Steve's '98 'F', Update 04/11/13

nice work on wrapping the manifold ,, and the one thing left i still have to tackle is the airbox removal when i get time and weather permits,

and a big welcome.. always good to see another member that can do their own work.. (means some more possible how toos.) so while your doing any other work check out the bright orange how to tab on the left and if one hasnt been done for what your about to do why not have a go at making a how too

Hi and :welcome:
I take it that you are a fan of the CRX: Sue had a couple in between MG's.

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome.

Paul - I live in Leicester.

Leigh - It's fun working to a budget - and theres some right bargains for these cars. I'm picking up a 4-pot brake setup at the weekend. Still cant find a stainless back box for what I want to pay though, even something knackered that I can repair.

David - Hello

Kerry - I've only learnt from reading, making mistakes and having a go.

Softly - The wrap is on eBay. 5 metres will do a manifold.

Freestyle - Thanks!

Pete - I will join up for some runs next year. lt be on the road by then!

Jac - thanks for the welcome. Airbox removal is a pig and there is no easy way other than just getting stuck into it. Thanks for the heads-up on the How To; very comprehensive. Ill write something up if it's not in there.

John and Sue wrote: Hi and :welcome:
I take it that you are a fan of the CRX: Sue had a couple in between MG's.

Hi John & Sue. Yes I am a CRX fan. I don't have one at the moment but I will eventually buy another one. I had an SiR and a 16 Valve, both Mk2's.

My old SiR:

Nice. We had a red Mk 2 and then a 92 vtec transtop. Still prefer the MG's though!

Just a quick update. I had these made up at work today out of stainless steel:-



Anyone recognise what they're for (I only need one of them)?

:welcome: Steve

Always good to see new people on here - especially ones who are prepared to have a go. :broon:

Lots of friendly advice and help on this forum

John

:welcome: to the madhouse Steve, looks like you are going to have a heap of fun there, that looks like a great find.

Craig

Cheers John and Craig!

Off to collect a 4 pot setup tomorrow. £100! Just need some 16" wheels to fit over it...

stevecrx wrote: Just a quick update. I had these made up at work today out of stainless steel:-

Anyone recognise what they're for (I only need one of them)?

common then what are they for ?

It fastens to the front subframe and a large plastic guard bolts to it. Mine is rusty (I'm sure most would be by now) so it was easier to make a new one then rejuvinate the old one.

Right, time for an update...

So, last time, I'd just heat wrapped the manifold, so I got that bolted on, joined up the downpipe and attached the new cat, all with nice new stainless bolts and gaskets (no more removal with an angle grinder in a few years like the originals). So the car looked like this:-



You'll notice in the above photo that the brake callipers are missing. The nice man at national tyres highlighted the brakes in the MOT - basically crusty brake lines, and a virtually non-existing handbrake so it was time for an over hall.

Firstly, I stripped the rear brakes down to see what the issue with the handbrake was. At worst it was going to be seized callipers, but I was pleased to find that it was just the pads catching on the slider plates. I whipped them out and gave them a clean-up with the file on the top and bottom surfaces and a spit and polish of the slider plates and this thankfully cured it.

While they were off, I seemed like the ideal opportunity to paint them. This sounded like job for my step brother; Tom who is 15 and likes messing about with old tat as much as me. Here’s a picture of him getting busy with the Hammerite Smooth:




So, plenty of brake cleaner, a good going over with a wire brush and some paint and they look as good as new. And just so the fronts didn’t get jealous, they got stripped, cleaned and painted too.


Whilst he was doing that, I proceeded with removing the crusty brake lines. The bad bit was either side of the T-splitter at the back of the car - they literally crumbled in my hands as I removed them. Not good for keeping the brake fluid in then! Anyway, off they came, as much in one piece as I could to make replicating them in copper pipe easier.

For making the new pipes I bought a ‘kit’ off eBay which was advertised for the MGF.
Long and short is it’s not. It’s a generic kit of 25ft of Copper pipe and 6 male and female unions. If you know anything about ‘F’s then you’ll know that there’s not one female union on the car, and a lot more than 6 male unions. Hey-ho, it was cheap and I can still use the pipe and male unions.



While I was in a purchasing mood I also picked up a pipe bender, cutter, and a swager for fitting the unions. Of all this kit I have only really used the cutter. The pipe is easy enough to bend and shape with your hands so I didn’t really need the bender and I’m going to get my local brake specialist to do the swaging and unions ‘cause it’s a hell of a lot less hassle than me trying to fit a great long bit of formed brake line into the vice in my not-very-large shed.

I’m still making the brake lines (tedious job!) but they should be on the car in the next couple of weeks, if it ever stops raining (no garage).


As mentioned earlier in the thread, I drove to Boston last weekend to collect an AP 4-pot setup. I’m not going to fit this until I’ve had the car re-MOTed and found a set of 16” wheels to go over them.

Top of the list (a list of two) is a set of Abingdon Cup’s. I think they really suit the shape of the ‘F’ and will look spot on with the theme I’m going for (more of that later).

The other rims I would love to fit are these:-




They are my Tom’s (Toyota Motorsport, made by Rays) C7 2-piece split rims, in staggered 17”x7” and 17”x8” flavours. Check out the Engrish:-




I love these wheels and I've had them a while now but never fitted them to anything.
Unfortunately, being 5X114.3 PCD they are not going to fit on the 'F' either without major rework. No one does a set of adaptors to fit this PCD and having a set custom made is prohibitively expensive (for a budget project). Also, re-drilling the hubs is a no-no as they are simply not big enough. I have considered adapting bigger hubs to fit but this would need different brakes too, I don’t want to do that as I’ll never finish it. So, I guess I’ll just sell them to fund the cups...