The Bandit

[Mr Funk]

So I'm now fed, avec beer and grabbed a shower. The only downside is that I feel a little blindsided as my gayfever decided to run rampant at the end of the day and give me a nose bleed in the shower. Big fun.

But it was worth it.

So, as I explained earlier I think I;ve finally sorted a lot of the problems tat have been plaguing the car for a while. The Number plate lamps fuse fiascco turned out to be a solitary black wire that plugs into the back of the fuse box, and no sooner that been sorted than the washer fuse decided to blow. Traced it back to what I think is a cack indicator stem but got round it by just rewiring the unit so now it's activated by pushing rather than pulling. There's still a dodgy earth or two but I'll get round to them later.
Stereo is mostly sorted I think but I'm having to run no door cards until the car is out of the yard as the wing mirrors need to be flush with the body to get it out. I can live with that. Think I've come to a deision as to how I'll run the centre console as well, anyone that remember my old green beastie will be familiar with it but it'll be much more professional looking and possibly with one of the two sets of VDo gauges I've been hoarding in a custom mounting on the floor. The wheels'll need swapping once it's out as well (I can't run the borbets getting it down the alley) and the steering wheel bolt is missing
So it's off for it's MOT tomorrow/tuesday hopefully. It needs properly etting up and the camber needs doing and while it's there they'll change the track rod ends and fit the new powder coated hubs. But there's already a shopping list. First thing is short shift.

<a href="http://s213.photobucket.com/albums/cc29 ... f16293.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc29 ... f16293.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

[Mr Funk]

Quite a frustrating couple of days to be honest.
Got the pick up planned for Monday afternoon, the garage had explained that they were flat out and getting it done ready for Vagingit may well be a squeeze. I'm cool with that, at the end of the day it's just a toy and other people need their daily drivers. The pick up was planned for 4pm which gave me time to sort my diary and get the car ready so when the lowloader finally arrived at 4.45 I was slightly miffed and the driver wanted to get off. Consequently I didn't get time to swap the rear wheels back over and tighten the wing mirrors.

So.....

3 pages of failures mainly due to them flinging it through the MOT. Nearly shat myself when they told me but 99% will take less than an hour to sort.
It's things like it not having enough wheel bolts at the rear. I have the required number of bolts but many of them were in the ashtray rather than on the wheels as I had to fit the skinny wheels to get it through the alley. And the steering wheel failed twice: once for having no retaining nut and again because the horn was fitted properly..... because there was no retaining nut.

Oddly though the engine was fine, not bad for something we blindly threw in.

It's in no way out of the forest of piss yet though. The wipers/Washers have decided to stop working despite me working on it sunday and having everything work and the engine needs a bloody good tune. Oh yeah, and my supposedly stainless steel exhaust and manifold has a rust crack causing it to spew out exhaust gases and fail! Not sure how that works. Called the people that built it and they want it back in so they can sort it, it comes with a lifetime, no quibble warranty but I somehow have to get it to them, get the problem sorted then get it back to the garage for the MOT.
Groan

[Mr Funk]

Mot - sorted, Insurance - not only reasonable but also sorted. Bring it on!

[markh]

Mot - sorted, Insurance - not only reasonable but also sorted. Bring it on!

NICE !!!!

[Bill]

Words i've been looking forward too ...........(the bring it on bit )

[Mr Funk]

I am officially Back in Black. Big thanks to Ben this evening for sorting the timing. Full ramblings to follow shortly.

[shavhead]

...soundz great, can't wait to see it, see you at the next show

[Mr Funk]

And so here's the update:

Got a call last wednesday saying that the car itself was all sorted but the bill needed totting up. This worried me a little as big figures usually take longer to add up but as it turned out it was pretty reasonable. Finally picked it up on thursday in order to have it home for the easter weekend so there followed a rather nervous drive home.
What I've been doing for the past six months is forgetting what the car is really like to drive and getting very used to driving either Groove's excellent TDi Polo or the company battle wagon. Both are new cars with all the bells and whistles you'd expect and, more importantly, they don't make noises. The Bandit is a very different beast.

What followed was a couple of days of tinkering - while the car was road legal it certainly was what I'd call road worthy. We had to clean everything and get the bits of trim back on and sorted, this in itself has made the noises inside the car 100 times better, the doorcards are still being the bane f my life but I've come to a compromise with the stereo (i'd really wanted to keep the tweeters in the dash) and it sounds excellent and doesn't require hacking anything else apart.
I've also binned the middle column again and gone for the carpet look:



This isn't quite finished but the rug now blends in almost seamlessly (the bonus of having a seamstress for a mother is that I am a ninja when it comes to that sort of thing).



And that is Charlie, my semi-psychic cat. She is damn lucky she didn;t come for a spin with me.

And so the final part was limping it round to a mates to get it tuned, a five minute job but it's really transformed the car. That big audi Throttle body really does open up and I'll happily admit that there were one or two rather surprised drivers on the way home.

Odlly however I have noticed one massive thing driving this again over the last few days: I'm a lot more courteous. No, honestly. If you've ever been in a car or a convoy with me you'll know that I drive like an old lady, this is down to a number of reasons not least being that I drive for a living, I've been through a windscreen thanks to terrible driving (not mine) and, more importantly I think, I'm not an aggressive dick. Over the last six months driving the corsa has made me pretty lazy as it makes you largely invisible, just another people-can bumping down the road. The Bandit however is hardly what you'd call subtle, even at lights it sits and quietly growls to itself and what I've been finding is that because people are far more aware of me being there there's a hell of a lot more respect from both sides.

And now apart from a bloody good clean and polish it's pretty much where I want it. The crack in the exhaust needs sorting and Powerspeed have it booked in, I need a new speedo cable as I'm having to use Sat Nav for my speed and there's a couple of bits of trim I need.
But other than that I am a very happy man. I've got a picture of it sitting on my driveway taken from inside my front room and that view never gets boring.

[Mr Funk]

The thread has been quiet but I certainly haven't been.

Over the past few I've been putting the miles in and giving the car a bit of a shakedown. And I'm utterly stunned to admit that it's pretty much spot on.

That barn find engine really has to go down as a credit to German engineering but there's a whole load more to do as yesterday I got the PM i've been waiting for month for. The engine from the Jetta is finally ready. For those of you that don't know the owner, Si is pretty obsessed and the engine itself is clean as a whistle so I'm going to build on what he's already started and keep the engine out for a bit. It'll get a full clean and paint as needed, the powder coated goodies will go on and we'll see how it goes. I've got brand new pumps just waiting here but we'll see what state everything is in.

Chances are I'll wait before dropping it in, Inters is at the end of June so I'm hoping it can go in inbetween that the Nationals. With a clean and spangly engine the only thing left really is the minor stuff.

I am a happy man

[Mr Funk]

A quick update:

Last week I encountered one of the mot embarrassing things that can happen when you're out on a busy saturday in a toy car. I broke down.

I've got to be honest apart from the obvious kick to the confidence I wasn't all that bothered by it, I'd dumped an engine that was probably older than the car in without testing it and prayed for the best. I assumed it had given up the ghost and was well prepared but, as it turned out it was just the alternator. Once again I find myself impressed at German build quality.

But I'm a bit ahead of myself.

That morning had started with an early morning run down to the Planet Thanet to grab the new engine. For those of you who know Simon (He owns one of the cleanest Jettas you;re ever likely to see) you'll know how well he cares for his kit and the engine is no different. I arrived at just after nine to find Tim already arm deep with the engine out. Tea and chatter followed and I was informed that the service had recently been done, so recently that the oil was still clear.
I'd taken the Bandit down as it needed a run so had arranged that I'd go back later in the week with a mates van to grab the lump but, as it turned out, Scott and Si offered to drive it back to Ashford for me! It was going up the A2 that I start losing electricity......

To begin with the stereo cut out but it got me home and I assumed it was doing it's usual and throwing a fit. The lads unload the engine and head hoe and I head into town, all going well until I was on my way back and pulled away from a roundabout. Complete electrical failure.

Luckily it turned out to be the alternator and in an episode that hinks of irony there was another trip down to the Planet to grab a spare alternator.... From Si.... Who had offered me it the day before.

So the engine itself it in my yard along with the gearbox and has had a good clean down. It's got a G60 rocer cover on which I don;t think I can use unless I mod it but that seems a shame, shrick cam and polished and ported head.
Can't wait to get it painted, built up with the new powder coated bits and dumped in.

[Mr Funk]

Quick update. Just need the new sump, it doesn't need one but I thought it was a bit odd not renewing it seeing as everything has been overhauled. Still trying to work out if I can use the G60 rocker cover but it isn;t looking good as it's a little too high.

[Mr Funk]

And so it turns out that if you want the Alternator to actually do it's job then it's probably best to plug the bastard thing in. Who'd a thunk it?

So as you can probably tell I may have had a little electrical problem. When i changed the alternator I was busy sorting out a few other things and so it must have cleared my mind to connect the alternator to the battery. For the past two weeks I've been wondering why the fackin' thing wouldn't hold charge and checked everything. Well, almost.

So with newly charged battery in hand I picked it up earlier and drove it back to mine. As you can probably imagine the nipsy was puckering all the way home, everything seemed to be good until the last mile.
A tube in something Ford had been sitting on my bumper all the way through some traffic works trying to get me to floor it and was getting visibly more irate when I didn't. The limit was clearly 30 and there were workmen everywhere, I'm aware of what it's capable of doing and don't really feel the need to jeopardise my license trying to prove it. The other side of these works however was another story, from 30 to national speed limit and into a lovely big roundabout and the hill towards home.
Foot planted, roundabout taken smoothly and pissflap in a Ford duly buggered off. No sooner had he gone the engine cuts out, the fuse box starts clicking like a arthritic crack head and everything dies. I wheel it off to a side road (thanks to a rather large man wearing flip flops) and expect the worst but find that the terminals on the battery had worked loose. Easy fix and I'm off.
Get home, do some work, get changed and it's off to Enigma to check on the Speaker Pods (pics to follow), ask one of the lads to check the battery with a multi meter and discover it's losing charge, start to panic which is when i find the cables dangling from the alternator.
So a quick boost and everything seems lovely again. I've got to be honest I was thinking about this coming home and the only problems that have occurred with the car are normally through my idiocy.
Its back here all week. Itll give me a chance to make sure everything is coolio, there's the Brands Hatch meet on wednesday and I can clean it ready for the Nationals. Once it's back it time for the new engine.

That should be fun

[G Beats]

Looking very good Mr Funk she has come a bit since i last looked on your project keep up the good work Jim.cuss it will be all coolio and worth it in the end.

[Mr Funk]

Looks like that new engine might be going in a little sooner than planned. What started as a simple job of changing a water gasket has turned into a mashed head. Groan

[Mr Funk]

Good Morning,

My name is Jim and I appear to have turned into a cleaning slut.

It occured to me a couple of weeks ago that I have never actually cleaned the car. I've washed it a fair few times (although not as many as the excellent Polish Hand Wash down the road) and I've made a few half arsed attempts at polishing it but I've never actually cleaned it. All this happened while I was going mental cleaning the neighbours black Alfa after nearly crying at their attempts.
It had all started as a normal Saturday afternoon, Han was away racing and I was pottering and drawing up plans for the winter rebuild. My neighbour Kerry had made a terrible job of washing her car (dirty water = streaks everywhere) and had asked me to look at some scuffs. A five minute job with T cut and some polish ended up with the car being rewashed, t cut and layers of wax and sealent. We'd stopped half way through at about 6 as we all fancied beer, I fell asleep really early and, with Han still away on the Sunday, got back to work at about 7 so the car was ready for their family day out. There was no denying, it looked rather ace.
But it was I was revelling in my genius that I started to notice all the swirl marks on mine.

It's been grating me ever since. Every time I pear out of the bloody window I could see them laughing at me, the big circular bastards. So yesterday I set to work.

Christ alive it looks great. Swirl marks are all nearly done, it feels like glass and the rain just slips off like an Essex girls pants. I'll be the first to admit I've gone a bit anal, I was out this morning Chamois'ing it down and drying witht he microfibre cloth but I have Action this weekend and while I realise it'll be coated in dust and I'll be far too pissed to clean it I'd like it to look shiny on the roadtrip.

So with this being the last show for me of the year (wedding in September so that takes priority) I'm looking forward at V3. The new engine is just waiting to go in, the gearbox will get an overhaul and clean up and I'll make another attempt at sorting all the wiring. Then it's just the new dash (old one has tiny holes from the alarm and they need to go) and the remounting of the sub (looks great in the well but the sound is lost when I put the hammer down as it all goes out the back) and probably another interior rebuild. There's a couple of more bits that could do with powder coating but all in all it's 99.9% where I want it. Pics from Action to follow....


EDit* Nearly forgot to explain about the water hose. Bloody bolt had rounded, was a nightmare but eventually got the thing out. New part from VW fitted and all is lovely.