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Time flies doesnt it! So an update on the car since last time... Managed to get all the arms etc painted and polybushed. Thankfully id treated myself to a press last Christmas so that made life much easier! (plus who doesn't want a 20t press in the garage..). The supplied grease for the bushes is sticky AF and a right pain to remove when it inevitably goes everywhere though haha. So that's all been fitted, plus the coilovers & ARB's. Rolled the rear arch at the same time to try and sort any clearance issues with the ride height & wheels. Did plan on rolling the front wings at the same time buuuuut... far easier to yank it with my hands and do it that way. At the same time i fitted a new oil pan/gasket to sort an oil leak also. Got everything sorted, then on first drive there was a horrible squeak/squeal from the engine.. great, much sulking and swearing occurred! Happened regardless of clutch position and no chirping. Took the belts off to check and no difference. Initially thought might be a pressure build up internally (old oil pan gasket was leaking quite badly..). Changed the PCV valve (after much swearing and grazed knuckles), no change. On that test drive i realised it was now only happening when oil got above 80c and only when clutch pedal was pressed in, So, gearbox off, clutch + flywheel bearing changed and fingers crossed that is that sorted. Just need to finish bolting everything up and we'll see (if not im going to cry). Still need to sort the rust patches. A section is on the otherside of the sound deadening on the floor so that will need to be removed first, luckily i may be able to get some dry ice so that should help! While sorting that I've busied myself with stripping/ sorting the interior, basic run down is: - Chopped down the centre console so it doesn't go down to the floor and more El/EK-esque, Also removed the part which goes around the gearstick/handbrake. - Removed the cigarette lighter from centre console and moved down the heater controls, this gives me a place to fit some temp gauges under the radio. - Wrapped the interior loom with braided sleeve. - Swapped electric window motors to manual on the fronts (1 kg saving) - Removed window motors from the rear and now the glass is bolted in place. - Made some new seat brackets for the bucket seats to fit to the stock runners, all from 6mm ali so exceeds Motorsport UK guidelines (safety first!). Still to do - Fake suede wrap the pillar trims & centre console. - Make some door cards for front doors. - Wire in gauges/make centre console plate for this. - Remove that thick rubber mat on the firewall behind the pedals. - Still sort the rust! Cheers Dan. PS. Sorry for the ramble!

All looking good mate, those wheels should look great! The arb should defo help stiffen things up aswell. Doing stuff without a press is a right pita. I treated myself to one last christmas and it defo paid for itself when I did my polybushes haha

Bought a set of (very) budget semi-slick tyres "Accelera 651 Sport Xtra" from a company called Tire Streets that i'd seen advertised on various youtube channels. I don't have particularly high expectations as they were extremely cheap (£280 for a set of 4) but according to various internet comments/reviews they seem to be reasonable. I can always upgrade them in the future if needs be. The rubber seems soft which is a good start for a track tyre. Normally I don't like to order tyres separately to fitting (as usually the fitting cost removes any savings) but I couldnt find anything suitable supplied and fitted so I paid the local tyre place £15 a tyre for fitting and balancing which seemed reasonable. Look forward to getting them on the car soon... Finally got around to finishing restoring an MG ZS 180 rear anti roll bar I picked up from a friend a few months back. It was in pretty sorry condition but it seems like they are not sold new any more. Fortunately, you can still buy drop links, poly bushes, and all the bolts so it was just a case of stripping it down, removing the rust, painting it and replacing as much of the hardware as possible. The bushes were a real pain to install without a press but after a lot of farting around in the vice I got there eventually... For reference here's how it looked before (!)

Great, that means I am okay with the dash trims already. Hoping to find a badge and some mats in the meantime 🤞Just ping me if you want to get rid of that badge.