Why Steve? The guy I bought it from (top bloke, btw) is called Steve, and so is everyone he knows. Sam and I jokingly said the car should be called Steve and it's stuck.
Initially, I went down to view the car with Sam (Captain Slow of this parish) because what he doesn't know about Maestros simply isn't worth knowing and because it seemed like a good idea for a jolly jape to the land of Brummies. Fairly uneventful trip down in the Montego of much comfort and waftiness to arrive at the lock-up and meet Steve. I think Steve is a man with a problem, because he showed us some of his impressive collection of shite included in which (but which I have no pictures of as Sam had his camera and did the honours) were 2 Allegros (1 estate, 1 saloon), 2 Marinas (TC saloon and a regular coupé), several jags, a Scimitar, a couple of 2CVs, a low mileage Maxi, a Saab 96 (V4 engined) estate, some Humber Sceptres, some Sunbeam Rapiers, some Range Rovers, an SD1 shell, an Opel Monza, an ex-military Land Rover, a Rover 100 cabriolet... the list goes on. We were like kids in a sweet shop and Steve was a very accommodating host.
After a while of drooling over cars that only we would get excited about, it was test drive time. The Ledbury is an odd car and drives with a solid, no-nonsense way that I expect a van drives with (I've never actually driven a van), probably due to the 14" wheels, diesel van suspension and general sturdy feeling of the car as a whole. I was very happy with the car, mechanically it felt tight, it behaved predictably and while the 'box is a bit of an oddity, it's not too unusual as it's not that far removed from the 4 speed item in my Polo. I gave Steve a deposit, more nattering was to be had about chod, and eventually I set off home again.
The following week I went down with my Dad in the Bradford Taxi to pick up the car and pay the balance. I didn't bother haggling as the car was priced very fairly, faults pointed out (what little there are!) and Steve even went to the effort of putting a proper passenger mirror on and a better steering wheel for me. I paid the balance, we oggled the cars some more, did I mention he also has a Mk1 Princess converted to be hand or feet controls? No? Well he does and it's awesome, but again, no pictures for I am Fail Man.
Got in the Ledbury and headed off following Dad. There's an Asda we went to for petrol which is THE WORST car park and petrol station arrangement I've ever experienced and I have no wish to return to it. Drive back was uneventful too, apart from my passenger headlight deciding to stop working properly, and we stopped off at a service station for drinks and a break. I remembered to take some pictures, finally.
When we had our coffees and headed back to the cars, we did so to the sound of a new-ish Land Rover thing pulling in and making a horrible screechy noise. We provided a torch so he could see that it had eaten a belt with its fan. He wasn't happy, and we couldn't help further, so we left him to the mercy of his breakdown provider. Got home with nary a problem, barely used any petrol if the guage was to be believed and I waited until the following day to have a tinker.
Only trouble with mechanic-owned cars is they have a habit of smelling like the inside of a toolkit. Steve the Maestro is no exception to this.
Following day, because it was dark when I got home, I was up all early to have a proper look at the car. No matter how much I prodded and poked I knew there'd be more to see in daylight when I got my broggling tools out. I already know the engine has a minor oil leak (it's an A+ 1275, it's to be expected) and I already know the bottom corner of the driver's door outer skin is rotten. I also know the rear arches need some love but aren't terrible. Overall, the car looks battered and tatty and that's because it is having been used and abused for a number of years by a number of people. That's why there's bits like this on it.
But all that aside, it's my car so I have to have it CLEAN. Even if it is covered in ice.
Rinsed off, wheel trims frisbee'd (not really, I still have them 'just in case') and it's already looking a bit smarter.
The dark blue is great at hiding most of the dirt you get on a car, but not as good as a dirt-coloured car would be.
I actually got the clay bar out on this one, probably a bit excessive, but I wanted to know exactly how bad the paint was and what needed doing and a deep clean was the only way to find this out.
Also tried out some Skoda caps, but I'm not going to be using them. I'm actually after either some aluminium wheel nut and hub centre covers, or some plastic Austin-Rover centre caps to finish off the steels properly.
I got as far as polishing the bonnet and wing tops before the inclement weather defeated me (well, it is winter). The paint isn't terrible, but could do with either a lot of touch-ups or a respray, I'll probably do the former.
Oh, and I repainted the silver grille to be satin black which goes better with my plans.
Since I had 2 dustcaps across 4 wheels, neither of which matched, I threw £2 at eBay and got these. They look very tidy on the car.
Then it was time to do the interior. Much of the vinyl in the car had a brownish look to it. It's fairly common for Maestro plastics to fade from grey to brown, so that's what I thought it was.
In the back, it's fairly clean apart from dog hairs and wood shavings.
We have the usual Bedouin Tent headlining. Easily remedied and it'll allow me to find where the pipe for the rear washer has broken when I remove the headlining to fix this.
A bucket of brown water later, and the vinyl is actually very not-faded and grey, all the brown was dirt. I still have to shampoo the seats and the carpets in a couple of localised areas, but overall the interior is quite good and now I've cleaned the gearknob and radio and steering wheel and anything else the driver touches it smells clean and not at all toolkit-y
Last job was the bumpers. The metal centre sections are a bit rough looking and the black paint/coating is tired and going grey. Likewise, the plastic end caps are very grey and wouldn't go black again, so drastic measures were in order. Popped the back bumper off. I took all the electrical tape off the rear number plate lights to find out there were damaged, but not broken enough to warrant the tape. I also found that one is a Mk1 and the other a Mk2 item so they're different sizes. I'm going to get a chunkier unit to bolt onto the bumper instead, just not yet.
Steve did tell me that one of the people he sold the car too (he's bought it back twice now) reversed into a lamp post, and while effort was made to straighten it out, it's a bit lumpen and I'll have to work my magic on this bit to make it how it ought to be.
This bumper hole is pushed in, I had to knock it back out by about a quarter of an inch.
With the bumper in bits and the rear panel a bit straighter, I could get to work keying the plastics for paint and the metal sections. The plastics I did with a bit of wet-and-dry in my hand while the bumpers had to be done with the flap wheel. I'm going to get the metal parts refurbished eventually and completely de-rusted, for now I just wanted to tart things up.
Finally, got them all back on the car. A before, and two afters for comparison.
