Dave

Deffo going to look into this when renewal is due. Not sure if if it's also worth going for one on Poppy (just renewed so no biggie) as the 1st gen MINI is classed as a modern classic now but not sure what value they would put on her. Values for them seem to be all over the place lol

yeah, I've swapped Poppy and DD's places the past couple of weeks (so DD on driveway right outside the kitchen window) and the more I see her the more I see how nice she looks. That then makes me want her back on the road asap! Do miss driving her tbh, and we're also missing her for stuff we've seen and wanted to buy but no way of getting it here without DD. Poppy had to take shelter in the garage even though she's the daily at the moment as the really bad ice/frost means her doors freeze shut and cant even get in to start her up and defrost her!lol The joys of a car with frameless doors.....windows freeze stuck shut and can't get in without a lot of deicer and hassle! lol

Deffo do it mate, with the amount of time and money that has gone into Tubs 2. Know that they say (and we know) that we never get back the money we put into our cars, but would be nice to know we can at least get back a decent bit of it should the worst happen. Yeah, couldn't believe the £250......they kept emailing me constantly "regarding your quote, do you want to proceed?" and then followed up by Our price depends on condition once car has been inspected when you come to the garage, In the end I replied with a really explicit email telling them how much their shitty car valuations had killed the value of modern classics and to shove their f****** S**t and unrealistic Valuation up their own arses! Never heard a peep from them since! lmao Cheeky gits!

Was reading my Classic Car Weekly and one of the readers had put their car forward for the "value my car" section where they get an idea what their car is worth according to the experts. There was a 98 Rover sterling with around 60K on the clock and most of its history. They recon the value is around 3.5 to 4K and advised to get an agreed value policy on it. Same year (almost) as DD and know quite a few of our Civic M's are either 1999 or older so got me wondering if anyone here has ventured into the agreed value route yet with their Civic. I'm thinking of asking them for a value on DD just out of curiosity, as know the tossers at WeBuyAnyCar dot con (where most insurance companies base their values on now) value her at around £250! Which would maybe buy the alloys and bugger all else! Just with them getting pretty rare now, thinking surely the values (that they are actually worth) have gone up now? Don't want to get caught out if the worst happens so deffo thinking about the agreed value policy. Anyone got one on theirs and if so what value did you get agreed?

That's what these cars were made for, perfect wee tourer. Loving that rear underneath shot, looks superb under there! I really need to get DD's underside cleaned up and brought up to scratch.

love the minidisc player, nice bit of kit and fro an oem point of view, very period correct! Good stuff the old Kenwood's!

Yeah, either will be a hassle but we're deffo going ahead with it. Not letting them get away with it. Happy to say though since East Coast did the job correctly she's been driving sweet as a nut! Handling the daily duties while DD hides in the garage awaiting her ABS fault to be fixed and get her MOT ready. Poppy's actually a decent car in winter, traction control, LSD and the must have item (taht all uk cars should come with imo.....heated front and rear screens!

Could be the brushes in the motor itself have worn down, don't think it sounds like the linkages.

haha, thats cool as! I did this years ago with the seat from a Civic MB1 SR, was comfy as hell! Mind you, that MB1 seat would probably be worth something now, was in mint condition too. Can't remember if I ever took photos of it or where it ended up! Interesting about the metal fatigue though, one to watch out for. Seat may also have been in a crashed civic? Hard to tell really but best to check ours to be on the safe said. Ta for the heads up mate and totally rocking that chair! (hehehe, see what I did just there!)

yeah really is the worst customer service and the worst car repair (or should that be NON-repair) that we've ever had. ATS Galashiels are shockingingly bad, worst Garage ever! Deffo going to take the f*ckers to court, stupid little boys that they are!

Soooo, fitted the new sensor....bloody light now flashes a code for that one and also now the N/S/R sensor!! Checked and the voltage going to them is 4.6 so think they are getting the right power, but the code shows it could be a power issue. Faffed about with the wiring loom that goes from the rear to both sensors, then pulled the ecu fuse on DD to clear any errors that it might be storing even with the battery disconnected. Turned her on, boom, light off!! Took her for a test drive, light came on when we got out the garage Continued with the test drive and light eventually went off.......only to come back on about 3 mins later. So deffo thinking it's a bad connection/broken wire on that harness. She's back in the garage and will stay there till I can find the energy to fix her. Had so much going on with the house just now and also Poppy Coopers problems that I'm taking a break from fixing them just now!

Here's what greeted us! passenger side shows how it should be sitting....... Whole mount is sitting way too high, and deffo not right. Noticed they'd also put paint on all the bolts this time, I suspect so they know if it's been removed to be inspected. Decided not to use the car and took it to East Coast, a MINI specialist. They showed that the rubber mount wass taking the whole weight of the car (when car went up on ramp, the mount dropped right down!). They then took videos/pictures of dismantling it and removing the strut from car. This showed the following: Spring not seated correctly at top or bottom cups Grease cup missing from top mount (they had fitted a cheap sealed bearing mount whereas the BMW Mini part has a seperate cup). Mount is so weak you can push the rubber up with your hands. They concluded that parts have been fitted wrong (spring), and that a very cheap aftermarket mount has been used which is different from standard spec. They have now fitted yet another top mount bearing (from BMW Mini) and bought a replacement grease cup (again from BMW Mini) and have rebuilt the strut. Spring is properly located this time and mount looks like it did when she left the factory. They concluded that the mount they fitted, and the fact the spring wasn't located properly, would have failed very soon. Getting the shoddy work done by the little A-holes at ATS rectified has cost me a further £192. We are now in the process of getting an email drafted with our findings and photos etc and will be sending it to ATS HQ. We will be giving them the option to refund all costs incurred from them and also the cost incurred getting it fixed to compensate for the time we were left without the car. If they don't play ball, we're taking them to court. Absolutely disgusting company to deal with from start to finish. Just glad to get the car back on the road and in a safe condition to drive. Hats off to East Coast who have been brilliant throughout this whole thing.

So update time again. Caqlled the garage and spoke to Luke, the so called manager. Had to get Poppy trailered to the garage (ATS in Galashiels, STAY CLEAR OF THEM!) which Luke said I would have to pay for it they found their part had failed because of another part on the car. Could see right away what was coming, they were already building up their excuses, and the attitude on the phone was shocking to say the least. Car got picked up, but I took photos of the strut prior to it going and spring etc looked fine. They called back later that day and said broken spring which had caused their top mount to fail. So I was liable for the cost of a new spring, another new top mount and the cost of the recovery truck. Told him I was not happy and asked for either the email address for complaints or the number for ATS complaints dept to which he replied "Don't know what it is, google it yourself"! Finally emailed them and when I got no response, I called. Got soe gormless twat on the phone who said "oh yeah, can see that came in on Monday (this was now wednesday) but it's not been dealt with". Their way of dealing with things seems to be they email the garage concerned, then they stand by whatever the garage emails back. End result is they wouldn't budge, but offered to replace their failed part at no cost (which to me admits their part was shit in the first place!). Had to agree and we've paid for the repair and the recovery truck. They then had the car for 3 and a half weeks! Kept fobbing me off on the phone, Luke being a tosser basically. Finally Gayle called and said she wanted an exact day it would be ready and not a "maybe" day. Went to collect it and the tossers had left the pass window down by about a cm, to let the pouring rain in and soak the floor/ carpet. Drove it home, totally raging, and popped the bonnet. OMG!

Swiss cheese by the look of it mate!

Loving watching the build on this Jake, I wouldn't have the confidence/knowhow myself to take an engine down to the bare block and build it up again bit do love watching it happen. Hats off to you mate and keep up the amazing work! Any idea when it will be back in the car. Be interested to see what the differences are driving wise/any gains over previous build. Deffo my fav VTiS, such a stunner of a car in every way.

LOL I wouldn't have even got it past the door!! Be like "and where'd you think you're going with that? Garage is over there!

Just wondering if you could maybe clean them up/treat the rust then cover the inside of the lense with that tin foil tape (not sure what its called)? That way it would still be reflective?

How's the mods with the deck going mate @Mickg

Its bad crack that they are getting away with actually selling this pathetic excuse for fuel! E10 is utter crap. Destroys rubber fuel lines, damages injectors...........no wonder the gov is loving it. They get older cars off the road (so helps them meet their totally unrealistic emmisions limits), they get tax on all the cars going in for repair. Win win for them as usual and all part of the plan to force us into EV's. The refurbed injectors with the stainless steel filter sound good though.

Ahh, damned rust! Did you manage to get the paintwork on the roof sorted after the bike rack incident? Surprised the arches have started to rust though. Is a lovely looking car and stunning cars inside these!

jeese, how much are the injectors mate? Do you need to buy a complete rail?

And the drama continues with Poppy! Only two weeks after getting her new O/S top strut mount replaced, the brand new one went last night with a catastrophic failure! Luckily it was as we just pulled out of our drive, so just drove her straight back in. Her a loud noise then the steering was making noises when turning it left/right. Absolutely raging and will be calling the garage that did the work tomorrow morning. Could have been a lot worse if it had happened when we were touring the lake district a week ago, hate to think what would have happened had it gone on the narrow twisty roads. Nowhere to really pull over there safely too, most corners are blind bends. Even worse, Gayle and I had our granddaughter out in the car the 1st week after it was fixed. My question is, does anyone know if it is safe to drive it the 7 or 8 miles to the garage? I have no idea myself so looking for advice. Pics below show the extent of failure, and last 2 pics are of the pass side one for comparison to how it should look. last 2 below are of the pass side for comparison

lol just noticed in your profile you're in Cumbria mate! Wish i'd knew, could have popped over to see your civic! We tried to cram in as much as we could so visited quite a few towns and villages. Off the top of my head.......Windermere, Bowness- on-Windermere, Keswick, Ambleside, Lakeland, Grassmere, Hawkshead to name a few! Yeah, she was ace, and Gayle and me have decided we need to visit the lakes for a wee break at least once a year. Absolutely love it and we're so chilled out there!

Well, first long trip in Poppy and 1st since the strut top mount was replaced and oil pressure switch and service done. Took her on a weeks Holiday to the Lake District, and she drove absolutely perfect the whole trip. Top down everywhere we went as the weather was perfect. Oh, and with a mix of gentel driving/cruising and a bit of "Hooning it" she returned 406 miles to the tank of fuel for the trip. Well impressed with our wee poppy and fabulous holiday in what must be one of the most beautiful places in the UK. Oh, and Gayle and me both agree, compared to the mk1 MX5 we had Poppy is sooooooo comfy on long trips! A few pics from the trip

So back from the garage (that was a drama in itself as they tried to over charge for work and did work we didnt ask them to do (replaced a front wheel bearing!) and still hadn't replaced the top mount that I had her booked in to get done! Idiots, have now stopped using them as had hassle getting the bill sorted and decided to take the car somewhere else to get the top mount done. The boss of the garage was ok in the end, but the mechanic that did the work was shitty about it so didn't trust him to do anything else on the car. Finally got it sorted at a local ATS garage in town.