Project Mag-E

[Chesh]

All copied over from clio16valver so not everything makes sense

Ok first of all I would like to say a HUUUGEEEE thank you to cliogirl and cliowizard for picking mag-e up from plymouth and trekking it, me and my gf back to bournemouth at night ! THANK YOU!!

Here is what me, my gf, 2 mates, mark (clio-wizard) and ronee (clio-girl) got up to on the night of 17/12/2008!

And here is what we ate!!

Now let me introduce you all to Mag-E, she is a white M reg valver. I bought her for £250 on the 17/12/2008 with no MOT or tax.
Here are some of the pictures I have of her atm:

As you can see from the second pic, she is FILTHY atm from the drive back but this is soon to change. She is pretty much standard apart from a (blowing) magnex system and having been lowered approx 35mm. This is the way she is staying for a while until I get used to the jump from a 1.4 to a 1.8 and until i get bored (IF i get bored lol). Eventually she will gain some kawasaki green multispokes when funds allow and then certain other green detailing will follow. Up until the middle of january when my loan comes through and i can afford insurance she will be fixed up and hopefully passed through an mot!

Until then, here is my to do list, as of tomorrow.
- CLEAN DONE
- MOT - DONE
- Tax - DONE
- Insure DONE
- Fit new doors (current locks bashed in) - DONE
- Fit my headunit (currently standard) DONE
- Fit rear wiper DONE
- Fix JVC speakers that are in there atm - DONE
- Make remote locking work
- Fit grille
- Get another phase 2 light (has one ph2, one ph1 :?) - DONE
- Fix the dent
- Fit the new lockset -DONE
- Other little niggles: Bad connection on interior light switch, drivers side mirror wont go down....thats all i can think of lol!
- Fit number plate C9 ESH (her name may change because of this lol)

I will update this as I go along.

To do list - Friday 25.06.2009
-Smooth old passenger door lock and fit door
-Spray under bonnet plastics black
-Fix rear wiper squirter
-Fix dent
-Get battery for blipper
-Install flamethrower to alarm :twisted:
-Buy girlfriend a valver (brooklands) so she can just sit and look at it and imagine how good it would be if she had enough money to run it lol!
-Mash up the dead bodies of anyone who EVER tries to hurt Mag-E EVER AGAIN RRRRAAAARRRRR!!!

 

[Chesh]

Today I had a looong list of things to do and, had everything gone smoothly I probably would have got it all done, but of course cars being cars ONE bolt held everything up. The upper bolt holding the o/s door on has been stripped and wont come off so that will have to wait for another day. I have fitted the passenger door, no problems with that apart from I decided to snap off the bumpstrips (ph1) in order to replace them with the ph2s and in doing this i broke all the clips so have to get some more of those. Also, it doesnt align properly with the car, it sits too low so it doesnt really shut properly??? Anybody have any idea why??? and how i can fix it?
This picture pretty much sums up the day:

And some other pics of the day:
The original door locks

The drilled and grooved disks

More to follow tomorrow when i get this FUCKIN BOLT OUT!!!!
Any body got any tips?

 

[Chesh]

got a angle grinder from work :twisted:

those doors are fffffffuccckkin coming off!!!!!!

 

[Chesh]

Ok today was the day of door-taking-off.

So we angle grinded the door off, didnt really think before we started so ended up cutting halfway down the door, got to the safety bar things and thought f**k that so went back and started to cut around the troublesome hinge

anyway to cut a long story short, things didnt really go to plan and i am now stuck with THIS

What you cant see there is the door pin still inside the hinge with a little bit of the threaded bit hanging out the bottom.
f**king STUPID CUNTING BASTARDING DOOR PIN!!!
ive tried drilling it out but i either dont have the right bit or the pin is made out of fuckin diamonds or something, i now have half a door pin stuck in the hinge which is just enough to stop me puttin the new door on so i am now doorless for the night as im going out in a bit and have run out of ideas!
Ive tried the hammer thing on the drill as well.

ANY IDEAS ARE WELCOME!!

Oh and a new battery was fitted

 

[Chesh]

Finally managed to get the door pin off, had to get my Dad round with brand new drill bits as my girlfriends were blunt!

Just worked my way up through the drill bits and eventually it popped out, but now the hole is slightly too big and there is a very small amount of play in the door pin but hopefully it wont be a problem!

New door

Oh and i dropped the door pin I was using to fix the door on with down behind the arch so had to take the arch liner off to get it out and this came out with it!

That big bit slid out like a christmas log lol

 

[Chesh]

Ok small update,

just got a number plate today and a second ph2 light

Got a bit carried away with the front at the time, was just cleaning off the dirt for the plate pads to stick to and thought while im here so cleaned the entire front end pretty much to halfway up the bonnet!

And a random picture i took later on in the day

 

[Chesh]

Ok very quick update, was randomly looking in the glovebox and came across two brand new door pins LOL, along with 3 UNUSED condoms.

So just need a sideliyht bulb for mot now and hope the garage doesn't notice the slight blow from the exhaust LOL.

 

[Chesh]

MOT booked for wednesday

SCARED!!

and my wallet is more scared lol

 

[Chesh]

Failed

Stupid stuff like
1. You cant open the passenger door from the inside which you CAN it just doesnt have the handle on, so you have to pull the bar
2. Sharp edge on the back bumper
3. Number plate doesnt work
4. Coil spring is fractured
5. Handbrake isnt good enough (yes it its well good!!!!!)
6. I think he said something about another bulb as well
7. A brake hose deteriorated

The manager wasnt there today so its gonna stay there until tomorrow and he can give me a quote.

Bit annoying about the door thing, i know it still would have failed but you can open it easily with the rod thing, and the handbrake does work its very good!
And what can i do about the bumper apart from getting the dent sorted?

 

[Chesh]

Just got her back from the garage with a quote of £425 for everything fitted.
On the way back i tested the handbrake and yes oh my god it is s**te. The brakes are a bit not good as well lol, i think its just the discs and pads dirty as you can hear them grinding but theres plenty of pad and disc so im gonna give them a clean.

Have 10 working days from yesterday soi will update when i do more

 

[Chesh]

Replaced the fractured spring on the drivers side today, didnt have time to do passenger side as have stupid work
Some whoring

Me looking 'pensive'

Out with the ....

...old springadingaling

New springaling

And on

And in

This is the end of the old spring which got highlighted in the mot, looks like its been cut?? or just corroded?

And lowered

The other side to give an example of the height before

By the way these are GSF lowering springs and are £40 after VAT bargain (hopefully!)

That is all!
Also cable tied the sharp bit of the bumper in so that should be fine for the mot now as well YAY!

 

[Chesh]

Ok mot rebooked in for wednesday.

Offside Headlamp aim too low = DONE (did it by eye so just wild guess lol)
Both number plate lights not working = DONE (some muppet had taken out the connecting wire between the bumper and the rear light so was a bumper off job :roll: )
Offside front coil spring = DONE
Offside front brake hose excessively deteriorated = DONE (ordered from gsf, garage fitting it)
Offside rear bumper had a sharp edge = DONE (cable ties to the rescue just need to cover it in tape)
Front passenger door cannot be opened = DONE
Parking brake efficiency below requirements = DONE (nothing a few handbrake turns didnt sort!)

ROLL ON WEDNESDAY!

 

[Chesh]

f**k sake just failed mot AGAIN

failed on play in the steering wheel, guy said the weld has snapped on the column and that i would have to get a new column pfffffttt f**k that how much are they?

Trouble is i cant take it back there for another mot now cos they will know to check it but if i take it somewhere else they might fail me on something that the first place passed me on which i dont fuckin want!!!!!

f***s sake, i have a picture of where to weld it but i have never welded anything in my life, people i know could do it but they wont have done this particular thing before, is it easy to do?

Musta been a s**t weld before if its snapped???

p.s. it passed on everything it failed on before f***s SAKE!

 

[Chesh]

Managed to get hold of an 3/8 drive extension yesterday (was putting off buying ANOTHER one ffs) so took the steering column off today, tis a right fiddly b**ch aint it! Haynes manual isnt too precise either!! Gave me a good opportunity to change the ignition barrell over as well (to fit the new keys so i have one key for all locks and ignition)

No column

Column

The shittest column weld in the WOOORRLLDDDD!!!

two crappy spot welds

Anyway should be taking it to either my mums bf to get it welded soon or an old friend who i used to work with if i can get hold of him and then will be booking another MOT.
In the meantime i really should fit the n/s spring and start sorting the rust but I CANT BE BOTHERED!! SOMEONE MOTIVATE ME!!

 

[Chesh]

Right went with my friend to triton today and thought while im there i may as well ask them if they could weld my column and they did it for a tenner in i would say less than a minute lol. Would have been less but i didnt have any cash so just said i would do the minimum thing for the card bloooooody thing!

Welded

Everything back in with the ph1 steering wheel instead of gay ph2.

For ONCE i managed to not lose any nuts or bolts and everything is back where it came from!!! YAAAAYYYY!!!!!!

Now i just need to cover up the weld and book its third mot :S

 

[Chesh]

Yesterday my girlfriend was being amazin and randomly called me up saying ive found you insurance for £1500! which was £200 less than it was previously.
However, we got another quote later on and put her on it for a laugh and it went down! So we put my mum on it as well and it has gone down to 1169!!! This now means i have enough money to insure it so the MOT has been booked for next wednesday, just need to put some inner tube or something over the weld and robert is hopefully my fathers brother!
CANT WAIT :twisted:

 

[Chesh]

Taxed, tested and insured!! :-D!!

 

[Chesh]

Lowered it today, might go very slightly lower as the front is quite low but am happy with it for now. Was an absolute piss of piss, took around 1.5 hours and is the first time ive lowered an open torsion bar, things just popped out!!

Noticed the other day as well that since fitting the gsf supposed '35mm' springs i have noticeable camber on the front, they are definitely not 35mm!

 

[Chesh]

Friday 3rd April 2009
Had a go at spraying the rust on the tailgate today but turned out blueish grey?? Think its because i used grey primer, not good underneath white paint.
Now looks like this

Annoying :? Need some white primer

Monday 13th April 2009
Came outside to find some little shitsucker scum has taken a screwdriver to my passenger door and nicked my stereo and my mp3 player. Not too bothered about the stereo and mp3 player but its just the f**king DOOR!!!ANNOYING! now have 3 fucked doors, so i am going to put the previous passenger door back on as its in better overall condition (less rust) and smooth over the fucked keyhole cos theres no way its gonna be fixed.

Wednesday 15th April 2009
Took my spark plugs out today just to have a gander as i believe there is more power to be made from the engine and the spark plugs are COATED in oil. Number 1 and 4 were dripping and number 2 and 3 werent dry but they werent as bad. General consensus from the people ive spoken to is that its just the rocker cover gasket needs replacing so thats another job for another day. Also took my spoiler off to be painted. Need to have a look at my exhaust now as it rattles like a f**king b**ch since ive lowered it.

Oily Plug

To do list
-Spray bumpstrips, scuttle panel, raincatcher and spoiler gloss black
-Smooth old passenger door lock and fit door
-Fit standard headunit AGAIN :evil: then buy a new one
-Rocker cover gasket
-Tracking
-New Aerial
-Spray under bonnet plastics black
-Replace rear wiper squirter motor
-Get grille clips from Renault
-Fix dent
-New wipers (NOOOIISSSYYYY)
-Sort passenger speaker (think its blown)
-Clean f**king bird shite off the roof
-Get new rear tyres (possibly front if i want to be anally legal lol)
-Get carbon fibre bonnet off midge
-Fix blowing exhaust :roll:
-Sort out really annoying whistle coming from throttle body
-Get battery for blipper
-Install flamethrower to alarm :twisted:
-Buy girlfriend a valver (brooklands)
-Mash up the dead bodies of anyone who EVER tries to hurt Mag-E EVER AGAIN RRRRAAAARRRRR!!!

 

[Chesh]

Since last post i have crossed the following off the to-do list
-Spray bumpstrips black
-Rocker cover gasket
-Grille clips
-Clean bird s**t off roof
-Get new rear tyres (came on new wheels)
-Carbon fibre bonnet (not happening any more)

Went to somerset on 6.5.09 to get some gold turbines , the original plan was to leave them off until i had green paint to spray them all green but i actually really like the gold with the little bits of green i have.
Some pics

Changing rocker cover gasket

New wheels!!

I have also purchased a decat pipe from clioquiggz which i cant wait to fit. Also have taken out my rear seats etc in a small effort of strippage. Will be getting hold of a heatgun and some tar remover to get the tar out soon. The primary reason for strippage atm however is because of the wider tyres on the rear (195s compared to 185s on old tyres) my o/s rear arch is rubbing even more than before due to the fuckin dent which i need to sort out asap. Think i will take a sledgehammer to it later on today.
Cleaned my iscv yesterday as well, though it would stop it randomly stalling itself every once in a while but no, still does it.

 

[Chesh]

Started stripping today, started quite late in the day though so didnt get too much done. Started taking the tar out with a chisel and a hammer then decided that was too much like hard work so took out the rear trim. Spotted some rust under the rear window seal so got my girlfriend to hammerite that

Now looks like this

 

[Chesh]

Took to the dent in the rear quarter with a sledge hammer today cos it was pissing me off the amount it rubbed. While i was under there i noticed my disc is only being worn in the inner half? there is about 3/4 of an inch on the outside of the disc thats not being worn by the pad, anyone have any idea why? Also noticed my drivers side rear shock is leaking a bit, didnt check the other side but will be replacing both of them sometime in the future.
Also adjusted rear brake bias valve, havent tried braking too hard yet but feels a bit more even, might just be a placebo though! Also took my decat off, adjusted the length and packed a load of paste on it cos it was blowing soooo much and reattached it, made it longer so it wouldnt knock on the rear beam anymore cos thats really annoying! Doesnt knock on the beam now but tailpipe sticks out the bumper a bit more now and is vibrating on the f**king bumper!! annoying!!
yesterday i also fitted the aerial base i got from the scrappy and stole my sisters massive standard aerial until i find a shorter one, so now have radio again thank god, is annoying with silence! While i was fitting the base also got busy with the screwdriver in the connections of the interior light, the switch wasnt working so cleaned off the terminals in the switch and all is well now!!
Got some spare badges from the scrappy as well when i was there last, got a replacement clio badge for the back cos snapped mine in half when i took it off grrrr and some spare renault badges for the front, gonna try em in some different colours to see which i like best. Was on the lookout for some 1.2 badges as well but could only find a 1.9D one haha so got that anyway but doubt it will go on!

Not very interesting i know but heeeyyy!!!

 

[Chesh]

Was getting pissde off with having such a shite heatshield and having the brake pedal feel funny after a ragging so while i was at the scrappys today i found an exhaust heatshield from a car that looked like it could be made to fit around where the existing one goes.

This is my old one, just ripped it out cos there wasnt much holding it in!

Got little bits of this everywhere now

And this is the new heatshield. Its much bigger than the original and moves verrrry slightly when you turn the steering wheel but time will tell whether its ok or not! Actually covers the whole brake fluid reservoir now as well so should prove to be a little better.

Also managed to find out why i am losing so much coolant, got a bloody crack in my header tank so its all coming out there when the car gets too hot! ANNOYING! nothing another trip to the scrappy wont solve i love free parts in a toolbox lol!

Also got this small oil cooler from a civic, have absolutely no idea whether it will serve a purpose or not or even if standard car ones are any good but saw it and thought it couldnt hurt seeing as its free! Managed to get oil all over the inside of my toolbox though grrrrr

Also got my clear indicators through from edgeyboy and fitted those after spraying the surrounds green, not sure if i like them yet though!! might smoke them.

 

[Chesh]

Done since last update, mainly in preparation for fcs

-Respray rear bumper
-Spray wheels
-Respray bumper inserts
-Replace thermostat
-Flush coolant system
-Replace header tank
-Bleed brakes and replace fluid
-CLEAN
-Spray raincatcher
-Fit solid dogbone
-Sort f**king rattling exhaust

To do tomorrow, last day before fcs!
-Spray bootlid
-Fit f**king speedo cable
-Spray front bumper + inserts
-Spray renault badge + decide which colour i like the best
-Seal exhaust
-Maybe get hold of a heatgun for tar

 

[Chesh]

Managed to scrape my car together in time for FCS and had a fuckin amazing time. Had 30 minutes on the track, luckily wasnt on my own as i was out with ronee (clio-girl) who tried in vain to make me feel less nervous was fine when i got out onto the track though, not sure my clutch would have lasted without heel toe after the home straight/big sweeping bend as i was braking pretty late (or it felt late to me) and changed down at the same time. Did experience some brake fade coming up to the first hairpin after hanging it in 4th round the big bend and mark (clio-wizard) said this was probably down to the brake lines getting too hot from the manifold so i will have to do something about that as that shat me right up. Also managed to understeer MASSIVELY on a few corners, car just felt like it had wooden tyres on; need better ones. I was very pleased with my car, so glad i did the preparation i did as i definitely dont think it would have stayed as cool as it did and i dont think the brakes would have taken as much abuse.
Almost managed an off, i either slipped on something or braked a little bit too late and ended up turning just before letting off the brakes but the right hander after the first hairpin managed to get my tail slipping all over the place. Thought i may have hit some oil or dumped some so pulled over to have a look but couldnt see anything so carried on and all was well after that!

Overall an epic weekend and I am now officially addicted to track days for life, hopefully will manage a few more this year, fund permitting!
Thanks to everyone who i convoyed with, was nice knowing you were all there to help when my wheel nearly came off on the way there and was great camping with some of you and then meeting more people at the show itself! Is amazing to think all those people can come from so many different places to meet together at a car show and get on so well .

Some pictures of my car on track (not taken by me obviously so sorry for the quality )

My petrol after driving from bournemouth to rockingham, actually went up from this before track time! well pleased!

The black 172 with half black light covers managed to creeeeep past me on the next lap on the straight but was very impressed with Mag-e at how slowly he went past :twisted:

 

[Chesh]

Used not far off a whole bottle of power steering fluid yesterday topping my power steering up, was completely empty and making some disgusting noises. Bled it through while i was there and its now quieter than ever!

Want a fun way of getting rid of old power steering fluid?
Go on a track day

Also fitted my strut brace i got at FCS on monday, only in with the self tappers atm but i have some bolts with nyloc nuts at home for me to fit when i can be bothered

You may notice in that pic that i now have no spark plug cover, thats because it fell off about half an hour into the journey to fcs and caught fire. There was an actual fire in my engine bay.

No water

Put it out with oasis

Smells of burnt sugar now

 

[Chesh]

Spent 4 hours cleaning her today. Used this colour restorer by tesco which i presume is just their cheap version of t-cut all over the car and its made a massive difference. The colour was so fuckin matte before and now it actually reflects light instead of absorbing it!

Also heatgunned the tar from the boot floor, b*****d stuff!! No pics as im sure you all know what it looks like

 

[Chesh]

Just read this whole thread and it's really making me want to keep my white one, top work bro. What are you going to do about the dent/rust on your rear quarter?

Not sure atm, it doesnt really bother me to be honest, im not really willing to shell out a large amount of money for something that doesnt make it go faster Ever since i took the sledgehammer to it to stop it scrubbing ive sort of forgotten about it

Today i have had the power steering pipes off in an attempt to fix the hiouge massive leak (im talking a whole reservoir in a day) that was coming from a pipe entering the rack. I think i may have done it, after i write this i am going to pop round the corner to the motorfactors to get some more pas fluid to top up with!
Had to take two smaller pipes off that go back into the rack itself in order to get enough room to get a spanner onto the union that i needed to tighten, fuckin shitty small engine bays, my right arm is red raw from rubbing against the exhaust manifold undoing these little b******s!!

The two small pipes i had to remove to get to the big pipe's union

The rack with the two pipes removed, this was the easy side, took me a while to get the one on the left back in though, thought i had stripped the thread at one point.

A bad attempt at getting a picture of the bit i was trying to tighten up. If you want to see where it was leaking from on yours, its the block with 2 large pipes and 2 small pipes going into it, situated on the rack itself, directly behind the exhaust manifold, i had to take my heatshield and my engine lifting eye off.

Had a little issue with one of the pipes, looked like it was too long when i was putting it back in, nothing my pipe bender aka bending the fucker on a piece of wood didnt solve

Also fitted another header tank the other day as the replacement one i got also had a hole in. One i fitted is like brand new and was free from a scrappy

 

[couzens]

ahh thought id seen this before! I was a few cars behind you in the que for FCS I think, looked really good!

 

[Mark One]

Thats a touch warm on the coolant mate!

Nice project. Like the wheel colour

 

[Chesh]

ahh thought id seen this before! I was a few cars behind you in the que for FCS I think, looked really good!

Cheers mate

Thats a touch warm on the coolant mate!

Nice project. Like the wheel colour

That was sitting in traffic in the queue going into rockingham and my fan doesnt like to kick in as soon as it should lol, drops straight down once it does, around that sort of level actually. Need to look into it!

 

[Chesh]

I should also mention that I have a williams arb, wishbones and driveshafts & bushes on the way from speed over on clio16valver just need to find a set of willy shocks now!

 

[Djw Dave]

Love the colours!!!

 

[jesus]

Nice little project, was a bargain too!

 

[Chesh]

Have now received arb, bushes, driveshafts and wishbones from speed over on c16v and took delivery of some willy shocks the other day but one is fucked grrrrr so am on the hunt for a single willy shocks