1989 Austin Maestro 700 L Van 1.3 to 2.0 Turbo

[alexhatcher]

I got some new seats yesterday, Proper MG Maestro bucket style seats. I'm gunna borrow my mates wet vac and give them a clean up as they're a bit grubby at the moment 










I'm gunna bolt them in when I do the heater matrix in a couple of weeks as taking the dash out will be alot easier without seats in the way

[alexhatcher]

Started to take the dash out tonight to do the heater matrix, and also found out that an MGB steering wheel fits which is cool as i've got a nice dished moto lita style one laying around which is better than the dreary foam brown maestro one






Also gave it a wash the other day and took a couple of pics  





Also the golf arches I ordered turned up, looks like they'll probably fit

[hamps]

I really like this van

[brc76]

there is a lot of MG parts that fit these, remember there was a MG turbo version of the saloon car.

I'm trying to think of your van with silver headlight and grill trim. At the moment all I can see is the hamburgler...

[mattiwagon]

Lol

[neilsdavies]

My uncle had one of these many years ago - I seem to remember him saying that there are quite a lot of VW parts in them, the gearbox being one. No idea how true it is, but a mk2 Golf 4+e box might be a decent swap?

Also worth trying to shift into 5th anyway -Paintbox had a Caddy pickup with what they thought was a 4-speed box. Turned out to be a 5-speed with a 4-speed knob on it...

[joe90]

Feb 24, 2016 13:53:30 GMT brc76 said:

there is a lot of MG parts that fit these, remember there was a MG turbo version of the saloon car.

I'm trying to think of your van with silver headlight and grill trim.

That would be the Montego mate, they weren't a bad seller in their day.

Bryan

[brc76]

Introduced October 1988 - limited run of just 505 cars

The MG Maestro Turbo was a high performance reaction to the growing band of 16 valve hot hatch cars of the post 1986 period. In fact, a Maestro Turbo was part of the production plan back in 1984, but the development cars were said to be ‘too fast’ and only the Montego Turbo appeared during that period. Events though, saw the model resurface, this time though with a beneficial and very individual body kit.

The Maestro Turbo was first shown in a low key way at the Birmingham Motor Show in October 1988 to a surprised MG world. Essentially the car was a standard MG Maestro into which the Montego Turbo drivetrain and suspension was fitted, to create the fastest production MG to date.

Whilst the ingredients were simple off the shelf items the mixing was finalised by Tickfords which also included them developing and manufacturing a one off 5 piece body kit, the heart of which was very bold front and rear bumpers. The front carried integral Lucas driving lamps and rather large side ‘TURBO’ graphics.

[vanpeebles]

What a great van, keep up the good work!

[alexhatcher]

Feb 24, 2016 13:53:30 GMT brc76 said:

there is a lot of MG parts that fit these, remember there was a MG turbo version of the saloon car.

I'm trying to think of your van with silver headlight and grill trim. At the moment all I can see is the hamburgler...

I've never thought of that! now thats all I can see haha. They did do the gill etc in silver, this was is black originally though

Yeah they did maestro and montego turbo's same engine in both of them so subsequently the maestro was faster as it was lighter.

[alexhatcher]

Feb 25, 2016 10:31:57 GMT neilsdavies said:

My uncle had one of these many years ago - I seem to remember him saying that there are quite a lot of VW parts in them, the gearbox being one. No idea how true it is, but a mk2 Golf 4+e box might be a decent swap?

Also worth trying to shift into 5th anyway -Paintbox had a Caddy pickup with what they thought was a 4-speed box. Turned out to be a 5-speed with a 4-speed knob on it...

Yeah they got a vw box and I'm pretty sure its why the engine is 180 degrees out from the mini's/metro's etc, to accomodate it. A 4+e would be perfect as it's what was on the smaller engined golfs i think so the a series should be able to cope with it. Need to do some research on ratios and gearbox codes... I'm pretty sure the whole front suspension is basically copied off a mk2 golf as its very similar!

[alexhatcher]

Managed to get the dash out the other night and replaced the matrix, one of the pipes had rusted out.




Then got it back in and made sure everything still worked! now to finish putting the bits back on it and fit my new seats.

[brc76]

my first car in England was a maestro, gold with brown velour. learned a lot about them in the time I had with it.

[alexhatcher]

Had a productive day today, finished off the heater matrix flushing ut the coolant etc and now have heat! Also fitted my new seats





I also had a go at getting the golf arches to fit and see if the cover the wheels, did a bit of trimming and got them to fit pretty much. its going to be close if the wheels fit under them but I'm gunna bite the bullet get one tyre and see. I wasn't sure if they would look a bit naff but they go really well with the black and white contrast, let me know what you think

[brc76]

Yeah, that will not look naf. Not even a little bit

[orangecords]

like this.....bookmarked

[alexhatcher]

Feb 27, 2016 20:08:00 GMT brc76 said:

Yeah, that will not look naf. Not even a little bit

Thanks,
I've got to admit it looked better than I thought

[alexhatcher]

The Tyre I bought turned up today and got it put on a wheel. Happy with how it looks on the rim.





Then I offered it up to the van in anticipation, lowered it down and was surprised as it didn't stick out as much as I thought, and with the Golf arches I think I'll get away with them.  ( Thanks to brc76 for the suggestion )

Plus I'm very happy with how they look  need to fiddle around with the height and camber a bit when I get them all on to get it perfect









Didn't have time to take the mudflap off the back to put the arch on but you get the idea.

[120y]

Ive seen one van done with the Maestro car headlights, wonder what kind of job that it ?

[sherv]

Props for something a bit unusual,a guy I used to know bought one of these as an ex-BT van, (you could still see the silhouette of the decals on the panels in the right light,a bloke blowing a multi coloured trumpet).He used it as a daily and a fishing wagon,he had it years,it was damn near indestructible.It was running well when he sold it on,its probably still going.G plate as I recall.