What's your daily driver?

[JJDraper]

Until the start of its restoration almost exactly one year ago, my +2 was a daily driver, left out on the road to fend for itself in all weathers (no garage or hard standing). This lasted eight years, but given that the paint was already in poor shape when I bought he car, the pollution & regular application of T cut wore out the surface leading to the decision to restore (this is what lead to the purchase of the late Green Fiesta shown earlier).

One thing leads to another and in the Jargon, 'mission creep' has prevented a quick body off & paint job! However, given the excellent service the car had given prior to the restoration, I will have no hesitation in using the car in future as a daily driver. You do have to accept that things will wear out and the thing will need more frequent attention than the average modern - brakes & oil; but oddly, some things last longer with regular use; water pumps - they often fail after winter due to the seal sticking slightly during lay up and tearing on start up; engines also seem to benefit from regular exercise - ditto suspension and electrical components.

Paintwork and window seals do suffer from the increase in UV exposure and pollutants.

So, on balance, I love the buzz of getting into the car before or after a hard day at work and enjoying the commute in something less boring than the ordinary cars in the car park.

Current progress on the rebuild is slow but steady - I can hardly wait to commute in it again!

Jeremy

[alexblack13]

Hi Folks,
BM Z4 and an old well used tool box come Toyota Avensis which is now around 150K mls. The BM is hopeless in the Snow! the Avensis is not a lot better.
I too like my two wheeled transport. Various bikes have come and gone but I still have two classic Scoots and one 25kmls. Honda ST 1100. Which due to some ill health I have not used for some time. However I will be this year, weather permitting. The real love of my life I had to 'dispose of' some time ago after the said ill health problem tore up my license to use it. 36 ft wingspan and reg' G-BASG Grumman AA5. Loved it! But hey, life is a bitch sometimes eh?

Any other ex (or current?) pilots amongst us?

[ebc699]

Hi Alex,
Let my PPL lapse about two years ago after I too sold my plane. Spent many hundreds of hours building it from scratch....no kits in those days! Hasn't gone to far away so still see it from time to time.
Cheers,
Wylie.

[paddy]

I do worry about leaving it in hotel car parks even with a master battery switch to disconnect all of the electrics and I'd be interested to hear what approach others have taken to increase security.

A fairly common trick with conventional points ignitions was to have a concealed switch that is wired across the points (ie to short out the points when the switch is closed). The car is immobilised by closing the switch. With this, it is impossible to start the car even if it is "hot wired" with a wire directly from the battery to the coil bypassing the ignition switch.

Paddy