eBay: 1958 Riley 1.5 Ideal Winter Project

[Harris]

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285568381372

Riley 1.5 for spares/repair a classic beauty that will make an ideal winter project for any car enthusiast.

I am the second owner and aquired the car in 2018. I started it as a project in 2018/19 then shortly got divorced so it has sat at the end of my old garden until this August. Its really very solid, other than needing a new front n/s chassis leg (included) and few patches needing repair. I was converting it to do classic rallying, telescopic front and rear shocks which are half done, disc front brakes, front anti roll bar. There are all these parts and more new included, stainless exhaust, shocks, clutch kit, spare wheels, some 2k + of new parts, I think I still have all the invoices. The engine has been overhauled, it didn't need a grind or rebore, so new rings, shells, timing chain, rebuilt MGB head, Proper leather bucket seats recoloured to match the original leather, the rear seats still had their plastic coverings and are like new. Too much really to list.

I have nowhere to work and can't justify storage costs so all of my projects are up for grabs!! (Jensen GT, Audi 200 TQ avant, W124 E320 sportline estate, S3 Alfa Spider, Porsche 944 TurboSE, 20" Classic River launch - electric)
Maidenhead area.

Jon 07825277777

[vue from the north]

its at £700 with 23 hours to go, will it make the lesser spotted £1000 for a non runner, personally id have the seats out of it re trim them & flog them to the minor boys and girls then split the rest, im always wary of a car with a engine in bits, if its knackard but together then fine its all there as i should be but stripped leaves me wondering why

[tjt77]

hopefully someone will take it on.. caveat emptor.. there is ALWAYS far more work than meets the eye.. a dismantled engine would be the least of my concerns.. the last 1.5 I bought in Uk turned out to be a far worse economic and time consuming disaster than I hoped ... after looking at some 7 examples I finally settled on a highly original two owner 1960 model that had just over 51,000 original miles on it, but had been garaged in Bournemouth for about 15 years since the 91 year old owners wife had died....due to time restraints and lack of workshop faclities, I sent it to a well known wolseley 1500 specialist for 're-commissioning' and after close to a year, it took 2 attempts to collect it AFTER he claimed to have done the requisite work ( first time I never got more than 1 mile before it quit running ) on the second attempot the (new) fuel pump quit after about 800 yards (it was too hot to touch with bare hands) ..line from 'reconditioned' fuel tank was blocked..and the already weak clutch started to slip with the stress of trying to keep it moving in traffic with insufficient fuel supply.. Engine was very noisy on top end in spite of low mileage and was very tired overall, as was the second gear synchromesh .. I got it to Cornwall and replaced the whole powertrain with one from a rusty parts car Id aquired earlier, with apporx 65k miles on it, ( I drove that car from Northern England to Cornwall previously, and it performed VERY well) and finally had a decent driving car.. the time spent fixing it took up almost 1/2 of my holiday , which I had planned to spend driving the car around UK....
Im now dealing with yet another 2.6 I bought here in California and can get zero help from anyone trying to source a front bumper overider..
I think my 55 year love affair with Rileys is coming to an end.. seems quite clear there is just not much in the way of support from other Riley owners.. who claim to have the parts I require..

[vue from the north]

sorry to hear about your 2.6 disaster with bumper, have you given bernie peel a email hes the doyen of 2.6 & should be able to help locate stuff, theres only about 20 cars left or something like that i think