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Hi Everyone
Firstly, thank you to all of the welcome messages and kind words that have appeared today on the thread montego 1.6L where I have made a couple of posts after today's purchase! As promised here is a bit of info about how in the last 2 weeks I've gone from no monstros to two!
I've always been into cars and have been lucky enough to have owned a fair few over the years but my heart has always been with the mini. I was bought my first one at 12 to shut me up and I've always had a couple in the background no matter where the classic car fancy of the day has led me.
I was born in 1984 and my 30th is in August. I decided to look out for something from 84 to have a kitch toy for the summer. Somehow the maestro LVL 618Y ended up on my ebay watched items amongst hundreds of other obscurities I seem to watch. I was in the pub after work two weeks last Friday when I got an alert that that auction was ending shortly. I opened it up (probably bored with the conversation around me) and I have no idea what possessed me to enter a bid but I did. It was at £623.50 I think and I bid £666.66 with 30 seconds to go not for one minute thinking id get it. Wrong. £643.66 later it was mine!
An afterthought was to look where in the world it was... Only 200 miles away - well at least it wasn't Scotland I suppose. Excited with my purchase I called the usual suspects to see who fancied a trip to collect it... I drew a blank . Apparently it didn't excite enough for a free day out in my company. Undettered I made arrangements to go it alone the following weekend with a trailer.
In the mean time that weekend was the Brooklands show which I went along to and met Tanya. She gave such a warm reception that I was quietly a little bit pleased that the club may be a nice place to be and I'm pleased that today's reception has reinforced that. In the week preceding collection I did some research on the car and ascertained that it was chassis number SAXXCMWY1AM/116196 reg on 11/04/83. A check with BMHT confirmed that it's build date is 07/03/83.
On collection i was very surprised that the car actually was as good as described. The body is solid with no evidence of welding underneath. Original sills, some historic paintwork rectification on the the arches but nothing scary. A mint interior and headlining. There are a couple of superficial Bubbles and scabs which are small and surface only so don't detract - however very easy fix. She runs well and is surprisingly very nice to drive. I will post some pics over the weekend.
Despite being bizarrely pleased with my new purchase I couldn't help thinking if I'd like something from 84 too. I thought it may be nice to have a montego as a stable mate but my initial findings from the last week were that it's hard enough to find a montego for sale let alone one from 84! Fast forward to today and I saw the thread about A122 TOO which was just that. Impulsively and with little thought in the Starbucks que I fired off a message to the seller with my details. We ended up talking on the phone and within minutes I was another £400 worse off! It turns out it's located about an hour from where the maestro was from so another trip up the M1 with a trailer I think.
It's on SORN since I think November he said but it has MOT to 22/08 (ironically my 30th birthday!) I asked him to send me the chassis number which is SAXXEMLY7AM102477 and this was registered on 24/04/84.
So there's the story so far... It was always my intention to get to the POL day and do the run in the maestro and I'm well on the way to that happening. I've taxed it and it's booked in for a check over and service next week. However, a bit of me is thinking it might be nice to have the montego there (as well?!) but as we stand it's 200 miles away and not running - watch this space!!
I've joined the club and ironically membership pack was on the door mat tonight.
I'd be really interested to hear from anyone in the south east as I'm well up for any social meets with cars! Also, some feedback on where both of my cars fall in terms of ranking on earliest known... Is the montego the earliest one?
I look forward to meeting you all as the year rocks on and if you've made it this far in reading well done!
John Boi
Firstly, thank you to all of the welcome messages and kind words that have appeared today on the thread montego 1.6L where I have made a couple of posts after today's purchase! As promised here is a bit of info about how in the last 2 weeks I've gone from no monstros to two!
I've always been into cars and have been lucky enough to have owned a fair few over the years but my heart has always been with the mini. I was bought my first one at 12 to shut me up and I've always had a couple in the background no matter where the classic car fancy of the day has led me.
I was born in 1984 and my 30th is in August. I decided to look out for something from 84 to have a kitch toy for the summer. Somehow the maestro LVL 618Y ended up on my ebay watched items amongst hundreds of other obscurities I seem to watch. I was in the pub after work two weeks last Friday when I got an alert that that auction was ending shortly. I opened it up (probably bored with the conversation around me) and I have no idea what possessed me to enter a bid but I did. It was at £623.50 I think and I bid £666.66 with 30 seconds to go not for one minute thinking id get it. Wrong. £643.66 later it was mine!
An afterthought was to look where in the world it was... Only 200 miles away - well at least it wasn't Scotland I suppose. Excited with my purchase I called the usual suspects to see who fancied a trip to collect it... I drew a blank . Apparently it didn't excite enough for a free day out in my company. Undettered I made arrangements to go it alone the following weekend with a trailer.
In the mean time that weekend was the Brooklands show which I went along to and met Tanya. She gave such a warm reception that I was quietly a little bit pleased that the club may be a nice place to be and I'm pleased that today's reception has reinforced that. In the week preceding collection I did some research on the car and ascertained that it was chassis number SAXXCMWY1AM/116196 reg on 11/04/83. A check with BMHT confirmed that it's build date is 07/03/83.
On collection i was very surprised that the car actually was as good as described. The body is solid with no evidence of welding underneath. Original sills, some historic paintwork rectification on the the arches but nothing scary. A mint interior and headlining. There are a couple of superficial Bubbles and scabs which are small and surface only so don't detract - however very easy fix. She runs well and is surprisingly very nice to drive. I will post some pics over the weekend.
Despite being bizarrely pleased with my new purchase I couldn't help thinking if I'd like something from 84 too. I thought it may be nice to have a montego as a stable mate but my initial findings from the last week were that it's hard enough to find a montego for sale let alone one from 84! Fast forward to today and I saw the thread about A122 TOO which was just that. Impulsively and with little thought in the Starbucks que I fired off a message to the seller with my details. We ended up talking on the phone and within minutes I was another £400 worse off! It turns out it's located about an hour from where the maestro was from so another trip up the M1 with a trailer I think.
It's on SORN since I think November he said but it has MOT to 22/08 (ironically my 30th birthday!) I asked him to send me the chassis number which is SAXXEMLY7AM102477 and this was registered on 24/04/84.
So there's the story so far... It was always my intention to get to the POL day and do the run in the maestro and I'm well on the way to that happening. I've taxed it and it's booked in for a check over and service next week. However, a bit of me is thinking it might be nice to have the montego there (as well?!) but as we stand it's 200 miles away and not running - watch this space!!
I've joined the club and ironically membership pack was on the door mat tonight.
I'd be really interested to hear from anyone in the south east as I'm well up for any social meets with cars! Also, some feedback on where both of my cars fall in terms of ranking on earliest known... Is the montego the earliest one?
I look forward to meeting you all as the year rocks on and if you've made it this far in reading well done!
John Boi
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