Flick it or fix it? Revcounter 444

By: Guy Allen

Date: 03.10.2020

Do you ever strike one of this situations where, the more you think about something the less certain you are of what to do? Even when it comes to cars, you can have way too many options. Let me explain.

This may have come up once or twice in the past: we have a serious space issue at Chateau Conrod, exacerbated by a certain unwillingness to let go of things – though I did recently try.

With another car coming and nowhere to put it – don’t tell Uncle Phil, but it’s a model he deeply disapproves of – I actually made an honest attempt to shuffle at least one car off the property. The Soarer.

My first and only call was to young Torrens, whose car rescue adventures you see up the other end of the mag each issue. I figured he might be nuts enough to take it on. But no he already had his hands full and the Soarer really isn’t something that gets him excited. Fair enough.

Actually, if you whip across to his pages, you’ll see he’s just taken on a really big job with a pretty uncommon Commodore variant.

So here’s where I am with the Soarer. It’s a very high miler 350,000-or-so kays, that runs really sweetly and is using very little oil. There are a few issues to be fixed, such as replacing the cam belts, getting the electronic brain in the centre console patched and the big one, a respray.

Now the car is worth next to nothing, so the cold-hearted economist side of my brain says sell it for whatever you can get and walk away. The other side of my brain keeps yelling, at me to keep it and fix it.

In theory I could do much of the work myself, including the paint. Okay, the end result probably won’t be great, but we’re not playing for sheep stations and it would be a good learning experience. And I have pretty much all the tools I need sitting in the shed.

But where in hell do you find the time? Weirdly, I’m busier than ever at the moment, so this would mean booking actual proper time away from the desk and keyboard. Possibly several days.

Shock horror, won’t the world end if I attend to something other than work? Perhaps not.

Young Torrens is rapidly becoming my role model in this – a thought which may genuinely horrify him. But I know what he’d do. He’d roll up his sleeves and get stuck in. After all, we’re not trying to split the atom here, are we? And I like the Soarer, so maybe it’s worth a go.

From Unique Cars #444, Sep 2020

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