FallenJames
6th January 2011, 19:38
Apart from a very tiny amount of my own knowledge, I owe the rest of this transformation to you guys, and this site, through use of the search button.
A little over a year and a half ago now I decided my 1.1 eastcoast just wasn't quite cutting it anymore. I needed more power, although still bound by crippiling insurance costs, so decided to opt for just one more notch up the ladder. The 1.4 Westcoast. And mine came in the form of a £600 ebay special. I don't actually have ANY pictures of it from the start because it wasn't so... err.. special actually. So instead, to help along your imagination, I made a quick photoshop:
http://i53.tinypic.com/anobo0.jpg
Notice the... curbed, scratched, damaged, mangled alloys. The missing mirror caps and wipers. The base model bumper complete with cut arch liner to fit. The missing paint down the bonnet and front right wing due to some over zealous detailing. A rotted exaust, dodgy gearbox, no central locking, bent slam panel... and various other niggles.
But hey, I wanted a project right?
Well kinda, except for the fact that I had to recently ring my mate to come and save me from a flat tyre because I know next to nothing about cars. Not good. Allthough, then by some luck I stumbled upon Saxperience. Starting using the search button, and haven't left a post since. I kinda regret this now though as I haven't really contributed to and joined the community. But this is all gonna change :P
Here's my progress thread.
Within half a year of great ownership I had her looking like this...
http://i55.tinypic.com/au9x6s.jpg
http://i51.tinypic.com/35cftpz.jpg
http://i51.tinypic.com/2mqn982.jpg
Not Ideal. But atleast I had moved somewhere. I decided I wanted to do all the work myself as I wanted to learn in the process, so progress is slow. In this time though I had...
Put on a VT front bumper, and wired fogs to main beam as I couldn't figure out why they didn't work on their own.
White mesh grill.
Refurbed all the wheels and painted them gloss white.
Removed the rear wiper.
Replaced the exhaust.
Changed the interior out for the early VTS ones, including belts, getting rid of the clown interior!
Debadged the rear.
Put on mirror caps.
Modified 1.1 "saxo" side badges to fit and painted them
Fitted wipers and a colour-coded stubby ariel and mirror caps.
Painted the calipers blue.
Rear jewels.
I was satisfied with a very clean, standard looking saxo for another half a year, only doing a few minor tweeks in that time.
Refurbed the black strips in matt black.
Changed the gearbox.
Changed the driveshafts.
Fitted chrome angel eyes.
Standard, white chevrons grill
Which had it looking like this :
http://i53.tinypic.com/wsmm42.jpg
But then, once again I became bored of the power. But since I had put so much work into this car, and the shell is practically mint. I was reluctant to sell. So the next best option was a heart transplant. I spent months sourcing a 16valver whilst reading guides and hints, problems and answers other people have already encountered.
Finally I found a nice 60K VTS lump and box local to me. I saw it running in the car, and then picked it up a few days later for £360 including everything needed to run it, a nissens uprated radiator, new clutch, aftermarket double fan set-up, and what I believed to be an "unlocked" ECU.
The beginning:
http://i55.tinypic.com/15wqxf.jpg
During:
http://i52.tinypic.com/jfhyyu.jpg
Nearly!:
http://i55.tinypic.com/242j3av.jpg
That' more like it :fcuk:
http://i51.tinypic.com/5o8t2w.jpg
Keep in mind a year ago I couldn't change a tyre. But with the use of this site, I'm now changing my engine!
I narrowed it down to this...
3 linkages, 3 mounts, 2 fuel lines, 2 cables, 1 plug, exhaust.
That is by no accounts a guide, but it made it seem less daunting to me.
The overall conversion, from one engine out, to the replacement in took me 3 days. I was going slowly, doing everything carefully, and most importantly.... right. I'd given the engine a full service, spark plugs, liquids, filters, and had it's cambelt changed with tensioners and water pump. Not too bad I thought.
And then the moment of truth came. I put the key in the ignition and turned. Nothing. Well, it was turning over, but there was no roar, of an exaustless vts engine coming to life. I checked everything, once, twice, threee times. I was convinced I had done it right.
In the end I decided to plug in the 1.4 ecu and just see what happens. I've no idea why, but it fired. This told me the VTS ecu was still actually locked. I'd already removed the imobilliser from my car in the correct way, so it was obviously locked when I got it. Anyway.. this was quickly sorted, and then I returned... unlocked VTS ecu in hand. Plugged it in, turned it over, and she fired up first time :D.
Ofcourse I quickly put on the exhaust, wheels, bolted everything else back on... apart from the seats. And took it for a blast! It was perfect, apart from a small petrol leak, which was soon fixed with another connector, and a problem with lagging which was sorted with a MAP reader off my old engine.
Well worth all the effort. So much fun to drive. Big difference.
My girlfriend even approved, claming "She's more growly". :P
With this new engine though I decided it needed a new look. Something darker. More evil looking.
So.. in the past half a year it has changed to this:
http://i51.tinypic.com/dmb4mr.jpg
http://i53.tinypic.com/ei04fk.jpg
http://i55.tinypic.com/10ye2jp.jpg
I've painted the angels black inside.
Refurbed the wheels again in Anthracite.
Fitted a mk2 spoiler.
266mm discs and Xsara Picasso Bosch 57mm Calipers. The wescoast brakes so weren't up to the standard for the engine.
New driveshafts.
Custom early type grill, deslatted and smoothed, with black mesh.
Half smoked the rear jewels.
Ohh and now a nice Scorpion exhaust.
And now central locking! I found an unplugged plug whilst doing my fuel lines.
And that is the journey of my saxo thus far!
Thankyou all for reading, I hope you like it.
And tips, comments, likes and dislikes welcome. :D I need ideas.
Although sometime shortly I hope it to look like this:
http://i51.tinypic.com/9fppn7.jpg
Widemouthed and an extended bonnet to look really evil.
A little over a year and a half ago now I decided my 1.1 eastcoast just wasn't quite cutting it anymore. I needed more power, although still bound by crippiling insurance costs, so decided to opt for just one more notch up the ladder. The 1.4 Westcoast. And mine came in the form of a £600 ebay special. I don't actually have ANY pictures of it from the start because it wasn't so... err.. special actually. So instead, to help along your imagination, I made a quick photoshop:
http://i53.tinypic.com/anobo0.jpg
Notice the... curbed, scratched, damaged, mangled alloys. The missing mirror caps and wipers. The base model bumper complete with cut arch liner to fit. The missing paint down the bonnet and front right wing due to some over zealous detailing. A rotted exaust, dodgy gearbox, no central locking, bent slam panel... and various other niggles.
But hey, I wanted a project right?
Well kinda, except for the fact that I had to recently ring my mate to come and save me from a flat tyre because I know next to nothing about cars. Not good. Allthough, then by some luck I stumbled upon Saxperience. Starting using the search button, and haven't left a post since. I kinda regret this now though as I haven't really contributed to and joined the community. But this is all gonna change :P
Here's my progress thread.
Within half a year of great ownership I had her looking like this...
http://i55.tinypic.com/au9x6s.jpg
http://i51.tinypic.com/35cftpz.jpg
http://i51.tinypic.com/2mqn982.jpg
Not Ideal. But atleast I had moved somewhere. I decided I wanted to do all the work myself as I wanted to learn in the process, so progress is slow. In this time though I had...
Put on a VT front bumper, and wired fogs to main beam as I couldn't figure out why they didn't work on their own.
White mesh grill.
Refurbed all the wheels and painted them gloss white.
Removed the rear wiper.
Replaced the exhaust.
Changed the interior out for the early VTS ones, including belts, getting rid of the clown interior!
Debadged the rear.
Put on mirror caps.
Modified 1.1 "saxo" side badges to fit and painted them
Fitted wipers and a colour-coded stubby ariel and mirror caps.
Painted the calipers blue.
Rear jewels.
I was satisfied with a very clean, standard looking saxo for another half a year, only doing a few minor tweeks in that time.
Refurbed the black strips in matt black.
Changed the gearbox.
Changed the driveshafts.
Fitted chrome angel eyes.
Standard, white chevrons grill
Which had it looking like this :
http://i53.tinypic.com/wsmm42.jpg
But then, once again I became bored of the power. But since I had put so much work into this car, and the shell is practically mint. I was reluctant to sell. So the next best option was a heart transplant. I spent months sourcing a 16valver whilst reading guides and hints, problems and answers other people have already encountered.
Finally I found a nice 60K VTS lump and box local to me. I saw it running in the car, and then picked it up a few days later for £360 including everything needed to run it, a nissens uprated radiator, new clutch, aftermarket double fan set-up, and what I believed to be an "unlocked" ECU.
The beginning:
http://i55.tinypic.com/15wqxf.jpg
During:
http://i52.tinypic.com/jfhyyu.jpg
Nearly!:
http://i55.tinypic.com/242j3av.jpg
That' more like it :fcuk:
http://i51.tinypic.com/5o8t2w.jpg
Keep in mind a year ago I couldn't change a tyre. But with the use of this site, I'm now changing my engine!
I narrowed it down to this...
3 linkages, 3 mounts, 2 fuel lines, 2 cables, 1 plug, exhaust.
That is by no accounts a guide, but it made it seem less daunting to me.
The overall conversion, from one engine out, to the replacement in took me 3 days. I was going slowly, doing everything carefully, and most importantly.... right. I'd given the engine a full service, spark plugs, liquids, filters, and had it's cambelt changed with tensioners and water pump. Not too bad I thought.
And then the moment of truth came. I put the key in the ignition and turned. Nothing. Well, it was turning over, but there was no roar, of an exaustless vts engine coming to life. I checked everything, once, twice, threee times. I was convinced I had done it right.
In the end I decided to plug in the 1.4 ecu and just see what happens. I've no idea why, but it fired. This told me the VTS ecu was still actually locked. I'd already removed the imobilliser from my car in the correct way, so it was obviously locked when I got it. Anyway.. this was quickly sorted, and then I returned... unlocked VTS ecu in hand. Plugged it in, turned it over, and she fired up first time :D.
Ofcourse I quickly put on the exhaust, wheels, bolted everything else back on... apart from the seats. And took it for a blast! It was perfect, apart from a small petrol leak, which was soon fixed with another connector, and a problem with lagging which was sorted with a MAP reader off my old engine.
Well worth all the effort. So much fun to drive. Big difference.
My girlfriend even approved, claming "She's more growly". :P
With this new engine though I decided it needed a new look. Something darker. More evil looking.
So.. in the past half a year it has changed to this:
http://i51.tinypic.com/dmb4mr.jpg
http://i53.tinypic.com/ei04fk.jpg
http://i55.tinypic.com/10ye2jp.jpg
I've painted the angels black inside.
Refurbed the wheels again in Anthracite.
Fitted a mk2 spoiler.
266mm discs and Xsara Picasso Bosch 57mm Calipers. The wescoast brakes so weren't up to the standard for the engine.
New driveshafts.
Custom early type grill, deslatted and smoothed, with black mesh.
Half smoked the rear jewels.
Ohh and now a nice Scorpion exhaust.
And now central locking! I found an unplugged plug whilst doing my fuel lines.
And that is the journey of my saxo thus far!
Thankyou all for reading, I hope you like it.
And tips, comments, likes and dislikes welcome. :D I need ideas.
Although sometime shortly I hope it to look like this:
http://i51.tinypic.com/9fppn7.jpg
Widemouthed and an extended bonnet to look really evil.