Big Will 85,

judging by the injuries sustained on these cars, please don't do any more work without someone else there........................ Cos you're going to hurt yourself if you keep it up!

 

Rab - it's ok mate...

I'm just rushing if i'm honest...

Needs to be sorted a week tomorrow

I've got a fairly good background for it in as much as training - but you know when they always tell you "don't do this" and you think "it'll never happen to me"...

I've learnt this last fortnight that it always bloody does!

Cheers for the concern though mate - needless to say i am now being a lot more careful

 

Just don't drop the thing on your head man.

Mainly cos we'd not get to see the outcome of all your efforts. We hate that you see...

 

Lol - it's nice to be loved

 

Right guys - sorry for the delay in updates - been a very busy chap these last few days...

The grey RS supposedly had a rebuilt/reconditioned engine in it when i bought it - but came with no paperwork to prove it - and it sounded somewhat rattly when i was bringing it home...

So as you'd expect of me:



The block didn't look too bad:


Noticed a few flakes of carbon which actually appear to have 'peeled' off the valves
- No play in pistons tho - and they look nice and clean


Turbo off - tiny amount of play in the shaft - but nothing to be overly concerned with at this time:


There had been signs of rust in the sills - under the sound deadening stuff and the seam sealer - so i seam welded the floorpan to the sills after i'd cleaned all the rust out - had to put a small plate in one side to sort a little 'slit' that had appeared - the photo shows it after i've welded it and ground it back 8)




Got rid of the old windscreen from the grey one (was going 'milky' round the edges and was stone chipped to fook!)


We removed the windscreen from the white one A LOT more carefully It showed us the full extent of the damage on the scuttle panel - 1 new scuttle panel ordered!


The passenger side, seam welded, ground back, chemical metal smoothed over, whole floorpan cleaned with thinners, then sprayed for now in white primer


She's starting to show signs of being nice now bless her!


Went round with a bit of wet and dry and a touch up brush this morning and got rid of some of the little surface rust spots on the bodywork (easy to find on a white car )

Hopefully will have the floorpans inside all sprayed by the end of today and then can get on with putting the interior back in once its dry - then concentrate on the hubs, suspension, brakes etc. till the scuttle panel arrives - then just do the engine rebuild into the new one and hope for the best :P

 

 

OK.

I'm now ready to cry....

Just put all the relays and fuses that i know worked in the grey shell into the white one to make sure fuel pump primed etc.

Nothing.

Figured i should investigate...

Someone's 'half' removed an alarm and immobiliser - there are cut wires absolutely everywhere

As such - i've started taking the loom out the grey shell to move into the white one...

Its not going to be finished before i leave to go to BAR

However - i've cheered up loads

Just took the radiator out


Look what it reads at the top

 

hi mate doing well again i see
are you gonna put new soundproofing back down or gonna leave it for the track look, keep up the good work

 

Well mate - now that it looks like she's not going to be finished in time for me going away (saturday!) - i'm going to get a few quotes for an "inside n out" respray.

Get her in for that - then when she's nice and fresh again - just drop back in the 'bare' essentials

You know, like 2 buckets, 2 harnesses - a rear strut brace - etc.

That's after i felt the weight of the recaro interior

 

Right - Yesterday was OFFICIALLY a misson

Due to my mum going absolutely mental over the state of the garage/house/front lawn/back lawn/driveway etc.

A marathon clean up ensued. To the tune of 18 hours
Started bright and early at 6am...

Got the white shell back to rolling form - meant reassembling the rear suspension etc.

Then the scrappy arrived at 8am for some dramatic entertainment... Lifting the grey shell off the front lawn, over the 8ft hedge and onto his truck...






Don't worry guys, the loom you see dangling down is actually from the white one - was doing a multi plug check and making sure i wasn't letting anything i needed go

Although i reckon a few bits have gone that i needed Clutch release cable and the like

With the white shell parked on a neighbours driveway - the skip was delivered and all the minging cr@p that the white shell came with (looked like a collection of dogs had been allowed to use the interior as a playground/toilet) went in...



The rest of the day was spent laying out all the 'pukka' bits on the back lawn and putting anything and everything else either on ebay or in the skip...

Started noticing large piles of tweaky bits everywhere





Engine, gearbox and shafts proved a bit of a mission to separate and even more of a mission to carry in (wheel in!) after i twisted my knee



Come midnight however - and the whole place looked a million times better - a bit like this



White shell is going off for a new scuttle panel, respray in places and general blowover/freshen up :mrgreen:

Few additions in the form of 90 spec bumper, 90 spec spoiler and new tailgate, de-locked doors and de-badged bonnet.

The alloys are off to be powder coated white and the red strips in the bumper are going off to my mate John @ Renault F1 for him to make me some carbon fibre ones :twisted:

We'll get there

 

Its coming along great mate, very nice!
PMSL at the state of your lawn before you cleared it lol

Keep the updates coming

 

Anyone know of any 90 spec bumpers/spoilers for sale?

Also need a tailgate!

 

Big clear up ,did the kit not come off the grey one ,would have thought you could have sold that quite easy .

 

Nah,

The kit was mullered on the grey one - someone had 'rolled' the arches...

... with an angle grinder and a lot of good intent...

The sills were all cracked and hanging off - and the arches were ground to hell on the inside

 

glad your okay mate. car is gonna look

 

you lucky you didnt take your hand off mate! doing a very good job there! ive been through all that before! dont worry about all the wires, its so much easier then it looks..

 

any updates will????

 

top work

 

update ?

 

Right boys and girls - apologies for the substantial delay in updates

Progress. Not much has happened over the last 3 months, when i bought the white shell i was told it'd had a fair few owners. Fair play i thought. "It's only a shell"

Posted the V5 off to the DVLA and they sent me a letter virtually by return post to say "We cannot issue a logbook for this vehicle as there are inaccuracies in our records"

Anyway - hundreds of phone calls, loads of letters and loads of anguish later (Oh. And a 3 MONTH wait ) - V5 arrives

I'm the 15th owner

But we've worked round this and she's off for a full respray and patch up a week on saturday

I've done as much as i feel happy to do - mechanically i'm confident to try things - bodywork - i'm not

I've also got a cheeky little surprise up my sleeve - but all will be revealed soon

Engine wise there's also been a few developments - i bought a 'forged' bottom end off ebay for a couple of hundred quid - stripped it down and it turned out to have 2 melted pistons - bit of negotiating later - compensation cheque in the post

We're now going 2.0 Zetec Turbo - Looking into getting the car set up for sprints rather than top end power.

I've bucket loads of photos i need to sort and upload and things - soon as i can i'll give a full and proper update.

Thanks for bearing with me so far, it's interest like this that keeps me going when i'm ready to throw in the towel - cheers everyone

 

good to hear things are still progressing will! best of luck with it!

 

Slowly but surely i think is the only way to describe current progress

 

its getting there!

 

Keep with it ,will be worth it in the end

 

updates???really good work matey

 

Cheers for the support guys - i'm going to try and keep with it - disheartening as it is at times - got the photo's here from yesterday's "freshen up" before it went off for its respray today - i'll get those photo's up ASAP...

We've gone from:



To:



Along with the change from:


To:


I think the 90spec stuff looks a LOT nicer

Bodywork guy collected the car this morning and threw a mild eppy fit on inspecting it... The guy is a real perfectionist and picked out hundreds of minor little things i didn't notice :shock:

I feel quite happy with him doing the work - i have doubts as to whether the bank manager will view it the same way

If a job's worth doing - do it properly

 

lookin real nice mate , be good to see it when it comes back although looks really mint already, when are you expecting t back?
keep up the good work and keep smiling.
cheers mark.

 

Mark,

Plan goes something like this...

Car now in for bodywork - rough completion date end of january.

During that time i'm going to get the 2.0 Zetec side of things sorted, get hold of an MTX75 box, a T28 turbo and get it sent of for fettling

Then when it comes out of the bodyshop it's time to get busy rebuilding it

 

Quality job mate .

That grey shell really didnt like you huh?

 

Nope. I kicked it just before it went to the scrappies...

Is it sad i wanted the last laugh in a battle between me and a fookin car shell?

 

hi mate im new on here so only just found this all i can say is but was just reading the last part about that grey 1 not liking you have you thought its a good job you scrapped it ??? what would it have done to you on the road !!!!

 

Aye - i did like the grey as a colour tho...

And as the car is now ready for spraying i'm thinking maybe going for the dark gunmetal silver that you get on the evo's...

Opinions?

 

Make sure you get some piccys while the car is at the body shop ,yes that evo colour will look spot on

 

Hello mate

Yep - bodywork bloke (huge car enthusiast! owns an escos and a 1200bhp drag chevy!) is under very strict instructions that whenever he starts a job like replacing panel etc. he is to take a pic before, during and after

 

Loving this project
Isn't it funny that when you start something small it turns out going alot further than you think or the bank manager likes

 

No mate - it's not funny at all

But, it's going to be worth it...

Old skool - new rules!

 

mate the colour choice is spot on , dont you dare change your mind, gonna be wicked!

 

This is roughly the outcome i'm wanting

 

stunning mate , absolutly spot on!

 

Just ordered a set of Eagle steel rods, ARP rod bolts and JE low comp forged pistons

Couple that in with the OMEX 500 i'm getting off a mate for £300 complete with loom and 2.0 16v turbo map - i'm slowly making progress