Mauritius Blue MK1 VTS by Jigs - Updated 30/01/16 - Saxperience

Jigs2895 · 30th December 2015, 19:29

If you don't already know I've recently been restoring my Mercury Grey MK1 VTS that currently looks like this...

Anyway.

This popped up locally very cheap, didn't even bother viewing it just got it recovered to my house straight away and paid via PayPal. Didn't even have a picture of what I was getting.

I haven't looked at it at all yet. Literally lifted the bonnet to take a picture and took some pictures of the outside. From a 5 minute look I have found its absolutely slammed on its ass, running no timing belt covers and been off the road for a year.

120k on the clock and 8 owners, so it's been around the block. Stupid headlight and a awful exhaust that's had the bumper cut to make fit.

Plans? Not really sure to be honest. I'm going to clean it up as its thick with moss and dirt and give it a check over and see what it needs and if it's rotten. If it's not to bad then I'll service it and turn it back to standard and have a cheap daily and garage the mercury and make it concourse.

Hasn't got much going for it so far! Lol! I'll see what I can do with it.

willsy · 30th December 2015, 19:47

Bloody hell!

griff_106 · 30th December 2015, 20:50

Blimey that's one mucky pup! Do love Mauritius tbf and like the Mk1 shape as well... look forward to progress on this!

The Mercury is looking spot on as well matey!

Brettles1986 · 30th December 2015, 21:01

If it's dead I may be interested in the bonnet, drivers wing and drivers door mould.

Mine are in need of replacing.

lincolndanny · 30th December 2015, 21:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by willsy

Bloody hell!

Made me laugh

Im loving these mk1 vts being saved, just need Matt to join in and we are laughing

Good clean and polish first mush, then lets have some pictures of the crunchy bits

lincolndanny · 30th December 2015, 22:04

****Hot news just off the press*****

A Vts saving weekend is being planned!!!!

willsy · 31st December 2015, 08:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by lincolndanny

****Hot news just off the press*****

A Vts saving weekend is being planned!!!!

You legend! Fancy doing some welding for me at some point too?

Find me a Buckingham Blue Mk1 VTS and I will buy it :-) or a Trio of Mercury could be fun

Jigs2895 · 31st December 2015, 16:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by willsy

You legend! Fancy doing some welding for me at some point too?

Find me a Buckingham Blue Mk1 VTS and I will buy it :-) or a Trio of Mercury could be fun

Mercury Trio gives me goosebumps.

Gandi699 · 31st December 2015, 17:47

Clean up, belts and fluids done and that looks drive able. Maybe raise the rear up but doesn't look too bad from the pic - the inner chassis leg looks fairly ok

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Jigs2895 · 31st December 2015, 17:55

Managed to get off work 3 hours early today which have me a few hours to throw a bucket and sponge over this, mainly to stop the neighbours moaning. To be fair it does look like a shed.

Didn't do much, just a real quick wash and polish and a quick bumper gel tart up. At the end of the day its going in the garage soon and will just get dusty so not to fussed.

A few before photos:

And after I gave it a blast with the jet wash, a lick of polish, lost the GB sticker and changed the rear lights for some original MK1 rear lights. Much better:

As you can tell from the photos, at the very least the front end needs a respray, such a shame as this colour looks absolutely fantastic when its cleaned. Paintwork is definitely this cars downfall for me.

Anyhow, climbed in the back and removed the 2 x 10mm bolts holding down the boot latch as it would appear the boot linkages are broken as the boot doesn't open via the popper.

Quickly pealed back the sound deadening to check for rot in the usual places, and SURPRISINGLY.............

This ones rotten to.

So this one needs a lot of work, but the Mercury was in a similar state to this and I managed to turn that around so why not with this one.

However the budget is not the same. This one will be a MOT worthy build, which in many ways will be hard for me as I am not one to leave a rusty nut or bolt, but financially I'll have to with this one. Ill have to wait for the right bits to come up at the right price etc..

With that in mind I managed to get some standard height springs and shocks today for £20!

Next job is to find a standard height axle with no play thats complete and built up, so I can have a weekend of swapping the suspension over and get it back to normal height rather than these stupid lowzzzzz!

nuttysaxo · 1st January 2016, 08:44

Love that colour , already it is looking better

, seriously thinking this year of picking up a phase 1 myself .
I will be watching the progress on this .

Gandi699 · 1st January 2016, 12:37

If it's that shot in the boot then the sills are more than likely fecked too. Not too big a problem though, after all it's a mk1 so worth tiding up

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Jigs2895 · 1st January 2016, 13:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gandi699

If it's that shot in the boot then the sills are more than likely fecked too. Not too big a problem though, after all it's a mk1 so worth tiding up

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I have to say I've never seen or owned one with rotten sills. I think the problem with this one is it's been so low at the back none of the mud and grime can escape, the rest of the car appears to not be to rotten.

Gandi699 · 1st January 2016, 14:51

Usually in my experience at least, the front of the sills aren't too bad however the jacking points are usually crusty. It's the rear of the sill it meets the rear arch mine have been rotten there. Depends what kind of life the car has had but when I took the sill covers off they were packed with mud

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lincolndanny · 1st January 2016, 15:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jigs2895

I have to say I've never seen or owned one with rotten sills. I think the problem with this one is it's been so low at the back none of the mud and grime can escape, the rest of the car appears to not be to rotten.

Exactly this, personally I've owned 5 in the last 3 years and even my rotten gold GTI had no issues with the sills. I think if one of these has rotten sills it'll be from inappropriate jack use over the years splitting the seam sealer. Generally on these it always seem to be inner wings front and back, front chassis legs and the little strengtheners with 3 holes in at the front of the floor.

Gandi699 · 9th January 2016, 19:30

Thats mine on Sunday

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L33h · 9th January 2016, 19:50

I do love a mk1. Much better than a mk2.

Jigs2895 · 10th January 2016, 16:46

Apologies for the lack of progress on this. Ive spent the last week or so tarting up and sorting out the garage.

Started off fairly plain and boring:

Gave the walls and floor a lick of paint:

Purchased and built a work bench:

And today I got myself a ex-display tool box, nothing to fancy as it is only going to get light use, picked up a vice that I need to mount to the work bench to.

Just waiting on having the electric wired into the garage then i can really make some headway with this.

However I did manage to get a hour on it today.

Headlights and front grill off revealed some wonderful green fans and a posi blue slam panel.

Front wings don't look to bad, need cleaning up and seeing whats what with the rot.

Front end all off. Going to paint the slam panel up and give everything a clean next weekend, and hopefully get it jacked up and the struts off during the week to get the standard shocks and springs on.

Tucked away in the garage now, and probably for the next few months.

lincolndanny · 23rd January 2016, 21:26

Come on then mate, lets be having an update

willsy · 24th January 2016, 17:05

I agree, 2 weeks since the last update, expecting to see plenty of work done ;-)