I've been on here since August last year, and after having a good couple of months fun with my newly purchased cabby, the project started in earnest. It started out as a bit of a sh1tbox, looked like a rabid brummie (no offence intended) had driven through a saltwater drenched halfords store that sold nothing but scouring pads.... What can you expect for £390 I suppose. Well, certainly not a straight chassis, solid underbody and generally ok car....
Here's a little montage of my beloved, in its ugly duckling phase...
Lets be honest with one another, it was a bit of a shed, solid but unloved, ugly but beautiful in its own way, slow but who cares? Thankfully, my expertise in purchasing (i.e. my ebay account and a rather clicky right finger), produced what turned out to be a munter, but a solid munter thankfully. Yep, there was a few bits of rust (you can't count no wheel-arch as rust, as there's no metal left....), but for the majority, the rusty bits were confined to edges, or occasionally surface blemishes. Christ it looked like it was totally rotten when I first got it, but thankfully this wasnt the case.
The car cost me £390 all in, and to be fair, it was worth more than that in parts, so in my opinion, it was a pretty good deal. Reasonable roof (rear screen is unsalvageable, but as I dont intend driving with it up very often, I can live with it), couple of decent seats, plenty of track on the tyres, brand new exhaust, 267k miles, no s.history, (cough), all electrics working, pulled very well in all gears, no knocks or rattles (for a cabby), 2 months tax & 9 months mot.
Bargain I thought - an ideal project for me and my kids (11 and 14)....
Before I started anything, there were a few niggles. Idle was all over the place, cutting out, and power steering squealed like a pig in a brothel, bonnet wouldnt stay open and kept trying to eat me! Quick set of questions on the zone, and the answers were there ;) cheers fellas. One cleaned ICV later (£5 of carb cleaner), and a taped up Air boot sorted the idle/cutting out, and some nice fluid in the rather barren power steering tub (£5), and the screeching was no more. When I bought the car, the guy pointed to the PS reservoir and said 'thats where you put engine oil'. At the time I didn't think too much of his 'slip', but now I think about it more.... Anyway... Final fix was a new bonnet strut from ebay, £8. Jobs a gud 'un.
Come 1 October 09, and the tax ran out, and as it was a project, my SORN document was filed and understandably accepted by her majesty's crooks. No tax for you mr Cameron/Brown/Clegg hahahahahahahahahahaha...... [n.b.] edit as appropriate when we find out. Mr Camerlegg it is. Or is it Clegmeron?
Total spent at this stage, £408
So, off we started. First job was to get it in the garage, easy enough - just empty out 3 years worth of crap I'd put in there thinking it might be useful at some point in my life (old ZX spectrums, 3 knackered qualcast mowers circa 1955, several old wardrobes & dressers, inflatables from the last 7 family holidays etc etc), and behold, I had enough room to put the car in, and fart/smoke to my heart's content. Bliss! Now, where the fook do I start?
Well, firstly off came all the rotten bits. Front and back bumpers both removed (god they were awful - but managed to get £50 quid for them), both front wings were removed and scrapped - rotten beyond belief - seriously, they were holier than the pope.
If only i'd remembered to keep the wing rubbing strips (thats annoying me now as I cant get hold of any chromie ones), front valance was off next - taken straight to the council tip for fear of the red rot spreading by air - it was that bad, and removed the tech 2 rear spoiler (available if anyone wants it, just pm me). Saw Andreia had a few bits for sale, so I popped up to Rochdale to meet my first zoner, and £90 lighter, I came home with a very good cabby wing, front valance, front and rear bumper and a few odds and sods. Cheers Andreia.
The set of two leatherette front seats that came with the car we're sold on for £60 - I probably could've got more, but just wanted rid - It was cash back in the pocket so I can't complain
The zone was a never ending source of parts, and in the whole process, I think I bought virtually everything I needed from here. I decided that if I was gonna buy stuff for the car, i'd rather give my dosh to zoners rather than the stealers or random sellers on ebay. Personally I think that should be standard Zoner policy, who's with me???? anyone????
Now, a little time out and a bit of background information. I'm an accountant by trade, and specialise in accounting systems and I.T. in general. The most extensive mechanical job i've ever undertaken was changing my brake pads on my 1983 Austin Metro 1.3HLE, in 1992. This was done with two spatulas (later I was battered by my mum for ruining her only two spatulas.....) I had no tools, no knowledge, and no practical experience. What could go wrong? If a trained monkey (again, no offence) in a paid for garage can do this stuff, surely I can? Well, lets find out....
Next job was to strip everything down I could. Bought myself a couple of socket sets, and a bunch of spanners. My brother lent me a full toolbox (blimey, he's got quite a collection), for the more unusual stuff such as torx bits, bendy socket drivers etc. Out came pretty much all of the interior, leaving only the dash intact. The seats, carpets, door cards, panels, fittings & window (out without breaking it woohoo). Also bought a bunch of grinding equipment for my drill and a couple of angle grinder discs, and set to.
The biggest problems I found in this process was seized bolts. Three of the bolts holding the seats in place were totally locked up. Spent four days slowly spraying with penetrating fluids, trying to budge, failing, applying more penetrating fluids etc etc. Eventually they released.... well... by released I mean they snapped off. Feck. Well, at least the seats were removable now I suppose. From what i'd read, these never sieze? Anyway, at least i'd got the seats out, but now had to remove the remaining bolts. 72 hours later and many many various drill bits of varying quality, and I had three new holes, ready to be re-threaded (brothers tool kit definately came in handy here). Upon inspection in the interior, it turned out that I'd bought an ok car. No real holes (a couple of very small ones in the drivers foot area - nothing serious, pinheads really. These were drilled out and treated, then fibreglassed.
The bodywork rust was fully ground down, and inspected. Thankfully, virtually everything ground down to shiny bare metal, barring one spot on the door frame, and the rear arches (surprise there eh?). I'd decided before I started that this would be a semi-unprofessional job. Anything that needed serious work like welding was going to wait a couple of years, when I can justify the full professional spray job it probably deserves. I know i'm going to get shot down for this, but I decided from the start that anything non-structural was going to be dealt with in a semi-temporary manner, enough to give me a couple of summers worth of fun, before the proper restoration took place. Yes, I know its false economy, and yes, I know its shunned and frowned upon, but my theory was that it was really just a bit of a hobby, so I didnt initially want to spend £k's on it, and realistically, I had set myself a budget of less than £1000 all in. After all, it was only something to keep me busy, help me learn, get into E30's, and if it stuck with me, then I'd be happy to spend proper cash on it. Until then I couldn't justify the costs.
Anyway (and feel free to flame, its a free world after all), on with my story.
I knew the arches needed work, they looked bad. Thankfully, whilst they looked destroyed, the inner arches were actually very good. It really was just outer edge rot - lots off it mind, but in E30 terms, it was practically surface rust. So, off to the local motor factors for some rust treatment (£8), fibre glass (i know, don't start) - £6, and started work. About 1/2 way through, I really wished I'd welded a new panel on, but I persevered any way. I know its not perfect, but in all honesty, it's really not bad at all. I know it wont last, and I'll be keeping my eye on ebay for some new quarter panels to re-do in the future, but for a couple of years, it'll be fine enough.
Total spend so far (including all tools and consumables) : £342 - yes, less than the car itself cost (thanks to a few sold bits)
As I said, it was never going to be a classic 'restoration' and as part of that process, I had decided to hold off on a full professional respray, due to budget restraints. I didnt fancy spending the 2k that you need to spend on a proper job, and I didnt fancy spending £800 on one of those cheap respray jobs that you occasionally hear about - after all, its £2k for a reason, and I can only presume that a £800 job cuts corners - I just don't see how it can be done properly if you half the cost. So, and to many peoples dismay when I suggested it, I decided to do a home respray job. I know its going to be frowned upon (again), but to be honest, it would cost me £230, last a couple of years, and hopefully, it would look good enough so that I didnt drive around with a box on my head feeling the shame. Time would tell I suppose.... Anyway, on with the repair work....
ps, please feel free to vent your thoughts, but please don't take this as an excuse to rant and rave and argue, I'm posting just so everyone can see what i've done (rightly or wrongly), and maybe some amateurs like me can learn (good or bad) from how i've done it..
At this point, I got a little creative. I was bored with picking holes in it, and fancied swapping my mind onto something a little more 'fun'. So, off came the rocker cover, and out came the sanders, grinders, sandpaper & a can of special 'furry' spray. The job was to remove all the yellowing gunk on the top of the cover, give it a full rip down, then sand with 240, 400, 600, 1000 paper, which got it lovely and smooth.
Then came the first coats of primer, followed by several coats of my red furry paint. Yes it looks pink, but trust me....
After which came the chisel, a small fine pointed example, and the edge was gently pushed along the logo's raised elements, to remove all of the paint that I didnt want. And yes, I did manage to paint some of the bush. And yes, my wife did shout at me.... Lots
Then, along came the sandpapers, various grits, removing all other remnants of paint, and plenty of soapy water, taking extreme care that it didnt overrun during the process and fck up all my work so far
And finally, a nice water cleandown, a little more very fine sandpaper, and a final flush got it looking loverly! Red paint £10
A quick fitting job later, and it was in place on the car. I decided that it'd be sensible to deal with the noisy tappets, and then realised that I should've done them whilst the rocker cover was off for painting. Oops, er. Never mind. I'll get to them later I suppose.
Now, during my continual trips to the 'e30 parts for sale' section on the zone, I had also managed to grab myself a new air intake boot (£9 - albeit the wrong one), some rear light seals (again the wrong ones - facelift instead of pre), another ICV (£8, yet again the wrong one), and a slightly bruised but solid Genuine OEM front wing £40). Turns out the wing was a pattern part, and havent been able to trace the seller - but you know who you are). This was turning out to be a lesson in 'check before you buy'. Being a newbie, I hadn't even considered there might be differences in all of these things (again, all available if anyone is after these bits). Truth be told, I decided that some of these faux-pas were my fault, and some weren't. Lesson I suppose is to check twice & don't take peoples word for it, and open the packaging as soon as you get them, and dont wait a couple of month just because 'your not at that stage yet'.... £60 quid of my budget gone on bits I can't use - hey ho I suppose, im an easy going sort of guy, and I guess I can probably get my money back on them eventually...
What next? Well, there were a few battle scars that needed sorting, various light scratches and chips, so on with the sanders, grinders and various P40/knifing putty, and plenty of primer. This was all done over winter, so it was slow progress as I sanded, primed, waited to dry, waited a little longer, sanded, P40'd, waited, waited, waited.....
..... sanded, P40'd, waited again, sanded, Knifed, waited etc etc etc. This took about three months in total (thanks to work and the joy of families, I only had a day each weekend and a couple of hours a night to really do it in), added to the fact that everything takes forever to dry in the cold of winter. But, I knew it'd be worth it in the long run. Preparation was the key to the job, and if it takes this long, then so be it.
During this time, I also decided I liked the look of E46 cabriolet seats, and managed to get a set for £35 from some 'geezer' in Oldham. Christ they were heavy, but thankfully my main daily drive is a 520 estate, so managed to get them back in one fell swoop. Put them in place to look at them, and... oh crap, they were hideous tbh. Far too big and high, and truthfully, they made it look like a clown car. I kept telling myself it'll be ok, they'll grow on me, and kept repositioning them in the hope that I'd come round to them. I did look at how they would be fitted, and toyed with the idea of creating a new panel for them to bolt to, but thankfully realised before any damage was done, and decided to get rid.
I removed the electric arial. Didnt like it and thought it was a) an accident waiting to happen, b) Guaranteed to be snapped off at some point and c) Looked crap. I managed to pick up an internal ariel for mounting in the boot (for nothing), and fibred/filled the remaining hole. Nice and smooth.
Several attempts to sell the E46 seats failed, mainly on the zone - to be honest, I think if anyone had actually come to see them, I'd have had to show them how they looked in the car, as I wouldnt have wanted anyone to think they'd look ok, being the honest chap I am, but no one called. so I decided to put them to one side and see what unfolded later.
Whilst all of this was going on, I was continually on ebay, all throughout christmas, new year, and well into February. I bought lots of bits and bobs, some useful, some I regret. They included:
* Brand new front strut brace, £42
* Grubby and a little damaged (but not too bad) set of motorsport cabriolet seats, £300, with all fittings
* set of 14" BBS in decent enough condition and a few mm left on the tyres, £50
* 2 brand new bmw bonnet/boot badges. One of which was nicked by my wife for her 523 which was missing one from the boot.... grrrr, £8
* Exhaust heat shield. To be honest, I didnt need it, but it was 99p, so I bid coz ya never know... Met the guy as he was only 5 miles away, and top bloke, wouldnt even take some cash for some sweets for his kids. Fingers crossed he wants something from me eventually and I can repay his generosity
* Bunch of nearly new cooling hoses - well, you never know do ya?, £14
Additionally, I also bought everything I needed for a full engine refresh, not quite a rebuild obviously, but to be honest, it ran pretty damn well, so just the servicables:
* Timing belt £8
* Tensioner £22
* 10 litres of oil £28
* Oil filter £6
* Air filter £5
* NGK plugs x 6 £14
* New water pump & gasket, £32
Total spend so far : £986
Now, bear in mind, that I'd never touched an engine in my life, so to be honest, I was pretty damned daunted by the timing belt renewal, and at one point, I nearly backed out, but to be honest Im glad I didn't. If I were asked to do one now, Im pretty sure I could knock the whole job out in 2 hours tops. Anyone who is thinking about giving it a go, do it. The instructions [HERE] are superb, bar a few americanisms, just follow them sensibly and you'll be fine. Anyway, heres a few pictures, the firts being a timely (pun intented) reason to not put it off... a few more miles perhaps, and who knows how bad it could have been....
Like I said, its scary how a couple of minor things can make your engine explode or overheat, so dont put it off. Couple of good things I learned during the job include:
* Make sure you have a 32mm open end spanner for the fan nut (30 mins wasted going to the local tool shop)
* Make sure you turn the nut the opposite way to normal to undo (1 hour wasted)
* Use one of the belts to hold the pulley in place when undoing the fan bolt - wrap it round and spindle it round a socket handle or screwdriver to provide leverage to keep the belt tight. Nut will just slip straight off then (3 hours wasted being thick)
* Mark the crankshaft where TDC is, I did a nice score with a screwdriver and never had a problem. The Cam TDC marker was easy to see (woohoo- I actually saved myself some time!)
* Take care to put the water pump gasket on the right way (thankfully I checked so no wasted time there)
* Be prepared to shimmy the new belt on, it can be a bugger to fit over the camshaft, but bear with it, it will go on
* The Crank pulley bolts are offset, if two go in and two dont, dont carry on refitting the rest (and then taking it all back off), 1 hour wasted.
* Dont be a tight arse, buy new clamps for the water pipes. A couple of quid will save £8 of lost coolant and about 2 hours work sorting it out when it leaks after the first fire up
* The crank cover only goes on one way, if its wrong it wont feel right. Dont try and do it up thinking it must be a design fault, it isnt... lol... 30 mins wasted.
* Dont lose any bolts (1 week wasted waiting for the replacements)
* Dont re-use any of the belts. Its £4 for a set.
On the oil filter, it was another siezed on job. One big screwdriver rammed through it's side, and a nice amount of leverage got the bugger moving though. Quick change over, refill and back on with the rest of the job
The engine was pretty tappety, so I decided to give the tappets a go. Again, reminding you that I'd never done anything like this before, off came the rocker cover, and a few videos later...still no clue. However, help was at hand with a nice titbit I found. As its a manual, I jacked up the rear passenger wheel, chocked the other, put the gearstick in 5th, and had my lad rotate the wheel that was raised. The engine then turned over slowly and nicely allowing me to do the job in about 45 minutes (once I'd worked out actually how to do it). Plugs were removed and put back in. Then, taken back out again and the caps were removed (d'oh), and refitted once more.
Managed to get a nice red cabby wing in reasonable condition from another zoner. It arrived and I unpacked it immediately. Exactly as described (albeit a little worse than I'd hoped for), but solid and straight, and genuine OEM rather than pattern. Red, but I suppose beggars cant be choosers. I think I paid £40 for it if I remember rightly). £40 wasnt too harmful.
The one good front sport seat, and the rear bench were next to go. Both were in good enough condition, but having spent ages trying to find someone selling 'one good condition sports leather seat', I decided it would be better to sell them on, and buy a full set. The front drivers sport seat was in cracking condition, so I popped it on the zone, and sold it for what I wanted, £130. Good price, though it was a good seat with no wear at all really. The rear bench was next to go, at £30. It wasnt a cabby seat, only a 2 door that had been squeezed in. £160 back in the coffers!
Whilst removing the carpet, I thought i'd let my lad have a go, hes good at ripping things apart, so perfect job for him to get stuck in to. Unfortunately, it got torn whilst removing, so had to source a new one. Found a reasonable one on ebay for £14, which was in great condition, but some distance away. Thankfully the chap was happy to keep hold of it for me until I was around the area. Bargain... except I was missing the rear section as it was for a 2 door. No worries, just kept my eye open, kept asking, and eventually Andreia (again) had the goods. A quick trip to rochdale, and a quick nosey at his new C reg 323i (cracking car by the way), and a few screwdrivers at his old set of seats, and I had also grabbed a couple of struts. Not for the seats mind, mine were fine, but they fit pretty well on the horseshoe struts I'd been told, and as they were free, they were worth a try
Bought a 5 litre tub of the Dye that had been recommended on the zone, and went to work. Well, my lad did anyway (fat chance i'm pi**ing around with black dye all day)
Its well worth £22 quid in my opinion, and i've got plenty left over if anyone local wants to pop round and pinch some from me
I also did all the boot carpeting, and that came up a treat as well.So, next came the MOT. God I was dreading it. What if my leet rotbox senses were failing me? Had I bought a lemon and spent the best part of 6 months prepping and messing, only to find I'd bough no more than a collander? Cripes! Well, 1 hour of pacing around the outside of the station, about 8 fags, and a few cups of strong coffee later, and .... crap... FAIL. Big red letters stamped over all of my paperwork, and on my forehead by the friendly MOT man.
He didnt really
But he did give me a fail sheet with 2 items on it, and an advisory list as long as your arm. The failures were thankfully minor. An ARB bush needed replacing (£30 inc labour), and the headlamps were too low. The advisory list was funny, as it was all stuff I'd expected. As some of you may remember, I had barely put it back together just enough to get it through the test, so hadnt put anything back that wasnt needed. No rear seats, no rear bumper, 1 bolt missing from each wheel (i'd lost a set of four lol - technically a fail, but i felt it was an advisory, so its on here, not on the fail sheet!), jacking point welded (he said its fine, but felt it necessary to point it out just in case he ever got pulled up on it), some fibreglass repairs (well duh, I even pointed them out to him, on the arches) - not sure why this was an advisory? Guess he was just covering his arse again?, 2 seat bolts missed, my fault - I forgot to put them back in, again technically a fail, but hardly worth tittle tattling over), small amount of corrosion underneath (will be treated and then waxoyled before it goes back in the garage for winter)
And that was it. No holes, no missing linkages, no axle's with bends in them, just a nice little solid motor. I was chuffed to say the least. Put it this way, the dog didnt get kicked for shi*tin in the kitchen, my kids didnt get shouted at for a whole week, even when they dropped a paint can outside, and the wife got treated to a few meals! Once a year fellas, once a year!
During this period, I managed to shift some of the crap I'd bought incorrectly/been sold a dud, various bits went through the zone, some just went on fleabay, marked up correctly for what they were, I might add. There was plenty of it, and managed to recover £120 or so.
Total Spend so far: £812 (thank god for those sold parts eh?)
I purchased a re-colouring kit from furnitureclinic.co.uk, london tan was my preferred choice of colour, which I thought went well with the white exterior and black polished interior. I bought the large £105 kit as I didnt want to chance running out half way through, and to be honest, I wanted to do a thorough job on them, as I new a good job meant that they would keep their value, and probably a lot more on top. £405 for the seat set and the kit, and I reckon the set as a whole would be worth £500-£600 without difficulty. I think the results speak for themselves, but if anyone is considering a similar go, couple of pieces of advice:
1 - Get them to send 1 litre of colour, not 1.5 litres, and ask them to send an extra 500ml of leather prep in its place. This is the only stuff I nearly ran out of, everything else was fine
2 - Consider changing the aerosols you get for extra gloss sealant. Not that I ran out, but its a paltry 250ml bottle and i'd rather have done 3 coats of the stuff to be sure. The aerosols are friggin useless, but a decent £40 mini compressor if you have to, itll be worth it in the long run, big style!
Anyway, couple of photos for you
Yes, I forgot to remove the badge on the seat, so I need a new one. Just another bit to add to my list of 'things I need because of stupidity' lol.
Now dont get me wrong, I don't doubt that it'll not be to everyone's taste, but I like it, and I think it looks pretty damn cool, and im happy as hell with the results. Anyone thinking about it, stop thinking, just do it. Worth every damned penny imo!
The differential was whining like woman without a handbag. God it was awful. A quick read up on the zone convinced me that an oil change might make the difference, so if I toddled to the local autofactors, and handed £8 over for a 1lt squeezy bottle of lsd juice. Now came the fun part. Car up on axel stands, top bolt off first (nice and easy thankfully), then the bottom bolt. Plenty of LSD juice down my arm - stunk like a toilet after a bloke had used it following a 48 hour p**s up/curry fest.
It eventually drained fully, so I put the bolt back on, and then onto the refilling. Now, this is a serious pain in the ar$e thanks to their being no way really of holding the bottle above the diff. Plenty of weird angles followed, and tired arms from squeezing a bottle one handed whilst curving my body around the rear wheels, but eventually got enough in for it to start glooping back out. Bolt back on and job done! Next job was to spend 48 hours washing myself over and over again to get rid of the smell.
During another one of my regular ebay trips, I managed to pick up some leather gear... Gear gaitor £5 and handbrake gaitor £5. Not bad I thought. Ripe for recolouring?
Next was the respray. I'd done all the prep, and as it was getting warmer, I decided to get started. First job was to clear out the garage again, including a full brush out, hoover and general tidy up of all dusty bits - dont get me wrong, I knew it was never going to be 'clean', but I got it clean enough for the job.
I decided to to it in four stages:
1 : Bonnet
2 : Wings
3 : Passenger Side & boot lid
4 : Drivers side
Reasoning was that if there was going to be shade differences, I wanted to minimise the chances of them being obvious. My theory was that the front of the car was likely to be the most obvious, hence doing it all in one go, bonnet and wings. Next the passenger side/boot, as I needed to do the rear cross section half way, and then blend it (where its nice and thin), once I do the other side.
So, off I went. As everything had been rubbed down, filled where needed, and cleaned, the next step was to prime. Whilst probably not necessary, I felt it was more likely to result in a half decent finish. I masked off wherever needed, and then tack clothed everything, including the masking (to be sure), and gave everywhere 2 coats of primer - easy enough.
Next, I rubbed down all the primer with 600 wet, getting a lovely smooth finish, then washed off with soapy water, and rinsed using a two bucket method to ensure all grime and dust was gone. Then, I cleaned up, tidied, dusted etc, and masked and tack clothed again, At this stage, I liberally poured water around the floor area, to be as clear of dust as possible, and started with the colour coat.
I did 2-3 very light coats, followed by at least two slightly heavier coats of the main white colour. This was a long job, as I took as much care as possible to avoid contamination, waiting if need be for it to dry and then remove contaminants if I spotted them. Thankfully there wasnt much, but if a jobs worth doing its worth doing properly etc etc.
Once happy with the colour levels, I then gave the white a rub down with 1200 wet and 2000 wet, giving the paint a flat base for the lacquer. Again, similar job was done as above, taking my time, but being ultra careful with contaminants, as removing them from the lacquer was going to be a serious pain. Other than the extra care, it was same story as before.
Now, i'll be honest, the paint, even in bulk, wasnt cheap, but even so, it was well under an eight of what a professional paint job would have cost, and to be honest, It'll pass very well unless looked at closely. I know its not perfect, but compared to what it was, and the cost of a pro job, Im esthatic.
Before anyone says 'it'll never last', I know that, but as its a summer only car, will be garaged at all times, and will not have a hard life, I reckon i'll get three years out of it at least. Besides, as a project, I really wanted to learn from the whole process, and yes, I've learned. Would I do the same again? Well, depending on the car, maybe yes, maybe no. On a sport/M3/Alpina - obviously no, on a £400 car that others would have fragged? Definately!!!
For those of you with sh1tboxes worth a couple of hundred quid, you can make a helluva difference if you spend the time. Yes its time consuming and a royal pain in the backside keep cleaning up after everything you do, but if you're doing a project like me and want to learn, I'd definitely recommend giving it a go if you can get the paint cheap enough.
Total cost of paints, £230. Not bad I reckon : 24 primer, 36 white, 24 lacquer - buy it in bulk though and dont bother with your local autofactors. Couple of tips : Shake the cans well. Not 30 seconds, not 60 seconds.... Have a tub of warm (50c max) water, and leave the paint cans in there for 5 mins before using, then dry off and shake for at least 2 minutes. No blocks, better spray patterns and you get every last drop without hassle. Cut corners here and I guarantee you'll be forever sanding off drips and use twice as much paint.
I did try to colour code, and gave the grills a splash of white, but having looked at them on the car, I decided that it wasnt the way to go, so back to black they went. I removed the light surrounds, as I didnt like the look, and Im happy with the lights and the black without the rings - I think its the way to go?
Those eagle eyed amongst you may have spotted the missing under dash panel. No fear, ebay is here! Quick trip up to Wigan, and £14 after haggling bought me a nice new one to fit. Managed to get a few other bits whilst I was there, another £6 spent, just on bits. Man it all adds up
ICE - well, whilst trying to stay reasonably cheap, but wanting some fancies, I decided to splash the cash on an old alpine head unit and 6 CD changer from the zone. All of £20 or so. Jack (my eldest) wired everything up, and slotted his Pink CD in (yea I know - forgive him), and off she sang. Not great, but that was more to do with the speakers. So, off to ebay and £10 lighter, I had some better speakers, and boy does it make a difference! She doesnt sing, she warbles like a bird!
Total spend so far: £1157
Bought £6 worth of interior plastic trim polish, and a couple of good scouring pads. 2 Hours of scrubbing, and the plastics we're ready for polishing with the shiny stuff. Not perfect, but a helluva lot better than it was! But, I wasn't happy, so I nipped to tesco to see what they had. Carplan black plastic polish. Hmm I thought, £4. What could I lose? 2 hours later, and I think that was probably the best £4 i'd spent on the whole project. The black plastics look like new, in fact, I think they look better that new!
Eventually got to try the horseshoe (seat) struts. Whilst they are a little long (and therefore very hard to get on), they do the trick perfectly, and as you can pick up an old set of seats for nothing a lot of the time, maybe a little top tip for all you cabby owners with dodgy horseshoe struts!
I got carried away on ebay on a drunken night, and purchased a set of slightly lipped Oz Racing 15" wheels. I'd already decided that the 14" BBS were just a little too small, and the tyres on the Oz's were virtually brand new, and at £85 quid, I thought what the hell. Still undecided on whether they look right, or wrong, but i'll show you what they look like on the car. £85 from Ebay including virtually brand new tyres.
yup, definitely too small unfortunately. Bugger. They'll do until I find a set I like, and i'll probably get most of my cash back I suppose
Finally managed to pick up some headrests to go on the rear seats. Quick change of colour (3 hours all in, including waiting time), and they were fitted. £20 can make a helluva difference to the look and feel of a car!
Well, here we are at my current position. Its not finished, but its around 95% there. I havent included the cost of the MOT test itself, or the tax disc in the window, but everything accounted for, it stands me at..... wait for it......
£1272.
OK, its above budget, but I have £60 worth of BBs lying around, £45 or so worth of scrap alloys (or whatever they're worth), and a set of seats worth £500 without much trouble installed, together with enough spares to last me a lifetime. I know I could have bought a decent enough example for that, perhaps not as shiny, but that wasnt really the point. Knock off those two sets of wheels and its nearer £1150, and I've had 9 months project fun (my first), and I now have a car that I can truly call 'mine'. How many of us can say that? To say I'm happy is rather understating it. I thought at best I'd end up with a bit of a summer runaround, but I've ended up with an enthusiasm that I never really believed was in me, a car that is very good looking, runs well, and I know for sure whats been done to it. I'd happily say I was over the moon.
I'll let my final run of photo's tell you the rest. Let me know what y'all think:
only kidding. Ps: if anyone has any perfect cabby wings no filler and crap at the bottom in white pm me.
!!
as said before the best thread i have read in ages on the zone.we need to see more of this. 
