After many years of patient waiting I have finally managed to tick one box in my "Must own one oneday" list of cars.
I feel extremely lucky to have the opportunity of owning this old girl but at the same time genuinely guilty about the circumstances in which poprocco has been forced to sell her so soon.
You have probably all seen the pictures posted previously. For a 35 year old car she really has been pretty well cared for. Although there are a couple of things which need attention that will need to be sorted out in time to come. Hopefully the previous paint work isnt hiding anything too nasty but so far except for a little bit of surface rust in a few nooks and crannies and a spot in the front fender she seems quite sound!
Adelaide DOVW 2011
Safe and sound at Dub Addiction HQ after a full wash, polish and wax.
On the trip home from Adelaide we managed to consume almost 8L of oil. The 1.6L is in desperate need of some love so out she came. Im in the process now of slowly cleaning up the engine bay. Its tough going as the car was initially given a full under body seal but there is a lot of the tar-like stuff they use all over the engine bay as well. Slowly but surely getting there though.
For the moment the old 1.6L is going to be shelved. At some point ill give it a full rebuild and keep alive the ability to go back to 100% stock.
Josh has kindly donated his 1.8L engine and webber so we can get her up and running whilst I get cracking on a new engine build. Hopefully she will be back on the road where she belongs very soon!
Future plans? Well I want to remain true to original car to some extent. And everything will be geared towards being able to oneday return her to 100% standard. So anything that comes off will be neatly put aside.
She will most likely get a subtle lowering job and some wheels which im still yet to determine but think somewhere along the lines of zender/bbs/simmons v4s/ssr meshies. Nothing too modern looking. Will see what I can dig up.
I have already found a supplier to be able to retrim the seats in the original yellow tartan. (yes i know not to everyones taste.. But if I have to explain why I want to do it then theres no point explaining)
Heres a pic of another restored example that ive found to give you all an idea.
The new engine will be the only part stepping too far away from the norm. Im planning to run a 2E bottom end with an 8V crossflow head from a SEAT. Ive tripped over a set of twin Dellorto DHLA40s which will be mated to a rowland intake manifold from South Africa. Wont be anything wild but it should have enough grunt and make all the right noises to make it a very charismatic drive.
The bay layout should look something similar to this pic once the new engine is complete (yes i know theyre not dells). Although hopefully a little less gold in my bay though.
Other than the above, the paintwork will need attention to bring it up to a level that im happy with. It seems the whole car has seen paint at some point in its life with the front of the car being the most recent. I think i have counted 3 different shades of yellow and there are quite a few pin dents around the place. That will have to be a bit of a long term prospect at this stage though. She still scrubs up ok for now.
Once the interim 1.8L engine goes in ill get the club permit sorted out and can hopefully get the car out to some meets for everyone to have a bit of a look at.
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