For Sale - 87 Skoda 120LX - Now £1500

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Zelandeth
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For Sale - 87 Skoda 120LX - Now £1500

Post by Zelandeth » Fri Feb 10, 2017 10:01 pm

Skoda Estelle (II) 120LX 5-Speed.
21st Anniversary Edition.

Mileage: 18,935 miles.
MOT: 20th July 2017.

Much as it pains me, I know it's for the best to move this on.

The Saab has decided that after five years of nearly faultless service that it's time to throw its toys out of the pram, and has blown its head gasket. That's my main day-to-day transport, and I really don't want to have to drag the Lada into that task (especially while there's still salt on the road!). This means that I will most likely need to grab something as a cheap hack to take on day-to-day tasks until I get the Saab sorted.

I bought this car early in 2013 from an enthusiast who was thinning their fleet out to fund the ground-up refurbishment of a Citroen 2CV. They had bought it a year or so beforehand when a large collection of vehicles was being sold off following the passing of a gent who had a large collection of vehicles.

While they had quite a large collection of vehicles, sadly they didn't *use* them, so this car spent the majority of its life sitting around, not in a perfectly dry environment either, so the underside has quite a lot of surface rust.

Sadly it became apparent quite quickly that they had never really properly recommissioned the vehicle. They'd changed the bare minimum they needed to get the car through an MOT and left it at that. As such in the following couple of months I had problems with the ignition system, carb, fuel lines, electrical system, and several fights with the cooling system. Oh...and it still had its original tyres from 1987 on, which had turned to plastic, and were downright terrifying! Oversteer at 10mph on roundabouts anyone?

The electrical gremlins both in general and in the ignition system were easily solved by taking things apart and cleaning connections, the carb was just swapped out for a good example I had from a previous car (original one will be supplied with the car) which I'd previously overhauled, and all the fuel lines were swapped out. Likewise a number of coolant lines were changed on sight, and any hose clips which looked suspect were changed. The brakes needed nothing more than some good use.

After a significant amount of head scratching the root of the cooling system problems was traced to a dodgy expansion bottle cap. Unfortunately the resulting overheating (which happened prior to me getting the car) had resulted in the head gasket failing. Stupid really that the failure to replace a £3 component when the car was recommissioned caused that! Luckily the head wasn't warped, so it was a relatively simple job to remove, clean everything up and reassemble with a new gasket. This resulted in an engine which ran sweetly, started on all four cylinders instantly, and no longer pumped combustion gases into the cooling system.

In the last couple of weeks I have had some odd behaviour from the cooling system, which I reckon is down to a sticky thermostat (which wasn't replaced when I did the head gasket on account of the wrong one getting delivered three times in a row). The car hasn't overheated though, as on both occasions I've only been a matter of a quarter of a mile from home, so immediately stopped and just left the car to cool down before picking it up later. My intention is to replace this before the car is sold, or at the very least remove it so the car can be driven in the short term without risking overheating and warping the head. Not hiding this fact, being completely open that there's something amiss with the cooling system.

Once I'd gone through the gremlin list I was left with a few remaining issues.

[] Front wings are a bit crusty in a couple of places. They can probably be saved by a skilled bodyshop, or new ones are available from the Continent with a bit of searching. Thankfully they're bolted on rather than welded, so shouldn't be too dire a task to change. Likewise the paint on the front valance is a bit patchy, but it's solid so just needs some skilled attention with some paint.

[] Underside is generally covered with a lot of surface rust. The areas where it had got a bit deeper were sorted out last year by my local garage for the MOT, on the driver's side sill. Oddly the nearside is near perfect...usually that's the side that takes the beating!

[] Rear suspension could really do with new bushes being fitted. Nothing that's ever been a problem, but the semi-trailing arm bushes have seen better days, and as a result the camber on the rear wheels is visibly off.

[] Suffers from the usual problem with disintegrating seat covers - the cloth isn't UV-stable so unless the car is kept in a dark garage they come apart at the stitching. Long-term I planned to get them retrimmed, but she currently has covers on.

That's about it to be honest!

The only real continuing headache I've had with this car has been that getting hold of parts (unlike for Ladas!) tends to be quite a protracted process, involving a considerable amount of patience and finding sources in either the Czech Republic, Hungary or Turkey. This has proven to be more than I've got patience for lately - especially now that I've got the Lada on the driveway, which ticks many of the same boxes in the fleet. As such, it's time to move the car on I reckon.

So, I need the room, as such the Skoda needs to go. I'll be sorry to see it go, but reckon it's for the best. The car isn't getting the usage that it really deserves, she's only done about 400 miles since the MOT last year - to a couple of shows and a few local runs.

With a bit of TLC to tidy the bodywork up, this really could be an excellent little car. It never fails to turn heads at shows or on the road (being bright orange does help there I reckon!), and I'm really going to miss it.

£1750, or open to reasonable offers, as I'd like a quick sale here really (losing quite a bit of money here compared to what I paid for it, but I need the room).

Vehicle I'm actively seeking is an XJ series Jeep Cherokee 4.0 (1993-1997), ideally in Limited SE spec - so if you've got one and would be interested in a swap p/x, let me know.

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Really just want to see the car getting some proper use again to be honest! She's too much of a rarity to just sit in the corner on my drive.

Will be supplied along with an appropriately sized car-cover, and minimum of 1/2 a tank of fuel.

Let me know if you've got any questions!

EDIT: Price dropped to £1500 or reasonable offer now, as I could really do with moving the car on sooner rather than later.
LOZ: Oddball cars, lighting information, and anything else I remember to upload!
Current fleet: 02 VW Caddy 1.9SDI, 90 Mercedes 208D Autotrail Navajo, 85 Sinclair C5, 78 Vauxhall Cavalier 1.6GL, 73 AC Model-70.

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