Who designed the stupid door handles on these things haynes manual states you should remove the window runner/rubber, then you can get access to remove the channel via a phillips screw near the base.
Well my channel is welded to the inner door skin?

Anyway after an hour or so of arsing about with a lockless one, it was deemed it wasn't going to fit as the holes for the rods are in a different place, shame really.

So i was still left with a non opperating passenger handle, but i thought the tab had snapped off, it turned out the pin itself had come out of the handle, so put the spring back in and retried fitting it.

Now it may be obvious to some, but take the rods right off the lock mechanism, atatched them to the handle, put handle in door, then reattatched rods to mechanism inside door, so much easier and probably the only way you can get them to fit, well it took us 5mins doing it that way and failed totally the other way.

Also leathers have come out and back in are the stockers for now until i find something more suitable.

* Anyone got a steering boss knocking about for sale??

Ive got a pug 205 boss for sale dude. Sweet fit, but needs fiddling to retain indicator cancellation and horn on wheel function.

May well be interested, PM me a price, i'll probably have it unless a genuine Volvo one gets offered.

So as people may have seen i bought my Williams engine, then took it to Adam to rebuild it to find the Cambelt had snapped and mullered all the valves, so a full rebuild was in order.

So on Wednesday me and my trusty sidekick Ben made the 200mile journey from mine to Adams in Swansea on the weezy old 1.4, the original plan was to trailer it, but as i didn't pass my test until 99 i can't tow a trailer.

Anyway the journey down was trouble free bar the fact once we arived there was no more than a mug full of coolant in the rad, but hey no problem as the new engine is going in.

IIRC we got there around 2ish and proceded to strip all the bits to get the engine out, prop, exhaust, rad etc, all fairly smooth except the prop being as stuborn as a mule to get off, Adams trusty rubber mallet soon had that sorted though.

Adam clouting the prop, oh the joys of having a pit




Ben taking bits off





Dirty grubby engine bay




Engine out time









Gone




Gunking the engine bay, prior to jet washing, i think thats where we left in on Wednesday night, after having a great curry and so to bed around 1am ish.




The next morning we were met with lovely Welsh drissle but we got out there and got stuck in again, i say we, Adam clearly did most of the work with me and Ben acting the arse talking complete bol**cks, generaly passing spanners/tools, doing the easy bits and making the teas lol.

Anyway the rain stopped mid day ish so we got out and started cleaning the engine bay up


Ben T cutting the bay





Shiney, shiney





Just ignore the crusty battery tray






While this was going on i cleaned up the manifold and then sprayed it with high temp paint.







Ben chopping the downpipe







While i made the teas Adam chopped the exhaust of a GLT saloon, (taken from kitchen window lol)






Adam doing either wiring or fuel lines, not sure which





Later on in the day we had all the bits ready to drop the new motor in so in it went, like thus.











And in it goes









Thats where we left it Thursday night, we left the garage and locked up around 3am, long nights, but it was all worth it.

Friday morning was spent with myself and Ben chopping up bits of exhaust for Adam to make up a temporary system to get us home, and a great job he did too with what was to hand, side exit FTW but strangely no pics of it?
We fitted the now freshly heat wrapped manifold, and we wrapped the loom and Adam fitted, it and installed the ECU.







We were met with some snags along the way, but Adams skills and spares car soon had those sorted and it was time to fire it up. Which it did with no problems so we took it out for it's maiden voyage, on which it performed excellently.

We then had a Chinese before hitting the road gone 1am for the return jorney home of which it made without a hitch, even if it was a little noisy but nothing i'm not acustomed to with my Beetle, but a lot more comfy and warm


The obligatory service station shot





I can't thank Adam enough, his dedication and skills are amazing, i know he is going to do well in whatver he does. Cheers for the room to stay in and putting up with our random ramblings, it turned into a blur of goings on, but i'm massively happy with the out come, and i'm sure a whole lot of Boy racer baiting will ensue
Also a big up to his otherhalf who cooked us an amzing Lasagna and kept us going with bowls of chips.

Adam your a legend, i can't thank you enough and i'm sure i'll be pestering you if i come across any hurdles in the future lol

Looks awesome man.
All of it.

Really making me want a valver in now.
Can you Pm me a price Ad?

Adam should run regular holiday camp style weekends.
Come here, I make your car awesome, feed you chips, you go home twice the man you were.

Who needs Butlins?

Highrollers looking awesome man.
You should really be proud of it.

In fact, yous both should.

The highroller stance will be sorted once my springs and blocks turn up, and i got some new front shock inserts off of Adam while i was down there.

Your not wrong, Adams yard sure beats the hell out of Butlins


Been messing about today with my other rims, they may well go on as the 13's struggle for traction a bit now lol, but the rear arches are going to need some fettling me thinks.


Fronts





Shock clearance




Rears with added poke

You owe it to the world to make those lotus rims fit no matter what it takes!
Good work on the engine swap too!

Shouldve rolled your arches while you were there dude!!!!!!

Man, those Lotus rims look cool. But youre right. Theyre gonna take a bit of shelving out.

Be worth it though.

Second only to banded steelies.............................................


Next on my list...

I've got to save up some more penny's first, then i'll see what i can do with regards to the Lotus rims, need a refurb, but may do a home job, then i need tyres, the exhaust, the list goes on

oh and i was suprised how well it kept up with a Nismo'd 300ZX turbo tonight, obvioulsy lost, small tyres = not a massive amount of top end , but nether the less i was pleasantly impressed, think he was too as he gave me the thumbs up out the window

magnumpi wrote:I've got to save up some more penny's first, then i'll see what i can do with regards to the Lotus rims, need a refurb, but may do a home job, then i need tyres, the exhaust, the list goes on

sell me your ultralites man.
then everybodys happy.

It's a possibility, but i'm a hoarder of stuff, IF i do sell em i'll give you first dibs, but it's only if.

Also broken speedo cables are not a good mix with wordwork cameras, i wouldn't mind if i was hooning it, fair game but i wasn't going that quick and still got flashed on the way home from Wales, fingers crossed it doesn't come through.

magnumpi wrote:It's a possibility, but i'm a hoarder of stuff, IF i do sell em i'll give you first dibs, but it's only if.

Also broken speedo cables are not a good mix with wordwork cameras, i wouldn't mind if i was hooning it, fair game but i wasn't going that quick and still got flashed on the way home from Wales, fingers crossed it doesn't come through.

They flash all month on empty dude, so fingers double crossed for you. Bit of luck, there was no film/memory storage left.

My speedo bounces round like a redneck hooker on prom-night dude, so I tend to peep the Shat-nav for gospel mph.
Might be worth putting one in your line of sight.

And dont worry if you havnt got one dude, I'll swap you my Sony sat-nav, Momo steering boss, Mini 15 steelies on brand new (yes, BRAND NEW!) michelin rubber wheels and my tinted rear clusters for your Ultra/superduperlites.
Job done.

Well that's a big bag of awesome. Adam is indeed a legend.

cheers

James

Wow those Lotus wheels are gonna look awesome. Glad they fit OK, gonna need some stretch on the back hehe.

Matt

Adam works his magic again

Larger wheels are a must IMHO i ran my Valver on same size tyres and any distance driving was a pain in the ass and the 1st and 2nd were next to useless