Post by papercutout on Mar 10, 2011 15:47:12 GMT 2
Well, in all the years I've been into cars, I think this is the first 'build' thread I've done! Let alone since I've been drifting...
But this section was empty, so I thought I might as well give people something to look at
Dec 2009 I bought the 'vert for £500 knowing it was rotten and had some electrical gremlins. I promised my parents it'd sit on the drive and take about 2-3 weeks...
...typically this ended up being 3 months! Which, considering the car had been sat on a driveway waiting to be done for 7 or so years and not being touched isn't too bad
Here's what she looked like when I got her:
I then fitted the calibre steels I'd picked up bargainously cheap with truck tyres on to get me home on legal wheels (while being towed illegally )
I then did lot's of welding with a friend, no photos of this unfortunately, but suffice to say the join between the sill and the floor pan was shot for almost the entire length!
Also the headlights refused to work, so we wired them in:
I then had to replace the rear calipers because the handbrake didn't work, and while trying to get it to work realised they were seized, and managed to break one! Getting them off also sheared nearly all the bolts and everything was stuck/rusted together, cue buying more tools!
Eventually, after lot's of things going wrong we managed to get her road legal and MOT'd! (the alternator belt snapped on the way, got a new belt fitted, and after that went through a belt on average of once a week until I got a replacement pulley that was straight!) Took 3 MOT attempts though due to the handbrake!
I was then able to start modifying her! So I contacted JamesP and gave him 2 of the calibre steels to band out - after much discussion me and some others concluded that 9.5J would be spot on! A nice 3" band... Fortunately I was working for Spax and this point and got them powdercoated satin black for free!
To cope with this I got the rear arches rolled and flared - about 1" each side!
I also got a set of Panasports from MRC and built 2 straight ones and chucked these on the front.
I organised a group buy on DW of the large jap style bubble gear knobs, and got a HUGE one for myself.
I then fitted a HKS mushroom filter my old boss had given me years ago, and got (among other things) an exhaust from my mate James, both of which helped performance, end meant that the car 'overboosted', and so I got fuel cuts if I booted it hard = bad idea!
I decided a little spring choppage was needed after this, and so did so, unfortunately didn't get as good results as I wanted (although it did look better).
I also managed to get some Starion wheels, which I test fitted on the front! 8J ET-10! Hmmmm:
Maybe not! Well, not yet anyway
Starion wheels, pre coilovers:
I got some coilovers from Liam on MRC and fitted them - the rears leaked, so changed them for another pair, and now (many months later) the fronts are shagged. An R-magic ECU from Liam was also fitted so that I wouldn't keep getting fuel cuts!
I also painted the starion wheels and fitted 205/40's and managed to squeeze them on the front only mildly illegally. Got the front arches rolled too - which is a no-no on these cars, and now my fronts are forever wrecked
Photos!
And at RetroRides with Neil:
At the end of the summer I went to NZ for a while and left the car with a mate, James. Unfortunately it came back with a well dented door (which he'll pay for) and broken fuel cap cable.
This year I FINALLY got to fit my bucket seat, I also got a steering wheel and fitted the standard TII front lip. Here it is at the Stanceworks meet with a group I belong to (Lowlife blog - www.lowlifeuk.com/):
Which brings me practically upto date!
I've now got my other 2 Calibre rims banded to 9J ET6 with 205/40's fitted and am running the front lip permanently.
I also managed to rear-end someone in a Saab, so me and Zi spent a Saturday pulling my front bumper off (shearing every bolt possible) and discovered it'd bent the slam panel and not the bumper support, meaning my car had gone UNDER the back of the saab!
Bonnet written off, bumper is also a writeoff, but that's basically it! Most things are aligned again, only needs a little more work to be OK! But as you can imagine it's not easy to get parts! The bumpers were OK, got them free from a mate in bright red, but the bonnet is RARE (being the light-weight aluminium version).
Did some choppy-chop, some hammering and then rolled upto a dyno day, dented, filthy and with the car not running properly and still pulled 220bhp on the dyno!
Things to do:
Get a new OMP (oil metering pump) so I don't kill my engine - we think my car is running in 'limp-home' mode atm (hence 220bhp being good!) because it's not feeding oil properly and maybe another gremlin or so
Replace the bumper and bonnet
Replace the drivers door
Get DTSS eliminators (gets rid of rear steer)
Get lock spacers
Roll rear arches a teensy bit more inside so they don't rub so much, or change rear tyres.
GO DRIFTING MORE!
But this section was empty, so I thought I might as well give people something to look at
Dec 2009 I bought the 'vert for £500 knowing it was rotten and had some electrical gremlins. I promised my parents it'd sit on the drive and take about 2-3 weeks...
...typically this ended up being 3 months! Which, considering the car had been sat on a driveway waiting to be done for 7 or so years and not being touched isn't too bad
Here's what she looked like when I got her:
I then fitted the calibre steels I'd picked up bargainously cheap with truck tyres on to get me home on legal wheels (while being towed illegally )
I then did lot's of welding with a friend, no photos of this unfortunately, but suffice to say the join between the sill and the floor pan was shot for almost the entire length!
Also the headlights refused to work, so we wired them in:
I then had to replace the rear calipers because the handbrake didn't work, and while trying to get it to work realised they were seized, and managed to break one! Getting them off also sheared nearly all the bolts and everything was stuck/rusted together, cue buying more tools!
Eventually, after lot's of things going wrong we managed to get her road legal and MOT'd! (the alternator belt snapped on the way, got a new belt fitted, and after that went through a belt on average of once a week until I got a replacement pulley that was straight!) Took 3 MOT attempts though due to the handbrake!
I was then able to start modifying her! So I contacted JamesP and gave him 2 of the calibre steels to band out - after much discussion me and some others concluded that 9.5J would be spot on! A nice 3" band... Fortunately I was working for Spax and this point and got them powdercoated satin black for free!
To cope with this I got the rear arches rolled and flared - about 1" each side!
I also got a set of Panasports from MRC and built 2 straight ones and chucked these on the front.
I organised a group buy on DW of the large jap style bubble gear knobs, and got a HUGE one for myself.
I then fitted a HKS mushroom filter my old boss had given me years ago, and got (among other things) an exhaust from my mate James, both of which helped performance, end meant that the car 'overboosted', and so I got fuel cuts if I booted it hard = bad idea!
I decided a little spring choppage was needed after this, and so did so, unfortunately didn't get as good results as I wanted (although it did look better).
I also managed to get some Starion wheels, which I test fitted on the front! 8J ET-10! Hmmmm:
Maybe not! Well, not yet anyway
Starion wheels, pre coilovers:
I got some coilovers from Liam on MRC and fitted them - the rears leaked, so changed them for another pair, and now (many months later) the fronts are shagged. An R-magic ECU from Liam was also fitted so that I wouldn't keep getting fuel cuts!
I also painted the starion wheels and fitted 205/40's and managed to squeeze them on the front only mildly illegally. Got the front arches rolled too - which is a no-no on these cars, and now my fronts are forever wrecked
Photos!
And at RetroRides with Neil:
At the end of the summer I went to NZ for a while and left the car with a mate, James. Unfortunately it came back with a well dented door (which he'll pay for) and broken fuel cap cable.
This year I FINALLY got to fit my bucket seat, I also got a steering wheel and fitted the standard TII front lip. Here it is at the Stanceworks meet with a group I belong to (Lowlife blog - www.lowlifeuk.com/):
Which brings me practically upto date!
I've now got my other 2 Calibre rims banded to 9J ET6 with 205/40's fitted and am running the front lip permanently.
I also managed to rear-end someone in a Saab, so me and Zi spent a Saturday pulling my front bumper off (shearing every bolt possible) and discovered it'd bent the slam panel and not the bumper support, meaning my car had gone UNDER the back of the saab!
Bonnet written off, bumper is also a writeoff, but that's basically it! Most things are aligned again, only needs a little more work to be OK! But as you can imagine it's not easy to get parts! The bumpers were OK, got them free from a mate in bright red, but the bonnet is RARE (being the light-weight aluminium version).
Did some choppy-chop, some hammering and then rolled upto a dyno day, dented, filthy and with the car not running properly and still pulled 220bhp on the dyno!
Things to do:
Get a new OMP (oil metering pump) so I don't kill my engine - we think my car is running in 'limp-home' mode atm (hence 220bhp being good!) because it's not feeding oil properly and maybe another gremlin or so
Replace the bumper and bonnet
Replace the drivers door
Get DTSS eliminators (gets rid of rear steer)
Get lock spacers
Roll rear arches a teensy bit more inside so they don't rub so much, or change rear tyres.
GO DRIFTING MORE!