Project Bravo

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Project Bravo

that gaitiers are quality, ive got a set on the vectra, and they are a spot on fit, and sharon will do almost any colour combo, and for almost any car, well worth the £15 imo
 
Yep, absolutely perfect as far as the quality of the gaitors goes.

Right time for a wee update on the HGT. She hit 100k on Wednesday, hopefully the car's got a good few miles left in her yet :slayer: Anyhoo, for those who don't know already it's time for an update. I'm going to be car-less at the start of next week, but it's all for a good cause.

When I picked up the car there were one or two patches of bodywork I was a bit wary of. The front bumper was flaking, which seems the norm. But, and it's possible you can see this in the photos from various meets, there's a big area of paint missing on the tailgate, where it looks like someones botched a repair job at some point. This probably isn't the norm and is definately more visable. Also, the n/s rear 1/4 has a small dent, but for some reason the paint on the affected area was badly flaked/scored, so up until now I've been terrified to jetwash the car 'cos of these two areas. From next week, that shouldn't be a problem. She's booked in to have these areas fixed at the start of next week!

The works in no way costing me as much as I feared it would, and ultimately once this is done the rest of the bodywork should clean up amazingly with just a good wash & polish. I have noticed areas where the pains a bit flat, but I'm condifent a good polish will sort this out.

Pics to follow :eek:
 
The areas to be fixed:

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No idea why that's so bad. Looks like someones painted it previously. Meh




DSCI0006.jpg



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Bit worse on closer inspection. The paints flaking. Been scared to jetwash the car since I bought it...

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Far as I can tell thats the original bumper, so 10-11 years of life and she's just going now. Still, should all be looking like new by the middle of the week :slayer:
 
marti155 said:
I like it the Bravo ia looking good

Cheers mate (y) got the Bravo back last night, but by the time I was home it was too dark to get photos etc!

Gotta say, for all I paid for the work I'm quite chuffed. Needs a bloody good wash/tcut/polish but that'll happen in the next couple of weeks!

To give you an idea, heres a quick before & after - oh, and another couple of wee mods ;) One WIP :) Need to get a wee grommit for some de-wipering :)
 
Cheers guys!

Seems the projects moving on a wee bit, polys are now on and the front got debadged (completely involuntarily) at the weekend.

Speaking of which, here's my graphs from Saturday. Thoughts welcome ('specially as to the sudden tail off in power and also the variation for the air/fuel mix. Anyone else put their HGT on the rollers?)

DastekFront.jpg


DastekRear.jpg


Going to clean the car on Wednesday and a nice polish etc next week :slayer:
 
Martyn said:
Cheers guys!

Seems the projects moving on a wee bit, polys are now on and the front got debadged (completely involuntarily) at the weekend.

Speaking of which, here's my graphs from Saturday. Thoughts welcome ('specially as to the sudden tail off in power and also the variation for the air/fuel mix. Anyone else put their HGT on the rollers?)

DastekFront.jpg


DastekRear.jpg


Going to clean the car on Wednesday and a nice polish etc next week :slayer:


As Aaron Would Say It's A Fiat Pmsl ;) .
 
v6 Keik said:
As Aaron Would Say It's A Fiat Pmsl ;) .

Ha, very observant.

Thinking that a change of exhuast may be on the cards after all - any recommendations guys? I really wasnt convinced about changing exhausts, til I remembered how the Marea sounds, so that's that. Got a new set of alloys lined up for later down the line too (and a colour in mind for them ;) ) and remote central locking is coming. This diet of beans 'n' toast I'm living this week is well worth it though :eek:

Dewipering is now completed, I'll try and get a couple of pics later today :)
 
Not a lot of change of late, but got round to fitting the meta relay kit today. Remote Central Locking FTW :slayer:

Might look at getting this modified so the repeaters blink when locking/unlocking - anyone know how difficult this would be, or is this again a case of putting it into the auto-sparky?

**Edit - a couple of recent shots. Still haven't had time for a proper wash & polish, and now she's needing serviced too. Anyway, in the pics - dewipered - out with the old - and poly joy :) Seeing as the bonnet badge was lost the weekend of the RR (typical, eh, just out of the bodyshop too!) Im thinking badgless is the way forward! Will see what I can come up with!
 
Slight update!

Got spark plugs changed yesterday (Sunday) - they've made an immediate difference. There's DEFINATELY a hole in the exhaust, but its a lot less noticable with the plugs changed. Sadly, due to the fact that parts were only available at 3.30pm not much was done but already a marked improvement! :slayer:
 
Good news :)

Exhaust problem is fixed. Basically one of the centre section brackets had snapped, that coupled with worn rubber mounts on the backbox meant the exhaust was pulling itself down. Held primarily by the engine. Now the gasket/brackets have been repaired/replaced shes a LOT queiter and idles a LOT better. Sadly the start problems have reared their ugly heads twice today, so I think a Crank sensor is required :(
 
I must say martyn that I'm well impressed that you got the bodywork tidyed up as when i last spoke to you, you didn't think it was that bad.A debading session followed by a T-cut and polish should see her transformed into a tidy sleeper!Keep it up:L
 
mikey146cars said:
I must say martyn that I'm well impressed that you got the bodywork tidyed up as when i last spoke to you, you didn't think it was that bad.A debading session followed by a T-cut and polish should see her transformed into a tidy sleeper!Keep it up:L

Cheers fella - the difference is immense, I must say :eek:

Desperately the car needs a wash - I've had neither the time or access to a pressure washer lately to get this done. Im hopeful for this weekend though!

Whilst I remember, did you ever change the crank sensor on your HGT? Ordered a new one from Motorparts yesterday to try and cure the random starting problem. That, a droplink replace and oil/coolant change seems the order of the day this weekend! (y)
 
Nope I never changed the crank sensor on mine.I bought a new one for the golf but since i handed over the cash it's behaved itself-Doh!.Hope your oil filters not on too tight.It can be a bit of a barsteward.
 
Another update :eek:

Went round to see Andrew (ransoman) again today - having had a full list of things to do we ended up spending time at Persley aquiring some new toys for the HGT, including (but not limited to) a set of rust free wiper arms.

An attempt was made to change the crank sensor, but it seems Ive been given the wrong part so the old one was cleaned and refitted. The exhaust repair wasn't quite perfect, so a sadly unsuccesful repair was attempted. One of the new nuts is proving problematic so just now the cars back to loud mode again :(

Biggest problem tonight was on the drive home - a sudden loss of power for 2/3 seconds - during the aborted crank sensor replacement the MAF sensor was also removed and cleaned. I'm just wondering if this might be part of the reason for it?
 
hmmm, never been a fan of cleaning a MAF, they are really sensitive, i just buy another one, the loss of power could be the crank sensor, it tells the ecu when to spark, so if its not sending the signal back, the ecu wont know the engine's running.

hope i explained it ok
 
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