86 mars red cabby progress so far.

just thought i'd put this as a little blog of what i've done on my old girl and updat it as i go. i'll put pics up whenever i can…..be bothered.

first things first i bought her a year and a half ago as a mostly stock 1600 carbed car with an auto box and a few bodywork issues, buit she was only £750 had just 73 thousand miles on the clock and ran perfectly.
 The most obvious issues were the totally rotten front wing, rust hole in the boot, scabby door bottoms, worn drivers seat and a roof that was noisy and leaky and hard to shut.

The roof was priority number one as i couldnt turn the stereo up load enough to drown out the windnoise, this was an issue as i blew all the speakers. oh and i was getting a wet arse.
 after fishing around for answers and trying all obvious adjustments i figured the outer hood was badly fitted and was pulling on the front edge so one quick christmas pressie later i had a new hood. unfortunately that didnt fix it. Around this time i was starting to regret the autobox in an otherwise nimble little car and ran out of ideas as to why my roof was screwed. i looked online and found an 1800 88 cabby project for sale nearby with many new panels and a good roof. i picked the parts car for a steal and had the engine roof gearbox and numerous trim pieces off of it sold of just enough to allow it to pay for itself and got rid of it. dont panick what i got rid of was nothing but a rotten shell.

first parts car bit to find its way onto my car was the roof frame it fitted and stopped the leak turns out mine was quiet significantly twisted. however both my back window and the spare parts window had rotten frames and a pattern frame is extortionate so i'm running the roof windowless. next went on a new wing which was rotten along the bottom 2 inches so i trimmed it up and used a long bolt to hold it in place. at the same time i had a quick tidy up of the door bottoms and the boot.

i was starting to get fed up with the grey wool stylee interior as it was getting a little tatty didnt cope well when the roof leaked and didnt like muddy people using it as it was almost completely uncleanable. my local scrappy had the answer in a golf III green colour concept with heated leather seats for just £70 so i obviously snapped those up despite the odd lime green leather inserts. a bit of a trim and weld and they fitted nicely the rears however have been a bit more interesting. the bases where easy but the back rest of the rear seat on a mk1 cab and mk3 hatch share nothing in common as such its current a piece of ply!

engine and box next, my 1600 engine was fine and low miles but the auto box had to go. after talking with a friend of mine who pointed out that i had a larger engine attached to the box i want to fit and i would need to remove my engine to fit the new one in anyway  so i may as well overhaul the parts car engine and fit that with the box. swapping from manual had a few unexpected complications such as needing to replace the steering rack as manuals have brackets on them for linkages if i remember correctly which autos don't. the parts car had a few uprated and new parts on it such as a brand new gti radiator and cowling which found its way into my engine bay. i also changed the air box to work more like a ram air induction system by running the intake directly from the grill into the front of the box to increase airflow.
 six months later my pads and discs went. so parts car to the rescue again as it had brand new pads and vented rotors, which my car didn't have.

since fitting the engine the old girls not quiet run right being generally lumpy and on occasion feeling the need to imporsonate a kangeroo. turns out the fuel filler neck had rusted away and left nasty deposits in the tank. the parts car had a new fillerneck so on that went along with a new fuel filter. this helped briefly but the problem soon returned so i started looking at other things. first was the ignition system as she was also having issues starting to i replaced the dizzy cap, rotor arm, leads and plugs still no joy. i had noticed the carb base plate was split so fitted a new one. lastly i decided to strip and clean the carb looking for any rust the fuel filter had failed to stop. all of these things helped. but ultimately the problem was that there was still rust in the tanks so thge answer as i don't want to take the back axle of to get the tank out is to keep fuel filters in the car incase they get blocked, hoping that eventually all the rust will clear out of the fuel system.

  next the green seats had to be addresed so my lovely wife rallyed around my family and between them all i got a retrim for my birthday i went for burgendy quilted leatherette inserts with the original black leather outers.

 when i bought the car a previous owner had lowered the car on some tin top gti shocks which gives the rear a not insignificant drop and brings the nose down a bit however the stance was all wrong first step to rectifying this was wheel spacers  1/2 inch at the front and 1 1/2 inch at the back made things a bit more muscular i ran it like this for a little while until a month or so ago i sold another car and wasnt replacing it sooooo.

first came the coilovers. keeping to a budget i went for raceland which perform well but are a tad harsh.when fitting the coilies i decided it was a good time to give the wheel arch area a refurb so the suspension components went stripped of dirt and rust and treated with some hammerite and the rest was just given a damn good clean. i also bought some new wheels as despite like the style of snowflakes i didnt like the lack of rubber on the ground and the tall bendy tyres. so along came a set of 15x8.5 rsl cults with nicely stretched tyres. the wheels were in need of a bit of a tidy up especially the rims but no probs a quick job know and proper one this winter. stance finally sorted……..for 48hrs anyway as on my way to work i drove into a kerbstone doing 65ish and trashed one of my new wheels gotta send this of to a guy in york to see if he can salvage it. to top it of when i did get her going again after work she broke down a mile from work. it turns out when i hit the kerb it knocked the fuel line onto the fan belt which wore a hole in the line. so walked home got a spare fuel line and the next day tidyed the engine bay up.

i recently noticed a distinct blow in my exhaust with it still being my smaller 1600 exhaust and having already had it welded up for its last mot i decided it was time for it to go. the reason the 1800 exhaust didn't go straight on the engine was because althought mostly stainless the downpipe wasn't and that had snapped so i welded that back together stripped and vht painted it to protected and eventually after much swearing and blood fitted the new exhaust and cursed that day that someone created a one piece exhaust (except for the back box) i also chopped of the boy racer tailpipe and welded in a more modest piece of polished stainless pipe.

so thats the story of my cabby so far. next on my list to do is get my damaged wheel fixed sort the new exhaust as i think i bent the c clips to far and now it sounds a tad tractoresque and hopefully a same colour respray in the winter.

sorry that was so long it wont be that long in the future…. honest!