Well I was in two minds as whether to post this, its a project that took up around 2 and a half years of my best mate, Mark's, time to build.
I'd been driving a year or so when I ended up buying a complete lemon of an axgt, it wouldn't do because at the time, I was covering 50 miles a day, the ax had cost me a lot of money, but I knew I couldn't sell it for anywhere near what I'd paid. Long story short, I got a loan and a newer car, and I gave the gt to my mate for the price of the alloys it stood on.
He spent a bit of cash on getting it a fresh mot, and that started the ball rolling.
The one that started it all (shown right); Opv a tragically curse word mk gt, Next to it, my mk2 gt that Mark would buy later.
After running around in the gt for a bit and spending some time lurking the axownersclub forum, Mark and I bought another gt between us, sight unseen for parts, we turned a good profit on the car and Mark would catologue everything we sold and how much for.
Mark prepares to remove the tailgate from the gt (he's facing the car, his brother is to the left)
The gt was so rotten we ended up cutting the car up completley, we had a policy of not selling on anything that was as curse word as the grey one had been.
Garage envy, I has it. Mark's workshop with the halfcar and hydrualic lift.
After the success of the white gt, we moved along to another gt, this red one, we worked for around 6 months on dechaving the car and making it saleable, after all the work, it was still basically curse word, and we spent over an hour trying to explain this to the guy buying it, but he bought it anyway for £250.
Before and after, GMX, an ex-max power feature car.
Whilst the work on red shed took place, ebay and beers bought us this from 12 miles away. Our friend Chinese Gav towed us home in it at 60, not what you want in an engineless pile of rust!
Bought for £20.50, the darkness suited it, but the wheels were decent enough!
We bought and scrapped several others over the next year or so, but Mark had decided what he wanted, we set out to find a decent forte/mk2 gt/gti shell for him, which is where the story of BTW starts.
The ebay advert read: "Ax Forte, engine knackered, body knackered, wiring knackered. Spares or Repair, west Essex."
I dropped an email to the owner and found that she'd had the car from new and bought it from the garage that my company had just bought.
This was BTW as she was found:
The bodywork knackered related only to the pink paint, this was and still is the most rust free ax I've ever seen! I did a deal on Mark's behalf and secured the car for £50, it then cost around £200 to have it transported to Lincolnshire, and later in that month, I moved to Lincolnshire too.
When the car arrived at the farm, Mark wasted no time in getting to work with the sad looking forte. Initally the engine was pulled and replaced with that from an Ax Gti we broke, this for Mark was just an exercise to see if he could do it, needless to say, with what he'd learnt from the other cars, it worked fine.
Engine out, BTW looked this way twice, once after binning the original 1.1 unit and once after the trial fitment of the Gti engine.
By the time the gti lump had been fitted, Chinese Gav had brought Mark a Saxo Vts engine, and it's new home would be BTW. This in turn meant that a brake and suspension upgrade would be necessary.
Halfway through a back axle replacement, a photoshy Mark hides behind his car
Axle replacement meant finding a lot of curse word under the back seats
A shot of the original melted engine
I'll update some more later, Mark never took the car to any shows or told anyone about it, so nobody really knows about it. He died late 2007, something I'll never really come to terms with.
The Car was such an achievement and I am proud of how well he finished the conversion. He learnt everything from messing about in the garage, but his eye for detail sets this one apart from most other conversions.
I'd been driving a year or so when I ended up buying a complete lemon of an axgt, it wouldn't do because at the time, I was covering 50 miles a day, the ax had cost me a lot of money, but I knew I couldn't sell it for anywhere near what I'd paid. Long story short, I got a loan and a newer car, and I gave the gt to my mate for the price of the alloys it stood on.
He spent a bit of cash on getting it a fresh mot, and that started the ball rolling.
The one that started it all (shown right); Opv a tragically curse word mk gt, Next to it, my mk2 gt that Mark would buy later.
After running around in the gt for a bit and spending some time lurking the axownersclub forum, Mark and I bought another gt between us, sight unseen for parts, we turned a good profit on the car and Mark would catologue everything we sold and how much for.
Mark prepares to remove the tailgate from the gt (he's facing the car, his brother is to the left)
The gt was so rotten we ended up cutting the car up completley, we had a policy of not selling on anything that was as curse word as the grey one had been.
Garage envy, I has it. Mark's workshop with the halfcar and hydrualic lift.
After the success of the white gt, we moved along to another gt, this red one, we worked for around 6 months on dechaving the car and making it saleable, after all the work, it was still basically curse word, and we spent over an hour trying to explain this to the guy buying it, but he bought it anyway for £250.
Before and after, GMX, an ex-max power feature car.
Whilst the work on red shed took place, ebay and beers bought us this from 12 miles away. Our friend Chinese Gav towed us home in it at 60, not what you want in an engineless pile of rust!
Bought for £20.50, the darkness suited it, but the wheels were decent enough!
We bought and scrapped several others over the next year or so, but Mark had decided what he wanted, we set out to find a decent forte/mk2 gt/gti shell for him, which is where the story of BTW starts.
The ebay advert read: "Ax Forte, engine knackered, body knackered, wiring knackered. Spares or Repair, west Essex."
I dropped an email to the owner and found that she'd had the car from new and bought it from the garage that my company had just bought.
This was BTW as she was found:
The bodywork knackered related only to the pink paint, this was and still is the most rust free ax I've ever seen! I did a deal on Mark's behalf and secured the car for £50, it then cost around £200 to have it transported to Lincolnshire, and later in that month, I moved to Lincolnshire too.
When the car arrived at the farm, Mark wasted no time in getting to work with the sad looking forte. Initally the engine was pulled and replaced with that from an Ax Gti we broke, this for Mark was just an exercise to see if he could do it, needless to say, with what he'd learnt from the other cars, it worked fine.
Engine out, BTW looked this way twice, once after binning the original 1.1 unit and once after the trial fitment of the Gti engine.
By the time the gti lump had been fitted, Chinese Gav had brought Mark a Saxo Vts engine, and it's new home would be BTW. This in turn meant that a brake and suspension upgrade would be necessary.
Halfway through a back axle replacement, a photoshy Mark hides behind his car
Axle replacement meant finding a lot of curse word under the back seats
A shot of the original melted engine
I'll update some more later, Mark never took the car to any shows or told anyone about it, so nobody really knows about it. He died late 2007, something I'll never really come to terms with.
The Car was such an achievement and I am proud of how well he finished the conversion. He learnt everything from messing about in the garage, but his eye for detail sets this one apart from most other conversions.
I recognise it from somewhere too... I've seen it before! I remember noticing the reg plate and going "haha, its like internet speak for by the way"
