In early May 2006 i bought a rolling shell from a friend of a friend for the sum of £500, I bough it blind but was assured that it would be good enough to bolt all the goodies i have previously scavenged.. I was told " it has a bit of a body kit on it but the body work is sound".
My mate picked it from a stock car meeting in yorkshire and bought it back home on a trailer for me. When i saw it, i knew straight was it was a Minicos Kit and could see that loads of work had gone into it with a few little bits left to do. (why do little bits take so much longer than big bits?) I got hold of a nice 1380 stage 3 engine with a sccr gearbox, fabricated an exhaust, put some bucket seats and harnesses in... some chrome wheels and there she was ready for the MOT!!!!! (The MOT wasn't done until late september 2006 as i had loads of problems with houses, injuries asnd illnesses as well as my mum and dad splitting up after 30 years married.)
In early 2007, having been ill again and noticing the amount of pitting on my chrome rims, i bought a set of 13X7 ally cats and purchased a pair of 13X8's to go on the rear. The only tyres i could find which did sizes for both wheels in the same style were dunlop SP9000 so i got a pair of 145/45 for the front and 205/55 for the rear (which then only just fitted under the arches!!! and clashed badly with the returns, subframe, suspension etc etc etc....
the head blew between chambers 2 and 3 and i managed to get hold of a stage 4 head to replace it with... i also got a vizarded hif44 and polished inlet at the same time!!!!! i took it all to be set up but was told of a suspected piston ring failure and that the engine would need stripping at some point in the near future.
The rear subframe needed replacing and i decided that i would change to a rear beam axle and coil overs at the same time and that the front end would also go to coil overs and fully adjustable geometry.
Since the petrol tank was removed, i decided it would be a good time to fit twin tanks, and a fuel pump and regulator which finally gave adequate fuel pressure for me to plumb in the nitrous oxide kit. (i also ripped of the spoiler which made the car much more rounded!!!!
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The nitrous controller was fitted into a new centre console...
And a new dashboard with smoked out dials was constructed.
With most of the work done and the geometry proffesional set up, i took the car on the Riviera Run, on the way down some tool in a people carrier infront of me had left the motorway services with there roof box not closed properly.. it flew open sending all their camping gear all over the road.... i ran over a rolled up sleeping bag which expanded out of its bag underneath the car and removed the rear bumper in one foul stroke. (it was also my birthday and we had to move caravan as the first one looked (and smelled) like it had been vandalised and puked in) the mrs wasn't best pleased with the weekend and we left after 1 night
I didn't have time to carry out any repairs before going on London to brighton but we managed to buy a clubman estate and the wife drove it on london to brighton.. she was 6 months pregnant at the time and had the 2 eldest kids in the car and all the camping equipment. Luckily, they all had a fantastic time and she was finally able to see what all the fuss was about. Due to financial troubles, we were unable to keep the clubby and had to sell it soon after the show (though we made a tidy return on our initial investment.
On returning from L2B, we were well into building our house extensionTHREAD HERE and the car was parked up and covered over for the rest of the summer.. and autumn. On 2 separate occasions, when money was very tight, i decided enough was enough and i would break the car up and sell the bits for what i could.. i still hadn't sorted the engine or body work as i couldn't afford it.
On new years day 2008, i uncovered the car for the first time in ages. the inside was soaking wet, my riviera and L2B run pack still on the passenger seat.. i ripped out the carpets and binned them revealing a lovely clean waterproof flash banded floor pan Seats were all dry so i took put the rear seats and speaker board and got a heater inside to dry the whole thing out.
Having lost the keys ages ago, i took the key switch off the back of the barrel, turned it with a screw driver and to my shock, she started without hesitation!!! 1200 RPM and burbling away on the 296 cam.. i left it for a few minutes while i unplugged the heater and cleared some things out the way, then moved her to the other side of the drive so i could use a different power supply to run the heater (and leave it on all night)
I stripped out the dash board cleared the boot and made a few phone calls. within 10 minutes, i had a mate of mine who does all sorts of metal fabrication was around to take a look at the rear end to see what could be done with the valance, and another mate who is a mobile mechanic came round to look at other bits.
The plan now is to get the external bits done at the back and get the engine out and stripped for inspection within the next few weeks with a view to getting it back in and all together so i can stick an MOT and tax on it asap and go from there.
I have some big plans for the interior, exterior and paint schemes which i will elaborate on as and when they start.
Thats it for now... some of you will know the stories all ready, this is just to get everything in one place so that the project can get back on track and hopefully finished ASAP... though i won't be rushed and there is always next year. either way, it will be my car, the way i want it.
