New Member with new Elf

Good evening ladies & gents,
On Sunday afternoon I committed the cardinal sin of car buying and agrred to buy a car that 1)I had no intention of buying until 5 minutes before I did, & 2) I have never seen, well other than some pictures. I know this isn't right way of going about things, but I am a great believer in fate, and am very happy with my purchase. This may change when I finally get to pick it up this weekend, but I doubt it.

The beauty in question is a 1969 Riley Elf, a car I've been after for a while. We already own a 1995 Rover Mini Sidewalk (Spi) for a bit of weekend fun, so the Elf will sit alongside the Sidewalk for those extra special days.

I've had a good look around and the site seems great, with a lot of knowledgeable people offering good advice. I'll probably be looking for plenty of help over the next few months as I no doubt tinker a bit. I have got a few stupid questions to ask right now so will start a thread in the technical area.

More info and pics this weekend.

welkom to the small club

i hope you will have a lot of fun whitethe Elf
please put one also some picks

hilbert

humph wrote:Good evening ladies & gents,
On Sunday afternoon I committed the cardinal sin of car buying and agrred to buy a car that 1)I had no intention of buying until 5 minutes before I did, & 2) I have never seen, well other than some pictures. I know this isn't right way of going about things, but I am a great believer in fate, and am very happy with my purchase. This may change when I finally get to pick it up this weekend, but I doubt it.

The beauty in question is a 1969 Riley Elf, a car I've been after for a while. We already own a 1995 Rover Mini Sidewalk (Spi) for a bit of weekend fun, so the Elf will sit alongside the Sidewalk for those extra special days.

I've had a good look around and the site seems great, with a lot of knowledgeable people offering good advice. I'll probably be looking for plenty of help over the next few months as I no doubt tinker a bit. I have got a few stupid questions to ask right now so will start a thread in the technical area.

More info and pics this weekend.

It wasn't the very nice Yukon Grey one in Leyland was it? If so, you were bidding against me!!! If it was the same one, I'm just glad it's gone to an enthusiast.

Welcome to our little bit of cyberspace in any case.

Jase

discoman41 wrote:It wasn't the very nice Yukon Grey one in Leyland was it? If so, you were bidding against me!!! If it was the same one, I'm just glad it's gone to an enthusiast.

Welcome to our little bit of cyberspace in any case.

Jase

It might have been, grabs coat and runs away.......

Sorry about that. I'd had some correspondance with the seller when the car went up, but decided I was being decadent and forgot about it. When I got a reminder that the auction was ending on my phone the missus told me I should bid, she's a good girl , so I was on the case again. I have to say I really didn't think the max bid I put in would be enough to win, was expecting to be well short. Haven't seen the car as I said, but he does look lovely. Very excited now, got the insurance sorted as well as a second lock up, so we're cooking on gas. Have just got hold of a set of the rear seatbelt anchor points from Somerford Mini too so that we can go out as a family.

Roll on the weekend.

A quick pic taken from the ad

Welcome to the forum, best wishes with your new purchase.
John

welcome to our little bit of cyber-space. congrats on your new purchase

sounds like, just for once, you didn't win jase!

Big_Al_Smith wrote:welcome to our little bit of cyber-space. congrats on your new purchase

sounds like, just for once, you didn't win jase!

I know! I was beaten by one second!!!! Just like Rocky II - lol!

He looks exactly like Rupe and I wanted a matching pair!

Jase

He looks exactly like Rupe and I wanted a matching pair!

Jase[/quote]

Why? The mind boggles!

TONYELF wrote:He looks exactly like Rupe and I wanted a matching pair!

Jase

Why? The mind boggles! [/quote]

More to the point Tony..... Why not????

Jase

discoman41 wrote:

TONYELF wrote:He looks exactly like Rupe and I wanted a matching pair!

Jase

Why? The mind boggles!

More to the point Tony..... Why not????

Jase[/quote]

Because it's there - always a good enough reason!

Welcome to the forum humph

He's home:D Picked up from Leyland last night in the driving rain and dark. Got a chance to have a quick look over under the lights at the nearest Morrisions petrol station, will get more chance today. First impressions are wow, he drives brilliantly, far better than I would ever have envisaged. Pics and more info later.

good to hear that is an other elf into a good new home

hilbert

Ok so time for a full introduction.

This is Bert. Bert is quite rightly named after the gentleman that sold it to me, a gentleman that had spent many hours rebuilding the Elf.



You'll have to excuse the lack of shine. We picked him up on the worst evening we've had for a while with the rain coming sideways, so poor old Bert had to do 40 miles in horrendous conditions.

Bert is a 1969 Mk3 Riley Elf, as many of you will have guessed. Bert originates from the Gloucestershire area, and has literally just past his 42nd birthday. From the pile of receipts that came with him he certainly spent the period 1997 to 2006 in and around his birthplace, with a brief stay in Wiltshire. I am owner number 11 but then again he is 42 years old. For the last 3 years he's been living in Leyland where he received a diy pragmatic resto from his previous owner, the aforementioned Bert. As far as I can tell he's pretty standard with the exception of dry cone suspension, alterator, and electric windscreen washer pump. Mileage wise he displays 54k, and the pile of receipts show this to be correct (at least as far back as 1996).

On the road he drives really well. The engine is lively given it's a standard 998cc, and the gearbox is really smooth. The only scary bit is the standard drum brakes, but you soon get used to them It is amazing how much lighter Bert is than our 1995 Mini which is running 12" wheels. In the 2 days of driving him I've already tried most types of driving, we picked him up in the dark and driving rain, Saturday was a nice bright day, we've done town, country, motorway and I have to say he handled himself impressively in all situations. On the motorway cruising at 60 was very easy, even 70 seemed good but I won't be making too much of a habit of that.

Bodywork wise Bert is good. He's had a new floorpan & sills, with the exception of the boot. The front panel, wings, and A panels seem to be good, but there is a slight rust stain running from one of the joints between the wing & front panel which will need a bit of attention, I suspect that the seem sealer may be letting in water. There are two areas of rust bubbling, along the bottom edge of the boot lid, and in two corners of the bonnet (drivers side front bottom, and top corners). The paint was done in the previous owners garage at home so isn't concours but despite a little orange peel is good.

The only issues I've found so far are;

the courtesy light lense has a hole in it caused by britleness from many years of heat. I have sourced a replacement.
the drivers door front bottom corner corner is digging into the paint on the sill. Will look at this but I think the corner just needs rounding off slightly.
the drivers door is catching the b pillar just at the point where the lower door meets the window frame.
the door stays on both doors are coming away from the door frames as the welds have failed.
the front overriders are missing so need to source some new.
the rear bumper and overiders are complete, but there is a small hole in the bumper behind each overider, so will be on the look out for a new one (or a decent repair to this one)

He also came with a pile of spares, mostly chromework, an unleaded cylinder head, and other bits.

All in all Bert is a great, very tidy, useable classic Elf and we're very excited to welcome him to our family. We're very lucky to have picked him up at the price we did, a real bargain in our eyes. We get married in 2 weeks so I am hoping that Bert will be there for photos.

Hopefully we'll see you at the next show.

hi there , i think youll find the small holes in the bumper are supose to be there , somthing to do with the over ridder suport brakets ?? cheers trevor

mrelf wrote:hi there , i think youll find the small holes in the bumper are supose to be there , somthing to do with the over ridder suport brakets ?? cheers trevor

I see what you mean Trevor, and I would agree that they may be the original overrider holes, but they have rusted into larger holes (not quite 5p sized). I haven't checked but I believe the rear overiders are now fixed by some other means. Will get a chance to have a look at them in a few weeks after the wedding.

Got some irons in the fire with regards to front overiders and a new rear bumper.

with regard to your door issues, it is quite common for the little welds to fail on the check bars and it is possible that the door may have dropped a little over time on the hinge - may just need tightening if you are lucky or a new hings may sort it. best of luck with it anyway - looks a nice little car

welcome Humph and Bert

that looks like a lovely car in the first photo the car looked like it is grey but in the second it looks like the same colour mine is Brown .

He is a Mark 3 as well built in Sept 1968

could i ask what the actual colour it is and if it is its original colour

Looks Yukon Grey to me, just like my "Rupert".

Ironically, had I not lost the bid on ebay (with one second to go) he would have come HOME to Gloucestershire *sigh*... ah well, at least Bert has gone to a good home

Jase

Well Bert got me over from Liverpool to Colwyn Bay tonight. Just hope he makes it back to Chester for my wedding tomorrow.

You will be on my territory tomorrow. Whereabouts? and what time? If I can't get there to congratulate you in person may I wish you all the Best for tomorrow.
Tony

First breakdown on Sunday, it was only a matter of time. On the way to get fresh fuel and he died on me. The car is in need of a service, but time hasn't allowed so far, and there is no fuel filter. The lack of filter had allowed crap to get in and block the float needle, causing fuel to stop and fuel to poor out of the carb overflow. Hopefully that's it for now, but a service is on the list for next weekend.

Bert looks lovely, will keep my eyes peeled for you whenever I make my way down the M62

Well Bert flew through his MOT yesterday without so much as an advisory, very happy. To reward the little fella I think it's time I got a few things sorted out, but it'll have to be after I take delivery of my new daily driver next week.

Only issue was that the MOT station have recorded his mileage as 64k when it's actually 54k. Going to have to get that changed.