The 'Mistress' a bareshell re-engineering (big pix warning!)

[Skyrocketeer]

Some of the old-timers may recall rocco#1from the glory days of Inters '03, Action' 04 and various NR & SR meets.

Some pics from the old days:


Interpro RR day 2003


No Rice 05

Back in 2005 she came off the road for some cosmetic work (overnight street parking injury). And the project the snowballed out of control:


Off for a full respray 2007 - yup it took me 2 years to pull it apart (thats the easy bit)

By nature I'm a perfectionist and a procrastinator, which means I've really got a cat-in-hells chance of getting this project completed. It's been 5 years, and very little has been achieved.

So the plan is, whilst keeping the styling and overall feel of the mk2 rocco, bring it a bit more up to-date with a few mod-cons and a bit of a power increase to boot.

The basic mechanical spec, which probably won't change is as follows:

• 9A engine running megasquirt on KR cams with wideband lambda and stock knock-sensors.
  Custom SS exhaust.
  Prothane bushes throughout
  256mm discs up front (Audi/VW 16v - not Vaux bits!)
  Mk3 gti rear discs
  Widetrack rear beam (+12mm)
  All electric windows & sunroof
  upper & Lower front strutbraces
  Upper rear brace.

The rest is optional/desirable/might happen:

• P&P head (prolly can't afford bigvalves for what it's worth on a valver)
  ABS - Teeves mk4 (largely self-contained and a lot smaller & lighter than the mk2)
  PAS - probably the corolla conversion which seems a lot easier than the bluebird.
  Complete re-wire, new looms and discrete processing for all electrical accessories.
  Ethanol/dual fuel compatible.

These are undecided:

• Suspension - probably custom rate springs to accommodate the additional noseweight of the valver.
  Turbo - would be nice, but I think the hassle and additional running cost may make it too impractical.
  Edis (or similar) Coilpack conversion - the Megasquirt is currently set up to fire a single coil from the hall sensor, but considering going over to coil-packs for additional durability.
  Gearbox - currently got an 020 but prefer the idea of a hydraulic clutch. An O2A will do this but not sure about the cable shift.
  Exhaust manifold - wondering if a 4-1 will even fit around the PAS or is even worth it compared to a well ported cast mani.
  Alarm - got an AI606 left over from before, but not sure if they're still current tech.
  Ice - something needed, but not sure what yet, pretty low priority.

Other works include:

• Sourced new doors and front wing - done
  Full respray - done
  Re soundproof interior and remake underlay - partially done :-/
  New cunifer brake lines
  New fuel lines (ethanol compatible)
  Seal & paint fueltank
  powdercoat all suspension parts.
  Re-Underseal.

Cosmetically it won't look much different to the 'before' pics, though the P=Slots are now on the missus' car, and I've got a selection of 15" rims to choose from. The MTS Indicators are staying, the interior is staying, though I occasionally toy with the idea of an E30 dash swap.

So that's the SP as of about now. Currently I'm skint, still paying off an exotic wedding from last year (which also has something to do with my lack of progress). I've been slowly collecting materials in a pretty random order, and in this time of reduced funding, have consoled myself with designing wiring looms, and generally scheming.

Feel free to bug me for progress, that way it might even happen :)

[Skyrocketeer]

Spring 2007
Once stripping had started a bit more of the cars history became clear.

It appeared it had a bit of cosmetic work on the passenger side, the passenger door was rotting rapidly, and on removing the rear arch spat, I noticed the evidence of a less than perfect repair:



Finding a self-tapping screw throught the bodykit into the steel shell re-inforced this idea.

A few stonechips on the leading edges also needed love, though none of them were severe:



And replacement doors, bootlid and front wings were also sourced.

what I thought was a mint tailgate had a hidden suprise:



So then it was ready to be trailered away for painting, along with several carloads of other, detatched parts.





Slowly bits return, painted, which are then lovingly stashed - in the dining room - where else?

[Skyrocketeer]

Summer 2007
Stripping the carpets and underlay highlighted the state of the interior:



Not bad considering the years of leaky windscreens and slight damp, but needing a bit of love.

After treating the rust with a phosphoric acid solution, and liberal coats of zinc rich primer, the interior was finished in stone-chip black paint. Again several coats.

Sound deadening
Several rolls of foil-backed bitumastic sound deadening was bought. In an ideal world I'd have gone with the rubber-based stuff (like dynamat) but given how much I'd need the cost would have been prohibitive. The deadening was then marked out using cunning paper templates, to fit in footwells and bulkheads with minimal creasing:

[Funky Diver]

Your photo's so far are indicative of the job I'm going to be venturing onto too :D

I shall be keeping a close eye on your progress

[The Autoad]

good to see you return sir

[stu.gtx]

Looking forward to seeing this one finished.

[Skyrocketeer]

Looking forward to seeing this one finished.

hehe.. me too

Thanks for the encouragement - more needed to keep the mojo up :)

[Skyrocketeer]

Barely had the shell returned from the painters I felt an itch to start fitting stuff to it. Unfortunately, nothing was ready to be fitted :(

scrabbling around the pile of bits, I did find something though - the sunroof:



yeah!

Hmm, this looks a bit antiquated.


Can't be doing with this winding handles lark. What I need is an electric sunroof.

Some research on CGTi forums turfed up a sunroof motor and mechanism from an early Audi 80 which has the same fixing spacing, and same drive gear. Thats the hard bit done:


Now to make it fit..



It takes some nerve to take a dremel to a freshly painted, and now pretty much mint shell, but something had to go to make space:


Not much really:


Looks worse than it is:

I figured the stiffening was there to counteract the force of a 15stone bloke swinging off the handle - a small motor should be a bit more subtle.

It fits:






Yeah.

Now back to that knotty problem called wiring....

hmm..

p.s. sorry about the quality of the pics on this, the camera was dying.

[Rusty dan]

I remember this build from long ago, glad its happening again dude

[Funky Diver]

Hope you don't mind Rocketeer... copied the pertinant info from your sunroof conversion over to the thread about said conversion. I remember the original thread you posted on the "old" site

[Skyrocketeer]

Hope you don't mind Rocketeer... copied the pertinant info from your sunroof conversion over to the thread about said conversion. I remember the original thread you posted on the "old" site

No problem. I post to inform, so spread the word :)

[Tim_R]

Nice to see you back, you need to get that one together and on the road again. Its been far too long. Claire's will be finished before you at this rate!

[Skyrocketeer]

Nice to see you back, you need to get that one together and on the road again. Its been far too long. Claire's will be finished before you at this rate!

That's quite likely a possibility, given there's 2 of them, one of which has definitely too much time on his hands..

Figured this'd be a good way to motivate myself - by getting you lot to help motivate me :D