First things first, rewind to August 2011, I'd just sold my AE92 Corolla GTi as insurance was ridiculous, and I decided now was as good a time as ever to get a long term project.
So the hunt began, wasn't sure what I was looking for, just typing random things into ebay and seeing what was about.
Then I saw it, a C20XE (late version with the better head, but not coscast, and dispack), complete with F20 gearbox, shafts, mounts, ecu, loom, hubs, brakes and exhaust.
I stuck in a last minute bid and won for £400, so shortly after that I headed off on my mission from SE London to Peterborough in my mk4 Astra to collect.
The seller kindly loaded the engine together with box into my boot with a teleporter! His unit was awesome, and he and his brother had some cool stuff going on there.
Around a month goes by with me on the look out for a nova, but couldn't find anything I wanted for reasonable money, so I thought about a Corsa B, and decided this would be more sensible (I had just bought everything I needed to put a C20XE in one and there aren't as scarce as Novas, don't need reinforcing like Novas and aren't as rotten as Novas), though I had my heart on an SR.
During one of my ebay frenzys I came across a Corsa Sport 1.4, with some dodgy photos and no bids.
It said it had 27,000 miles and a knackered engine.
In goes my bid (last seconds of course) and hey presto I win, £250 ifrc.
Guess what, the curse word was only in Peterborough!
I got some quotes for recovery, erm, no thanks, thats my hard earned cash.
Ebay! And I win a homemade A frame in woolwich for £100. (homemade sounds quite bad, its actually brilliant, really hardcore).
I get a reluctant Dad to cart me to Peterborough in his van with towball ( after rewiring his rear lights so the trailerboard works. Mission.)
We get there and the car is not what I expected. It's on some curse word old steels, not the fresh Nova SR three spokes in the dodgy pics, and one was flat, no sump, two gaping 6x9 holes in the shelf and a stereo had been raped out shagging the dash, but I was very tired by now and couldn't be arsed. The lad I bought it from went and got one of the nice SR alloys to replace the steel and I let him swap it for me while I assembled the A frame and hooked it up to the wishbones. ( he managed to put a huge gash in his thumb swapping the wheels which made me feel a little bad).
One very tiring journey followed very closely by a tailgating black corsa and we arrive at my house in the small hours of the morning.
We unhooked the car, dismantled the A frame and struggled very hard pushing a disabled Corsa up my sloping gravel drive, not easy and we didn't get very far, but it was on my drive and not on the pavement, so we left it there.
Next day I inspected the car thoroughly.
How chuffed was I? Extatic.
The shell is tip top, the interior (dash and shelf notwithstanding) is immaculate, leading me to beleive it really is a genuine 27,000 mile car.
This said, why is it dead? with no sump I could see the issue, a shot rod. Unusual for a car of this mileage you say, I would agree, but in this case the oil pick up was bent.
There are a few bubbly scabs, but only on bits that can be swapped out (door bottoms, front wings and round the rear wiper).
Over the next few weeks I attacked the poor little thing, ripping out it's heart in fury, with the intension of creating a 'Frankenstein's monster'.
So it's sitting on my drive on axle stands with no engine, gearbox, shafts, hubs, front legs, front bumper, headlights, or radiator. All gone.
So to cut a long story slightly shorter (yeah yeah bit late now) My C20XE comes to the rescue. The weekend I put aside to do it, it absolutely gushes down with rain, oh well I own a coat after all and it goes in, with a struggle of course! This is all done completely on my todd, and with no engine crane! I struggled in with a jack, a chain and an engine support. Plus rolling the engine out my boot and the curse word slightly missed my sofa cushion (specialist tool you know) and smashes one of the terminals on the dispack.
Smashed knuckles and swearing aside, it wasn't too bad.
Subsequently I've been going out to it every now and then and doing bits and bobs to it, it's about 99% done.
Ihad to buy arb spacers as the old setup fouls.
I purchased some coilovers for it.
Was gifted some rather tasty bbs rims with as new avon zv3's. These really suit it.
I tinted the rear windows (gave up doing the tailgate as it's a double curve and my first time).
New headlights fitted and of course new clips to replace the old brittle ones.
Still to do:
New power steering pipes as I rather hastily chopped the old ones, but turns out the end up in just the right place to mount the saxo electric pump.
New screen as I have a mysterious crack appear.
New fuel pump relay (had it running by powering the pump direct).
One hose joiner required for a water hose.
So nearly there, I'll put in some more photos and updates as and when, but its a slow one
So the hunt began, wasn't sure what I was looking for, just typing random things into ebay and seeing what was about.
Then I saw it, a C20XE (late version with the better head, but not coscast, and dispack), complete with F20 gearbox, shafts, mounts, ecu, loom, hubs, brakes and exhaust.
I stuck in a last minute bid and won for £400, so shortly after that I headed off on my mission from SE London to Peterborough in my mk4 Astra to collect.
The seller kindly loaded the engine together with box into my boot with a teleporter! His unit was awesome, and he and his brother had some cool stuff going on there.
Around a month goes by with me on the look out for a nova, but couldn't find anything I wanted for reasonable money, so I thought about a Corsa B, and decided this would be more sensible (I had just bought everything I needed to put a C20XE in one and there aren't as scarce as Novas, don't need reinforcing like Novas and aren't as rotten as Novas), though I had my heart on an SR.
During one of my ebay frenzys I came across a Corsa Sport 1.4, with some dodgy photos and no bids.
It said it had 27,000 miles and a knackered engine.
In goes my bid (last seconds of course) and hey presto I win, £250 ifrc.
Guess what, the curse word was only in Peterborough!
I got some quotes for recovery, erm, no thanks, thats my hard earned cash.
Ebay! And I win a homemade A frame in woolwich for £100. (homemade sounds quite bad, its actually brilliant, really hardcore).
I get a reluctant Dad to cart me to Peterborough in his van with towball ( after rewiring his rear lights so the trailerboard works. Mission.)
We get there and the car is not what I expected. It's on some curse word old steels, not the fresh Nova SR three spokes in the dodgy pics, and one was flat, no sump, two gaping 6x9 holes in the shelf and a stereo had been raped out shagging the dash, but I was very tired by now and couldn't be arsed. The lad I bought it from went and got one of the nice SR alloys to replace the steel and I let him swap it for me while I assembled the A frame and hooked it up to the wishbones. ( he managed to put a huge gash in his thumb swapping the wheels which made me feel a little bad).
One very tiring journey followed very closely by a tailgating black corsa and we arrive at my house in the small hours of the morning.
We unhooked the car, dismantled the A frame and struggled very hard pushing a disabled Corsa up my sloping gravel drive, not easy and we didn't get very far, but it was on my drive and not on the pavement, so we left it there.
Next day I inspected the car thoroughly.
How chuffed was I? Extatic.
The shell is tip top, the interior (dash and shelf notwithstanding) is immaculate, leading me to beleive it really is a genuine 27,000 mile car.
This said, why is it dead? with no sump I could see the issue, a shot rod. Unusual for a car of this mileage you say, I would agree, but in this case the oil pick up was bent.
There are a few bubbly scabs, but only on bits that can be swapped out (door bottoms, front wings and round the rear wiper).
Over the next few weeks I attacked the poor little thing, ripping out it's heart in fury, with the intension of creating a 'Frankenstein's monster'.
So it's sitting on my drive on axle stands with no engine, gearbox, shafts, hubs, front legs, front bumper, headlights, or radiator. All gone.
So to cut a long story slightly shorter (yeah yeah bit late now) My C20XE comes to the rescue. The weekend I put aside to do it, it absolutely gushes down with rain, oh well I own a coat after all and it goes in, with a struggle of course! This is all done completely on my todd, and with no engine crane! I struggled in with a jack, a chain and an engine support. Plus rolling the engine out my boot and the curse word slightly missed my sofa cushion (specialist tool you know) and smashes one of the terminals on the dispack.
Smashed knuckles and swearing aside, it wasn't too bad.
Subsequently I've been going out to it every now and then and doing bits and bobs to it, it's about 99% done.
Ihad to buy arb spacers as the old setup fouls.
I purchased some coilovers for it.
Was gifted some rather tasty bbs rims with as new avon zv3's. These really suit it.
I tinted the rear windows (gave up doing the tailgate as it's a double curve and my first time).
New headlights fitted and of course new clips to replace the old brittle ones.
Still to do:
New power steering pipes as I rather hastily chopped the old ones, but turns out the end up in just the right place to mount the saxo electric pump.
New screen as I have a mysterious crack appear.
New fuel pump relay (had it running by powering the pump direct).
One hose joiner required for a water hose.
So nearly there, I'll put in some more photos and updates as and when, but its a slow one
