Gold 2.0Si

[Dean]

Very nice work there Neil, i like those wheels a lot, there are a set of those as 17" over here going FOC which i am tempted by.
I see you went for an almost OE painted chassis look, its very nice. I will have a dig in the store and see if ive got some rear brake disk shields for you, almost positive i have some rust free ones without the ABS cable hole.

D

[Eddie nuff]

The backplates would be brilliant - if you can find them. Might need a set of front ones yet, see what they're like when I take them off.

As for the rear chassis I'm genuinely impressed with the condition of it. When you consider this is a 26yo car that has been used and abused for all but the last four years of its life and under all the rust was just one small piece of rot that needed welding. The rear chassis section within the wheel arches have indeed been painted in the original gold colour - but only needed two coats to bring them back to life.

One problem I do have is where the rear bumper has been cut in order to fit the towbar


It doesn't matter what I do it refuses to marry up to the rest of the bumper and I may resort to cutting it off to reset it level. The rear bumper is okay but not the best I've seen, so when it comes around to a full respray it may be an option to change it.

[Dieselman]

That bumper trim needs bracing from behind, tehn plastic welding from behind, a bit of plastic filler (stippled) and some paint and it would be good to go.

I take full responsibility for that cut-out, I sold the owner of your car the towbar. I also have two bumpers with the same cutout. Not sure what brand of towbar it was...probably a shitter.

[Eddie nuff]

Eventually got started on the front end with an unwanted surprise for me. The nsf arch is rusted around the hub and the chassis but in really good nick on the wing and inner wing. The chassis rail behind the hub had some severe rust and was very wet

and the hub and strut were bad whilst on the os the chassis and hub is in very good nick but the inner wing is going to need welding



Not structural but needs doing whilst the arch is off.

The bad stuff for all of us to watch out for was behind the arch cover in the bottom of the wing

This is the ns, the other side was just as bad. Ten minutes later

Everyone needs to look into this on their own car as it's just eating away at the wing.

I also found this which is curious


The radiator's going to have to come off to get to the badly rusted cross member it sits on. That'll get done when the new heater pipes arrive.

[Eddie nuff]

Had a good look at the headlining whilst I had five minutes. I knew I had to cut an opening for the sunroof and convert it from lh drive to rh but I now realise that this must have come off a S1.5 or S2 as all the grab handles aren't inset, but the biggest problem I'm going to have is that the flat centre roof part of it is not set down enough meaning I end up with this if I level the back part off


which means when I cut the sunroof opening I'm going to have to cut across the entire headlining and then reset it at the correct level.

An easy job just turned into a bloody nightmare.

[russ92xmsed]

The headlining came off a S2. Don't blame me!!!

The grot you found at the front is typical. Its similar to what i found on mine. I managed to save my bumper brackets in the nick of time. I strengthened them with some aluminium, and then rust proofed them with an inch of their lives!
(not allowing the bare aluminium to touch steel though)

Its amazing the amount of crap you find sitting between the wings and sill. No wonder they rot out if you leave it. Produces high quality compost though!
My passenger side lower wing is either crushed up into the crumpled sill or been welded to the sill. So I couldn't fully clean it out. But I did find a hole in the rounded end part of the sill which needs attention very soon.

[cxprestigeauto]

Yep all the rot at the front is typical XM

Done my sill ends and just welded a replacement lower NSF wing in to replace the rotten bit!!!

Next stop the front end, I can see the rot before I even get the bumper off.

Rob

[russ92xmsed]

Another idea Neil, if you're taking off the front bumper, very easy to do, the metal crash bar behind it always corrodes badly inside. So it might be a good one to check out, treat and protect it. I found mine badly rusting and sorted it out successfully.

[Dieselman]

When you remve the ECU box, you will see a sizeable hole to weld up.

As it's just thin metal to form a wheelhouse to engine bay sheild I'm not sure if it's structural or not. If not, plastic would have been a better material to make it out of.

[Eddie nuff]

I didn't plan to take the front bumper off but having seen the state of the front end it may be prudent to do so if only to see if there's anything hiding.

These are not very good photo's but what is this sitting on top of the ns chassis rail just behind the front bumper?




Temp sensor?