Opinions please

[PhillVR6]

Right, I've sold my corrado VR6 nd want a fun weekend car, I'm seriously considering a westfield or similar. The main problem is it will have to live outside. Is this a big problem? Will it rot?

Could you please let me know of any obvious things I need to look out for?

Finally could you please let me have your opinions of the following cars on ebay:

1. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=29750&item=4535400170&rd=1

2. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=18308&item=4534200417&rd=1

3. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=29750&item=4534069853&rd=1

4. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=29750&item=4534014520&rd=1

5. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=29750&item=4535506286&rd=1

6. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=29750&item=4534751408&rd=1

Thats all for now, any advice/opinions greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Phill

[Kitcarnewbie]

Westy would be ideal, seems to meet your criteria. But keeping it outside in the British weather can't be a good idea.

[dern]

PhillVR6 said:

Right, I've sold my corrado VR6 nd want a fun weekend car, I'm seriously considering a westfield or similar. The main problem is it will have to live outside. Is this a big problem? Will it rot? Could you please let me know of any obvious things I need to look out for? Finally could you please let me have your opinions of the following cars on ebay

I had a 1700 xflow westy for a year and that lived outside. I kept it under a car cover and it was fine. The chassis was powdercoated and 17 years old but was perfect. If I forgot to put the cover on and it rained then it filled up with water. Nothing rotted though as such. You'll have a job getting a decent one for 3k though unless your budget has gone up.

Like I said on the thread you started in gassing, your experience of ownership and your ability to judge a good car from a bad car will depend on your own car maintenance skills which you haven't detailed. Mine was a good car but still needed frequent attention (oil changes, air filter cleaning, replacing brake components, valve clearances, repairing minor electrical issues and so on) and this cost me pennies because I did it all myself and it was very straight forward but it would have been in and out of the garage if I hadn't of done it myself which would probably have got on my nerves.

The cheaper cars tend to have xflows and pintos and one of the cars you detail has a k-series. I always felt that the one big unknown with my car is that I never knew when my engine would require and expensive rebuild. Tuned old engines do not have an unlimited life span and rebuilding a tuned example is going to be pretty expensive (unless you can do it yourself). Maybe the k-series would be a better option being more modern but they aren't without problems themselves. If you are a keen spanner weilder then potentially you could use the engine as is and then replace it with something more modern when it goes bang or when you want to change it. The options are huge.

My car was easily the most fun car I've ever had and the most rewarding to drive by a mile. However, I could only just fit in it (non-widebody) because I'm fairly tall, it wasn't really that fast when push came to shove (felt fast though), I was always nervous of the engine life, it used tons of petrol (couldn't get to work and back on a tank) and the wind buffeting from the tall screen was irritating enough to mean that I drove every where with the doors on. The handling was unbelievable though.

If you're prepared to do the work then they're worth it. I sold mine to fund the build of an R1 locost which will hopefully address some of my reliability worries, be significantly faster, be custom built around me and be screenless.

Regards,

Mark

[PhillVR6]

I've actually got about 6 grand to play with, but don't really want to use all of it.

As far as my spanner skills go, I'd be happy doing routine stuff such as plugs, filters, oil changes and I'm guessing info on the engines is readily available in haynes manuals etc. Also I figured a Westfield would be a pretty good car to learn on.

My main concerns are based around keeping it outside and knowing any specific things to look for.

Thanks,

Phill

[dern]

PhillVR6 said:

As far as my spanner skills go, I'd be happy doing routine stuff such as plugs, filters, oil changes and I'm guessing info on the engines is readily available in haynes manuals etc. Also I figured a Westfield would be a pretty good car to learn on.

Yeah, definitely... everything is easily accessable and bits and pieces are readily available. The only point I was trying to make was it would probably be a frustrating experience if you had to rely on garages but if you want to get stuck in then go for it, they are great weekend cars.

The other great thing is that you can change them to your hearts content. I was going to modify the old westy but the fit of it got in the way but the new car I'm building won't have a screen, any kind of interior padding and fibreglass seats so if it gets wet I won't really care. It's pretty easy to keep an eye out for surface rust on the chassis and the wishbones and as long as the electrical connections are sound and the car isn't festooned with bullet connector and scotch clips you should be ok keeping it outside in my opinion. The only slight issue would be that a cover flapping about may scuff the paint but you can get more expensive covers that address this.

In terms of cost I paid and got a bit less than 5k for mine and you can check out my profile for the kind of thing I got for my money.

Good luck,

Mark