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The Hornet's name is Horney or OHB (Old Horney Bastard)
I bought him off of a friend for $2000 as a non-runner WYSIWYG vehicle. It was loaded onto a trailer and taken to a local shop to get it to pass MOT. After a couple hundred pounds in parts and labor, the car was MOT'd and ready for tax. Since this vehicle had not been on the road since the early 80's, it required me to take my V5 to DVLA and get them to declare this an historic vehicle. Easy peasy, nice and easy. I am now the proud owner of a running Hornet that's tax exempt.
THE GOOD:
The body is VERY solid.
The engine runs well (original 998 engine)
This completely original
Converted to dry suspension
THE BAD:
The windshield seal leaks
The clutch slave requires R2 or rebuild
The gearbox is very sloppy (remote)
THE UGLY:
The interior needs redone
The rear bumper was bumped and is pitting very badly
The brakes are drum brakes
My plans for this car...unfortunately for the people that love OEM cars, is to make this an AWD Vtec. I know that there are less than 300 of these registered in the UK, but I want the looks of the hornet, with the power and reliability of a modern car. Finances will dictate the progress of this car.
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The Mini's name is Hope. Short for The Great White Hope.
I bought this from a man in Ayershire Scotland. I think he runs a tint business because the windows were limo tinted and there is an autotint logo on the bonnet. He told me that the car only needed the suspension raised, engine tuned and it will pass MOT. Other minor things were that the interior needed bits and bobs to finish it off. I had the car shipped to a shop to get it MOT'd and thats when things started unraveling. The car had bent tie rods, seized upper arm, welded steering arms, missing CV boots, the carb was too large and made it very undriveable, the lights were intermittent, the subframe was missing mounts, one of the brakes was not engaging, the gauges did not work (no temp, oil pressure, fuel or speedo), the wheels were rubbing badly on the fenders, the sump guard was mounted improperly, the exhaust was dragging, the shocks were flat....ya. So, I paid £2000 to get it to pass MOT. This is on top of the purchase price. Turns out the shop I was using charged me for work they didn't do, took forever and charged out the ass for labor. I don't know what I was thinking letting them work on the car. Anywho....I've been tinkering with this car like crazy. I have changed the carb to an HS4. Changed the distributor from a Ducellier to a 45d4 with an Aldon kit. I've tuned it using a colortune. I've done the valve lash with a click-adjust. Changed out the gages to a magnolia smiths set and re-wired the whole dash so everything works correctly (the previous owner used masking tape and just twisted the wires). I replaced the fuel sender to fix the non-working fuel gage. I changed out the fuel feed line that was being pinched by the subframe when the shitty shop I used reinstalled the subframe. I added silicon hoses and rebuilt the cooling system. I upgraded the brakes. I upgraded the shocks to adjustable Gaz's. I put nitrogen in the tires. I added some angel eye headlights. That's about it. It turns out this car is a wreck. It's like a supermodel that acts like a needy naggy *******. She looks great...but there are lots of problems under that veneer.
THE GOOD:
This has a fresh coat of paint
The engine and gearbox run
The interior was recently redone
The body is virtually perfect
Nice wheels
Good compression
THE BAD:
Nothing has been done right on this car
Speedo cable missing
Std coil on a Ballasted System
The heater matrix is leaking
The windows rattle in the doors
THE UGLY:
Bent tie rods
Missing subframe mounts
Seized upper arm
Welded on steering rack arms
Too large of a carb for engine
Alternator done
Wiring was bodged
Gauges do not work
Engine smokes on startup
In the future I plan to upgrade this to a big bore. I will need to sort out the fenders, bumpers, and interior. I would like to add a RH fuel tank since it already has been butchered with a fake filler neck. I need to wire the fog lights. The stereo is horrible. It's got a disc changer and it skips everytime I hit a pebble (very stiff suspension). I think I blew the speakers as well. I am going to redo the heating system. I've got some micro-heaters and I've just got to figure out the routing. I have a kajillion switches that I would like to install in lieu of the stock ones.
I guarantee that people were like TL:DR....but I think this is going to be me sharing my experiences with people in hopes that it will help someone so they don't end up like me.
Hope you enjoy
Edited by afhuey, 21 May 2011 - 09:35 PM.
