Anderzander

I'm carp at buying cars - I nearly always get all over enthusiastic and buy the first one I look at. I'm going to look at a 90 tomorrow - looks a good car, high mileage but well looked after, and a fair price ... But it's with a dealer so I'm sure I'm not supposed to just go in grinning like an idiot and pay them. Can anyone educate me ?

The existing loom is long enough for you to move the ECU onto the bulkhead behind the middle seat.

Oops - I just spoke to my friend and it wasn't him :/ Though I have definitely heard of some being fitted before and them being too hard - I must have read it on a forum.

I don't have much detail - but a friend fitted paras to his S3 and they were super stiff and ruined the ride. He persevered with them for a while before reverting to standard. Unfortunately I don't remember what brand they were - but I'll ask.

The only thing I'd add is that on mine the inner face of the chassis rails had rotted, along the side of the fuel tank. I had thought it was fine, so bought a crossmember without extensions. What followed was rather a lot of reconstruction.

Lol - that's funny.

Though if it's valued by an engineer I'm guessing there may be less opportunity to do that ?

Thank you again everyone. The insurer has presented two options: A settlement now or an Engineer to visit and assess the damage and value it. Apparently the body shop report has reported chassis damage - which some of you guys picked up... and has lead to me leaning towards a settlement rather than buying it back. They won't though offer a figure so I can then decide about the engineer - but I guess a plus point would be that I may benefit from it being seen and it's condition recognised. The flip side is that I've seen a 90 for sale that I really like - but it's right at the top end of what they may offer. On the early settlement I'd perhaps not get enough money - on the engineers visit it could well have been sold.

Crikey - just eaten a fortune cookie and got a rather apt message :

Yes - I just rang them - they will do it but it's £168 plus £1.68 per mile and that may be plus VAT.

I am mindful of the nice bits on it - though they are a winch set up - the suspension, a diff, and an x-brake. I mentioned removing the winch to the NFU and they said absolutely. If I had the truck here I could swap most of the suspension over and the diff to standard parts too. I'm not sure how to get it here though - I asked them about moving it here so I could get further repair quotes - but that hasn't happened. I'm not sure how I'd move it myself or how they would receive that. Would my RAC cover collect it for me ?

Don't worry about being a prophet of doom - my heads not the clearest and I need people to talk sense to me.

There's an old saying about this - which states something like - out of talent, hard work, and correct tuition .... Talent is the least important as you have what you have and hard work can make up for more than people think - whilst correct tuition is the most important - because great talent and great hard work could not expect to rediscover all the knowledge of a trade. I do take your point though - but I do also think hard work is easier for something you have a passion - and that people do have talents in different areas.

That was my first response - but having seen it again I felt differently about it. I think the bumper and the wheels have acted almost as a sacrificial link - seemingly having been destroyed by the force rather than passing it into the rest of the truck. But - I still take your point and would like another, more thorough look at it before I make my decision. So much to think about ...

That's helpful - thank you. How did you go on with insuring it once rebuilt ?

It's looking fantastic. If I get my car back from the insurers I'm going to need 2 new wings. I looked at these yesterday : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/400746534074 I'm surprised at how dear wings are - £100 seems to buy an outer complete with dents.

Not unattainable - but requires the right balance of hard work, talent, and opportunity.

Thank you. My early td5 inners are galvanised.

Yes - it's the skills too. Fabrication is amazing I think - to actually be able to produce something of quality from raw materials must be immensely satisfying.....and exciting too!. What shall we build today ?

p.s. Load of the emergency staff at the scene told me to buy a lottery ticket - so I did. It's drawn on Saturday. Seems to me that I've already cashed in my luck for a good while yet though...

Thank you everybody - really encouraging responses from you all, and very much appreciated. I spoke to the insurer (NFU) yesterday - they are open to the options of me buying salvage and they are going to ring me tomorrow after they've spoken to their engineer. I suggested they bring it here too so that I could more fully assess the damage, get 'further quotes', and save them storage costs ...... See what they say to that. It all depends on costs I guess. But there is potential for me to finish it with a cat D to drive and have had some money to rebuild it (and maybe even a bit extra to chuck at my series 1). I'm not sure at all at what value they will put on my 90 and what cost they would put on the salvage yet. If it works out cheap enough to take the salvage, then I'd buy a super cheap car to run around in and take the pressure time pressure off fixing this. So hard to value 90's - mine was 2000 but 80k and very clean and well looked after - I see later ones that are sheds in comparison but almost none of its age that are as tidy. A point I'll probably have to argue with them. I'll post up the outcome. Thank you again.

They look nice !! What holds the inner to the outer ? Is it possible to leave the inner in place and just remove the outer ?

Turning the pressure down and getting the wax the right consistency sorted the extension tube out for me. Until I got the white spirit/heat/pressure thing right I thought the tube was useless. Might be worth persevering with a bit more fiddling ?

I'd love a tour !

Thanks James. I'm not sure what's happening with it all at the moment. It seems rolling a Landy is fine when it's done in the air The police told me a 'cross over' is incredibly rare - this was their 2nd in 4 years and it's normally artics. The Highways guys said it was impossible and that the barriers are designed to bounce you back into your own carriageway. I'm sore as hell but otherwise ok - though I'm needing a bit of time to put my thoughts in order too.