So far.
S plate,80,000 miles,full history,with 18's and original wheels.
Car purchased for £2000 by shear luck by someone who had no idea what it was worth.And i wasnt about to tell him.

Has had its life serviced and repaired by Rog at Power Fiat so it has been well cared for.

Bodywork wise,other than a obvious repair to the front N/S corner of the bonnet it is the best LE i have seen to date.

The car itself will be left standard as i want everything i do to be non intrusive.So one day when these cars are real classics it can be put back to its original state..



And here she is


Ooooh and i forgot to mention that it was almost a sign that the Number plate nearly reads JBT.
It was meant to be





After months of trying to get this in the workshop,finally i have had to turn the work away and just do it if i have any chance of getting it to Spa.
Doing my own car is great as there's no pressure to get it done,and it can be done the way i want regardless of cost.
I am doing this all myself mainly because i don't trust anyone else to work on my car.Plus i enjoy the challenge of such a build.

Finally on the ramp

In the air.

Front bumper off.Subframe,radiator,shafts and tunnel removed

Brakes removed for reconditioning

lots of bits to prep,paint and refurb

Now heres where things start to go wrong

More here

This i hadnt allowed time for and as it happened would put me a week behind in the 2 weeks i allowed.

Seeing this regularly now on most coupes.Rust forming around the suspension tunnel.In all fairness,usually its alot worse.For instance the inner arches where the covers bolt onto are usually rusted through long ago.On this car they hadnt at all.Very minor surface rust.Even the front legs that join to the bumper not only are intact but suffer not with rust.
For some reason these Le's and later plus coupes suffer alot worse than the earlier ones.Infact P-plate coupes seem to be the best in terms of bodywork.

Nsf chassis leg had rust all the way upto the battery tray and looked a mess under bonnet.
Again only very light surface rust and not visible,but you could tell by the distortion of the paint.

Here's a little tip as i spent 2 summers working in a body-shop.Before painting fit bolts to boltholes.Or they ain't going back in there easy

More prep work

Work started on Friday and this picture was taken on the Wednesday .Not good well behind schedule

The last of the prep work

Masking and covering the car

Undercoating

Rub down,more undercoating

Ditto

Ditto

Were rolling on near 9 pm now when the top coat goes on.This is 13 hours into the day.

Rob came in special to do the paintwork,as hes the best man for the job.

Second topcoat on,lacquered twice

The finished article

That's better

Strut top 1

Strut top 2

Chassis leg

Looks so good that i have duplicated the picture

2 coats of stone-chip to cover the areas of high water further followed by 3 coats of wax-oil.

Thursday was a good day.Got all the wiring loom,and engine bay cleaned up.Painted the front slam panel,and taped the wiring loom to try and make an ugly part of the car a little more desirable.

Engine bay done.Rolling on lunchtime.Friday.

Finally goodies in place

Both front struts fitted.Paint now dry.

The first coupe ever to have good brake lines.But for peace of mind i decided to replace both front rigid brake lines with copper.Main reason is they will last longer and there a right toad to do when the cars built back up.

Osf fitted

Nsf fitted

Wheel Arches starting to take shape

decided to strip and clean the calipers.But unfortunately one of the bolts sheared clean off when trying to undo from the shim plate.
I never sand down the pads,as in 6 months they squeak like mad.Imagine a wedge shape.That's your shim plate.
It shouldn't be like this.What actually happens is the caliper oxidises underneath and forces the corner up.
Symptoms are your new pads don't fit properly.
Temptations are to grind the pad down..
But if the shims are removed,cleaned and the oxidised part cleaned then pads fit a treat.

So,a call to the Snap-on man for some easy outs and the problem is now sorted.

Pipes coated.I don't like to see copper piping as it sticks out that ''someone has been there''.SO this way it cant be made to look anything else than standard.

Calipers refitted with yellow-stuff pads and 3G discs

Old engine

New engine.
New main,little and big end shells.
Uprated ARP con rod bolts
Wossner low comp pistons
Flea stage 2 head
New valves
New lifters
New oil pump
Wossner Con rods
Lightened and balanced flywheel
lightened and balanced Jbt bottom pulley
balanced bottom end
New head bolts
New head gasket
New water pump,phase sensor,cambelt kit and aux tensioners
Overbore for larger pistons
Honed and cross
Flea uprated high lift cams
Head polished
Block painted red
£££££££££

Lightened and skimmed flywheel.Took a fraction more off the outer surface to help clamping force on paddle clutch



Pro alloy inter-cooler placed

Engine ready

6 speed gearbox to be mounted then the lot can be screwed back to the car.Job for tomorrow.Yes a sunday .....



Unfortunately due to the issue with the bodywork theres alot of things that i will now have to do later.
The didn't have time to paint the calipers,rocker top,or inlet plenum chamber.
But the timescale has got out of hand and so there must be a compromise somewhere.
The main jobs have been done.
The above can be done on a later date,.
Unfortunately nothing ever goes to plan..

So from now on until this time next week that's me signing off to do some more work.
Engine ready to go back in now.
More piccys on the way