Budget project roadster

[Jacobsprky]

Just joined forum so please be kind!

The story so far. Purchased in August 2016

knowing the car locally and owner from work occasionally noticed it had been parked up for a long time, looking sorry for itself flat tyres, filthy bodywork realy milky headlights. so i inquired abbot the car and owner was considering selling, had a good look round and thing looked pretty neglected and had known running and engine management problems so i put in a low offer and the next day the chap came back to me saying if you still want it you can have it! just got myself a Roadster!!!

when picking the car up battery was flat so bump started it only to find the car would not rev up at all really spluttering and coughing. thought id bought a lemon! a quick check and found neg batt terminal was loose/broken so put a chewing gum wrapper under there and that got me home. Then the work began. changed both battery terminals put a quick disconnect type on neg so could clear faults easily, re conected main earth to body as had been ripped of! cleaned maf and inside airbox. car was now running OK! over the next weeks done deep clean interior exterior engine bay and under frunk. freed up sticky brakes painted calipers red and coroded parts of discs. took all wheels back to bare metal and sprayed black had sum t1rs fitted on front as old tyres were bald. smoked side repaters, brake light and rear clusters. put a few led lamps in where it was easy to. noticed the car only appeared to have water in coolant tank as winter was coming up needed to be changed. purged system fine then the dash cel light was flashing and exhaust stank of petrol so i knew there was a problem. bought a code reader and think it said cylinder 1 misfire or something like that. from experience from other cars thought it was probably a coil pack so tryed swapping them and plugs but code stayed the same. so next point to check was injectors. having never played with these before and being in a rush i manged to wreck all 4 orings DOH! time to do caps maf mod and yellow injectors. also put in ngk irridiums and 3 inch air inlet pipe. FAULT WENT! AND RUNNING VERY SWEET! very happy. took car for mot and passed with no advisories. finally i could use the Roadster. things i have done since this are,

changed lower steering joint, progressively got worse after wd40 on it. i think the rust was holding the old one together. has made a massive difference to the way the car feels now, really give good feedback.

shell helix oil and K&N gold oil filter. Another snag, purchased a cheap magnetic sump plug and snapped it of tightening it up. tried drilling middle a bit to get a reverse tap on it and magnet went ping into sump. not happy. tried fishing it out but no luck so decided to take of sump to get it out. Man that thing was stuck on there! came of ok in the end and got the stupid magnet out. gave it a lick of paint while it was of. got a gold type magnetic plug from euros and was realy impresed with how magnetic it was. put it all back together. engine now seems a little less tinny must be new oil i guess.

fleabay shortshift and new gear gaitor. throw is ok but quite notchy/stiff now. have a set of brass bushes to go gbox end. hopefully it will be smooth then.


Thats it so far hopefully not to boring for you. will put sum pics up soon

Jacob

[Mikeymead]

Welcome, well done in resurrecting a Roadster, looks like you've been busy and had some "fun" along the way.

[Essex2Visuvesi]

Budget & project rarely work together  s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

Good luck  s:) s:)

[Jacobsprky]

thanks, might be a bit thick here trying to upload some pics can anyone shed some light?

[Treboeth]

thanks, might be a bit thick here trying to upload some pics can anyone shed some light?

l viewtopic.php?t=60142 l
Here you go [emoji6]

[Jacobsprky]

a few pics

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[Jacobsprky]

few more

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thanks for the tips on uploading pics and the file re sizer works great.

will put some more up as work continues on the car, having week of as had minor op yesterday. hope the weather holds of!   s:D s:D

[Chilli Girl]

Great to see you saved this little roadster - too many are being scrapped far too easily.  Good for you and well done.  It's all worth it as I keep saying great little cars!  I'm on my second!

[Bossworld]

Good luck, sounds as though you're far more mechanically minded than me.  My 'budget' project will have cost me an additional £400 so far after this weekend  s:) s:)

[Ardent]

AS above

Some thread on here from last year somewhere.
How much spent vs how much bought for. (words to that effect.)
I've spent more than I bought it for and will continue to do so.

Let the spending commence.

[Essex2Visuvesi]

AS above

Some thread on here from last year somewhere.
How much spent vs how much bought for. (words to that effect.)
I've spent more than I bought it for and will continue to do so.

Let the spending commence.

Same here
My "Budget" Turbo conversion has gotten expensive.
shelling out for a set of SuperAdvan SA3Rs on Yahoo.jp didn't help   s:shock: :shock: s:shock:    s:oops: :oops: s:oops:  cost more than the car did  s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

[Ardent]

had to google that

[Jacobsprky]

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bit more done today!

i agree with the coments above, have got 2 brand new headlights in the shed because the ones on the car seemed to have cracked/crazed from the inside? couldent bring all marks out by buffing poilishing outside of them. waffeling, anyway just one of headlights was near to the cost of the car! some things are not cheap and cannot be budget items. however i have some exhaust mods i am planing on doing which i hope to be reasonable. in summer would like to make a centre underbrace from 6mm sold ali, and put in some weld together custom strut braces. some tuning parts seem quite expensive for the 2 i guess because the cars were not made in massive numbers. i dont want to build a track weapon as my budget wont allow but just something good condition with a few sensible tweaks for b roads and maybe a few track days, just for fun and to see what the car will realy do. Also in summer really want to rustproof/ repaint many items underneath car before it gets to worse. having an old landrover discovery makes you look after the underside!

all for now jacob

[Ardent]

For barnstorming B roads.
Fresh stock shocks. Yoko ad08rs. A high quality geo set, either stock or dialed in for B road work. Fresh stock pads discs fluid and you good to go.
In stock form you will be all over most other cars like a rash in the twistys.
They will more than likely have you on the straights (talking A roads) but bends.......
Poise balance smoothness. You can carry so much in through and out of bends in these.

[Jacobsprky]

yeh suspension is a later job would be happy with a set of tein springs, however once taken apart im sure, the im guessing original dampers/top mounts that may have done 125,00 miles may be past there best! would be happy if i could get away with just the springs, anyone put some on shocks with that kind of mileage? Car seems to handle fine atm no nasty creaks or noises holds the road well, (except in wet and giving it a bit to much). very well balanced car just not as fast as my old wrx wagon. Much better on fuel tho!.

[Ardent]

Like most things all comes down to £££££s

If you are doing your own spannering, If so only cost is YOUR time.

However, if paying others to do the work. It is false economy only doing the springs. You will be paying twice for the same work.
Shocks will be shot at that milage.

And now the curve ball.
If top mounts OK. New shocks  and springs bring even more smiles.
If top mounts shot as well, then by time factoredthose in you could go coily for simlar money.
The problem is you dont know if shot until in bits.

It's a tough call and mamy many posts on here. Well reasoned arguments from both camps.
Ultimately, it's a personal decision on what you want from the car.

Welcome to the joys of 2 ownership.  :-) :-) :-)

Which ever way you go, a good handling 2 is joy to be hold.

EDIT
If you think it handles well now, you have many smiles to come.
Do not under estimate how good a fresh stock set up is.

[Jacobsprky]

yeh i plan on doing the suspension work myself. if had the money i would prefer the coil overs, however probably go for the stock shocks and spring combo. like you say no point taking it all apart and putting springs on bad shocks. I only really want to do it once! Will have to wait until funds and weather improves. Thanks for confirming the shocks will be shot.

Cheers

[DrWatson]

Looks great. Nice to see a 2 resurrected

[Jacobsprky]

MY LAPTOP IS PISS___ ME OF! keep writing posts press backspace to change something the it page goes back!

a shorter version of the post i was writing out.

Basically i have fabbed up a new backbox and tailpipe section using a £5 backbox, part of the old sysetm, steel i already had at home as well as paint and clamps/paste. So probably cost about £17. (however has taken most of 2 days, would have been less if i was not dodging snow showers)

i had a choice of 3 here were 2 most suitable, small one picked as i felt other would have been to long awkward to work with. Wont go into to much detail but basically cut the ends of, welded them on straight, made a T shaped hanger. used the stock outlet but had to reverse it 180 degrees put a slip joint in and shorten
ect. was lucky with the new backbox bore size size as i was able to do a couple of slip joints no messing around. i didn't weld it in so i can change easily if wanted.

few pics
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after all the fabbing and mocking up was done good clean up with wire brush on grinder, followed by new paint job.


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paint took a while to dry so put a convector heater under it and found a novel way so support box while spraying!

will carry on another post only seem to get 3 pics at once.

[Jacobsprky]

I think 4 got on that previous post. anyway

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finished article. Quite pleased with results just want to slightly raise tip and make tip a bit shorter. Noise wise it came out how i wanted not to quiet not ridiculously loud. you just no its there little bit a a growl to it. Car seems to pick up a tiny bit faster, Maybe a placebo or cold weather? So long as it has not lost any power im happy. Sportex are a sort of cheaper priced backbox/exhaust manufacture the are labled as (performance boxes). if any one is interested i think from what i can tell the box i frankenstined was from a 1.6 nova. Any questions/feedback welcome!

Cheers

[Jacobsprky]

time for an update,

managed to raise exhaust slightly, think it looks good now.

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now down at body shop, started to strip down for new rear quarter and most panel respray, Cant wait till its done will be gleaming with no dents or scrapes on!

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Front end tomorrow night.

[Jacobsprky]

Bit more done tonite, stripped front end, slam panel bar all bent so will get a 2nd hand one before it all goes back together! still another step in the right direction. should be back or nearly back together in a week. yippiee  s:lol: :lol: s:lol:  

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[Garfy]

Your doing good, I couldn't undo the fuse box to check on a fuse I know is blown  s:-( :-( s:-(

Sent from my SM-A300FU using Tapatalk

[Jacobsprky]

ha, cheers only sheared 3 bolts so far! sure you will suss the fusebox

[Jacobsprky]

update, got new crash bar at weekend, stripped and painted i thought till it fell of it hanger while drying! front and rear bumpers painted, shell primed and rubbed down ready to be masked, should have some color on it towards end of week. also got a set of new plates as the old ones will let it down when all painted. will update when things have moved on.