Hi all, As I’ve now taken ownership of what was GrahamL’s car, I’m planning to bring the car back to factory fresh condition.
Graham has done a great job in either fixing the nuances of a coupe and/or doing a number of jobs just right (wishbones being one of them :P)
My aim is to not really touch the engine/turbo, other than maintenance, it’s more to improve the standard suspension and brakes, along with with fixing some cosmetic stuff.
So onto the brakes, whilst Graham has recently done brakes and discs all round, they are decidedly average, which is just how they are from factory. So at this stage I’ve bought some PFC pads that I’ll fit at some point before Xmas.
I’ve bought a complete new set of brake lines and flexi hoses from JBT, and have some ATE200 brake fluid ready to go.
I’m going to refurb the calipers all round and paint them red as the silver always looked a bit understated to me.
For the suspension stuff, I’d initially ordered a full Koni set up, but when I found out you needed to butcher existing struts at the front to fit them, I’ve cancelled and bought the OSRAV shock absorbers, and then a set of Eibach springs with a 30mm height reduction.
Albeit these are made to order and I won’t get them until November ish
I’ve ordered a Ultra Racing rear ARB (23mm), again made to order but that should be with me in the next couple of weeks
Finally for suspension I’ve got the subframe bushes and rear arm bearings from FCSS, as I’ll drop the whole rear end and deal with tarting up the arms and get them painted.
For obvious reasons whilst I have all this stuff off the car I’ll check the chassis over and as a minimum I’ll treat all the underside to simply preserve what appears to be a rock solid chassis floor pan.
I have as a belt and braces approach , bought a new oil cooler and pipes from JBT which I’ll fit in the next couple of months….
Onto cosmetics……
I need to refurb the leather seats due to age related wear, so I’ll post pictures in the next few weeks
The Eiffel towers are cruddy bit appear solid so I’ll repaint those, or if they are scabby, I’ll change them out for some new ones
I’ve fitted a special head unit off Amazon for £90, just so I have Bluetooth for hands free calling, but I’ll put some pictures up and tell you a bit more about it
That’s it to start with, I’ll endeavour to post pics/progress and fix anything else I see along the way
I might have an hour tomorrow to fit the new bonnet latch I’ve bought from JBT, if I do I’ll post some pictures afterwards.
I’m still waiting for the Ultra Racing anti roll bar (23mm), which should be here in the next week or so, and then a couple of weeks later the OSRAV shocks are due to arrive.
I’m busy for the next couple of weeks doing some dads DIY at both my kids houses, but then it’s payback when they help me drop the rear end of the car including taking off the calipers all round and start to refurb those as well
Today I’ve been faffing around with replacing the bonnet catch, also I found the cable for the bonnet release somewhat frayed. So a trip to Halfords for a bike cable is needed.
So I’ve degreased the entire underside of the car today including all the wheel arches in readiness to drop the rear subframe in a few weeks time. At present I’ve got the car SORN so it will stay ‘clean’.
I noticed whilst under the car at some point someone has jacked the car up on the floor area, so I’ll try and pull the metalwork back out.
Also bought a new inner cable for the bonnet release, if it’s not raining tomorrow I’ll refit that
Also bought some cable to do the fuel pump wiring mod along with the relay.
Also chasing ultra racing for the new anti roll bar, as it’s been 4 weeks and counting….
Firstly will post a load of pictures later, but had a full day of working on the coupe, and strangely remembered from 20 years ago the sequence of how certain things come off
Anyway the aim of the day was to get the turbo off, and get it checked as it’s a bit smoky at times. What I found was the manifold was cracked on the 5th branch as well as on the collector area. So turbo will be done via a local specialist and the manifold will get repaired at work as we have the skills onsite to do this kind of repair
Depending on what the turbo people say will determine if I modify the unit further as it’s got an Owen Developments logo on it, or if I just get the bearings/o rings done to stop the smoke, as there’s only a small amount of play on it
What I do remember is the poxy 8mm Allen key to loosen the idler pulley to get at the coolant bolt, so after sacrificing the crapiest 8mm Allen key I own it’s quite easy to do.
I also drained the oil as the plan is to fit the aftermarket oil cooler and pipes, however Grahaml must have the strength of a gorilla as the sump bolt took all the effort of 2 of us to shift it, anyway it’s out and oil is drained.
Eiffel towers on the front look a bit crusty but salvageable, so I’ll take the bumper off and treat those along with some other metal areas whilst it’s all exposed
Fitted both sets of led lights this morning to replace the dipped and main beam bulbs
Pretty easy to do, I found it easier to just remove the whole headlamp unit and change the bits over in the warmth of my kitchen
Massively brighter than the halogen bulbs that were in, as you can see from the attached photo
I did plan to put the Osram nightbreakers from the dipped fitment and put them into the driving/fog light units, but they are super fragile and both filaments broke just by removing them
I will buy a new set as I want to get as best I can for night driving
I cleaned a few parts off this morning, but found some of the bits need more time to get rid of all the rust
On the coolant pipe that runs near the alternator, I noticed it was cruddy to start with. After 8 hours of being in the tank it’s cleaned up nicely, however there are now a few pinholes, so I’ll get those welded up at work
Had fun with misaligned manifold holes which meant some unplanned work , but the turbo and manifold are back on
That poxy bolt for the water rail :mad:, as I’ve removed the oil cooler bracket, I found it easier to remove the 3 bolts for the tensioner and then the m6 water rail bolt is super easy to get at
I’ve bought a new gasket for the water rail as a leak there means a whole chunk of work to rectify, and I used some RTV sealant to be sure that it will never leak!
In terms of drivers side wheel arch, I’ve acid etched primered everything that’s been cleaned up. There are a couple of bits such the drivers wing that need filling and painting properly, but I didn’t want surface rust to form overnight .
I’ll try and get paint and stone chip done tomorrow, so I can then fit the new suspension stuff and new brake line
I’ve got the caliper off and all bolts and fittings loose, so during the week I’ll try and do the seal and paint overhaul
Just uploaded a couple of pictures of the new oil cooler pipes that I’ve give a quick coat of paint
As these things seem to eat themselves over time, and the aftermarket cooler and pipes aren’t the cheapest thing to buy, I’ve painted them to preserve them
I’ve painted up some other bits and bobs that I’ll load the photos onto the google drive later
Not done too much today as the weather has been not the best
I’ve put all the air con, belt tensioner and associated gubbins back together
Noticed the shroud/heat shield that protects the silicone return pipe which feeds back into the sump was somewhat rusty, so in the electrolysis bath it’s gone with a few other crusty bits
Also fitted the oil feed pipe onto the turbo, but I had a brain freeze moment as to regards which water pipe and banjo bolt goes to which side of the turbo. So I’ll come back to this next weekend
I’m going to try and strip the brake caliper during the week and see if I can get it all refurbed and painted.
Spent a few hours today finishing off some bodywork and started to put the aftermarket oil cooler and some coolant pipes around the turbo
All being well, I should get on the car tomorrow to be able to at least start the engine and check for leaks before I then start on the Shock absorbers the following weekend
Just left the engine running for 30 minutes to do the obvious check for leaks etc.
So far so good
Just got to stone the drivers side wheel arch area, replace the brake line back to the abs unit, fit the wheel arch liner, fit the new shock and spring, paint and overhaul the caliper, bleed the caliper, put the wheel on…….
Plan for next the next at night is to continue with caliper refurbishment, and then at the weekend I have some surface corrosion on a few places around the underbody that I plan to clean up, apply rust treatment then stone chip the underside of the car
Fit new bearings into the rear trailing arms and then fit them to rear beam(bought the kit from Joe @FCSS, nice quality and pretty easy to install)
Prepped and protected the whole underside of the car, including all wheel arch areas and behind the liners(that should last another 25years
Refurbed and repainted the whole rear beam and arm assemblies , albeit I can’t find the lovely plastic end caps I’ve bought from joe
Installed new bump stops, new Osrav rear shock absorbers (set at 4 clicks having read other people’s experience) and the Eibach uprated springs
Refit the repainted rear disc guards and refitted the rear discs
Tried to fit the ultra racing rear anti roll bar, but the brackets are oversized compared to the 23mm bar, why? Anyway I’ll get some shimmed material to compensate for this tomorrow I hope
I’m planning a day on Tuesday, where I’ll plan to refit brake lines from the rear brake bias, and hopefully sort the anti roll bar out. If time permits I’ll finish the overhaul on the rear calipers
Assuming that goes to plan I’ll then at the weekend put the rear arm back on, along with the petrol tank and exhaust
Cheers Jamie
Google drive has some new pictures to look at for those interested
:P)
