Yeah, the majority 18/19 year olds are messing on putting Redtops in Corsa's and all that sort of stuff, but I've picked this as my weapon of choice.
A Bit of a background story -
RTY 358S was bought many moons ago by my Dad, it was rotten, but cheap, and being green with a green velour interior, it was a pretty rare beast! So we ended up with it. The previous owner paid a fortune to have 'welding' done on the car, which all turned out to be just fibreglass'd into place. We have no idea how he got away with it, but the previous owner could not afford to get the work done, which is when we bought it. We don't have many pictures of it like this, but here's one to give you an idea...
A full nut and bolt restoration was carried out, and although it was mainly standard, it benefited from white wall tyres, clear indicators, and a green vinyl roof, so it ended up looking like this...
In 2006, my Dad passed away, and the car was passed down to me. It was my pride and joy, even though I couldn't drive it...Fast forward to when I was 17 and passed my driving test, and for some reason I still don't know, it was the only car I could get insured on...
So, i passed my test at 11:00, and was insured by 12:00...the amount of petrol I used that week, and the next few months was unreal. I done atleast 8000 miles in 4 month...how I afforded to run a 3.0 'Tank' at 17 and do that many miles I do not know. Anyway, I was young, it was rear wheel drive, roads were slippy...I ended up chucking it 'round corners and...basically blew the engine up...It lay for a while till I found some space for it, but now I've cleared some of the garage...Fast forward to now, and I've sourced and engine, and had some ideas, so the rebuild is on! Here is what I started with-
This is how it look at the minute, it needs a few bits of welding, and front door cards (If anyone could find me some green Ghia front door cards, I'd be hugely appreciative!), a spring, and a few other little bits.
After seeing these cars, I've decided to remove the chrome trim, and fit plain chrome bumpers from a Consul - The plan for the car is to be smoother, cleaner, wider and an inch or two closer to the ground - I know the orange Coupé isn't to many people's taste, including mine, it's purely to show what I mean about removing all the chrome -
So, the plan?
- Remove all the chrome trim from the body and fill in the holes
- Get the welding and bodywork done
- Full respray in the original colour
- Refit the clear indicators
- Proper black vinyl roof
- Custom made lowering springs
- Decent, but discrete sound system
- Clear rear lights, if I can find them...
- Banded 8J Sport steel wheels with 195/60/14 tyres - See the picture below of the car that inspired me to do this!
And that's about it for now, I'll keep you all updated on this, and it WILL get done, as it will be in Memory of my Dad.
Thanks for looking!