Mazda 323 FA '79 - a movie from the inspection

           This short movie presents Mazda 323 FA from 1979 that we visited on our Saturday's excursion to look for vintage cars. Acknowledges should go to Janek for making it available in a short notice and all the time he spent editing it.

           If anyone was interested in the car I have contact to the owner. He said that on April 25th the technical validation of the car finished and before that time it would be possible to buy the car. Afterwards, he will do the technical inspection himself and probably will keep the car. So, all interested - ready, steady, go! :-)

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.

 

Mr. Bohdan and his collection

In this post I would like to present another interesting person, whom I met as a result of my new interest in vintage cars. The person is Mr. Bohdan and his name is quite unusual, because normally in Poland it is with „g” instead of „h” – Bogdan. The way in which we have acquaintanced one another is quite unusual and worth describing in a more detailed fashion. I hope you won’t mind :-). So let me start from the beginning.

When I was buying the new tires for my Corolla I made an appointment with the seller to meet at the parking lot at the supermarket near the place I live. After the transaction I was slowly returning home using a route that I rarely use. What I mean is that I do use it, but mainly for going from home to various places :-P. That is exactly why I had a chance to see something that normally I would probably not see :-). Hence, I was slowly driving on the right lane scanning surrounding car parks in search of any old- or yountimers. Taking into consideration the material status of people living in the area chances to encounter any of such cars are quite low :-). Nevertheless, I wanted to give it a try. I was so surprised when I saw a beautifully shaped car covered with Yellow Bahama paint  (as I learnt later) having old Polish license plates with white letters on black background going perfectly with it.  Without thinking too much I turned to the parking lot and quickly, so as not to arouse any suspicion, I briefly inspected the car. It was the Opel Kadett ‘67 and at first glance he impressed me very much. On the way back home I cooled down, but in my head the images of what I saw remained and an action plan slowly begun to develop.

            My “partner in crime” was chosen to be Milena and it was her I took for the night action under the cover of darkness. All of that in order to send a proper message to the owner of the beautiful car :-). The message was written on my business card and I was thinking of putting it under the windscreen wiper, but due to a bad weather it could have not reached the owner. Therefore, we decided to insert the card into the gap between the door and the chassis, which would result in its falling out when someone opens the door. We returned home convinced of accomplishing the mission.
            Very soon my dreams had to give way to dull reality and so with each passing day I occupied myself less with questions about the message we sent. And then, when least expected, the owner of the Opel Kadett called me! Of course I had no clue that it was him calling, because I was in the middle of conversation with Mr. Slawek at that very time. I didn’t answer the phone, yet I decided to call back on the way back to Warsaw. When I did so, while still being under huge impression of the meeting with Mr. Slawek I didn’t understand a thing from what the person I was calling was saying. If it was not for Milena, her full of expression gestures and the excited words “this is the owner of THE car” I would not have gotten a slight idea of what was going on. From that point it was much easier :-). We arranged a meeting on Sunday afternoon.

Mr. Bohdan turned out to be a very nice and humble man who has a passion for collecting and renovating old cars. He is an electrician from education, a mechanic born from passion and need. All his cars whenever it’s possible he tries to repair by himself on the parking lot in front of his blocks of flat. More advanced and demanding proper equipment works he commissions to persons or companies he got to know during his renovation activities. He has enormous knowledge and reliable contacts, which makes him invaluable person and source of needed information to me :-). Once he even appeared on a television interview for an automotive channel. I am sure he will be mentioned more than once on thi blog.

            The meeting was great! Three hours passed in a flash. During the meeting I learned a little bit of Mr. Bohdan’s car collection, which includes the following specimens: already mention Opel Kadett '67, Skoda Rapid (pictures below), Opel Kadett '84 and Opel Kadett from the 90's, Skoda Octavia from the 80’s I suppose, Opel cabriolet and a few more which I cannot recall right now :-).We had a ride with the oldest Opel on the parking lot only, and then with the one from 1984 we got to Skoda Rapid, which we took a small trip. Afterwards, I invited Mr. Bohdan to see my Toyota, and he confirmed what everyone already said that I would spend some time working on the car, but it was a very nice car. He also checked the if there was no slack in the steering wheel and if by any chance the strange dots on the body paint were not rust centers under the paint. Of course I have such as well, but in this case he was checking the countless number of dots on the paint. My every Sunday football game was getting closer and closer so I was forced to end the meeting. I took Mr. Bohdan back to his parking lot, thanked him warmly for his time and showing his cars. Mr. Bohdan said that for him as a vintage cars enthusiast sharing his passion with others is the greatest reward and happiness. Let this serve as a commentary:-).