Restoring Little Bluey - my 182 FF ClioSport in Racing Blue

[Mr Underhill]

A cold and fresh early start today putting the engine back in.

A couple of small jobs to do under the bonnet first, including replacing a couple of melted grommets. They’ll no doubt melt again.

Then a clean up of the heat shield.

Then a check over the loom and cleaning up the earths/connections and repairing some broken bits of tape.

Before finally getting the engine back in.

Started to get a bit cold and at my age you have to watch yourself So knocked off for the day for a hot bath and a nice cup of tea.

If I get some time tomorrow I’ll build it all back up and hopefully get some suspension work done. Thanks for reading

 

[ajracer]

Looking good.
The way your going you will be driving her tomorrow afternoon!

 

[Mr Underhill]

Looking good.
The way your going you will be driving her tomorrow afternoon!

Quite a bit to do yet. This one’s a summer car only

 

[YorkshireKyle]

Where did you get the parts blasted Jon?

Looks spot on!

 

[SharpyClio]

This level of commitment and attention to detail is what I someday hope to be able to give to mine. Amazing.

 

[Mr Underhill]

Where did you get the parts blasted Jon?

Looks spot on!

There’s a lad in Stockton runs a small Aqua Blasting business - Facebook Aqua Blasting UK. Proper petrol head. Restores classic bikes and cars.

 

[Mr Underhill]

This level of commitment and attention to detail is what I someday hope to be able to give to mine. Amazing.

Aw thanks fella. It’s a good standard but tbh i could make the finish on some parts much better, but I’m going to use the car over summertime. Just trying to strike a good balance.

 

[SharpyClio]

It can be tricky can’t it, it’s so easy to throw money at them. I’m just hoping mine looks tidy for a daily at the moment.

 

[YorkshireKyle]

There’s a lad in Stockton runs a small Aqua Blasting business - Facebook Aqua Blasting UK. Proper petrol head. Restores classic bikes and cars.

I'll have a gander, cheers mate

 

[Mr Underhill]

It can be tricky can’t it, it’s so easy to throw money at them. I’m just hoping mine looks tidy for a daily at the moment.

Yeah. I know if I go too mad with the finish I won’t want to drive it.

 

[Stefan.]

Bloody lovely to see the work going into this.

Top work so far

 

[Mr Underhill]

Bloody lovely to see the work going into this.

Top work so far

Thanks Stefan

 

[DomP182]

Do aqua blasted alloy parts need lacquering or anything to stop them corroding afterwards?

Top work!

 

[Mr Underhill]

I

Do aqua blasted alloy parts need lacquering or anything to stop them corroding afterwards?

Top work!

Thanks.

I guess you could but I just brush on some ACF-50, let it soak in. Seems to do the trick.

 

[Mr Underhill]

Rained off this morning but by lunch it had cleared up enough for me to start bolting the engine down.

A few detail shots of the upper gearbox mount, battery tray, upper inlet and fuel guard.

Got everything torqued up so turned my attention to the suspension.

Picked up a couple of Shaftec drive shafts as the others were completely shot.

Began building up the drivers side first.

Everything other than the hubs and Eibach springs, which I’ve refurbished, are new including :

CUP dampers, top nut kit & spacer, pinch and damper bolts, ABS sensors, wishbones, ARB inner and outer bushes.

Gave everywhere a good coating of ACF-50 to keep it looking fresh. Pretty pleased with how it’s all coming together.

 

[Mr Underhill]

That dreaded moment when you look down and find a few find parts left over that you have no idea where they came from

Luckily i use Partsouq which is great for finding part numbers for your car.

And both items had part numbers so i was able to pop those into the search and get a nice illustration of where they fit.

In this case a bit of radiator (15) and bonnet latch trim (1)

 

[Mr Underhill]

Not many mid-week updates other than I’ve removed the headlights and am going to have a go at cleaning them up. What could possibly go wrong

Then gave the front slam panel a clean up, some corrosion treatment and a lick of paint.
There’s never enough paint on them anyway.

Not the best finish I’ll admit but this is getting painted professionally when I get some of the paintwork corrected anyway. So it’ll do for now.

Finally I dug some of my Trackday discs out and started cleaning a couple up. No point in buying new discs as I have lots of these lying around after switching pad compounds between trackdays. Little to no wear.

And that’s pretty much it. Going to build and clean remaining parts up, then see if I can complete the work at the weekend

Thanks for reading.

 

[Mr Underhill]

Came up lovely Before and after shots. Ignore the ugly fat bloke in the reflections

 

[CFAB]

Looks proper mate, love reading through this and I’m excited to see this all finished. Great work!

 

[Daniel]

That’s a real credit to you, it’s lovely!

 

[Mr Underhill]

@Daniel @CFAB Thanks chaps

 

[Mr Underhill]

Put a shift in today, although it doesn’t seem like a lot was done, but it was a day of tidying, torquing things up, reconnecting pipes etc.

Got the brakes built up, just need a bleed.

Fitted stainless steel braided lines.

HEL stainless steel bleed nipples. The ones you get with standard calipers are too soft and easy to round off.

Was contemplating painting the calipers Blue but I stuck with titanium in the end, less maintenance I think.

Gave behind the headlights a clean up and in all the nooks and crannies.

Headlights back in. They look amazing.

Just need to fill the gearbox and engine with oil, bleed the brakes and add power steering fluid and that’s pretty much all the underneath and mechanical jobs done.

 

[photo_ed]

Wow! This is looking great. Fabulous attention to detail!

 

[ajracer]

That looks awesome Jon. You can’t ever drive that car in the rain!

 

[Mr Underhill]

That looks awesome Jon. You can’t ever drive that car in the rain!

No never, although I probably will knowing me.

 

[MarcB]

@Jon Wright if I send you my Trophy for 6 / 8 months fancy doing mine ?

Thats an amazing job, I just dont have the motivation to do this so massive credit to you.

 

[Mr Underhill]

@Jon Wright if I send you my Trophy for 6 / 8 months fancy doing mine ?

Thats an amazing job, I just dont have the motivation to do this for credit to you.

Thank you

I’ve been asked this so many times and the answer is the always same - yes in a few years when I’m semi-retired

I love doing them.

 

[MarcB]

Thank you

I’ve been asked this so many times and the answer is the always same - yes in a few years when I’m semi-retired

I love doing them.

Pup me to the top of the list

 

[Andy P]

Does look amazing Jon, Fair play to you.

 

[Mr Underhill]

Does look amazing Jon, Fair play to you.

Thanks Andy. There’s plenty I could improve on but I’d have to replace the parts with new ones which would prove too costly.

 

[RustyMojo]

You should be super proud of what you have achieved fella! Top bloody work!

 

[Mr Underhill]

You should be super proud of what you have achieved fella! Top bloody work!

Thanks Russ. Oddly enough I’m not. I’ve had to make a few short cuts due to impending building work on the house. Most people won’t see them, but I know they’re there. Version 2 will be so much better

 

[finch wxm]

Such a great build Jon, credit to you

 

[Mr Underhill]

Such a great build Jon, credit to you

Thanks.

It could be so much better, which is what's playing with my OCD me right now

But i know if i went concourse it would never be driven. So it's a sort of halfway house refresh that'll protect the car, allow me to enjoy it and stop it ending up in a scrappy.

 

[JamesBryan]

Nice Jon!

Reminds me i need to do my headlights again

Did you lacquer them?

 

[Mr Underhill]

Nice Jon!

Reminds me i need to do my headlights again

Did you lacquer them?

Yes i did. Don't ask me what brand it was though, some commercial magic ingredients no doubt, as i was given it in an unmarked bottle.

I won't be doing anymore for some time though

 

[sennaalbronda]

@Jon Wright, aplaud to you buddy! you have really created something mint here. love the attention to detail. and if your still searching for springs. i believe i have some near mint 182 cup springs laying around. rears are (white and red dots) which are the original 182 cup springs. fronts are i believe green yellow or blue yellow.

let me know buddy, and let me know when you are in holland again for a cup of coffey!

 

[Mr Underhill]

I hate throwing original bolts away so thought I’d try my hand at Metal Blacking.

I noticed on the airbox that there were only a couple of screws holding it together, so dug out some of the original screws that I hoard away.

A bit rusty but they’ll clean up.

The process was pretty easy and the results seem great.

First I wire wheeled the rust off the screws then left in some DEOX-C for about 6 hours.

Then I soaked them in degreaser, washed off with tap water and then submerged them in some Phillips Professional Cold Blue. It’s a simple 3 parts water to 1 part solution mix. I agitated with a brush giving them a good coating for 3 minutes.

Removed from the solution and immediately sprayed them with Phillips Water Repellent Gun Oil. You can use WD-40 or GT 85 I believe.

I left them to dry for an hour before wiping the oil off with a paper towel and hey presto!

Almost as good as new and protected against corrosion.

Just thinking what else I can do under the bonnet now

 

[photo_ed]

Loving your process on the airbox screws Jon, you've inspired me to tackle the ones on my Trophy and get them restored to this standard!

 

[Mr Underhill]

Loving your process on the airbox screws Jon, you've inspired me to tackle the ones on my Trophy and get them restored to this standard!

Good man.