Let's set the scene - It's a Sunday afternoon and the Wife and I are getting our usual YouTube fix (Vice Grip, Sleeperdude, etc) and we get a suggested video pop up. I said ‘oh, cool, an SD1’ and click on the video, and here is where we went off down the rabbit hole.
The video in question was by a user named ‘nitrosilvia’ and over the next couple of weeks we watched all the videos on the channel and we both really enjoyed them. Now a year ago we decided we wanted to get an American car or pick up to tidy up and enjoy but then we had a little speech that sent the economy into freefall and costs spiralling so that put pay to that, but these videos now had us thinking about doing a small project – nothing too crazy – and having a play with that.
We began having a look about and found a few things we were interested in that looked decent and well cared for, so of course I did the sensible thing and agreed to buy a non-running 216 off Facebook Marketplace virtually sight unseen!
TL;DR – We are here because of jimspolicev8sd1
Luckily the car was relatively local to us and a quick call to recovery firm later and the car was picked up and brought home. I was quite surprised as I’d only previously seen it in the pouring rain and it looked quite tidy, it has 47k on the clock, there’s no real history other than MOTs to back this up but looking at the wear (or lack of it) on the interior I have no reason to doubt it’s genuine.
The car cranked but had no spark, the previous owner had loaded the parts canon and replaced the coil, dizzy cap, and rotor arm but still no dice. An afternoon spent with a multimeter poking and prodding things pointed towards it being the igniter module so a new one was ordered.
The bank holiday weekend arrived and I was primed to spend it getting the car running or at least chasing the fault further. I fitted then new module, turned the key and…
She barked straight off! This was a bit unexpected and left me with not a lot to do for the rest of the weekend so I managed to get it booked in for an MOT. Now I certainly wasn’t expecting a pass, I just wanted to know what was next on the list to fix. I collected the inevitable fail sheet and was pretty happy, there weren’t any nasty surprises and the only thing I wasn’t aware of was the handbrake – and that was only a proverbial gnat’s from meeting efficiency.
• Offside Outer Seat belt anchorage prescribed area strength or continuity significantly reduced sill (7.1.1 (a) (i))
• Offside Rear Inner Suspension component mounting prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength sill (5.3.6 (a) (i))
• Front Exhaust has a major leak of exhaust gases catalyst (6.1.2 (a))
• Exhaust Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits (8.2.1.2 (c))
• Service brake efficiency below requirements (1.2.2 (a) (i))
Repair as soon as possible (minor defects):
• Nearside Front Outer Drive shaft joint constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (6.1.7 (g) (i))
Monitor and repair if necessary (advisories):
• Nearside Outer Seat belt anchorage prescribed area is corroded but not considered excessive sill (7.1.1 (a) (i))
• Nearside Front Tyre worn close to legal limit/worn on edge (5.2.3 (e))
• Offside Front Tyre worn close to legal limit/worn on edge (5.2.3 (e))
I was quite surprise at how much fun it was to drive, I'd forgotten that cars used to be fun and quite nippy even with relativly small engines for their size - I'd also forgotten just how heavy unassisted steering is. 
…and so begins the next phase of the project, lets start fixing stuff!
