Thanks!
Now, there's a question! There's probably an order that things should be done in, and an order that I'd prefer them to be done in. And some rationalisation that needs to happen.
The Citroen BX (which just needs a clutch, clutch cable, and general refresh) and the Alfa 156 (which also just needs a bit of a refresh) aren't far from being sorted. But they're also probably the ones that are closest to being on the chopping block for selling (along with the Lada, which needs a bit more work). I keep umming and arring about selling them though.
The Rover needs an axle and something looking at with the engine as it's sounding very tappety. It's probably the cam having wiped a lobe. Oh, and something sorting with the exhaust as it sounds great but there's a horrible boom. But there's halfway decent motivation for that one. This one's either a keeper, or the mate I bought it from would quite like it back (though is in a similar position to me around car storage).
The X1/9 has an Uno Turbo engine in it, but the headgasket went when a jubilee clamp let go on the motorway. One of only two janky ones I hadn't replaced with good quality versions...which I had in the footwell waiting to be done. I have another engine that needs a rebuild, but is hopefully not warped. It's also picked up a fair few rust scabs from sitting outside (so I'm very pleased it's finally under cover). There's a few other bits that need doing on this, like a new set of synchros as the previous lot were wrecked by a misdiagnosed pinhole leak in the clutch line. This one's a keeper.
The Alfa 75 has a 24v engine that's in a state of partial assembly (I bought it from a guy who was partway through rebuilding it, but span the crank without the liners held down which disturbs the o-ring at the bottom). As far as I can tell that's the only major issue, though there's likely to be more from sitting. And unfortunately all of the valves and buckets got mixed up during the move when my dad lifted a box and they all fell off their places (I don't really blame him for this, he wasn't to know). This one's probably a keeper.
The one that's closest to being on the road is the MGF, which just needs a refurbed set of spheres fitting, the brakes bleeding and a new set of jubilees on the coolant hoses to avoid a Fiat situation again. However, this one is also potentially on the chopping block, but is worth so little that I don't know if it's worth selling at all (the spec is great, but it's a very old tired example). I keep wondering if it's worth buying another nicer example and swapping all the good bits over. No idea what to do with this one.
The one I really want to finish is the Spitfire. It's my first proper project, and I've pretty much completely rebuilt it, but it still needs a decent amount of work. Full rewiring, all fuel and brake lines plumbing, decent amount of fabrication, fuel injection system, some fibreglass panelwork, and plenty of other bits. There's also some rectification work that needs doing where I did things when I was still learning that need fixing. Stupid stuff like building the engine up without cleaning off the yellow wax gunk from the machine shop, which usually has a bunch of swarf in it (though in all honesty, it was so long ago I can't remember if I did it or not!). This one's definitely a keeper.
The Maserati 228 is
shot. It was my dad's old car, and I can remember him driving me to school in it, but it got halfway through a resto and then life got in the way for him. Now it's rustier than ever, has had the roof dented by a falling tree, and the kicker is that the windscreen got smashed and they only made 400ish of them in the first place. I
could fix this (it's within my capabilities), but every sensible bone in my body is telling me I shouldn't (I've grown a few more of these recently...).
Out of shot I also have a Triumph 2000 that I'm partway through fitting an AJ6 into. That needs about as much work as the Spitfire, if not a little more as the bodywork still needs sorting.
And a Jag XJ40 that I've swapped a BMW M57 into. This has been my daily driver for a number of years and is about 90% done, but is currently off the road with electrical problems. I know what these are though, which is a start! It also needs the diff rebuilding properly as the company I got to do it shimmed the stub axles incorrectly (which provide the upper location for the spindles), and paint.
All of this is made a little worse as I've just bought this:
This is a 1989 Maserati 222E (the updated Biturbo where they fixed a bunch of the issues that gave them a bad rep). I've been waiting for a RHD manual 2-door Biturbo to come along at a time I could afford one for basically my entire life, and of course the only one that does appears when I've got
this level of space and time crunch going on
but I kept being told 'there's no good time to do these things' when I was asking for 6 months more before we started having a kid, so I figured I'd see if that applies to other things in life (luckily it does, my other half is very patient!).
This was running beautifully when the guy sent me a video before viewing it, but he'd run it out of petrol and it had developed a misfire by the time I actually came to see it. I'm figuring crud in the injectors. Hopefully a simple fix. The cambelt's a bit old, and it needs a general health check (valve clearances etc.) but other than that it's got a clean MoT! It does have a couple of rust scabs, which is par for the course for these.
So yeah, first priority is the garage (if only so I can shuffle everything up and get our parking space back at the front). Then there's a few cars that are very close to being roadworthy again (Mas, MGF and Jag). There's probably some that need selling. Then I don't know which to do next!
Whichever it is, what I shouldn't do is what I've done so far: potter on with half a dozen different projects at once. It's an efficient use of time, but there's a reason I'm stuck driving a boring 2010s Passat and not one of any of my cool cars.
