Finally bought some new bits from Baker BM. They've tweaked the engine mount design since I bought one of the early ones. Looking forward to getting this fitted, but it needs some work on the car first. To sort out the front struts, I opted for the fixed spherical bearing top mounts: I then needed... Continue Reading →

Big hole patch done, will need a little bit of filler before final painting. Smaller hole in the inner wing (same side of the car) Cut out and replacement made last weekend and welded in tonight. Progress is slow at 30 minutes here or there but is moving forward.

An update! So after months of walking past every time I was in the garage looking at this I decided that it was time to give the car some love. Before I could sort the big hole I needed to make a patch repair: Bit of CAD Then transferred to steel and welded in. With... Continue Reading →

With the pedal box back in, time to sort out the steering column, as you'll know if you've stripped the dash these were never painted from factory so the bare metal rusts up over time, more so if the interior has been damp. Mine was a poor state so was taken back to bare metal... Continue Reading →

Rack reassembled over the weekend: Also finished the PAS pedal box mod to the bulkhead, which was basically cutting and panel beating to the cardboard template above. Needed to do a bit of welding to make sure it could take the different lower mounting points. Next job is to fit the steering column which will... Continue Reading →

Stripped the PAS rack down completely... Then dropped it off last week with RIX Blasting Services who are local to where I work up in the North East and picked it up again yesterday: Last week I also went to North East Motor Salvage and found a suitable 106 shell to donate a sill and... Continue Reading →

The right parts turned up from Bigg Red this time, it's kit number 204832: Pistons were corroded behind the seals, quite a difference between them: Brakes back ready for reassembly with polished sliders: All back together with a lovely smooth action On the steering rack front I managed to get blanking plugs for the two... Continue Reading →

Frustrating progress, not enough time to work on the body work so trying to get a few other jobs finished. Another steering rack arrived. It's in a terrible state, but all I need is the tension adjuster plug. Came to undo it and immediately sensed the friction - it's been staked! So I will probably... Continue Reading →

So the plan for the top mount bearings did not work out. I picked up a pair of these Meyle top mount bearings which are for a Peugeot Boxer van: Although they fit as I had envisaged, from a mechanical point of view the idea sucks so back to plan B, aftermarket top mounts. Also... Continue Reading →

Not huge progress over the weekend. Finally dressed back all the metal work from having removed the seat rails and cage mounts. I need to test fit the seats again to see if they will clear the reinforcing plate welded on the sills between the two mounting bosses. Found a few patch repairs that I... Continue Reading →

So today I started taking the interior back to basics. This was the starting point. I take back the earlier comment on the seat rails, they were a decent 2mm thickness material but they were drilled a few times and didn't have crush tubes fitted. In my experience without taking the centre plate off the... Continue Reading →

Since last week I ordered a few parts to sort out the steering rack and they arrived during the week. As I went to disassemble the rack it appears the tensioner screw plug had been staked in place. This wasn't apparent until I tried to remove the screw as the damaged threads in the alloy... Continue Reading →