My current Sapph was bought originally as nothing but a stop gap to play in while I was building/resto'ing my other 2wd Sapph I had at the time. However as I didnt have a place of my own to keep the work in progress it ended up being broken for bits and I kept some stuff for myself, sold others and weighed the rest in.
That then left me with the Sapph I still own now which previously belonged to Alps Pacino off here and I was happy to use and abuse it in its stage 3 form for a while. It then progressed to greys and an MSD chip with ALS/LC and I had great fun scaring old people and generally driving like a utter tit in it. It lasted much abuse with its only issues in the whole time being it needing a phase sensor and a crank pulley replaced.















Croft 2009 came round and I was starting to get a little bored of the car, it felt slow and I wasnt using it much the past 2 or 3 months. I drove it to the show and had a wander about but it was evident my interest in both my car and RS's in general was sparse to say the least.
I drove home and it was parked and not moved again till its MOT was due a couple of weeks later. It didnt pass as it needed welding, brake pipes and fuel pipes. I bought my M5 and that really was the death of the Cossie. There the car sat for months without being looked at again, it just got ignored as I walked past it every day.
Around late November that year a friend of mine was asking about the car and if I'd sell it. He came for a look and we agreed a price but he wanted to come back once the battery was charged and hear it running before we shook hands on the deal. A week or so later I went out and bought a new battery for it as the old one would show 12v once charged but would barely bring on the ignition lights. New battery fitted and it fired up first turn of the key with no rattles, taps noises or smoke. it just sat and gurgled at me and I fell in love with it again

I called my mate and told him I'd changed my mind as it wasnt really for sale in the first place and he'd just twisted my arm there and then and he was fine with being told he couldnt have it. So I sent it to a mates garage for the required work for its MOT and a few days later it was once again ready to play out again. I taxed it the following day and was loving being back out in it but it lasted 64 miles and the T34 shat itself, it wouldnt boost at all and the amount of smoke that was coming out of the back would have impressed James Bond . Slightly disheartened I parked it up again and looked for another T34 to chuck on it so I could go out and kick its tits in again. One turned up locally and I went and bought it, it was mint with no play and looked relatively new, and fitted it the next day. Unfortunately it would make no more than 24psi and after driving it no more than 10-20 mile I took the hose off and had a wiggle of the shaft and discovered there was a lot of play and the compressor blades were catching on the housing. I rang the lad I bought the turbo off and told him what it was like and said I'd call up with the turbo on the car and show him. After a bit craic with him we agreed that he'd give me my cash back as he assured me the turbo was "mint" when I bough it. Cant say fairer than that.

After that I was pissed off with the car again and Lawnsy and I were talking about the spares I had in the garage and bits I had collected for the Sapph I was previously building and he talked me into taking my engine out and giving it a freshen up for a new spec.......

So not ones to hang about, about an hour and a half later we had dragged the car round his garage and this was what we were lookin at.....






The car sat for a while as it was summer and I was too busy playing on my R1 to work on the car and was saving up as much as possible to pay for bits etc.

Well I got knocked off the damn thing in Juy and while I was off on the sick I decided to do some odds and sods with the YB instead of sitting feeling sorry for myself.

I bought these at National Day


Degreased and cleaned up some engine parts ready for painting






Etch primed


Low maintenance black



I had the block checked and bores glaze busted/honed and then cut off the lug for an RS500 alternator drop bracket








Then it was time to get rid of the awful flaky brushed on Hammerite



Took bloody ages!!






Etch primed then a further 2 coats of primer






Mercury grey (phone pics so excuse quality)




Cam cover blasted and etch primed


Painted and in process of rubbing back around the lettering


Dug my head collection out. Its the first time the head has been out of the box since getting it off James, bar the inspection when it was first delivered to me








Dummy assembly just for an idea to see how it will look when put together









Spec-R belt cover


Etch primed, I dont like shiny stuff cos Im not a bufty


Another random old pic of the car




Thats the story of it so far. Ive just got back to work and sold my M5 so there is a little cash free'd up for further progress now. Ill keep on updating the thread as and when things get done.....

Im looking forward to getting the old shed back out now

 

mercury grey

 

bout time ,


glad to c ur bk into the car mate ...


loved my run out in it last time , sliding up the road als @ full chat pmsl

 

About time..

 

just need you to sort yours out mr lawns lol

Nice to see it being worked on agian ian

 

All depends how much bike weather we get ......lol

 

I'm glad you are going to be starting work to get her back on the road

 

That took some doing, Photobucket is being a twat tonight but its all up to date now so can continue from here.....


Beef, that was a fun night that

Lawns, we need to crack on more with yours.

Dicko, its been a long time comin mate. Lets see how long it is before I lose interest again. Im like Lawnsy, as soon as its bike weather again the Cossie build will slow or stop

Helen, Im sick of walking past it and seein it sat there. Especially when theres loads ready for this years fun and I cant play

 

nice to see it still going strong, or at least will be 1 day lol

 

Looked fucking immense on the super t's mate!

 

Crack on with it m8 and get it out this summer

Steve

 

Yes, I admire her every time I got out for a smoke

Be nice to have both Cossie's out in the summer

 

Good read, in the best Colour too.

 

I kinda feel responsible for Ian selling his M5, i think me buying 3 cossies over the last month has had a major part to play in his decision! hahaha

 

i agree proper old school wheels that havet dated at all imo

 

I agree, bet they were a nightmare to keep properly clean, but the SuperT's looked absolutely epic on the car...


Cheers,
Grant

 

Dan, you havent helped the M5's cause .

Helens Sapph made me want mine out. Lawnsy continually telling me to sell the M and get my Cossie done and then you keep buying them and waving them under my nose

Dont worry folks, the Super T's will be getting a refurb and put back on it sometime this year...... if I ever get them out of Gary Foord's garage

 

I could have dropped them off today as it happens
Looks good on them from the pics above.

 

looking well mate

 

Looking Good Ian

 

Ive been in all day too. Typical

Will pop along at the weekend if I get the chance

 

Quality Ian, im glad your starting on it again, where is that great T4 you've got i thought you might of layed that on the mock up pic?, also when you get chance send me some pics of those brakes again i need to keep tinkering with it, cant leave it alone (car that is)

 

T4 is under my bed Paul, alongside my head thats waiting to go on.

I lost interest again a little recently and bought another Sapph to play in, I sold that and got myself a Hayabusa. Some more work will undergo on LBT soon once I get my R1 back from John Warringtons.

It might even end up with an engine in place this year

 

Had a few hours in the garage here and there in between working and playin out on the bike, so got round to doing a few more odds and sods.


Degreased and washed the engine bay, being a typical Cossie it was caked in oil. I really wish I had an under bonnet pic of it before I took the engine out.







Gave the old dog a wash at the same time, its first one in nearly 2 years





Started to paint a few more bits, starting with the header tank





PAS tank




Coil and PAS tank bracket were done too



The fuel rail had pitting and didnt look right even when polished with the dremel so it got painted too.....





Inlet got a once over too as that had collected a few little scratches and marks and I couldnt be bothered with polishing it back up



Mock built the inlet with some greens I had lying about just to see how it looked together





I also found these while digging around in the garage, amazing what you hoard and forget about isnt it


So they got hit with the paint too





Thats all Ive done for now, but it is still ongoing, jast at an "as and when" pace.

 

nice work..

 

looking good m8, didnt know you still had this.

 

Today I decided to remove the front pipe so I could get a Lambda boss fitted for my wideband. After a bit wiggling and jiggling I couldnt get it seperated so decided Id take the full system off and seperate it off the car.

Took a couple of pics of the underside while I was there.













I knew the nearside rear leg was patched for its last MOT and knew the rest of the leg it wasnt gonna be in good shape after standing in the elements for so long as it was touch and go back when it got welded. So I had a bit of a prod and poke about at it, as you do.....

Around top of spring has had welding before I got the car and has a little hole next to it again




Above the beam I managed to prod a fair sized hole


Finally the rear part of the leg is going on the seam and also a patch on the inner quarter of the boot floor, near where the vent flaps are



So, now it needs some welding for its next MOT when I eventually get the engine built and fitted.


I decided to whip the back bumper off and take the lights out to see if they were hiding any nasty surprises too. Fortunately they werent.





I started getting a little carried away at this point and decided to drop the tank too, just for a look underneath.











Then decided I may as well have the diff out while Im under there





Thats all for today.... I still didnt get round to getting the Lambda boss in

 

lol , u mays well of been done with it and dropped the beam out



bloke round by wenn for blasting and powdercoat , competitve aswell a top lad if you want the number lol

 

Yeah you might aswell ian, half way there now, get the welder out and some 3m sealer oh and some paint etc etc nice underside resto.

 

Beam will come out later , need to keep it rolling for now so I can get the bike in and out of the garage......

 

Done a bit more today seein as it was sunny outside for a while.

Removed the prop and box


Took the front bumper off too to make sure it wasnt rotten behind . Fortunately its in very good shape with only a few light bits of surface rust.





While it was up and I had the wheels off it I removed the wheel arch liners for a look behind them too....

 

Nice work - engine parts look loads better

 

Someone's got the bug again

 

car looks mint in the first set of pics
you really are the anti bufty of pf

 

looking good fella,


a good firm brush and a libreal squirt of tfr should see them arches like new fella !!



keep up the hard work lol ,

 

Cheers fella


Shhhhh


Cheers
And yes Im the most anti bufty person you will meet, it'll only look this clean and nice once!



Cheers Beef, its all waxoyl on the inside of the arches.

 

 

well done helen lol


not like a bit of female perswaision lol

 

She knew nothing about it, she came to my house yesterday and there was bits scattered all over

 

Crack on m8, once you get the T4 spinning you'll wish you did it sooner lol

Steve