Thought it was about time I signed up to this forum, my brother (Rich606) introduced me to joys of retro rides forum a while back.
This is my third Metro having previously had an 88 vanden plas in white (had to get rid unfortunately when moving house- clutch had gone and I was skint) and a 94 1.4si (£300 rotbox-HGF and leaky petrol tank!). Bought this in may 06, I didn't set out to buy a GTI particularly but this was about the 6th tro i'd looked at and this was the most solid. Test drove it realised the master cylinder was knackered and the exhaust was hanging off - bought it anyway and drove it with hardly any brakes from Staffordshire to High Wycombe in a torrential downpour
Replaced the master cylinder and servo and most of the exhaust system, passed mot jul 06. Jun 07 was trying to replace lower balljoint and broke captive nut inside subframe
Got a garage to sort that and change the rear radius arms, they had to cut open the subframe get the knackered bolt out and weld it back up - bit of a mission. Month later failed MOT on rear brakeline and rear subframe rot.
Eventually decided best thing was to restore the whole car - made the most sense rather than keep bodgeing it.
Got a hydrogas pump and got to work, this was what it looked like october 07.
Didn't really do much over the winter as the car is outside. Got back on it around february ruthlessly cut out any rot and worked up until april when I got some of the welding done by a mobile welder called Alan.
Have run rear brake lines through car.
Stripped all the under seal off the underside of the car (heatgun and scraper, wire brush cup then thinners) bit of a mission not fun getting loads of curse word in you face even with a visor on. Seam sealered all the welding then treated the floor to hammerite primer, 2 layers of stonechip paint (tetroseal is best, then u-pol second but don't bother with the plastic padding stuff -shockingly bad!) Then couple of coats of hammerite red.
Trying to post this in my lunch break - will upload more later.
This is my third Metro having previously had an 88 vanden plas in white (had to get rid unfortunately when moving house- clutch had gone and I was skint) and a 94 1.4si (£300 rotbox-HGF and leaky petrol tank!). Bought this in may 06, I didn't set out to buy a GTI particularly but this was about the 6th tro i'd looked at and this was the most solid. Test drove it realised the master cylinder was knackered and the exhaust was hanging off - bought it anyway and drove it with hardly any brakes from Staffordshire to High Wycombe in a torrential downpour
Replaced the master cylinder and servo and most of the exhaust system, passed mot jul 06. Jun 07 was trying to replace lower balljoint and broke captive nut inside subframe
Got a garage to sort that and change the rear radius arms, they had to cut open the subframe get the knackered bolt out and weld it back up - bit of a mission. Month later failed MOT on rear brakeline and rear subframe rot.
Eventually decided best thing was to restore the whole car - made the most sense rather than keep bodgeing it.
Got a hydrogas pump and got to work, this was what it looked like october 07.
Didn't really do much over the winter as the car is outside. Got back on it around february ruthlessly cut out any rot and worked up until april when I got some of the welding done by a mobile welder called Alan.
Have run rear brake lines through car.
Stripped all the under seal off the underside of the car (heatgun and scraper, wire brush cup then thinners) bit of a mission not fun getting loads of curse word in you face even with a visor on. Seam sealered all the welding then treated the floor to hammerite primer, 2 layers of stonechip paint (tetroseal is best, then u-pol second but don't bother with the plastic padding stuff -shockingly bad!) Then couple of coats of hammerite red.
Trying to post this in my lunch break - will upload more later.
to replace, you have to remove the tank to get at them.
to replace, you have to remove the tank to get at them.