Back in the mk1 fold

[jon_st205]

Hi all,

I've gone and bought another mk1 Cosmetically it's okay having been resprayed and the arches done. It's not an A1 job but good enough for me. Trouble is there's been an awful lot of bodging going on Why on earth do people do this?

It needs a whole new dash and set of trims as the originals were flocked (not a euphemism) very poorly. Meanwhile the poor old motor has been neglected to the point where it is misfiring under anything more than half throttle Idle is very poor too - hunting around at around 1k rpm. So kinda hoping they're related and a good service will sort it.

Any thoughts on de-striped cars? This one is and I'm undecided at the moment.

Jon

[LimeyMk1]

Welcome back Jon!

Get some piccies up of the poor thing.

Re destriping, I plan to do it to my MK1 when I get round to the cosmetics, I think it makes the car look much sleeker. Only issue with mine is that I think it has been laquered over with the stripes in place on one side.

[pk_090]

My rear stripe came off when the car went into the bodyshop, as the back bumper was resprayed. Im not sure as to get a new rear stripe, ( probaby a stripe set at 60ish) or just rip the other stripes off. Decisions Decisions.

[cartledge_uk]

Welcome back

I love the clean look on an AW11

[Polypedates]

Gotta have the stripes as far as I'm concerned - all part of that '80s period charm

[Lauren]

A car that doesn't have the stripes, says not original to me, ie it's had work done. This was why Mark didn't get his SE resprayed as he couldn't get the gold stripes.

[jimi]

Just because a car has stripes doesn't mean it hasn't had work done
it's not that difficult to replace the stripes, even the gold ones can be reproduced that well that anyone would struggle to tell them apart from originals (all you need is money)
I'd reckon there's very very few MK1's in the UK that haven't had work done, at least the ones without stripes aren't trying to kid anyone and if the work is properly done what does it matter ?

[Lauren]

It's not a problem, Jimi and I'm sure just about every MK1 has had work done thesedays.

Nowt wrong with that.

Mark wouldn't do his because the original stripes are no longer available. I tried to persuade him that replicas would be okay but he wanted screen printed stripes rather than vinyl.


When there are missing sections of stripes that's when it says to me work has been done but the owner hasn't bothered either to put new stripes on or remove the rest.

[craig]

Welcome back dude
Any pics?

[jon_st205]

Cheers all, pics when it stops snowing. Fitted a replacement battery today as the one fitted was about half the normal size; the tie-down bar didn't even touch it Speaking of which, has anyone fabricated a nicer tie-down bar yet? The standard one is pants (and rusty).

I'm not overly bothered about keeping it standard (that horse has long since bolted with this car); I will take a view on re-striping it. It has colour-coded wing mirrors - I'm not sure if they are s/c's as they look rounder than I remember UK mirrors being. Perhaps it's just a perception thing. Doubtless they look better than black plastic though. I'll get your opinions when I get pics up.

One question I have - the speedo overreads by a large margin, talking 50mph speedo = 40mph GPS. Tyres are standard size. I'm thinking someone has monkeyed about with the speedo head, but any other suggestions are welcomed.

Jimi, just to say that you can ignore my e-mail about a bracket as I've bought Donna's from the classifieds - makes sense to recycle.

Cheers,
Jon

[jimi]

No worries, makes perfect sense, I'd rather see them reused than scrapped (same as the cars )

[Tsporter]

I'm looking at one at the moment that had a full respray. I think I would get decals if I were to buy it.....well I was sure of it till I read this thread!

[elbon50]

I'm looking at one at the moment that had a full respray

What's hiding under the paint though

Peter

[Tsporter]

I'm looking at one at the moment that had a full respray

What's hiding under the paint though

Peter

He has pics documenting a full resto. I won't be rushing into anything though!

[jon_st205]

UPDATE: Looks like the HG is goosed Got it running slightly better by blocking up the waxstat hole (manual choke already fitted) and adjusting the idle, only for it start boiling up just a few minutes down the road. Got it back okay once it had cooled for 5 minutes, but it all starts to make sense now:

- there are pre-existing coolant stains around the rad cap.
- the guy I bought it off was pretty coy about lots of things, including not running the engine for long (my fault for trusting and not test driving it, due to being in a hurry).
- the general poor running of the engine, extremely flat, no power, crap idle.

Only mitigating factor is that the drivers footwell is damp so heater matrix leak? It's weird though as it doesn't seem to be coming from the area of the matrix, more along the side. Headlining isn't wet though (sunroof model).

Will the HG blow between water & combustion chamber show on a compression test? I haven't got a sniffer kit at present. Can someone tell me which of the engine bay 15A fuses is the EFI (the fuse box lid is missing) so i can compression test?

Not sure whether to fix the HG or throw the baby out of the bathwater and go 2ZZ?

Jon

[elbon50]

drivers footwell is damp so heater matrix leak? It's weird though as it doesn't seem to be coming from the area of the matrix, more along the sideJon

Could be water getting in through the scuttle air ducts, not draining away Jon

It can then rot through the lower scuttle panel & start to drip into the car

Mine has gone like that near the edge on passenger side

Peter

[SuperRedMR2]

The compression test will probably show up, but when mine went on pot no.4 the compression was normal but on no.3 it was appalling.

[jon_st205]

Big leak on one of the rad hoses, probably popped by the extreme cold. Just looking at it now.

[PW@Woodsport]

More likely popped from the HG failure.

[jon_st205]

It's one of the hard pipes to the heater matrix that's holed, just before the rubber section that goes through the frunk floor. Guess I'll just have to cut it back to good metal and fit a longer hose.

Also found the cam timing a tooth out on both cams so that's all gonna have to come off.

I consider myself a pretty savvy person so I'm gutted to have bought a pup.