DieselMonte's 2012 Monte Carlo Project.

[DieselMonte]

Last thing that I ordered was a short shifter from creationmotorsport. Ordered it end of august and its still not here, worse is that its been shipped under royal mail standard delivery, no tracking number so I don't know where it even is.

[DieselMonte]

Well no short shifter but the centre caps I ordered came in, look pretty good I must say compared to the originals.

Also, since I got the car back its been non stop on the roads, must be near 600 miles on it already so the brakes are well run in by now. Confident to give my thoughts on them so, may as well do it in this post.

I can't get over how much of an improvement they are, much more confidence in the car now. I'm liking the feel now they've bedded in, definately a BIG improvement over the standard 288mms. As silly as it sounds, I kept stopping short and braking too early into corners for the first few days, couldnt blip the throttle easily either. Now the pedals softened a bit more I can manage it again. Much quieter too, old brakes squeaked and made way too much noise just crawling around town, now its dead quiet. Granted, I can't say whether or not getting better pads and discs on my 288s would have gotten me the same results, seems to me the discs and pads that were on the car weren't fit for purpose, they were pretty new when I got the car and the old stuff has lots of meat on them still though so who knows. Also, I went out and tried to get abs to kick in, when it did it acted exactly how i'd hoped. Before I had one or 2 times where it would kick in when it really shouldnt have, from what i've felt so far its much more subtle and way more controlled. Can't ask for better really, especially considering i've just got normal Mintex pads and blanks on.

I cannot wait to get the suspension on and sorted, just need the time to do it really but should get a chance this weekend.

 

[AnnoyingPentium]

32 minutes ago, DieselMonte said:

Well no short shifter but the centre caps I ordered came in, look pretty good I must say compared to the originals.

 

Well that's spooky... Mine arrived this morning! 

[DieselMonte]

Rears are in! What should have took me maybe 90 minutes took near 4 hours. Took the plastic guards off and found, (you guessed it) more rust! Bright side is there was easier access to it so I just went with a wire brush on a drill and knocked all as far back as I could.

No after pics, after I washed the arches there was even more rust lurking. Sorted every spot I could see.

These shocks were honestly worse than the mk1s, amazed there was no leaks or anything from them.

Neat picture I took, from top to bottom is:

New Supersport rear spring

Mystery stiffer spring from the mk1's stuff

OEM Fabia "sport" spring

OEM Fabia "normal" spring.

I reckon I may put back the stiffer spring I was running, and run it on the new adjustable perches to give it a couple extra mm of height.

All fitted and ready to go. Happily no broken bolts. Also painted the drums "Peugeot Cossack grey" because why not. They were dry enough at the end of it that I could put some copper grease on the mating surface of them to stop my wheels seizing on come winter.

Quick and poorly lit picture of the finished product. Sitting much the same as before albeit the perches are wound right up.

Overall, from the short drive I've done in it its much improved over the original stuff! Really its just made me even more eager to get the fronts in!

[DieselMonte]

Fronts are now on. Annoyingly I couldnt for the life of me find a 21mm spanner that would work to get the caps off. Meant that I had to go and take the wiper scuttle and all off the car to get access to put a spark plug socket on the top. Which meant I had to go out and get a wiper arm puller, as mine had seized on badly.

All 4 wheels off the ground. Was going to replace the rear springs if I finished the fronts quick, that didnt happen.

Struts were such a PITA to get out, drivers side was the worst overall by far. Got very thick and cut the spring to remove the shock assembly. Not very Happy I had to resort to that but at this point I was at the point of no return. Needless to say the old shocks were FAR past their prime.

Both sides went on eventually. As ever the drivers was a massive pita to get back on. Strangely, the passengers came out smooth as butter, and went back in smoother still.

Back on the ground now, all tightened up. Caps sitting flush with the turret now.

 

Not a great picture, but it represents how the top mount was sitting before.

Back on the ground and its sitting nearly the same as before, which I like! Passengers seems a bit higher than the drivers by a hair so I'll adjust that next day, no biggie.

Driving it its a lot nicer. More comfortable AND more responsive. It even tracks dead straight! So far it seems well worth the hassle, but by god it was not an easy job.

Heres hoping the front doesnt fall off.

Edited 31 March, 2022 by DieselMonte
Wonky picture

[DieselMonte]

Well, finally have the ride height as I wanted it so may as well throw up some pics.

Before and after, very little difference but I set the front to be about 20mm lower. Well 20mm on the passengers and 15 on the drivers as the old suspension bushes made the drivers side sag a bit. Initially I had the perches in the rear but ditched them in favour of the older stiffer springs I had already. Bit much of a faff to get it sitting how I wanted. Steepish rake to the car now which is whatever to me. It rides well, doesnt come close to catching on our terrible roads and is much more stable in a corner. If you hit one of our many really bad potholes theres a slight clunk from the passengers side, otherwise perfect. I reckon its a droplink again.

Also, I put in a new airfilter in April, thats it on top. Bugs and bird feathers ingrained into it. Went and got another filter and fitted it. Instantly more pep. I had fettled with the airbox and intake pipe early in the summer in a bit to reduce intake temps, basically mounted the intake trumpet lower and hacked away at the grille to aid in getting cold air into the engine easier. It did seem to keep intake temps down when you were moving but it seems a consequence of that is the filter gets clogged up much quicker.

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 minute ago, DieselMonte said:

Went and got another filter and fitted it. Instantly more pep

 

Much like myself then. Admittedly my filter was fitted around December 2020 time (previous owner) but this summer has been harsh on the thing and you could tell the car was very flat in terms of throttle response, or numb if you will.

[DieselMonte]

Looking at it from a mileage standpoint I reckon that filters been on for 8500 miles so its held up ok considering. Hardly do crazy miles in the car but over the summer its been on a few trips out and around the country, over to Galway down to Wicklow etc. Within a week of me getting it back from being serviced I had another 1k miles on it! Atleast I know now to check and replace the filter more often than I had thought.

[DieselMonte]

Practical cars these

Started making progress on the vRS spyders today, Had them broken down to the bare rim for starters.

Got some supplies, primer, paint and clear. And some Isopon of course.

After a lot of consideration I decided to paint them normal "Alloy wheel silver". I've used that particular tin of paint before and liked it so may as well stick with it. Considered Gunmetal and even gold (Like a certain Orange 2l fabia) but the gunmetal wouldnt fit the wheels well imo, and the gold wouldnt fit the car at all.

Damage was pretty bad, this ones the worst by far. 

Pic of it scuffed down ready for some primer.

And heres how it sits now. Letting that set overnight. I think i'll go and get some filler primer too, need more sandpaper come to think of it also.

I got the 4 wheels for 80 euros with Tyres on them, currently 65 euro into supplies. I expect to be 100 euro in supplies by the end of it. In my head that works out as 45 euro per wheel and another maybe 70 euro fitted for some winters in 195/50 R16  size.

A fair bit of money BUT they should look decent at the end and when they go back on the mk1 come summer, make it look much smarter too.

On the topic of the mk1, I'm debating stripping it back down over winter and refreshing the bushes and suspension arms. Maybe even do a bit of painting on it? You never know, might finally be one colour again 

[DieselMonte]

Got three wheels rubbed down a bit and filler applied before I ran out of sandpaper. No harm leaving the filler overnight to set though. 

Only this wheel left to rub back and fill, probably second roughest out of the 4 as a lot of those kerb marks are quite deep. Don't really know how to sort the marks on the wheels where the paint has just come off, hoping if I sand it back it will be enough for some filler primer to fill them up?

 

[DieselMonte]

Right, so another €42.50 spent on paint and supplies. Totals now €97.50.

After an hour or two of sanding, this wheel was ready for primer. I sanded the filler down with 80 grit until it was almost even with the rest of the rim, then went with 240 grit, 320 grit, 500 grit and finished with 600 grit. Blew off the massive amounts of dust with an air compressor and then wiped them down.

After 3 coats of Upol etch primer it came out like this. I bought filler primer just in case, looks like this wheel wont need it. 

These two however....

Well I have my work cut out if these are going to come out halfway decent.

I used WAY too much filler but its nothing that a few sheets of 80 grit and a few hours won't sort.

 

[HeavyMetalRich]

That one looks good.👍

 

I would need to give this a go with my spare set of wheels. I just always wonder if paint will be tough enough to resist damage when refitting the tyres. I would usually get mine powder coated. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

That one in the grey colour looks nice. It's kind of similar to the colour I want to do my Bohemia wheels in soon!

[DieselMonte]

4 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

That one in the grey colour looks nice. It's kind of similar to the colour I want to do my Bohemia wheels in soon!

The grey is just Upol etch primer. Not my cup of tea but it did come out really well. Bit darker in person than in that photo.

[DieselMonte]

27 minutes ago, HeavyMetalRich said:

That one looks good.👍

 

I would need to give this a go with my spare set of wheels. I just always wonder if paint will be tough enough to resist damage when refitting the tyres. I would usually get mine powder coated. 

Wonder what powdercoating would cost for these wheels? Obviously I won't get close to the finish of a powdercoated set, but they'll look more than fine for my cars. That primers sprayed really well, and I know the paint I bought also sprays really well so I'm confident they'll come out decent. Only trouble is i've never used that clearcoat before so I'm a little nervous to clear them, but I know that I need to get some clearcoat on them if they are to withstand any sort of abuse. 

[DieselMonte]

Oh and one more thing, I pushed down this old shock of the mk2 a week ago and its still stuck down. 

Safe to say these are toast.

My pile of junk shocks and springs.

Other side of the shed has my pile of rear springs that I have somehow amassed over the last few months.

[J.R.]

Why would you expect a piston rod of a damper without a spring to return to the extended position after being pushed down?

[DieselMonte]

30 minutes ago, J.R. said:

Why would you expect a piston rod of a damper without a spring to return to the extended position after being pushed down?

Do they not come back up on their own eventually? 

[J.R.]

The clue is in the name, "damper" and not "spring".

[HeavyMetalRich]

16 hours ago, DieselMonte said:

Wonder what powdercoating would cost for these wheels? Obviously I won't get close to the finish of a powdercoated set, but they'll look more than fine for my cars. That primers sprayed really well, and I know the paint I bought also sprays really well so I'm confident they'll come out decent. Only trouble is i've never used that clearcoat before so I'm a little nervous to clear them, but I know that I need to get some clearcoat on them if they are to withstand any sort of abuse. 

 

Well I was charged £77.50 + vat a wheel up here last time I got some done. I realize I probably could have gotten it cheaper south but the cost shipping them back and fore would have cancelled out any saving.

 

I think you'll be alright with the clear. As they say, the key is in the preparation, which you appear to be getting on well with.

[DieselMonte]

More progress again today, 

Brought out the rotary polisher with a 120 grit pad and sanded the filler down in no time

Had to fill a few small imperfections with knife putty so I stopped there on that wheel.

As you can see, the wheel I etch primed last night came out awesome, But I decided to use the high build primer over it anyway.

Poor lighting on my part, but here is how that wheel sits now, letting the primer set overnight and I think i'll just sand it with 600 grit next day and spray some colour on ideally.

Bit odd the high build primers a cream sort of colour and the etch primers black/really dark grey but looks like I got full coverage anyway so nothing to worry over. Again these won't be perfect but so far this one looks like it will come out great.

 

As soon as I wrapped up, I was greeted with this.

Was worried for a moment but after a bit of searching around the projector light on these only uses a H7 bulb, same as the main bulb on a mk1... So I "borrowed" one from the mk1 for now and I'll order a set of decent bulbs (Not leds, Not HIDs) to swap in whenever they arrive. The ones in it were cheapy ones and I thought the light output was fine enough, but given how much people rant about Osram nightbreakers and the likes I must order a set for myself and see how good they are.

Edited 31 March, 2022 by DieselMonte

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 hour ago, DieselMonte said:

but given how much people rant about Osram nightbreakers and the likes I must order a set for myself and see how good they are.

 

Please let me know if they're any good! I'm looking for some bulbs for my Mk1.

[DieselMonte]

1st wheel finished. First pic is after the 2nd coat of colour. Looks very well but it was matted,  obviously thats where the clear came in.

Here it is finished, 4 coats of clear on it. Still a little matte but after a bit of wetsanding and some polish once the paints cured, I reckon this one will come out golden.

Second ones just an extra shot of the same wheel with flash turned on. Far from perfect but it doesnt need to be.

Have another wheel etch primed and another with knife putty on it ready to be sanded and primed. Doubt they'll come out quite as nice but heres hoping! 

Oh and I went and ordered 2 sets of bulbs. Ordered the nightbreakers and all was fine until I got a message saying estimated delivery was the end of October, somehow it takes 3 weeks to ship some bulbs from Germany to Ireland...

Well I know that the bulbs I have will be fine, but I said screw it and bought some bulbs from a crowd up in Belfast that should be here start of next week, same crowd I bought the foglight bulbs from. The ones from belfast are some that I've wanted to try for a while, and apparently they're legal to use here to boot. 

[DieselMonte]

On 04/10/2021 at 22:55, J.R. said:

Why would you expect a piston rod of a damper without a spring to return to the extended position after being pushed down?

Instead of watching paint dry, I did a wee experiment of my own. In this video I put both one of my Mk1 fabias shocks and one of my mk2 shocks into a vice and pressed down on them. First one up is from the mk1 and from the video its plain to see its got more life in it than I had given it credit for. Second one up is the shock from the mk2.

Now do you see my point?

 

Obviously I can't explain my point well, but showing it is much simpler.

 

Edited 31 March, 2022 by DieselMonte
More Wonky pictures

[J.R.]

Gottit!

 

I had not allowed for the displacement volume of the piston rod, the true test is the resistance to displacement at a measured speed in both the bump & rebound directions, I can see from the video that the second one is easier to move in bump so would agree with your diagnosis.

 

However a properly functioning  shock that has not lost fluid may actually be slower to return or even not return at all due to stiction (unlikely with the displacement from a large diameter piston rod) yet be damping better than a worn one that does or returns faster.

 

A duff one can be detected on the bench, a completely shot one will have no resistance, trying to determine if one is good or just OK really needs to be part of a spring mass system either bumping the corner of the vehicle or on a test rig.

 

Modern cars are so heavy that I have not been able to test anything but a completely shot damper on the vehicle without another persons mass in addition to mine and its hard to move in sync.