A Mostly British Obsession
I’ve been putting quite a few miles on the Land Rover, and it is a pretty comfortable and interesting machine to drive. It could use a bit more power, but it’s not an absolute slug. Here it is on the ferry on the way over to Chuck’s house. That is a Triumph Daytona 600 parked next to it, nice to see more British machinery around and about.
Chuck was kind enough to invite me and a few fellow E-Type owners over to his place today for some hob-nobbing. I had a great time and was the only one who didn’t show up in a Jaguar and one of only two who didn’t drive their E-Type. It was a reminder that the vast majority of the folks you meet fooling around with old cars are great people (I’m one of the minority, neener neener).
Here’s cool video of Mike Hawthorn running a test lap of LeMans in a D-Type Jaguar, providing commentary to boot. Very excellent.
I wish I could say Parkland, Washington is a garden spot, but it’s pretty darn hideous, at least the parts of it I’ve seen. This old Camper Special F250 was down there, and while probably a fair value at $1200, it’s definitely not the truck I’ve been looking for. I can keep sitting on my hands. That’s two old cars in two days I’ve looked at and not purchased, that’s got to be some sort of record.
Yeah, so I’ve had my 1990 F150 back for…two months. And already I’m ready to part with it. It runs fine, it’s in good condition…but it’s boring. And life is too short for boring cars. Isn’t it?
I’m looking at this ’68 Ford F100 today, which is definitely not as boring. And it has a 428 in it. That’s really not boring.
Another MGB. I bought this car in Issaquah shortly after I got rid of the Healey 100-Six. I’m trying desperately to remember how much I paid, but it was probably about $1500. It was bright red, with a halfway decent paint job, but had essentially no interior and a lot of blow-by from the engine.
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Ah, the joys of a free car. Once I had the head down to the machine shop, it turns out it was cracked in not one or two, but three places. So it had to be sent out for welding…which is almost done. My friend Jeff, who is to British cars what the iceberg was to the Titanic, was going to buy this from me when I’m done with it, but he has since bought an MGB.
This means I’ll either keep the car (???) or sell it once it’s sorted out. Actually, I can see three choices:
or
The eye-rolling is almost non-stop around here these days.
I was given a 1987 XJ6 Series 3. Why? It has a blown head gasket, and having a pro fix that will cost you more than a middling-nice XJ6 is worth. (And since it took me about 12 hours just to get the cylinder head off, that’s no suprise, if you imagine even a substantial fraction of that being billed at $90 an hour, with no reconditioning or repair done.)
I’ve agreed to buy back my 1990 F150 pickup from my friend Brent, who bought it from me a few years ago. It’s a good truck and is the very base model F150 from that year–what they called a “work truck.” No carpets, vinyl seats, no accessories at all. But it’s in good condition and still only has 65,000 miles on it. I guess it was somewhat forgetable since before now it didn’t even make it into my list of past vehicles!
It has a canopy on it which I paid a decent amount for, so that our fostered Chocolate Lab, Flake, could ride in it. Hence the entry name. Do I even have a photo of this thing, anywhere, from my past ownership? We didn’t get a digital camera until Allie ran the Portland Marathon, and I think that may have been after we bought Moby D, the white ’98. Hmmm.
Imagine the bike pictured in much worse condition, and you have my machine. It actually looked OK at a glance but the fairing had been broken so many times it was more glue than plastic!
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