Quality of life improvements.

Now, the car being super basic was initially one of the things that drew me to it, but some things were a bit too basic, so I installed remote central locking, but only on the front doors. (Mainly because the wires were too short and the back doors didn't have any wiring sleeves.

£14 china tech, no expenses spared!

And it even works!

Next I installed a universal arm rest, I'm creeping up to 40 after all.

Universal my ass! but it's in.

£1 phone holder, modded to fit.

Probably the single most expensive part I installed.

Engine temperature problems.

The very first thing I tackled was the engine not getting warm, so I joined the Skoda Felicia UK group and started asking away. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1504100216338081 

It was brought to my attention that the thermostat housing was the most likely culprit, so I went hunting online and discovered  https://www.skoda-parts.com/online-store.html, who are very reliable and have very fair prices.

Felicia temperature sensor housing.

I drained the cooling fluid.

Broken off  temperature valve thing.

Installed the new sensor housing and sensor.

And look at that, perfect.

Some minor and some major issues.

The honeymoon was short as I soon discovered a few flaws with my new Slavic rattlebox.

A broken door handle, easily fixed with some wire.

Can't even see the repair anymore.

 I bought a bottle of cutting compound from the discount store, just to try and liven up the paint.

Starting to look a bit more red.

 And as that seemed to do the trick, I picked up a cheap polisher on Facebook for £8.

6 Hours later

Not horrible anymore.

 A grueling 6 hours later the Felicia was finally shining again, but this brought some other, previously less noticable issues to light.

Rust!

More rust!

Extra rust!

Did I mention rust?

Brown paint, hahaha, it's rust!

Guess...

And a raspberry surprise, wonder what's behind it?

I also realised that there was water dripping into the driver's footwell and that the temperature gauge wouldn't go up.

In the beginning, I bought a rusty pink heap.

Relatively clean 68BHP 1.3l MPI

 In February 2020 my 2000 Renault Clio failed its MOT miserably, resulting in me having to find a "new", relatively decent car on the lowest possible budget, preferably with a year's MOT. That saturday  I went onto Facebook marketplace and Autotrader to compile a list of possible, sub £1000 cars. I found a yellow SLK, a black X-Type, some mouldy Micras and, this formerly red Skoda Felicia, which was by far the cheapest of the bunch at an asking price of £495.

This was supposedly after the previous owner had polished the bonnet.

 This car was my last resort, in case all the other cars turned out to be lemons.
And they were, from the £1000 X-Type to the £500 Micra, they were terrible, so, slightly discouraged I decided to go and see this pink, rusty, Berlin wall flashback inducing cube. The pictures that were uploaded by the seller were even less flattering than these ones you see here, so I wasn't too hopeful, and the low mileage of only 36000 miles for a 22 year old car sounded questionable.

My pink Felicia

 But then i saw it, probably the most basic car I ever bought, and I loved it on first sight.
No electronics, push buttons, a bare bones engine an genuinely low mileage as indicated by the MOT  rapports. The previous owners ( a single family) only drove around 600 miles a year.

So, as I'm starting a blog on this, it won't come as a surprise when I say that I bought the car, for £400, with only 36k and a full year's MOT.