Classic Daimler - getting to grips with the faults

Since I bought the car I have not had much opportunity to drive it.  However I have been able to work a few things out.  I knew the paint work was not 100% when I bought the car.  Having had a proper look it needs more paint putting on it.  The pictures flatter the car, it was originally sable/beige and has been re-sprayed what I am calling Morse burgundy.  So at some point I am going to have to fork out for a partial re-spray, the doors are the most affected.

One of the other issues that I am not sure what to do about, if anything, is the seats.  They appear to look good upon a superficial inspection, but they have been almost spray painted with something very thick that masks what I suspect are some quite tired seats. 

One of the problems to be investigated is that it leaks petrol.  It is dripping gently from somewhere in the region of the tank.  I am not sure if it is the tank or some of the pipework leading into it.  Any thoughts anyone?  I have priced another tank, they are not cheap (approx £400).

One of the frustrating faults is that the drivers door does not lock or unlock on the key, so I have to lock and unlock it from the passenger side. 

Next time I will describe the dilemma about buying some wire wheels.

First drive

I had hoped to have a drive almost as soon as the car was delivered, but my mother in law was very ill so there were any number of trips to the hospital in either of the modern cars that we run.  However on the Sunday we needed to go to the tip and then the local Tesco, pop some petrol in the car and then home.  All in about 8 miles.

It did not start off well.  My wife (who is not keen) and the dog got in.  I turned the key, petrol pump ticked nicely, after a few seconds I pressed the starter button - nothing.  So I turned it off and on and again, pressed the starter button - nothing.  I am starting to feed a bit awkward in front of my wife as she is not keen on old cars and this one was not for starting.  She suggested putting the auto in neutral.  I tried it and tried the starter again - off it went.  First lesson.  My modern car in an automatic as well, but it only starts in park - that is my excuse.

Once I got going down the road the first thing you notice is the lovely burble from the v8, the second thing is how imprecise the steering is compared to a modern car. I have driven other old cars, most recently a Volvo Amazon so I was used to the steering.  The brakes pulled the car up reasonably well, the only issue in that area is that a red warning light flickers on and off most of the time.  It relates to both the handbrake and the brake fluid level I belive,  The chap selling me it says it is a loose connection in the warning light system - but I would like to get it checked out sometime - no brake fluid is not a good look.

It suprised me how nervous I was.  I have driven old cars for the last 25 years, so I should not have been nervous.  It being automatic feels slightly odd in an old car, you cannot dip the clutch if the revs falter.

When I got the car home I was pleased that it had run ok and nothing dreadful had occured.

Next time - starting to get to grips with the faults

Classic car delivery

Getting my new car home was an interesting experience.  The Daimler was bought in Ramsgate and I live in Lincolnshire, about 6 hours away at a steady pace.  My wife's mother was very poorly and this fact, taken with I did not want to drive that far in a car that had done very few miles over the last few years helped me decide that I was going to have the car brought back on the back of a lorry.

I assumed that finding a company to deliver it home would be easy.  So I spent some time on the internet looking for suitable companies.  There is no equivalent of tripadviser.  My experience was interesting, I phoned one chap and asked for a quote.  He gave me a price that seemed reasonable.  I phoned a few others who were quite a bit more.  So I rang him back to accept his quote, at which point he informed me his original figure had been an estimate.  He asked me to e-mail him the details over and he would give me a price.  Nothing happened, so I chased him, nothing.  Eventually after ringing him again his quote went up by £90.  So back to the drawing board.

Then I found a couple of sites where they get quotes for you, a little like a reverse auction.  I suspect that it is not quite as open a competition as they would like you to believe.  I had 5 quotes sent over within a few hours, all within about £10 of each other, some were a couple of £s apart.

I then found another chap via the internet, agreed 2 different dates to make it easy for him.  And I made the mistake of paying upfront as I wanted the car dropping off and the keys popping through the door as I would be at work and my wife was visiting at the hospital every day.

So come the day of the collection it was finally collected around 4pm.  I was informed when I rang that it would be delivered the following day - not a problem.  The following day came and went, so I rang about 8pm to be told that the car would either delivered over the weekend or the following week.  I explained politely but firmly that I expected to see the car the following day.

The car did finally arrive, 2 days later than agreed.  Over the last 2 days whilst it was being delivered I had a number of approaches from some of the other companies who offered to reduce their quotes considerably.

So the lessons are; choosing a company to transport your car is a complete lottery, do not be suprised if it is delivered late and a price is not always a quote. 

Next time I will describe my first drive.

Daimler 250 V8

I have been looking at the prices of these cars for the past 3 or 4 years.  When I first started looking quite nice ones were going for between £4-5k.  This figure has slowly but steadily been rising with odd, exceptional cars going for £20k +.  I started looking in earnest a few months ago.  Some nice cars went through various auctions, which I could never make due to work or other commitments. 

I was scanning the internet, particularly e-bay and the classic car sites.  There was always a number of cars that looked good but on each occasion they were at the other end of the country.  And all the time the prices kept creeping ever upwards.

I read an article in a classic car magazine about finding cars in local papers, not using auctions or via the classic car magzines.  A few days later I saw an advert in one of the weekly classic car newspapers.  There was no picture, just a brief description and a telephone number.  The gentleeman selling the car explained the story - he had bought it a year earlier from a chap who had restored the car but never got to drive it due to having a stroke just as he was finishing the car.  He explained that all of the usual problem areas had been sorted, boot floor, car floor, sills and crows feet.

So I went to have a look.  The car was in Ramsgate.  I live in Lincolnshire but was working in Suffolk, which meant I could drive over after work.  The car was under a cover, alongside a number of Mark 2 Jags.

I crawled around underneath with a torch and indeed all of the problem areas looked good.  The car was originally beige but has been re-sprayed the same maroon as the Jag in Morse.  I realised that it was not the best re-spray I had seen.  The test drive was fine, normal for a 45 year old car and the engine ran smoothly with a lovely sound and good oil pressure.  I could not work out what was happening with the leather seats - they looked much better than they should but they had not been recovered. Only after I got the car home did I realise that they had been heavily covered with some kind of leather paint.  I looked through the paperwork - lots of bills for the repair panels and parts for the rebuild for the bottom of the engine.  The chap wanted £8,500, we finally agreed on £8,000.

Next time I will cover getting it home

Daimler V8 250 (Mark 2 Jaguar shape)

I have always loved the shape of the Daimler v8, which looks almost the same as the Jaguar Mark 2 with a different engine and trim, but the same body shell as the Jaguar.

This blog is going to describe some of my thoughts and experiences of finding, buying and running one of these cars.

So why did I want one?  I remember cycling past one of these cars over 30 years ago and being struck by the lovely shape.  I have wanted one ever since.  I think the shape is lovely.  I love the Mark 2 Jaguar as well, but I like the idea of the Daimler with a V8 engine making a lovely noise.

I have owned a couple of classic cars over the last 25 years.  Both were run as second cars, the first was a grey Austin A35, the second a cream Volvo Amazon estate.  Both of these were great fun, the A35 was very underpowered but would pop its tail out at stupidly low speeds on a wet roundabout.  I enjoyed both of them, they are so different to driving modern cars.

I have enclosed a picture of my new car, which makes it look better than it is.  Next time I will describe the search for the car.