Here we are, in the end!
Let's sum up all the done stuffs with pictures and dates.
July 2011:
In order to wire brush and rustproof the rear underneath part (I've had done the front part during the former week-end) of my new toy, I put it above the pit in the garage. I saw a corrosion spot on the tank, just near the drain plug
.
I'm a bit nut you know... so I slightly scratched it and got fuel in my face. Then, it was all getting extinguishers and emergency draining the 30L (8gal) left
.
After that, I had to change my fuel tank and thus I had to disassemble all the rear part of the car. Mine was badly (but not structuraly) corroded underneath and have had many previous owners, so I'll pass on the seized and/or broken bolts and a few other weird things (err... why a Nylstop nut to fasten this part of the subframe on the car? Uh, its thread stayed on the car. Why am I not astonished? Go-gadgeto Dremel
!).
As the new ones were really expensive (man! This is just a f***ing tank!), I got a used one at Autolink and used this occasion to do what the cars urgently needed: totally (at least as far as I could) cleaning and rustproofing its rear part, new rotors and pads, new suspensions, new ground wiring for the battery, LHD head lights...
Here's a little sum up of the operations in pictures:
BEFORE:
Fuel tank anyone? The first one has been damaged by a forklift during the transport, I received another one in replacement then.
Noting anything dangerous
?
"Efficient", is the brand of these rotors
!
AFTER:
Lazy frog. These are tuning smoked MK1 Golf head lights. A friend of mine had that at home and didn't need them, so he sold them to me for 20?. My head lamp brackets needed a few Dremel strokes to accept them properly, but considering the usual prices for classic LHD lights... it was a real bargain, plus they are clear and flat glass lights (more light with H4 and allowing HID fitting) and they look great on my black Mx5
!
So, three weeks on jackstands, hours and hours of work and a big mess in the garage... yeah, I know. It could have been done faster. But just consider the shipping time for parts that were breaking one after another while disassembling the whole thing, plus this damned wishbone that made me waste almost one week just when I was thinking I just had to put the D2s on and drain the brake system
...
Anyway, I've got to thanks a few friends for their help, the photos and even some spare stainless steel bolts and nuts. And also my father for having had his car outside during three weeks
!
September + october 2011:
Many little things that I don't always have pictures of. Most of them are localised under the bonnet, so I'll sum up and do with 3 photos.
1)
The cooling system:
As I said above, it was all chocolate like because of the old engine head gasket failure, and seems it haven't been totally cleaned after the new engine has been fitted. Nor have the hoses been changed, despite their age. I was told that thing could work great to clean it:
And it did! Needed to rinse the system at least ten time to have clear water flowing out of the radiator then, but still it worked!
Two weeks later, the thermostat broke and made the upper radiator hose burst while driving. Loved the big white cloud when driving on the seawall just in front of a caf? terrace
!
2)
Brake piping:
Nothing special, all the piping from the ABS block to the wheels was dangerously corroded. I have the new coper pipes done by a garage. It was really expensive, but as I still want to stay alive for a few time on, I didn't have the choice
.
3)
Engine bay:
I felt for the Pipercross induction kit with a heatshield. Works well, and does really change the engine noise, but it's even better with the silenced cat bypass on. The addition of these two things does really improve the engine performance, and gives a really nice "racing" noise to the 5
.
As my cam cover gasket was leaking, I take this occasion to also purchase a used cam cover, just to do what you'll see hereunder with it
.
I found a nice gun metal oil filler cap with the BP engine name sticked on it on Ebay USA
.
Fitted the ILM brace bar. As said in their ad, it improves the cars handling, and does improve even more the driving feeling!
To put it in a nutshell, it looks like that:
BEFORE:
AFTER:
January 2012:
I received a few things which are awaiting fitting:
Rennenmetal tow hooks.
Have been prepared with that:
And so, they now look like that:
Performance aluminium radiator, found on Ebay UK. This is a 622x320x52mm core one:
Early used "real" oil pressure gauge and sender (Autolink):
I fitted this last Friday, it works great and the dashboard looks better with it!
That's all for the moment, the more interesting will come in during the next weeks. Keep in touch
!