Gandi699's Amazon Mk1 VTR 16v - Page 13 - Saxperience

Gandi699 · 20th October 2012, 22:23

Cheers mate, it all needing replacing as they were past it and wouldn't have ever come undone in the normal way

Gandi699 · 23rd October 2012, 10:11

Had a good luck underneath the sills on this last night and the body kit - I remembered my metro gti days where rot would set in very quickly indeed if you left the car covered in road silt/dirt. I took the pressure washer to the them leaving piles of silt and mud about an inch deep on the driveway. Would recommend clearing them out if you haven't already its a trap for the crud.

BIG · 23rd October 2012, 13:32

I likey

Gandi699 · 23rd October 2012, 13:56

cheers mate

Gandi699 · 7th November 2012, 12:04

Just a little mod to this other than keeping the battery topped up. The rear demister used to come on but the light on the switch didnt work, which annoyed me as you could never tell if it was on. Salvaged a red light from an old hazard switch and problem solved.

Gandi699 · 7th November 2012, 20:57

The thought of having one crusty brake line was doing my head in so I decided to replace the flexi and brake line with new parts. Nothing was wrong with the old stuff technically but considering I had everything I needed it made sense to do it and for peace of mind. Everything after the master cylinder is new now and it all bled up fine :

Cut the old line off and ground down the fitting as it was not coming out of the flexi.

Putting the line on:

New line and flexi on:

Gandi699 · 10th November 2012, 20:33

Need to make up some doorcards, that'll be end of the month though I reckon. Has anyone got measurements of the upper most section that hides the window motors?

Quick pick of it outside today

greyjasper51 · 10th November 2012, 20:36

No but i have the white paper backing you can draw round mate if you want it?

Gandi699 · 11th November 2012, 23:45

Just doing any update

Cleaned up the front arb today and painted it with some black hammerite, adjusted the pedal bar that goes into the master cylinder a bit and also did the rear bias valve. Then had the issue with the glowing manifold, so put the 3.5 bar FPR back in and sorted an air leak on an injector seal.
Have to see how well it fairs, so far no cherry red glow. Now got some mad pops and bangs from the exhaust! Back on the 3.0 bar FPR now, and i've cut any unnecessary wiring from the body loom. Need to make up some doorcards and also does anyone think its worth removing the immobiliser?

Gandi699 · 27th November 2012, 23:43

After all this rain we're having the car was wet inside AGAIN. I've been having problems with the sunroof drains since I've had it and hence the previous owner sealing it up, leaving me have to look into it - I've sealed it up again before but during heavy rain it still leaks. I had one final look at the sunroof drains and finally managed to get them out to find the passenger side one which had never drained the water away properly had a hole in from the stupid bolt holding the dash in.

I repaired the pipe by joining it up with some other salvaged pipe and put it back, so now the drains work at last but the other owner of the car failed to do this when he had it, so the old sunroof will never open or function again to be honest as the cables are seized up so plating it over is the only option without going to a huge load of trouble.
Been and bought some plexiglass this evening, couldn't get any tinted so I've gone for clear and some white for the door cards. Will have to see how it looks on the car but I'm not adverse to painting it if need be.
Thats this coming weekends job providing I can get the old sunroof out after I went wild with the tigerseal. One bonus of doing those pipes is they come with a red and black woven outer sheath for protection but I've felt this is not necessary and they'd be doing a more worthwhile job altered in size and made into door pulls

Gandi699 · 28th November 2012, 22:55

Dried the car out inside with an electric heater and got on with cutting the plexiglass down to size.
Once that was done I cut through all the old tiger seal and removed the old sunroof and mechnanism, had to use the grinder on some of the bolts.

Noticed the dreaded rusty sunroof drains! Stupid design they should be vertical and be mounted with a couple of mm up to the drain outlet as the water just pools below it.

Other one was the same. Tape over the speaker hole as water was getting inside the car through it, so I'll make up some covers for them when I do the doorcards

Luckily it was still solid underneath the rust so I got them cleaned up with a wirebrush attachment in a drill and then got the black hammerite out and liberally applied it all around the inside of the sunroof support.
Once all that was done removed all the old sealant on the roof and then put the plexi over the hole, drilled some securing holes, put some sealnt down and fitted it with countersunk head bolts.
Its very light in the car now so I might paint black or tint the plexi if anyone can recommend some tint?

Door cards on the weekend I think

DanielsonVTR · 29th November 2012, 04:35

Been reading through your whole thread for 2 hours now and am really impressed and glad to see a well maintained VTR. Keep up all the hard work, looks so good!

Badgersport · 30th November 2012, 06:55

Good work with the sunroof Gandi. I had exactly the same issue with the bolt holding the dash on the ns going through the drain tube on my vtr. Where did you get the plexi from ? Wouldn't mind doing my xsi windows

Ste

Gandi699 · 30th November 2012, 09:02

Cheers buddy - I got it from Wickes in the end as I was passing. I think it was about £18 for the 120cm x 60cm sheet I bought. What are you intending to cut it to shape with?

Gandi699 · 3rd December 2012, 21:23

I had to go get a gearbox mount for the clio tonight, so I bought one for the saxo too. Noticed the old mount had a metal sleeved fitted inside so swapped that over:

Old mount on the right probably with 100k miles on it

New one fitted

Gandi699 · 18th December 2012, 20:48

Just been under this sorting the shift out, turned out as I suspected the cat flange was fouling the linkages. So I removed the cat, and 5 minutes with the grinder on the flange later I had no more fouling. Fitted it all back up and now its got a super smooth shift with no clunks, even with the compbrake. Its slides into each gear as it should beautifully now with the linkage sliding into the niche ive made.
I did notice under the car my nearside driveshaft is a bit coated with oil so I suspect a driveshaft seal on the box so I'll sort that when I can, but its only very light

Sophia_Bush · 18th December 2012, 21:47

sweet had welding done on mine the other day few more things then can mot it

Gandi699 · 18th December 2012, 21:52

always something to do! I spent the rest of the afternoon filling the sills with hammerite type rust prevention, and now have two pools on the garage floor where its drained out the sunroof drain holes

Gandi699 · 26th December 2012, 23:19

Got a new battery for christmas, which was nice as the old one was becoming a pain due to it having bitten the dust.
Got the car in the garage today and gave it a thorough drying out as I'm suffering from mega condensation inside which gave me a wet arse when I got in

Couple of hours with this on though with the doors and windows shut sorted that out though:

Sunroof/plexiglass bolts holes were sealed in and around with silicone and I've covered the inside of the plexi glass sunroof when thick sticky back vinyl just to see if it helps stop the condensation gathering and dripping on the seats.

Gandi699 · 27th December 2012, 22:06

Done a few more little jobs today, I adjusted the rear shocks are they were turned right up to maximum firmness, so they were wound back down a bit so the rear suspensions got a bit of give now.

Painted the plexi glass roof satin black to hide the vinyl on the underside of it, think it looks tidier like this and I dont really care about be able to see out of the sunroof.

Heater helping it dry quickly.

I thought the PAS fluid needed doing as for some reason it was looking dirty again and the tank was filthy.

Pas pump dialysis lash up

When I was taking the battery out to give myself access I came across a bit of crusty metal under the battery try, so that got blasted with the wire brush drill insert, then I sprayed it with some sort of new rust killer Hammerite do. Shame its beige but oh well I may paint it the colour of the car later should I feel the need but hopefully this should kill the rust - its worked on patches inside the car.

Cleaned the PAS tank

before

after

Filled it up with this:

Bled it up with a bit of steering wheel twizzling, topped up and its back to normal. I re-routed the catch tank piping under the filter elbow too, so it looks a bit neater. Bay could do with a clean as its filthy from sitting outside the house with leaves, moss and rain pouring on it constantly from leaking guttering. Something else I need to attend to!