in that case if your planning on doing it once and once only it might cost more at the start but to get the look you are after without too much hassle then look into air ride. You can put the kits together cheaply. I'm looking into getting a kit for my car at some point, plus points outway the minus's.

Rotiform has a wheel similar to the one in the picture above. Or I think compomotive used to do one similar.

 

Cheers I will do some reading over the next week and see what I can digest, thank you.

 

From what i've seen its basically

struts with airbags on them
air lines
compressor or two
tank for the air
management unless you go manual

Kits seem to be coming down in price all the time and if you are prepared to do work yourself then its even easier/cheaper. Just get decent bags is what i've been hearing.

 

Well on Monday after work I came home and my case of "elbow grease" had showed up. I was recommended it by a few people that clean engine bays. So as it was really cheap I thought I'd give it a go.

Before:



30 seconds later, and a wipe off.

After:

 

Sadly it rained most of Monday night, and Tuesday, so I wasn't able to do much to the Carina E.
Tonight however the weather has been lush, so I've managed to de-tar the bonnet, roof, and boot. Then white cut it, and wax it.

 

I had to stand on a crate to get to the middle of the roof, but it will do for the time being.

 

The boot lid is a little flat, but I will go over it with some other products tomorrow, weather allowing.

 

That brake fluid looks dangerously dark to me, I expect it has taken on water, check it and if dark drain out as it will let you down if it gets hot. I had total brake fade on a car once like that.

 

Cheers, and yes it's long over due having all it's fluids changed, both fluids look dark, and I've no idea how long they have been in there

 

So Friday the 13th saw me spend a few more hours on the Carina E, mainly removing more dots of tar on the passengers doors, and rear arches. A lot of work, but again all has to be done.

 

The paint looks very flat in the these photos, but it was getting dark already.

 

The near side was a lot dirtier, I guess that's due to lots of standing water and mud beside the road, but it still cleaned up very well. But I soon lost the light, so my Friday the 13th ended early.

 

But a good few hours of work netted some good results.

 

So this moved me onto the next day, and I was off work for the whole day, so planned on doing rather a lot to the car.

The first job was to try and tidy up the rear bump, as it seems to not fit 100%

This is the before:




This is the after:

 

I feel the plastic has been pinched for so long, well it's basically taken on the incorrect shape, so I may have to replace that.

I also had a quick poke around underneath at the same time, as was looking at the suspension set up.

 

One of the things I wanted to check out was the dent below the rear light. I think it's just a simple car park trolley dent.

 

But in order to do so, I need to remove the light, and when I did I found loads of dirt behind the light, which I then had to clean.

 

To make it fair I did the passenger side as well.

 

At this point I noticed the reversing light didn't work, so what I thought was a five minute job turned into a nightmare. The bulb holder wouldn't unscrew, so I ended up taking most of the boot lid trim out, then remove the light to get the bulb out.

 

Getting the damaged reverse light bulb out was harder than I thought, basically it twists and comes out, but I couldn't budge this one. So I ended up taking the rear light out and doing it that way. Which added a fair amount of time to a 10 second job.

 

I did treat myself to a few spare bulbs, although I'm looking into LED replacements.

 

Love it! What a cool project, will be following with interest!

 

The next job was to try and clean around the model badge on the back. I used a few different products, and although much better than it was, it's still not perfect. So I will have another go at the weekend.

 

Whilst I was down on the ground, I couldn't help but notice the dirt build up on the inner lip of the wheel arch. Again I took some time, and removed a lot of the mess, yet I still have more to do.

 

Next up was the sills, and I can't believe how good these cleaned up. All they needed was a wash.

 

Finishing up for the day, I gave the car a quick once over, and another wax, and left it alone then.
As I say, I think I've put in about 50-60+ hours over the last couple of weeks, doing full days on Saturdays, bits on Sunday, and bit in the evening time.
I still have the door shuts to do, then to start on bodywork, followed by parts and fluids etc.

 

This is how the car stands at the moment, and I'm happy'ish with where she is now. But it does need to be lowered, and made a little louder, and with some shinny bits I've also got things like the headlights to do, stereo, just an ever growing list.

 

Looks like it's cleaning up well! Are you going full on touring car rep then?

 

Thank you, I'm not sure on how far is full on lol. I don't really have the knowledge or tools to cut the floor up or inner wheel arches or seam-weld the shell. But I have been saving up for a few years, so intend on doing, wheels, brakes, suspension, exhaust, then engine, gearbox, interior. But as I plan on keeping the car for as long as I'm able to drive, then it will be done as I go along.

I also have all the bodywork to sort, although I've been told it looks authentic to having been in a few races lol, but oddly I've already been approached by someone that does graphics about doing the Castrol livery they used in the 1994 BTCC, although this will more than likely be the last thing I do.

At the moment I'm using it as my daily drive to work, and I'm actually really enjoying it. I have some more cleaning to do first, then the interior once again, then I turn over the page and carry on with my rather long list of things to do

 

A little update today I managed to find a screw in one of the rear tyres, so had that repaired and switched the spare back to the boot. Hopefully once I work out a good deal on my new wheels and tyres, I'll be switching out all four wheels and tyres.

 

So a little update today, as I managed to spend a few more hours on the Carina E.

This morning I had another go at cleaning the marks off in between the letters on the rear model badge, and bit by bit it's getting near to where I want it.

 

Another little job I needed to do was sort the water inside the indicator unit.


It was only on the one side, but I soon took it out and gave it a clean.

 

Once it was all sealed back up, I cleaned the area it needed to go back into (no picture) and also touched up a few stone chips around the car.


Still dirty, pre - clean.

 

Next up was to clean the door shuts, as these have been annoying me for some time.

Rather dirty:







A little better:

 

I only managed to do one of them, as I started to feel cold, so have come back indoors for a little bit. Still plenty to do

 

Wish I had the time and also a car worth putting in that sort of effort, a bit of dirt inside the doors is the least of my problems.

Don't let the cold stop you, get on with it

p.s. stuck in Spain so doing bugger all so I can not talk

 

Spain sounds nice basically I'm enjoying these light evenings, and often come home from work and quickly get outside and do an hour here or there. Saturdays are my best day, as the girlfriend is working all day, so I do a bit of gardening, then mess with the car pretty much all day (it helps that I'm always up around 6am).

I took the Carina out for a drive today, and it feels really nice. A little quiet mind, but that's okay lol.

 

Well I've been rather busy this week, so haven't had much time with the Carina E, although I did take the tape deck out, because the dash rattles with it in lol. I think I will upgrade this as well.

 

Nice project, but I think it needs a couple of tweeks...

 

That's the plan, and the correct decals for 1994
Bit by bit it will happen, cheers.