Well I drove the car to the mechanics this morning, via the petrol station to make sure it had enough in it for the MOT. I thought I'd test out the dump valve and exhaust and now the throttle is alligned properly etc. WOW that car is powerful now. 2nd gear at around 20mph, no clutch movement, just foot down, spools up a little, then BOOM wheels spin like crazy and the car snakes up the road! I can't wait to get it back, although it might kill me :helpsmilie:

 

Granted it's a little greasy out there this morning, but it WOW!

 

Looks like will get her back either tomorrow or Wednesday, just depends how much rust is actually behind the sills for him to repair before he can weld the front parts of the sill back on. Fingers crossed there isn't too much.

Just been up to see the car, not too bad without the sills actually, there is a little bit of rust back there, which my mechanic is cleaning up nicely, and it looks like someone decided to just weld a panel in there poorly once before to do the same repair and then put a shit load of filler around it to shape the sill, rather than just buy the proper sill, which seems dumb. But all in all, I reckon the car will be quite nicely rot free for some years to come yet. Gets them all in the end of course, but looks like this one should have been prevented for some time now. :D I'm happy.

You'll be happy with it in the end!

I'm hoping so, just seen the sills thread in help and advice and phoned up the Waxoyl place, so think that's next months spend on the car and potentially getting the sills sprayed up afterwards to blend with the car. Decided will do my bare metal re-spray in winter now, when the engine is out etc.

Why you taking the engine out mate?

Just decided since I've ploughed this much into it, might as well strip the engine down over winter, build it back up properly, ported and new internals, likely uprated, potentially bigger turbos or standards with 360s etc. I reckon if I spend the right way and do the build myself (with Mikeys help) I can get 500+ out of it on a reasonably good budget and it still be driveable and reliable?

 

Now I work from home, just needs to be reliable enough to get to shows and meets and stuff, won't be the daily driver anymore. Rose on the other hand works in an office so needs a daily driver.