Real Life Pagodas on City streets

[Bonnyboy]

Hanging out on this forum most of the pictures I see are of restored or very good condition pagodas.   Living in Vancouver BC Canada the cars that make me stop are the older cars that are far from pristine with lots of character.   The bulk seem to be Miatas, MGBs and 107 series Mercedes.   I even saw two pagodas recently that could be classified as "beaters".   

I would like to see more pictures and stories of those cars. 

There has to be some out there or do the owners of those cars not frequent our Forum or are they afraid to show them.     I saw a 280SL last week that from a distance of 50 feet you could see the rust bubbling under the grill and when I got closer the aesthetics got worse but the car had lots of character.  This car was obviously driven - seats were fairly new (strange colour combination but newer).      Another 230SL I saw last month had a little rust popping out of the body work, torn carpets, a bed sheet on the drivers seat but it had brand new Pirelli P4s which looked the part. 

I don't know if these are in line to be restored or just driven, but there were both cool cars where I expected to see a 70ish Rutger Hauer driving away.   

Does anyone on this forum other than me drive aesthetically challenged vehicles just because they are just so much fun to drive?

[Flim]

Sounds like you are describing my pagoda! Definitely not concourse material!

Plenty of rust, dent, scratches, oil, smoke, spluttering, blowback, rips, tears, blown fuses, speedo bounce, leaks, cracks...

Did I mention rust?

But I love it! I drive it when I can, usually, weather permitting (I live in England - but am not shy of rain). And am not afraid to drive & park it at the supermarket.

Nothing better than driving around on a sunny day, top on or off, purring along at 60-70mph!

Charles

[Cees Klumper]

My Pagoda is not so challenged, and I always had it garaged, but where I used to live in Amsterdam down the street (Rozengracht, quite a busy main throughway) from us for many years there was a sort-of-red-purple Pagoda parked that fits your desciption: bad paint job, flat, chrome was weathered. But it was driven and used all the time. Come to think of it, for years there was also a really beat-up sixties Karmann Ghia that the owner would put a tarp over when he parked in (on one of the canals usually) so that if it rained it would not get soaked inside. Lots of character maybe but I do prefer to have it sorted a bit better than that! Especially I don't like to see rust bubbles (or any rust really).

[Theo113]

Perhaps my defination of character differs from the references here to character.  The closest I could come to a relative description would be "the aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing". The decline in the condition of a 113 would then contribute to its character or individual nature.  An interesting character trait I suppose but one I only see as the potential for improvement. One man's opinion.

[Peter van Es]

Ask anyone who has been to the Euro events. My car is "aesthetically challenged" precisely because I like to participate in gruelling long distance classic rallies. It is not "mechanically challenged".

One day (after I retire) I may do a full body off restoration. Then again, I may not...

Peter

[stratamarr]

Replying to an old thread here, but I recently got back my car from my mechanic and had it completely detailed from another shop. Had the pleasure of driving it a good long distance this weekend. Still needs some mechanical work, however....the exterior is in rough shape...a couple small rust spots in front, missing a few chrome or aluminum strips from the sides, but the back has some large, very visible rust spots. On the right side there's a rust hole above the rear tire.

Will these aesthetics prevent me from driving this summer? Hell, no. While it would be nice to have a car with clean lines, that was not in the cards for this particular car.

(but....ummmm....does anyone have a recommendation for a Northeast body shop?)