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Post by myothercarsa2cv on Apr 4, 2016 23:01:16 GMT
At the end of 2007, I had just passed my probation in my first proper job, working at Reuters in Canary Wharf. It wasn't what I had dreamed of doing if I'm honest, but a job is a job! I suddenly found myself with a bit of cash burning a hole in my pocket, and, with a little encouragement from little brother, put a deposit down on a Caterham 7. No way I could afford it without help, so finance it was. I registered it after an 8 week build and another 8 weeks of negotiating the bureaucracy. It sailed through the SVA, and driving it without plates was excellent fun. In reality it was a terrible idea. The recession had just begun in earnest, and now wasn't the time to be spending your savings. But hey, you only live once, right? Over the next 6 years it evolved gradually. A little bit here, a little bit there. Over the winter of 13/14, I made big plans. Quaife ATB differential, upgraded oil system, a general tidy up. RAC Magazine even featured me (complete with sloppy journalism).  Caterham ownership wasn't without its shortcomings. Driving a car with no windscreen, roof, doors, heater or padding was a pain at times, but pure joy at others. When it broke I wanted to burn it, but when I got out on the road I fell in love with it all over again. I got to a handling day at the Top Gear track at Dunsfold to test the fruits of my labours - donuts, slalom, track time, all excellent fun. A few tweaks were made, I taught my friend to donut. Life was good. A month later, having lent the car to little brother, I got the call. "I've had an accident. We're OK, but I think the car is broken." Little brother had hit a gate catch in the middle of a driveway, catching the sump and pushing the drivetrain back 3-4" and tearing a few chassis members. It didn't look too bad but there was no way of telling what was hiding beneath the powder coat - the only option was to re-chassis. The insurance company wrote it off. I sat with the car at a specialist's garage for half an hour deciding whether to buy it back or not. I cried when I said goodbye. I watched "Love the Beast" a couple of days later and regretted my decision instantly, but it was too late. After some soul searching and deciding what to do next, I thought I would try something different. I looked at everything within a £10k budget. But in the back of my mind, something my friend's late dad who raced everything on wheels had said 8 years ago about the MX5 being the best car ever made stuck out. I'd never been in one let alone drive one. I knew I needed the power to weight ratio of the 7 so it had to be boosted. I did my research, thought about how I'd go about it. Then I saw a supercharged 5 on pistonheads. Being new to the game I hadn't seen one before. It sounded perfect. Just one problem, it was in Crewe. Sod it. I went for it. I was in for a fun time! |
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Post by myothercarsa2cv on Apr 4, 2016 23:09:12 GMT
So, in December 2014, I acquired Libby from a chap who had bought it, I believe, off a Nutz member. It was pretty much unchanged from his build, here's the old for sale thread with the spec. When I travelled up to Crewe to take a look, I was nervous. I didn't know what to expect. I needn't have worried - the car was just brilliant to drive - the grip was fantastic, and the torque curve so flat that it was easy peasy to drive at any speed. The drive home was an eye opener - first of all, the car handled as well on the M6 toll road at *ahem* 70mph as it did on any other road at 30-70mph. Second of all, that whine! It didn't take long to get stuck in to a few things. I bought a hardtop, swapped some fuel hoses that were cracked, fitted a Jass brake stopper. I removed the snap off boss after nearly crashing when the wheel came off in my hands! I started acquiring a few parts here and there, making plans, and before you know it I'm back in the old habit of never being happy with what I've got! The brakes did the usual and started sticking, the calipers got replaced. The tracking was out after my snap off incident, so I got a full alignment done (made a massive difference, thanks to Chris at Kent MX5s). But my first big project started because of a buzzing noise I was trying to trace in the engine bay. Whilst eliminating the supercharger and power steering pump from my enquiries, the tensioner pulley broke.  Since it was going to take some time to get that replaced, I thought now was a good a time as any to do that over the rad intercooler setup I wanted! The next thing I know the car looked like this:  The whole process took a couple of months, alright about four... But in the end I was left with a half decent over the rad setup. Getting it all under the bonnet without chopping too much stuff up was a challenge!  It all worked, but the buzzing persisted! It turned out to be the one way valve on the throttle body. Never thought to check that! Anyway, a few niggles had crept in and it definitely needed mapping. A trip to Skuzzle was booked, and I had him turn my coldside bitsa pipe in to a single piece hard pipe. It was a fun trip, and the car made 174whp - not too terrible.  |
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Post by myothercarsa2cv on Apr 4, 2016 23:13:55 GMT
I managed to acquire a boost gauge and a clock that matches my oil temperature gauge that was currently sitting in the heater vent. The plan was to move the oil temperature gauge down with the others underneath the stereo and put a vent ball back in for toasty cabin goodness. Off to eBay! The other vent has the air/fuel ratio gauge in it, it's different so I'll just leave it there. I also found that I can make 2psi of boost with my lungs. So for an instant upgrade, blow in to your air intake.  I then scored some sidelights on eBay for not a lot, as the plan has been to switch out the Skuzzle TSIs - they are neat, and no doubt provide excellent air flow to the filter on one side and nothing on the other! But my problem is that, as it is generally used on the road at the moment, no one can actually see the indicators, especially if the sidelights are on. So the originals are much better for my purposes. Here's a before and after:  I think I prefer the OEM look anyway, the car looks so happy now! I found one of the screw clips missing, so I need to pick one of those up from somewhere. The sidelights were also blown so I picked up 10 off eBay for 99p posted. Bargain. |
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Post by myothercarsa2cv on Apr 4, 2016 23:25:00 GMT
Well, for Christmas I got a nice Nardi, which was a massive step up from the fake Momo.  I'd also bought some winter wheels, Tailgate McNoIndicate BBS 15x7 ET24 with Michelin Pilots. They sometimes catch the wings but it's not too bad.  |
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Post by myothercarsa2cv on Apr 5, 2016 16:23:32 GMT
After too much browsing, I decided that before I splashed mega bucks on all sorts of things from Bride seats to door bars, I decided that I should concentrate on something a little less extravagant - intake air temperatures. I purchased a bluetooth adaptor off Nutz, and with that and an Android phone/tablet I hoped to log some air temperatures at the inlet manifold where the IAT sensor is.  The plan was to do some slightly less than scientific testing with different intake setups, with varying combinations of TSIs, vented headlight covers, heatshields, and filter position. But first I had to set the Bluetooth adapter up to work with MS1, which has a different baud rate to MS2 and 3. After much faffing about with the Mac, I gave up and dusted off my old PC and fired it up. There are lots of instructions on the internet about how to reset these devices on Windows, but literally nothing for OS X. Go figure. Once I'd done that all I had to do was find a suitable Android phone. At that point I discovered Mobisquirt for iPhone. The only problem is, it uses wifi, not Bluetooth. Dammit! I managed to acquire an android phone but Lo and behold it doesn't read air temperatures. Either I don't have the right sensors (which is odd as I'm sure that's what the MS uses) or I've messed something up. It's usually the latter. One for someone else to figure out another time! |
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Post by myothercarsa2cv on Apr 5, 2016 16:29:51 GMT
So one evening I had to pop out for some drain unblocker. Very unexciting. Since it would have been rude not to let the car warm up a bit on such a nippy evening I went for a pootle. I don't know why I decided not to go down the bumpy twisty lanes, but I'm glad I didn't! Following a bike down Wrotham Hill I leant on the brakes and the only way I can describe what happened next was it just felt crumbly and the pedal went long. Long story short, the brakes were pretty useless. They stopped the car but not with any urgency. I nursed the car home very slowly and just parked it up for the time being, hoping it was just pads. That Saturday morning I popped the car up on stands and got cracking on the pads. I changed all 4 corners to match and followed a how to guide from here. It went well - nothing too major - and before I knew it the wheels were back on and the car on the ground. Here is the culprit of the poor braking experienced last Monday - I'll put my hands up and say I hadn't checked them in too long, but in my defence the others have a lot more meat left in them:  The other pad on that caliper was also cracked, not long for this world I suspect. After that, Alexey (another local 5 owner) had a rummage through the garage and found some brand new Philips Extreme H4 lamps, and wondered if I had the original sealed units or if they'd been upgraded. I'd always assumed sealed as they were utter tripe, but to my surprise they were replacement units. Even looking at the difference in the daylight it was clearly much brighter. While Alexey tackled that, I fitted some trim to the intercooler pipe cutouts. Easy to do, or so I thought, the pipes had to come off which was a pain.  I'll redo the slam panel at some point. I then rerouted some vacuum hoses to give the bypass valve its own dedicated line, and the fuel pressure regulator, ECU and gauge got routed together. Not quite finished yet but I'll get it tidier bit by bit. I then gave the car a good wash, heaven knows it needed it. I've found a few crusty bits underneath so they'll need attention in a year or so, should be fine for now, but it came up looking quite smart.  So now it was ready for a tentative test drive - everything worked as it should thankfully. The only niggle was a slight scrape-scrape-scrape from one of the discs which has clearly warped, those will get replaced when I get the proper pads from Rodders. After dinner, Alexey and I drove up to the Ace Cafe to meet a few others for a midnight tunnel run, but most bailed so it was just us and an early Mustang.  We made the most of it though and found this corker, completely deserted:  I'm always amazed how busy London is at night. Only lived here 30 years! |
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Post by myothercarsa2cv on Apr 5, 2016 16:52:02 GMT
I'd been hankering after a more comfortable seat than the Sparco Sprint, which was ok but being long the front lip digs in to my thighs when pedalling and pushes my knees too close to the steering wheel. So off I went and researched what was out there. It had to be a good fit in the cockpit, which is quite narrow and limits your choices somewhat. It's easy to see why the Sprint is such a popular choice as, for the price, there's not a lot out there that has such good dimensions for smaller cars (interestingly, nearly all the historic racers at the London Classic Car Show had Sprints - that says something in itself!). I'd narrowed it down to a Tillett B5 or a Bride Exas iii, as the dimensions were spot on, they looked the part, and they would be comfortable. The only problem was that neither come up second hand all that often, and new they can be just a tad pricey! Then a post on Nutz - a new Bride dealer and Exas iii's available for a little less than importing one. This made my mind up. I readied the money... But. Then Corbeau brought out a new narrow GRP seat, for not much money, which confused matters. It didn't look as good as the other two, but would save me a lot of money. However, being new, what was the quality and fit like? Was it comfy? Being in Kent, Nottingham was just too far to go window shopping if I didn't like it. I was having a crisis. Over a seat. It was ridiculous. My wife was bored of the murmurings, the sleepless nights, the constant googling for information. The questions about whether or not I should do this or that. Surely a normal person couldn't get so worked up about something so unimportant? And then a glimmer of hope. thetomcullen was breaking his car, and he had an Exas iii... Would he sell it or keep it for the next car? After all, he'd gone through a lot of trouble to get it in the country, and only had a couple of weeks seat-time in it... Suddenly, I saw a price on Facebook - HE'S SELLING! I went in to stock trader mode: BUY BUY BUY!!! Facebook messages were exchanged, a deal was struck. I was to travel up to Flitwick on Bank Holiday Monday morning to collect it. I was happy at last. I slept like a baby. And then, blissfully unaware of any ill coming my way, the bank holiday weekend happened. I'd borrowed my brother's Tailgate McNoIndicate Z4 for a wedding, as the bride is Tailgate McNoIndicate obsessed (someone has to be  ). We had a parking space reserved up front with the other BMWs, and all was looking good. Driving along the North Circular on our way to the venue, we had just got to Crooked Billet when the battery warning light came on. Ok, I thought, if there's a problem with the alternator or battery, we should still make it - it's only 15 miles. I thought too soon. Every warning light came on. Then they started flashing. Then the radio turned off. Then the exterior lights stopped working. Then the electric steering went heavy. Things were not looking good, and had gone from bad to terrifying in a matter of 10 minutes. With the wife in the car, and the car not being mine, no risks were being taken. I saw a BP and dived in. I turned the car off but it wouldn't start again. Just clicking and flashing headlights. Over on the other side of the forecourt, a Boxster S was doing the same thing. What were the chances? Had someone set off an EMP targeting only German cars?! A call was made, the in-laws who weren't far behind picked up the wife, and on they went to the wedding. I was left to deal with the stranded car... I called my brother. He didn't have breakdown cover (that's what little brothers are for, right?). I called my insurers, and found out I was only covered on my car. Dammit. I had to pay. The quote came back as £160 - a serious dent in the car fund. If I got recovered to the wedding, I'd have to pay double that, and that would mean no seat... No, no, that wouldn't do! I decided to go home. Anyway, by the time the tow truck got there, it would be over right? I'm a man, perfectly safe in a petrol station forecourt. I'll be here for hours!  Then my luck changed - the tow truck was there in an hour.  I had a fun journey home chatting cars, including about de-carbonising car engines using super pure fuel with no additives, and got pizza when I got back to my parents' (where I was leaving little brother's car for him to pick up when he's back from holiday). Made a phone call to see if it was worth me getting to the wedding but worked out that by the time I got there I'd only have 15minutes before everyone was planning to leave. Dad dropped me home, and I played a bit of Forza before hitting the hay. Saturday was less eventful. I stayed in bed til the afternoon, and had family over for dinner and a movie. I ate too much. It was good. Sunday was good too. We went to the reception for Friday's wedding, had a great time, and got home at 2:30am. I was planning to leave at 9:30am for Flitwick to get the seat. I was feeling like my luck had turned and nothing would get in my way now. Thought too soon again... At 5am or so we were awoken by a massive crash. I thought the BBQ had been blown over by the storm, but when I looked out the window saw it was still upright so went back to sleep. When I woke up to get ready to pick up the seat, I was greeted by this:  Yep, the tree had decided to fall over and fortunately missed the house but hit our wall. I couldn't just leave it like this and collect the seat, the wall was looking crumbly and I didn't need it getting worse. I had to clear it and make it safe. A quick message to Tom and an evening pick up was agreed. I got the saw from the garage and started chopping. Dad turned up with a chainsaw which was a massive help and we had it cleared quite quickly.  Quick clean up and off to the parents for Easter lunch with the family, before getting on the road, finally, to collect the seat! After sitting in a lot of traffic at the Dartford crossing, I eventually got to Tom's and there it was, the Exas in all its glory, within reach and sparkling at me. Of course we went for the obligatory spin in the car, chatted boost and RX7s, then squeezed the seat in the passenger side and got on the way. No good pics of the seat as it was dark, but look at the sparkle!  It's now tucked away in the 2CV for safe keeping until I get some time to fit it. It was a long journey to get here, but I'm here now! Who thought buying a seat would be so difficult?! If you're still reading, well done  |
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Post by myothercarsa2cv on Apr 5, 2016 16:55:36 GMT
Well if you thought I'd made a mountain out of a molehill on the seat saga, it was just the tip of the iceberg. I was driving along to a friend's house from where we would grab a taxi to the airport for a mutual friend's mega turbo lash stag do in Madrid (incidentally, a very cost effective weekend of drinking, recommended!). On the way there, the temperature needle started climbing. Not good news. It has always been rock steady, so I wasn't sure what has changed. Anyway, it was just a short journey so I risked it and got there. When I arrived, there was some steam coming out of the bonnet, more than just the drizzle evaporating. Popped the lid to find coolant spitting out of the rad by the fan (or so it appeared) and dripping everywhere. Pretty sure the rad had developed a leak, dropped a load of coolant and resulted in the aforementioned overheating, and knowing there was nothing I could do, I locked it up and went to Madrid and spent the next two and half days drinking. The next week I was a little busy at work and the opportunity never presented itself to recover the car, but on the Saturday I called breakdown and got towed home.  Sadly while it was on the flatbed I noticed this disaster waiting to happen:  Not the best news but not much I can do about it right now. The car is on the whole quite clean so I'll get someone to take a look and fix it sometime. Hopefully it's not too bad. Anyway. On to the rad. I got cracking straight away on getting the old one out. A new one had been ordered, I just needed to collect it from the inlaws. The strip down commenced!  Being the lazy sort, I left the front bumper on. And since the car was in an awkward place to jack, I left it on the ground. Paint trays are excellent drain receptacles and hold 1.5L of liquid. Just took my time, and got the worst of it out in no time. Top hose out the way tied to the TB, the bottom hose was a ballache. Awkward to get at, and difficult to twist off. I took it off the chassis mounted pipe in the end, still have to try removing it from the rad! The rad then just lifted out. I removed the intercooler too as the mounting method was quite inelegant, although it does do the job, I'd prefer something a bit more finished, even if it will be hidden by the scuttle panel.  Didn't have the rad on me, so shut the bonnet and moved on. I'd acquired an Exas iii, as regaled above. It needed to be fitted. The Sprint came out super easily because of the runners. Four bolts and it's on the garage floor.  While I was in there, I gave it a little vacuum and removed the seatbelt. I use harnesses, and this was just left ziptied out the way, not even properly mounted. Trim off, belt out, trim back on. All neat and tidy.  Then seat time. For now I am using the JB Fabs mounts that came with it. I might move to runners just for the adjustability in the future but for now, it was time to skin the knuckles and get it in. JB Fabs mounts offered up:  Test fit of seat:  I noticed the tonneau bolt was dangerously close and just catching the seat. Not having a suitable replacement, I chopped and filed the knobbly bit off. All sorted!  I finally got the seat in as the sun went down.  All in all a productive day, but now I'm worried that I should replace the stat as well. And what if it was just the rad cap?! All the usual doubts. We'll see if the new rad fixes it all. Ordered a fan shroud (my theory is the fan ties have rubbed a hole), and other bits so lots to do this weekend! |
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Post by myothercarsa2cv on Apr 5, 2016 19:03:05 GMT
The day started slowly with me tackling my old calipers in an attempt to refurbish them. I was thwarted though as the pistons refused to come out. After much swearing I left them on the bench soaking with oil to see if that helps. A few things hadn't arrived which meant I couldn't do everything I wanted to. Not the end of the world but still a pain. Never mind, another time. I had enough stuff to get me back on the road. I bolted up the fan shroud to the radiator and first impressions were that it was quite deep... As my rad needs to be leaned back to give the intercooler pipes room this was going to be tight.  I dropped the intercooler back in on its original Heath Robinson mounts and offer up the rad. It just fit, but the fans are going to rub against the ARB. I'll have to think about how the get the rad even lower.  Anyway, onwards. Might as well get it going. I got it all back together again, pipes are always such a ballache. Especially the clippy clips. Much prefer jubilees.  I then filled the rad with coolant, mixing about 2.5 litres of coolant with 4 litres of water - I got 3.5 litres out of the rad so man maths means I lost 3 litres of coolant. Hopefully no damage was done! I drove the car up on to the slope in front of the garage and ran it up to temperature.  After checking the fans kicked in (and blew the right way!) I parked the car out the way and let it cool down. While I was waiting I wrapped up the fan wiring, ziptied it out of the way, and then idly looked for other things to do. Ah I know! I thought. The heated rear window wiring needed looking at as one of the connectors had broken off. So took a look. One wire was considerably longer than the other, so then I got to thinking, why not just take it out completely, look at it, and use all new crimps and wrapped the wires? Shouldn't be too hard. So out it came and I found this:  The screen connectors had been extended by twisting the wires together and slapping a bit of wiring tape around the joint. Held together by hope. This would not do. With no power I couldn't solder so crimped it all together, adjusted the wire length and crimped it all together. I then wrapped it so it looked less like a couple of random wires and more like a proper loom.  At that point I was already running late for dinner so packed it all away and locked up. |
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Post by myothercarsa2cv on Apr 5, 2016 19:27:23 GMT
So that brings me up to date. Up next: slam panel, heat shield, MOT, rust repairs, new tyres, audio. Not necessarily in that order!
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Post by myothercarsa2cv on Apr 22, 2016 0:37:54 GMT
Car has sat outside doing nothing for a few days now as I got a hernia. Really need to give it a proper shakedown after the rad change... And I'm fast running out of MOT.
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johnnye
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Post by johnnye on Apr 22, 2016 8:46:01 GMT
Great read that! Reminds me I need to get the finger out and get into the garage!
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Post by cybot on Apr 22, 2016 9:28:11 GMT
John, you've done a lot of work and I hope all is up and running again soon. Hopefully for the Skuzzle do on the 21st. I must get my sticking calliper sorted before that though.
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Post by myothercarsa2cv on Apr 22, 2016 18:06:34 GMT
Thanks both. I've probably spent more time pissing about with spanners than actually driving it. The same could have been said for the Caterham. And the 2CV. Oh and the bicycles... Dammit I've got a problem!
I need to book the car in, if I'm clever I could plan it so I pick the car up on the 21st... Hm a plan!
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Post by myothercarsa2cv on May 23, 2016 7:30:22 GMT
Been a while since I did anything on the car as the MOT had run out and I wasn't feeling it. I decided to get a couple of patches welded on the sills just to get through the MOT, getting the sides done properly would have cost a fortune so cheap but solid fix it was. A nice chap called Pete came by on Friday and got cracking. What he found wasn't the worst but it wasn't pretty either. Where a patch had been spot welded on previously was where the crack appeared from. Some lovely red stuff fell out after a little poke.  He also found that it would need a little patch inside the arch as well.  Turn out I've got no drain holes. Apparently they never came with them, and I guess as mine was imported in '97 it never got recalled to be fixed. Anyway. Patched up, pretty it ain't but it is solid.  A couple of coats of under seal all over everything, and it will do for now. Looks alright from 20ft  Checked the lights, wipers, and everything I could ready for my MOT on Saturday. Got to the garage after taking a crap route and scraping over a couple of speed bumps, had to go so slowly I was pulling over to let people past! Over the pit she goes!  Got back from my bacon butty up the road to bad news - the car had failed on three points: 1) The door wouldn't open from the inside (I got out so no idea what went on there); 2) Split steering rack gaiter; and 3) excessive CO. Not a lot I can do about the gaiter, but the door and emissions irritated me. Mostly because the door works (ok it's not perfect but give it a good tug and it opens, it's never failed on it before) and because I told them when I booked it should have a more lenient emissions test because it wasn't in the book when I called to book it in, when I left it with them, and when it failed. They insisted they were right to give it the normal test, I don't agree, but not a lot of point arguing all day as I still had a split gaiter. No point going for the free retest either if they won't budge on that point, so now I have to find another garage. Any recommendations in SE London / NW Kent? So obviously I went home and looked it up. Sure enough, lots of forum posts about a '94 import being subject only to the more lenient test. Reading the book for testers, it mentioned that for personal imports the owner needs a letter from the manufacturer stating that it won't pass the test. I doubt Mazda is going to write me a note... It also says that if the car fails the basic emissions test then the tester should look up the VIN to check what standards are expected of it. I know my VIN isn't in the book, so clearly they didn't look it up. So moving forward... I clearly can't trust that an MOT garage will know the correct procedure as I guess it's open to some sort of interpretation as to whether it needs a letter from Mazda or not, or whether it should get the pre-cat test or not. So what should I do? Leave a £20 note in the ashtray, leave a document with the relevant bits highlighted on the passenger seat, or just fit a cat? Choices choices. I also need someone to help with my steering rack gaiter. Can it be done without messing up the alignment? |
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). We had a parking space reserved up front with the other BMWs, and all was looking good. Driving along the North Circular on our way to the venue, we had just got to Crooked Billet when the battery warning light came on. Ok, I thought, if there's a problem with the alternator or battery, we should still make it - it's only 15 miles. I thought too soon. Every warning light came on. Then they started flashing. Then the radio turned off. Then the exterior lights stopped working. Then the electric steering went heavy. Things were not looking good, and had gone from bad to terrifying in a matter of 10 minutes. With the wife in the car, and the car not being mine, no risks were being taken. I saw a BP and dived in. I turned the car off but it wouldn't start again. Just clicking and flashing headlights. Over on the other side of the forecourt, a Boxster S was doing the same thing. What were the chances? Had someone set off an EMP targeting only German cars?! A call was made, the in-laws who weren't far behind picked up the wife, and on they went to the wedding. I was left to deal with the stranded car...
le sigh