Whilst not being an OEM homo I did want to preserve as much of the aesthetic originality whilst making the best of the chassis and handling (bar the woeful steering lock)
So here she is - auto shifter all present and mostly correct...and ripe for removal after the gearbox wet itself on my drive - not to worry I cooked it on the way over to Steve's lockup when it was time for a change.
She was up on the ramps to have exhaust and prop shaft removed
Very please to find very few traces of rust - in fact a tidy up at the end of summer, grinding back to metal and hammerite (or the like - I'm sure that some of you will have suggestions) underneath should do me until the respray in 2012
After a bit of work including removing this for a bit
by doing this...
The potential source of much noise... it was cracked even worse on the inside, but there's no sign of a cooked engine.
we now have this
and better still this! (note the butchered 2 door console - temporary)
The full saga included some new engine mounts, hoses, sump gasket, clips, two different manual boxes (one of which is for sale - facelift one in a diff thread), new gear gaiter and a bit of mucking about with dealer fit aircon and a disintegrating exhaust.
The morning after I collected her from the garage after she passed her MOT (once grotty brake lines had been replaced...)
And this evening once I got home from work
Worth every penny...
Under my ownership she has had:
Eibach springs
M3 control arm bushes
Supersport dampers all reound
replacement top mounts
sport seats
K&N - now removed (I saw the error of my ways!)
BBS wheels (the only way to go for me)
while the auto conversion was happening:
New cooling hoses
New intake boot
Engine mounts
replaced exhaust (Bosal OEM system)
New exhaust manifold
Sump gasket
manifold gaskets
headlight wash wipe was fully removed - motors and arms had gone before, but the bottle etc was still there
Dealer fit aircon was removed - I prefer to open the sunroof (and it didn't work anyway and was bodged in by the dealer in the first place)
I'd like to recognize that for the most part of this transformation my job was to stand around admiring cars and generally getting in the way by poking a mobile phone camera about - Cheers for your patience Steve.
