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Rolling Restoration - Coupe 20v Turbo #1626509
29/10/2018 19:34
29/10/2018 19:34
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 158
Staffordshire
L
Lee_k Offline OP
On a journey
Lee_k  Offline OP
On a journey
L

Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 158
Staffordshire
So about time I got a thread going on here, for moral support or understanding.....

I'd wanted a "toy" for years then the arrival of a company car provided opportunity. I then just needed to decide what it was going to be! I have a thing for "marmite" cars (some of my previous cars include Citroen C2 VTS, C4 VTR+ Coupe & a E87 1 series) so i managed to discount the "popular" classics like Golf/Corrado VR6. I then pretty much decided on a Subaru Impreza and started looking around for the earlier model (90's was where I was looking) but never quite clicked, I then started looking at old skool cool hot hatches like a GSI Astra. Then that passed and there were 3 cars I just kept coming back to. The Alfa Romeo GTV V6, Toyota Celica GT4 & Fiat Coupe 20v turbo. After many hours looking around online I just couldnt shake the want for something full of character and the italians were shining through. That was it then, the GTV or the Coupe - ironically 2 cars on the same chassis, one a lovely V6 and better suspension and the other a 5 pot turbo, limited slip diff helping things along. A friend of mine years ago had a sprint blue 20v turbo (Nige his name was, he was a member on here too) years ago and the noise and looks had left a memory. The alfa...was a Alfa i'd had a JTDM2 Giulietta for a few years prior and the thought of the badge and a V6 was good so i was going to be happy with either. Alfa probably had better future value but everyone loves an underdog!

Few weeks passed and after a few mails etc and decisions around spending more on a "Good one" or less on a "Rolling project" and put some money in me and a mate jumped into his Focus ST and set off to Bedford to view a car.

Not quite as good as the ad read but fitted its price bracket well.
Looked ok rust wise - rear arches starting to go but 20 year old!
Low previous owners and a life in scotland should of warned me of the rust to come but it had its advantages the centre dash hadnt gone all sticky, the laquer wasnt peeling (This should of warned me of the rust im going to find!!)

Test drive in hand - first thing .... 4 pot brembo brakes.... hmmm, doesnt feel like it, brakes were poor to say the least! Straight bit of road... that noise - SOLD!

Then the 120 mile journey home was to begin. This flagged a few "italian charms" first and most annoyingly with the drive to come.... cd player didnt work! powered up but wouldnt change from "CD" and wouldnt eject a CD stuck in there... great. Fueled up and the drive starts with just the exhaust note for company. Indicate onto a roundabout, straighten up...indicator still on - Turn off manually, fine - back on, turn...no self cancel! - Ok... 2nd item on the list - The brakes were poor and not really getting any better with use - item 3. Then the drive of watching the gauges for the incoming breakdown showed the opposite of expected... it wouldnt get hot! - Stuck thermostat.... 4th - hmm this list is growing!

Other than that temp taking forever to get warm she drove without a hitch and got home without problem.

Arrival!

click to enlarge click to enlarge click to enlarge

Last edited by Lee_k; 30/10/2018 19:18.
Re: Rolling Restoration - Coupe 20v Turbo [Re: Lee_k] #1626510
29/10/2018 19:40
29/10/2018 19:40
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 158
Staffordshire
L
Lee_k Offline OP
On a journey
Lee_k  Offline OP
On a journey
L

Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 158
Staffordshire
So, first job was to get a specialist on the phone - Found John of midlands car servicing in Leicester. Few phone calls and the car went in for:

The dreaded cambelt (turns out to be a myth....)
New aux belts & Tensioners
New water pump (John was actually amazed it was still living, appeared to still have the plastic water pump or tensioner...cant remember exactly now!)
New thermostat (plan was to do that myself but seen as was having waterpump done - made sense let John do it!)

I asked John have a good look around why he was there and sure enough:

Also had rocker cover done
Couple of coolant hoses
Rear hose of death (coupe thing) replaced
and a new coolant tank cap - to replace the ebay one i'd put on that leaked as bad as the one that was already on!

Good stuff - all done, picked her up along with a list....

Oil return pipe - old
Oil cooler and pipework showing signs of rust
Hole in rear subframe :-X (where the bump stop fits!)
Front brake flexis perishing
Brake pipe corroding
Radiator - looking old

Rust! - Boot floor, inner arches, general underbody surface rust (knew about that) and arches (knew about!) - Let this be a lesson to people buying them...take a coupe expert with you smile although tbf, for what was always a project car it probably wouldnt of put me off. I've been around classic car restoration since a child - the rust i've seen on "wrote off" coupes would be considered nothing on 70's metal!


So first few big jobs done .... and jobs to do list growing!

The rust:

click to enlarge click to enlarge click to enlarge

Luckily i have a friend who owns a classic car restoration garage - first stop of welding was booked!

Lee

Last edited by Lee_k; 30/10/2018 19:19.
Re: Rolling Restoration - Coupe 20v Turbo [Re: Lee_k] #1626511
29/10/2018 19:44
29/10/2018 19:44
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 158
Staffordshire
L
Lee_k Offline OP
On a journey
Lee_k  Offline OP
On a journey
L

Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 158
Staffordshire
It then went in to Gaz at wooten motors (stoke) for its first phase of welding:

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Why it was there I also had the wheels done in Fiat LE Grey and she returned

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Last edited by Lee_k; 30/10/2018 18:31.
Re: Rolling Restoration - Coupe 20v Turbo [Re: Lee_k] #1626512
29/10/2018 19:50
29/10/2018 19:50
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 158
Staffordshire
L
Lee_k Offline OP
On a journey
Lee_k  Offline OP
On a journey
L

Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 158
Staffordshire
Shiny bits!

click to enlarge

And off to mates house for a "hour or two" to swap out the front disks and pads and hopefully bring the brakes to life......... And how wrong was that sentence!

The brakes were in a right state and fought back in every way they could!

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But eventually after ridiculous amounts of brushing, cleaning, banging, swearing etc we had this!

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And this:

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But yeah what it showed is that the brakes are in need of a complete refurb - the sliders, dust covers, pistons are all just..... unloved!

The previous disks and pads probably tell a story!


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The good bits was the car now actually had some brakes - and after a bit of use were getting better (but i still knew in my head they'd need replacing or a rebuild)

The rears were also switched out for matching disk and pad setup!


Last edited by Lee_k; 30/10/2018 18:33.
Re: Rolling Restoration - Coupe 20v Turbo [Re: Lee_k] #1626514
29/10/2018 20:06
29/10/2018 20:06
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 158
Staffordshire
L
Lee_k Offline OP
On a journey
Lee_k  Offline OP
On a journey
L

Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 158
Staffordshire
Progress at this point was making me very popular with the wife! (Who obviously hates the car and everything about it!)

The done list was now:

Cambelt + tensioner
Water pump
Aux belt + tensioner
Rad cap
Couple of boost pipes
Rear engine coolant pipe
Rear arches/boot floor repair
Mtech disks and mintex pads front and rear

The to do list was steadily growing! - so next was something to do for free... (ish)

Headlights had a phase, so they were masked, sanded (have to be brave!) - then polished back up. There still far from perfect but much better than they were - I'll redo them at some point with a electric polisher i think - by hand is hard work!! And im not really convinced if i made them better or worse!

click to enlarge

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And now to give the engine some love! - Time for a service.

First mod...Pooowwwwweeeer! (maybe 0.5bhp increase or so!?)

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Plugs done

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Pollen filter is a bit of a pain get too

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For gods sake (Add to the list... warning signs these were that every job would lead to 2!!)

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Then to finish it off I booked it in to AWJ Automotive for a EDT (Engine decontamination treatment) - Where basically the oil is drained then its connected to a machine which flushes the engine a few times on various cycles and collects all the bits to show you at the end and make you wonder how it still worked!! - It wasnt great, the guys were quite impressed with the amount of crap the machine fished out frown - the difference was instant without even driving it! - The oil pressure always sat at near 3 on idle which was always high compared to what i read online...after the treatment and a warm oil temp now shows between 1.5 and 2 on idle (where it should be!) then instantly over 3 as soon as the revs rise!

So now a serviced and part tidied up coupe - so a clean to show off all its different shades of silver..and dents

click to enlarge

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The outstanding list was still a bit depressing!

Thanks
Lee

Last edited by Lee_k; 30/10/2018 18:35.
Re: Rolling Restoration - Coupe 20v Turbo [Re: Lee_k] #1626515
29/10/2018 20:11
29/10/2018 20:11
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 158
Staffordshire
L
Lee_k Offline OP
On a journey
Lee_k  Offline OP
On a journey
L

Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 158
Staffordshire
So next was another trip down to Gaz at wooten motors.

This time the work was:

Sort front arches - they weren't really rusty just starting on the edges but needed doing
Scuttle panel - what I found doing the pollen filter
Subframe hole - bumpstop
Waxoyl - Some future protection!
New radiator mount - From Joe at FCSS, mine was looking rusty so rude not too!

And here goes,

Rear bump stop mount

click to enlarge

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Rad bar:

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Scuttle:

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Arches

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Waxoil

click to enlarge

Last edited by Lee_k; 30/10/2018 18:37.
Re: Rolling Restoration - Coupe 20v Turbo [Re: Lee_k] #1626516
29/10/2018 20:16
29/10/2018 20:16
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 158
Staffordshire
L
Lee_k Offline OP
On a journey
Lee_k  Offline OP
On a journey
L

Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 158
Staffordshire
First "problem" as such.... clunk under hard acceleration (and the ability to rock the engine back and forth myself!) - Rear engine stabiliser bar! Brought some PU ones from Germany. Much more of a faff to fit than they look, mainly cutting the old one out of the engine side as its fixed and you cant get the piece from the engine that the bush fits in out!

Easy side:

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The "other" side

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And after many hours with a hack saw blade, drill, screwdriver - anything i could find!

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Done!

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During this I did the obvious, dropped a screw - no clang on the floor... great. Cant reach it, magnet not helping. I'll take the plastic inner arch off get the screw out... and reveal to myself what John had told me about the inners!

Great... so added to the list! As mentioned earlier...each job leading to another! (I get us men like lists..but do they ever end?!) - The good news being most of the rust "hot spots" are now ticked...the bad news being they were pretty much all rusty!

click to enlarge

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It also got a new windscreen wash motor as the old one wasnt really trying! And the MOT was due soon so time would tell what that will bring!

That aside however the list now looks like this:

Brake rebuild (New seals, pistons, sliders... the lot!)
Oil Cooler and Pipes (My pipes don't look too clever)
Radiator (Looking old and saggy!)
Refurb rear arms/new bushes
Suspension refresh - Wishbones, ball joints, drop links, shockers, springs (Make her new again!)
Decent set of tyres (Mix of budget stuff on there atm!)
Full respray/bodywork (It'll look lovely when its 1 colour and all of the dents are gone!)

So there's a depressing number if I add it up!

To make myself feel better though the done jobs are:

Temp sender replaced
Coolant sensor replaced
Thermostat replaced
Rear coolant hose replaced
New coolant bottle cap
Belts/tensioners done
Waterpump done
Aux belts/tensioner done
Rocker cover gasket done
Serviced (Plugs,pollen filter,air filter,oil,injector cleaner ran through)
Some rust work done
Waxoyled
Fuel cap seal replaced
Wheels painted
New front and rear disks and pads
New front brake flexis
New front brake pipe
New rear bump stops
Stabiliser bar bushes uprated
Washer motor

So its in a much better place than last September when I brought it - But much better places to be!

And a quick pic of it at really retro:

click to enlarge

Last edited by Lee_k; 30/10/2018 18:39.
Re: Rolling Restoration - Coupe 20v Turbo [Re: Lee_k] #1626518
29/10/2018 20:35
29/10/2018 20:35
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 158
Staffordshire
L
Lee_k Offline OP
On a journey
Lee_k  Offline OP
On a journey
L

Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 158
Staffordshire
MOT time came - had to have the abs sensor brackets welding on the inners and it had an advisory for a split cv boot (been there for a few advisories but i foolishly presumed it'd been sorted! - added to the list!). Along with a handbrake that only just scraped through mainly on the drivers side so maybe a dodgy caliper, might just need adjusting!

But the main point was... it got a ticket!

With winter approaching and the plan being for it to be parked up mainly I started collecting a few bits and thinking about which bit's I'd try to get ticked off the list over winter. I'd read online about the brakes being the same as a 406 Coupe or MK1 Focus RS but the plan was very much to just have mine completely refurbed. Then a mate text me a link, RS Breakers had a freshly rebuilt set of brembos off a mk1 focus for £360! - Bargain, and purchased!


I then thought i'd replace the fuel filter as it was the only service part i hadnt done. This as every other job so far was a 15min job that took 2 hours! - One of the bolts for the cover was just determined to not undo! Eventually though we got there...and it wasnt worth the effort at all as the old one didnt really look old! But at least I know its done I suppose!!

Old one:

click to enlarge

Brakes arrived:

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Whilst doing the brakes I decided to start ticking other bits off, so new drop links & wishbones (with ball joints) were ordered.

And so we go again! - First wishbone was off the car in 30-40mins all going well.... and it only took about 90mins or so to get the new one back on!! Combination of a hammer, anger, spring clamps, jacked brake and luck in the end saw it on!

Similar for passenger side, removal of old one not too bad...new one in a constant fight - with the added problem randomly for this side that meant the driveshaft popped out a few times just making it more difficult to fit the new one.

But again after yet another 3 or 4 hours it was on.

The better of the 2 wishbones next to a new one (Looked like this side may of had new bushes added at some point) Worth nothing there were no knocks or bangs and I was just refreshing it as we go!

click to enlarge

And now onto the brakes! - So the Focus brakes that the internet assured me were the same... got my new mintex coupe pads and they went on - oh theres a chance the internets right!... liked up to hub.. straight on - great stuff, found a mini bargain here.

Then came to putting in the brake pipe in. It mounts about a inch and half lower down and requires a banjo coupling rather than the standard on the coupe - so a new pipe is needed. And the decision of if to get just the smaller pipe made up or switch to one full braided hose replacing the coupe flexi (which were both replaced not long after getting the car as they were perished!)

click to enlarge

And that brings us about up to date. Its currently sat in a friends garage on axle stands waiting for me getting these pipes and connecting the drop links back up then bringing it home... to re-evaluate the dreaded list!!

Lee

Last edited by Lee_k; 30/10/2018 18:40.

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