Marks 172 project will be slow going but hopefully worth it ;0)

sport172 · Jul 10, 2012

Having purchased my 172 about 3/4 months ago i went about finding out everything i could about them which led me to this site and let me tell u as if u didnt already no but its the best place for info on the clio i have found bar none, My car history is not overly great to say the least having past my test 2nd time lucky damn cyclist well thats a whole differnet story damn once a day car driving instructors grrrrr ... i bought a very cheap xr3i as at the time and with out prior thought to insurance or any car knowledge at all, i thought it was a bargain at only 800 pounds well until i got my insurance quote lol it would have been a bargain if not for the rust and other issues to numerous to mention to say the least but it got me driving well for a while any how 1900 quid a year 3rd party to insure ouch i no but just could not be doing with a 1. nothing car silly maybe but hey ho it didnt last long as u can imagine the dreaded ford curse had already took hold of the car long before i had purchased her and there were more holes in her than swiss cheese :S so she didnt last long engine was sound as a pound shame about the rest of the car from her i moved onto another ford this time the xr2i which i picked up for pennies this was a great example well i thought so any how had only covered 35000 ish miles with no usual rust spots that u get with these cars dont get me wrong she had her faults again to numerous to mention but she served me well and was cheaper to insure well not by alot but i loved driving her unfortunately after a couple of mots she was getting far to expensive to justify keeping her on the road plus i wanted to move on so i then bought a 1992 celica import which i got for a bargain price this lasted me for 3-4 years until the head gasket went on the motorway during rush hour most embarrasing driving experience to date nothing worse than being broken down waiting for help during a british summer i can tell u to say i got wet would be a understatement

anyhow thats what led me to my 172 to say it was love at 1st site would not be a understatement the g/f wanted me to get a 5 door family car but that was not going to happen dont get me wrong i looked at alot of cars before deciding on the 172 but with alot of gentle persuading the g/f came around to my way of thinking well after a few words from me and a bit of bribery she agreed that it was a great car lol

sport172 · Jul 10, 2012

thats what she looked like when i first picked her, first thing i had to do was get a new exhaust system as the one that was on there was knackered to say the least

not to everyones taste i no but its by far better than what was on there when i picked her up i no i will get grief on here "thx emma for the warning"but its my car and i love the way it sounds at the moment and it was in budget at the time at just under 200 pounds old exhaust was knackered well i thought so as did the mechanic who fitted the new one

Crispy. · Jul 10, 2012

You are going to need to add some punctuation and paragraphs to your write up mate to make it possible to read.

sport172 · Jul 10, 2012

sorry i did not realise it was a written exam plus am a little worse for a drink or 2 :rasp:
anyhow after the exhaust was fitted i was thinking cam needed doing so again i refered to this site for help and as if by magic i came across emma who was a god send to say the least she pointed me in the direction of carlton motors exhmouth who gave me a price of around 700 for cam aux fuel and dephaser which first of all i thought was rather expensive until i phoned the local garages only to realise that for this sort of job i needed a specialist especially when told by most they didnt no what the dephaser was for let alone where it goes, I no nothing about cars and am first to admit this but thx to this site and emma i was pointed in the right direction thankfully, so off i went to carlton garage 10 days later for the full works they even checked over the car for me for free to say i had the 5 star treatment would be an understatement. so thats where iam at moment i have front splitter on order again thx to here for the money saving tip on that just thinking now as where to go i think maybe lowered abit but not sure the best way to go about this any ideas on best way to do this ? also thinking about tinting the windows but i doubt that will go down well here but its my car and i think would look good with limo black windows and as legal as poss front any ideas on this would be appreciated also alloys as well dont get me wrong i dont overly dislike the standard ones but any ideas would be appreciated thx for now

sport172 · Jul 10, 2012

forgot to mention before had cam belt work done i worked on the headlights again thx to the tips here this is the results not the best pics but shows what a little bit of hard work can achieve dont get me wrong they aint perfect yet but for now they aint half bad