Lewy - 16v OG

[jv]

Original Gangster? ah - Oak Green 

[Lewy]

Original Gangster? ah - Oak Green 

Not me Jon, I don't like guns!!



Bit of History:

Bought the car from a colleague in January of 2005 after getting rid of a Type-r Civic in September 2004 - Huh I hear you say, but I have a tendency to spend a few months abroad a year so having the Type-r sat on the drive doing nowt is a bit of a waste of time, as my wife had a Mk3 Polo she ragged around.

I bought the car completely standard with 124k on the clock for the paltry sum of £1100. The previous owner was still abroad, so I managed to bung his wife the cash, and needless to say she was happy!!

Exterior:
The car didn't stay standard for too long, a quick chat to Richard at Venom supplied me with the crystal front end set-up. But un-beknown to Richard FK had supplied him with LHD units, and I had to wait another couple of weeks for the RHD ones. I've used the edition38 Auto Jumble for alot of bits and pieces, so when a set of all red rear lenses came up I got them for £40 delivered from Darren at G-Werks, colour coded the large plastic side and top panel, and hey presto! One of Dizzies fine looms and 100/90w bulbs late and all at the front end was cushty. I also managed to pick up a set of BBS RM's from the illustrious Ebay for only £300, and ran them for the summer - typical crap tyre fitter had whacked the balance weights on the outside of the rim, therefore leaving a mark when I removed them and balanced them properly! The wheels have now been stripped, acid dipped and powdercoated to an excellent finish in Anthracite Grey by Dav (Lowvento) ready for 2006, along with shiny new 2" BBS rims supplied by Mark (Myxa) Dzus of Juswheels. I also dabbled with a single lamp front end, but decided to bin it as I wasn't happy with it and went with a chrome badge on the front instead of the black

Interior:

I've been a mechanic now for roughly 15 years so nearly all of the work carried out on the car has been by my fair hand, but alarms and MDF work are not my forte, so I entrusted Sextons to fit my Clifford Concept 650 all singing and dancing alarm. They also fabricated the rear panels which house the sub and amps. The whole boot floor, doors and bootlid are covered in Dynamat Extreme, and the whole system is made up of:-

Headunit - Alpine 9831
Door Speaker Amp - Genesis Profile 4
Subwoofer Amp - Genesis Profile Sub
Sub - JL Audio 12w6 in 1" MDF custom enclosure
Front Door Speakers - Focal Polyglass 165v2 in Audioscape pods
Pheonix Gold ARX-750tln RCA's
All 0 gauge power and earth, and Directed Audio 8 gauge speaker cable
90 amp alternator to power the bugger

The rest of the interior is very good condition Rainbow, but is due for an upgrade in 2006. I've also managed to get hold of 1" thick wool fire retardant matting, so I lined the floor and side panels, again to aid the soundproofing.

Under The Bonnet:

I've done next to nothing under the bonnet except a full service, cambelt, and K&N panel filter. At the moment the engine bay looks like this:-

And probably will do for a little while whilst I clean the bay, box, and lump, add a new clutch and a few little tweaks to give a fresh new look. The suspension is fully adjustable AVO coilovers, this is how I get a look like this

And every conceivable bush has been replaced by the polyurethane Powerflex variety, something I would recommend to everyone as it stiffens up the front end no-end.

I'm off into work this Friday and weekend so I'll update some more then

[Lewy]

Right here is a list of jobs I've got to do before the start of the show season:-


Very light smoke tint the windows, including Happich!
fit G60 arches!
Smooth rear bumper
Polish amplifier casings
Change disc's all round
Replace bee-sting
Jiggle rear box to accomodate rear bumper

The list goes on, but is predominately filled with replacing trim clips, and poxy plastic parts, bot if you want OEM+ then thats the price you have to pay!

A few more pitures of it's current carnation

The masking tape is there to stop my nads scratching the wings!!

[Lewy]

Righty ho here goes the next and long awaited instalment.

I have nearly completed the painting of the block and ancillaries in a mixture of satin black, silver and the best colour, Oak Green.



The red Samco’s are the only thing I’m still not too sure about, but they’ll do for now and as I only paid £60 for them (new!) I’m not too out of pocket.



The BBS centres are with AC Auto Refinishers of Thame as they offer a ‘chrome’ paint effect, and I wanted to keep the original depth instead of the shallow versions available out there.



My lippage!!



As my Mk4 got rear-ended just before Chrimbo the body shop which has undertaken the repairs is a TVR specialist and whilst they are wielding their magic with my Mk4, theyÂ’ve taken on the task of plastic welding my rear bumper tow-eye cover and shortening the rear No plate plinth, so it can smarten up the rear end with a smoothed tailgate and tiny No plate!

Thanks to me olÂ’ mucker Joe, he has got me a solid front engine mount, and thanks to the Queen (for paying me every month) I have just taken delivery of two Vibratechnics mounts, of course they are now painted and waiting to get in, as IÂ’m yet to start the engine bay clean up. IÂ’ve decided not to go too far with the engine bay as IÂ’ve got plans for next year, perhaps a complete re-shell in a new shell, or just a strip and go, in two minds at the mo but IÂ’ll get there, I always do.



HereÂ’s just a few of the things I need to fit before the start of the sea





Bloody hell, they look like they'll need a clean!!





I'll try and get some more info and picture up soon, as no doubt Simon will pester me more!!

[Lewy]

Spent another 9 hours in work yesterday, removed all of the brakelines, re-painted them and now ready to go back on. The master cylinder also received a coat of paint in preperation for the cleaned and colour coded servo, which is still attatched to the car. Both parts of the inlet are now painted and waiting to go back on, all I've got to do is get the new fuel pipes done and Bobs your uncle, but that'll probably be next month as they are £35 each, and I need 6  !

I tried one of the wheels on the car yesterday also, just to see how much they'll stick out, and be Jeesus, they stick out. I think I'll run them on standard arches for now for the fat look, and then when it goes for the MOT I'll whack the steelies on.

What do you think, I think they look the shizzle, and as the boots will be here this wek I'll plonk another photo up with the them on, I managed to get Goodyear Eagle F1's for £42 a trye delivered, not bad I thought.

[Lewy]

Over the last few weeks I've been spending every weekend Saturday and sunday doing the car, and with a nearly 6 month pregnant wife in tow, you can tell she's bound to be a bit narky. So this weekend I've decided to not go into work, but instead I went into VW to get some bits, and boy did this start an argument!

My rubber got delivered on Tuesday, 4x Goodyear Eagle F1's not bad price either at £42 a corner as I've sorted out a contract with Dunlop.

Hopefully if I get my finger out of my jacksie this week I'll get the gearbox cleaned up and painted ready to go back in once I've got the front engine mount off of Joe, as he decided to leave it at his house when we met at No-rice, something about cutting his finger on it, and not having enough plasters!!

The next jobs on the agenda are to clean and paint the servo and master cylinder, also the bulkhead could do with a clean and polish ready to re-fit the brake pipes and servo shizzle.

I've got my tailgate with a welder friend of mine at the mo, so hopefully that'll be a bit smoother come the end of this week, ready for a lick of paint and a smoked window.

Fit Samco's
Fit SFS breather kit
Very light smoke tint the windows, including Happich!
Fit tyres, and then the wheels, then if the wheels are too wide, then fit G60 arches!
Replace interior - rainbow for Recaro
Smooth rear bumper
Fit single wiper kit
Polish amplifier casings
Change disc's all round
Replace bee-sting
Fit TSR manifold
Replace exhaust.

The list is slowly getting shorter.

[Lewy]

Well yesterday turned out to be a pain in the butt. Workmates wanting a hand with they're cars and people just asking daft questions, and along with the Mk4 messing me around, it was not a very productive day. But I still managed to take a few piccies of my wheels and my 'minter than mint' Recaro seat bases, that were expertly re-bolstered by the man of the hour, my shizzle Joe. I'm still waiting on the BBS centre caps to come back from being 'chrome painted', and the minute I get them back I'll get some pictures up, as I'm assured they'll look the buisness.

The tyre 'stretch'.





Most of the guys in work were like ' how did you get them to seal?', and 'are you sure thats illegal?'
Well to seal them I left them over my lunch hour to re-form after being manipulated to go on the rim initially, and then whipped out the valve to increase air-flow into the tyre. It only took 2-3 attempts and hey presto 'POP' on they went.

And I couldn't give a monkeys if they're not legal, I'm no saint.

This what they look like on the car



Might stick out a bit, but as I've said before I might change to G60 arches, and I've a very good mate who's an MOT tester 

And the seats.





Gotta say Joe is a very good man, and very articulate about his work (his second job, not his first!). He's even taken a mates' dash away to trim in leather.

Hopefully this week will be a little bit more productive, so an update and more photos will be sorted.

[Lewy]

Righty ho, I'm without camera at the mo, but I'll do a little update none-the-less.

The gear box is finally clean and covered in paint, it took a total of 5 hours to prep, and was a bloody nightmare, but looks completely factory finish - even if I do say that myself! The selector is rebuilt with all new parts and looking rather nice, along with the ball and socket from under neath.





The rear of the car has been extensively cleaned and undersealed, and looks utterly factory. It took me a while as I had to remove the rear shocks and clean them up, but if you look at my boot install, you'll know why it took so long, as I had to remove the boxes first  !



I've got the centre caps back from the 'chrome painter', and they look the buisness. They're not completely perfect (how I like things), buth they'll do for now until I think of something else. I stumbled across a set of Eibach anti-roll bars last week that just need a quick clean and they'll be on the newly undersealed axle. They were an absolute bargain - 40 big uns, and that came with a set of koni top adjustables, eibach springs, and a sparco strut brace - which won't be going on!

Next weekend sees the interuption of a bank holiday, so no doubt her indoors will be wanting to go somewhere, so low production is what I see there, but I have the following week off, so the engine and box will be going back in  and I can't bloody wait. All I've got left to do is finish the undersealing and paint the two front chassis legs, and it's a new happy home for the 16v.

Once I get the camera back I'll get some photo's up and re-fresh this page.

Lewy

[Lewy]

Ok still no camera but I'll try and sort that out tomorrow. This week has consisted of stripping the front subframe off and replacing it with the Seat one.

It was shotblasted and coated in stonechip protection and then a few coats of satin black. I also re-cond the front wishbones, which were more-or-less new anyway as I'd replaced them when I did the poly bushes, but I decided they looked gash alongside the subframe. I also removed the shocks in order for me to underseal the front end



I also stripped off the front calipers and mounts to paint them a nice shiney red, just to compliment the red hoses and the red GTI badges on the sides and rear. The next job is to get the front cross member stripped and resprayed in satin black (again!!) and re-fit the engine mount. The clutch turned up yesterday also, so I need to take it off of the stand and fit the crankshaft seal before I can fit the clutch and the flywheel, but before any of that can be done I need to paint the front inner wings, so thats a tomorrow job.



I've decided now that I will get it ready for the Edition38 show instead of Stonor, as it'll not be done to my spec in time, so it'll be in the show'n'shine for 2006, hopefully get the 'dog of the show' award!

Here's a few more as a bit of a taster.

Inner wings - paint complete!





Engine, not quite complete, but still looking good.





Servo



And the now clean Recaro's, which took ages to get clean!



And now what the car looks like, not bad hey :embarassed: :embarassed: :embarassed:



More to follow tomorrow.

[Lewy]

Just remembered that I'd heat wrapped the exhaust manifold, thanks to Haribo for the wrap.



Oh and I forgot this one of the inlet manifold