Friends aside, the reason I went to Melbourne is to pick up my 1989 Ford Telstar TX5 Turbo, so I’ll start there.

I bought the car around nine months ago, and since then it’s been sitting either at Jeff’s, or Dion’s place. Unfortunately I didn’t get to hang out with Dion much when I picked up the car, as he and his family were about to sit down for dinner.

My first impressions of the TX5 were very positive. That said, it was night time.

The next morning I checked it out more, and found a lot of issues. Over the next three days, I ran around Melbourne from place to place picking up bits and pieces until I saw a guy on TX5forums parting out a whole car. A few text messages later and I got to his place, and tore the car apart.

Steve was very good about letting me take his car apart, and take any bits I needed for a little recompense .

State of the car right now:

Dash lights fixed.

Buggered tyre – fixed.

I also have a shed-load of parts, like a replacement clock, replacement switches, a new timing belt cover, a replacement steering wheel.

Issues I haven’t seen to are a grinding noise from the front left rotating assembly. Either a stuffed bearing, or stuffed brakes. We’ll find out soon, I hope.

This all sounds very negative, so far, so let me touch on the positive. It’s a cheap-to-run four cylinder, with a little power to keep me happy. I don’t think I could drive a gutless car all day, every day.

The body is in decent condition and the interior is the best I have ever seen. Those two things alone make me fairly happy. I like a nice comfortable interior that looks close to new.

Right now, it’s sitting outside on the driveway, parked next to Violent Crumble. Cars will be the death of me, so much work to do.