Project Y

Ocotber 2004. Soneji needed rid of a 1.4 3 door phase 1 19. I said yes despite not having seen the car. It had failed its mot on a multitude of things, like dashboard (I don't know why either), rear brakes, front brakes, wipers and so on, but not a thing in regards to corrosion.

So on the 9th of October I went through and collected the car. Before it could move I had some work to do.

The strut on the offside had 1 bolt in the manual rack holes and 1 in the power steering holes, soon had that sorted. I also had to work on the back brakes so they actually worked.

It was then that I saw the car had money spent on it. Soneji (George) had got the car for free as the previous owner to him had spent £2k trying to get the car to pass an mot. New stuff included new front discs and pads, new rear shoes, service items and a new clutch.

Anyway the car was then fit for the drive back to Glasgow from Edinburgh. Managed 110 mph out of it eventually on the secret underground private motorway that links these two great cities.

I could tell the timing was way to retarded, it started fine but didn't like to rev, pull and it stalled when floored. So the carb also needed looked at.

The 10th, some pics I took.

The engine bay, note Georges ingenious IK fitment!







Base spec interior, ahh not seen one of these in a long time! Note no central air vents and the gear lever surround.



grey carpet as well. One major benefit of the seats is the fact it weighs less than half the weight of a 16V seats!



The back of the car, also before the slabs for the driveway were laid



The outside, unadulterated car loviness, note kink in door, a transit van attack!



fo sho!



It was then onto the work.

First job was to sort the leaking and non adjusting rear brakes.



shoes etc all off



nice new shoes courtesy of a previous owner



shoes cleaned up, novelty kitchen roll shines a little light into the dark world for me...



the self adjusting mechanism and again new springs all cleaned up ready to go



assembled ready to go on the car



all shiny and neewwwww! like a virgin - wheel cylinder, bled for the very first tiimmme!



all back together, rear nearside brake as new!