Blast from the past - Marmite

[mark1gls]

Yes that's a great website and the guide I used.

I also checked, cleaned out and changed the thrust bearing but this can be done with the gearbox on the car if you don't want to do it now.
Gunk I found behind my green cap.

[steve bain]

how do i know if the trust bearing needs replacing? not really ever heard of one failing. i think i may leave it for now as its easy to access later on. those green caps are almost £15! last time i bought one it was £3.50!

i took a few pics of progress...

i reshaped the bonnet strike plate to match the original plastic one. it looks original now rather than a bit of aluminium strip!



degreased struts and sides. you can see how scruffy they are which is why i want to paint the towers and sides. should make a good difference. the scuttle panel is ok so just going to leave that alone. to be honest with a k-jet you cant see much of the painted areas anyway!





gearbox before and after. it was so filthy, about 1cm deep in places but not covered in oil which is good



the shinyness will dull down in a couple of days



years ago i smoothed and mirror polished the intake manifold. i just gave it a quick going over but will polish once the other stuffs done



tidied up alt, starter and fan motor, injection bits and servo







pile of bits and bobs that have been cleaned. the pipercross air filter was filthy so should make a difference.



and a general engine one



still lots of cleaning and putting back together, but you can get the idea of where its going... i cant wait to get the bits from the powdercoaters!

[mark1gls]

I like the nice shiny bits!
Worn thrust bearing will make a grinding noise when you press the clutch down, I just changed mine as it was a 2nd hand gearbox and did not know much about it.

[steve bain]

i did a post but somehow lost it!

anyway, i replaced the seals and bushes on the gearbox as recommended by mark1gls. I also resprayed the strut towers. When i got the car resprayed they gave me enough paint to respray the bay which was good of them so used that

looking pants. lots of scratches from 32 years of being an engine bay





sanded it back - lots of rust! and used panels wipes to clean up





coat of primer. only one side but i am fairly sure you can guess what the other side looks like



and 3 coats of paint and 4 laquers. yay. it looks satin in the picture but is actually pretty glossy. perfectly fine for the engine bay.





still have do the battery tray, but the cables are in the way to do all in one go. i'll do that on tomorrow.



pretty pleased with the outcome for my first attempt at proper painting.

as i have worked on the car i have found a few blemishes that the body shop did in shuts and hidden areas. either way, i'm going to get them to fix them as they are areas that are missing colour where the panel hooks were in place. they missed it, i missed it so its not super important.

hope you like. powdercoaters should be done soon so can start rebuilding the engine. i also went ordering mad so have lots of new parts.

i bought a new expansion tank so it looks better, but the washer bottle i believe is storm specific and looks yellow and shite, i was thinking of painting it but am worried it will look rubbish. any thoughts?

[steve bain]

i just thought i would give this a quick update to stop it dropping off the page!

I've been slowly putting the engine back together now the paint has been done, gearbox back on, driveshaft on, new ball joints, new engine mounts, new cambelt and tensioner, new gearbox oil, refitting strut brace, refitting this and that, rerouting wiring, clutch cable etc. Nothing terribly exciting and defo not photo worthy.

I was supposed to collect my bits from the powdercoaters on saturday but forgot i had my staff do friday night so couldn't go as i couldn't get out of bed until saturday evening! oops.

This is now what is holding me up and is frustrating as it was my own fault, but i really need those bits. hopefully get a chance to collect them this week and fitted over christmas.

I can't even set up my suspension until i get my wheels back...

[DT1]

...but the washer bottle i believe is storm specific and looks yellow and shite, i was thinking of painting it but am worried it will look rubbish. any thoughts?

If you can't bring it up to scratch, they are still available new.

[steve bain]

If you can't bring it up to scratch, they are still available new.

Do you mean the big bottle on the drivers wing with 2 washer pumps? that would be cool if i can get a new one....

so my wheels are done and i am very happy indeed. I think they have come up better than i expected. tyre fitting is taking place tomorrow, 175/50 R15. also got back all the other bits back and have fitted most of them...looks good! will get some pics tomorrow.

I also managed to buy £20 of mikalor clamps and got every single one the wrong size. typical, so going back to stainless jubilee clips.

[steve bain]

this is them before for comparison. no centre caps and looking pretty rough. i do like the diamond cut finish but it was just too expensive. It ended up costing under £50 a corner to get the wheels powdercoated which i thought was a bargain. i also chose to not have an extra laquer / gloss applied so they are not too shiny.

[DT1]

If you can't bring it up to scratch, they are still available new.

Do you mean the big bottle on the drivers wing with 2 washer pumps? that would be cool if i can get a new one....

£20.50 from Heritage for the bare tank.

[steve bain]

Cool. I will hunt it out.

A bit more has been done, everything is back together now and working well. All electrical gremlins are fixed except the horn but I think i may have worked that out now.

Sunroof has been fitted, door glass in, Wing mirrors on. Just need to fit door membranes, door cards, lower dash trays and stereo. Not a long list at all! Exciting.

[steve bain]

so i have been chipping away, bit here, bit there. the horn turned out to be a missing fuse! i must have borrowed it years ago and forgot. idiot! but at least it works now. The washer bottle and jets are now all plumbed in, refitted scuttle tray etc. i also did the timing with my new timing gun and it was so far out i couldn't even see the timing marks! so thats sorted now, runs smoother...

i've been laying wiring for my stereo and have tested the headunit, amps and speakers and amazingly they all work. although the amps are old, i think they are fine for what i plan to do. The JVC headunit is a bit dated as has ipod connections etc that i don't use anymore, but it has usb, cd and radio so i will keep it for now. I'm only really refitting it as i already have it!

i've decided to run my 5.25" front componants and sub off the 4ch amp to make life simple and I will be putting the standard parcel shelf back in and sack off the 6x9's. I may stick some 4x6 in at a later date if i feel like it and just run them off the headunit

and a few pics of my wheels fitted and shiny engine bits, but before i fitted glass etc from a few weeks ago.

[mark1gls]

Looking nice a tidy.
When are you planning to get it back on the road?

[steve bain]

Looking nice a tidy.
When are you planning to get it back on the road?

the plan is to tax and insure it for 6 months of the year and garage it over winter, so i'll probably take it for an mot once i have fitted the door cards and it warms up a little. I think i will aim to make the 6month period 1st april to 1st oct, but if march is nice i will do it then. On that basis will probably mot it around february to give me a bit of time to fix any bits. but i may just mot it as soon as i have her running so its in the bag. i could probably mot it tomorrow if i had to.

[steve bain]

nowt exciting again, but i managed to pick up a Vibe Slick mono amp to run my sub for only £10 off gumtree! so now i can bridge the 4 channel pioneer to run the front components and get rid of the 6x9's. the stereo will never set the world alight but should sound better than standard. I have already wired in the headunit and run all the cabling so I will finish getting it all wired up over the weekend. I had to replace a lot of chocolate blocks and electrical tape! i was a bad person when i was younger....

I also took the glove box out ready to put a new one in as i left some surf wax in there and it melted covering everything!

[steve bain]

Stereo is all wired up and sounds great. I made this year's ago, its a fibreglass enclosure moulded to the shape of the recess so is a large volume but doesn't take up much space



Also refitted the original parcel shelf with the new clips and fitted new seat sliders so they are nice and tight.

Just have to fit door cards and work out why she is hard to start when cold (suspect 5th injector) and I have finished....