# Kit Car Update



## pauluspaolo (Feb 24, 2003)

Some of you may remember that my friend & I bought a very yellow kit car a few months ago - as seen in this link: http://www.rltwatches.co.uk/forums/index.p...topic=9006&st=0

Well I thought an update was in order as we've both been working hard on it for the last few weekends. We agreed to get a standard 1275cc engine (& gearbox) reconditioned by a Mini specialist here in Leeds. He finished the rebuild a few weeks ago & thinks that it should produce about 80bhp which should make the car exciting to say the least. We hired an engine hoist & installed the new engine a couple of weeks ago. We also decided to renew the cooling system in its entirety as the old system was well past its best and allowed the original engine to overheat badly (something we really want to avoid with the new one) - so the water pump, thermostat, radiator (from an MGF), expansion tank (from a Metro), cooling fan, hoses etc are all new. Needless to say all this has taken quite a lot of time, & not a little money, to get together so progress has been slow. However hopefully all the major expenditure (engine/gearbox, cooling system, clutch, new tyres etc etc etc) has now taken place so we can actually start bolting the car back together. We've just spent all afternoon working on it - welding new bits on here and there, fitting the new radiator & plumbing all the new pipework in so that it's now beginning to look like a car again







.

We still need to check & fit the gearchange mechanism (always useful to have one!) & there's a bit of rewiring required as well. However watch this space as I'm pretty sure that it won't be long before we get it up & running again - unless there's some major catastrophe - we'll probably forget to put oil in it







!

I'm looking forward to driving it again (I think







) as it really was an absolute hoot the last time - even with the engine overheating all the time and a non-existant gearbox.

Woohoo - Uncle Paul's beginning to get excited


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

Nice one Paul...Keep the reports coming


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## AlexR (May 11, 2003)

Nice one Paul







,just in time for the winter


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

Don't worry Alex he'll keep nice and warm when it overheats again









Didn't mean it Paul, looks like it may be on the road soon then. Are you gonna get one of those wind up smiths car clocks for it?


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## pauluspaolo (Feb 24, 2003)

> Don't worry Alex he'll keep nice and warm when it overheats again


Thanks PG much appreciated .................... not























Not sure about the clock as we're not sure what we're doing with the dashboard yet - it'd probably just get shaken to bits anyway


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