It's about time I did a thread on the questionably retro daily, well, the tatty car anyway.
I bought this in January from a snowy Edinburgh with an iffy heater and four 'good' tyres. The heater issue was easily solved. Bleeding through the cooling system gave me a lovely and toasty heater. The tyres however were a bit of a joke.
Whilst the rears were ok, the fronts were 11 year old deformed Spare tyres. As a result it felt like I had an iffy driveshaft most of the time! Two new tyres on the front transformed the car. But then there was the body.
I was told the car had a couple of small areas needing attention (the bonnet and rear bumper) but nothing prepared me for the awful fitting front bumper, combined with a rattled canned front bumper and arch sections. Oh, and the exhaust was on the way out)
An MOT later (After an ABS sensor, exhaust replacement (Stainless Janspeed decatted system), and it has been pushed into daily service.
It is alot of fun to drive and surprisingly, it is quicker than the 205, but the brakes do need attention. I know the 205 is on M1144 pads but Lord the brakes are awful on this! It has a solid pedal, but it does not seem to do much!
But anyway, enough with the moaning and general banter here are a few pics of how the car started off and what it has become. Future additions will include changing the brakes (I have some Xsara VTR items with M1150 pads), and maybe lowering the suspension with new dampers all round.
Before:
At least inside all was ok:
After a little work (front and rear bumpers, front wings with wheelarches, and exhaust):
An airbox and remounted ECU to replace/tidy up the engine bay:
A cleaned interior:
Some fancy HU goodness for you ICE lovers (worth more than the car?):
The chav inside me, I know. But with the replacment tailgate/wings I did strike a good deal. Possibly a little too outlandish in sound for me though:
Either way, I guess with AX underpinnings, 35+MPG and being a swift car I could do worse for an old daily
.
I bought this in January from a snowy Edinburgh with an iffy heater and four 'good' tyres. The heater issue was easily solved. Bleeding through the cooling system gave me a lovely and toasty heater. The tyres however were a bit of a joke.
Whilst the rears were ok, the fronts were 11 year old deformed Spare tyres. As a result it felt like I had an iffy driveshaft most of the time! Two new tyres on the front transformed the car. But then there was the body.
I was told the car had a couple of small areas needing attention (the bonnet and rear bumper) but nothing prepared me for the awful fitting front bumper, combined with a rattled canned front bumper and arch sections. Oh, and the exhaust was on the way out)
An MOT later (After an ABS sensor, exhaust replacement (Stainless Janspeed decatted system), and it has been pushed into daily service.
It is alot of fun to drive and surprisingly, it is quicker than the 205, but the brakes do need attention. I know the 205 is on M1144 pads but Lord the brakes are awful on this! It has a solid pedal, but it does not seem to do much!
But anyway, enough with the moaning and general banter here are a few pics of how the car started off and what it has become. Future additions will include changing the brakes (I have some Xsara VTR items with M1150 pads), and maybe lowering the suspension with new dampers all round.
Before:
At least inside all was ok:
After a little work (front and rear bumpers, front wings with wheelarches, and exhaust):
An airbox and remounted ECU to replace/tidy up the engine bay:
A cleaned interior:
Some fancy HU goodness for you ICE lovers (worth more than the car?):
The chav inside me, I know. But with the replacment tailgate/wings I did strike a good deal. Possibly a little too outlandish in sound for me though:
Either way, I guess with AX underpinnings, 35+MPG and being a swift car I could do worse for an old daily
.
As good as the 205 now or better?
