RE: Stag as first car - questions...

[Julian Richardson <JRichardson@domain.elided>]

Hi Mike,

>> You may need to go with an 'ordinary' insurance policy - that is without 
>> agreed value - to get insured at all.

sure - I'm not too bothered about agreed value at first anyway as I'm
leaning towards getting a solid-but-tatty car and then slowly rebuilding
as necessary along the way; it seems like a good deal to me then as I
can get something a bit cheaper initially plus it seems liek a really
good way of learning about the car itself...

thanks for the phone numbers by the way, I'll give those a try. My main
worry isn't really the cost of the insurance itself but whether anyone
will insure me on a Stag at all! :)

>> Regarding a Rover engined car, yes they are cheaper to buy (but there are a
>> lot of bodged conversions including some with bonnet bulges to clear the
>> big SU carburrettors).

so I'd heard. I'd be keen to effectively do the conversion myself at a
later date anyway just so I could be happy with the engine in use and so
I could try to tidy things up as well as possible in the engine bay (and
hopefully arrange things so as not to have any ugly bonnet bulges,
although I expect heat would always be a problem). I was only toying
with the idea of buying a conversion first as it seems like a good way
to get a cheap, but hopefully otherwise sound car...

>> Some Rover motors also come with the Rover 5-speed 'box which is quite
>>nice.

yep, but the boxes do tend to be a bit weak and have problems of their
own, but on the other hand with a Rover based engine it saves lots of
messing around with bellhousings and stuff! I'm totally undecided on it
all really and it depends on what's around at the time, but it doesn't
hurt to get a few opinions first!
>
>> You may well find when you try to buy a Stag, that many
>> have no hardtop supplied, this is probably because they tended to rot 
>> away badly and may have been scrapped.

surely that's not a bad point anyway? I would have thought that a Stag
with a soft top is the most practical given Britain's weather as the
soft top will presumably fold up in the boot or on the back seat, will
it not? Having not owned one I don't know, but I'd expect a hard top
just to be extra hassle and a slightly leaky roof is all part of the
classic experience :)

cheers

Jules
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