# My 1980s low mileage run of the mill car collection!



## samjordan100 (Nov 10, 2009)

Hi everyone,

I have a slightly bizarre collection of several semi scrap/semi classic 1980s cars. This thread is intended to show the detailing of them all as things progress, will try and get the first two on this evening. So here goes:

Firstly, this is a Vauxhall Nova 1.2 Merit 5dr no less, first registered 26th January 1988 with just 2 private owners from new and only 30,900 miles on the clock. I purchased this on a whim and had it delivered without seeing it, it is fair to say I was a little disappointed with the condition of it, I dont think it had ever been washed yet alone valeted, and despite its low mileage, it did seem to have 23 years of grime collected in every nook and cranny:









































































































At least the spare had never been used!
























































Not to be disheartened with a genuine, reasonably straight, but very dirty old Nova, we set to work by liberally covering the car in TFR and leaving the wheels to soak in acid (although they would need spraying anyway seeing how rusty they were)
















You can see the TFR just lifting and softening all the ingrained dirt
























And as mentioned we did need to resort into masking up the wheels and giving them a coat of primer and wheel silver, ideally they need shot blasting and powercoating but they certainly look much improved from what they were








After a serious 6 hour detail (with 2 people), most of it spraying detergent in every area and giving it a serious scrub and jetwash, followed by a thorough polish with Autoglym Super Resin (sorry chaps, no clay barring!) and a coat of Autoglym HD Wax, bumper care to dress the plastics, AG glass polish, and internally a thorough hoover, wet vac and dressed the interior mats (original Nova items!) with AG Super Sheen. Sorry no more during pics but this was the end result:
























































Bang! And the dirt is gone!
































2nd motor to follow v. shortly!


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## Ultra (Feb 25, 2006)

I am partial to a retro/classic motor, keep up the good work :thumb:


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## ITHAQVA (Feb 20, 2011)

Amazing for its age, ive seen much younger prestige cars with a lot more rust.:thumb:


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## beko1987 (Jul 25, 2010)

That looks immaculate! Throw some pics up when you clay it, be interesting to see what it pulls off!


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## DMH-01 (Mar 29, 2011)

Looks miles better mate, good job.


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## samjordan100 (Nov 10, 2009)

ok next car: When was the last time you saw one of these! I thought they had all rusted away into oblivion when I came across this one. It is a Fiat Uno 60S (5 speed gearbox, wahey!), registered 31st December 1986 and 2 owners from new with 28,600 miles. This is as it arrived, in need of a good clean but nothing like the Nova!

































































































































The spare had been used though unlike the Nova 








This was subjected to much the same detail as the Nova, thorough TFR/detergent, a good shampoo with AG Bodywork Shampoo Conditioner, towel dry, had to clay bits of this one as paint finish was very gritty, AG Super Resin Polish, bumper care etc. 








Onto the afters:
































The interior is immaculate barring a very annoying discoloration in the middle of the drivers seat
















































And thats it with that one. Next two are these, 1989 F registration Escort 1.4L with 53,000 miles, and picked this up earlier today 1987 D registration Ford Granada 1.8 GL with just 63,000 miles and 1 owner from new. Will post write ups on these as soon as they have been detailed in the week


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## ITHAQVA (Feb 20, 2011)

Ace collection of old skool beasties:thumb:


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## Sypher (Jul 16, 2008)

Looking forward to the Escort write up, it looks like my first car.


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## McClane (Dec 9, 2010)

Nice stuff! The cars of my childhood these :thumb:

Loving the Economy gauge and tyre pressure indicator in the Fiat. Asbestos sticker rather scary mind!


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## toomanycitroens (Jan 14, 2011)

Great work, tidied up a treat.


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## Shiny (Apr 23, 2007)

Great stuff, it's like a trip back to the late 80's for me! Good work on the clean ups too.

All the Nove 1.2 Merits i used to see had a Peco BB4 and a "You've been Novataken" on the back window :lol:


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## McClane (Dec 9, 2010)

Shiny said:


> "You've been Novataken"


Wayhey! I remember that one.


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## slobodank (Nov 17, 2010)

:thumb:


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## nogrille (Oct 27, 2005)

That Uno takes me back! My first car was a 60S. The economy meter was a joke.

(geeky Uno fact - the light switch gear was used in one of the Pods in Star Wars)


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## dagoatla (Mar 14, 2011)

Nice collection you've got.


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## *Das* (Aug 9, 2010)

WoW, cant complain to hard bud, all car in not to bad condition considering their all 25 years old!!!


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## james_death (Aug 9, 2010)

Great stuff, loved the grenada in its day.

The Nova seats look better nick than the Uno.


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## JasonPD (Jan 8, 2010)

Cool thread with some nice old beasts, looking forward to seeing the granada next :thumb:


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## GrahamKendall (Sep 8, 2009)

Uno! love it! feel the power, My first car was a 1.0 i.e. 45 raw horses!


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## patmac (Apr 17, 2009)

Run of the mill my ass:thumb::thumb::thumb:
Try finding those cars in that condition. Very nice collection and cant wait to see the Granada done.:wave::wave:


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## AygoGUMMY (Nov 21, 2010)

Wow, what a brilliant thread! Looking forward to the others! These 80s cars (which would've only been a few years old when I was born) are starting to look like proper retro classics. A refreshing change from the cars that normally pop up on DW. I bet you'll uncover some fairly dirty wheels when you take those wheel trims off! Keep them coming!


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## samjordan100 (Nov 10, 2009)

Well, got the Granada done today, this was first registered 4th August 1986 (the UK number one single of the time was Chris De Burgh's 'Lady In Red' - classic!) and impressively has had just 1 owner from new. It is a 1.8 GL model with an odd specification - anti lock brakes and central locking, but manual windows, no power steering or even rear seat belts! The mileage is a little over 63,000 in total. This is as it arrived:

























































































The spare had been used again unfortunately, I love it when they are out the box!








Detailing wise, again much the same as with the previous two, thorough G101 & jetwash, AG Super Resin polish, interior shampoo, AG glass polish inside and out, plastics dressed with AG Super Sheen and finally gave it a coat of Collinite 915, results below:


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## [email protected] (Apr 28, 2011)

Some nice cars there mate, you got a nice show room to store them LOL


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## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

Very nice cars..


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## SarahAnn (Apr 6, 2011)

That black granada takes me back about 20 years to my courting days


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## AygoGUMMY (Nov 21, 2010)

Granada: Brilliant. What made you decide to buy such a collection? And what do you plan to do with them? Planning to get any more?  Top work!


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## Blue (Sep 15, 2008)

Subscribed!


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## vxlnut24 (May 28, 2009)

love these sorta details! keep up the good work!


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## robtech (Jan 17, 2011)

Wonderful stuff.i'd rather see cars like this all day long than ferraris aston martins etc,brilliant work and great to see cars like this .there now so rare,esp that basic granada.

brilliant and my hat off to you. thanks for posting this on here.

cheers

stu


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## Kiashuma (May 4, 2011)

Great work. I love the Uno and the Granada. My Dad had a Sierra of that age, brings back memories. What are you doing with them all, and if you dont mind how much did you get the Granada for? Very rare in that condition.


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## slobodank (Nov 17, 2010)

very very nice


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## Franzpan (Mar 2, 2009)

I love the interiors on old cars, all boxy and down to business


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## Dan Clark (Jun 25, 2007)

Brilliant thread.

I had an escort just like that for my first car - but mine was a 1.3L.

A trip down memory lane. Keep up the good work.


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## yetizone (Jun 25, 2008)

Agree with the positive comments. Some cracking old cars given a well deserved make over. Superb. Glad these old 80's time warp classics weren't victims of the scrappage scheme


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## Dmac1969 (Sep 12, 2010)

I LOVE this thread! These are the cars that I grew up with (passed my test in 1987 aged 17) so all these cars were everyday sights then. I agree with Robtech , I find cars like this , the 'average , everyday' cars to be much more interesting to me than all the exotica , however nice they may be. Keep it up and I adore the Granada! The Escort will be interesting too , as a Mk IV Escort 1100 'Bonus' in Black was my first brand new car , bought brand new on Aug 31st 1989 from Cochranes of Berwick Ford dealership , G734 OSH.


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## rag1873 (May 26, 2010)

Loving this thread!! Where you getting the cars from?


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## cheffi (Apr 12, 2008)

now thats a very unusual collection. like it!


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## samjordan100 (Nov 10, 2009)

Hi all, 

Thanks so much for all your positive comments, I didnt think I could be the only person interested in gear like this! I hope to get the Escort up by the end of the week so keep your eyes open! In response to some of your comments, I bought these as they arent yet worth a great deal and as such are relatively easy to collect without significant investment, I also think given a few years they stand a reasonable chance of being worth 'good' money, albeit not tens of thousands! I am planning to add to the collection reasonably soon, have my eyes on one car in particular but not finalised yet, and maybe some Vauxhall representation. The 4 I have got were a mixture of Ebay purchases, and being in the motor trade I have chanced across them, and in the case of the Granada, offered it by a colleague. The Granada was £400, so happy to sit on that for a bit! Thanks again for the comments, will keep them coming!


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## alfajim (May 4, 2011)

loving this thread. cars of my youth lol. i pass a mk1 astra on the way to work most days and sometimes see a mk1 cav too.
great results you're getting with these old rides.:thumb:


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## AygoGUMMY (Nov 21, 2010)

samjordan100 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> Thanks so much for all your positive comments, I didnt think I could be the only person interested in gear like this! I hope to get the Escort up by the end of the week so keep your eyes open! In response to some of your comments, I bought these as they arent yet worth a great deal and as such are relatively easy to collect without significant investment, I also think given a few years they stand a reasonable chance of being worth 'good' money, albeit not tens of thousands! I am planning to add to the collection reasonably soon, have my eyes on one car in particular but not finalised yet, and maybe some Vauxhall representation. The 4 I have got were a mixture of Ebay purchases, and being in the motor trade I have chanced across them, and in the case of the Granada, offered it by a colleague. The Granada was £400, so happy to sit on that for a bit! Thanks again for the comments, will keep them coming!


Get an 80s Citroen! There are far too few BXs that have survived, I'm sure there's one somewhere that needs your attention to detail! Plus, less rust etc to worry about 'cos they were made of plastic! Looking forward to the Escort


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## Kiashuma (May 4, 2011)

samjordan100 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> Thanks so much for all your positive comments, I didnt think I could be the only person interested in gear like this! I hope to get the Escort up by the end of the week so keep your eyes open! In response to some of your comments, I bought these as they arent yet worth a great deal and as such are relatively easy to collect without significant investment, I also think given a few years they stand a reasonable chance of being worth 'good' money, albeit not tens of thousands! I am planning to add to the collection reasonably soon, have my eyes on one car in particular but not finalised yet, and maybe some Vauxhall representation. The 4 I have got were a mixture of Ebay purchases, and being in the motor trade I have chanced across them, and in the case of the Granada, offered it by a colleague. The Granada was £400, so happy to sit on that for a bit! Thanks again for the comments, will keep them coming!


That Granada was a bargain, very tempted, off to ebay tonight i think :thumb:


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## toomanycitroens (Jan 14, 2011)

Just seen them for sale on Car and Classic.
Tempted with the Uno as a daily, sweet talk the wife time me thinks............


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## bazves (Mar 24, 2011)

Great motors, remind of what was around when I started driving.


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## Kiashuma (May 4, 2011)

toomanycitroens said:


> Just seen them for sale on Car and Classic.
> Tempted with the Uno as a daily, sweet talk the wife time me thinks............


Found a nice Granada Ghia on Ebay, currently at £401 full mot, no rust, garaged and 80000 on the clock. Miles from me but tempted!


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## Bunji81 (Apr 28, 2010)

Its funny how these run of the mill cars can make people go all gooey inside after reading the thread (I was one of them :lol. I loved the Granada I had 2.0 GL as one of my first few cars, I loved it


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## Justa (Oct 23, 2008)

great thread - my first car was was a D reg Fiat Uno 70s,

Always going wrong but at the time it went like something of a shovel 

great days.....


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## Barchettaman (Dec 16, 2007)

Bloody marvellous stuff.

Happy memories of wrapping my Dad's Granada round a tree, aged 17.... oops.

Happy memories of my mate's blue Escort, just like that one.

The drummer in our band has a Nova like that, how he got the kit in there I still don't know.... another mate had a Uno 60 like yours, we had loads of laughs in it.

Thanks for bringing back all of those memories mate, very much appreciated. And great work too.


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## Hoodie1993 (Feb 7, 2011)

I think you know deep down that the maroon honda shuttle should be in this thread. Guess who haha


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## Bratwurst (Jan 23, 2009)

Top thread, top cars, top jobs on them, just brilliant all-round!

Love the Granada more than the others, but strangely they're defo all cool cars.

Only moving on a few years from that granada, I've always had a thing for the Scorpio. I know it's mad looking from some angles and a bit lardy looking, but I seriously like them. If I had the chance to get one and it was close to me, I'd well do it!

Mind you , having the chance of a Granada like that would be hard to refuse too!

Thanks for posting!


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## AygoGUMMY (Nov 21, 2010)

Have you done the Escort then?...


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## vxlnut24 (May 28, 2009)

pukka thread! i recently did the same in that i cleaned/brought back to life a 1992 cav sri with only 57,000 on the clock although they were only the second owner it was just and 'old cavalier' to them so hadn't been cleaned for years, gave me alot of satisfaction in the end!


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## AygoGUMMY (Nov 21, 2010)

Did you ever do the Escort?!


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## AboveFunction (Aug 8, 2011)

are you sure the Nova hasn't done 130,000? as it only has 5 digits on the clock it may have gone right round... unless you have past MOT's to check the mileage

Great collection though!


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## robtech (Jan 17, 2011)

heres 2 of my 1980s citroen cx's i read someone asking for 80s citroens so here you go


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## robtech (Jan 17, 2011)

thats a few of my 80s citroens i once had


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## Frank Martin (May 28, 2009)

wicked thread Sam as someone who drives a low mileage mid 90's Micra but like a lot of others one here started driving in the early 80's it really made me grin.

I just wanted to ask what acid you used on the Nova rims? My Micra rolls on similar steels (not quite as bad but not great condition) just with hub caps also but are in dire need of a freshen up...?
Yours came up a treat fella.


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## pi quattro (May 6, 2011)

robtech said:


> thats a few of my 80s citroens i once had


Sorry to hijack this thread, but that first pic of the citroen, I would put money on the fact that it was taken on Queen Elizabeth Ave Hillington? Near the entrance to the railway station?

Beautiful car BTW!


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## m411mtf (Feb 10, 2008)

Is that the old Gillies Gas Services building?


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## robtech (Jan 17, 2011)

sure is queen liz ave hillington,took these pics around 10 years ago,since then both cars are gone ( white one a bus crashed into me ) oops.big blue needed welding in places that it would have been a fortune too do plus i was skint at the time so said tarra too it,,last time i seen the blue one it was in a garage near edinburgh ,god knows what happened to it,the white one was fooked big time..got hit side on by a double decker bus


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## Mike k (Oct 14, 2011)

Loving this thread, these cars are from when i was a young boy, they are the cars that i had as toy cars etc etc. My first car 11 years ago was a diamond white escort 1.3l on a D reg, was immaculate and owned by my grandparents from new till they gave it to me. 

Keep the pics coming.


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