ABBY the Vario - "repatriated" to Ireland 24/07/2014

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Chris_C
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Re: ABBY the Vario - needs some panel beating 30/08/2012

Post by Chris_C » 04 Sep 2012 10:22 am

Please just measure the spring pickups and take a load of diagonals first MP. I know you are ninja but it'd be criminal to put in a load of work and watch the thing drive round in circles forever more.
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Re: ABBY the Vario - needs some panel beating 30/08/2012

Post by mac » 04 Sep 2012 07:57 pm

Chris, I'm going over to Daf Central on Saturday armed with my set of chassis dimensions to have a look at ABY and see how bad she really is.

Mac.
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Re: ABBY the Vario - needs some panel beating 30/08/2012

Post by MCHUDD » 04 Sep 2012 08:00 pm

Hi mate.
I have a couple of those leaf spring mounting jobs if you need them.
Cheers Mark.
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Re: ABBY the Vario - needs some panel beating 30/08/2012

Post by macplaxton » 04 Sep 2012 11:25 pm

Mac, If you can take billion hi-res pictures of all bits concerned (inside/outside) I'd be grateful. I've only got what I have up here.

Might be an idea to pull the tax disc out of the window. Think it's gonna have to be SORN'd for bit.
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Re: ABBY the Vario - needs some panel beating 30/08/2012

Post by mac » 09 Sep 2012 09:17 pm

Rich,

Ring me when you get a mo.

Mac.
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Re: ABBY the Vario - needs some panel beating 30/08/2012

Post by macplaxton » 09 Sep 2012 11:33 pm

No probs Mac, although I have to say, moes are in short supply at the minute. :(
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Re: ABBY the Vario - "repatriated" to Ireland 24/07/2014

Post by macplaxton » 03 Aug 2014 12:46 am

Well I thought I'd dig this thread up after nearly two years.. :cry:

Abby spent 6 months at ED Centraal and had to be relocated to ED Zuiden for some further temporary accommodation. Unfortunately at the time, I couldn't find a volunteer to fit a light unit and whizz her down the road (she still had MOT and tax back then). So she went there on a flatbed:
Image
Daf3178_zps3e621c08 by macplaxton (courtesy of 33Grinder), on Flickr
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Daf3180_zpsbea52ed8 by macplaxton (courtesy of 33Grinder), on Flickr
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Daf3181_zpsfc833332 by macplaxton (courtesy of 33Grinder), on Flickr
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Daf3436_zpsf41e2fca by macplaxton (courtesy of 33Grinder), on Flickr

Big thanks goes to Ken & Pete for putting her up (and putting up with her) all this time. Sorry it took so long. (Mrs MacP was 8-months pregnant with no2 when the incident occurred)

Fast forward to July this year and we're not much further on in this insurance saga, but she really needed to move.

Arrangements were made around 10th July to do a "smash 'n' grab" a couple of weeks later. So I booked a flight from Dublin to Southend on the morning of 24th and a return on the boat early doors on the 25th. The bit in the middle could sort itself out :wink:

As I couldn't find my spares, I had to borrow a light cluster from the BB which I took off the night before in the dark :oops:
Image
2014-07-25_07-21-56_502 by macplaxton, on Flickr

The 24th arrived and as usual I had little sleep (2½ hrs) and a red-eye flight to catch. The kids were dug up early and plonked in their seats. I drove up to Dublin Airport with Mrs P driving the car back home. Arrived at the Airport just after 6am with a 7:15am flight to catch. Things were slightly sticky through security as one particular thing caught their eye on the X-ray machine. A NOS pair of metal bumper brackets. The only other things in the back were a OSR lamp unit, four rubber exhaust rings (as they were in front of me at the computer desk when I was packing) and a roll of silver duck tape. X-ray man referred the brackets to his senior, who in turn referred them to his big cheese. Eventually I got the nod to keep them. Phew!

The flight was uneventful and arrived about 20 mins late at 9.10am. UK Border bods called me back and asked for ID and what/where/how/why questions. Do I look that suspicious with my Tennent's Lager sports bag? Again I was duly sent on my way and met up with Pete who agreed to lend a hand on his week off and also transport me to the EDZ in the Shaguar.

Image (V12-awesomeness courtesy of 33Grinder)

We arrived at EDZ to meet Ken who had put in a much appreciated early appearance to get Abby scrubbed up a bit and looking more presentable. With the clock against as the first problem to see to was the running. She wasn't holding an idle at all. After popping the air filter housing off for further investigation, it was reveal that a vacuum hose had split. This was shortened and refitted. The other issue was the choke mechanism had unscrewed itself and fallen off (explaining why the choke wouldn't push fully home). This was re-attached and then she was running as sweet as a nut. 8)

Next up was to deal with the rear light. After a good bit of swearing, prying, hammering, taping between us - we had a working rear light cluster, but no number plate lights (both bulb kaput). The tailgate wasn't latching, so I just moved up the striker plate so it did so.

Resulting in this:
Image
IMG_7244 by macplaxton (courtesy of 33Grinder), on Flickr
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IMG_9769 by macplaxton (courtesy of 33Grinder), on Flickr
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2014-07-27_17-58-57_223 by macplaxton, on Flickr
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2014-07-27_17-59-05_281 by macplaxton, on Flickr

That'll do, if tape is good enough for Mondeo bumpers, then tape is good enough for me. :lol:

By now it was 1 o'clock, so I had to say goodbye to the lads as I had pre-arranged a MOT for 2.45pm.......

......in High Wycombe.

Following leaving, I managed to cover the M11, M25, M40 and the respective manors of Essex Police, Hertfordshire Constabulary and Thames Valley Police. 66 miles and no tug. 8-)

Arrived in Wycombe just after 2pm. Stopped at the Shell garage on London road for some Shell Mega Nitro Turbo Super Plus Optibollox and Irn-Bru was on offer, so I got those and a sandwich and crisps. Then another 1/2 mile up the road to the MOT testing station. Was 30 minutes early so asked if he had a couple of number plate light bulbs handy. (Working on the basis that if he didn't, I know the motor factors is just over the road round the corner and could get them whilst waiting). It wasn't necessary for me to go there as he said "no problem" and I fitted the bulbs.
Chris_C (on page 1 of this thread) wrote:
volvosneverdie wrote:Another pass with flying colours.
I reckon these fictitious passes with flying colours' don't actually exist and are all a ploy to wind me up :evil: :evil:
Although not flying colours*, just to annoy Chris:
Image
2014-07-24_15-30-54_621 by macplaxton, on Flickr

*1 advisory: "Offside Rear Suspension spring mounting prescribed area is distorted but not considered excessive (2.4.A.3)"

Woo-hoo! Post Office was a short hop up Micklefield Rd so bagged my disc in there. Interestingly, I could either buy a disc starting 1st Jul or 1st Aug. In ye olden days, if you didn't have a current one, you could only get next month's two days before the end of the month, but since all this online malarkey, you can get a following month's one any time after the 5th of the preceding one. Not wanting to risk the wrath of the filth, I opted for a July start. That was me all ticketed and taxed at 3.30pm. ;)

Wandered down to Bourne End and got the front wheels balanced at ATS. The hammering on first motorway leg was unbearable. The nearside has a 10g on the outside and the offside a PAIR of 40g :o £14 wasn't too bad and it saved me going bananas on the trip to port. (I was even happy with their service as they didn't even attempt to flog me anything extra whatsoever. No comment about old tyres being the work of satan, or tracking, or go on - have some Nitrogen. Zilch.)

Went up the road to see my mate Raymondo and picked up a couple of motorcycle fairings, left his 7pm, to make my way to Oxford Services for 7.30pm. Picked some more bits up from a Michael who came up from Newbury (he used to stay in Slough poor fellow). He also had my NOS Volvo-fake-chrome-plastic-rain-gutter-trims. :mrgreen: Had some Burger King filth and saw lots of plod in and out of there but no interest. :( Left at 9pm and next stopped at Chester Services on the M56 at 11.45pm for a quick slash and another Shell fill-up. At this point I noticed something when locking the door of the car at Chester Services in the dark. One of the nearside taillamps was on, despite the lights and everything switched off. It did go out after a bit of slapping. This might have been the cause of the phantom battery drain that Pete said he had experienced during lay-up time (Bob Bosch battery was very new before the incident). The only other strange thing which used to happen long before this was an erratic clock that would sometimes tell the right time and sometimes stop. :? Got going again at midnight and got to port at 1.30am with plenty of time to spare. Speedo needle was fluttery all day and gave up the ghost 17 miles short of Holyhead. Unfortunately my spare stock of Smiths speedo cables is dry, so another one is on order from Speedograph Richfield.

Got 1½ hours kip in a rather uncomfy chair on the boat (didn't make it upstairs fast enough to commandeer one of the limited number of bench seats everyone who is too tight to pay for a cabin crash out on). It was slow getting out of the boat (Customs doing some work for a change). Failed to arouse their interest too. :(

All-in-all, a complete breeze of day really (well, 26 hours out of the house). Thanks to Pete, Ken, Ray & Michael for all the help. Ken's sterling tapework is rather impressive (and to MOT standard!)

:340: 340pw

The only drawback is my drive is getting increasingly chocka :roll:
Image
2014-07-27_17-58-01_571 by macplaxton, on Flickr
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Re: ABBY the Vario - "repatriated" to Ireland 24/07/2014

Post by classicswede » 03 Aug 2014 01:19 pm

Gosh 2 years have passed and the insurance have still not settled. I suggest you send them the bill for storage and ask them to settle it asap. The storage costs might just make them get a wiggle on with settling it.

Glad all went well with the trip home.
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Re: ABBY the Vario - "repatriated" to Ireland 24/07/2014

Post by macplaxton » 03 Aug 2014 01:40 pm

As of May, the other party was offering an unacceptable 50/50 offer. Seems like the other party now reckons that the car drove into them. sm2 sm2 sm2

Can only proceed to the next stage if I have some more concrete figures for the losses, which isn't easy to organise when you haven't incurred some of them yet (such as getting the car back to where it started (Glasgow) or other agreeable location (here)). Also the parts donor car is here, so a decision needed to be made whether to bring the car to the parts or the parts to the car.

I would have called in if I'd had more time. Still got that broken light unit? Might have it off you as the smashed up one here has a complete and intact reverse lens :D
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Re: ABBY the Vario - "repatriated" to Ireland 24/07/2014

Post by classicswede » 03 Aug 2014 02:27 pm

Yes I should still have at least one light unit in need of a reverse lense.

You will need a body shop estimate for the repairs, estimate for the parts and then you can add on the other costs such as transport and storage and at £10-15 or with where the car was it could well be a lot more than that a week that will be adding up. Whatever happens they will have to pay the transport and storage charges.
If you can get the repair costs to fall below the value of the car you have a reasonable chance of getting them to pay out but with the value of a good 340 only being £1500 - £2000 even a small body shop will be pushed to estimate a repair cost much below that. With repacing part rear wings both sides and the rear valance with a rear half respray you are looking at around £1000 I would recon with a small cheap place.
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Re: ABBY the Vario - "repatriated" to Ireland 24/07/2014

Post by macplaxton » 03 Aug 2014 02:51 pm

I've got one bodyshop quote pending (hasn't got back to me yet with a full write-up).

Anyway, all this is academic until I get some movement in the liability position.
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Re: ABBY the Vario - "repatriated" to Ireland 24/07/2014

Post by S10NPH » 04 Aug 2014 01:32 pm

Sorry to hear that you've still not managed to get the insurance sorted. You'd think that for a car that quite frankly compared to a lot of other cars on the road isn't worth very much, they would just give in to save their time.

Long live the power of gaffer tape!
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Re: ABBY the Vario - "repatriated" to Ireland 24/07/2014

Post by MCHUDD » 04 Aug 2014 02:37 pm

Hi mate.
Brilliant job getting her home. Love that MOT cert :lol: :lol: :lol:
If turned up to an MOT centre in N Ireland with a motor like that
they would take one look, laugh and tell me to clear off :lol: :lol: :lol:
You boys on the mainland realy do have it easy :lol: :lol: :lol:
Cheers Mark.
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Re: ABBY the Vario - "repatriated" to Ireland 24/07/2014

Post by macplaxton » 04 Aug 2014 02:50 pm

I've got to tot everything up first. Difficult getting quotes when it's remote from me. That and having (so far) three different solicitors on the case doesn't help speed either.

I'll have to make enquiries as to what to do next, as I'm kind of obliged to register it here now and cough up some more money for the please. Subsequent to which it would also need a local test done, which isn't so tape friendly. :(

A mainland test isn't that much different Mark (I know they can be funny about certain points in the book, but so can any Testing station). Shall I stick it through up North for a laugh to show you? I reckon I could squeeze it through a NCT down here if I could get the tailgate down further so it seals properly.
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Re: ABBY the Vario - "repatriated" to Ireland 24/07/2014

Post by MCHUDD » 04 Aug 2014 02:56 pm

Hi mate.
Don't risk it up here mate. They would give
you it back in carrier bags :lol: :lol: :lol:
Cheers Mark.
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