CARLTON DIPLOMAT 1993 , A WORK IN PROGRESS

[vauxhalljohn]

Please ignore this starting essay , As i have still got the beutifull lady and have no intention of selling her any more[/i]
Hi folks,

well i have come to the decision that i am soon to sell my carlton diplomat for the reason that i am wanting another cavalier at the end of this month .

I will be using the carlton for the family holiday as we are off to cornwall and want to keep the car as its comfy for the long journey , But once i am back she will be going up for sale . So if you are interested give me a shout .

She is a 1993 model in bordeux metallic red , has twelve months mot and i have recently put a new back box on her , new brakes and discs on the front and new pads on the rear including a new rear hand brake cable.

She has the grey leather interior which is in reasonable condition with all seats heated ,and the rear arches and sills are in solid condition which is a treat for a car of this age .
The only down side to her is that the heater swithch has packed up again and i will be fitting a new one in a couple of weeks , but if this dont work i will assume the relay needs changing but this is a tedeouse job and dont fancy doing it myself so it will need doing if the new blower switch is not the problem .

Apart from this , i will be sorry to see her go as i am quite attached to her and she is a lovley looking carlton for her age , i have treated the sills with smoothrite and she is solid underneath . i have to reatach the sill covers still and i want to put some new mud gaurd on her just to tart her up a little .

I am asking for four hundred for her , you may dissagree with me but i think she is worth every penny . And i want to let her go to a enthusiast not some one who will end up scrapping her at the end of her life as she has so much still to give . So if you fancy giving her a new home please let me know and i will respond to decent offers .

NOT FOR SALE ANY MORE > TOO GOOD TO SELL !!!!

[ian]

thats a cheap dippy!

[vauxhalljohn]

 iknow , i would like to ask for more . but i am being realistic , i could get five or six hundred for it , but i dont want to be greedy mate . i`m an honest bloke .

[Murph]

Sounds more than reasonable to me John.

Its been good having you here and I'm sure someone will take her on.

[vauxhalljohn]

Thanks mate , i hope so too . she is to nice to let go to any one thats why i want a club member to have her as at least ashe will goto a good home . It would be nice to see used for a lotus replica . and not totally stripped and used as spare parts like many slow dissapering carltons.

[vauxhalljohn]

forgot to mention that the cruise controle is fully functional and so is the ten disc multi cd player which is the original factory fitted for this model . Also has the original diplomat allys which are still worth at least one hundred pounds on their own with good tyres .

I will get photos up soon so you can make your own minds up , once the sun comes back out and i have given her a wash and polish , which is done on a weekly basis .

will keep you updated if i carry out any further work . And when the time comes to sell her .

[vauxhalljohn]

this a picture of an diplomat which is identical to mine . so only use it as an example and i will get photos of mine up soon.

[vauxhalljohn]

 

[vauxhalljohn]

YEP theese are the original sills and arches and are in very good condition.

[vauxhalljohn]

here we go fellas , here the photos that i have promised . it was nice and sunny today sop she got a was and polish .

[Diplo-Matt]

Looks lovely John. Sold mine which looks to be in similar conditon for £900 on ebay, tbh it wasn't any better than yours and tin-worm was begining to set in. The biggest buzz was that it went to an enthusiast though
Cheers

[vauxhalljohn]

well im off to cornwall soon , and i have just been to the all night car wash and got her all polished up and hoovered inside . she is looking nice .

But she gave me a big scare yesterday after filling her right up with petrol . Id just put sixty quids worth of juice in her and put the pump back down turned around and there was fuel leaking every were . After having the fourcourt shut for half hour and being towed away , i came to the conclusion that i must have a hole some where on top of the fuel tank , its the first time its happened and so im now worried i wont get the asking price i would like for her. So i might cut my throat and just sell her for three hundred , dont really want to as i aint going to get much of a car for that kind of money unless i get a ...dernt say it ...Mondeo just to fill the stepping stone , untill it can afford another vauxhall.      

[HMK]

I had the same thing last year with the Carlton Estate, but not quite as bad as you.

It's a common thing for the tank on a Carlton to be rotten if it's still got the original factory fitted tank on it. The advice here is to go on holiday with the car, but don't ever fill the tank any more than half full. I went on holiday with mine last year & did hundreds of miles without problems - you just have to gauge your fill up stops carefully & carry a spare couple of gallons of fuel in cans in the boot to top up if you run low & can't find a garage. As it happened, I didn't need to break into the spare fuel, but it was there just in case

Fitted a new fuel tank now

[Scatmancraig]

well im off to cornwall soon , and i have just been to the all night car wash and got her all polished up and hoovered inside . she is looking nice .

But she gave me a big scare yesterday after filling her right up with petrol . Id just put sixty quids worth of juice in her and put the pump back down turned around and there was fuel leaking every were . After having the fourcourt shut for half hour and being towed away , i came to the conclusion that i must have a hole some where on top of the fuel tank , its the first time its happened and so im now worried i wont get the asking price i would like for her. So i might cut my throat and just sell her for three hundred , dont really want to as i aint going to get much of a car for that kind of money unless i get a ...dernt say it ...Mondeo just to fill the stepping stone , untill it can afford another vauxhall.      

I have just removed a decent leak free fuel tank from a 24v GSi which will fit your Diplomat.  There's not much work involved in changing them, as long as you get the fuel out first (quite easy with an oil drum pump & a lot of containers!!).  I'm only based in Lincoln, correct me if i'm wrong but aren't you from Grantham? (could be someone else so ignore me if i'm wrong on that!)  If your Dippy is as nice as it looks in the photo's it would seem a shame to have to drop your price for the sake of a few quid & a few hours work!

Let me know what you think?

[vauxhalljohn]

i have decided to keep her for now , as my grandfather passed away last week and i have been in liverpool for his funeral . The car has driven nearly 1800miles in the past two weeks and has not let me down and i have spent two hundred quid on fuel . So she has proved to be a comfortable reliable cruiser and she is well worth keeping hold of .

I will have some inhetritance to come to me , so i will use that to have the carlton totally serviced in every way , and hopefully afford a new respray . So i will also get a vectra as my toy and keep the carlton for shows and long distance travel .

So i will be staying a member of total carlton , thats if you still want me here
__________________

[Tetleysmooth]

Glad you're keeping her mate. Always worth holding on to a good 'un.
Sorry to hear about your grandad.

[vauxhalljohn]

Thanks dude , he was also a vauxhall man and he would have loved my old girl . He had an old carlton mk2 in the eighties and its what prompted me to vauxhall in the first place. But his poor old astra is now on the drive waiting for my dad to sought it out still worth  six grand  .

[chrismec]

Sorry about your grandad matey
But it's good to hear your staying with us, keep us posted on repairs to dippy and progress pics would be cool

[vauxhalljohn]

   ok will do .

[vauxhalljohn]

Well i have given her a mini service today ie oil change , oil filter , air fitler . She dont need new plugs or leads as i only got them done last november and she still firring in good order .

I have just had delivered new back discs and pads off ebay for £34.98 and also a new set of wiper blades .
She has had the sill coverings reatached , but one side fell off again durring the week due to heat , but they are in my boot awaiting some stronger stuff that i have ordered from ebay . So one side looks good and the other side still looks nice but is missing the skirting.

Next i will order new front and back mud flaps again from ebay , as ther are under a tenna for a set  , and then get me tyres done on the back .

I`ve also a set of new rocker cover bolts which are all nice and shiny , but before i put them on i need a new gasket and i need some one to rethread the hole for one bolt and i need to have a snapped bolt drilled out and re threaded .

And then before winter trealy snaps in i need to sought out the tin monster ont the bottom of my door . Its not bad yet but it will be eaten away rapidley during winter if i dont get it done proffesionally . I have been quoted two hundred quid for the whole door to be done , but is this good or a bad deal ??.

[Pedro]

£200 for welding, painting and finishing on one door?

IF it's done well, and doesn't stand out from the rest of the car, then I guess £200 not too bad in today's climate really.

Car looks really good - so I think it'll be worth spending on it to get it looking right.

First time I've seen the thread, John - glad you're staying, matey!

[vauxhalljohn]

I had the thread in cars for sale , and i thought i better move the thread  .and keep every one updated still .

As on vx club , i did say i was taking her off the road so that i can get all the work doing on her , but trying to find a cheap cav for under two hundred quid with tax and mot for six months was a difficult challenge .

So i said sod it , i will re tax her at the end of the month and the money i put aside for a cav , i`ll spend on the cally instead . So thats what i have been doing this month , spending money on her , there is still a bit left to do and i have a rattle comming from the auto box when she is in park or nuetral , and this gose when you put her into drive , its kind of puzzling but i am sure it aint nothing seriouse .  So i will get this looked at when i give her to tanvics to change my blower motors next month .

And i`ll ask the lads at select a tyre to do the discs and pads on the rear , as they quoted me £35.00 last time i asked and they`re a cracking bunch of fellas and have always worked on all my cars . But i got a suspicion my callipers are sticking on the back but i`m sure they will sought this out.
When it comes to brakes i like the experts to sought it out and my mate pete is working now and aint got time to mess around with my motor , Plus it always bites him back when he works on her . as she knows he dont like her , especially as he scrapped my last carlton .

[Scatmancraig]

Which door is rotten?

[vauxhalljohn]

its along the bottom of my drivers door . Its not rotten through , but has started to bubble and i want to catch it before it spreads and gets worse mate.

[Scatmancraig]

Aaah, i therefore cannot help.  I did have a rot free drivers door (originally the passenger door form my scrapped LHD), but Carlton_Mad has now got it!!

Still got rot free passenger side front & rear doors going spare if anyone is interested??