slowdude

New de dion bushing in + New A Arm radically changed the rear end and got rid of a clunk. The car has gone from very cheap UK car needing love to getting a lot of the love it needed to get back on its feet. Sorry for the poor video quality, but got a little drive in yesterday. So far: -brakes, bearings, pads, calipers, de dion ears, radius arms in 2022 -engine (crank bearings, piston rings, valves, valve guides, gaskets, tappets/lifters, water pump, belts), radiator, mirrors and inspection in 2023, heavy POR 15 when possible. New harness. Soft bits tunnel bag. -De dion Bushing, A Arm replacement along with rear hardware, LED light upgrades all around, traced a few ground errors, misc quality of life comfort upgrades as well in 2024. 2025s upgrades will be about refining + preventstive trans / driveline work, and probably getting ECU in. It's been a very long road, but the car has had a lot of work that the previous owners kept pushing off. Thank you everyone for your help and advice / guidance / patience. Hoping to get many many miles in this car this spring / summer / fall.

Personally, I'd go with 4 jack stands. Made me feel more safe going under the front of the car in case I accidentally bump something. Echoing the sedentary vs mobile sentiment. If I have to get the caterham done to get to the motorcycles, I have some motivation.

Rear lights wired, not pretty on one side but I cant do much due to age of harness and brittleness of wires, wound up having to install new ground. New De dion bushings installed, A-Arm somewhat aligned with washers, had to pry a arm a bit to get it to fit over the bushings, as they stick out maybe a quarter of an inch vs the others which were flush with the de dion eye. Seems to work. Will try and drive it tomorrow and see how the rear end feels. Car is ready for spring!

Manthey tech is super impressive and yields mega results. Very cool! The workshops at porsche dealerships are arguably the best out there, super clean. Great photos.

The GT3 RS is incredible -> it is so damn flat around the track. The pursuit of handling in a modern car has made the most precise thing possible, at the expense of it being so good, it is numb. It's a fantastic vehicle to throw around the track, but you're left with, wow it's so good, it has no character. And yes, Matt, from a content perspective, provides more than others.. looking at a motor trend contributor.

I've had the fortune to drive a lot of performance cars, and non performance cars from across a wide variety of brands. From RWD, 400 hp roadsters, to V12 sedans, across many brands, one thing I've noticed across modern cars is that they're all the same. People (especially car journos, which I won't get into), think they can really feel a difference between modern cars, but it is very different to go from an M5 to an MGB. Modern cars have modern grip, modern tires etc. A caterham, an MGB, a 70s corvette, an 80s Toyota station wagon all feel markedly different. Advances in auto technology over the years have taken modern cars to the same platform. They're different, but not <i>that</i> different. Some will argue with me and that's fine, but the majority of these journos, and modern car owners can't tell the difference between brand a/b/c nor notice weight loading on suspension etc. Spec sheets are all the same- average (and above average) people don't notice. We do a lot of product benchmarking etc. And that's OK, a lot of people get tesla to get from point a to point b. It's all personal preference, and what our mind thinks it notices within segments and that's ok. I'll drive my caterham and wave to other cars, I support everyone's passion (except the 911 LA scene) 😀.

Redline still has some 41mm ones. I got a 41 on one side and a 42 on another

K Series was reccomended to have "pink" type coolant, same as in porsches. Radtec confirmed pink or red works fine. I guess it's more aluminum engine safe.

Can't hurt sending banner an email?

41mm/42mm socket for rear axle nuts. Preferably impact rated. Dope garage btw. Enjoy the kit!

I have one on my positive terminal. Know anywhere that can 3D scan it and we can 3D print a cover?

Hey All, Coworker has an S4. He got a taste of my weather gear and is now looking to prolong enjoying his S7. Trouble is, we can't seem to find anything about weather gear for the S4. I was able to track down some stuff on blat chat about AUS/NZ built S4s having weather gear ready cowls, but nothing really after that. Send him to soft bits and have a custom half hood made, then figure out some sort of windscreen surround for the half hood? Doors are hard to find and no one will make them?

Went through the wiring diagrams for a 1995 S3 from blat chat. No luck. Went through the wires with my dad (who was a MASSIVE HELP. Love ya Dad!) and was able to get the following wiring for the JAL LEDs when you do not have a plug. Sharing the below in hopes it will help someone else with a Rover K series Mashup. The car being a 1.4 and then having a 1.8 dropped into it must mean I have a wierd loom - I didn't have a purple indicator wire like Revilla on blatchat has outline. Please, if anyone needs help with this, don't hesitate to reach out.

Exactly. I was going to buy a reconstructed one in TN. Insurance companies were difficult.

I won't give up my secrets!! Or safe street parking spot on the UES. Maybe over beers at the NJMP event though...

Those were separate, I think now it's a McLaren dealership? Motorcar has been trying to get into the car sales game for a while now. Last I checked they were a BaT partner. Long Island traffic is gonna be brutal in the summer. Lot of sunscreen for that traffic.

Matt @ Motorcar Manor is great, puts you right near bear mountain for some good driving. Hagerty is in Bedford NY, I believe. You'll have to deal with a lot of new money wanting to be old money if you go up that way. Its a wierd scene, I prefer the money isn't a thing and let's drive our cars scene. Parking in nyc is crazy expensive. Our building is around $900 a month for a midsize SUV. Plus you have clowns who will ride your clutch moving it around etc. Side note, I'm echoing everything @Croc says about living with this type of vehicle in the city. I had a motorcycle as my only mode of transit (doing reverse commute) for two years. Even on a tall motorcycle, you'd get idiots who don't know how to drive. Oddly I feel safer on my GSA than I do driving the caterham sometimes. Do the research and find a spot that makes sense. Even some of the bigger car collectors in NYC store their cars out in Jersey. Prices are better and public transit isn't too bad.

Reconstructed title 3x. I wonder what happened. Will watch this closely. If it remains high with a bad title, then there's hope for us clean title people.

Ya, I couldn't justify the 400$ or so for the direct swap ones. Turns out it would have been wasted as I have bullet connectors. Will take my time and test voltage due to red/green colorblindness, but it wasn't too bad. $5 metal drill bit later and some music in the garage. Ahh this is a good idea, always pick up a thing or two from you @MV8, appreciate it. I will need to do the eyelet trick on one of the front screws. Trying to replace all tired hardware when I can. Did you need to primer anything before using the reflective paint? The reverse lights are reflective, only the wierd "fog hazard lights" have that matte, I'm wondering if it's to dull the running lights in the back? I don't really understand the purpose of it.

Rear LEDs came in today. Started with the reverse and rear fog lights, as they were just bulbs. Got 3 out of 4 done... it's clear these haven't been changed in a very long time. I have screws in one rear fog which are completely disintegrated. I figure I'll need to drill them out? Worst case I bash the cover in and Dremel out the old screws as replacement covers are relatively cheap. JAL rear clusters I'll try and tackle this weekend between some house projects, looks like I have a fried ground from water ingress.

Exactly what I think, wrap should be a bit easier to get to as well.

Heh. I am hoping to get a motorcycle track day on the new track in August, if possible. Will try and take as many notes etc as possible.

It's on my list after the de dion bushing gets done. High temp paint the headers, then cure them. Then wrap headers. At least for me it makes sense as the K series has a habit of trying alternators.

With Scotticus. Bringing low vol uk car back to UK will be easier than bringing to Germany etc. Did some research (exploring expat Euro assignment). My wife's macan would need indicators and emissions tune to pass Tüv. They're slightly more lenient if it's returning to the homeland. There are shops in Europe which help with legality etc. It sounds like you're going to the UK? MOT shouldn't be too bad, and caterham definitely has some dealership which knows an MOT testing station which knows these vehicles. Reimporting to the US might be ok as the car was originally delivered.

Blocked work calendar. Can I camp by the garages like a normal event?