I've had this since January so I'll start there,
Built the Micra, CG13, bike carbs etc, over the space of about 6 months, had it rolling roaded at 89bhp on a 'by ear' tune and enjoyed it for about 2 months while I figured what to do with my long term project, the Civic. My plan had been to put an H22A prelude motor in the back but the more I read about the IVA, the more concerned I became by its ramifications on my plan. Although I know of plenty of cars that are in regular use with no issues, which really should be IVA'd, it wasn't a route I was entirely happy taking. I'd noticed however that the separate chassis rules gave a lot more scope for potential fun.
With this in mind, and the fact that in many years of driving I'd never owned an off roader, a loose plan was formulated.
I'd done a brief bit of research and discovered that the wheelbase on a Vitara was within an inch of the Civic and could be had relatively cheaply, so when I happened to mention to Tim (bratman) at Area 52 that I was considering selling the Micra it all started happening.
Skip forward 3 weeks and I was driving up to Bath to deliver the Micra to Tim......
16/01/10
First time Tim had driven it
Paperwork done and clutching a handful of cash Tim dropped me of at Bath railway station
A train, 2 tube trains across London and another train to Gravesend Kent later and the seller, picks me up from the station (in an untaxed car) and takes me to meet my new purchase.
I'd already paypal'd him £100 deposit so after a cursory glance the balance of £150 was handed over, the paperwork was signed and I was theproud owner of a very rough '92 Vitara with a very knocky engine, an interior that was both covered in mud/general ming but also smelt very strongly of damp dog. but more importantly nearly 10 months of MOT and 4months of tax.
Nearest petrol station saw the gauge changed from very empty to full and after a brief look over to check nothing had fallen off/out on the half mile of wandery drive to get there I set off for the M25. Once on the motorway it became quite apparent that there was something very wrong with the steering, at 60mph the sensation of vagueness that had been there at 30 was joined by seemingly random sudden changes of lane over which I had absolutely no control. After the 3rd of these I decided that I was coming off at the next junction, knobbling it so it wouldn't start and calling the RAC to come and get me. By some strange (most unlike me) stroke of luck the next exit was Clackett Lane services. Result! didn't even need to knobble it as when I turned it off it wouldn't even turn over. Took a couple of pictures on the phone in the fading light
and settled down to a warm coffee for my wait. After waiting for 5.5hours (due to a monumental cock up by the subcontract recovery firm) it was finally loaded up and the 5 hour journey home commenced. Stopped for a fry up at Cartgate on the A303
Finally got home at 4am having had to talk to the driver and make him roll ups for the entire journey back to keep him awake and stop him driving down the cats eyes.
17/01/10
The following morning I was up and at it, pulled the engine
That'll be the knocking then
Interior out, ready for jet washing
That'll be the reason why the brakes were toss and the handbrake didn't work
Bit of rust (2 month old MOT?)
Steering issue, bolts holding the steering box to the chassis were only finger tight, and the bit of chassis that they weren't very bolted to had been bodgily repaired at some stage and wasn't attached
I missed out on the engine I'd planned to buy off ebay as a replacement but won some mud tyres on Suzuki SJ wellers.
So the repairs started whilst the hunt for another engine cheap enough continued.
23/01/10
New brakes
Repaired chassis
16v motor won and collected form Basinstoke
8v loom chopped out and 16v loom spliced in
28/01/10
Window cut in floor to get to top of captive body mount that spun whilst putting the 3" bodylift in and welded back up
Power steering bracket modified to get 8v pump to line up with 16v bottom pulley
30/01/10
In
And then of course it would only run in limp home mode
I immediately suspected that I'd made some mistake whilst splicing the looms and took the dash back out and checked all the wiring.
Turns out it was the throttle position sensor was goosed. Cheapest I could find a replacement for was £130 + shipping from the States as the 16v I'd bought was an early (18months production run) one and the later ones are different both in shape and resistance values. Bumhats!
Then, after a week of desolation I found this complete 8v carb car for £100 4.5 miles away!
06/02/10
07/02/10
Out come the engine
And loom
Off comes the body ready to weigh in
And as there's a chassis there it'd be rude not to just have a try wouldn't it?
Tuck that back up in the front garden
16v motor back out
11/02/10
Was soon in and running and its first journey was over to paignton and onto the beach for a photo or two
14/02/10
Back into the garage
For a change to satin grey
Which after a bit of mud and the fabbing up of a front bumper looks like this
I've spent the rest of the year so far having fun in it, 2" suspension lift, Mk2 Astra rear shocks for more articulation, A CB, 31x10.5 Special Tracks, lots of greenlaning, trials, visits to Area 52, Run to the Sun, RRG10, Laning trip to Wales during which SWMBO drove the Strata Florida a month and a half after passing her test
Fast forward to 04/10/10
Tidy the garage, replace all the tubes and paint it white so I've got a nice light area to work in
Get in the Frontera gearbox from the garden and clean it up
07/10/10
Get the Vauxhall C20XE engine in from the garden and after stripping some bits off and plugging the holes, clean that too
Fit new bottom end gaskets and oil seals, cambelt and tensioners.
Jetwash off spare chassis, bring it inside and trial fit the engine and 'box. Realise that I need to make some front axle drop brackets to determine how low I can get the engine and 'box so after making cardboard templates and buying a couple of Haynes locost polybushes I end up with these
17/10/10
and this
To get it as low as I want I'm going to have to make a sump for it so get on with the mounts.
Sat in the right place
18/10/10
Outer bits made and bolted up
20/10/10 Engine side made and bolted up
21/10/10 Gearbox crossmember fabbed
Saturday 23/10/10 Spent the day sorting SWMBOs car and at 8.37pm drove the Shitara in
By 12.39am it looked like this, ready for the body to come off
Sunday 24/10/10 Got the body off and put in the front garden, ready for the next big weigh in session
Engine and gearbox out, and rolled out onto the road to jetwash all the mud off
Put the XE and 'box into my chassis and set abouthacking bits off carefully trimming away metal from the Civic shell
And gave it a trial fit, bit more bracing, bit more cutting, but I'm getting there
Been working 14 hour days this week so haven't had a chance to get any real work done this week but have done a bit of measuring and should have some more progress to report at the weekend
Built the Micra, CG13, bike carbs etc, over the space of about 6 months, had it rolling roaded at 89bhp on a 'by ear' tune and enjoyed it for about 2 months while I figured what to do with my long term project, the Civic. My plan had been to put an H22A prelude motor in the back but the more I read about the IVA, the more concerned I became by its ramifications on my plan. Although I know of plenty of cars that are in regular use with no issues, which really should be IVA'd, it wasn't a route I was entirely happy taking. I'd noticed however that the separate chassis rules gave a lot more scope for potential fun.
With this in mind, and the fact that in many years of driving I'd never owned an off roader, a loose plan was formulated.
I'd done a brief bit of research and discovered that the wheelbase on a Vitara was within an inch of the Civic and could be had relatively cheaply, so when I happened to mention to Tim (bratman) at Area 52 that I was considering selling the Micra it all started happening.
Skip forward 3 weeks and I was driving up to Bath to deliver the Micra to Tim......
16/01/10
First time Tim had driven it
Paperwork done and clutching a handful of cash Tim dropped me of at Bath railway station
A train, 2 tube trains across London and another train to Gravesend Kent later and the seller, picks me up from the station (in an untaxed car) and takes me to meet my new purchase.
I'd already paypal'd him £100 deposit so after a cursory glance the balance of £150 was handed over, the paperwork was signed and I was the
Nearest petrol station saw the gauge changed from very empty to full and after a brief look over to check nothing had fallen off/out on the half mile of wandery drive to get there I set off for the M25. Once on the motorway it became quite apparent that there was something very wrong with the steering, at 60mph the sensation of vagueness that had been there at 30 was joined by seemingly random sudden changes of lane over which I had absolutely no control. After the 3rd of these I decided that I was coming off at the next junction, knobbling it so it wouldn't start and calling the RAC to come and get me. By some strange (most unlike me) stroke of luck the next exit was Clackett Lane services. Result! didn't even need to knobble it as when I turned it off it wouldn't even turn over. Took a couple of pictures on the phone in the fading light
and settled down to a warm coffee for my wait. After waiting for 5.5hours (due to a monumental cock up by the subcontract recovery firm) it was finally loaded up and the 5 hour journey home commenced. Stopped for a fry up at Cartgate on the A303
Finally got home at 4am having had to talk to the driver and make him roll ups for the entire journey back to keep him awake and stop him driving down the cats eyes.
17/01/10
The following morning I was up and at it, pulled the engine
That'll be the knocking then
Interior out, ready for jet washing
That'll be the reason why the brakes were toss and the handbrake didn't work
Bit of rust (2 month old MOT?)
Steering issue, bolts holding the steering box to the chassis were only finger tight, and the bit of chassis that they weren't very bolted to had been bodgily repaired at some stage and wasn't attached
I missed out on the engine I'd planned to buy off ebay as a replacement but won some mud tyres on Suzuki SJ wellers.
So the repairs started whilst the hunt for another engine cheap enough continued.
23/01/10
New brakes
Repaired chassis
16v motor won and collected form Basinstoke
8v loom chopped out and 16v loom spliced in
28/01/10
Window cut in floor to get to top of captive body mount that spun whilst putting the 3" bodylift in and welded back up
Power steering bracket modified to get 8v pump to line up with 16v bottom pulley
30/01/10
In
And then of course it would only run in limp home mode
I immediately suspected that I'd made some mistake whilst splicing the looms and took the dash back out and checked all the wiring.
Turns out it was the throttle position sensor was goosed. Cheapest I could find a replacement for was £130 + shipping from the States as the 16v I'd bought was an early (18months production run) one and the later ones are different both in shape and resistance values. Bumhats!
Then, after a week of desolation I found this complete 8v carb car for £100 4.5 miles away!
06/02/10
07/02/10
Out come the engine
And loom
Off comes the body ready to weigh in
And as there's a chassis there it'd be rude not to just have a try wouldn't it?
Tuck that back up in the front garden
16v motor back out
11/02/10
Was soon in and running and its first journey was over to paignton and onto the beach for a photo or two
14/02/10
Back into the garage
For a change to satin grey
Which after a bit of mud and the fabbing up of a front bumper looks like this
I've spent the rest of the year so far having fun in it, 2" suspension lift, Mk2 Astra rear shocks for more articulation, A CB, 31x10.5 Special Tracks, lots of greenlaning, trials, visits to Area 52, Run to the Sun, RRG10, Laning trip to Wales during which SWMBO drove the Strata Florida a month and a half after passing her test
Fast forward to 04/10/10
Tidy the garage, replace all the tubes and paint it white so I've got a nice light area to work in
Get in the Frontera gearbox from the garden and clean it up
07/10/10
Get the Vauxhall C20XE engine in from the garden and after stripping some bits off and plugging the holes, clean that too
Fit new bottom end gaskets and oil seals, cambelt and tensioners.
Jetwash off spare chassis, bring it inside and trial fit the engine and 'box. Realise that I need to make some front axle drop brackets to determine how low I can get the engine and 'box so after making cardboard templates and buying a couple of Haynes locost polybushes I end up with these
17/10/10
and this
To get it as low as I want I'm going to have to make a sump for it so get on with the mounts.
Sat in the right place
18/10/10
Outer bits made and bolted up
20/10/10 Engine side made and bolted up
21/10/10 Gearbox crossmember fabbed
Saturday 23/10/10 Spent the day sorting SWMBOs car and at 8.37pm drove the Shitara in
By 12.39am it looked like this, ready for the body to come off
Sunday 24/10/10 Got the body off and put in the front garden, ready for the next big weigh in session
Engine and gearbox out, and rolled out onto the road to jetwash all the mud off
Put the XE and 'box into my chassis and set about
And gave it a trial fit, bit more bracing, bit more cutting, but I'm getting there
Been working 14 hour days this week so haven't had a chance to get any real work done this week but have done a bit of measuring and should have some more progress to report at the weekend