Lucky's Series 3

[Lucky]

I've got a spare set of rear lights that Keith very kindly donated, Stu. I'm hoping to get them apart and sorta give them a bit of a lift and modernise them... if I ever get any free time ever again, lol. So yeah, good suggestion and one I'll hopefully be able to pursue.

[RamoNZ]

I don't think it'd pass an MOT then, Ramon? Tempting as it is...

Thomas, my struts hold the bootlid up for a while, and then sort of lose interest and flop so the broomhandle is a failsafe

That's what I thought, until I read this little beauty:

Vehicles first used on or after 1 April 1986 must be fitted with one side repeater indicator on each side.  Instead of a separate lamp, the side repeater might be part of the front direction indicator if it includes a wraparound lens.

Taken from:
http://www.motinfo.gov.uk/htdocs/m4s01000401.htm

I can tell you one thing - mine are a goner once I figure out something to cover them with!

[Lucky]

Not much very spectacular to report, but that's never stopped me before lol. Got the gear gaiter sorted, managed to get all four remaining clips off their prongers in the console surround without breaking any more. The trick is to very gently prise the little tangs on the springclips open with a tiny screwdriver before winding them carefully off the prongs.

Anyway, since I had four of them left I thought I may as well re-use them but had to resort to good ol' Sikaflex for the rest of the mount. Seems to work OK, lol. Just means it'll never come off. Ever. If you look underneath it's pretty ugly but because the gaiter wasn't specific to the FB I had to trim the corners a bit and so used plenty of gloop to make sure the stitching wasn't going to separate. But you're never going to see inside so that's cool


Anyhoo, went from this;


to this;


Worth a bit of faffing around I reckon. It's not a perfect match in colour or texture, but it's certainly close enough and a zillion times better than the old zombie-skin original. Plus it seals around the trim panel properly so cack and smeg will no longer be dropping into the gap that opened up every time the gearstick moved before!


I know it's not a very exciting mod, but keeps me happy lol. I'm now not sure that the gearknob really "goes" though, might have to investigate a change there. Anyone know the thread size/pitch for sure? I know I asked before but I can now confirm it's the same as the wheelstuds on an S3 if that helps (cos I screwed a wheelnut on, lol)? No idea how to measure these things personally

Not much progress on the bodywork either, cos J's been busy, but the backend's been relieved of all the spurious bolts (and my Player One button, *sob*) and The Great Rambonio's righteous TWR spoiler has been persuaded on;


I think it goes pretty well with the bumper and that myself, I'm starting to feel a bit positive about all this now. Big up to Ramon for practically forcing me to have it when I was all set to go for the nude-arse look.



....actually, reading that last sentence back it sounds properly wrong on soooooo many levels. Please disregard last transmission, lol

[RamoNZ]

Ditch the side lights????

[mooragerx7]

Ditch the side lights????

Yeah do that looks loads better with out them when runnning a kit as its in the body shop anywant you could get them removed properly not by using stickers

[Marc S]

M12 fine, I believe. Seriously mate, get yourself a stainless one...heavy is good, heavy is reliable

[Lucky]

Got a carbon fibre one But oddly, and somewhat counter-intuitively it's extremely heavy

Right, this just in...



Hmmmm. Unfortunately I didn't get time to get all four wheels on and drop the car onto the ground, so it's hard to tell with the fronts. The rear axle stand is under the suspension so that's more or less where the wheel will sit when the car's sat on them. For comparison; old;


New;


Opinions? I think them's too small I've never had a chance to look at the bodywork with wheels on but I think even the old wheels will be too small diameter-wise now. Damn! The Panasports look great, I think, but just don't fill the arches enough and there's only a tiny segment poking out below the bottom of the skirt/bumper line. Which is annoying, cos they sit just right offset-wise. Front;


Rear:



On the plus side, DM Motorsport spacers are a rhapsody in alloy and will at least mean the world is my oyster, or indeed the mollusc of my choice if I have to delve back into the murky waters of the internetz in search of another set of wheels....



Noice



One last shot from the front, just to help you with the decision-making...


Right. Speak now

[Lucky]

More positively, in other news, the collection of random parts for interior and suchlike continues apace. Got knob...



Despite being carbon it's nicely weighted so hopefully should work out OK. Also been trawling the deeper currents of eBay for Italian quality goodness ...


See that? Genuine Nardi that is can't believe how bloody expensive this stuff is, even secondhand


Nice though. Made necessary due to Keef's extreme generosity helping me out with....


Oooooh, even more genuine Turin righteousness! Needs a lot of love, to be fair. It had suffered a bit from the rigours of storage in Keef's unit lol


...and even after plenty of cleaning and hide food it's still drinking the stuff Honestly, I think I could leave it in a bucketful of leather restorer overnight and it would have sucked the whole lot in by morning. Still, getting there.


Of course, this necesssitated a steering wheel boss so got a non-quality Pacific Rim momo-ish one. Which comes with some hilarious Japlish instructions on the packaging


"If too loose, very danger. And if tighten thoughtlessly, Boss is cracked and very danger" lollers It's not a very lovely thing to look at, they never are...


Annoyingly, the "TOP" marking is offset slightly to the mounting holes that fit the Nardi stud pattern, so it might take a bit of finegling so the steering wheel doesn't look like it's on the piss by a couple of degrees I've got a couple of random gaiters also from eBay, gonna wedge the handbrake one errrr... well, over the handbrake actually. I thought I might cut up the spare gear gaiter and make a sort of sock to cover the boss up with cos it's really cheap-looking plasti-rubber and lets the rest down a bit. Might look a bit weird though, open to ideas?


That's it. Progress. Of a sort. Slowly slowly spankee monkey. Or something

[Steve-A]

Mmmm Nardi classic steering wheel! Very nice! Jealous!

I think both your sets of wheels would look nice on the stock body, but yes maybe some 15" wheels would suit with the new bodykit.

[Lucky]

Well, I took Ada-san down to the workshop yesterday and got a fifth opinion on the wheels to go with J's second, Dan's third and Shannon's fourth. Dan was the one dissenting voice, he loves the Panasports but I think he might fancy them for his soon-to-be-rotorised MX5 lol. At least, I'm trying to persuade him he does ...

Anyway, we are of (almost) one voice. They're too small, and so are the ones that were on there before now. Soooooo, I bit the bullet and ordered some more in today. Think it's the first time I've ever bought a new set of wheels in my life, ironic they're going on one of the oldest cars I've had I also ended up going for a proper brand name rather than the eBaytatsic copies I was originallly looking at. Mainly cos I figured out what I think is the best colour, offset, width and diameter combo from all the generous help recieved on here and on Exile... and I couldn't get those specs off-the shelf from Axe or JBW or any of the usual cheapy cheap suspects. So they're going to be made up, by a proper wheel maker-uppering firm, exactly to my specifications. Which is pretty damned cool and I'm actually quite excited about it. Shame they cost twice what the "fashion" versions would have done, but y'know, quality costs.

However, I obviously can't tell you what they are yet because if they don't fit I'm going to look a proper nob If I have to wait on tenterhooks to find out, so do you hahaha. Hopefully they'll be worth the wait...