Some of you may know i have just bought another 20vt.This time its to become a track coupe.I lugged it home from Ireland on a trailor after buying it from Smokin Bob.Cheers Bob.
Its done 103,000 miles.And is silver in colour.
First job was to get the engine oil out,flush it with some cheap oil,drain that and get some decent oil in with a filter change.
I took it for a spin and shes holding over 2 bar oil pressure.So its ready for a compression test later this week.
Its going to be a two year project as i have a planned trip to New Zealand for the Rugby world cup next year.So cash needs to be saved on all fronts.
Photos to follow etc.

Not much to report yet as i am busy saving,but have managed to buy a roll cage and upper and lower front strut brace's.
Over the christmas break Joe(cc) did a compression test.
I cant remember all the stat's but it was not anything to bad.
I am a long way from doing the engine mod's, but at this moment i am leaning towards have the engine out and a rebuild. But as i say it's a long way off yet.

At last Magoo jnr is here for the weekend.
So today we thought we would attack the coupe and strip the interior out.





Anyone want to buy some red plastic cill thing's ?

Pleased to report not to much rust.




Dont worry Countrycruising i am saving all the carpets for you mate.

I have no idea now what all those cable's do now.


Then i find this. It look's like the floor has been cut,then changed their minds and splogged a load of underseal on it. Nothing a good welder cant sort out. Doe's anyone know one?
At least i found a few bob to help the project on it's way.
Thank's for you'r hard work Howard.
So there we are,the first step complete.
I am in the UK next month to pick up Roll Cage,ARB,Lower front strutt brace,camber bolt's and a passenger door for my red coupe. 440cc injectors are in the post. Lot's more stuff to get when funds allow.

I managed a couple of hour's work on the coupe today.
So i attacked the sound proofing. I started with a heat gun,but after 5 min's i had had enough.
So i just started to chip away at it with mainly a builders chisel,just gently tapping the black tar based material.
It started flying of in good sized bit's,any akward bit's i just used a small sharp trowel and chipped away at the leading edge. I think the fact that it's winter and the tar is brittle has helped alot. Most of the floor area is now stripped.
I also removed the glove compartment along with the airbag unit. Also all the airbag wiring including the control unit.
So now the steering wheel and airbag can be removed when ready.
The end panel's on the dash are now off as are the side airvents and those tiny speaker things. All ready to hack away when the rollcage goes in. I will put some pic's up when all the sound proofing is off. I am actually enjoying doing all this.

Ok all the sound proofing is of now.Here are a few pic's.
Also the boot. Now cleaned out. So the weight of all the sound proofing came to 12.1 kilos,see here.
Having seen what an excellent job that Alexis did of cutting his dash to fit the roll cage. I thought i had better do the same, And the other side . So there we are ,a bit more done. I also managed to cut some metal bracket's out that are not needed as it all help's to loose some weight. Bonnet sound blanket taken off also.Oh and here is one of the driver's side floor.It seem's that it must of been jacked up by some fool at some point.Then to mend it they have cut the floor and bashed it back down,then bunged it up with sealent. see here. . Overall i have found little rust,but then again i have not got it up in the air yet!

After consulting with Obi Wan Cruising,i decided to remove the dash this afternoon.It makes sense really,as why do i need the weight of the dash.
Just a couple of pic's to show with the dash out.
You sharp eyed folk's may have noticed that the dash fixing bolt is stil in place top right just below windscreen !Its because i could not see or find it.So if someone want's a free dash in pieces.


Other new's is that i have decided to go with a GT28RS Turbo with the 360d bearing and a 2.75 inch down pipe.
I would be interested to see people's veiw's on what to stick on the end of it. Straight through maybe?

I have removed the complete heating and ventilation module this morning.At the same time removing the heater pipes from the engine bay.
Can you guys give me some feed back on what i should do when putting the new heater pipe's in.
I was wondering if i plumbed it another Radiator with a fan,instead of heating. Would it need a pump or not? Could i mount it somewhere at the front or side of the car? Would it work ? Or am i talking out of my hat ?
Its just that i see a chance of gaining some more engine cooling,I think !
Let me know your thoughts folks.
Pic's to follow.

Ok some more Photo's. Thats the heater module out. So then i thought i may as well get the radiator out. This had seen better day's,it's the original rad with original hose's. You may notice that it's been running on one rad fan!!.Time for a new one for sure. So underneath the rad it's a mess,but all will be dealt with in good time. Couple of engine shot's here,lot's to do. And Finally i managed to tangle with the dreaded Fiat hose clip's and ended up with a bad case of Fiat Finger . Next job is Front bumper off and what's left of the undertray.

In the last week or so i have removed the front bumper and started to remove Turbo,complete exhaust,and the manifold.
The turbo was easy and in fair condition,so thats on the spares shelf.I thought i would attack the manifold,six hours later it was off. Every single nut had been rounded off.
So it was a case of using whatever would work,a combination of sharp chisels,spanners ,grips,and forcing on a smaller socket after a bit of chiseling.
The angle grinder soon had the exhaust off though.
Here is the poor old oil cooler and pipes. As you can see its a bit rusty in places,I will derust everywhere and paint it black i think. I have allready removed some parts like the rad support,front towing bracket and slam panel and they are being prepaired and painted along the way.As eack part is removed i am trying to get some paint on it.
Here are a few more pics showing the rust etc. Can any sharp eyed folks spot the bicycle repair ? Here is some of a kindly gent giving me a hand Random shot. .
I am now coming to a point where i have to start buying parts,so things could get slower now.

Here is a shot of the manifold studs i had to muller off.

And just one of how the coupes sits and wait's for more work to be carried out.

With the sun out these last few days,i have had the chance to get a couple of afternoon's work on the project.
As the front leg's were quite rusty,i attacked them along with the rest of the front frame. So thats a coat of anti rust primer on.
I gave the front of the engine and gearbox a de-grease,so looking a bit cleaner now. .
You may notice that there is no SIP mounting bracket in the photo's.
Thats because i cut it off. .
As i will be fitting a FMIC ,its a bit less weight.
I also managed to put a couple of coats of siver vht paint on the water rail. .

I should manage to get some more painting done over the next few days.

Lovely day again so got some paint on the front frame.
A second coat of primer.

And a first coat of black.

I have also got paint onto the front half round corner pieces,towing bracket,lower rad support and slam panel.A second coat on the front frame tomorrow,then bolt the painted bit's back on. Then that's about it for the engine bay for a while.
I want to get her jacked up and start stripping out the underneath next.

Last couple of pic's from yesterday's work,just a few bits painted and bolted on.

I had some spare time to tow the coupe into the barn and get it jacked up.
I have decided to get it up in the air about 50cm and rest it on its cills.
First thing was to get some blocks under the wheels.
It may look abit dodgy but felt safe enough.

I managed to get a bit done this afternoon. So now the rear caliper's and discs are removed. Also the plastic rear arch covers,fuel filter cover,rear exhaust heat shield. So i am about half way through prepairing to remove the fuel tank. I intend to remove as much as possible of the underside parts to renew and renovate.More pics to follow.

Well after a long time not doing anything and also being away for nearly 3 months i got back under the coupe. Still removing stuff like the rear shocks and springs,trailing arm's also front calipers and disc's. So far i have not found to much tin worm, which is very pleasing.
When funds allow i will be taking the car to Barbz for a forged rebuild and gearbox rebuild.
I have thought about this for a long time and have come to the conclusion that i only want to build this car the once,so a forged engine is the sensible route i want to follow and also there is the higher horsepower option.

Ok .Today i pulled my finger out and stripped out a fair bit of the underside of the coupe.

Here are a few pic,s.
So fuel tank,rear subframe,anti roll bar,trailing arms, rear shocks and springs.
Also the front shocks/springs along with front subframe,wishbones and front arb.



Before removing the front subframe i read a couple of :How to do's: on the removal of said subframe. There is a sentence saying remove the two 10m bolts holding the front of the heatsheild to the subframe. I found this to be not so. There are four 10m nuts that are screwed to a pair of stud brackets up under the subframe and heat sheild. The following picture shows it to a degree.
To get them out you need to unbolt the majority of the heat shield tunnel down the centre of the car in order to get some play. It makes the removal of the brackets easier.

Here are a few pics of the state of the underside of the car. I am happy to say there is not any severe rust. Some rust,but it can be sorted. Considering the coupe spent alot of its life up in the Wicklow mountains its done well.
The final few pics are just couple of the state i left the barn in tonight as i was loseing
the light.






So tomorow will be a bit of a clean and tidy up. Then brake lines out etc.