Finally bought a run-around to drive since I am doing stupid amounts of mileage on the NC and the Z is having wear and tear issues. Plus I've been wanting a car I can work on myself for AGES. Bought this 1995 Swift GTi the other day mostly on impulse since the engine sounded awesome. Nice grunt from the exhaust and the engine was kept in good condition, however everything else needs some tidying up:
- no speakers/sound system,
- bonnet doesn’t sit properly,
- boot dampers don’t work,
- wrong size tyres and therefore cause scrubbing,
- missing wheel nuts,
- windows not winding up properly,
- chassis a little bent from a previous crash,
- random parts of the dash that fall off,
- battery held in by cable ties,
- random wiring hanging out,
- random screws missing here and there,
- rear wheel bearing needs replacing,
- radiator/overflow storage full of brown sludge,
- rear windscreen wipers don’t work
- the front windscreen wipers go off at random intervals
yet I have fallen completely in love with this car.
Spent the day cleaning up the easy stuff:
Random bits that I pulled out of the car [glove-box, under the seats, pockets behind seats];
Pulled the dash apart to spray the white bits and the “fully sick M3 mirrors”. Alan helped spray the parts black. Sadly, we both suck at spray-painting so it turned out very bubbly. I will find time to sand it back and re-spray it.
Flushed out the radiator and also had to clean out all the gunk in the overflow storage. For some reason, there wasn’t a way to actually take out the unit without breaking it since it seemed like it was welded/super-glued in so I spent most of the night flushing it out with this awesome contraption.
Finally got the tank white again after lots of water and stupid amounts of pumping.
Put in new coolant, topped up the oil and put all the parts I sprayed back onto the car.
Will find tie between exams to change the oil/oil filter and bearings in the next few days.
