I went down to South Wales to check it out and decided it was too good to pass up. The car wasn't running too good and the owner suggested it go to his 'tuner' to get checked out. It turned out the engine was down on compression so I paid for it to be rebuilt. The rebuilt engine didn't last either!
The first thing I wanted to improve on (while I pondered what to do with the motor) was the suspension. My plan has always been to keep the car looking pretty much stock but improve some of the cars poorer characterisitcs. Handling from the factory is too soft with too much body roll. The first job was to get the car up on blocks and remove the factory components. They were then cleaned up by hand and professionally powder coated. The front struts were fitted with Koni adjustable shocks and cut springs (later replaced with King Springs). The rear leaf springs were reset two inches and stiffened (20%) with an extra leaf. One inch lowering blocks and KYB shocks were used (later upgraded to GAZ externally adjustable). A mixture of Nolathane and Super Pro bushes went in.
The original engine was pulled down and wasn't too healthy...
...So I borrowed a 10A off Alex to get me to an Exile meet in Belgium. Alex was planning on emigrating back to NZ and the motor appeared to be a little sick so I ended up buying it off him for future spares. As you can see in the pics I sold my Alleycats as I found some 13x7 Panasports from Japan. I'm currently running them with some road legal semi slicks as stock 10A's pack a hell of a punch.
After surviving the Euro trip the 'loaner' engine then turned up it's toes on the way back from a weekend at Santa Pod. Thankfully for me a mate Mark lives not far from the Pod, so I left it on his drive while I sorted a tow back to Kent. After pulling the engine I found I had lost an apex seal on each rotor. Good news though is everything else was pretty mint so this engine will be the basis for my next one! The plan now is to build a strong 10A bridgeport!
While the engine was out I did some tidying in the engine bay and uncovered more work
I moved onto the boot floor! I grinded all the touch ups back, then slapped on some primer. The fuel tank is all prepped and ready for painting. I've actually done another coat of white and some clear since the last pic was taken.
Next job was to re-fit the tank and then the fuel system, but the fuel system bits I needed didn't turn up for a while so I did some work on the rear suspension instead. I had previously removed the 1" lowering blocks but it looked a bit high. I decided to remove the bump stop locating bolts (bump stop was removed ages ago) and found some damage which I assume happened on the Euro meet. For those who don't know there are some fucking shit 'motorways' in Belgium. One bit where an on-ramp became a ditch and I nearly swallowed my teeth!! Anyway, got a hole that needs welding but 'slightly' more clearance now!
Fuel lines in the boot are in. This is a bit of an experiment for me as I've never used these fittings before. They're not hard but you have to plan ahead. Only problem I struck was clearance around the pump body for the return line. I ended up fitting a fuel tap I had lying around to get the 180deg union farther away from the pump. It means the hose has a bit of a bow in it which I'm not really happy with but hey ho it's not a show car.
