DieselMonte

Bumper off to finally fix the damaged lip. Got a small fibreglass repair kit from halfords and set about fixing it. Not too hard actually. Kit had a lot more stuff than I needed so I have lots spare for the vRSDI. Only trouble I had was the resin set VERY quick. The way it was setting it was turning into jelly in the cup, so I ended up dumping that out in a lump and making more. Did 2 layers, Seems to have set very hard. Looks bad, but the patches are behind the bumper and the bottom of the splitter can't be seen. Gave it a clean waiting for the resin to set. Gave the intercooler and the spotlamps a good clean since I had access. Also tightened up the intercooler for hopefully the last time. Gave it a good polish too. All together. I'll just paint it on the car. Everything behind the bumper is fixed so no point taking it off again.

New tyre time. 4 new Pilot Sport 5's. Like a new car again. Then not long after the doors started locking and unlocking constantly. So took the switch apart and found corrosion. Cleaned it up. Works fine now.

More Wiring and Plumbing stuff in. Think it's time I get the carpet and headlining in it. I do want to Sound deaden it, but I've got bigger issues at the minute. Can always do it later. May put sills on it because of how dented they are. Really curious to see what it'll weigh when it's "done" I know it was roughly 1160-1180 when it still had the sdi lump and was mostly complete. Tough to say but I'm guessing it'd be 1280-1300 in one piece. Most of that weight being on the front axle because of A/C, the turbo, big intercooler etc. Although I'm not chasing lightness, I'd like to know.

Thanks man Not heard from you in a bit.

Sitting on its wheels for the first time in a long long time. Started it to feel how my """"custom"""" mounts felt. Pretty good actually.

4 tyres ordered, won't be in to the 11th of next month. All my tyres are looking like this so I've put the winter wheels on it since. New fogs bought and fitted. Hella ones £45 each. Have the oe numbers on them and all. Will still probably tint them again. Much to do as always. Nearly 150k on it so It'll get a full look over then.

Radio and climate control is in. Forgot the vrs suffers from the common fan resistor problem so need to do that eventually. Thankfully the sdi had an adapter loom for the Sony head unit. Happy to run it instead of that godawful touchscreen unit in the vRS. Wirings pretty chopped up but it works. Desperately needs new speakers, and the vrs ones are as bad.

Should take it to dubshed in ni next time it's on. You'd get inside for sure

It lives! Smoked out the place but it is going. Don't know if I said this before but I've had both gauges plugged in and while both work, the sdi cluster sets off the immobiliser, obviously. Not sure which gauge set I prefer. Either way I'd like to set the miles to be accurate to the chassis. So the 196xxx the sdi gauges read instead of the 216xxx on the vRS gauges. Rear suspension in fully now and rear lines connected. Don't particularly trust 20 year old fittings even though the lines themselves don't look their age. Using VanhireBoys rear springs as they're perfect for this. Very noticeable difference in these springs vs the ones that came on the vRS. Fk ones with adjusters. They'll be perfect for what I want. I don't like low cars and the height it was at before was perfect for me. It will definitely be lower now with all the extra weight on the nose but hopefully not too much. Front and rear brakes aren't installed as of yet but I may try get it on the ground for the first time in a while next day.

Kept working away and... And with some brake cleaner down the intake... It's definitely airlocked, might bring the laptop out next day and see if i can prime the system that way like you can on the common rails.

Think I should get an AFR gauge and oil pressure gauge in it. Afr to help make sure the carbs set right and Oil pressure as these are known to have weak oil pumps. Can't imagine its going to be an issue on this, but the oil pressure light only comes on at 3psi so way too late.

Did not make retrorides. Broke as I was leaving town so swapped all into the Monte and went anyway. Was Driving perfect, spent the whole day before having it gleaming. Boot was packed full of the essentials. Pretty surprising amount of space. Box was full of spares. Had a great time regardless. Thought it was a carb issue but it was clean, turns out it was the Points. Which I had spare in the boot so did that when I came back. Going alright now. Had a bottle of stuff in the garage that's been there for years, made good work on the bumpers but was very messy. Seems to dye the bumpers instead of just shining them. Did put a RR sticker on it, was there in spirit. Going fine now anyway Will get over eventually. Was another justy there atleast. Top spec 1.2 litre fuel injected 4wd one. Rear arches were pretty crusty, but otherwise fairly straight car.

Lift pump swapped in and plumbed in. Lot of the interior wiring is plugged in now, wires for the doors, etc. Can close the doors again now. Dash top is in, plugging bits in as I go. Still a mess but plugging away at it anyway.

Right so got 12 volts to it for the first time in a long time. Engines not fully plugged in, nor is most of the interior so id say I've just logged 110 faults doing this. Good job I have vcds. Plugged gauges in and they read fine. Engines not plugged in enough to crank but its a good sign. Rear lights sort of working. Long way to go but we'll get there.

Thought i had updated this thread since but I guess not. Was hoping to avoid driving this since it's last excursion in the UK. Lucky had a spare damaged but still working foglamp to put in. Since poorly painted to match. Lips still damaged and needing painted too. Tyres are all on the limit and I do not want anything less than pilot sports on it now. Needs tracked badly also. Right rear caliper is sticking slightly. Enough to make noise when you turn left. Timing belts still due and it's developed a slight tick. Sounds like lifter tick and I only hear it when the windows are down around town. It's slight. Having said all this you'll be surprised to hear that It's been back in England. Retrorides was on and it was the event I have been getting the justy ready for. The justy was running perfect right up until I left town, then it wasn't anymore. Limped it home, dumped the luggage into this and flew down to the ferry terminal, no checks, no prep to it just went. Fair play to it, it didnt miss a beat. Made me feel a bit bad about neglecting it in favour of the justy. Some interesting stuff there, Not happy the justy failed but I still got there. And it was nice to be able to cruise at 70 and still get over 65mpg. Writing this on the ferry back so not done yet. Figure it'll have done just shy of 700 miles this weekend. And even though I really have been trying to avoid driving it, for the time being I've been commuting in it. I'm temporarily doing a 50 mile a day commute, vs where I normally work being a 6 mile commute. When I get back I'm going to prioritise getting this back to top shape before anything else. I think I have enough spares to get the justy going again, and the vRSDI I have enough to get it back together as it is.

So gone from this. To this To this. Everything sort of loose in place nothing in its final resting place, yet. Trying to get things connected and work from there. Won't be started until I'm back but, that's fine with me.

Axle is in! I got some psb axle bushes as I've given up on the oem ones. They've been fine in the monte, easy to install and reasonably priced so in they went It sucked. Fuel tank is in too. Don't know if I posted this but the steering rack is swapped over too. It is festy and all this gunk under the bellows. But, it doesnt seem to be psf. it's like water got in and stayed there. All wiped off fine. Can't recall it leaking in the vrs. I'll run with it for now. Swapped track rods over and the superpro rack bush too. Have this week off work so was hoping to get the engine into its new home. The justy shouldn't need anything else done to it, and I can't really spare any funds for the Monte before going away so may as well work on this.

Bled the brakes and Flushed the coolant ahead of going away. Waiting on some sealant to dry. Brake fluid was old. All new stuff through it. Pedals firm and so far no leaks. Old fluid was not great. New stuffs a lot better. Just generic dot 4. Have an eezibleed but just bled it the normal way. Coolant looked perfectly fine but was old. So out it goes. Flushed it with a radiator flushed then 2 runs of deionised water. Refilled with 50/50 mix of coolant and water. That and another new serpentine belt is all I've done to it since. I was at JPCCNI last Sunday in Belfast. In on a reserve. So I got in, but was outside. Had to be up there between 8 and 9. Show didn't start to 11. More or less another dubshed situation where you're there for the whole thing. Weather stayed fairly dry. It was running a bit rough just as I was leaving and I wasn't sure if I should go, but it cleared up after a few miles and I went on. Think I may have fouled the plugs a bit as I was starting it and stopping it moving in and out of the garage. It got a little bit of attention surprisingly. Some pics of it came up online from other people too. They've all got the respective persons watermarks on them. Got them all from Facebook under the mentions for the event. Nice to see people cared about em. Talking to some very nice people at the event too. Opened it up, let people poke around it, etc. Really doesn't bother me having people looking in and around it. And it seemed that was not the general consensus of the event. Probably because I'm roughly a grand into this and some of the cars there could have easily had over 100k spent on them. Kinda glad it's in the state it is because I'm not worried about driving it, but it still seems to turn heads more than you'd expect considering. Retrorides is on this Friday coming. Intentions are to go dublin-holyhead early and take my time over the road. I trust it enough to get me there, mostly. But at the same time I don't want to be stressing it trying to get there on time. Aside from collecting a few more spares this shouldn't need anything more done to it.

Been driving it a fair bit since. Racking up the miles. Gone through a few tanks on it now. Calculated my mpg to be 35mpg on the dot, not bad considering it's on e10, and I've been driving it as I would. Given its got a 35L tank, brimmed I have an effective range of about 270 miles. Took it down to Mondello last Sunday for drift games. Did try to get in to the car show in it and ofcourse got a polite but firm "no". Went down anyway on the Sunday. Was miserable weather. Did well keeping up with traffic, 70-80mph on the motorway, which doesn't sound like a lot but cause of the gearing it was sitting between 4-4500 rpm at that. Drove absolutely fine. No shaking. No vagueness etc. Only concern is the temp gauge but I have a sender ordered. Whether it comes or not, who knows. Good stuff at driftgames. Still looked "clean" given the weather. Only annoyance was that the sheen on the bumpers washed off so they looked chalky grey by the end of it. Driving away at it anyway. JPCCNI is this Sunday and it's ""in"" on a reserve ticket. Have an e-mail saying that I should show up between 8-9 am incase a spot opens up. I get the impression it's being displayed outside in anycase, but I couldn't well be wrong and it might just get ****ed out if no spots open up. Nonetheless I washed it and I'm gonna give it a thorough clean ahead of it. Retrorides is on the 11th-13th and if this doesn't break down I'll be taking it. If not I'll still go in the monte. Few small things I want to do to it before then. Firstly flush the brakes, as the fluid looks like this. Brakes feel absolutely fine, yet to have an issue with boiling them or anything. But I never did it, it's obviously not been since long before it went off the road so I may do it now. Secondly I'll change the coolant as it is also quite old. Again not had an issue with it yet, but I want to do as much as possible to have it good to go. Need to think about spares too. I'll be bringing a full toolkit, spare carb rebuild kit. Spare set of points, spare plugs, spare fuel filter just in case, I'll swap them again before I go too. Anyone have any advice on what I may be missing? On the topic of that. I've been changing the inline filter before the carb every once in a while. It'll run clear for ages before bringing up a chunk of gunk from God knows where. Filters doing its job seemingly and its never much. Hope all goes well but want to be as prepared as possible.

Tried getting the bushes in but could not for the life of me get them in straight. Back to the drawing board.

Driving away at it happily for a while, just ticked over 38k and it **** the bed. Lucky was heading to the farm, a few hundred metres out had to pull into a ditch for some *******s in an i30. Go to pull out and the throttles really dead, choking the engine. It was driving absolutely perfect up until then. Magically got it to go enough to get to the farm gates, once it gets over 4k (when the second barrel opens) it was fine. Sitting idling at the farm and it was slowly choking itself out till it died. Restarted it and again, any throttle it'd die, and it'd slowly die idling. Held it on the choke up to the shed and there it sat. Took apart the carb and found the accelerator pump had a tear in the boot. So tried to warranty the keyster kit I got and amazingly, they've sent out another kit. Ordered another kit from the first crowd hoping it'd get here quicker, inspite of it being ordered first, and "only" coming from Germany. It was delivered at the same time as the keyster kit from Canada. Nice. Anyway, put the new pump on, cleaned it up a bit and. (Note I used the kit from Germany not the keyster one) Still did it, albeit it wasn't instantly dying. So took it apart again. Cleaned it out again. And. I mean I'll take it. Bit of a flat-bottomed around 3k but it cleared out. Maybe there was some of the solvent left in it from when I was cleaning it and that was choking it, maybe there was **** in it still somehow. Don't know, not too worried since it's running again. So now I have a kit spare. Not too mad all things considered since it's having issues now and not in a month's time at retrorides. And the fact it didn't do it when it was being tested, because God knows when I would have got another date. It's not home yet, gonna give it some driving tomorrow evening and if its fine I'll take it home.

Axles now painted, stonechip first then 2 coats of glorious hammered black. Nitromors stuff cause the shop didn't have hammerite, and I wasn't bothered going anywhere else. Looking real sharp. Bit left over for touch up once it's in too. Also sealed up the firewall from the time I tried chopping it out for the vrs one. Feels like I'm getting to the point where Everything's lining up, and I'll just be able to bang everything in like that.

Aye for the passengers

More fooling around with this axle. Wire brushed it and soaked it in rust remover gel, which didn't really work. In fairness its rougher than the axle i put in the monte. Used the dregs of a tin of silver hammerite to see what that'd look like. Looks ok, but I think hammered black will look better and won't be so obvious when rust starts popping through. Tried to use a tool from work to swap the bushes but didn't get a chance. So did it myself. Pain. Used a makeshift puller tool consisting of some nuts, a threaded bar, a pipe and a wheel bearing to try pull the bushes but it only removed the centre part. So did what I done last time and drilled the nylon part of the bush out to try get it to collapse. Took ages, made a mess. But eventually got there. New bushes I have are Lemforder ones with a 6R0 part number which matches the number on etka for the vrs. If I destroy these I'll get poly bushes again but I'd much rather these. Seemingly the standard bushes allow for a bit of (passive) rear steer. Although the part number matches on etka, these bushes don't have the black end caps the bushes in the vrs axle had. Etka had 2 bushes for it, the other being 1k0, which was greyed out indicating its not for the vrs. Stripped down and hanging up. Will order heatshields and replace them on the car so they aren't damaged. These ones aren't great.

Very tasty car and really could not be in better hands Jealous I didn't win it but I've enough around me at the minute.