Hope everyone had a great Easter break. I used mine to get some work done on Black Betti, get a bit of running training in, and to get some much needed time off as well!
Thursday didn't end well - I curbed my front passenger side alloy when pulling in to park. I got distracted as a phone call came in, looked over at my phone, and heard the scrape. Absolutely heartbroken! I think some silver touch-up paint might be sufficient to hide it for now though.
On Friday I woke up at the crack of dawn, dragged the missus out of bed, jumped in the car and got on the road. We headed to a BMW breaker in Swanley, Kent, for a few parts I needed from a well looked after 2003 318ti SE. The last time I did a polish job I noticed a big rust bubble on the driver's arch. I asked around and I could either get a brand new panel (non-genuine) for £184 which still needs paint, get it repainted by my local BMW dealer on a hook-ups rate of £150, or spend a good portion of the day in the car, get a panel off a near-identical car which is rust-free, and do the work myself and save some coin! Add to the fact my bonnet has a small ding near the kidney grilles and this donor car has a really good condition bonnet, and it's looking pretty damn attractive! So, for the price of £100, I picked up a new drivers wing and bonnet, fitted them both, and ditched the old panels at the breakers. I swapped my indicator, bonnet emblem, and grilles over to my new panels, and she's looking lovely!
One thing I found in the process was there was a small garden growing in the bottom of the arch! I removed as much as I could remove, which should hopefully keep more of the rust at bay for a while. Now that I know how to remove/replace the wing panels, I might pull off both of them and give them an underseal later in the year when I have a little more time. I'll probably find a garden on the passenger side too!
The new bonnet does need a little bit of a touch up though. It looks as though the previous car had been the victim of some harsh treatment around the grilles. Someone has used (probably) a flathead screwdriver to try lever the grille out on the driver's side, which is definitely NOT how you remove them. Maybe potential theft? Anyway, that shouldn't be too difficult to repair, so it's a job for another day.
While I was there I also picked up the injector rail from a 330 inlet manifold. I was going to buy the full manifold, but the guys there recommended just installing the injector rail without doing the full manifold swap. I'm now not so sure...
On Saturday I had her booked in to get the CCV replaced. This was a bit of preventative maintenance, and once my mechanic had pulled all the pipes out, he cut them open and I'm quite glad I've had it done. It was gloopy and fairly clogged up. This should hopefully help the lubrication system flow a bit more freely.
My mechanic recommended we don't install the injector rail alone. It will feed too much fuel into the engine, flooding the engine, increasing bore wear. His recommendation is the entire 330 inlet: manifold, injectors, throttle body, DISA valve, MAF, intake boot, and air filter box, followed by a remap. So this is again on hold.
Once my mechanic had sorted the CCV, he let me finish off my short shift install. It didn't take too long, but reinstalling the circlip on the connector rod took ages! Now that it's installed though, it feels **** hot. Love how quick and efficient the shifts feel!! I'm still getting used to the shifter positions, but it's definitely made a positive change to gear changes!
And the best bit: my mechanic, having just finished rewiring the loom of an 850ci, offered to wire up and recode my angel eyes! And I'm overjoyed with the result.
. The Clio has discs that are more prone to the same surface rust than my old BMW.
