Thank you everyone for such a great response to this video! It is safe to say there will be more videos on this, at least one more before the new year and many more next year as I document getting the car back onto the tarmac :)
My first car was a maestro too, got it before I passed my test, was immaculate with about 30k on the clock, a group of young kids from the local ymca stole it on Christmas day and kicked in all the panels and windows 😄
Maestro's bring back so many memories my friends parents had one like this and my late driving instructor had a 2.0 diesel Clubman which was the loudest car i'd ever been in. You could hear it from a mile away.
@@alundavies5171 Seen them with nearer the million miles on them no bother and two old taxis over the million! Was the year 2000 working my school holidays and Saturday mornings in my pals garage Rip John! 800k on montego TD and one million one hundred and thirty six thousand on maestro ex taxi! Maestro had had hundreds of wheel bearings several gearboxes but was the original engine only came in for its second head gasket! Engine was well worn when I removed the cylinder head off it! W. Ould have gone on for another few thousand miles but was not worth the effort and it was scraped! Man local too me has ex met police montego estate that traveled Europe doing interpol work with over million miles on it too! They are much better cars than they get credit for no worse than a Ford or Vauxhall of same era!
This just popped up in my recomendations, glad it did. I love your honesty about everything. My Dad had the contract for Perrys in the 90's for transporting their cars so who knows, he might have been one of the first people to sit in this car 👍
40 years old this year the maestro ! my old dear in 83 had a 1.6vdp in like an ice blue!! wasnt a good car engine management went awry and sunroof handle came away in the first week of ownership lol R series engine was pretty poor! S series went in the montego was better but eat head gaskets lol
My first car was a G reg 1.3 special. Bomb proof mechanically. The body looked like it had been bombed though. Watching this brings back so many memories 👍
Nice content and you are a good speaker apart from the occasional annoying inflection, but please don't swear, people put RU-vid on the telly now in front of the kids and the grandma and saying s**t and b****ks isn't for everyone's palate or anyone who might sponsor you later. Some decent microphones would work well as the audio could be improved, overall watchable.
Yeah the swearing thing is from this point onwards now a thing of the past, I originally was only expecting a few views on this video from friends and a few club members but it had done much more than that!
What do you expect from an 'A' Series, they will always start & run easy, first designed for the Austin A30 as an 803cc in which was launched in 1951, a little tip, don't put easy start in a stationany engine, always spray it whilst it is being cranked over, just add the old fuel a little bit at a time in a nearly full tank in the other Maestro to use it up
I really liked my Maestro. Ran really well and was well plush. I bought it off a jittery heroin addict for£80 and it was in really good nick. I’d have another one any day.
My first car, but from 1983. Same colour too - Signal Red. Rear arches rusted to nothing. Best thing I did was to remove the auto choke and install a manual version. Very reliable from then on. Super easy to work on and as you can see, loads for room in the engine bay.
I'm in no way being horrible. I remember these they drove ok without being particularly exciting. Build quality wasn't great, very plasticity. I remember some models suffered oil leaks. Can't imagine why anyone would rush to resurrect one
I can understand that a car like this isn't most peoples vehicle of choice, but there is something so fun, so simple and generally characterful about them that makes them different from anything on the road today, for good or for bad.... Plus once they're gone they're gone and it's an experience erased from us to be only read about in history books.
Excellent little cars my dad had a d reg one 2001 1.3. He used to pick me up from college and tbh inwas quite embarrassed at the time. How times change. I remember it being nippy. He loved it because it didn't have the dreaded cambelt to worry about or any other modern accessories. Is yours the Austin version or the later kit one?
How come DVLA didn’t know where it was? Was it “SORN”ed? Was it insured and taxed? Someone would be liable for that wouldn’t they? I had one of these in 1992/3. A “C” reg from 1985. Very good car and pretty good on fuel.
If I discovered one of these in a barn, I’d run away screaming! Back in the 80s I would use my dad’s Maestro when I visited the UK from Australia, having the “luxury” of a Japanese car at home, I couldn’t believe what a woeful heap of crap the Maestro was. Even though my Dads was regularly serviced it would jump out of gear or stick in gear, Hopeless (scary) brakes, comical performance and had huge issues with build quality. Hopefully someone who worked in the factory and had a hand in throwing this hideous vehicle together will read this and cringe in shame
Been messing with Maestro's for years now main speciality banging T16 Turbo engines in them or turbo diesels and power steering in vans! Black van in my pic T16 Turbo videos of it doing 1/4 mile runs on a friends RU-vid along side my old Turbo no 361! That now belongs, too my youngest brother if was fit would build another!
The body flex was something to behold, on a bend I could put my fingers between the upper door frame and body. I had a new G reg company car and it crippled me, deafened me and shocked me so many times. I never tried the bead mats or the static strip, just learned to loath the car.
I had a vanden plas with the talking computer and digital speedo. Auto choke packed in. To start it in the morning I drilled a hole in the air filter housing and squirted lighter gas in. It used to start with a bang but would go all day then. Went on our honeymoon in it to Towyn North Wales. Good car. Good times.
I did not realise that the engine was turned round the other way with the spark plugs at the back not like the car I passed my driving test in a Austin 1300
I'm truly amazed this car has even lasted 19 years. I bought one of these sh*theaps new in 1984, and it began rusting in the bodywork seams inside 4 months. Austin Rover rectified the paintwork, and I promptly traded the Maestro in for an ex demo Golf....
Good to see you back on screen will. I remember watching your old vids of your mates crashed pug 106 and you fixed it up 👍🏼 that was a good watch not sure how long ago that was
Mate of mine had one in puke gold or whatever the colour was. Back doors would open going round corners. Automatic choke would come on at random temperatures. Wheel bearings were a consumable they were changed so much. Leaked. Was so bad that he threatened to leave it in a dodgy housing estate with the keys and a bottle of cheap wine in the back seat to see if it could be stolen and burnt out. BARN FIND Austin Maestro - Will it run? Who cares! Truly awful cars!
its a keeper , engine is sweet, all the rubber likely perished, earth out the fuel sender see if gauge goes to full, if it does likely sender is dud, paintwork on the maestros from around 88 was much improved , best thing they did to maestro was fit a perkins diesel...i had two, one non turbo and one turbo
Yeah I’ve noticed the oil pressure light also doesn’t seem to work, I wonder if there is some wiring I need to trace back and have a look at, will try grounding it out as you mentioned :)
@@TattyOldCars some old cars had voltage regulators back of clocks, thats a possibility if they do not work when grounded, plus obvious stuff like stolen bulbs and fuses, corroded fuse box
Had guessed your main maestro seemed familiar. Rego, wheel trims, tape covering the rust spots & the missing headliner, this being the uncommon Apple 2000 version that was also driven by Ian & Matt, of HubNut & furiousdriving respectively. But yes, a pretty clean one this low-distance example is, good to see one being put back on the road, hopefully.
It was Matt and JayEmm who did vids on it, offered it to Ian to film but he was too far away, sadly my original Maestro in this video won't be around for too much longer, it turns out on my inspections over the winter it had A LOT of hidden rot and is too far gone to restore so is being broken for bits, Oh well! At least this one will replace it for me and the parts from that car will go on to save many more.
@@TattyOldCars Guess i was a bit mistaken there, but had watched JayEmm's video on it a bit ago too. And that's a shame there, the rot got to your one to such a level like that, where saving it isn't that feasible. Good thing you found this other one though, so your maestro journey can continue with it, which is a good thing & the other one will still go on to help others too.
Ace 👌🏼 Years ago I used to hire an ex fire brigade 2.0 TD (think it was a Perkins lump) Tell you what it flew !!! I used to ask for the same one off the guy that hired them out. Edit… I nearly forgot I used to own a gold Montego in about 2004. A234 UYU. Apparently it was one of the very first off the production line at longbridge
A421GEH. My parents first new car and I was delighted to be in the passenger seat as my dad got to a junction and pronounced we had no brakes. After repeatedly stamping on the pedal like a maniac the car finally came to a halt in the street opposite. Ahh good times 😳
Love to see someone saving old cars that would be scrap otherwise, and glad to see some survived the scrappage scheme! Great video, look forward to watching the progress :)
My grandad had so many of these and the Montegos. He used to buy them, do them up and resell them. NGL, think he may have been dodgy lol. I've always wanted a Montego estate. These cars bring back so many memories.
I used to do a bit of buying and selling of cheapies back in the 90's and had several Montego's, Maestro's and the Maestro van's. Great little cars; as long as you ignored the bloody head linings. Nice video; thanks. Subscribed.
I always thought these were ok looking cars. However I bought a new Montego, my god, I got rid of it when I hit over 80 issues. I have had MG ZS for three years and honestly not one single issue.
There's a guy who lives just outside Banwell near Weston super mare who collects Maestro's. He usually has at least 3 parked up on the driveway just beside the A368. Every time I drive past I always hope to see him so I can park up and talk to him about them.
i had one of those in henley blue it was a 1991 1275cc H reg paid £150 from manheim auctions in 2003 6 mnths mot. did a twin carb conversion on it. ran a lot better and you could tell the difference and it kept up with the traffic better too. Got the full manifold and carbs for £40 off a mini Think they started life on a mg midget bolt off bolt on.then got some alloys to tidy it up as the steelies were badly rusted. each week i got paid from work would set money aside to make it into a tidy daily driver, other than oil services brake pads n tyres it just ran n ran n ran never let me down i had it for 3 years. passed it on to my dad whos car (vw polo saloon) had just failed its mot on a lot of welding. he had it for 4 years after me, When i used to pop down on my days off he was always out washing and polishing it. (he went through 3 tins of turtle wax a month) he loved it because he was a security man and getting to work he had to go up the motorway and it had a bit more power than the polo esp moving to the middle and outside lanes to overtake..
Looking forward to seeing how it goes with the Maestro. A mate of mine's Dad had the talking one as a company car back in the day which was something in the 80's. I know you can't do anything about this but I thought I'd let you know that I was watching this on my laptop and my wife, sitting the other side of the lounge (obviously couldn't see the screen) thought I was watching something being narrated by Rishi Sunak!!🤣
ive got a ford ranger head lights went down....fuse?oh no....new lamps oh no not that simple body control module..looking at a grand to fix.....i had one of these and they were simple superb and run forever....head lamp fix on this about a quid.....modern cars ....fuck em
Nice video and a new subscriber here! Just one thing, maybe its something my end but the audio and video looked slightly out of sync when you were sat in the car talking about adding a fuel tank and trying to start the car. Looking forward to some more videos 🙂
Had a 1300 Maestro in late 80s, had a MG Maestro 2lt EFI Turbo in mid 90s for 7 years then like an idiot traded it in for a new Rover 400, should of kept it Great car
