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Spee's 20VT LE Resurrection Project #818811
22/04/2009 17:58
22/04/2009 17:58

S
Spee
Unregistered
Spee
Unregistered
S



I spent a lot of time and money looking around at various 16 and 20VT Coops to replace my Speed Red 16VT, there was nothing really wrong with the 16VT but it needed a lot doing to it to bring it up to a standard I could live with, after doing the math I decided to find a better example that had all the big jobs done and was as perfect body wise as possible for my budget.

Thats where it all went wrong, as mentioned, I viewed many cars, around 16 in total, all across the country, found some promising ones and the most promising was a forum members car, which I nearly bought, I stepped away from the car and took a 24 hour break before committing. I got home, checked the usual advertising places, PH, AT an the forum and spotted a Solid Black LE with a few issues at a suspiciously cheap price, and it was local! The call was made and I viewed it the next day.

First impressions were good, it had been in a light rear impact which had been dealt with, although not to a very high standard and there was body work issues around the car. However, despite it's appearance and a very leaky manifold, it drove spot on, had just been serviced, and had a fair amount of cash spent on it in the previous 12 months.

Again I took a step back, went home to think and slept on it. Woke up the following morning and thought about it a bit more. I was supposed to be buying a coop which needed as little work as possible and was plenty presentable, and here I was considering a scruffy LE that needed bodywork, a respray and a few mechanical things sorting!

I caved in! I rang the guy with the LE, went for a second viewing and after sitting in the car for 10 minutes, bought it!

Now, to bring the condition of the car into prospective, I've listed the good and bad points below.

Good Points

It's an LE
It's Black
Interior was very good, little sign of wear.
Drove well, no knocks, bangs etc.
No smoke, good boost.
Full service recently.
Recent Wishbones
Recent Drop Links
Two almost new Goodyear tyres
Brand new (less than 1000 miles) DBA Discs and Pagid pads up front.
Brand new standard discs and Pagid pads at the rear
Whiteline ARB in the boot waiting to be fitted.
Walbro Fuel pump mod
Box of good spares included
Second hand manifold included to fix the manifold leak
Perin EBV newly fitted
Two individually mapped chips included
LE wiring mod kit included (not fitted)
Sunroof and Aircon, both working!
Good Sony head unit with remote fitted.

Bad Bits

Drivers door damage - New door needed
Bonnet Damage - New bonnet needed
Various dents and scratches
Leaking manifold
Knackered exhaust centre section
Central locking not working
Alarm works, but only silently!
Little history - No history of Cambelt change, although on inspection, it looked good.


With the manifold as loud as it was I took a big risk buying, I couldn't hear if the engine had any other issues to be honest, but as it didn't smoke and pulled hard I took the risk rolleyes

Picked her up that weekend, 1 bus journey, 1 train Journey and a taxi, did the paperwork, handed over the cash and drove off.

Enjoyed the drive back despite the noise but realised about halfway home I needed fuel. Pulled off the motorway, stopped for fuel. Turned the key, hit the start button, nothing! The LE starter button problem had got me already!

I pushed the car away from the pump, very red faced and sat in the car patiently waiting for the car to cool down. 10 minutes later it fires into life and I drive home quickly without stopping again!

Pics below are taken the day I brought her home.
click to enlarge click to enlarge click to enlarge click to enlarge

The pictures do her a lot of justice as the few people who have seen her in the flesh can confirm!

So it's started, one cheap (very cheap) LE, a load of spares both with the car and in the garage from recently breaking the 16VT and a lot of hard work required.

Doing as much work as possible myself, using parts I already have and sourcing parts through the forum etc, I should be able to have a very tidy jet black 20VT LE with immaculate bodywork and fresh paint for under £3k. So far so good, the only thing I need to buy is a door, I have everything else I need so far stocked up in the garage.






Re: Spee's 20VT LE Resurrection Project [Re: ] #818824
22/04/2009 18:24
22/04/2009 18:24

S
Spee
Unregistered
Spee
Unregistered
S



Update 1.

First jobs I tackled were the LE Starter button mod and a few electrical gremlins.

There is a post on the forum regarding the LE Starter Button mod HERE .

Now I really don't do electrics, but as I need to keep the costs down to make the whole thing viable, I tackled it myself. The how to guide is superb and all you need, even I managed it, and it works spot on, no issues since.
click to enlarge Mod done! Looks like it's meant to be there!

Other issues were the N/S headlight was moody, sometimes came on, sometimes didn't. This was simple too, the connector was really furred up, a good roughing up and some contact cleaner, problem solved.

A few bulbs replaced in the dash and behind the console made things right in the car, no other issues were apparent.

There was the issue of the central locking of course, but this would be tackled later.

We had one afternoon of sunshine, so I gave the interior a good going over, the car was filthy when I bought it but you could see the important bits like the seats etc were in good shape despite the dirt. An afternoons good scrubbing and she is looking good, not spotless and not nearly clean enough yet, but I can live with it for now and there is the added bonus that I found no problems, LE trim is rare and expensive and all is well thankfully.
click to enlarge click to enlarge


Next was to tackle the leaking manifold, but I needed a clear couple of days for this and it had rained almost non stop since getting her back, and if it didn't rain, it snowed! Glad I didn't sell the trusty Disco!
click to enlarge click to enlarge

Re: Spee's 20VT LE Resurrection Project [Re: ] #818848
22/04/2009 18:56
22/04/2009 18:56

S
Spee
Unregistered
Spee
Unregistered
S



So far so good then.

The weather was playing havoc though, I bought her the first week in January 09 and as most people will remember we had a lot of snow for a month or so!

With a break in the weather I decided to tackle the manifold. A tricky job at the best of times, made a lot trickier by having freezing cold hands!

But I soldiered on, as I stripped the area down, it became apparent that I had a perfectly good manifold fitted, the root of the problem was a loose nut on number 5 and a sheared stud on number 4. Still, it was a manifold off job to remove the broken stud and replace it.

Had real fun, I couldn't remove one of the turbo to down pipe nuts meaning I had to remove the manifold with the turbo still attached! Hard work, it took hours of pushing, pulling and fettling. I couldn't get enough angle to get the No.1 branch clear of the casting which holds the aircon, in the end I had to carefully grind enough of the inside edge of the casting away away to get it out, but I did eventually win! The manifold was the new type with the cut between the 4th and 5th branch and it was sound, so I fitted the new gasket and went about re-fitting it. All tightened, just one more check tighten and "PING", the lower stud on No.5 gave up the ghost! All to do again, I went to the pub for the rest of the day!

Next day, I removed the manifold AGAIN and removed the broken stud, replaced all the studs with brand new Fiat sourced ones and then re-attached the the manifold, all tightened with new nuts and that was it!. However, when putting all the front end back together I suddenly heard a loud hissing, I'd punctured my Aircon condenser, arse!

A quick PM to Joe (Country Cruising on the forum) got me a second hand unit and I put back what I could.

Second hand Aircon turns up, was fitted quickly and the front end is now back together.

She smokes like a pig on initial start, Coop paranoia kicks in! I took her for a short spin around the local roads, all good, smoke has cleared quickly and all is well, and very quiet!

A second (cold) start and there is no smoke, was obviously residual from all the work that had been going on, plenty of smoke from the engine bay, but again, residual, this cleared after a couple of runs, all fluids are topped up and staying as they should be.
click to enlarge Can you see where the worst of the leak was???
click to enlarge Replaced the Turbo oil feed pipe while I was in there.

So thats one of the major faults dealt with, although in true coop style, it lead to another!

Later.





Re: Spee's 20VT LE Resurrection Project [Re: ] #818870
22/04/2009 19:26
22/04/2009 19:26

S
Spee
Unregistered
Spee
Unregistered
S



The misfire!

While tinkering at the front end, doing the manifold and cleaning up the oily mess that was the engine bay in general, I ended up with a misfire.

After consulting the forum I checked the wiring to the coil packs, put the new plugs that came with the car in, cleaned the excess oil from the cam cover and tried again, still misfiring.

I eventually traced it through elimination to the No.3 coil pack, the clean (new plugs) helped here, it was obvious as I checked them again that No.3 plug was wet, all the others dry, pointing to no ignition on No.3 cylinder ,I bought a couple of coil packs from Joe, replaced the No.3 and fired her up, still misfiring!

I was starting to worry again! But I double checked the wiring and spotted something, one of the wires going into the plug for Coil pack No.3 was chaffed through to the bare core, this of course, even I know, is not good! So I dried the plug out, cleaned with contact cleaner, let it dry and coated the bare wire area with a nail polish type stuff we use in work to quick repair this sort of problem. Let that dry, protected it further with some electrical tape and put it back together.

Fired her up, everything crossed and she roared into life, smooth as a babies bum, misfire gone, brilliant!

I got on with a few little jobs over the next few days/weeks.

Deep cleaned the interior, carpets, leather, dash etc, all looking so much better now.

The only other problem I had at the moment was the central locking, this could take some time!

In short, the problem was..... Hit the key fob button, the doors would lock, 2 seconds later they'd pop straight back up, locking with the key was the only option and this meant locking the passenger door by turning the key and holding it in the lock position until the central locking could be heard to lock, then, going round to the drivers side and doing the same, a bit of an arse, and I did come to the car one morning to find it had opened itself overnight!

I played around with alsorts tracing the problem, with no luck. Cleaned and checked connectors, checked wires for chaffing, checked the mechanisms for problems, lubricated everything, still the same problem.

I spotted a thread about central locking on the forum and solved the problem in seconds after a post by Stan! You can read the thread HERE .

Problem solved, thanks Stan!

Oh, I fitted some clock rings too, hardly rocket science! click to enlarge

Re: Spee's 20VT LE Resurrection Project [Re: ] #818880
22/04/2009 19:43
22/04/2009 19:43

S
Spee
Unregistered
Spee
Unregistered
S



Now these posts aren't really going to be in order as I have done a fair bit of work on the car but have an appalling memory, some of it will come back to me and be posted out of sync, but you'll get the idea!

Last job to date is sorting out the ratty cam cover, I know it's only cosmetic but over the next few days I am cleaning the engine bay and though it would be a good place to start.

There is a how to thread but all you need to know is to keep all the bolts pushed thorough a piece of card for safe keeping and in order of removal, some are longer than others! De-grease the cover when you've cleaned the paint off, then de-grease it again, nothing worse than seeing the oil rise through your paint as it drives!

It's all in the preparation, I stripped the cover with paint stripper, came off easily with no rubbing or grinding. You'll notice a lot of rough casting marks when you examine the cover post strip, I rubbed these down to smooth off the finish, you don't need to of course, but I thought I might as well.

Any paint will do, but I'm a big fan of the Plasticote paints, no primer needed and it drys to a smooth finish, not too glossy and rock hard, nothing much will shift it once it's on and dry (unless you didn't de-grease well of course).

One can will do it, build up the layers at 15 minute intervals, a good tip is to heat up the cover in the oven for 10 minutes (80-100 is fine, you don't want it any hotter) and warm the paint in the can by putting it in a bowl of very hot (not boiling) water for 10 minutes before use. Spraying paint onto cold surfaces can lead to a terrible finish.

I left the finished cover to dry in the sun for the rest of the day, then as it was touch dry, put it in the airing cupboard for the following day. Fitting is the reverse etc etc, but always well worth considering a new seal, they aren't expensive and easy to fit.

I couldn't decide wether to leave it all red or have the lettering highlighted, I think I went the right way, feel free to tell me if you think I chose wrongly!

click to enlarge The all red option, looked good I thought?
click to enlarge I decided to highlight the lettering though.

Highlighting the lettering was the chosen option and I like it, much like the original, only a much more dramatic shade of red and the lettering isn't polished, left rough for that machined look!

Re: Spee's 20VT LE Resurrection Project [Re: ] #819077
23/04/2009 01:09
23/04/2009 01:09

S
Spee
Unregistered
Spee
Unregistered
S



A quick summary at this point.

A lot of people will have you believe that Coops are woefully expensive to run.

Now, I have to disagree with this. My 16VT cost me £500 in the year I owned it, that was a clutch and the wishbones. I could have lived without the clutch change to be honest, but I wanted it done as it was starting to pulse slightly on take up. No other costs.

So far, other than the cost of buying the LE, I've spent the following.....

As New door from Joe - £75
Aircon Condenser (Joe) - £20
Boot trim, again from Joe - £10
New manifold studs and nuts from Fiat - £30
Manifold Gasket (AA) - £18
Various paints and potions - £27

So, thats a grand total of £180. For piece of mind, the belts will be done soon, that £400. Thats £580 total and the car will be mechanically sound with all the big jobs covered for at least 2 years.

To put this into perspective, my friend drives a fairly new Mazda RX8, last year it cost him £500 in servicing alone! Add the cost of the repayments, the staggering fuel consumption and the bits and bobs that have gone on the car in the last 12 months and he spent over a grand on a 4 year old car!

My partners ex Clio cost £380 to get through it's last MOT, and then threw it's coil, £230 from Renault, managed to find one for £35 from a breaker but was lucky as the fail fairly frequently and are hard to find working second hand.

So, coops aren't expensive to run!

If you are constantly modding then I guess they are, and modded cars generally command higher maintenance costs and tend to loose some reliability with the extra demands on the various standard components effected.

I suppose if you just can't do working on cars then they are expensive, but so would any other if you had to garage it every time something goes wrong! I do as much as I can, I'm an engineer and have worked on lots of cars from Lada's to race saloons so know my way around them, although I am not an engine man, they baffle me as a rule, but I'm picking more up all the time.

I'll post more as I remember anything else I've done. laugh

Re: Spee's 20VT LE Resurrection Project [Re: ] #824629
02/05/2009 12:58
02/05/2009 12:58

S
Spee
Unregistered
Spee
Unregistered
S



I've taken the decision after a lot of thinking to get my spare bonnet and the immaculate door I sourced from Joe painted up. I was going for a full respray this year, but as work is thin on the ground (I'm a self employed Aircraft Engineer) I'm just going to get the bonnet and door done and mop the rest of the car, touching in any other scratches and things as I find them. It won't be perfect but having her running well is more important at the moment than getting her looking amazing.

The bonnet and door are off to a local spray shop next week, they have quoted me £200 to do both and I have seen their work, it's more than good enough for that money.

I'll post some pics when they are back and painted.

In the mean time, I am ordering some HID's and tidying up in the engine bay, hoping to remove and re-furbish the front slam panel this week.

Pics will be posted as they happen.

Re: Spee's 20VT LE Resurrection Project [Re: ] #828556
09/05/2009 14:48
09/05/2009 14:48

S
Spee
Unregistered
Spee
Unregistered
S



Nothing much to report!

Haven't had the chance to do anything, away working again, but I have the weekend off so a few little jobs, nothing over exciting of course.

Best one was fitting a Plus grille sourced from the forum (thanks Mona). I wanted to put an LE grill there to replace the Zender grille it came fitted with, but they are really expensive and have a habit of warping quite quickly. I will eventually get hold of a standard 20VT grille, spray it up in LE Titanium and see how it looks, but for the mean time, I had to get rid of the Zender grille, it looks great on some coops, looked terrible on mine.

The Plus grille wasn't a direct fit, to get it to locate properly took 3 new holes in the top of the bumper and the two top/side holes needed pulling outboard slightly on both sides, but I think it was worth it, before and after pics below.
click to enlarge click to enlarge


Oh, and it started raining heavily just after fitting it, so the other jobs went out of the window!

Next job is to buy a mop and see what I can do with the paintwork that isn't going to be done soon, a newly painted door, bonnet and wing will make the rest of the car look terrible!

Gareth

Re: Spee's 20VT LE Resurrection Project [Re: ] #829159
10/05/2009 20:39
10/05/2009 20:39

S
Spee
Unregistered
Spee
Unregistered
S



Engine bay cleaning day.

Before (day it arrived)

click to enlarge

After (as of this afternoon, before it started raining (again).
click to enlarge
click to enlarge


Oh, and see what else I did? click to enlarge



Last edited by Spee; 10/05/2009 22:16.
Re: Spee's 20VT LE Resurrection Project [Re: ] #829291
11/05/2009 09:45
11/05/2009 09:45

S
Spee
Unregistered
Spee
Unregistered
S



Off today, so I'm going to hit the good bodywork with some G3, T Cut and then a polish, if the bodywork comes up to a standard I can live with, the bonnet, door and wing will be off the painters next week.

Currently the body work is showing signs of greying, years of light scratching and general neglect, the car was reasonably well looked after by the previous owner, but he only had on road parking in a pretty busy area so the bodywork suffered due to this. Hopefully I can get it looking good enough so I can hold off on the full respray until next year.

G

Re: Spee's 20VT LE Resurrection Project [Re: ] #838636
26/05/2009 15:04
26/05/2009 15:04

S
Spee
Unregistered
Spee
Unregistered
S



Well, the paint work was pointless! It doesn't look much better to be honest. I haven't a proper mop to do it with so used what I had, with little effect.

I'm still getting the door done, it's off to a spray shop at the end of this week, he'll quote me for the bonnet when I drop the door off as he is unsure of the size of it etc.

The door and wing are costing £80 to repaint.

He is also going to give the car a once over with an eye on mopping it for me, but he's under strict instructions not to bother unless he thinks it will make a real difference!

Nothing else to do on the car at this time, as it stands it's fine, working well and driving fine, just let down by the appalling bodywork.

List of things that need doing below, in no particular order...........

Cam Belt & Aux belts
Manual oil pressure check and oil change
Compression check
Wheel refurb
Paint
Air Con Re-gas
New Radiator


MOT is due in August and I see no reason at the moment why it won't pass, all tyres are good, engine seems to be running well, in fact it runs better everytime I use it at the moment, brakes are all new (ish) and working well.

All being well I'll be swapping the newly painted door and wing over next week and if it mops up well, I'll get some new pics up.

Only other job is running with the group buy on fit and forget oil cooler pipes, this is going well and hopefully I'll be able to fit the first set to my car in the next week or two.

Ciao

Gareth

Re: Spee's 20VT LE Resurrection Project [Re: ] #841022
30/05/2009 12:38
30/05/2009 12:38

S
Spee
Unregistered
Spee
Unregistered
S



As I'd G3'd and T Cut the car last week with what seemed to be a poor result, I washed it yesterday evening with a view of giving it a polish today, just to see if that helped matters.
click to enlarge
click to enlarge

What a difference!

Don't get me wrong, it still looks awful on close examination! But the car now has a top shine to all of it's lumps and bumps. The stonechips show up a treat, as do the scratches and dents, but the car looks so shiney, you can almost pretend they aren't there!

I'm quite chuffed, looks so much better, and the further away you stand, the better it looks, really catches the sun too! laugh

Anyway, that's AutoGlym Super resin polish for you, I've always used it and it never ceases to astonish me, so easy to apply and buff off, 10/10. Obviously if the paint work was worthy I'd have used the AutoGlym finishing polish, but it's not, so I didn't, still, looks miles better, I'm off for a spin.

Gareth

Re: Spee's 20VT LE Resurrection Project [Re: ] #842702
02/06/2009 20:24
02/06/2009 20:24

S
Spee
Unregistered
Spee
Unregistered
S



I've been carrying (ignoring) a boost issue for the last few weeks, the car would spool up ok, boost and then suddenly drop off. The car is running certain mods that could be responsible for this, mainly a Perrin EBV, I have 2 GTEC chips that came with the deal, I've popped one of these in today but haven't had the chance to take the car for a decent run as yet, it certainly feels punchier now though, I'll take it out for a run tomorrow to see if the boost problem has cleared.

I'm also in and out of work at the moment. I'm a self employed aircraft engineer and work is pretty thin on the ground, so I'm back to doing as much as possible myself, this has now stretched to some of the offending paint work!

Today I tackled my damaged front wing, I had a mint spare from the 16VT so I spent yesterday prepping it, getting rid of the little rust that was present, rubbing down the speed red to a flat base and degreasing it ready for paint.

Sunny again today so I went for the paint! Two coats of grey primer, flatted down, tack ragged and 2 coats of gloss black. I let the gloss dry for 4 hours in the baking sun, it picked up a few hairs etc but as I was flatting again it wasn't an issue.

Flatted down again, two more coats of black, another couple of hours baking, flatted once more then G3, T-Cut and polish.

The finish is really good, the flatting gets rid of any fluff or dirt as well as keeping orange peel to the minimum. The end result is now fitted to the car, looks good, I'm very happy. So, I've started prepping my spare door! Results to follow! I don't think I'll tackle the bonnet though.

It looks a little flat on the picture, I'd just washed the car so there are water marks on it and it hadn't had polish. I've taken it off since, buffed it with a mop and t cut, re polished and it's a lot shinier. Happy days.


click to enlarge


Gareth




Re: Spee's 20VT LE Resurrection Project [Re: ] #846390
09/06/2009 01:43
09/06/2009 01:43

S
Spee
Unregistered
Spee
Unregistered
S



So, my radiator popped! Joe to the rescue.

I actually damaged my radiator when I was doing my manifold, but temp repaired it to get the car back on the road. It was always going to be temporary of course and it finally went on Thursday.

So, New radiator arrived today from Joe, just a quick jet wash, jenolite and some satin black to make it look near new and it's ready to fit.
click to enlarge

Took the old one out and took advantage of the extra room to look a bit closer at all the pipes in the are that are a bugger to see when it's in place, and I'm glad I did! The main water feed pipe from the water rail to the turbo was shot, had bulged from contamination, heat and age and was barely holding water, I'm pretty glad I spotted this now, but a tad concerned I didn't spot it when I was doing my manifold.
click to enlarge click to enlarge

So, new one ordered (thanks again Joe!) so it can't go back together just yet.

So, the front of the chassis legs and cross member are next to be hit, they are scruffy and showing several patches of lifting paint and surface rust. These will be cleaned down tomorrow, treated, primes and painted, Hammerite Smooth black being my weapon of choice for this job.

click to enlarge

I'll also be carrying on with my spare door, I've got three good coats of black on it after prep, third coat needs flatting, then I'm aiming for three more coats and flatting sessions before hitting it with the buffer and G3 to see if my efforts are good enough to hang the spare door on the car.

The radiator support bar is also going to be sand blasted tomorrow, I was going to make a new one using alloy extrusion, but as the undertray mounting points are there as well, I decided that the original bar was solid so a sand blast session followed by a few layers of etch primer and enamel paint will do the trick.

Also cleaned my washer bottle, expansion tank and Air Box, all looking a lot cleaner!

More pics tomorrow, although I'm at the mercy of the weather!

Gareth




Re: Spee's 20VT LE Resurrection Project [Re: ] #846954
09/06/2009 19:41
09/06/2009 19:41

S
Spee
Unregistered
Spee
Unregistered
S



Managed to do a bit today, the weather held out.
click to enlarge

You can just make out the state of the forward chassis leg, rusted around the front end, and on the drivers side pictured, about 6 inches up the leg, adjacent to the air con pulley.

No magic potions can sort this out so the big guns had to come out, an angle grinder and rotary wire brush fitting.
click to enlarge

Rust and paint gone as required. At this stage I degreased the area, hit the areas the angle grinder couldn't get too and soaked the area every 15 minutes for an hour with Jenolite rust killer.

Degreased again, Hammerite Smooth applied nice and thick, working it down any joins etc, If you try and put this stuff on thinly, the finish is awful, putting it on good and thick allows it to settle, find its own level and dry to a smooth relatively brush mark free finish.
click to enlarge

You can see the finished result on the passenger side of the above picture.

Once it's cured, I'll go over it with 1000 Grit wet and dry to remove any imperfections and then polish it.

Final treatment before it goes back together will be rustproofing wax all around the forward end of the engine bay and forward chassis box section, should stop all this happening again anytime soon!

I got two more coats of paint on the spare door today, just one more tomorrow then I'll start the finishing process, if it looks good enough, I'll hang the door at the weekend if I'm not working.

Gareth

Re: Spee's 20VT LE Resurrection Project [Re: ] #865146
12/07/2009 00:58
12/07/2009 00:58

S
Spee
Unregistered
Spee
Unregistered
S



Quick update!

Nothing much has happened as my new job has taken me away from home (again) and time is an issue. However, I've done around a thousand miles with no issues other than a leaking thermostat. This turned out to be corrosion on the mating face of the engine block, sorted for now but needs addressing over the winter months. While I was at it I changed my coolant hose of death, so thats another worry out of the way for now.

Front end is feeling loose, I have new wishbones and drop links to fit given the time and I'm hunting down new pinch bolts.

The suspension is too hard for me, so there ios a lot of thinking and thread searching going on at the moment, I want a standard ride but really want to keep the car lowered as it looks sooooo much better for it.

No bodywork done so it still looks rough, but I've made enquiries and it's looking like it will be going in for paint at the beginning of August, and should be looking superb for the Tatton Park meet that month (if it's ready of course!).

Belts are to be done next as well as the health check, and hopefully my illusive boost issue will also be solved at the same time with some luck.

So, although I now have cash to spend, I have no time, frustrating but the longer it takes the better, at least I'll appreciate it more when it's finally done and I know it will all get done properly.

Gareth

Re: Spee's 20VT LE Resurrection Project [Re: ] #898424
12/09/2009 11:48
12/09/2009 11:48

S
Spee
Unregistered
Spee
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S



Well, after a lot of soul searching recently and various temptations towards the dark side, I took the plunge and dusted off the old girl, gave her a rough going over and gave her to the local MOT station (an ATS place, I know, but I use them a lot and they are VERY fair).

She failed!

But only on a rear bulb and headlamp alignment! My hard work has paid off, they were very complimentary about the overall condition of the cars mechanicals and were really impressed with the fact that everything works, especially the interior switches etc. They loved the interior too!

Cracking stuff, so I'll be driving her again next week and I've started looking at what to do next, probably the belts and suspension, so after a long pause, things are rolling again.

Gareth

Re: Spee's 20VT LE Resurrection Project [Re: ] #931506
08/11/2009 22:28
08/11/2009 22:28

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Spee
Unregistered
Spee
Unregistered
S



And still rolling!

No running problems to report other than a slightly smokey turbo, at least I think it is, with these cold damp mornings it's hard to tell, it's not very blue, if at all, but it does smell acrid, who knows, it's running fine.

Fitted new drop links and coilover front suspension today, just giving it a try really, if it's not for me I'll sell it on, but so far I'm impressed with it, and it's certainly an improvement over the Eibachs.

Still have the Eibachs fitted at the rear and will be fitting a set of Bilstein B6 shocks to the rear next week.

Also fitted a Hands free kit, after my brush with the law!

I also FINALLY fitted my Supersprint centre section, when I got the car the centre section was rotten, to get it running quickly I fitted a standard centre section and mated it to the nearly new Supersprint tail pipe.
Now the SS centre section is fitted it sounds better, "seems" to pull harder and the tail pipe fits the rear of the car much neater.

More soon, lots of work going on at the moment.

Gareth

Re: Spee's 20VT LE Resurrection Project [Re: ] #934480
14/11/2009 14:07
14/11/2009 14:07

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Spee
Unregistered
Spee
Unregistered
S



Have been running with the coilovers a week now and getting used to them. Not sure if they are for me just yet, but they certainly keep the car flat when cornering, that is the most noticeable thing so far.

Bouncy ride on uneven motorways being my only gripe so far. The hard springs may sort this, but could leave it too crashy. Anyway, if it ever stops raining, I'll swap the springs and give them a try.

The exhaust is bedding in nicely, sounding better everytime I start the car.

I have every intention of fitting the B6 rears this weekend, but that will only happen if the rain stops, won't take long, I only need a couple of hours of clear sky, so fingers crossed.

While working on fitting my hands free kit last weekend I sorted out a few centre console issues, mainly rattles! Some strategically placed felt strips and pads have made it rattle free at last! Just the dash board end caps to silence now!

After getting a set of anti squeal shims, my brakes have decided to silence themselves, they no longer squeal, so the shims are sat on a shelf in the garage, just incase!

Re: Spee's 20VT LE Resurrection Project [Re: ] #990752
26/02/2010 10:50
26/02/2010 10:50

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Spee
Unregistered
Spee
Unregistered
S



I was made to feel guilty by a post in general discussion! So an update is required.

The car was parked second week in December and I switched over to using my Landy for the winter, just as well as the snow came down every other day pretty much as soon as I parked it up!


It's been started and allowed to tick over as often as possible, usually every 4-5 days and run a few miles every couple of weeks and all has been well other than a drained battery for no apparent reason, I may have left something on because since charging, the battery has retained good power and fires the old boy up off the button every time I've tried it since.

I'm on another 4 days off, but it's raining like mad, so no progress today, and this seems to be a recurring pattern, 4 days in work, decent weather, 4 days off, rain, snow or cold icy winds!

I have a list of jobs as long as my arm and I'm running out of time and patience, I even considered getting rid a few weeks back and may still do if a mint 16VT comes up for sale. However, next four days off I've vowed to clear my garage and get her inside so I can work regardless of the weather!

So no progress and lots to do, nothing unusual there, jobs needing doing are.....


Bonnet Respray (not urgent, obviously)
Door respray, as above!
Superspool - Fit
Belts - Change

Other than that it's OK. Lots of niff naff jobs, but they come with the marque and I'm more than aware it will NEVER be quite finished!

G

Re: Spee's 20VT LE Resurrection Project [Re: ] #1050543
09/06/2010 22:01
09/06/2010 22:01

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Spee
Unregistered
Spee
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S



Not a lot been happening with the old rotter, so I've stuck some pics on for now!!!! Respray due in about a month.
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