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So I think I've got the cooling system bled correctly, turns out I do have a bleed screw, bad information led me astray. Anyway, I bled it how I understand to be correct, but time will tell.

So with that sorted, it was time to put it back together and it can finally become a car again!

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Engine bay looks as tidy as it's going to get for now, I didn't want to wrap all the loom up yet incase it needs to be worked on. So for the first few hundred miles it will remain open, but zip tied up.





Chris and Jon were round today and we detailed all three cars. Mine was cleaned and clayed. Then Prima Amigo was applied via DA. The paint was finished off with a layer of Zymol Glasur. Glass was polished and finished with Gtechniq G5, and the tyres finished with the usual Megs Endurance.



Mandatory Zymol beading shot:



Really cannot wait to drive it. I'm actually rather nervous. Many people have told me it'll be quite lairy, in addition to that, I'm worried about the quality of the engine and the build etc, many things. Only one way to go about it though and that's to just get on with it. First drive will be in a few weeks after I get back from Prague.

Exciting times.

Is your ecu in the scuttle tray where the wiper motor lives?

Yeah it is, bolted up and out of the way.

I dunno about that one mate. There's a lot of moisture running through there.

I agree with nas, better would be inside.

Saw your car briefly the other day, as I hurtled past in Jamie's car, it looked great, although it was all blurry......

Ahhhh I didn't realise you were with Jamie!

Nas, I'm already way ahead of you. The ECU is there for now while I get some miles on it. It will eventually live in a sealed box in the scuttle. I don't want it in the glovebox as my head unit is going in there as it is.

So yeah today I took it for the first drive, mainly good, with a few teething issues:

The battery moves in the boot as I didn't strap it down, so when I floor it, the battery gets flung across the boot, pulls the cables off it and the car cuts out! Doh!

Anyway that's not strapped down and seems to be all okay.

The waterpump seems to have a tiny, and I mean tiny coolant leak. It's like a pinprick in a hosepipe, coolant coming out in a very, very fine jet. It also only does this intermittently, so I'll probably have to get the pump off and reseal it or something.

The exhaust blows a bit, so that needs sorting next, but that's not too much of a headache.

Now onto the good stuff: It's awesome, properly awesome. The engine feels great, pulls well, and sounds brilliant. I must admit, I saw it parked up at my mates flat and felt really proud to be driving it. I need to get some miles on it now, Didsbury car show is next weekend so I'm looking forward to that.

So yeah, loads of little things to be doing, but ultimately, it's on the road.

Congratulations! Sounds like you can fix those niggles relatively easily, then just enjoy it!

Car looks great

Went out in it tonight, all seems well enough. Still got a very small coolant leak.

I think the centre bearing of the prop isn't on properly and it's knocking on the underside of the car so that needs sorting this weekend.

Also, on the motorway, doing about 70mph in 5th, I got a loud bang and a judder from the gearstick. A quick inspection under the car on the drive shows a some oil/moisture on the underside next to the gearbox. Needs further investigation as to what the bang actually was.

Is the centre bush new? Sometimes knocking can be down to the rubber failing, or simply misalignment. Cars looking great by the way.

Weird, let us know what you find!

you weren't changing gear or making a sudden acceleration / deceleration ?

Nope, I was rolling along, and I was just about to exit onto the slip road, so I had lifted. At that point came the bang.