Roof bars

[DWM]

The sun's out (or it was earlier, and will be later in the week), so it must be time to think about... roof bars.

Continuing my clear-out of stuff I no longer need:

One pair of Mont Blanc 405U roof bars, adjustable to fit virtually all cars with traditional gutters.

These are constructed in the now rare and highly desirable retro-style, no-prisoners-taken, resolutely non-aerodynamic, large-carbon-footprint rectangular-profile design, to match your classic Volvo perfectly. Steel, with a hard black plastic covering. None of your lightweight-alu-carbon-fibre flexi-aero-profile muesli-eating nonsense.

Suitable, therefore, for people who are appropriately phlegmatic about the phenomenon of wind resistance in the context of carrying large objects on top of a car travelling at speed.

Superficial scuffs and scratches (pictures show the worst bits) testify to their sterling service carrying my roofbox to France on various happy occasions, as pictured with Phoenix in the Val de Loire in the unforgettable summer of 2013 when we all still had tax discs.

They are, however, complete and entirely serviceable, with all the end caps and all the rubber bits to protect your car present and carefully preserved. We may not care about fuel consumption but we do care about the paintwork.

Given their size, I would greatly prefer collection (from Oxford OX1). Royal Mail rates are ridiculous for items of this size and I'm afraid I have neither the time nor the will to chase around the various rival delivery companies. But if any prospective purchaser wants to look into this, (s)he is welcome to do so and if (s)he can come up with a reasonable proposal, then I will be happy to consider helping out e.g. by wrapping them up and taking them to a depot or whatever, so long as it isn't at the end of the Earth.

For those purposes you may need to know that the two bars together weigh 4.302 kg including cobwebs (4.301 kg now that I've brushed them off) but without any packaging, and they are 162 cm long.

I think they cost me something like £60 new in 2012. I cannot quickly find anyone selling these new in the UK (though I found a US site asking for $115).

I suggest £35 would make them a happy summer motoring bargain for someone. The arresting photos alone must be worth half that.

Phoenix
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YVC...ew?usp=sharing

End-on
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Lp5...ew?usp=sharing

End from above
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D2v...ew?usp=sharing

end upside down
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12Lx...ew?usp=sharing

insides
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aVu...ew?usp=sharing

Long pic
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1THf...ew?usp=sharing

Scuffs and scratches
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1axc...ew?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Pmg...ew?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cnf...ew?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17My...ew?usp=sharing

[DWM]

Going on ebay this evening if no one is interested here.

[DWM]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/253567848...84.m1558.l2649

[ThePurplePanther]

Just wanted to say thanks for a good honest chuckle at your 1st post decription (and always happy to give out a free bump).

If i didnt already have a set of volvo bars (coincidentally picked up from just outside oxford) i would grab these... partly as roof bars are very useful, but also the incredible moses like effect putting either a rack or bars has on motoway traffic in these old buses.

For some reason people must still think police car even though they havn't been used by the force in decades.

Anyway good luck with the sale.

PP

[DWM]

Thank you. Much appreciated.


(I've got a watcher on ebay... so exciting... )