![Image](https://i.imgur.com/G91zkpE.jpg)
Back in late 1979/ early 1980 my mum fell pregnant with me. My dad decided it would be a good idea to sell his mini and buy something a bit more practical. This turned out to be a pea green alfasud 1.2. The first vehicle I ever travelled in.
This was replaced by a black one a couple of years later
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/w4Rb2iK.jpg)
Which was written off some time in 1983 by a ford transit which couldn’t decide which side of the road to drive on.
It was replaced with an orange 5m
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/nZOmjvC.jpg)
Which was replaced by a black s3
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/eh60SLr.jpg)
And then an ivory gold cloverleaf, followed by a C-reg and then an F-reg 33s. The last boxer in the family was an N-reg 146 1.6.
I’ve always like the suds, and been keeping an eye out for something for many years but have watched the numbers dwindle and prices rise. Along with too many other projects on the go.
I recently realised I’d kind of fallen out of love with interesting cars. I like our daily drivers, but all the ongoing projects have spent too long left abandoned, and just when I was thinking of buying something complete, running and a little unusual my sud popped up, and even the other half encouraged me to go for it.
Contact was made, a deal was struck and plans were hatched to travel almost the entire width of the country from Suffolk to Cornwall to pick it up.
The journey home in something completely unknown and 40 years old was interesting but thankfully pretty uneventful!
It’s a 1980 build car, supplied in the uk, zeibarted from new than shipped to Malta where it lived for a couple of years before coming back to the uk In 1982 ( hence the Y-reg ) and spending most of its life as the original owners runaround in south london.
I’d say the car is a 20 footer, it’s been painted and is reasonably tidy, but isn’t a pampered show car, which honestly is exactly what I want. I want to be able to use it for everyday stuff as well as meets and events without worrying too much about it.
Other than the paint and a set of Ti extra gauges on the dash it’s completely original. I have had to give in and fitted an early 80s radio with some matching rear shelf speakers to make the boring bits of my 30 mile commute less boring.
Ive refitted the original square rear number plate, rewired the offside rear cluster to put an led fog light into the reverse light position and lose the ugly dangling rear fog. Changed some minor service items, fitted electronic ignition and a dedicated relayed supply to the headlights which has transformed them from awful to acceptable.
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/gM3BSVj.jpg)
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/bVYXXaO.jpg)
And next to my mums current Giulietta Multiair Super
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/uSfZ0do.jpg)
Although totally new to suds ( I was around 8 when my dad got rid of his last one! ) I’m a total car nerd and I expect there will be lots of, hopefully not too daft, questions. So hopefully people on here won’t mind sharing some of their knowledge.