Dan's Gold VTR Progress Thread

[dforder]

Welcome :)

This is my Gold VTR progress thread. Got the train all the way to Oxford and picked this the gem off of Jeffchiz. He has done this car proud and brought it back to OEM.

Sat on my drive when I first got home next to my old Forte
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj495/Daniel_Forder/2012-05-1907_19_07.jpg

http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj495/Daniel_Forder/2012-05-1907_18_53.jpg

First chance I got I put my VTR alloys on. I picked these up on the cheap off of some chav in Pontyclun a few months ago. Need a good refurb and respray but they will do for now

http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj495/Daniel_Forder/2012-05-2012_02_34.jpg


Just got back from a cruise up Cribbs and down to Weston and i must say it pulls very well. I know its only a VTR but its a lovely nippy car and handles nicely. Completely different kettle of fish to my little forte :p

Im trying to save for sensible stuff like deposits and holidays but here is my to do / done list. I will update this as and when I find things to do :)
-VTR alloys on DONE
-Respray VTR alloys DONE
-Fit my CD player and twins DONE

-Vinyl wrap door pillars
-Vinyl wrap roof or smooth arial :wacko:
-Heko wind deflectors
-Replace rocker cover
-Boot build
-Buy some tweeters for interior pillars

any comments, ideas, criticism or advice would be much appreciated!

[vtr-marc]

Nice car man plans sound cool too, have u thought of spraying the roof? Smooth the aerial out :)

[Heftydanielson]

Whoop, another Gold. Looks clean.

[dforder]

Nice car man plans sound cool too, have u thought of spraying the roof? Smooth the aerial out :)

Whoop, another Gold. Looks clean.

Not sure was gonna give vinyl wrapping a go and see if i like the finish first.

The bonnet flew up on a previous owner and has dented the roof around the ariel. Probably the only shit bit about this little gem!

[vtr-marc]

I've just had my roof done, aerial smoothed out and painted, have a look, thing with wrap it will show any imperfections through it,

[dforder]

true dat! will show the dent a treat. may attempt to pull it out at some point:wacko:

[Heftydanielson]

true dat! will show the dent a treat. may attempt to pull it out at some point:wacko:

Pop the roof liner out and poke it back up, or try the dent puller.

[dforder]

Pop the roof liner out and poke it back up, or try the dent puller.

probs have to try knocking it out, looks a bit to deep to pull it

[GazWatson]

both look good

[jeffchiz]

yayyy glad you did a thread for it :)

[dforder]

both look good

Proves you chat shit the red ones a shed

yayyy glad you did a thread for it :)

Yeah man thought it would be rude no to keep it on sax-p!:)

[dforder]

glad to finally say ive found a new home for the red forte :)

[dforder]

Just got back from a weekend away in Newquay. Weather was shit and to top it off Saturday morning I went to the shop. Got back and I was walking out of the car park I noticed a trail of oil. Sods law it fucking traced back to my car! Got under it and there was oil EVERYWHERE!!! Twitchy bumhole time for a minute or two...

Turned the engine on and the oil filter was gushing. Luckily my B&B was next to a garage. Borrowed a few tools from the chap in there, he reccomended a cheap autoparts place 1/2 mile away and jobs a goodun! Had a new oil filter on in no time.

I had a bit of free time to fit the twins last week :)

http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj495/Daniel_Forder/2012-05-23191548.jpg

In the next couple of days I plan to change back to the steelies and pay each alloy some attention. I want to get them looking a bit smart ready for FCS :) Im thinking of spraying them a sort of Anthracite colour.

I am gonna have a proper cleaning sesh tonight as its covered in Cornish seagull shit! I will get a few pics up after :)

[jeffchiz]

Heart started to pound when you said there was oil everywhere! Glad it was just the filter, how strange...

[dforder]

Yeah mate i nearly shit my pants when i seen oil all over the floor. yeah same proper weird as it was just a small hole but the filter had seen better days

[stevo67]

Looking good bud.

[dforder]

I'm praying for a bit of good weather so I can get those alloys off and resprayed before FCS next week :P

[dforder]

Ive noticed in the past week that if im driving normally around 30mph my temperature gauge is sits at just over half. If im on a dual carriageway and putting my foot down a little at around 50mph, the needle will go upto about 3/4.

The odd time i do about 90mph on the motorway, the needle sits just off the top. As soon as i take my foot off and drop to 60mph it goes back to 3/4. Going down hill at whatever speed makes the needle sit at half which baffles me.

The light never comes on the dash for temperature and the needle never hits the top. But id say half the time i do a journey over 15minutes, when i stop the fan cools the car for about 10 seconds after.

I havent give it much thought so far. Iv searched a few posts already but i cannot find anything with a situation similar to mine. I have looked for mayo as much as i can without taking anything apart as most peoples reaction to a similar problem is the heads gone. There is no power loss issues, no visible oil leaks, the heaters still blowing hot etc.

Im at a bit of a loose end so before i start taking things apart could anyone give me any advice at all ?????!!! :)

[saxova]

A good start would be to empty / flush / refill / bleed the cooling system mate.

My 8v needed a right good battering for it to go over half temp. Fan only ever used to come on after 10-15 mins of start stop traffic.

:y:

[dforder]

yeah i think im gonna give that a go then if its still giving me grief il have to have a rethink!

[jeffchiz]

dont rule out that the needle may be wrong after i refitted them from doing the SMD dial conversion, i thought i put them back on right though lol

[dforder]

yeah true i didnt think of that to be fair. still might give the bleed a go just as a precautionary.

the other day i did like an hour of 60mph pulled over for a pit stop and the fan came on which is understandable. but then i can drive 20 mins on normal road at 35(ish), temp gauge goes no more than 3/4 but fan come on after :S

[boony]

Tbh mate I had a similar problem and it was the water pump that cured it.

[dforder]

Tbh mate I had a similar problem and it was the water pump that cured it.

im gonna try bleeding it on the weekend and then i may have to go down the road of putting my hand in my pocket lol!

[Gandi699]

When cold, take the header tank cap off and then rev the car. The water level should drop a little with revs, if so this suggests your water pump is working. Id be inclined to give it a back flush out an new coolant - my coolant was rusty as shit and it hadnt been in there that long so its now got new strong mix OAT in. New water pump would be the next port of call, as long as the radiator is good as but bare in mind they can be an utter pain to get out of the block. Mine took a good couple of hours bashing the pump with a hammer until it felt apart and came away

[jeffchiz]

hang on i might know whats wrong, i snapped the bleed nipple on my vts and i nicked the one out of the vtr and then got a replacement one for the vtr, i cant remember if i re-bled the system of not after I screwed the new nipple in, give that a try first, only takes 2 min to do :y:

[dforder]

hang on i might know whats wrong, i snapped the bleed nipple on my vts and i nicked the one out of the vtr and then got a replacement one for the vtr, i cant remember if i re-bled the system of not after I screwed the new nipple in, give that a try first, only takes 2 min to do :y:

ahh if thats the case their maybe some trapped air. i was planning on flushing the whole system on the weekend anyway to see if that solved the problem. thanks mate :y:

When cold, take the header tank cap off and then rev the car. The water level should drop a little with revs, if so this suggests your water pump is working. Id be inclined to give it a back flush out an new coolant - my coolant was rusty as shit and it hadnt been in there that long so its now got new strong mix OAT in. New water pump would be the next port of call, as long as the radiator is good as but bare in mind they can be an utter pain to get out of the block. Mine took a good couple of hours bashing the pump with a hammer until it felt apart and came away

water pump will probably be what i try next if flushing / bleeding gives me no joy!

[jeffchiz]

just chuck a hose in to the rad (or a 2L bottle of water upsdie down if you dont have a hose and it'll force the ater/air out) and undo the bleed nipple hopefully you will hear the hiss of air coming out

[dforder]

been lazy as fuck past few days, used the weather as an excuse :p but deffo needs bleeding and alloys respraying before FCS some point this week :)

[jeffchiz]

awesome ill see my old baby again :) bleed the system!!!! lol ive been fitting a mahoosive BMW engine in this shit weather lol

you camping at fcs?

[dforder]

rather you than me! :P i will get it done some point this week haha. nah mate im driving up with south west convoy early doors lol u camping?

[jeffchiz]

I did get rather soaked through. Yea I'm sleeping in a circus tent lol we've got a 20 odd man tent for three of us ha

[dforder]

i can find the valve on the rad and by thermostat but i cant find the one near the rock any help lads?!

[dforder]

i can find the valve on the rad and by thermostat but i cant find the one near the rock any help lads?!

Successfully bled! Went down to Weston last night and noticed a significant change. Now it sits at just over half most the time rather than 3/4 :)

Just changed my trainers and got the steels on for now. Washed, rubbed down and de-greased. Ready for a couple of coats of primer after work! I will get pictures up when im home

[jeffchiz]

Thank fuck for that lol hopefully ill see it on Sunday :-)

[iDale]

Subscribed to this thread, I'm a fan of local Saxos :D Will be good to follow your progress and perhaps catch up at a meet

[dforder]

Subscribed to this thread, I'm a fan of local Saxos :D Will be good to follow your progress and perhaps catch up at a meet

cheers mate yeah not sure when the next south west meet is, were bouts you too?
__________________________________________________

Small update. Spent all day saturday cleaning up my alloys and respraying. Took ages but they have come out well so im pleased.

Good day at FCS yesterday :) Being up at 4am after 3 hours sleep took it out of me lol so ended up going back to the car for a sneaky kip just as it started to piss down, win:p Bit of a shame how far away from the main part but all in all i enjoyed my first french car show and look forward to the next :) managed to get a few pics and will bang them on along with alloy progress when i can be arsed!

[jeffchiz]

i saw you asleep a few times in your car ha

[dforder]

lol haha! i was fucking nakerd. i did see your car but dint see you about at all

[dforder]

Meh failed my mot. Silly things like bulbs and washer jet blocked. But main shitter is I need a new rear axle. I will get a search on but not gonna hang about with it cus i need a car for work. This may be the end :(

[jeffchiz]

Don't be put off the rear axle not a massive job at all to replace one then as you say its just silly little things, you should have seen my face when i saw the three pages of fails when I first got the car! Lol that would've made you feel suicidal lol along with the rest of the bits I replaced on it and the welding I had to have done on it I'm quite pleased with that result

[dforder]

yeah iv been working away a lot so havent paid any attention to it in the past month. so all the little things could probably have been avoided:geek:

i am on the lookout for a new axle and it will be back on the road sooner rather than later :detective: