Big update - part one!
So I have much unused holiday at work and rather than letting it go to waste I took a week off to doll the car up a bit.
Day one was not a good start, it starting pissing it down as soon as I had the front bumper off. Note to self, always check the weather before working on the drive...
Moved the car into the garage and ripped out the front washer jets and pipework. Nothing interesting about that so step 1 was to modify the jets to become some shiny carbon blanks.
Luckily, my dads MGB is mint, so theres plenty of this about to add some extra protection for the french steel.
I whipped out the struts and set about cleaning the tops up with a wire wool drill bit and some H80.
As luck would have it, this little beauty turned up and was promptly fitted.
A quick snap from this morning of engine bay with the PMS Top Mount & Strut brace kit. After driving this for a week, I have to say WOW, what a difference?! Even with the front end rapidly approaching 100k miles, the whole car feels so much tighter and twinned with the Whiteline ARB, the car has great turn in and neutral cornering ability! Plenty of new bits to add to this and bring everything back to the start.
Assessing the damage, a tiny hole in the outer CV boot and a cracked ABS ring, fortunately all on the same side!
Cleaned up the hubs with the wire wool and on with the H80.
A shopping list was formed. Adam at Renault Wolverhampton sorted me out with a box of tricks, and then a second shortly after when I realised I needed more. New 'cup' wishbones including bushes and ball joints, track rods, track rod ends, steering rack bushes, bump stops/damper gaiters (mine were mostly in two pieces as seen above) CV boot kit and rear reg plate light. An ABS reluctor ring from eBay and no shown some Powerflex ARB bushes courtesy of Kam Racing.
Sadly most of this is beyond my mechanical ability/know-how so it's booked in with Stone&MWM in couple of weeks for all the bits to be fitted, tracked and MOT'd.
Nest up, the brakes. The replacement caliper, which had been installed after I ripped the bleed nipple off the original, had a horrible red paint job which was chipped and ruined. I set about cleaning them up with Nitro-Mors and the POR15 kit. If you've not used POR15 stuff before I'd recommend it thoroughly. Can be bought from
http://www.frost.co.uk/ and really is better than any Halfords or Foliatec you'll get.
Not chronological but here are the results, excuse the dirty wheels!
While I was there I also put on my Mintex Caliper Squeal stickers and grease. I can confirm for anyone who finds 1144's too noisy that this stuff works! I no longer cringe when braking in town as the everyone stares at my squealing brakes! I got mine from eBay.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MINTEX-CE...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item1e77f2c903
