As of Saturday just gone, I'm the proud owner of a Mk1 1.6 Monza in BRG, she needs a bit of TLC but crucially is almost entirely rust free as far as I can see, actually looks like she's been sat in a shed for a few years. It's my dream car and I plan to keep this and get it back to full health, with no (well, few) expenses spared. As I said to my friend, I want to be sitting on my porch when I'm 70 with this in my garage in immaculate condition.
Drove her all the way up from Kettering to Aberdeen and had no dramas, aside from the traditional 'I've just bought a RWD drop-top' heavy sleet and hail for ten miles or so. Looking forward to the work starting, here's the preliminary list (comments and advice welcome):
- New boots (Dunlop Sport BluResponse 185/60 R14 H getting fitted Monday to replace the mis-matched ancient cracked ones)
- Get the alignment done (pulls to the right quite badly right now)
- Full service with cam belt, water pump and head gasket seals change (no service history and some oil seeping from the rim of the head gasket, if that's what it's called!)
- Getting some squeaking on initial revving just after startup, which goes away quickly if you just give it a wee squirt on the accelerator, so will need to get that looked at (initial research suggests alternator belt?)
- Complete new suspension (shocks, springs etc., current kit looks pretty rusted, will need to research this one)
- Stick 1.8 brake discs / pads / calipers on it (which will require 15" wheels and of course new tyres, so no rush on this)
- New stereo and speakers (current one is rafted, should be fun!)
- Fit central locking, alarm, tracker, immobiliser (as I'm a total diddy and have locked the keys in the car before)
- Boot release kit and cable (see above, belts and braces)
- Fix / replace the electric window system (it has a horrible bodged-job manual replacement at the moment)
- Will probably need a new hood at some point, might as well get a Mohair Mk2 one fitted with the tasty heated glass!
After all that, it'll be onto a chassis / panel de-rust and weatherproofing crusade. Will eventually do some smartening up of the inside as well, footwell / puddle lights and stuff, some nice iPod integration etc., just creature comforts.
I'll *maybe* get a PAS rack and bits, but non-PAS is starting to grow on me, feels like a go-kart and is actually quite fun!
Might also look into retro-fitting ABS, but it looks heck of an expensive with all the parts that need found / replaced... We'll see.
Anyway, nice to meet you all, look forward to popping along to meets and stuff to say hi!
