Horney's 'James Shead' 1988 BTCC Golf GTI replica build.

[Horney]

it might be worth going into the mot garage to ask about the rust on the rear arch. you might just get away with it. didnt the guy you bought it off say it passed the mot? thats gonna be the big job if you have to do it!

I'm gonna cover it up TBH. It's only very small and as long as it's all treated it'll be fine. As there's no carpet in there I can also keep an eye on it over the coming months so if gets bad enough to need a proper repair I can get it sorted.

give the calipers a good oil before you try rebuilding them, you might be able to free the handbrake bit off. are the cables not stretched?

Yeah I'm going to pull them off, clean all the surfaces up on both the calipers and pads, grease everything up and refit then adjust the cables (Which look reasonably new). In fact the calipers don't look that old either. I think it's just suffering from spending most of it's time parked up with the hadbrake on. Since I've had it I just leave it in gear and the handbrake off.

nick

[VeeDubGTI16v]

i suppose being a track car its spent most of its life parked up

just thought, instead of getting the mot guy to hold the revs, you could raise the idle on the screw just for the mot. might make it easier for them to get a constant reading

[Horney]

Good idea mate. I'm thinking about actually taking the day off work when it goes in and staying with it. I'm not sure it'll get through my local place with the sun strip either! If it all goes wrong then I'll just have to use ALex's place but it's a bit o a trek from basingstoke just for an MOT.

Nick

[Horney]

* Headlight allignment - Done
* Non working Horn - Need to look into this
* Hole in rear arch - Started prepping it
* Windscreen washers are wack - sorted
* Both rear calipers in need of a rebuild as the handbrake is next to useless. - see below
* Possible screen replacement, need to measure the chips. - gonna put it in and see what happens

Handbrake
Well I've had a good mess about with it today and it's improved a bit. Not sure if it's pass worthy though. With it on you can just about shove the car along if you push really fecking hard. Problem is the handbrake mechs are pretty siezed up. I bloody hate MKII handbrakes. Every MKII I've had they have never worked properly and always fail the MOT. Pretty much decided that I'll put it in and if it fails get the garage to replace the calipers as I just don't have the time or the patience to do it myself.

I've alos decided this car takes priority over the corrado so if that fails badly it'll be coming off the road for a bit and being left at my folks. Depending on what happens job wise depends on what happens to it. I can;t afford to put two cars through an MOT on my credit card!

Nick

[Horney]

Well the rust hole is now "repaired", just needs another coat of paint.

The horn is still not working but I know why now. The horn push on the Momo wheel is broken. I can't fix it though as the heads of the screws holding the wheel assembly have been rounded off. Gonna pop into Maplins tomorrow on the way home from work and pick up some wire, a fuse holder and a push button. Ghetto fix FTW!

I think the MOT runs out on 2nd or 3rd of August so it'll do the track day on the 25th of this month and then put it in and see what happens! Bad holiday timing though as I'm down in the west country from the 3rd till the 9th so I can see me just paying to get anything it fails on fixed as I'm not about to do it myself and I will need the car for getting to and from work as the Rado MOT expires while we're off as well.

Nick

[Horney]

Car performed brilliantly today and the trackday was awesome. Only slightly spoilt by the fact that some cikey punt ran over the car last night and fecked up my bonnet.

Nick

[VeeDubGTI16v]

excellent! so have you go the hang of combe now? at least it wasnt pissing it down this time. r888's on?

[Horney]

Yeah I reckon I'm getting there, certainly much quicker than last time. R888's were indeed on and abused!

Nick

[JC]

its fooking noisy 

[Horney]

its fooking noisy 

What? Can you speak up a bit? For some reason my ears are ringing.