So I've been here for quite a few years now, but not started a car blog. I've had Sue for over 5 years, and she's my first car and I've still got her.
Today, I declared her as being attacked by the rust monkeys


323 - Rust Monkeys by zippyonline, on Flickr

I was just gonna change the rear discs and pads. This changed to, I'm just gonna change the rear discs and pads, rebuild the calipers as I have the rebuild kit and fit the goodridge braided lines I have...oh whilst I'm there I'll just hammerite the hub carriers and suspension subframe behind. Oh look, there's some rusty arches I know about and have been ignoring as they're just hassle, oh they're a bit rustier than I thought, bugger.... Lucky I have an angle grinder now I guess.

Back story to follow....

Here she is in all her glory on a road trip to the Alps, fond memories.


Mazda 323 by zippyonline, on Flickr

Introduction

This is "Sue" - named by my parents, my mum is Japanese and pronounces "Mazda" as "Mat-Sue-Da" coz that's the Japanese way in Japan...hence she became named Sue. Parents purchased her brand new locally in December 2001. It has a log book with every single fuel fill up, miles per gallon between fill-ups with miles etc. and anything that happened to her. I know every single bit of history of her, from the warranty replaced knock sensor @ 22k miles, front discs and pads being replaced under warranty coz they'd warped, the smashed front fog lamps that got replaced with blanking plates and it's full service history and general good care. I was 13 when my parents purchased this car.

Fast forward to April 2009 and I take ownership of her at 46830 miles. My first car, insurance cost a whopping £1500 third party fire and theft, car probably worth about £4k at the time I reckon.

It's a 2001 1.6GXi (engine ZM-DE, which is very closely related to the B6 from the MX5, different valve angles etc but lots of common parts) with a few optional extras like mud flaps, alloys and er sunroof. I've learnt all my car spannering and car control in this car (in fact I learnt to drive in a 2.0 diesel BJ and passed my test in it actually), I've even just about got the hand of heel-to-toe changing and mild lift-off oversteer

Here's the story of Sue from when I got her, to now where this I reckon will be my last year of ownership following the rust monkeys taking a grip of her

(Just gathering together some photos now).

2009

Exploits of 2009. Brand new for me, not a lot to report. Got used to driving (I'm 19 at this stage and in my second year of university). Pretty much instantly needed to get a new set of wiper blades as the ones on it were a bit past there best.. needed a new battery too.


323-2009 by zippyonline, on Flickr
This is actually the first ever trip I did in the car. Parked up at Builth Wells for a MTB Marathon.



323-2009 by zippyonline, on Flickr
New battery, about the only maintenance I had to do that year apart from washing it. Oh, I also fitted a multi cig lighter into the glovebox, changed the wiper bladed, cleaned it a few times. And fitted a sunstrip on the inside of the car, about the same levels as the sun-visors to keep sun out of my eyes all the way across the screen.


323-2009 by zippyonline, on Flickr
Probs my first ever traffic jam! Notice the old school palmtop + Bluetooth GPS module running a hooky copy of tom tom (back when you can't afford sat nav on a student budget...and I've stopped using sat nav now coz it's boring following a computer).

It did a few trips to various places not to far away (Wales, etc.) and the trip from Lboro(Uni) to Colchester (home) return a few times [I know that route like the back of my hand now].

November 2011 she got a full service and MOT by the local garage (independent) that my parents used to use, I paid £636.00 for that including cambelt, all filters, oil etc. etc. and the aircon + the MOT. This was the first and last time I ever let anyone touch Sue again. Turns out about 2 months later I hear a squeaking and work out that the front brake pads are basically nothing, garage didn't say this and in fact told me that the pads were all fine but when I whipped the wheel off, had a look and bought some EBC pads off the internet. First bit of real spannering apart from the battery that I did.
From this point on, I vowed to do all work and maintenance myself. I mean, the jump from bicycle spannering (I can do this inside out and upside down and bicycles are my life - but that's stories for a different forum, but lets just say that generally the value of bikes inside the car is greater than the value of the car ) to car spannering can't be that difficult, how hard can it be


323-2010 by zippyonline, on Flickr
Technically I changed the pads in 2010, but it links back to 2009 events...

2009 stats
Odo start 2009 (09-04-09) = 46,830
Odo End 2009 = 55,762
Miles total = 8,932

Costs:
Battery @ £50
Wiper Blades @ £15
Full Services and MOT @ £636.00
Tax @ £175.00
Insurance @ £1,037.40 (TPFT)
Total: = £1913.50

Shan't do fuel costs, but fuel consumption ranged between 32mpg to 41.6mpg when lorry surfing. Averaging around 35-36mpg overall I reckon (I have every fill up logged).

Next up, 2010...

2010

Not a vast deal car blogging wise to report here. I was on a placement year with uni, but didn't really use the car much for commuting as I cycled, so she really only got used for transporting me to MTB races and events across the country. I replaced the brake pads as reported in previous post, it got 4 new Avon ZV3 tyres at the start of the year, at some point I put clear side repeaters on, did an oil and filter change, in september 2010 I swapped the front and rear tyres to even out the wear (I was gradually driving harder and harder when conditions allow - it should be noted that as I barely used it to commute and MTB areas have nice open roads, she did get revved a bit ). Also put a bit of garden hose on the drain overflow for the aircon de-humidifier as it started to have a habit of sometimes dripping in the passenger footwell or randomly over the car, this pipe seemed to be the right size and do the job...

Another note, at least 50% of the time run on V-power, never filled up on supermarket fuel, and always use decent oil.


323-2010 by zippyonline, on Flickr
Being a pace car for a road race.


323-2010 by zippyonline, on Flickr
Clean and shiny


323-2010 by zippyonline, on Flickr
Filthy @ Seal Sands.

2010 Stats
Odo Start = 55,762
Odo End = 66,810
Miles total = 11,048

Costs:
4 x Avon ZV3 @ £236
Brake pads @ £36.00
Oil+Filter @ £35
MOT @ £35
Insurance @ £654 Fully Comp
Tax @ £200
Total costs = £1,196

Average mpg around 33-34mpg

Pretty much trouble free motoring overall at the moment

2011

It starts getting more interesting now

First 6 months of the year was the last 6 months of uni, so it all got a bit busy on the work front, and MTBing / driving didn't happen as much. Did however do some silly miles to and from Lboro to Strathpeffer in Highlands of Scotland in January for the worlds toughest 24hr MTB race, raced alright and then drove straight back - that was tiring. I remember overtaking lots of caravans on he highland roads as the caravans left the event before we'd packed our tent


323-2011 by zippyonline, on Flickr

Being a MTB transportation workhorse:

323-2011 by zippyonline, on Flickr

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So all this time I've been keeping her clean, regular oil and filter changes and she's needed very little else, been good as gold and no real rust monkeys.

Having finished Uni about June time, first up a trip to the alps for a training camp. I'm nominated driver which is fine, do an oil+filter before the trip as one is sue, discover front O/S brake sticking. This is the day before the booked ferry, spend all day trying to free it up, got new discs and pads all round. Managed to improve the situation, but F O/S gets hot if driving heavily, if driving gently and barely using the brakes then it gradually frees up and is ok. Car doesn't pull left or right, so I deem it ok-ish if I'm careful. Realistically it needs a rebuild but I have a couple of thousand miles of driving to do before I can get that done as the ferry is the next day. No breakdown cover, lump some tools in the car inlcuding brake bleed pipe and some spare brake pads. Bring along a couple of passengers I'd never met before, 3 people, 3 bikes, my car, 12 hour stint driving to the Alps, reach the alpine roads and then tell them I can't really brake too hard, do we're gonna fly round the bends I'll just stop and let them cool off if needs be.
Didn't cook the brakes, made it there and back, broke my body due to over-riding, but it was a good trip, car didn't miss a beat despite the sticky brake.


323-2011 by zippyonline, on Flickr
Last minute fettling


323-2011 by zippyonline, on Flickr
Discs


323-2011 by zippyonline, on Flickr
Lake Geneva


323-2011 by zippyonline, on Flickr
French roads and a borrowed sat nav

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Got home after trip, rebuilt brakes using kit from brakesint and some instructions from this forum (and the workshop manual). New flexi lines too.


323-2011 by zippyonline, on Flickr

323-2011 by zippyonline, on Flickr
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I'd graduated, now a proper Civil Engineer, but didn't fancy getting a job straight away in a recession, used the last of my savings to do a bit of a road trip before starting to find a job. Did some budget stereo fettling by hiding a cassette to 3.5mm audio jack converter inside the car. Bodgetastic but cheap and kinda works, better than an FM transmitter anyway.


323-2011 by zippyonline, on Flickr

And some lovely roads out Kielder water way:


323-2011 by zippyonline, on Flickr

323-2011 by zippyonline, on Flickr
(There's camping kit, a full sus mountain bike, tools, spares, beer and a road bike + space to sleep in the car if necessary in there. Awesome what you can do when you pull the rear seats out.

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Apart from the brakes, the only other real issue of 2011 was the rocker cover spurted some oil out for some reason...I did the bolts back up and it's been fine ever since.


323-2011 by zippyonline, on Flickr

Once I got a job, I also got some new tyres for her, another 4 x Avon ZV3's, eeked out 20k miles out of them somehow - I was impressed although they were hugely worn once I'd changed them.

2011 stats:

Odo Start = 66,810
Odo End = 76,268
Miles Total = 9,458

Costs
Oil & Filter @ £35
Discs & Pads @ £95
Rebuild Kit and brake pipes @ £45
MOT @ £27
4 x Avon ZV3 @ £236
Insurance @ £575
Tax @ £210
Total=£1,223

2012

Started the year in March time with a slightly bigger service, air filter, oil filter, oil, gearbox oil, spark plugs. All felt smooth after that

First MTB trip of the year, down some tiddly little place near Afan, worlds tightest turn with a massive gradient glazing van parked on corner, at about 0.5mph I drive into the bit of angled metal I didn't see (negotiated turn perfectly apart from the sticking out bit of metal on the side of the van) and sliced the plastic bumper. So, off came the bumper, some fibreglass and body filler later and some rattle cans, bumper no longer had a hole in it. That was a pain in the backside and cost about £70 in materials... a week after I completed that, I spotted another bumper on eBay in my colour for £35 Still, all learning skillz innit


323-2012 by zippyonline, on Flickr

Also finally got around to the very well documented variable intermittent wipe upgrade:


323-2012 by zippyonline, on Flickr

Trip to ride the West Highland Way, I did Bivvy part way through though, but 14 hours riding was alright considering the hike a bike section mentally destroyed me!

323-2012 by zippyonline, on Flickr
This is camping beforehand

And this is camping inside the car somewhere on the scottish borders. Comfy, and doesn't steam up stupidly so if you have the sunroof open a bit, wind deflectors would be nice.

323-2012 by zippyonline, on Flickr

Some hooning round Wales Typical welsh weather

323-2012 by zippyonline, on Flickr

Also went to Le Mans that trip, met up with some friends and we stealth attacked Le Mans from Le Havre. Took a lot of revs to keep up with a VX220 and an Elise

323-2012 by zippyonline, on Flickr


323-2012 by zippyonline, on Flickr

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Sue started to get some rather comical handling and bouncing. Time for some new rear shock absorbers. Aren't drop links fun


323-2012 by zippyonline, on Flickr

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As I was earning some money now, I thought I'd treat myself to an Alpine headunit, got the steering wheel remote harness adaptor thingy too from autloeads. Very nice


323-2012 by zippyonline, on Flickr

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Not too long after I changed the rear shocks (about 3k miles in fact @ 81k). That was just as much fun as the rear, with the added fun of avoiding chopping the driveshaft off

323-2012 by zippyonline, on Flickr

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Managed to get some nice driving in too though, this is my favourite road that cuts through the penines


323-2012 by zippyonline, on Flickr

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And to round off 2012, I won some Mazda RX8 seats off eBay, full front and rear and done 26k miles for a total of £50. Took me a few months before I got round to fitting them though

323-2012 by zippyonline, on Flickr

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2012 Stats

Odo start = 76,605
Odo End = 84,618
Miles total = 8,013

Costs

Bumper repair materials @ £70
Engine oil, gearbox oil, air filter, oil filter, sparks @ £60
Intermittent Wipe @ £15
Rear shock absorbers and drop links @ £200
Alpine head unit and wiring harness @ £250
Front shock absorbers and drop links @ £200
Oil & filter @ £35
MOT @ £35
Tax @ £215
Insurance @ £525
Total cost = £1,605

Average mpg around 33, properly mixed though and in line with how I drive it, but not a massive difference between flat out and very sedate.

2013

2013 started with over about 3 months taking my time swapping over to RX8 seats in snippets of spare time. Very comfy though, fit my physique perfectly and are a tiny bit lower which is good with my tall upper body!


323-2013 by zippyonline, on Flickr

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On a short trip to screwfix (ironically just to get a couple of things to fix my parents car), I barely used the brakes, didn't go above 40mph anywhere, and pulling into the car park I smelt brake. It was Sue, and I couldn't even touch the front O/S wheel, let alone the caliper, it was steaming and well and truly stuck. Cut a long story short, purchased additionally some allen keys and a G-clamp from screwfix, jacked car up on scissor jack, whipped wheel off, undid caliper, rewound piston, put everything back, very very lightly pumped brake up to pressure, drove home very carefully using just the handbrake and engine braking after everything was cool. Looking back in the vehicle log, I notice that not only had I rebuilt the brake calipers, but the discs had warped early on in her history and it was front O/S again, so I suspected more than just a caliper rbuild was necessary. Turns out that after ordering a new master cylinder and pulling mine apart...I was a baffoon the first time I rebuilt the brakes and fouled the seal. Off I went and purchased another rebuilt kit, this time I got a new piston too, and some goodridge braided lines, oh and some blue high temperature paint since I was there... Brakes work lovely now.


Brake Master Cylinder by zippyonline, on Flickr


323-2013 by zippyonline, on Flickr


323-BrakesRefurb by zippyonline, on Flickr

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Also bought NeilF's strut brace for a packet of peanuts, shame it doesn't fit yet coz of my VICS. Will get around to it....


323-2013 by zippyonline, on Flickr

Oh, and this year for some completely random reason, the sunstrip I fitted on like day 2 of ownership suddenly failed the MOT, so I had to pull that out

2013 Stats

Odo start = 84,920
Odo End = 90,474
Miles total = 5,554

2013 Costs
RX8 seats @ £50
Bits to help fit RX8 seats! @ £45
Wiper blades @ £30
Strut Brace @ £20
Caliper rebuild kit, goodridge lines and brake master cylinder @ £150
MOT @ £35
Tax @ £220
Insurance @ £310
Total cost = £860

average mpg at about 33

2014

Started the year with an oil and filter, tried some valvoline stuff coz it was cheap on ECP.

The the clutch started squeaking, and feeling rough - but not the friction plates, the pedal itself. Lots of grease later underneath the car in and around the slave cylinder and I managed the change the tone of squeel. I've just ignored it for now... and actually after periodic greasing it's actually gone away now. Bite is still good on the clutch. Whilst I was under there, I kept tabs on the sump gasket which is leaking from somewhere under the crank stiffner. I'm not noticeably losing any oil, so I'm leaving it, I have a new gasket kit waiting to sort this issue out, but it involved unbolting the exhaust and the crank stiffner - there's no way that exhaust will come off in once piece because I've always thought it was due to blow and need replacing, but currently it hasn't needed it and I'm leaving it. That can wait for another day!


323-2014 by zippyonline, on Flickr


First modification of the year is an upgraded steering wheel, feels far nicer now.


323 Handwheel by zippyonline, on Flickr


Avon it would appear have stopped making the lovely ZV3 tyres in my 185/65/14 wheel size (which are ace on uk roads full of potholes and handle quite well), so I got a set of Toyo Proxes as the next best alternative, can't be having cheap rubber. The bloke changing the tyres phoned me and told me my rear discs and pads are shagged, do I want him to change them for me, my reply was long the lines of "nah mate, thanks for letting me know, I've got a set waiting in the garage for me when I get a chance!). Bought some zinc primer that day...and er what changed from just swapping some discs and pads turned into a brake refurb, which turned into, oh those rusty rear arches of mine are more shagged than I thought, poked a hole in them, and resigned myself to spening my holiday bodge fixing them. New angle grinder arrived, and a case of bodging fibreglass, bodyfiller, zinc primer and hammerite. Not proud of my work on this one, but it does the job. I also didn't end up painting and refurbing my calipers as they started to get to be a bit of a handful, so put all new fixing and sliders on, new nipples and braided lines, also zinc primed the discs. This takes us to the present day...


323 - Rust Monkeys by zippyonline, on Flickr


323-arch repair by zippyonline, on Flickr


Rear Brakes by zippyonline, on Flickr


Arches repaired by zippyonline, on Flickr

So she all works now...but she's slowly dying of old age and rust

Current Odo is 93k miles, she's my trusty friend and first car with lots of memories, still deciding on her fate and what I'm doing next. RX8 insurance looks to be a good price on a 231 and I think that#s gonna happen within 12 months, just not 100% sure what to do with Sue yet...

In the meantime, I've assigned a bucket list of things I'm gonna do with her:
+ at least one track day
+ dyno
+at least a video clip from an onboard
+ santa pod run what you brung (I tried a 0-60 on her after I swapped the RX8 seats and whipped the rear seats out permantly, managed 10.6 seconds with a friend holding a stopwatch, that's about 0.8 seconds quicker than the book says ).
+ JAE - I'll say hi to everyone

Thanks for reading.

Oh and quickly a few other bits and pieces...

- Original clutch, and I've been hooning it often!
- Internals are stronger than the sport coz it comes from the B6 block or summit, but apparently it's more tunable... and the transmission is the weak link and I read somewhere is good for 200whp, so my 98bhp is not straining her at all.

She's popped one fuse once, one sidelight and one number plate light, apart from that, all bulbs are from factory!

No egr on this model, there's the points for it, but it's got a dirty big bung in it.

and I've added a dinosaur to the engine bay for comic purposes (he was about to be thrown in the bin!)


323-dinosaur by zippyonline, on Flickr

Great write up
Respect for keeping notes on all the spending on your car, don't think I'd want to know what I've spent on mine.

Was almost reading my own story
My parents bought my car, which is also my first, when I was 12 in '98.
Still running strong and often a mountainbike-carrier too.

Great to see you're keeping her in good condition
Hard to let go if it relates to so much memories, I know the feeling! That's why I still have my car )
But sometimes its good to let go I think

Cheers, Yeah and I'd say this is fairly budgetted. But I haven't included things like windscreen washer fluid, any extra tools I've had to purchase, consumables like grease and stuff for the hinges and sponges and wax etc for cleaning, the PLX OBD II scanner I bought, the roof bars etc. so there's still a bit more that could go on there if I could be bothered to look it all up. The log book has all the major stuff in it in terms of servicing and every fillup, so I thought I'd share that as I could.

Cars are expensive I do like how the high tax and by todays standards high fuel consumption, sets me up for performance car ownership



I think the first car means a lot to you. Once I drove her again, I was very happy (although my handbrake light is on permantly which is annoying, but I know the handbrake isn't on and when I get a chance I'll adjust the switch or whatever is needed).

She also performed admirably on a dump run (rear seats out is a huge amount of space gained), and think I'll keep her as my run around until she actually dies properly, but I think that'll be a while! I'll learn to weld and get the new arches, and strip out the rest of the interior trim in the back so even more space (and lightness!).

Long term projects and all that.

Reckon I'll get an RX8 in the meantime too!

GoPro Test... (suction cup mounted to sunroof!)


GoPro Test1 by zippyonline, on Flickr

Very first time using GoPro, it has potential

It's a new noise every other day with Sue this week.

Other day I heard a clicking sound, thought it was some loose change or something but couldn't find it. Turned aircon off, it stopped, aircon back on and it started again. Traced this in the workshop manual to the magnetic clutch thing on the A/C compressor, require some re-shimming with a dial gauge it would seem, will get around to it

Then on Monday, I was driving home from work, gave her some beans and at high revs if shutting the throttle off quick or changing gear, a very raspy rattly sound was heard. By the end of the journey (some nice country roads for Essex near mine if you can see far enough) diagnosed it to around 4.5k - 5k revs. On the driveway, diagnosed it to around 4,750k, not being a rattly cat or heatshield and I reckon as I had the bonnet open and my old man revving my engine, to the VICS. Reckon I Have a loose butterfly.
So not driving her till I fix that, don't fancy injesting a loose screw or butterfly. Managed to find a second hand vics unit from a 53 plate 323 off eBay for £27 delivered that evening, turns out getting an intake manifold gasket is taking a while but my local motor factors are on the case

I was meant to be driving off to meet some friends / MTBing / Commonwealth games (friend is racing) support, but this might be a bit tricky

Shed motoring at it's best!

This is what my 4.5k-5k revs rattle sounds like: http://youtu.be/zwMRcZcqg4o Answers on a postcard

I've driven it to Scotland and back which was 850 miles (most of it at just under 4.5k revs so it didn't rattle ), this is after I checked using a boroscope that it wasn't the butterfly valves in my VICS.


Boroscope in VICS by zippyonline, on Flickr

On the way back another rattle made a sound, checked this at Scotch Corner, nothing about to fly off and break so carried on and made it home! Poking around on weds afternoon proved to get me nowhere, and on Sat I drove to machine mart and bought a couple of drive on ramps, the car sounded like it was about to rattle apart the whole way!. Drove car up ramps, found a loose heatshield clamp that I ripped off, test drive after proved that this sorted out the random all revs rattle, the 4.5k-5k revs rattle still exists.
Here's a poorly made panorama of the original exhaust.


Exhaust by zippyonline, on Flickr

I'm now starting to think hole in exhaust somewhere...possibly at one of the flanges or something :tink: Found this vid on youtube and the sound is similar to mine, altho diff car.

On another note, the spurting fuel out of the fuel filler cap has stopped doing it since I cleaned the breather pipe hole, and the aircon clicking sound has fixed itself. Also the aircon that keeps on pissing out water probably from the condensor into the passenger footwell and then sometimes out onto the road - been doing this on and off since I got her. Well I was looking on ECP at bits for my car and came across a pollen filter. Well that's interesting coz I didn't think it had one, mostly coz I had a US service manual...turns out the JDM and Euro 323's do have on after a bit of research. 2 minutes later and surprise surprise, my filter are fooked! Might explain a few things, new filter ordered!


Pollen Filter by zippyonline, on Flickr


This is fun Have ordered this though, so this should help in other areas.
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#ShedMotoring

So let's carry on the story. Still got my log thingy, so could add up what I spent in 2014, but cba right now (even though it's nearly the end of 2015!).

So that exhaust rattle, in the end it turned out to be the flexi joint. I toyed with the idea of getting a custom stainless exhaust made, but after quotes around £400+ for a catback system, I decided to spend £17 on a flexi joints + clamps and another £10 on some exhaust wrap. Some time with an angle grinder later, some exhaust paste and general buggering about, hey presto annoying sound gone!


Exhaust-Flexi by Chris Reeves, on Flickr


Exhaust Flexi by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

And here's a montage with too many photo's!


P1190953-Flexi by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

Also temporarily pasted up the other joints...


P1190946-Join by Chris Reeves, on Flickr
(which I later reinforced with some mesh, and they're holding better!)

And to add insult to injury, found some random snails about my driveshaft and brakes!


P119042Snails by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

Whilst I was there, I took off the crank stiffner and then struggled for pretty much a day to get my sump off (yes I had taken the oil out first!). Wouldn't budge...so that seeping oil sump shall remain - the oil is doing a good job of keeping the chassis rust free in places, and looking at the underside of the car, it really has been doing it for years. I never notice any drips, and never have to top the oil up between changes, so all good for now... This is what the sump look like normally! Leaking from round by the crank seal.


Oil Seeping by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

And to round out 2014, I passed the 100k mile mark. I decided to do this in style


100k-100mph by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

All legit officer

Dunno if I mentioned this before, but when I changed to RX-8 seats, I pretty much left the rear seats out permanently. This has turned Sue into a van-car, and I can put my commuting bike into the back of the car without taking the wheels off, sweet! (Did I mention I ride bikes a lot.... )


Van-car by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

Anyway, 2015 was fairly trouble free to begin with. Putting in lots of fun trips and taking in some cool Welsh roads.


Welsh Roads by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

June time, it was about time to do a few service items outside the normal oil and filters (and coz I don't do much town/city driving, my air filter is pretty clean and I don't have to change it that often actually).

Spark plugs - I'd left that a bit too long, whoops. Made a huge difference that did.


Spark Plugs by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

Fuel filter sorted, made easier by not having rear seats.


Fuel Filter by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

And yeah, that needed doing...!


Old Fuel Filter by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

And whilst I was there, I flushed the coolant system too - that's the first time I've ever done that in Sue, but I've never had overheating problems, so that's good.


Coolant Change by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

All going quite well then...

So it was a few days before the MOT was booked, and I thought I'd just go round, check the lights etc. wipe off the seeping oil sump, oh and whilst I'm there I could change the gearbox oil...


Gearbox Oil. by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

Also topped up the windscreen stonechip repair that's been there since before I took ownership that decided to fly out, and clean the car roughly etc. (I now own a lot of Bilt Hamber products!). I've also been periodically using the hydrate 80 stuff on the underside of the car whenever there's some left over coz I've been using it a lot on the RX-8


Clean Wheels by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

Anyway, MOT came back, FAIL. 2 Reasons, number plate light - one was out (which is annoying as all lights were definitely working when I brought her in - and they wanted £9 for a bulb - which is ridic for a 50p bulb!) and er, excessive corrosion around sill. Bugger! (also an advisory on worn discs, but I've got a set of discs and pads been sitting at home for about a year for when I get around to it...)

This is all I could see.


Rust by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

The prior bodge was spotted basically, MOT has expired and she's declared SORN.

I have no welder, or any experience welding.

To be continued.....

Teaser: https://flic.kr/p/CkCACi

So, despite the fact the car is worth precisely nothing without an MOT (well maybe something in parts), it seems silly to let a bit of rust, lack of welder and welding experience stop us now. So off we trot to the internet and order a welder and other bits and pieces. Then with a bit of reading / watching videos we start learning to weld. Welder in question is a R-tech 240v MIG 180, and some hobbyweld 5 gas was purchased.


323-sills01 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

Turns out I'm ok at this welding lark

Next, the angle grinder came out, and we started attacking the sills. And er kept going, and going and er eeek! I had to stop a couple of times to question my sanity... . It was pretty rotten in there, inner arch pretty screwed, and the arches themselves are just crumble.


323-sills02 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

But we keep ploughing on.


323-sills03 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

Until we're left with this box:


323-sills04 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

And eventually we get back to good metal - which we cover in weld through zinc primer at every stage to stop the rust monkeys getting a chance to play havoc to this. Good fun doing this all open air in the middle of winter between weather windows etc.


323-sills05 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

So now we're back to good metal, out comes the cardboard and some shapes are made.


323-sills06 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

Much use of angle grinders, saws, dremels, drills, hammers, blocks of wood, g clamps and many other random tools later, we end up with some vaguely body panel shaped bits of metal.


323-sills07 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

The onto the welding. I made a bit of a hash of the first bit - inner stiffner. After a bit of head scratching I think it was a combination of poor earth on the rusty car and not quite good enough prep (I'd started getting a bit lazy when practising indoors). A second attempt with the welding later and I ended up with some welds I was happy enough with. On the surface the two attempts looked similar, but you can feel and hear the difference when you get full penetration or not.


323-sills08 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

So after some grinding back and linishing, we're left with this:


323-sills09 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

Once welded, here's a selection of products we have employed. The back of metal that I can't get to once welded in place was weld through zinc primed first.


323-sills10 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

Inside the sill, some random silicone sealant for oil sumps was used as that's all I had to hand at the time and wanted to get on. A bit later on some proper seam sealer was purchased, here it is applied. Then the area on the inner arch was covered in BH dynax UB.


323-sills11 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

The arch liner was given a good wash with some APC and a stiff brush, a lot of crap came out. All the contact points were then sprayed in BH dynax S50 before being installed back into the arch.


323-sills12 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

The sill was then through various openings sprayed with anti-corrosion cavity wax, to help keep the rust monkeys at bay. I was also able to confirm that my drainage channels I'd integrated into my new bits of metal worked, as the s50 dripped out of the bottom!


323-sills13 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

And finally a quick and rough bit of body filler to hide anything terrible (including a quick kiss with the flap disc on the really bubbly bits or arch - but boy they really are crumbly!) and a quick spray over. This was a terrible job, but looks better than the pure rust before and I'd at this stage booked the MOT for the next day - and then hoped to drive a couple of hundred miles to meet my friends for New Year celebrations!


323-sills14 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

I guess I can fix that later if I want - the main bits of work to keep it rust free-ish has been done.

And then a ghetto cover to let everything dry in the rainy december weather (which to be fair, for december has been pretty good actually). Spraying in the high winds from Storm Frank was a bit interesting though!


323-sills15 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

[hr]

So MOT and tax time. MOT booked for 0915 on New Years Eve. It came back first time with another fail due to not having the seatbelt buckles for the rear seats - despite not having the rear seats in there, and the car having been like this for at least the last 3 MOT's! Anyway, they lent me some tools and I hid the seat belts inside the interior trim and I got an MOT pass.

Back home, purchased tax online - I had to pay for all of December despite the fact I was only going to use it for the last 9 hours of December - thieving b4sards! Anyway, job done, learnt to weld and got it all back on the road to get me to New Years.

Cheers, thanks for reading

Well done matey!!
awesome work nothing better than doing it yourself!

Much respect for tackling that with no prior experience.

Excellent work Zippy.

Cheers all. I figure learning to weld is a necessary skill to keep these 323's on the road (and this car means too much to me to just let her go over something that is to be honest fairly superficial)! I do in fact have some arches that I bought from andrewwaymen, but didn't want to be ruining them on a first attempt at welding on the driveway without a cover or anything in the middle of winter, so used flat sheets first. I plan to do it all a bit more neatly then - but hope to have a bit of cover from the elements by then.

Great work mate, nice one

2016

So 2016 so far, has mostly involved a few litttle tarty bits and pieces

Some wind deflectors got fitted hurriedly in February - which means I can now have the windows open a crack for it to all ventilate whilst massively reducing the chance of rain coming in. This is handy if you've forgotten to book a hotel for a wedding, so just throw a sleeping bag in the back of your car - and voila, no steamy windows!


2016-001 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

I also managed to find a chance to whip out the N/S rear arch liner, clean that all out, clean out the arch, BH hydrate 80 everything I could get to, and cover the liner in BH Dynax S50 to prevent as much of the tinworm spreading as possible. Arch is in a sorry state, will need to do a bit of welding to the sill later on this year, but she'll carry on. That can wait until the weather is nicer (and I've put the Rex back together...)

2016-002 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

She was filthy, so she got a wash. I used a clay bar for the first time ever too (on the front wings and bonnet only...was running out of time!) - amazing little things!

2016-003 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

Anyway, in the process of cleaning, I decided to remove my tax disc holder that had been sitting there redundant with my 2013/2014 tax disc...and managed to crack the screen in the process. What a twat! The whole screen is peppered with stone chips from the last 15 years and 110k miles of driving, so the crack propagated from one of those...in fairness if money was no object - I'd have changed the windscreen anyway, my hand was kindof forced here!

2016-004 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

Anyway, she scrubbed up ok.


2016-005 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

So later that week, I got a new screen. I took the opportunity to get an integrated tint strip along the top, and as soon as I could, sealed it with gtechniq g1 glass sealant. I've tested this once in the rain, and I'm impressed enough that I'll be using this stuff again in the future (or I might try the dodo juice stuff next time, that has good write up's too). It's quite amusing driving past people in the rain with their wipers on max, and mine just off as I feel like I'm in a star wars film. The difference in clarity between an old stonechip peppered screen and a brand new one is incredible.

2016-006 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

By the end of march, it was time I should do a quick service. Oil and filter done no worries as usual (although for all the times I've done this, I got oil done my arm for the first time ever when I changed the filter!). I went about changing the front discs and pads - these have been sitting in the house for about a year and a half, and even came up on the last MOT. I'd er even noticed when pressing on that they'd start to feel the heat a bit and notice when really trying to press on the brakes - they just weren't all that they should be (although the braking test on the MOT didn't even show anything for this...). The photos show the state I let them get into, which I'm a bit embarrassed about - but then again, I didn't want to change them in the middle of winter road salt season if they were plenty safe to get through winter. The other hiccup that happened here, was that I had the wrong size discs delivered to me back in 2014....I'd ordered the correct ones, just had the wrong ones delivered (and I missed the 30mm diameter difference when I glanced at them by eye). My local ECP branch were really good about it, and I had a new set of pads the next day. Oh, the pollen filter got changed too, it had been 18 months or so since last time.

2016-007 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

On a lighter note, my tyres (toyo proxes cf1's) on the front were starting to wear, and the wheels -despite being in really quite good condition generally for their age, with literally 2 bits of kerb rash and a bit of gravel/ditch surfing war marks - they were starting to corrode and bubble - one of the valves was starting to lose air very very slowly. So thinking about my options, and searching for SH wheels on ebay and the likes, and looking at the price of refurbs...I ended up buying a set of brand new Team Dynamics Jet wheels as they were on a very silly offer at demon tweeks - which made them about the same price as a wheel refurb. This means I can refurb my original set whilst the new ones are on the car.

Here they are sized up to double check my maths and speccing.

2016-008 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

Sue originally came with a set of 5.5J 14inch rims (ET45). The team dynamics are 6.5J, 15 inch rims with an ET38 offset. I checked all the likely differences on geometry, and with my chosen tyre size of 195/55/15, wheel diameter is less than 1% different theoretical new, I have 10mm extra tyre width compared with the original 185/65/14 tyres - so going from et45 to et38 means I've got an extra 7mm of track each side, and the tyre is another 5mm further out from that. The handling difference I expect to be minor, and more to do with the new Bridgestone Potenza RE002's having a far stiffer sidewall to the Toyo's (which I thought were a bit soft anyway), rather than the subtle differences in scrub radius and effective toe out due to this. We'll see - I haven't even test driven them yet! They do however fill the arches a lot better, and look spangly in my opinion


2016-009 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

I also took the opportunity to weigh my rotating weight....you can add those numbers up and multiply by 4 if you want. A single disc weights more than my whole bicycle! I haven't weight the stock wheels yet.


2016-010 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

The only wheel nuts that I had that would fit, were er red ones. I've got some silver ones on order, but they've not arrived yet - so red it is (given I really need the new tyres on the car...I've had my moneys worth out of the Toyo's on the front!). I almost bought some blue wheel nuts, but thought it was just that bit too chav... Oh, and I took the opportunity to give the calipers a quick bleed - I didn't when I changed the discs and pads for some reason....

Anyway, here she sits now: I'll take here for a spin in the morning. I'm quite pleased with how the wheels look - they'll be a pain to clean, but I've coated them with gtechniq g5 alloy wheel sealant, which should hopefully make them a bit easier to clean. And the reason the arch gap looks massive is because the suspension hadn't settled back down since I'd just taken it off the axle stands.


2016-011 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

Thanks for reading

I've got a few small things in mind for Sue, but the next bit of time is gonna be devoted to riding my bikes , putting the Rex back together , and er sorting out chartered engineer rubbish.

So I need another new windscreen. Driving on some local roads to a site visit, I find out they've surface dressed them and a car comes the other way, chuck up a stone, and hey presto a nice crack.

That windscreen in there was installed on 03/03/16, so since then I've done about 2,000 miles and it's been in about 3.5 months. And I spent time coating it in gtechniq G1.

Stoopid surface dressing.


323F - cracking... by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

It's been growing all day that crack

It's also the only stonechip on that screen

If that happens in Oz you can hold the appropriate authority that did the work (local council, roads authority, or their representative/contractor, etc) responsible for the cost of repairs. They are meant to clean up after themselves to leave a site in a safe state. Imagine if you (e.g. as a pedestrian) had copped that stone in the eye instead of the windscreen.

It's worth a bit of a call to the local government (if that's who is responsible)- new windscreen 3 months ago broken by stone thrown up on newly sealed(?!) surface that hadn't been swept/vacuumed properly.

Patrick

Cheers for the input Patrick. I'll give it a try, I've nothing to lose after all. I cycle a lot, and yes it really does hurt when those stones fly up and hit you

Oh well, these things I happen I guess, just a tad annoying!

Well, Zippy, do it like this:



That way the stones will fly off the windshield and hopefully will not do any damage to it.
Don't drive close behind other cars and chipstones will not appear.. well, not 100% warranty but still..