret fun

Flat-eric said:

and i've seen this question thrown around a few times on here so before anyone asks i'm 26 years old and think the s is an amazing car and defo not for old people!

Careful boy with your statements - havent you heard of age descrimination!!!!

[Flat-eric]

Gerald-TVR said:

Flat-eric said:

what sort of mpg would the v6 get on a good run guy's? .

Who cares its just gret fun

Flat-eric said:

and i've seen this question thrown around a few times on here so before anyone asks i'm 26 years old and think the s is an amazing car and defo not for old people!

Careful boy with your statements - havent you heard of age descrimination!!!!

No discrimination coming from me, a few friends have passed a few comments but i say what the hell, they are great cars and i've wanted one for ages!

[swimmer27]

Hi Flat-Eric

In February this year I purchased a 1989 S2 2.9 V6 96000 miles with 5 month MOT and 5 Months tax for £2000, it came with a decent service history, nice tidy interior and recent bills for over £2000 which included new hood and recovered roof panels, replacement trailing arms, recored radiator and repaired front out-riggers, full stainless V8 exhaust etc
In July it went through the MOT with one advisory re bulk head bearing which I have now replaced, I have fitted two new rear tyres to match the new fronts and purchased a new oil sender unit, the bodywork is a little patchy and the bonnet a little faded (red) with a few cracks over the battery area and along the front edge above the number plate.
I viewed an S1 plus a same year S2 in white at a dealership that was up for £4200 which looked stunning with only 50000 miles on the clock but when I dipped the oil it was coal black plus there was no antifreeze in the system just water (had tester with me) and it had no service history so I walked away.
I had planned to sort the bodywork but have decided to just enjoy it all year round although avoid taking it out on wet / salted roads.
You will probably get a better deal buying during the winter months like I did rather than the summer, good luck looking.

Edited by swimmer27 on Tuesday 17th November 22:09

[Gerald-TVR]

swimmer27 said:

with only 500000 miles on the clock

Gosh been to the moon and back

[Steve H]

swimmer27 said:

Hi Flat-Eric

In February this year I purchased a 1989 S2 2.9 V6 96000 miles with 5 month MOT and 5 Months tax for £2000, it came with a decent service history, nice tidy interior and recent bills for over £2000 which included new hood and recovered roof panels, replacement trailing arms, recored radiator and repaired front out-riggers, full stainless V8 exhaust etc
In July it went through the MOT with one advisory re bulk head bearing which I have now replaced, I have fitted two new rear tyres to match the new fronts and purchased a new oil sender unit, the bodywork is a little patchy and the bonnet a little faded (red) with a few cracks over the battery area and along the front edge above the number plate.
I viewed an S1 plus a same year S2 in white at a dealership that was up for £4200 which looked stunning with only 500000 miles on the clock but when I dipped the oil it was coal black plus there was no antifreeze in the system just water (had tester with me) and it had no service history so I walked away.
I had planned to sort the bodywork but have decided to just enjoy it all year round although avoid taking it out on wet / salted roads.
You will probably get a better deal buying during the winter months like I did rather than the summer, good luck looking.

I agree with you swimmer, mines no show car but what else for £2k makes you smile more! (legal suggestions only!)

[Flat-eric]

well i'm in talks with an s1 owner that may be parting with there s next year sometime so fingers crossed ill be on the scene next summer!

rob