Government Repo Auction - Belfast

[tbolt64]

Well this was an interesting one. A collection of repossessions to be sold at auction without reserve, at a site in Belfast. Because it was a collection of custom bikes, hot rod pick ups,classic cars etc we thought it might be worth a visit for a possible bargain or two. The guy who it all belonged to had been a naughty boy and been done for something or other and the business shut down and all the stock confiscated. What made it more interesting was Mark & I had seen a lot of the stuff because his site was just up the road from us, about a mile away.

So accompanied by Marcus and Simon, we set off to Belfast via Manchester airport on the flying bus at half six in the morning on Friday, 40 mins later a quick hire car and off to the auction site. I didn't take many pictures, maybe Mark, Simon and Marcus could add some to the thread.

Without going into a lot of detail, we didn't grab a bargain because the place was packed, and most stuff sold for RIDICULOUS money - how about a so called 'rat' 56 Ford F100 pick up that was truly only any good for parts (and not many of those) complete with a smashed windscreen for £12,500 - crazy.

We've got a copy of the auction brochure which we wrote the selling prices in, if anyone is interested (I'll take it to Clumber).








The Harley V-rod in the two pics above had a Sprintex supercharger, a NOS bottle on one side and another on the front fork - madness!

[Monstermachines]

Sorry Jon, I took zero pics as my bloody phone was full!

[FlashCadillac]

I took a few














I wanted this... A lot! If i was buying it for myself it was worth the money, but it was a little strong to make a wage on








Shitter of the weekend....

[Bomber]

WOW what a great trip, some cracking stuff really interested in what they made at the block, how did you all hear about it?

[Bomber]

WOW what a great trip, some cracking stuff really interested in what they made at the block, how did you all hear about it?

[Monstermachines]

Mark, I disagree.
Shitter of the weekend was definitely the one in my and Jon's hotel room.
10ft wide bathroom and yet it was installed hard against the wall so you had to ride it side saddle!

[FlashCadillac]

Maybe i should forward you on the satisfaction questionair i got from Travel Lodge? Hahaha

[tbolt64]

Sept 18, 2013 16:39:14 GMT Bomber said:

WOW what a great trip, some cracking stuff really interested in what they made at the block, how did you all hear about it?

I think the company was called 'Chequered Flag', dealing mostly in classics, customs, custom bikes and choppers, rat rod pick ups and outrageous 4x4's and they were up at Hipperholme on the A58 Halifax - Leeds Road, about a mile up the road from us. Mark and I had seen some of the trucks etc outside the big warehouse they had. Most of them had been on fleabay, but always with very strong 'buy it now's'. Mark saw something on facebook and rods'n'sods about them getting busted and the guy locked up and this auction happening. I think there had been a few dodgy practices going on, a lot of the stuff was unregistered - or had completely the wrong registration. Marcus knows a text service registration checker and ran a few checks on some of the stuff - one of the Harleys came back as a Triumph, another had a Latvian (?) reg, the big red truck you can see in the photo's with Simon, Marcus and me leaning on had the reg that was on a Porsche 911. The black Mercedes sports in one of the pic's was badged as a V12 Bi-Turbo on the side, but as we looked under the bonnet it appeared to be missing 4 cylinders and two turbo's

[Bomber]

I do remember seeing the ebay site in fact I think you did say to me time they were a bit dodgy, just wonder how many folk have been ripped off.....or had difficulty with the id of the vehcile

[tbolt64]

Sept 18, 2013 9:46:41 GMT FlashCadillac said:

Shitter of the weekend....

This was not only 'shitter of the weekend', it was the outright winner of the 'I do not f**king believe it' award. To call it a shed is a downright insult to garden buildings. It was an assortment of early/late model pick up parts, that looked like it been assembled with a knife and fork by a 5 year old on acid!

This how the auction catalogue described it :

"This early 50's style Chevrolet Lowrider is in the style of a rat rod. The style is not to be confused with the somewhat closely related 'traditional' hot rod. Most rat rods appear 'unfinished' due to the presence of rust and lack of paint. This is intentional and is more often the finished design for the vehicle. The vehicles may look unfinished but are in fact complete with just the bare essentials for driving. Rat rods were a counter-reaction to high priced 'customs'.

Specification :

Modern V6 petrol engine, manual gearbox, power steering, power brakes, early 50's cab, modern Chevy S10 dash & instruments, long 3ft high 'trucker style' gearstick, S10 steering column and steering wheel, modern seats covered in sacking, 7 window cab, 4 chrome steel rims with new white wall tyres, chequer plate visor outside to top of windscreen, Custom 'piston' rear view mirror to each cab door, riveted, welded, patched and unpainted body, modern Chevy pick up rear lights. "

What a crock of s*t! They forget to mention the plywood (!) rear wheel arch and bed cover (look closely at the pics), the pick up bed held on with B & Q angle brackets, cab doors on gate hinges and locked with toilet door bolts and as for the 'sacking' interior - the seats, door cards etc were literally covered in jute/hessian sacks - it made you itch looking at it. 

Good parts?  Wheels, tyres, the glass and maybe one door.

And for this, ladies and gentlemen, an online internet bidder who must have only seen the catalogue pics, paid the sum of £6,500 plus 12% commission, a total of £7,280, add to that the cost of shipping it wherever - it would have to go in an enclosed trailer to catch the bits that fell off as it was moved.

Unbelieveable