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Project Obnoxious-mobile

Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 3:41 pm
by lxstuart
Well seeing as there are a few people that know about this, and a few more that have probably sussed that I've got it, I thought I may as well start a profile thread.

18 months ago when I still had this car, I decided I wanted to change a few things. H22, lowered, noisy exhaust, and matt black paintwork. However a car popped up in the for sale section which pretty much was what I wanted, with the exception that it had been stripped for track use.
Nevermind I thought, I can take bits off the red Lude and put them on the new Black one, then just break/scrap the red one.
Unfortunately, due to the accident at the end of the above thread, it meant that I wouldn't be able to insure the black one as I'd lost no-claims bonus. It also meant that I didn't want to take stuff off the red one until the claim was settled.
So the car just sat there.
Whilst it was sat there somebody managed to back into it, forcing the bumper up into the body work and bending part of the rear arch (where the arch panel meets the lights), and pushing the car into the garage door, which bent the front bumper a tad, both front wings a tiny bit, and bending the bonnet :evil:
Winter came, and whilst looking over the Lude I noticed that the coolant hoses were rather hard :?

Turns out that the previous owner had topped up the coolant with just water, and it had frozen solid.
Erring on the side of caution, I took off the rad cap, removed the thermostat, and just left it to thaw.
It was probably a good 4 months later that I felt confident enough to see if it still ran, it fired up on the first turn of the key 8-)
It wasn't all good though, as it had now gained a small leak around the water pump area :(
Eventually I got around to taking it somewhere, and as the MoT had run out get them to take it for a test, too.

Slightly anoyingly, they put it through a cat emissions test, which it almost passed :lol:
Unfortunately, there were three pages of other fails, so thats a bit of a moot point.

Highlights of the fail sheet;
Mr MoT man wrote:Headlight alignment is out
one of the tyres is shot
all coil springs not correctly located
O/S ball joint
Service brake below requirements
parking brake below requirements
Rear brakes shagged
no sidelights
no hazzard lights
no fog light
The only thing on that list that really worries me is the coil springs. They're Mugen, I assume matched springs and dampers. Basically, when the car is jacked up, they're free to move about. This doesn't sound right to me at all, begining to wonder if the springs have been cut :?

Picked the car up today so took a few pictures;

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I'm currently starting to wonder if it might be best to cut my losses and just get shot.
Theres a hell of a lot of work that would actually need doing, and although I have most of the parts (taken off the red Lude) I'm wondering if its worth it in the long run.
Theres also the fact that the Lude is a third car :?

Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 3:47 pm
by bristol_bb4
if it were me, id sell me those wheels then sell/break it and start again with a good solid base car! :)

Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 4:06 pm
by JayJay
bristol_bb4 wrote:if it were me, id sell me those wheels then sell/break it and start again with a good solid base car! :)
This. Just seems like it'd be a nightmare of a job!

Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 5:26 pm
by A1ex
How are the sills & rear arches? If they're good perhaps it's worth keeping as sorting the other stuff will be cheaper than sorting that properly on a different one...

Looking at the list of issues, 3 of the will be sorted by changing the rear brakes

Re: Project Obnoxious-mobile

Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 8:54 pm
by lxstuart
Arches and sills are all in good nick, thats another reason I got this one.

Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 9:07 pm
by mercutio
i remember this wasnt it southy's from buxton ? i wanted the suspension at the time glad i didnt now really

Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 10:00 pm
by A1ex
I'll be upgrading my suspension soon so I'll have my oem stuff spare if you want it for a low price ;) you'd have to check if it fits a 4g first tho

Re: Project Obnoxious-mobile

Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 11:22 pm
by lxstuart
Yes, was Southy's. When I can be arsed, I'll get it up on the Jack and take a proper look. Will probably be in the summer at some point.

Alex, thanks for the offer, but I still have my red one for spares. I should be fine for anything OEM.

Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2012 12:39 am
by Ammo
They sound like cheap eBay coilovers to me

Re: Project Obnoxious-mobile

Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2012 12:45 am
by lxstuart
Ammo wrote:They sound like cheap eBay coilovers to me
They're Mugen, anybody heard of them?