DieselMonte's 2012 Monte Carlo Project.

[DieselMonte]

Pics below are of me partway through the operation. I cut out the "rings" from eachother and the cut portions from the rings to make them easier to remove. Oddly, its not a solid molded piece like I had thought. The inner piece is pressed into place so instead of having to bore out the entire piece, I could chip away at the inner piece and get it out separately. If I had a better way, or a vice, I might have been able to pop it out as one piece. The lower portion  (wider part at the turbo) is molded in place however so you have to cut it out, the top piece (intercooler side) is pressed.

Last pic is of the cars holes covered as I spent much too long going at this and had to leave it for the night.

[DieselMonte]

The pics here is the "near" finished product.

I had bored the turbo side of it (big side) smooth, The o-ring is sitting under a ring that pops out, it pops back in easy so dont worry if you accidentally pop it out. I wanted to leave a bit of plastic around the "choke point" on the damper as I was worried I would burn through the plastic or weaken it too much, risking it snapping. when I had taken the worst of the rough out with a dremel I sanded it by hand with 120 grit then 800 grit to smooth it out slightly. I put all back and started it. I didnt record a video as it was midnight by the time I had it back together. On an unrelated note, this car sounds amazing without the air filter hooked up, I ran it like that to make sure I had tightened up all the hoses and that there was no boost leaks.

[DieselMonte]

I wanted to give it a day or two to make sure I didnt just wreck my engine. The first day it felt as though it pulled harder, but it wasnt too happy crawling throught town when it was busy, it does it sometimes and I assumed it was just trying to work out what was changing. It does it occasionally wherein it is very jerky at part throttle and when it does this it will always Idle at 1000 rpm rather than the 780 it should. I can think of a handful of times where it has done it but it just goes away after a while.

The second day it seemed to work out the kinks and pulled pretty well. Its more lively now at part throttle and seems to spool a bit quicker/easier too. It also gives off a little bit of extra induction noise,not much but its there. I doubt I have made more power doing this but it seems just a little more lively anyhow.

Would I recommend someone else to do this? Probably not. I am happy with the results however, my car was down for 2 days and it made a mess of my workspace. Not to mention that I almost lost an eye when one of the cutting disks came apart and flew past my head. If I were to do this again I would either buy another damper and do it on that one, so my car is only down for 2hours rather than 2 days. Or better yet I would have just bought a Darkside damper and be done with it. If a spare damper was £30 and a darkside one was £50 Its not worth the £20 difference to spend so much time to do it. Rather it would be much smarter to just buy the upgraded piece,install it and forget it.

[DieselMonte]

Got some stripes for the grille in the post today. Only cost me a few pound on amazon and I think it looks quite smart.

[VanhireBoys]

That looks very very well.. ! Simple but effective detail ! 

 

 

[DieselMonte]

Snow Pics from a few days back.

[DieselMonte]

I have a Whiteline RARB ordered, Fedex says its in Dublin as of Wednesday and I was meant to have it the Friday before. I wouldn't mind the wait but I was under the car spraying the shock bolts with wd40 in preparation for it being on the car friday last week. Hopefully it will come on monday and  I can put it on then. Atleast i've been kept busy with my other fabia. We're supposed to face another cold snap soon so hopefully i'll have it on the car then and have some more slidey fun on our craptastic roads.

[DieselMonte]

Whiteline on and installed on the mid setting. Will take it out tonight to see if it makes any difference. Glad I finally got it, even if it took a while.

[DieselMonte]

I had one of the vRS wheels off of my mk1 fabia and wanted to see how it would look on this. Honestly not bad. Might need to get some tires on them and use them for the next month or so, The frost has taken chunks out of every road and it'd be nice to have some extra rubber to soak up the bumps.

[DieselMonte]

Gave the car a quick test earlier today and its amazing the difference the whiteline makes. Much more confidence in the car now and I can open the throttle up earlier in a corner because Its a lot easier to position the car and have it stick to your line. Might need to get stiffer front arb bushes and drop links to make up for the extra stiffness in the rear. Probably should get some console bushes too as I think they are getting to be a bit old, could feel a bit tighter to be honest.

[DieselMonte]

Today marks 1 year of me owning the Monte Carlo. Its been a pretty great car in that year. I think I may have been mistaken on the drop links being worn out, it clunks when turning the wheel when stationary and there is a bit of play at 9 and 3 on both front wheels. Most likely track rod ends. I'll head down to the motor factors today and see how much they are. Cant imagine they would be much more than 20 euro or so a side. I still will get new drop links and d bushes but I'll push it off until I'm sure that its track rod ends that are worn. I would imagine worn track rod ends would explain the "loose" feeling i've been getting lately.

The weather should be starting to clear up soon so I'll get stuff in order to give the car a good polish. Been meaning to paint the front brakes too but I've been spending most of my spare time working on my Mk1 Fabia and trying to get it to be somewhat roadworthy.

[DieselMonte]

Had the front wheels off today to check the tie rod ends. They certainly look bad but I couldnt feel much wrong with them. I'll keep them in mind to replace sooner rather than later though. Anti roll bar D bushes looked ok, drop links I'll probably replace because they seem past their best. Also, when I was under there I noticed that the springs look to be done not long before I got the car, I can still see the coloured dots on them. I noticed the rears were like new when I was under there doing the Whiteline also.

 

Since I had the wheels off I gave the calipers and hubs a very quick spray of VHT silver. I wire brushed then sanded the hubs and calipers, sprayed them off with compressed air and sprayed them silver. It was a very quick job and I did it mainly to prevent the wheels from welding themselves to the hubs. Its a good thing I did because I could see rusty sludge forming on the hub, made sure to sand the hub smooth. The brakes are rusty because it was sitting straight after being washed. I didnt mask anything though, I just sprayed the paint on and got some petrol on a rag to clean off the disc. Brakes painted wheels back on. Drove the car around to scrub the discs off, first stop was sketchy but it was fine after that. On an unrelated note, I'm impressed with how well the wheels have held up. As far as i'm aware these are the original wheels and were never powdercoated or anything other than a bit of touch up paint here and there. Might try and see if I can use the polisher and make them really pop. In fairness that picture was not taken in the most flattering light but my point still stands. 

[DieselMonte]

Wheels up again today, decided to price out a set of drop links at the motor factors. It was 36 euro for the pair so I got them. They are made by FIA, not familiar with the brand but the look and feel to be decent. Took out the old ones and didnt realise how loose they were in comparison to the new ones. Not much of a job to install them but I dropped the plastic cladding under the engine for easier access to get a torx bit into the bottom tie rod ball joint. Newer ones are a stronger design by the looks of them, they look to be a solid piece in the middle instead of the weird design of the standard ones. I would hope that these arent 94000 miles old, they certainly werent done recently. Finished the job and went for a test run. About town its noticably quieter and much more stable over the numerous potholes in town. Took it out on some backroads, the difference was night and day. Its now much more stable on these rough roads, has made a noticable improvement in feedback and the whole car feels tighter when cornering. Combined with the whiteline the car has been massively improved. It still has a touch of the clunk when its stationary, its faint now but still there. Should probably do the tie rod ends when I can, feels fine to drive though, just has the clunk.

[kentdale]

On 02/02/2021 at 22:05, DieselMonte said:

Had the front wheels off today to check the tie rod ends. They certainly look bad but I couldnt feel much wrong with them. I'll keep them in mind to replace sooner rather than later though. Anti roll bar D bushes looked ok, drop links I'll probably replace because they seem past their best. Also, when I was under there I noticed that the springs look to be done not long before I got the car, I can still see the coloured dots on them. I noticed the rears were like new when I was under there doing the Whiteline also.

 

Since I had the wheels off I gave the calipers and hubs a very quick spray of VHT silver. I wire brushed then sanded the hubs and calipers, sprayed them off with compressed air and sprayed them silver. It was a very quick job and I did it mainly to prevent the wheels from welding themselves to the hubs. Its a good thing I did because I could see rusty sludge forming on the hub, made sure to sand the hub smooth. The brakes are rusty because it was sitting straight after being washed. I didnt mask anything though, I just sprayed the paint on and got some petrol on a rag to clean off the disc. Brakes painted wheels back on. Drove the car around to scrub the discs off, first stop was sketchy but it was fine after that. On an unrelated note, I'm impressed with how well the wheels have held up. As far as i'm aware these are the original wheels and were never powdercoated or anything other than a bit of touch up paint here and there. Might try and see if I can use the polisher and make them really pop. In fairness that picture was not taken in the most flattering light but my point still stands. 

I think that the wheel looks good in dark grey, I spoke to a bloke about re furbishing my Fabia wheels last year but on hold at the moment, might try to refurb them myself although I cant stove enamel them.

[DieselMonte]

Gave the car a good detail over the past few days. Claybarred first, then took two passes with Meguiars ultimate compound. One with a wool pad and one with a foam pad. Then I moved on to Ultimate Polish, covered that with poorboys world white diamond glaze and black hole glaze for the roof and trim. Lastly, I used up the last dregs of Ultimate liquid wax I've had for a while and done about 8 cars with. After I did the body, I moved onto the interior. I've kept on top of the interior and had given it a good clean about a month ago so it was mostly just using apc to clean the plastics and giving everything a good hoover. I had to clean the glass again as I put stuff on the trim to dress it up and it appears to have just off gassed and stuck to all of the glass, leaving a greasy film on it. It was easy to clean off but I'd rather have not needed to do it again so soon. Overall, the car's gone from looking great to looking pristine and hopefully it should stay that way for a long while.

Pictures don't really do it justice, The lower part of the car was chock full of tar and fallout. Lastly, I gave the wheels a quick rub with black hole glaze, they look to have a better shine to them but I doubt it'll last too long.

[DieselMonte]

Pics of it outside. Front bumper looks a different shade of white in the picture, looks the same as the rest of the car in person.

[DieselMonte]

Looks better than ever.

[DieselMonte]

Set the whiteline to its stiffer setting, feels good. A part of me was hoping i'd be able to get it to oversteer a bit going into corners but no luck. Even my mk1 is happy to slide about with ease. It hasnt even got a handbrake let alone any suspension mods. Its not the tyres either as both cars have  crappy toledo tl1000 tyres on the back. I think a part of it is the fact that my monte carlo has bigger brakes on the front and the same size drums on the rear, so the brake bias is pushed further to the front. Dont get me wrong it handles great but its a bit of a shock when I can slide my mk1 around like Ken Block and not have so much as a hint of oversteer in my stiffer, better kept monte carlo. Even still, this car would beat my mk1 anywhere except for a field.

[DieselMonte]

Got some foglight tint on ebay for cheap.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262621985443

Arrived pretty fast so I washed the car and put them on. In hindsight I shouldve tried to tint the foglights on my mk1 first. The big wide foglight housings on this car made it a massive pain in the ass to do. I kept creasing it just under the DRL bulb because of the curve in it. So I learned to start from there and it came out perfect on the other foglamp. Its easiest to take out the foglamps on this, its a matter of a few clips and 10 seconds of work per side. It came out kind of crap at first on the drivers side but the passengers side is damn near perfect. Some pics of the before and after. I think it looks good. Some of the imperfections on the drivers side arent as obvious now, I always use the foglights so I imagine the heat from them helped stick the tint better. The good thing about getting a roll of tint is that I have enough left over to do my mk1. I even was able to use the excess from tinting these foglights to tint another set on another car, 3 cars in total and I would've had enough to do 1 or 2 more except that I wasted some figuring out how to do it. Overall, I'm happy with the results. I use the foglights always when driving to help spot hazards (namely potholes) and I could swear that the yellow contrasts against the potholes better than the standard white beam. I imagine the yellow beam is a bit less harsh on oncoming drivers too so its a win for everyone.

[VanhireBoys]

That's another good bang for buck mod 👍

 

The French had yellow fog lights for a time and I recall people covering their lights with that yellow wrapping from a Lucozade bottle - Showing my age now 

[DieselMonte]

Tried the vRS spyders from my mk1 on this. I think they look good but they could do with some more tyre.

Ticked over 95,000 miles this evening too.

[DieselMonte]

Track rod ends done today.

Got firstline ones 26 euro for the set at the local motorfactors. They certainly seem to be decently made bits and for the price they seem very good quality. Fitted them relatively easily, only trouble stemmed from having to resort to using a sledgehammer to free them from the hub. I got it aligned close enough to drive home and its honestly near perfect as is, will still get it aligned first thing tomorrow.

The clunk I felt is still there it seems to be stemming from the Top mounts so i'll tighten them when I can. I needed to do the Track rod ends anyway, the standard ones were wrecked, inners seem ok though.

The console bushes are well, bushed! They look as perished as my mk1's in all honesty. Those Problem solving bushes seem to be a good shout so I might consider them. If i'm doing the console bushes i'll probably do the TTRS ball joints too, a hint of negative camber is all I need for my driving. I dont know exactly what year of TTrs to get them from though, I wont be doing them for a while yet. This car still handles pretty great for what it is though, hard to imagine what it'll be like after a bit more upkeeps put into it.

The way I see it, the parts are cheap on these cars and they're easy to do. If I sold it tomorrow and got (say) a golf, I likely would need to do all of this anyways and I still probably wouldnt have as good of a car in the end as this one. Worst case, the receipts are good to keep to prove its been well maintained so realistically I'm as well to get this car in top shape than run it to the ground

[DieselMonte]

Thought I'd upload the alignment sheet. Car drives straight as with the wheel straight now. It would seem that I infact did have the toe adjustment set decently. Now its set 100 percent properly so hopefully I wont have to worry about it for a while. Camber is slightly higher on the passengers side, seemingly the bushes being worn out is the cause. I think the wishbones are going to be next.

[DieselMonte]

PS Bushings console bush and front wishbone arrived today, they look to be good quality. Ordered TTRS balljoints and they arrived earlier in the week. 

All's there now so hopefully I should be able to put them in this evening, only worry for me is getting the front wishbone out as I don't have a press but i'll figure it out.

Hopefully I won't need another alignment, I think i'll be ok.

[DieselMonte]

Got the wishbones out last night, pain in the hole, The two wishbone bolts where stuck fast on both sides. I was very lucky I got a impact gun last week, even it struggled to get them loose. 

Console bushes themselves practically fell out of the arms, they werent even sitting properly in the arms.

Front bush was a little more difficult, I ended up drilling the rubber out and making a press to get it out. I'll need to sand the holes smooth, probably will give the whole arm a bit of paint.

Hard part seems to be done. Should get the car back on its wheels this evening and get some shakedown runs in. Car ran pretty good before this, considering how worn the old bushes were, this should really tighten up the handling.