Right update time!!!
Well I've been without the use of my beloved Focus for over 2 months now
and being stuck on camp with no way of getting around anywhere has been absolutely killing me (not to mention cheesing off the misses somewhat
) so I've had to go out and buy a THIRD car in order to get me around. So it is my pleasure to introduce to you..........
my 'Runny Shedabout'!!!
A 1.1 (carb'd) base model Peugeot 106 with 78,000 miles on the clock and a 4 speed gearbox! The car runs sweet as a nut, the bodywork is clean and straight (although the paintwork won't win any concourse contests
), there's NO rust on the damned thing, it had a months tax and MoT till the end of January and cost me the grand sum of.................£190
Proof that bargains CAN be found if you look hard enough and all credit goes to Leo for finding this little gem in the local freeads!
Anyways, this has now given me the freedom to go round getting Corsa parts so I can carry on with restoring/fixing 'Project Shed'.
The car has moved spots in my motor club, it was sat right in the middle of the club in everybody's way but someone has moved their project out so I've now moved both the car AND my ever increasing collection of spare parts into the bay now and I've slowly been stripping parts off of it as well
Unfortunately it's when you start stripping stuff off you begin to find out how much stuff is broken and needs replacing. This was case in point with the sump as the previous owner had used silicone sealer all over the sump plug. I removed all of this with a screwdriver and then came back the next day to find a big puddle of oil on the floor
. A new sump plug and washer didn't cure the problem so I was left with no choice but to take the sump off the car (after draining out the oil obviously
). This revealed that the sump nut was next to useless as the thread for it in the sump was completed stripped so the oil was able to flow past it pretty easily! You could PUSH the sump nut into place
However £30 later sees the delivery of a baffled race/track day sump on eBay which is overkill for what I need but a lot cheaper than I was able to get on owners forums (it's pretty difficult to get hold of them!!!)
To go with that is another set of near mint front seats to replace the current ones (which aren't in that bad a nick so I can flog those and get my money back), a FULL front suspension and brake setup including all the lower arms, bushes, roll bars and other suchlike and a complete exhaust system (with catalytic convertor - more money back as mine's pre-cat
). This was all obtained locally by someone breaking another GSi and was all chucked in as part of the deal for the seats as I did a bit of couriering for him (he won a set of magnesium Dymag racing wheels on eBay and the seller was 5 minutes down the road from my parents in Southampton and the misses and I were down there that weekend
).
All these suspension parts will be cleaned up with wirebrushes, Hammerited black and refitted to the car and this has already begun in preperation! :twisted:
Unfortunately it's not all good news. I already knew the car was quite rusty however it's not until you actually get the thing up in the air and get underneath it with a good light source that you realise just HOW bad it is. There is no way in hell the car will pass an MoT as it is as the front chassis rails are both rotten so they are going to need a fair bit of work. The pictures do make it look a lot worse than it is however I'm not gonna kid myself into thinking it's a 5 minute fix.
Passenger side chassis rail
Unfortunately this is the better of the 2 sides...........here's the driver's side
The rest of the car looks in pretty bad condition as well.
I'm determined that I'm going to fix this though and I have already begun to do exactly that. I have already started ripping out the front suspension setup and am cleaning up the stuff I already have. This will certainly make the front of the car look much better as most of the rusty stuff in these photos is suspension related and it being removed!
Tonight I removed the front anti-roll bar which, it's fair to say, was pretty damned minging!
This also allowed me to remove the car's exhaust manifold and downpipe which I had half removed a few weeks ago but couldn't remove the rest of it as I rounded off one of the poxy bolts holding the 2 together so couldn't seperate them
Unfortunately that wasn't all good news either as the downpipe has a sizeable hole at the flange connecting it to the rest of the exhaust system................oh and it's been welded up a couple of times before by the looks of it
An angle grinder soon seperated the downpipe from the manifold :twisted: but I'm going to need to get hold of a new downpipe from somewhere which is a pain in the backside. I have the rest of the exhaust system waiting to be built up, I just need to get hold of the manifold -> block + manifold -> downpipe gaskets and some exhaust hangars and the system can be put back on along with my nice shiney bargain Irmscher twin backbox.
That was as far as I got tonight, tomorrow will be cleaning up more of the suspension stuff and over the weekend I will try and pop into a Vauxhall Stealer and get hold of a sump gasket so I can fit that on next week, I'll be scouring eBay to try and get hold of a downpipe as well so the exhaust system can go back together.
I have no idea when this car is going to be finished. Suffice to say I want it to be sooner rather than later as it'll be a LOT better at cross county motoring than the 'ickle Pug is (as nice a car as that is like) but the biggest issue is the welding on the underside, that's the big thing preventing this car becoming roadworthy. I have access to plenty of welding gear and a rollover cage so I'm practising my welding skills with a view to carrying out the repair myself which could prove to be a LOT of fun and will give me no end of satisfaction when the job is finally finished! Could come in handy fabricating stuff for the Focus (or future Ford restorations
) ya never know
Enjoy for now!
