Iggy
Part of things
Posts: 10
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Jun 18, 2018 11:55:56 GMT
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Myself and Dan have been on the hunt for a project for a while now, something relatively easy and not overly complex to cut our teeth on for our first real restoration, as although we're fairly mechanically minded we've never attempted something of this scale before. This brings us on to problem number one - Easy jobs which don't need a lot of work are not cheap, and we have no money. Luckily this was solved by the fact we're into weird old Japanese junk that nobody else seems to want to touch with a 10 foot pole, so when we stumbled across this little crusty gem on a break at work we immediately got on the phone to snag it. Weird, check. Japanese, check. Rare, Surprisingly check. Turns out there isn't many of them left on the road which we probably have scrappage to blame for, 1 Licensed and 3 more SORN. Anyway, after paying the cost of the vehicle again just to have it transported, she arrived back at home and was squirreled away in the garage ready for us to waste more money repairing crusty old econo-boxes. The tow driver actually mentioned how he used to have one of these, and was fairly nostalgic about the old thing, hopefully there's some more people out there who'll like to see this kind of motor back on the road! She runs beautifully (although the old cambelt makes a hell of a racket), tyres still somehow hold air, digital dash works fantastic, not too much crust outside of the body that we can see so far and she's only covered 22000 Miles!
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Last Edit: Sept 9, 2018 17:38:21 GMT by Iggy
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Jun 18, 2018 14:40:03 GMT
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Yes!!! Me like soooo much!!! I had one of these too,a few years ago,sold it on,now a girl around here potters around in it!! Here's is the one i owned...
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Dan
Part of things
Posts: 10
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Jun 18, 2018 14:47:17 GMT
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Hi everyone I am the second idiot involved with this project. I have a selection of photos to upload to show our progress so far: This is the first time we had jumped her, soon after rolling the old girl out of the garage [in gear mind you]. The Mighty £250 Micra helped out. Most of these pictures are a walk around focusing on a few of the rough or interesting parts of the car. This is the state of the doors - pretty decent condition overall, door cards are in good condition although the cheap plastic window winder has faded. No door speakers on this car either - very economical, but the speakers we did find appear to be decent Clarion drivers that are mounted behind the plastic panels for the boot. You can see a little bit of the surface rust that this little car suffers from on the bottom of the door. A close up of the bottom of the door, quite nasty but hopefully not too bad. Panels and trim parts for this car are increasingly rare - unless you want to import them from somewhere far flung like Ecuador or Australia. The actual door sills are pretty decent. This picture is before we cleaned the car. You can also see how the 'two-tone' effect is achieved (poorly!). Fear not regarding the fuel filler cap, the seller actually managed to source the original part from Suzuki years ago.
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Iggy
Part of things
Posts: 10
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Jun 18, 2018 15:15:24 GMT
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Yes!!! Me like soooo much!!! I had one of these too,a few years ago,sold it on,now a girl around here potters around in it!! Here's is the one i owned... IMG That thing looks great! Did it have the same 3Cyl 1L Carby Engine? Makes the engine bay look so bare!
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Dan
Part of things
Posts: 10
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Jun 18, 2018 15:57:47 GMT
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So the car came with some awful generic wheel trims (do nice generic no brand wheel trims exist?). The good thing is that removing them revealed some nice steel wheels underneath along with some very cool OEM (?) branded center caps. The bad thing is that this has been a home to many spiders over the years. Also we only have center caps on the front wheels, they are missing on the rears. Matt looking like a true mechanic at the mighty 3-pot engine. As we are both novice with this and learning this is a common position to be in with an outstretched finger going 'what on earth does that do?'. You can see here that the engine bay is in pretty decent condition, a few of the components are rusty but everything appears to be working. This might be one of the worst body panels on the car. Hopefully we can restore it instead of replacing it, which would probably be a challenge just in sourcing a replacement. This is the worst part of the interior. The vinyl has torn so will need replacing and restitching. We might take this upon ourselves or look to an upholsterer to complete. No tears, burns or any other mysterious marks on the cloth interior. Here is the rear of the car. Few minor bad points. The plastic tailgate handle has faded and developed a mighty strange texture. The rear number plate is beginning to delaminate and needs to be replaced. The very 80s style 5Speed sticker has also seen better days but hopefully we can re-produce. The most difficult issue here on the rear is that the driver side rear tail light has got a big hole in it - still on the look-out for a replacement. Holds air surprisingly! So the other day we began the processing of removing as much as we could, cleaning while we go. We are trying to find and document where the corrosion is and how bad it is, so we can get a good idea of whats ahead. We started on the front of the car. Luckily most of the front features (headlight surrounds, grille and bumper) are plastic, these are just faded but a few of the fastener straps are snapped. Most of the bolts on the bumper snapped when they were removed but we were expecting this fate. Here is how she looks at the moment from the front. I think the ol' girl looks quite mean. The headlight bulbs are glass so no worries of fading, but the housings are at one with the frame now (all screws completely rounded). Due to fading light after wasting half an hour trying to remove the passenger seat (I am not a smart man, should have thought to move the seat forward!) we had to stop. We had managed to remove a lot of the interior including the rear seats, carpets and the plastic trim (revealing a nice set of Clarion speakers, probably aftermarket?). We confirmed that the floor pan was in very good condition, with the odd nasty spot - one behind the drivers seat and one near the seat belt brace. That's it for now. Hopefully in the coming weeks we will have more development.
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Jun 18, 2018 21:33:52 GMT
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NICE! If you want to turbo charge it, let me know. I have made a manifold for a turbo. You can use a MG Metro turbo carb to play around. I had '87 vintage in red but it was Gti. Now I have white mk1 Gti with slight modification. I have a few mk1 spares so if you are really stuck, I shall try to help you. Cheers Atchi
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Building roof chopped, screen raked '68 Mini with G13B 1.3 16v Gti engine with LSD, Yamaha R1 carbs. As well as mk1 Suzuki Swift Gti AWD with a turbo. Drives PHEV Outlander but wishing my mk1 Swift Gti or mk2 CRX Vt were still with me!
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Mum bought a brand new one a long time ago. It was a kind of handy van. A 2 seater no rear seats. She had it for about 3 years. It never missed a beat. It was very well maintained and never abused. The next owner, my wives best friend, bought it quickly when mum sold it to buy a new Nissan Sunny. Anyway my wives best friend loved her new low kilometer Swift. Till the automatic gear box went followed by being T boned after and rear ended after that one. Then the motor gave up and so did our (still) best friend.....
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Jun 19, 2018 15:37:33 GMT
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Yes!!! Me like soooo much!!! I had one of these too,a few years ago,sold it on,now a girl around here potters around in it!! Here's is the one i owned... IMG That thing looks great! Did it have the same 3Cyl 1L Carby Engine? Makes the engine bay look so bare! Yup,it also had the 1000cc 3 pot,tiny,tiny engine,haha!! I bought mine for 250 euro's,drove it everywhere for a year,then sold it for 250. Mine was fitted with a JDM bike-can exhaust,on idle it was just like a burbling fat american V8!! On the go,it barked and rumbled,fun!! I'll post a few more pictures of it. Wish you guys lots of fun with it! If you would like to see my car,check out: Mancave,nooo!!I say manHOUSE!! on general board!
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Jun 19, 2018 15:48:06 GMT
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Jun 19, 2018 17:34:52 GMT
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Very underrated wee cars these. Uncle of mine had one and shuttled back and forth between work, wifes home place and London to the middle of Ireland on a regular basis for years and years. Had gigantic mileage (I must ask him what it ended up at) before a scrappage deal got him into a civic.
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Jun 19, 2018 18:49:38 GMT
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camac NC80, even the tyres are retro !
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Iggy
Part of things
Posts: 10
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Jun 20, 2018 10:04:47 GMT
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NICE! If you want to turbo charge it, let me know. I have made a manifold for a turbo. You can use a MG Metro turbo carb to play around. I had '87 vintage in red but it was Gti. We'll probably keep it N/A for now, but I'm not saying a turbo or a swap in for a more modern lump isn't off the table down the road Really dig them in red too, we're currently torn between factory green black/ 2 tone or going for a red/black 2 tone when it comes to a respray. Mum bought a brand new one a long time ago. It was a kind of handy van. A 2 seater no rear seats. She had it for about 3 years. It never missed a beat. It was very well maintained and never abused. The next owner, my wives best friend, bought it quickly when mum sold it to buy a new Nissan Sunny. Anyway my wives best friend loved her new low kilometer Swift. Till the automatic gear box went followed by being T boned after and rear ended after that one. Then the motor gave up and so did our (still) best friend..... Nice, I think they had to import them as vans in Australia to get around some wacky import laws. Actually kind of sketched out about crash protection on the road nowadays, if it gets hit by a Qashqai or a Kuga I don't think there's gonna be much left afterwards! Yup,it also had the 1000cc 3 pot,tiny,tiny engine,haha!! I bought mine for 250 euro's,drove it everywhere for a year,then sold it for 250. Mine was fitted with a JDM bike-can exhaust,on idle it was just like a burbling fat american V8!! On the go,it barked and rumbled,fun!! I'll post a few more pictures of it. That's a dangerous idea we might just have to take a look into hehe. Current exhaust is held together by bandages by the looks of it, so going to be needing a new one anyway... Very underrated wee cars these. Uncle of mine had one and shuttled back and forth between work, wifes home place and London to the middle of Ireland on a regular basis for years and years. Had gigantic mileage (I must ask him what it ended up at) before a scrappage deal got him into a civic. So many people seem to have interesting stories of these little things, so weird to see so few of them on the road now! camac NC80, even the tyres are retro ! Yeah, I dread to think of how poorly they'd hold up to any kind of MOT scrutiny
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Dan
Part of things
Posts: 10
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Jun 20, 2018 11:15:41 GMT
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I'm really digging the bed quilt seat covers here! Some picures of mine...
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Dan
Part of things
Posts: 10
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Jul 26, 2018 15:04:37 GMT
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Both myself and Iggy have been away on holiday over the last month, leaving the poor Suzuki neglected.
We set about continuing our efforts of pulling the car apart last week. This meant more snapped/broken fasteners and a lot of swearing at things that were at some point screws but now resemble rusty rivets...
We didn't get much done - but we have now managed to get nearly complete unhindered access to the engine and gearbox. We got reasonably far with removing the wings however we were slowed down by rusty screws that hold in the inner plastic guards in the wheel wells.
Our current aim is to take note of what needs to be repaired structurally - so far it looks to be less than 10% of the car has succumbed to tin worm, hopefully meaning this isn't a completely wasted endeavour.
We also found some evidence of body repair in the engine bay (left hand side) - however this doesn't appear to be from an accident, maybe an attempt at controlling the tin-worm outbreak.
Fun part (pictures) follow....
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Dan
Part of things
Posts: 10
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Jul 26, 2018 15:20:44 GMT
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Most of these pictures are a reference for us to remember how the car goes together. This front valance (?) is easily some of the thinnest metal I have ever seen - no wonder modern many cars opt for these to be made from plastic now. However we managed to get it off without warping it too much and in one piece, however it is so far probably the one piece of the body that we probably would rather replace; however we will give a solid attempt at trying to make it more resilient. The metal is coke can thin and bends with the slightest of force. Surprisingly all of the fasteners here came out without too much hassle - just took a liberal coating of WD40 and a careful wrench hand. From above, as below. This is without a doubt the worst we have come across in the engine bay. Our main worry is that this isn't a flat piece of metal, which is amusing with how square the rest of the car is. For complete novices when it comes to body repair, I can't lie when I say that this worries me the most. It is pretty much a given that this area has to be cut out and replaced. Again if we had a doner car this wouldn't be too much for me to sweat over, but all those odd contours and moulds worry me. However aside from the battery box mounting points I couldn't see much worry if we went for a slightly boxier replacement here. Evidence of previous repairs. Like I said it doesn't look like accident repair as the rest of the panels appear to be straight. Probably was an attempt to stop tin worm from starting. This is on the opposite side to the problem area from above. We also are coming across this strange black sticky stuff - possibly some kind of rust prevention applied? This is where we left off. Looking at the car here with its hood off and bumper removed - it's not bad. I've seen Fords that are 15 years younger that look worse. We are hoping to work on it again soon, continuing our investigation stage and beginning a shopping list / repairs list. Removal of the engine may also have to be considered to ensure we can clean/repair all parts in one go - however our space is limited.
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Dan
Part of things
Posts: 10
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Aug 29, 2018 21:46:02 GMT
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Hi all
Quick update. Not many pictures unfortunately - they will follow tomorrow.
So we finally got to removing the wings the other week, and well let's just say this little Suzuki has been hiding something. Rot.
I never expected that upon removing the coke-can thin wings that we would be greeted by a mound of dirt. This mound of dirt (of which there was a considerable amount in each wing) has clearly worked as an incubator for moisture and slowly eaten away into the inner panels of the car.
At first we panicked and thought about simply tossing the towel in. Neither myself or Iggy are experienced in body/structural repair. And to find that the areas that have become the worst are the smooth, curvy parts - really put us off.
After a good few sleeps, and talking it over with friends we have decided that there is nothing really to lose here in terms of giving it a go.
The final intention for this little car is to have it with an MOT and driving about - hopefully one day it will go back to showroom quality, but for the moment if we could get it running and road-worthy that would be super.
I will upload some photos when we take them this coming weekend.
Other minor things we have identified: - pipes need a good clean / ultimately replacing - replacement rad needs to be sourced (might not be an OEM part but a similar fit rad from another car) - cooling fan shroud and fan assembly needs a good clean up and respray - horn module needs replacing / cleaning up
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Sept 4, 2018 21:37:36 GMT
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I will be taking off my OEM radiator soon off my white mk1 Gti. If you want it, I can send it to you when I take it off for postage cost! Or if you tell me where you are based. I might be able to deliver it to you.
Cheers Atchi
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Building roof chopped, screen raked '68 Mini with G13B 1.3 16v Gti engine with LSD, Yamaha R1 carbs. As well as mk1 Suzuki Swift Gti AWD with a turbo. Drives PHEV Outlander but wishing my mk1 Swift Gti or mk2 CRX Vt were still with me!
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Iggy
Part of things
Posts: 10
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Sept 9, 2018 17:37:53 GMT
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Last week we managed to extract the worst of the wiring loom from the car, wiring loom is a very generous term, and there's not actually many cables running across this little car. But they have to come out if we want any sort of access to clean it up. Engine bay now looking tidy! Only hangup preventing the whole thing from coming out is these 3 wires connected to the transmission (speed sensors?) Anyone got any ideas? No Socket or Spanner we have can budge them. This axle boot is very dead, guess that needs adding to the pile of bits to replace. That pretty ,much rounds up what we did last week, so its just me on my own today doing a little bit of work on the "starter" classic. Prepare for a big ol' image dump of rust. Starter is a nice friendly word that does not evoke problems like this: Or this: ... Or this: Or even this: Fortunately, Machine mart had some bargain price "Mechanical encouragement" to help remedy some of these problems, and by mechanical encouragement, I mean a stonking great Makita angle grinder. I've just hit the big passenger side spots in the below pictures, and crikey theres not a lot of metal left. Some creative tunnelling down at this already once-welded plate is revealing it is infact welded to a delicious layer of frosties underneath. Well, Clean enough for now... Wait, this bit inside, links up here right? Now for some investigation... Oh dear... In fairness a lot of that damage was due to over-amibtious grinding and not paying close enough attention, so my bad, this is a learning experience for me. But what about its opposite cousin? Hmmm... Okay, thats enough of that hell for now, what about these bolt holes? Not so bad! This? Ehhh... Least its easy to fix... Wait, what's being hidden here? Oh... I can't even get my grinder near this... Last bit for today, getting tired of having the car turn into a fine brown mist every time I turn the grinder on. Could be worse. I have a couple of layers of paint on the freshly ground bits to prevent any further corrosion, this isn't permament and will be ground off again when it comes to treating these spots correctly (not just welding plates on as a previous keeper has done) Sad part is that this isn't even half of the rust, the driver's side is just as bad but I'm going to attack that another day. All is not doom and gloom though, as we've been put in touch with a great restoration specialist by a good friend. Hopefully he's going to pop down and hgave a look at this rust for us in a month or so's time, and give us a run-down of just how bad it's gonna be. Until that point, we're just going to soldier on and get these rust patches cleaned up so we can properly see what we're dealing with. Thought for the day: Rust is bad. Don't let things rust.
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Sept 13, 2018 21:54:01 GMT
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I checked my mk1 service manual but yours looks like Suzuki Fronte setup. My Red Gti died from similar rusts.
My mk1 Gti now has mk3/4 Justy floor so that I can AWD drive train! Subaru justy floor pans are only 10mm wider than mk1. 3 pots enigne sounds like bit short of V6 so you will enjoy it!
Cheers Atchi
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Building roof chopped, screen raked '68 Mini with G13B 1.3 16v Gti engine with LSD, Yamaha R1 carbs. As well as mk1 Suzuki Swift Gti AWD with a turbo. Drives PHEV Outlander but wishing my mk1 Swift Gti or mk2 CRX Vt were still with me!
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Iggy
Part of things
Posts: 10
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Sept 17, 2018 16:20:26 GMT
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My Red Gti died from similar rusts. My mk1 Gti now has mk3/4 Justy floor so that I can AWD drive train! Subaru justy floor pans are only 10mm wider than mk1. Yeah, it's not filling us with hope that this car has already had about 8 panels welded in to patch this rust in the past, but we're hoping a good job might give it another 5 years. And don't tempt us with things like that, that sounds like such a mad little setup! There was a vague idea of bolting the shell onto a Jimny chassis getting thrown about at one point though...
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