Car SOS, Series 3. Is it going to happen?

[mach1rob]

another one in the series was driven by Steve McQueen and no it isn't a Muzzy.

A Puma! Welshie will be happy!

[Phil P]

A bleedin' Puma! We do have some scruples you Know. It isn't a rear engined German thing either.

Thanks for all the nice things being said about the show. We do try hard to be better than the others without any load mouthed shouting and certainly not bastardising a perfectly good car!

[mach1rob]

Well, you did say Steve McQueen drove one...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2OV7Zz4VsM

[tractorman]

I had noticed both the lack of shouting and swearing, the latter does annoy me. Even though I swear myself at times, it is when it is appropriate (usually when I clean a bit of scabby stuff on the Land Rover and find a hole ) - not as part of normal conversation!

I tend to take Fuzz's side when it comes to how to restore the vehicle, though sometimes wonder (on other programmes too) if a colour change is necessarily right. Perhaps the owner bought the car because they liked the colour as much as because it was a particular make/model. OK, the Lotus was originally yellow and the owner appeared to be happy with the colour change but would they respray my "bitza" Land Rover in military colours instead of Marine Blue: the bulkhead is military green and the tub has Navy blue under the Marine Blue?

[Phil P]

Was it originally a Military Landie? If so Bronze Green would be appropriate. If not then possibly the colour the owner painted it last. The Lotus was bought in red and the owner had never touched since acquiring it. It had to be repainted as the red was lifting along with the yellow underneath and the gel coat. It took a lot of work to get it right even before painting.

[Phil P]

Remember the Cortina GT 'donor' car from Series 2 that was bought by one of the team after the filming? Well it is still under restoration. Then engine has been stripped for a rebuild and the body is being prepped for painting. It will probably be painted at Westgate Classics. I just thought folks would like to know it was not butchered just to do the 'show' car. We did't have time to source all the bits we needed in the time available. It was always the intention to restore it. It may get shown under restoration as a brief piece at the end of one of the programmes. It depends on the time available. The total film time is only 46 minutes.

[DoloMIGHTY]

^^^ great news

[tractorman]

I've just noticed that series 2 kicks off on More 4 at 9:00 on Monday evening. The first episode is the Cortina GT (I assume the one mentioned buy Phil).

That makes Monday evening complete for me: Only Connect, Car SOS and Under the Dome. Interesting TV with some variety - got to be better than a Thursday evening of Wheeler Dealers!

[Grumpy Northener]

got to be better than a Thursday evening of Wheeler Dealers!

Now there's a programme that boils my blood - I don't mind Ed but as for the tag along !!! - and across the board they make no profit - has any money that they do make must go towards all the costs that they failed to mention when adding up the costs - there is never any mention of labour costs, workshop overheads, workshop sundries & materials, MOT fees, valeting costs, selling fees - so on that basis Ed China and his workshop come on a FOC rate - anyone know of his number - I have a couple of projects he can make a start on

[tractorman]

I can't agree more about Wheeler Dealers! Mike is a typical salesman: "We completely rebuilt the engine" on a Spitfire - they put new valve seats on the head, but never went further down) - or the "complete new floor" in an Alfa - where there was a patch welded in. If he knows so much, how did he fail to spot the rotten chassis on the SJ?

The saving grace is that it shows people how difficult, messy and expensive some of the work is. It also shows some of the downside of car restoration - that you can't make megabucks from it and that things can soon get very expensive. It may put a few people off trying to restore a car - and reduce the number of "unfinished project" cars in the classifieds!