Jay's Exocet - Mk2 1.8 (Non VVT) - South Yorkshire

[o55ie18]

Hi all, hope everyone is well.



I've been holding off creating my thread for a while now as my build will be slow moving and I wont be in a situation to update progress daily but figured if I start it off now, some of my work could help persuade/ inspire others.



A lot of my progress has been made by using others advise on this forum, tips, links, photos etc so thank you all for that, it helps massively!



I am not a mechanic at all but I do have a garage at my house and I put a beam and pull-lift in (perks of my job). I do have some decent tools for an amateur DIY'er which I have found priceless so far, such as a bench grinder with wire wheel, die grinder with all wire wheel attachments, impact wrench and then the usual garage things.



Most of my work so far has been cosmetic and restoration more than mechanical as I am not yet at that stage in the build.

I am currently saving for my Kit so once I have saved and ordered it, that's when the mechanical work starts, along with a million questions from myself.



So, to get you all up to speed, I bought a 1.8 X Reg Mk2 Donor for £700. This is non VVT and only 5 speed gearbox but oh well.



I started off with stripping the donor and selling the unwanted parts.

I let the parts go very cheap as I wanted room to work around the car in the garage.



Now to start attaching photos (or at least trying, fingers crossed this work)
























Kind Regards

Jay

[o55ie18]

Transmission

So, once I was left with the skate, the first thing I did was remove the gearbox and propsaft, diff etc. Below are pictures of how i started to tidy this up. 

My donor was in a very sorry state so for the gearbox, I first took off most of the grime with a degreaser called 'Gunk'. I brushed this in and agitated it, then rinsed off





The above photo shows as it was after the gunk and rinse. 

I then got out the die grinder and wire wheel and took to the task of removing 21years of weathering.




Once this was done, as the weather was nice I primed the gearbox using an etch primer.




Two coats of primer with drying in between. Then the day after I coated using MOTIP M04093 Engine Paint. The result came up nice in my opinion and although not a professional job, I am more than happy with it

[o55ie18]

Transmission 2

After the gearbox I wire wheeled the Prop and then the Dif. I don't have a clue what dif it is, definitely not the one people upgrade to as the car was basic, 5 speed, non VVT, didn't even have ABS!

I forgot to take before photos of the Prop so only the finished pic is below. Followed by the dif.






I cleaned down the dif, and started to paint. For the silver brace part I used the same engine paint as on the gearbox, and the dif casing I just used Hammerite smooth black and brushed this on






Then I decided to tidy up the driveshafts/ halfshafts whatever they are called. Usual wire wheel on the die grinder (safety first, ALWAYS wear goggles/ glasses as the wire strands fly everywhere!)



For the shafts, I used Hammerite -Silver (Hammered) and Black (Smooth)

[phaeton]

Did you keep the V5C?

[o55ie18]

Steering Rack (now depowered)


So, the car came with PAS but after driving an Aerial Atom and a Tiger Cat kit car, neither which has PAS, I made the decision to depower mine. Not due to weight loss or power, but basically a tidier engine bay and less to fiddle with after.

I used the advice of others on here after reading their threads and also watched a couple of YT videos.





So, above is the rack, ugly, crusty and powered.

I then stripped things down carefully following instructions of others/ videos, took the pinion to work and had this welded up so eliminate the potential for any play.




To cover the holes where the pipes were removed, I used something called JB Weld and I would happily recommend this stuff. I wish I had taken more time and done things neater, built it up in a couple of layers so it was perfectly flush but everything is still sealed fully.



I then started to paint things and restore it as much/ best I could. I did buy new Tie Rods as mine were quite rusty and I was replacing the boots etc anyway.



That's the steering rack finished. New boots, depowered etc, now all bubble wrapped and put away until needed.

Next was the column, I wire wheeled this down and resprayed. Thinking back, I should have done this black as silver may be too visible with the car (i'm not sure how much of the rack you can see on an Exocet) but for now, silver it is!







One thing I cannot recommend enough, is something I keep using to clean rubbers, plastic etc, and it is making a huge difference.... WONDER WIPES!!  Grease, oil, paint, anything on your hands, these wipes are a must. They have fetches these little rubber 'things' up a treat and so easy to clean your hands in between handling greasy oily parts.






That's it for the rack and column so far, thank you for taking the time to look!

Jay

[o55ie18]

Sept 22, 2021 11:45:32 GMT phaeton said:

Did you keep the V5C?

Hi Phaeton, I did.

I also cut out the VIN and all vehicle identification etc. I read all that on this forum as previously people let it go so I made sure not to make that mistake!

Thanks for the heads up though

[phaeton]

If you need a powder coater there's a couple of lads at Shirebrook who do a good job, just had another 2 subframes & all arms blasted & coated sub £200.

[wishful4444]

o55ie

Thanks for interesting thread and photos. For someone who is not a mechanic you seem to be proceeding very well.

Good luck with the build. I will follow with interest.

[o55ie18]

Sept 22, 2021 12:07:02 GMT phaeton said:

If you need a powder coater there's a couple of lads at Shirebrook who do a good job, just had another 2 subframes & all arms blasted & coated sub £200.

Thank you, appreciate the recommendation. I found a company in Dinnington which is only 15 minutes from mine and they were recommended by a couple of people. They are called 'Batchglow'. I took all my parts and had them blasted and coated (2 coats they said) and they charged me £150. This didn't include any ARB's though, so not sure how the price matches up but that one you have recommended definitely sounds good for anyone waiting to have theirs done!

After viewing others threads, I made sure to cut out the top wishbone part and also the lip on the subframe first. Not sure if I missed anything else though.

Also, the reason I got the work done for that price was it was just gloss black which they advised is their most common colour so no doubt a nice silver/ red or orange etc may have been more expensive

Thanks again mate, appreciate the tips and advice, keep it all coming haha

[o55ie18]

Sept 22, 2021 13:49:44 GMT wishful4444 said:

o55ie

Thanks for interesting thread and photos. For someone who is not a mechanic you seem to be proceeding very well.

Good luck with the build. I will follow with interest.

Thanks Wishful, appreciate the comments. So many things iv done so far have been a bit 'oooh dare I take that apart and start it etc' but then i'll watch someone else's video or read their thread and well, I then give it a try. I am dreading the engine work such as Timing Belt change and things like that but at the same time, hopefully I will learn new skills etc

Thanks again mate

[o55ie18]

Fuel Tank and Pedals

So, I know absolutely nothing about fuel tanks but read of people having (and even designing) their own alloy tanks. As much as I would like to go down that route, I wouldn't know where to start and I cannot imagine to think of the costs involved so I took the simple cheaper option of painting.

Couple of pictures below to show the tank before and after painting. No skill involved etc, just simple hammerite.







Then on to the pedals. As these are on show, I couldn't leave them as they were. Again, forgot to take picture of all the pedals before so only have pics of one, but they looked the same anyway condition wise. 
Wire Wheel - Etch Primer - Sprayed black. I did take the pedals apart and nearly got muddled up trying to fit them back together, another reason to stress why pictures are important lol










The brake servo was also ugly looking and needed a refresh so painted this up





PPF

Well this the normal weathered look PPF so wire wheel abused it and I was left with a nice blank canvas.
I considered different paints and colours but I decided to 'try' something different, I ised silver Hammered Hammerite but instead of brushing it on, I dabbed it on and basically sacrificed two brushes lol. Just dip brush in paint tin and then dab it on to the frame. The effect did seem a little different to being painted on, seemed so much more even and hammered as such. Was it worth the extra time and effort, maybe not but for the sake of two coats and two evenings, its done.

As with everything else, it is now bubble wrapped and in the spare bedroom out of the way lol









Really enjoying the strip down and refurb kind of part. Can't wait to progress more and start the actual build of things. All in good time!

Cheers all

[phaeton]

Sept 23, 2021 7:54:24 GMT o55ie18 said:

Sept 22, 2021 12:07:02 GMT phaeton said:

If you need a powder coater there's a couple of lads at Shirebrook who do a good job, just had another 2 subframes & all arms blasted & coated sub £200.

Thank you, appreciate the recommendation. I found a company in Dinnington which is only 15 minutes from mine and they were recommended by a couple of people. They are called 'Batchglow'. I took all my parts and had them blasted and coated (2 coats they said) and they charged me £150. 

That's actually quite funny as Batchglow is only 10 minutes from me, I had presumed they would be more expensive so didn't even try them

[o55ie18]

Sept 23, 2021 9:59:42 GMT phaeton said:

Sept 23, 2021 7:54:24 GMT o55ie18 said:

Thank you, appreciate the recommendation. I found a company in Dinnington which is only 15 minutes from mine and they were recommended by a couple of people. They are called 'Batchglow'. I took all my parts and had them blasted and coated (2 coats they said) and they charged me £150. 

That's actually quite funny as Batchglow is only 10 minutes from me, I had presumed they would be more expensive so didn't even try them

I hadn't heard of them before but went on the recommendation and he just said as long as not in a rush for it doing, £150 cash coated twice. Told him to take his time and 2 days later they were back at the house all done. They also wrapped them all up in bubble wrap etc so that also saved me a job, and a lot of wrap lol.

If you aren't too far from Rotherham then I may use your suggestions for other places to get things from when I need them if you don't mind?

[wishful4444]

o55ie

I am intrigued by the large number of rosettes hanging on a frame in one of the photos.
Either you support a large number of teams or you have horse riding daughter/s?

[o55ie18]

Sept 23, 2021 15:29:11 GMT wishful4444 said:

o55ie

I am intrigued by the large number of rosettes hanging on a frame in one of the photos.
Either you support a large number of teams or you have horse riding daughter/s?

Haha, it’s the girlfriend, she used to do jumping etc but now just dressage. That was either a very good guess or you’re speaking from experience? lol. The horse is hers, the garage is/ was mine but as you can see, she’s taken over that part and now started at the back on the right behind bench grinder!

Told her no more but then I get the death stare lol