Gabby the cabby rescued!!!

well thought it was about time i put a little thread up!!!

bought her in May, unseen as a insurance write off, with a smashed back end, with the intention of breaking her and making a few quick bucks, as you can see from the first photo, there was hardly any damage so i took on the project as a bit of fun!!!

i have since been made redundant twice this year, and have had to sell lots of nice add-ons  but she is now my only car and regularly does the 2 1/2 hour drive to and from Plymouth to bournemouth.

as i found her  




for the MOT all she needed was some new brake flexi's and 4 tyres, i also gave her a full service and a clean  

once on the road i had big plans but life got hectic!!!! as always! and things have been on hold for a while but hopefully the christmas break will get to show her some love!!

new stuff going on includes avo coily's, poly bushes, A STEREO!!!!! rear bumper, new side trims, a proper machine polish, fix oil leek, try to temp fix leeky roof, and fit recaro bucket seats and refurb and fit some nice old skool 7x15 MIM's. all in 3 days hopefully ha ha ha probably more like 6 knowing how these things go  

this is how she looks now, not been cleaned for 4000 miles but still going strong!!

Where and how was it written off? seems as a bit of a harsh write off! But like the look, what are your other plans for it?

It had a crash in the rear end, luckily it had a towbar fitted at some point, (thats what the big steel bar is) so this took all the impact, broke the bumper end mounts and dented the lower section of the boot lid jamming it shut.

New boot from fleabay and some persuasion to get the old one open and all is well. only remaining sign of damage is a small dent right at the bottom of the lower panel, which will be mostly hidden by the new bumper.

Like i said it was too good to break, can't see any evidence of welding and things like the filler neck had already been done so was a simple fix really, just needs some TLC now.

Future plans are not certain yet as i have a big speedboat i'm refitting for the summer so might have to sell in the spring and buy something that can tow the boat!!! but will try to keep her if at all possible!

Defo not one to break i can say that because doesnt seem that bad now that you have got everything sorted! TLC is what the car needs lol, but lets hope you dont sell it....

well……

after being hampered by the weather, (too much snow to even get to my dads garage let alone being too cold to actually do anything). i finally got in there and got some stuff done.

today, (with help!!!!) i got the avo coilys on, with only one small issue of not having the right nuts for the top of the rears, but a visit to the chainsaw shop, (closest place open ha ha), and all was sorted.

started to fit the poly bushes, which are very needed as every single one i've removed has been shot!! on checking out the ball joints decided to replace them as i was there, and because one side was riveted, one was bolted, and there were a few "bumps" to the wishbones, a visit to GSF last thing today has new ball joints and wishbones ready to go on in the morning.

rear bumpers fitted and hopefully oil leak cured with new rocker gasket, but having trouble finding the correct sender for the temp gauge that goes on the inlet/outlet flange on the front of the head so will check maindealers and hopefully they can sort it!!

still need to sort the stereo out, issues with the electric ariel wiring! and then it's a bloody good clean, polish up with the electric buffer to try to bring the shine back and maybe get the recaro's fitted too…………

got some pics but not got the lead to load em up so you'll all have to wait for a few days ha ha ha

it should be a happy new year!

well here's some pics, and a quick update………

out with the old first…


on with the coilys…

wishbones and poly bushes and ball joints on…

all done, with new black front and rear bumpers too!…

on the ramp getting the laser tracking done…

all in all a fairly successfull few days, still need to sort an annoying rubbing sound and the arches need to be rolled as they are rubbing on some bumpy corners but handling has improved no end, like i have said every bush/rubber i removed was proper nakered so it definitely all needed doing.

oh and last thing got the buffer out and gave her a darn good going over which has made her shine again  :mrgreen: just need to wash all the salt of on a sunny day and get some decent pics  8)