g40jon
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May 27, 2016 18:54:34 GMT
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Cheers for the replies. With regards maintenance expenses and effort, I've found the opposite. Over 6 years of ownership the Saab has been an epic tool for getting around the country, I gave £7k for it, on a good day I'd get £2k now. However, over that time it's had; £500 a year on tyres, £200 a year on services, 2 alternator at £300 a time, clutch and DMF at £800 all in, circa £2500 of suspension components, circa £1k on brakes. Then around £1500 on ad-hoc faults and issues. Then around £2k on paintwork, repairing other peoples careless carpark damage. You're exactly the type of person I tend to buy cars from. Spend a fortune doing all the expensive stuff, conclude the car is now expensive to maintain, so sell up. I've bought many a car like this, run them for a year or two without any major expense, just general servicing and TLC, then sold for pretty much what I paid.
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g40jon
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The guy that upgrades them is called g40jon. From oxford I think Used to dabble with them. No longer bother as it wasn't worth the effort. Couple of ways to do it: 1: gut all of the internals and fit new (you can get fairly cheap little 12v amps with radio tuner, line in/outs off of ebay or you could scratch build using decoders, audio amp, radio tuner kits from maplin, r.s. and the like 2: attach direct to the volume pot if it's an old radio (you may need to use some resistors to reduce i/p level down to something that won't clip once it goes to the amplifier stage.) Probably the most crude method, and you essentially play over the top of the tuners signal, so you may hear both sources at low volume. 3: The method I favoured was to trace back to the amplifier i/c (integrated circuit i.e. little black chip) and connect direct to the input legs of the chip (again you may need to use resistors to drop the signal)and work out a way to kill the radio tuner signal. This was normally achieved using a simple switch to cut the input from the radio tuner. To give you a clue, on a majority of cassette players the cassette often triggers a small micro-switch when you insert the tape to kill the radio tuner. Be warned though, if you leave a cassette in the deck whilst using your newly cobbled together aux i/p you can end up recording onto the cassette, as I found out one day when testing a radio I had modded! Loads of info out there on the internet. That's where I got most of my info from. There are lots of people on ebay who sell these sort of vitange and retro radios already modded for not much money, hence why I can no longer be bothered with the hassle.
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g40jon
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I bought a clay bar ages ago. Used it once, haven't used it since. Works, does exactly what it is supposed to, but when you live out in the sticks and your car is dirty by the time you have driven 1/2 a mile, is there any point? I'm of the opinion it isn't. Worthwhile on daily drivers, not unless you are completely OCD. On show cars, without doubt it's worth doing.
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g40jon
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not yet
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g40jon
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May 18, 2016 13:37:43 GMT
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I wonder how viable it woulld be to use the 1.6 block and head from the mx5, and just retain the 1.5 running gear, i.e. the inlet, injection system and so on. I don't know the answer, but would be interested to know if anyone else does.
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g40jon
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I was reading a thread over on club323f and the general feeling was that you are better off using an engine from a 323 rather than mx5. The block isn't the issue, it's more that all the ancillaries are fwd and rwd specific as far as I could tell. The 1.5 16v is a sweet little motor. Very rev happy even though it is under-cammed. Some of the jdm 1.5s run around 110 bhp and most of the 20 bhp gain is from the cams! There are lots of cheap BA 323fs around, cheap enough to break, keep the engine and probably make your money back on bits
I would get over on club323f and see if anyone has a suitable engine. They seem a friendly enough bunch on there.
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g40jon
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g40jon
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one last bump before I try the dreaded bay of e
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g40jon
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They don't look too bad. If you were to use them, i'd get them swapped around so the worn edge is on the outside, as more often than not the inner edge is more prone to wear, esp. if wheel alignment isn't perfect. Plus being on the outside will make it easy to spot when they are too far gone.
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g40jon
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Still a work in progress, hopefully the finished article will look pretty cool. This has inspired me a tad [/URL]
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g40jon
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sound like they are just about legal, but do you really want the only thing keeping you on the road to only be just about legal? I know I wouldn't.
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g40jon
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Apr 29, 2016 21:40:07 GMT
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better off just drilling the airbox. It's placement isn't bad really. You won't gain anything, but it'll make a nice noise with an aftermaket panel filter installed. Most of these induction kits afre a bit snake oil! The jackson racing airbox is known to give some gains, but at £300 is mega expensive for what it is and probably any gains in bhp are offset in a drop in torque (the jackson racing setup reduces the length of the inlet tract significantly)
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g40jon
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Apr 12, 2016 11:00:29 GMT
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Bit rude jumping on a deal like that, allow the lad time to respond to the counter offer. How so? The lad low balled a frankly ridiculous offer. If he was any kind of serious buyer, he'd have just stumped up the very fair asking price. To the opening poster, if they fail to sell and you're wheels are Banbury side of MK, drop us a pm.
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g40jon
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This is stunning attention to detail! I'm sure it'll be time well invested though! If you ever get bored after finishing this one, I have a red mx5 that could use some tlc!! Great thread, one of the best I have read on here in a long, long time.
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g40jon
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Fairly sure there was another pug 205 gti recently up for sale around the 20k mark on ebay, so it isn't the only big value 205 around. Great if you own a mint car, but it is a bit sad that average Joe is being priced out by people buying these types of car as investments. Still I'm sure we have all done the same to some extent? I bought an e36 when prices were at scrap value. Had planned to keep it long term, but ended up selling it to fund a house resto. I made a small profit, but i'm sure if I had sat on it, it would have continued to go up at a far better rate than any savings account currently available. Perhaps that is half the problem? Savings are getting next to no interest, so people are chancing their money elsewhere.
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g40jon
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www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172152272331?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649On ebay for £225, would would sell for £200 on here, as ebay would take £22.50 in fees anyway For sale, vw dealer optional extra speedline sl371 alloy wheels in good condition. will fit other cars with 4x100 stud pattern. I bought these some years ago to fit to my polo g40, which I did! I orignally thought they were from the golf country model, but have been informed the country used 15" version. There was also a 13" version available. These are 14" and possibly the rarest out of the lot. Sadly the polo had to be sold to help fund house restoration and these where left over. I also ran them on one of my mk1 mx5s for a while. That's also off the road now too. I bought them needing a light refurbishment. I stripped them back to bare metal and resprayed them in my garage in anthracite grey and clear lacquer over the top. A couple of wheels have very small light scuffs, from me being a wally and rubbing a curb. The marks are very small, probably not visible in the photos. I'm asking good (but fair) money for them, so think it only right to mention. No cracks, dents or any other kind of damage, very straight. Two centre caps are missing. I never got around to sourcing replacements. Wheels stats are as follows 14" dia. 6" wide 4x100 et 38 These wheels are a perfect fit for many 80s/90s 4 stud vws, looked absolutely great on my polo, no rubbing or fouling. The tyres are included FREE, as they have been on the rims for a while now, so you may prefer to get them replaced. The two contis are 185/50s but are 10 years old (going on the date stamps (dot code)) and one has a puncture repair. Treads still good and they were always more than grippy. I'd have no issues about using them. The Falkens are much newer, made in 2012, so have plenty of life left in them. I bought them new, where as the contis were part worns. The falkens are 195/45s. I chose this size on purpose to help get rid of the understeer the old polos were prone to, so I ran them on the front of the car. All tyres have a minimum of 4mm across the treads. The falkens are probably closer to 5mm remaining. New they only had 7mm. Collection only, no I won't courier them and no you can't arrange a courier to collect them. Blunt but at least we know where we stand! Price won't be getting dropped, so PLEASE refrain from messaging me to ask if I will take offers, I won't, they either sell or they don't and I hang onto them and sell something else instead. I think that is everything covered. If not feel free to ask a question. 07841481156
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g40jon
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Ahh, As far as I recall, they were true splits, and I honestly can't remember whether they had anything on the face. They came with the proper br racing center caps but I prefered the look without. black racing are 3 piece splits. I had two sets kept these and sold these instead think i went wrong!
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g40jon
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Bump for the weekend. Also just to note. I have sewn up the damaged drivers seats, so whilst not perfect. It doesn't look half as bad. Come and give the car a try, it might surprise you.
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g40jon
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Mar 30, 2016 13:20:30 GMT
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g40jon
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Mar 26, 2016 19:16:14 GMT
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I would suggest researching on google. You might find that it uses the same pin-out as blaupunkt who also commonly used din back in the day. There is lots of info out their for old blaupunkt gear, less so for panasonic in my experience. Other option would be to open the radio up and trace the wiring back to the relevent ic, the google the ic part no, to find the pin out for that.
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