It's been a long time but I thought I'd update on a build I've been very slowly working on for 2 years now.
Bought a high mileage 182 two years ago with a "mate" with the intention of running it in rallycross. After we stripped the disgusting interior and skipped it, he pulled out, leaving me with a worthless, interiorless car.
Over the last two years I've been slowly restoring and updating it with a view to now running it as a weekend/trackday car.
So many things have gone wrong and continue to go wrong with it and it's doing my head in, but in the next few months it might actually be in an MOT worthy state.
- Developed misfire almost immediately, found out it was running an odd injector, replaced and cured
- Rear shock bolt sheared on removal - bought second hand rear beam axle, stripped and sealed the axle, cleaned and painted the calipers, removed the rust on the underside, undersealed the entire rear end, removed the rotten heat shield and applied temporary adhesive sheet and tape, cleaned exhaust back box, fitted new Scorpion(possibly) unsilenced centre pipe and new catalytic converter. New handbrake cables and brake hoses, cleaned up and reattached all.
- Battery died, replaced
- Starter motor died, replaced at great length and with much blood, briefly running again.
- Stripped interior back to bare metal with wire wheels and stripper - no body shop job as wasn't super concerned about finish and wanted to do it myself.
- Welded in Custom Cages 6 point cage with double door bars.
- Finished tidying up metal work, extensive masking and then primed and sprayed interior in gloss white. Not a bad job but still some gaps to finish with rattle cans.
- Moved house July 2021
- Fitted Track Door Cards front cards with a bit of door cutting to reposition switchgear due to doorbars.
- Rebuilt interior including cutting dash in half to get in. Fitted Sabelt seat with appropriate hardware, TRS 4 point road legal harness
- Got engine running again and found brakes devoid of fluid, later found battery does not hold charge when connected
- Moved house again October 2021
- Removed entire front end
- Replaced alternator (possibly the fault)
- Chucked away aircon condenser and associated hoses
- Chucked away disgusting old radiator and hoses
- Fitted new Direnza radiator and MTC hose kit
- Removed and deep cleaned throttle body, reattached
- Fitted homemade induction kit from Ramair 70mm cone and ASH parts, plus K&N crank breather (because looks nice)
- Cut piece of ABS to shroud cone intake from hot engine bay, coated in heat reflecting foil
- Removed lots of rusty bits of crap (hoist eye, ECU case etc), stripped and resprayed with high temp paint
- Threw away some other random bits no longer needed, airbox, brackets ETC
- Mid level clean of engine bay
drilled hole in plastic fairing under windscreen, added battery isolator switch, made new negative leads, wired up, cut off old negative terminal, made new one, connected everything up, cut a small relief in plastic panel and seal so everything fits nicely
- Cleaned and resprayed various bits of front grille in fresh satin black
- Fitted new bonnet catch, deep cleaned lock mechanism, refitted
- Removed rear wiper and glued in little blanking plate
- Removed normal aerial and stuck on filed down and gutted cheap shark fin job (cosmetic and not connected)
- Replaced coolant
That is essentially the recent progress, probably a few things I've forgotten.
In the post currently
- Bilstein B14 full kit
- Heavy duty wishbones (mine are rusty and disgusting)
- OMP front strut brace
- Sunstrip
- New rear calipers (sheared off bleed nipple when bleeding, then sheered off rubbish screw extractor trying to remedy)
- New front brake pipes
- Track Car Aero front splitter w/ canards
Still to do - need to do
- Fix airbag warning light - bunch of resistors added, hasn't cured the issue
- Cut off siezed old front shocks
- Fit 4 corners new suspension
- Fit rear calipers
- Bleed all brakes
- Bleed coolant and confirm engine ok
- Figure out why my OBD reader doesn't work, determine what my current fault code status is (at least one)
- Fit splitter
Still to do - want to do
- New clutch to remedy slipping
- Determine cause of noise under full lock (driveshaft) and fix
- Portmatching and repainting manifolds
- New front brakes (Wilwood?)
- New wheels and tyres
- New bushings and mounts
- Scenic gear lever mod
Pics to follow separately to avoid losing this enormous lump of text should something go wrong.
Bought a high mileage 182 two years ago with a "mate" with the intention of running it in rallycross. After we stripped the disgusting interior and skipped it, he pulled out, leaving me with a worthless, interiorless car.
Over the last two years I've been slowly restoring and updating it with a view to now running it as a weekend/trackday car.
So many things have gone wrong and continue to go wrong with it and it's doing my head in, but in the next few months it might actually be in an MOT worthy state.
- Developed misfire almost immediately, found out it was running an odd injector, replaced and cured
- Rear shock bolt sheared on removal - bought second hand rear beam axle, stripped and sealed the axle, cleaned and painted the calipers, removed the rust on the underside, undersealed the entire rear end, removed the rotten heat shield and applied temporary adhesive sheet and tape, cleaned exhaust back box, fitted new Scorpion(possibly) unsilenced centre pipe and new catalytic converter. New handbrake cables and brake hoses, cleaned up and reattached all.
- Battery died, replaced
- Starter motor died, replaced at great length and with much blood, briefly running again.
- Stripped interior back to bare metal with wire wheels and stripper - no body shop job as wasn't super concerned about finish and wanted to do it myself.
- Welded in Custom Cages 6 point cage with double door bars.
- Finished tidying up metal work, extensive masking and then primed and sprayed interior in gloss white. Not a bad job but still some gaps to finish with rattle cans.
- Moved house July 2021
- Fitted Track Door Cards front cards with a bit of door cutting to reposition switchgear due to doorbars.
- Rebuilt interior including cutting dash in half to get in. Fitted Sabelt seat with appropriate hardware, TRS 4 point road legal harness
- Got engine running again and found brakes devoid of fluid, later found battery does not hold charge when connected
- Moved house again October 2021
- Removed entire front end
- Replaced alternator (possibly the fault)
- Chucked away aircon condenser and associated hoses
- Chucked away disgusting old radiator and hoses
- Fitted new Direnza radiator and MTC hose kit
- Removed and deep cleaned throttle body, reattached
- Fitted homemade induction kit from Ramair 70mm cone and ASH parts, plus K&N crank breather (because looks nice)
- Cut piece of ABS to shroud cone intake from hot engine bay, coated in heat reflecting foil
- Removed lots of rusty bits of crap (hoist eye, ECU case etc), stripped and resprayed with high temp paint
- Threw away some other random bits no longer needed, airbox, brackets ETC
- Mid level clean of engine bay
drilled hole in plastic fairing under windscreen, added battery isolator switch, made new negative leads, wired up, cut off old negative terminal, made new one, connected everything up, cut a small relief in plastic panel and seal so everything fits nicely
- Cleaned and resprayed various bits of front grille in fresh satin black
- Fitted new bonnet catch, deep cleaned lock mechanism, refitted
- Removed rear wiper and glued in little blanking plate
- Removed normal aerial and stuck on filed down and gutted cheap shark fin job (cosmetic and not connected)
- Replaced coolant
That is essentially the recent progress, probably a few things I've forgotten.
In the post currently
- Bilstein B14 full kit
- Heavy duty wishbones (mine are rusty and disgusting)
- OMP front strut brace
- Sunstrip
- New rear calipers (sheared off bleed nipple when bleeding, then sheered off rubbish screw extractor trying to remedy)
- New front brake pipes
- Track Car Aero front splitter w/ canards
Still to do - need to do
- Fix airbag warning light - bunch of resistors added, hasn't cured the issue
- Cut off siezed old front shocks
- Fit 4 corners new suspension
- Fit rear calipers
- Bleed all brakes
- Bleed coolant and confirm engine ok
- Figure out why my OBD reader doesn't work, determine what my current fault code status is (at least one)
- Fit splitter
Still to do - want to do
- New clutch to remedy slipping
- Determine cause of noise under full lock (driveshaft) and fix
- Portmatching and repainting manifolds
- New front brakes (Wilwood?)
- New wheels and tyres
- New bushings and mounts
- Scenic gear lever mod
Pics to follow separately to avoid losing this enormous lump of text should something go wrong.
