2nd Aug 2006, 09:17

Woo hoo! Having owned a Scimitar SE6a practically forever, I (by accident) ending up living in a tiny village. Walking to the pub on my first there, I strolled past a nice little SS1 lurking on a driveway... after a bit of detective work, I discovered it had been immobile for over a year, as it had a 'serious' rust problem.

The car was too low to get under easily, and in a moment of drunken charity, I offered the owner £100 to take it away. He slept on it... and the next day said " I accept" - For the life of me I had no idea what he was accepting, then I remembered my rash offer...

Anyway, I stored the car for 2 months, then took it to an MOT bay to get the bad news. They said simply.

"Throw it away mate"

Undeterred, I took her down to a local mechanic who actually works mostly on vintage cars. When we popped her up on his ramp, he spat and curse about 'modern cars' and then I asked what he thought. He grumbled, rust falling like a robot's dandruff onto his face, as he prodded at the sad looking chassis...

"Yerrr, it'll take half a day. cost you about 120 quid for cash. "

The man worked his miracle and two days later, the little 1600 passed her MOT with flying colours.

Now she's the 'summer' car, (the SE6a does overheat so in the sunshine) - and has been to Scotland and North Devon with barely a problem...

..except now THIS summer the little tart won't start, think it's the module on the side of the distributor.. Grrr.

Still, I guess I owe her one of those at the very least :-)