On the lookout for vintage cars

           On April 14^th against all odds I decided to go on a search trip for another car, which I could take care of. In fact, I wanted to write that I am looking for my next victim, because most likely the car would become a victim of my vintage cars greed. Probably I am too concerned that old cars in decent condition are becoming too hard to encounter that my heart spontaneously reacts on every interesting opportunity appearing on the market. It was like that for the past few days when, together with Peter, we selected two cars that were worth our attention - Porsche 924 from 1981 and 1982 Toyota Celica. Both in the vicinity of Krakow, so it was easy to gather a team of experts.
           The first car is a classic car and by far the cheapest model of Porsche. This was the first car Mike and Edd took care of in their program "Wheeler dealers." Some might say that this is not the top league and stuff, but Porsche is always Porsche, even if it is a one with the “weakest” possible engine. In addition, it is said that this type of Porsche is a car a student could afford to have and maintain because it is really not very expensive. Availability of parts is relatively good, and as they are mainly parts for VW it is not so that expensive.
           On the other hand, the second car, Toyota Celica probably TA60 or TA61, representative of the third generation , is quite rare to come upon in Poland  Rear wheel drive (RWD), two carburetors, more than 100 horsepower - all of that makes it a pretty cool sport car. In the pictures on the website it looked quite interestingly and therefore got a chance for a rendez-vous. The only thing that worried me was the mileage of the car of ca.​​270,000 km, but it was perhaps just the slightest problem of all as it turned out in the end.
           Actually, I should have started by telling you that the main reason and initiator of the whole trip was 33 years old first generation Mazda 323 FA. In USA it is known under different name – GLC, which stand for Great Little Car. It is the one with the beautiful square front lamps, which you can see in the picture below. I was also fascinated with her overall beauty and age, of course ;-). I had never seen a similar Mazda and quick search on the Internet had shown that it was not a popular and commonly seen model in Poland and neighboring countries. It was reasonable to assume that spare parts will be, firstly, really hard to get and, secondly, very expensive. Eventually, this car was rejected after the talk with the owner, who said there was a hole in the floor on driver's side. Fortunately, the fuel is not that expensive to behave as Fred Flintstone :-).
            The whole band of brothers was gathered in Krakow – two guys with the same name Janek, Piotr and Lesław. The plan was the following - first Porsche and then Toyota due to better value to price ratio. At least that is what we assumed from the advertisements on the Internet.
            So, we did as we planned and after a short trip we arrived at a dealer’s place where the Porsche of our interest was. The reality quite roughly verified what was in the announcement. Namely, it turned out that the geometry of the vehicle was likely to be affected as the body gaskets were coming off the body. Moreover, the front was covered quite a thick layer of plastic filler, which in addition has already started to crack revealing the secret of what might have happened to the car and what awaits the unaware buyer. Peter honed me a bit on sensing the thickness of the body paint with the fingers and how to distinguish the original paint from others. A steady hand and a smooth the eye is able to capture many of the shortcomings. There was also an unclear story of LPG installation, which presence could be seen, but for some reason it was removed. Last quick look under the hood and we were ready to hit the road. 
            To our next destination we got without any problems and a surprise awaited us. We walked to the owner, shook hand with him, we stood for a moment waiting for him to leads us to the car, and suddenly he showed a motorbike standing  nearby and said, "Well, as you can see," and we laughed and said that we had come to see the car: -). A garage sale! :-). The car was on the other side of the house. It underwent a thorough evaluation of mainly two experts while I was gathering additional pieces of information to these I obtained during earlier telephone conversation I had with the owner. An interesting car, no doubt about it, having common problems typical for old cars. If it was not for the experiments of the owner (welded right door handle from the outside, suspicious LPG installation, converted bonnet, home-made body paint), it probably would have been an interesting potential purchase candidate. In these circumstances, the price to value ratio was not very favorable. Therefore, we decided that it was time for us. Piotr said that we could check the Mazda 323 as it was just off the road on the way back.
           So we did and literally after a few minutes we were arrived at the place. As in previous cases, we all went directly to work and checked the car. The general impressions on Mazda were very good and even with one indentation on the back and the front fenders solidly cracked it looked very decent. The interior was super nice and if it was not for the awareness of the holes under the feet of the driver it would have really been a good car. The owner took a good care of the mechanical side of the car and we made a point of test driving the car a couple times:-). Video should follow soon, but it is still in the post production :-). Well, I was struggling, struggling awfully. Guys were giving the car maximum 5 years and some welding work to do. All in all, I would judge her status as a slightly better than my Toyota, but eventually it got to me that I should focus on one car, and not to have several irons in the fire, as I normally do. We thanked the owner and returned to Krakow. 
           It was a very nice trip indeed and beyond its obvious social value it contained educational value as well. I learned new skills very useful for recognition of hidden traps always waiting for inexperienced buyers. I know where and how to look and more importantly I know what to pay attention to. Moreover, I learned that I must finish the thing that I have started before taking another one into consideration. With such a strong mindset and commitment I returned to Warsaw on the same day and from this very place, I wanted to warmly greet my travel companions Konrad, Julian and Paweł :P.