stumc
New member
well been on here a while now, attended the rockingham trackday and actually gotten around to doing some proper work on the car, and will imminently be moving into a large workshop which will mean much more will be happening, so thought id start a bit of a build thread.
bought the car in may last year, it stayed standard until january with just a service being done on it. it was fairly clean, 2 lady owners, full service history and a fresh mot. i paid over the odds from a local dealer but purely just so i could chop in the corsa i was driving at the time as i couldnt be arsed selling it privately. i serviced it the day i got it and ended up snapping off one of the lugs on the inlet holding the engine cover on, trying to remove a cross threaded and rounded bolt! ended up with a fuck off great big hole in the inlet :x great start!
in january after a few weeks of the road, i got back in the car and the brakes were shocking, long story short it had pagid discs, ebc pads and some race fluid, and while the calipers were off i stripped, cleaned and regreased them. shortly after i fitted some apex lowering springs and a set of T1Rs. i intended on leaving it like that but the modifying bug was definitely back and now its all snowballing out of control :lol:
the weekend of the rockingham track day i picked up a set of knackered H&R coilovers. they were alot worse than advertised and ended up needing a complete refurb. most of the seat platforms were oxidised and seized on, and the two rear top cups were crumbling to bits. bizarrely the fronts were fine though :roll:
removing the collars left me with loooaads of shit stuck in the threads, plus loads of road grim and rust built up in any exposed threads. a few hours with a fine centre punch and some swearing and the threads were cleaned up, a minute or two on the bench grinders wire wheel and they were good as new and clean ready for paint and rebuilding. combination of wire wheel, nitromors and elbow grease saw the somewhat grotty springs clean and also ready for a new coat of paint.
got a mate of mine to knock up a set of new collars, gave the struts and springs a coat of zinc primer and plasticote paint and they were good as new.
only issue i now had was they were fork fitment and the car was running the later rear beam with the eye fitment, so a new beam was liberated from a scrap mk4 fiesta, bushes removed, rust and shit removed, hammerited and polybushes fitted. had lots of fun removing the old bushes :lol:
along with the new rear beam i fitted 20mm axle spacers from a streetka, new top mounts alround and new front lower arms. the difference was awesome! the rear bushes were mega shagged and i think changing them alone wouldve made a difference, but the whole package together has transformed the car.
before:
after:
im now looking at modifying the rear beam after seeing how much flex there is in it, and possibly adjusting the geometry at the front by opening up the wishbone mounting holes and fitting eccentric spacers to push the lower arms out by a few mm to give slightly wider track and a touch more camber.
aswell as that theres some engine mods in the pipeline, ive bought a new gearbox as mines definitely on its last legs, some 90 spec escort rst recaros and a few other minor bits, and im sorely tempted to strip it out and go as light as possible.
couple of random pics from rockingham!
bought the car in may last year, it stayed standard until january with just a service being done on it. it was fairly clean, 2 lady owners, full service history and a fresh mot. i paid over the odds from a local dealer but purely just so i could chop in the corsa i was driving at the time as i couldnt be arsed selling it privately. i serviced it the day i got it and ended up snapping off one of the lugs on the inlet holding the engine cover on, trying to remove a cross threaded and rounded bolt! ended up with a fuck off great big hole in the inlet :x great start!
in january after a few weeks of the road, i got back in the car and the brakes were shocking, long story short it had pagid discs, ebc pads and some race fluid, and while the calipers were off i stripped, cleaned and regreased them. shortly after i fitted some apex lowering springs and a set of T1Rs. i intended on leaving it like that but the modifying bug was definitely back and now its all snowballing out of control :lol:
the weekend of the rockingham track day i picked up a set of knackered H&R coilovers. they were alot worse than advertised and ended up needing a complete refurb. most of the seat platforms were oxidised and seized on, and the two rear top cups were crumbling to bits. bizarrely the fronts were fine though :roll:
removing the collars left me with loooaads of shit stuck in the threads, plus loads of road grim and rust built up in any exposed threads. a few hours with a fine centre punch and some swearing and the threads were cleaned up, a minute or two on the bench grinders wire wheel and they were good as new and clean ready for paint and rebuilding. combination of wire wheel, nitromors and elbow grease saw the somewhat grotty springs clean and also ready for a new coat of paint.
got a mate of mine to knock up a set of new collars, gave the struts and springs a coat of zinc primer and plasticote paint and they were good as new.
only issue i now had was they were fork fitment and the car was running the later rear beam with the eye fitment, so a new beam was liberated from a scrap mk4 fiesta, bushes removed, rust and shit removed, hammerited and polybushes fitted. had lots of fun removing the old bushes :lol:
along with the new rear beam i fitted 20mm axle spacers from a streetka, new top mounts alround and new front lower arms. the difference was awesome! the rear bushes were mega shagged and i think changing them alone wouldve made a difference, but the whole package together has transformed the car.
before:
after:
im now looking at modifying the rear beam after seeing how much flex there is in it, and possibly adjusting the geometry at the front by opening up the wishbone mounting holes and fitting eccentric spacers to push the lower arms out by a few mm to give slightly wider track and a touch more camber.
aswell as that theres some engine mods in the pipeline, ive bought a new gearbox as mines definitely on its last legs, some 90 spec escort rst recaros and a few other minor bits, and im sorely tempted to strip it out and go as light as possible.
couple of random pics from rockingham!