| 2005 |
26 July 2004
I have my dream car. July '04 was a great month. I had a wad of cash burning a hole in my pocket and we scoured the net for Mk1 Escorts. This one came up on CarSales and was in western Sydney. After a phonecall and some questions it was decided we should go for a look. So early one morning Drew and Will drove us up to Kingswood where we found the car.
Its an October 1974 1300XL automatic 2-door. It was a one owner car with 92000 km on it, it belonged to the grandmother of the people selling it. Sadly old Betty had died and the car was no longer needed so it was time to sell. The owner took me for a drive around the block and all felt very tight for a 30 year old car. The interior was very very tidy. There were a couple of parts that needed sorting, but the main things were all together and in place. The only against thing for me was the paint, it had been repainted at some stage and the job wasn't a good one. The new paint had cracked up because of a dodgy undercoat.
But after some uming and ahing I decided it was a good one to get. So haggled a bit (they weren't keen to budge on their $4,000 asking price), and eventually settled on $3,900. After signing the papers it was time to go get a pink slip for a permit so I could drive it back to Canberra. What should have been a simple check over turned into an ordeal. The inhibitor switch on the auto box was faulty and rather than just let it go they sent a bloke out to find a new one. 2 hours later he came back and still didn't have one. So in the end they dodgy'd up the existing one, which still didn't work but we needed to get to the RTA before they shut. After a stop at the Penrith RTA we had all our forms and we could head off.
She cruised along nicely but was not fast at all. Sat on 70-80 kmh quite well, but then she started getting a bit hot. Around 60-70 kmh was ok, so that was it for the freeway. Poor old Drew and Will had to follow along behind at that breakneck speed. We made it to the Maccas at Sutton Forest and gave her a rest while we ate. We checked the radiator water, and it was a horrible rusty colour. Looked like it hadn't been changed for some time. Back on the road, it was well and truely dark by now. We made it back into Canberra by about 11pm. It was the slowest trip from Sydney ever, but at least we made it.
I then started the process of cleaning things up ready for rego. The pictures below are the first ones we got of her. And the name came from the previous owner, Betty.
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9 October 2004
Finally got the old girl registered. There were some issues that they wouldn't pass the first time, like some oil leaks (washed off before next inspection) and a dodgy indicator stalk (replaced with a new repro one). I was happy to get the HAK-074 plates, the Laser is HAK-073, but you have to pay $90 each year now. But at least she's on the road and we're motoring now.
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12 October 2004
Some pictures of the inside just after rego time. This is before I have started any work on it. You can see the broken centre console, the perished vents, and newer radio. All these will be replaced over time.
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| 2005 |