So when I had the white 16v Rallye caged and the same tunnel reinforcement plate removed, the MOT station failed the car because the mounting for the handbrake was then too flimsy afterwards. To remedy that I welded a plate on around the handbrake mounting points which kept the testers happy, but was no good... Continue Reading →

Started on the passenger side... needs some work due to some poor quality previous work. Not long after this started chopping bits out: Not going to post a lot of pics of the work, because to be fair, most of that is not very exciting. So here's something a bit different. This is the standard... Continue Reading →

It's only taken a year since I went down to see Colin Satchell in Cornwall to get around to fitting some of his fine craftsmanship to the car... Strut tower sides needed a little arc of relief near the tops to get the down tubes in the right place as the photo below shows they... Continue Reading →

April. That was when I started work on the drivers side inner wing. For a variety of reasons it's taken all this time to finish it. There was a lot of rot that was hidden from view, but the good news is it's all sorted now. During this time I've had chance to think on... Continue Reading →

Not updated here in a while as not much progress as I'd like has been made in the last three weekends as they have been write offs with DIY jobs (rebuild the boundary fence, then re-roof the kitchen, finally re-tile the shower), but have made some headway as per below: Patched Final bits to sort... Continue Reading →

Turned card templates into steel: End of the bulkhead was a bit ropey so marked it out and then cut a big bigger chasing the rust. This needed doing as you need to be able to weld this into the inner arch repairs. Not too bad under the seam, only the end section nearest the... Continue Reading →

On the inside of the car in the drivers footwell there was the tell tale sign of the seam being compromised with a hint of rust showing through the seam sealer. In the end chasing that out meant removing pretty much the entire seam. As part of cutting that rot out I did some more... Continue Reading →

Main section of the inner wing now replaced. Some more patching happened. The current entertainment is this: Cutting out the cancer Had some fun along the way. There are many seized bolts snapped in the captive nuts. Normally you'd be able to get them loose by welding a new nut on - by the time... Continue Reading →

Strut out and a bit of a tickle with a twisted knot wheel in the grinder to get the underseal off and the work needed is greater than originally thought. Chop chop! The seam welds on the engine mount made it a bit harder... Needs a bit of a clean up and then some fresh... Continue Reading →

So I looked at the offside front inner arch and knew that I couldn't just leave it as it was. It wasn't just the aesthetics, it looked structurally bad. A little love from some 1mm cutting discs and we're off... Ermmm, there's three layers of metal where the 16v engine mount has been added on... Continue Reading →

Bonnet mod is finished: The other job was tidying up the battery tray which had been chopped and was bent outta shape. This is after I put a big adjustable spanner on it and got it pretty much straight: Bit of 1.5mm zintec and some shaping in a vice with a BFH, welded, finished and... Continue Reading →

All builds have some degree of 'acquiring parts' involved. Mine is no exception. I now have a full exhaust system thanks to Neb's mate selling this Janspeed 16v manifold and Mark Yates of 106 Parts doing me a stellar deal on a full 2" Scorpion Pugsport with the motorsport cat. The manifold might be inline... Continue Reading →