New: Ant Anstead: Born Mechanic

[Alan Drover]

...and they NEVER show a Wheeler Dealer car being put through an MOT where applicable.

[Alan Drover]

Ant Anstead was changing the oil on a Series 3 on tonight's first Wheeler Dealers and before he took off the oil filter I predicted what would happen and it did. Oil right up his arms. He took the bowl off too quickly. Still, it made me laugh.
Thank goodness for spin on filters.

[Wittsend]

An old trick is to loosen the filter bolt a touch and then put a plastic bag over the filter.
You can then undo the bolt with your fingers and any split oil is caught in the plastic bag.

= nice clean hands and arms 

On the Rover P4 110 the retaining bolt is on the top of the filter housing making life easier. You can still use a plastic bag (or bowl) to catch the oil. But a much more sensible arrangement.
 

[Craig T]

I had the house to myself last night so watched the episode of "Born mechanic" in question....

It was a nice series 3, I would have liked that myself although I was way off in my estimate of its value again as I said £5k and then they settled on £9.5k

I wouldn't have written off the bulkhead so fast. It was repairable although needed footwells, pillars, feet etc. Guess they just didn't have time.

I was way off on my estimate again of the value of a used series 3 bulkhead. I would not have paid £950 for it when it still need a footwell and door pillar foot. Makes me seem quite stingy when I offered £300 for a used series one bulkhead although the owner didn't hesitate, took the money straight off me...

I noticed the chassis was in a bad way. You could see numerous patches on it, it looked like a replacement rear half had been fitted but then it had more patches on the rear crossmember. When you get to patching the replacement parts, maybe time to reassess the whole thing.

Was convenient that a new bulkhead turned up in the right colour for only £750

I did not like that fake paintwork wear they added! It had the original paint on a low mileage vehicle, why make it look worse! They are only original once, it now needs a repaint. I could understand maybe making the bulkhead a bit faded so it blends in but the rest was just awful.

I like at the end when he's driving it and says about driving on these country lanes in it. That was Millbrook proving ground so a private location with no requirements for MOT, road tax and insurance.

On the plus side, the house was looking far better with the timber frame exposed and that awful concrete render removed.

Craig.

[TimV]

I watched last night for a second time. Spare wheel on the back door (correct for a station wagon), where did that spare wheel bracket appear from on the bonnet?

I too thought the original bulkhead was repairable - I've seen worse repaired.

The passenger seat in worse condition than the driver's seat? Didn't occur to them they are easy to swap around. And they looked like standard Britpart - so could just as easily and more cheaply bought new instead of repairing.

Full service record - 40,000 miles, why destroy the lovely original paint with that fake patina?

And his father ringing round for feet for the bulkhead - getting nowhere - could have searched on the internet ...

I just hope it doesn't inspire more people to 'restore' in a similar way.

[Alan Drover]

Second time!!? You must be a glutton for punishment.
As for the spare wheel mounting on the bonnet I thought he was trying to achieve the "macho expedition everywhere" look which didn't succeed. A basically desirable Land Rover utterly ruined.

[Wittsend]

Some years ago someone marketed cans of "spray on mud" for the Chelsea tractor brigade

Seems that there could be a market for spray-on patina (apply to Dragons Den for funding)