Leaderboard

Yeah was a bit unexpected but got there in the end. The pipes were not the easiest to get off - after a bit of heat and loads of wd40 they did eventually shift but they're a little chewed up. I managed to get them on tight but if there are any leaks I fear I will have to remake them which won't be the easiest as there's quite a lot of tight bends. Potentially I could also use some kind of flexible PTFE pipe and AN fittings to make the routing a bit easier. Apparently on other hondas (eg/ek/etc) you can just swap the pinion shaft piece across rather than changing the entire rack as it seems like the racks are all the same it's just the teeth on the pinion that affects the ratio so I would probably try to get another MB2 rack (they're a lot cheaper!) and swap the pinion over from the ZS one rather than another attempt at removing the pipes.

The grille looks cool, nice one. Shame that there was the hassle with the steering rack though, at least there was a fix for it, but definitely good to mention it. At least you had the old pipes intact too do the swap

Got the grille fitted to the car, that was the easy bit as the rest of the day turned into a bit of a nightmare! Could probably do with painting the metal behind black (its not quite as obvious in real life) but other than that im happy with it for a DIY job We then tried to swap in the MG ZS 180 steering rack that I bought... what a pig of a job Once we've eventually wrestled it into place after removing engine mount and subframe bolts, we found it didnt fit because these pipes are shaped differently, meaning it fouls on the engine mount bracket (the factory MB one so I can't even blame this on it being a k swap!) MB pipe: So I had to remove the rack from the car again and then remove the pipes from the MB rack and swap them to the ZS one. I've never seen that mentioned before but it's worth knowing if you are attempting this... Didn't get as much done as i'd like but onwards and upwards

Made a custom EK9 style grille to go with the headlights Dismantled the grille, scuffed the chrome surround and rattle can painted it the same as the body (Titan Silver NH614M) Here's it drying, I didn't paint it on the dining table, i'd not be alive to tell the tale! Removed the inside of the grille with a dremel and then painstakingly cut some black mesh from ebay (as close to the EK9 mesh as I could see from photos) to size and sandwiched it in between the grille pieces Hopefully it fits on the car properly as I had to remove a lot of material... will find out tomorrow!

Looking at these photos again it felt like a shame to put rusty parts back on the car As I'd already installed the ball joints and I didn't really fancy pressing out the wheel bearings I masked up the arms and knuckles as best I could and gave them a few coats of the same Hammerite paint i've used on the rear arms Pretty happy with the results all things considered. It's not a full strip down and restoration of course but it looks a lot better and should protect it for the next few years.