Post by substandardhotrods on Jan 23, 2013 20:24:30 GMT
Purchased my 8 from Rob in April 2011, fell in love with it and bit his arm off when i saw he was umming and arring about selling. No haggling on prices, i was having it at face value before he changed his mind!
heres a pic as I purchased it
I wanted to make it my own but in a way that respected what rob had already done.
First thing to go was the number 8's from the side, they looked awsome but wasnt the look I was after. I also toyed around with the other front grill supplied and removed the paint from the front bumper.
I decided that the hooks were definitely the way forward but wanted to add a meaner look to them so out came the red and black paint!. I also purchased a set of beetle style hubcaps similar to the ones that were fitted in the past and set about making the fitting of them a little more secure. I also removed the black paint from the badge and painted the 8 red.
Next thing to tackle was the engine, it was a little incontinent to say the least so a freshen up of seals and a few serviceable parts were on the cards prior to summer 2011. a pic of the carb as it was when I purchased it on the 1300 herald engine
external changes consisted of some beetle over riders for the front bumper and then it was time to take it to some shows, pics from castle retro show and retro rides gathering.
In the background I was collecting the parts required to perform a substantial engine swap over the winter. Off the road she came in September 2011 for the work to commence!
In went a 2.0 litre pinto engine and type 9 gearbox. heres and early pic when everything was trial fitted.
Making this setup fit was an absolute nightmare, its such a lot of engine and box in such a small car!. Full on Tunnel mods.
Plenty of other parts were swapped over such as steering setup to the correct stub axles and caliper brackets, uprated springs, new steering box,
Ive done some bodywork tidying up as a couple of pesky holes that had appeared in a few panels. Fabrication of the exhausts, mounts etc ,
type 12/14 stanpart disc brake adaptor plates. (silver ones)
the black ones are the stanpart brackets for type 16 calipers.
both shown next to each other
Suspension related, the camber seems better now I'm using the herald uprights,
Ran with the spitfire discs in the end.
Other things i did include the new dash, decided to fabricate a sheet metal dash insert and carpet it with accoustic cloth.
Trial fitting
dial holes and cd player hole cut
ready for fitting
In there like swimwear! well chuffed with it.
Also got carried away with some new stickers
(welded a finger to the top of the original pedal and make a bracket to hold the fixed sleeve.)
Ive adjusted the coilovers to compensate for the additional weight of the new engine and box, also fitted a chrome mustache to the front,
got a bit carried away with my mobile phones fish eye lens!!
done loads of other little bits and bobs that i've probably forgotten, life has been well and truely in the way of progression of late.
Basically it runs, the brakes work, its all back in one piece but I had one major problem..... the water system is pressurising after about 5mins ticking over.
Thinking its probably headgasket related but will check the simple stuff when I get chance.
It turned out the so called good engine was no soo good, as soon as thermostat opened the rad would excessivly pressurise even after a headgasket swap.
A friend of mine told me he had a genuine 30k mile 2 litre pinto sat in his unit that I could have for a sensible price (cheaper than a skim of the parts from the first engine).
Out came the old lump, swapped over the ancillaries and put it back in this weekend.
The pintosaurus fired up this evening! all seems ok, timed it up and took it for a spin.
The car passed its MOT in July 2012.
a true play on words.....
Had some handpainted retro signwriting done by the talented Sammy at Re Born to be Wild, Cheltenham,
novembers car of the month in retro rides magazine 2012.
I was having problems with the engine backfiring and generally running poorly, off came the head to check it out and i had a valve that was nearly blown. Whilst in bits it was pressure tested, had a light skim, valves seats redone.
Put it all back together and back came all the pressurising issues....
Got thinking about what might be causing this as i know the engine is good and everything is flat. Turns out it was trapped air in the head causing all my problems. the air was sitting behind the thermostat preventing the coolant from warming up my thermostat, a quick purchase of a later thermostat housing which can be bled and hey presto jobs a good un! - the first engine probably wasnt a dud, but hey i got a far better engine dirt cheap out of swapping! doh!
Thanks goes out to the kitcar boys for suggesting the above issue could be the cause. They regularly have this problem due to the variations in components of their coolant systems in their cars.
Over the winter of 2012 whilst the weather was poor i decided to iron out some of the problems i have with the car
1) the prop clips under heavy acceleration caused by being too tight to the tunnel and crappy lever shocks.
solution. Tunnel mod, turret the back end and fit adjustable shocks!
2) the cars so darn low that the exhaust was 'removed' by a pesky speedbump on more than one occasion!
solution, new exhaust system and fabricate a section through the sill for the pipe to pass!
And here we are this week, snowed under, couldnt resist going for a trial run on the new suspension..... Its so much now, its an animal in the snow though!
Whats next?
Got a rear axle i plan to make fit, dolly sprint axle for a better ratio than the herald diff.
Also going to build a crazy motor for it which im sourcing parts for, got a 205 pinto block, 2.1 pistons rings and rods on the way and a donor head to get polished and ported. Just need to save up for the machining, carbs, cam and all the other cool bits.
heres a pic as I purchased it
I wanted to make it my own but in a way that respected what rob had already done.
First thing to go was the number 8's from the side, they looked awsome but wasnt the look I was after. I also toyed around with the other front grill supplied and removed the paint from the front bumper.
I decided that the hooks were definitely the way forward but wanted to add a meaner look to them so out came the red and black paint!. I also purchased a set of beetle style hubcaps similar to the ones that were fitted in the past and set about making the fitting of them a little more secure. I also removed the black paint from the badge and painted the 8 red.
Next thing to tackle was the engine, it was a little incontinent to say the least so a freshen up of seals and a few serviceable parts were on the cards prior to summer 2011. a pic of the carb as it was when I purchased it on the 1300 herald engine
external changes consisted of some beetle over riders for the front bumper and then it was time to take it to some shows, pics from castle retro show and retro rides gathering.
In the background I was collecting the parts required to perform a substantial engine swap over the winter. Off the road she came in September 2011 for the work to commence!
In went a 2.0 litre pinto engine and type 9 gearbox. heres and early pic when everything was trial fitted.
Making this setup fit was an absolute nightmare, its such a lot of engine and box in such a small car!. Full on Tunnel mods.
Plenty of other parts were swapped over such as steering setup to the correct stub axles and caliper brackets, uprated springs, new steering box,
Ive done some bodywork tidying up as a couple of pesky holes that had appeared in a few panels. Fabrication of the exhausts, mounts etc ,
type 12/14 stanpart disc brake adaptor plates. (silver ones)
the black ones are the stanpart brackets for type 16 calipers.
both shown next to each other
Suspension related, the camber seems better now I'm using the herald uprights,
Ran with the spitfire discs in the end.
Other things i did include the new dash, decided to fabricate a sheet metal dash insert and carpet it with accoustic cloth.
Trial fitting
dial holes and cd player hole cut
ready for fitting
In there like swimwear! well chuffed with it.
Also got carried away with some new stickers
(welded a finger to the top of the original pedal and make a bracket to hold the fixed sleeve.)
Ive adjusted the coilovers to compensate for the additional weight of the new engine and box, also fitted a chrome mustache to the front,
got a bit carried away with my mobile phones fish eye lens!!
done loads of other little bits and bobs that i've probably forgotten, life has been well and truely in the way of progression of late.
Basically it runs, the brakes work, its all back in one piece but I had one major problem..... the water system is pressurising after about 5mins ticking over.
Thinking its probably headgasket related but will check the simple stuff when I get chance.
It turned out the so called good engine was no soo good, as soon as thermostat opened the rad would excessivly pressurise even after a headgasket swap.
A friend of mine told me he had a genuine 30k mile 2 litre pinto sat in his unit that I could have for a sensible price (cheaper than a skim of the parts from the first engine).
Out came the old lump, swapped over the ancillaries and put it back in this weekend.
The pintosaurus fired up this evening! all seems ok, timed it up and took it for a spin.
The car passed its MOT in July 2012.
a true play on words.....
Had some handpainted retro signwriting done by the talented Sammy at Re Born to be Wild, Cheltenham,
novembers car of the month in retro rides magazine 2012.
I was having problems with the engine backfiring and generally running poorly, off came the head to check it out and i had a valve that was nearly blown. Whilst in bits it was pressure tested, had a light skim, valves seats redone.
Put it all back together and back came all the pressurising issues....
Got thinking about what might be causing this as i know the engine is good and everything is flat. Turns out it was trapped air in the head causing all my problems. the air was sitting behind the thermostat preventing the coolant from warming up my thermostat, a quick purchase of a later thermostat housing which can be bled and hey presto jobs a good un! - the first engine probably wasnt a dud, but hey i got a far better engine dirt cheap out of swapping! doh!
Thanks goes out to the kitcar boys for suggesting the above issue could be the cause. They regularly have this problem due to the variations in components of their coolant systems in their cars.
Over the winter of 2012 whilst the weather was poor i decided to iron out some of the problems i have with the car
1) the prop clips under heavy acceleration caused by being too tight to the tunnel and crappy lever shocks.
solution. Tunnel mod, turret the back end and fit adjustable shocks!
2) the cars so darn low that the exhaust was 'removed' by a pesky speedbump on more than one occasion!
solution, new exhaust system and fabricate a section through the sill for the pipe to pass!
And here we are this week, snowed under, couldnt resist going for a trial run on the new suspension..... Its so much now, its an animal in the snow though!
Whats next?
Got a rear axle i plan to make fit, dolly sprint axle for a better ratio than the herald diff.
Also going to build a crazy motor for it which im sourcing parts for, got a 205 pinto block, 2.1 pistons rings and rods on the way and a donor head to get polished and ported. Just need to save up for the machining, carbs, cam and all the other cool bits.
