1989 Austin Maestro 700 L Van 1.3 to 2.0 Turbo

Started to take the dash out tonight to do the heater matrix, and also found out that an MGB steering wheel fits which is cool as i've got a nice dished moto lita style one laying around which is better than the dreary foam brown maestro one






Also gave it a wash the other day and took a couple of pics  





Also the golf arches I ordered turned up, looks like they'll probably fit

there is a lot of MG parts that fit these, remember there was a MG turbo version of the saloon car.

I'm trying to think of your van with silver headlight and grill trim. At the moment all I can see is the hamburgler...

My uncle had one of these many years ago - I seem to remember him saying that there are quite a lot of VW parts in them, the gearbox being one. No idea how true it is, but a mk2 Golf 4+e box might be a decent swap?

Also worth trying to shift into 5th anyway -Paintbox had a Caddy pickup with what they thought was a 4-speed box. Turned out to be a 5-speed with a 4-speed knob on it...

Introduced October 1988 - limited run of just 505 cars

The MG Maestro Turbo was a high performance reaction to the growing band of 16 valve hot hatch cars of the post 1986 period. In fact, a Maestro Turbo was part of the production plan back in 1984, but the development cars were said to be ‘too fast’ and only the Montego Turbo appeared during that period. Events though, saw the model resurface, this time though with a beneficial and very individual body kit.

The Maestro Turbo was first shown in a low key way at the Birmingham Motor Show in October 1988 to a surprised MG world. Essentially the car was a standard MG Maestro into which the Montego Turbo drivetrain and suspension was fitted, to create the fastest production MG to date.

Whilst the ingredients were simple off the shelf items the mixing was finalised by Tickfords which also included them developing and manufacturing a one off 5 piece body kit, the heart of which was very bold front and rear bumpers. The front carried integral Lucas driving lamps and rather large side ‘TURBO’ graphics.

I've never thought of that! now thats all I can see haha. They did do the gill etc in silver, this was is black originally though

Yeah they did maestro and montego turbo's same engine in both of them so subsequently the maestro was faster as it was lighter.

Managed to get the dash out the other night and replaced the matrix, one of the pipes had rusted out.




Then got it back in and made sure everything still worked! now to finish putting the bits back on it and fit my new seats.

Had a productive day today, finished off the heater matrix flushing ut the coolant etc and now have heat! Also fitted my new seats





I also had a go at getting the golf arches to fit and see if the cover the wheels, did a bit of trimming and got them to fit pretty much. its going to be close if the wheels fit under them but I'm gunna bite the bullet get one tyre and see. I wasn't sure if they would look a bit naff but they go really well with the black and white contrast, let me know what you think

like this.....bookmarked

The Tyre I bought turned up today and got it put on a wheel. Happy with how it looks on the rim.





Then I offered it up to the van in anticipation, lowered it down and was surprised as it didn't stick out as much as I thought, and with the Golf arches I think I'll get away with them.  ( Thanks to brc76 for the suggestion )

Plus I'm very happy with how they look  need to fiddle around with the height and camber a bit when I get them all on to get it perfect









Didn't have time to take the mudflap off the back to put the arch on but you get the idea.