Lee's Garage

[BlackBox]

Doah ... How did I miss that, it's on the same page !!

Thanks,

Love this thread BTW

[lee303]

cheers
right, pump is with the ‘other' Brian to be ground, got a burgundy astra to play with tomorrow but next week should see some decent progress now

[lee303]

righty, well an action packed staurday at the garage today!!
willay turned up with the astra, needing some suspension bushes and rear springs swapped, along with a few other things,
suspension was easy, just whipped the wishbone off and removed the old with a g clamp and a socket…

then fitted the new ones, including the castor adjustment one from whiteline, only gives a little bit but every little helps where castor is concerned!!

new rear springs, the stock ones gaz spec are not really up to it tbh, so i got will to order some 400s

turns in a lot better now! then we wanted to get rid of the remains of the sunroof after will had seen someone with a corsa do it so got all excited, lmao

ally, sealant and rivets later

even painted it!!

so, that should be good fun at TVL…then i bolted the engine to the box for the nova, and gave it a lick of paint…

so that can probably end up back in the bay on tuesday if i have enough time to mod the bay first, which will be nice…
my pal alex turned up with his mini, which sounds a right handfull up the lane lmao, he also bought me a gift, which is awesome!!


3 shonky mugs!!!!! just genius and a very nice unexpected surprise, so thanks mate!!

also, need to sell a kidney or similar, saw a ferrari 458 on the way home, just pure sex tbh!!

roll on next week, when i should have a car with an engine in it again!!!!!!!!

[alexcrosse]

wheels well bent up on that ferrari... lol.

Cheers for the trumpeto's dude, filter fitted perfectly so game on! I thought id give it a bit of a squirt on the way when leaving the garage, didnt like the concrete though!

[lee303]

lol, good old camera phone on the move! and no worries at all mate, glad they fit, sounded like you had to deal with a decent lack of traction at the top end lmao

[alexcrosse]

yep, diff and yoko's on the front would be nice i must admit!

[spanishfly]

Springs from Gaz? How much? I look at mine and I swear the spring in a biro has thicker coils

[William]

76 quid delivered I think, took a couple of weeks but the car feels ****ing BOOM. Thanks Lee mate pal buddy chum mig gen

[lee303]

lol, no worries me old ‘mucker

[Giles]

Lee - I'm sure I got a replacment woodruff key from either SBD or Pace for my pump (can't remember for the life of me why I needed it though - pobably lost it during the rebuild!).
That is of course in the days they still supported it.

[Benn]

I'll be looking for Willay at TVL to get some pics..

[William]

Benn I'll be looking for you at TVL to give you a kiss, I saw you in the toilets at PVS'10 but I was too shy to say hi.

[Benn]

haha glad you where too shy to talk to me in the loo..lol i tend to stay away from eye contact..lol

Sure i'll see ya there, my track day bumper is fitted JR will be happy to know..lol

[lee303]

Lee - I'm sure I got a replacment woodruff key from either SBD or Pace for my pump (can't remember for the life of me why I needed it though - pobably lost it during the rebuild!).
That is of course in the days they still supported it.

ahh, good shout, will try sbd tomorrow, your seals were handy btw, for the water pump hosing, lmao

[lee303]

woot! got a correctly sized oil pump set now many thanks to brian at Arcoe metals for sorting that out nice and quickly, just need some keyways and the pump can be re assembled...

[lee303]

righty, so, went up to cut the hole in the bay tonight for a bit more clearance so i can move the dry sump pump upwards attach to avoid a repeat of the failure!
said area of bay

big hole

bit of CAD

resulting in this

which i welded here, didn't have any grey, so black will do, not really able to see it with the engine in anyway, bit messy, bit of a pain, but its done...

so, that done, put a few more ancillaries on the engine

and fitted the drive flanges

then chucked it in!


from underneath, not loads of room but it went in after some brute force and swearing
so, happy days, need to rebuild and fit the pump, plumb all the usual **** in, fit the drive shafts and we're done!! thask to jim and matt for helping and putting up with the bad tempered kid fitting his engine to his toy

[spanishfly]

nice mate!

[lee303]

ya, good to see it taking shape once more, ordered some pump keyways finally after pace decided they did have some after all, and the new oil cooler is on the way too, should be a busy weekend, although i am tempted to pop to TVL on the saturday morning to grab a few bits off merlin....

[corsakid]

good work mate nice to see it with an engine again hope you get it up and running soon

[lee303]

cheers, shouldn’t be long now hopefully

[corsakid]

cheers, shouldn’t be long now hopefully

as for swearing and throwing the toys out ive done that every time i have to get the let and f28 into my nova on solid mounts, sometimes a few days before im muttering to myself what a bitch its going to be... it happens to the best of us !

[lee303]

i always get angry at the time then forget about it, saves keeping your stresses bottled up lmao

[Kev_cav]

The amount you have spent on thsi car in the 315 pages you could have bought a ferrari.

Always a good read though

Keep it up!!!

[lee303]

hmm, doubt it, well, not a 458 anyway lmao

[Benn]

Nice work dude, hehe you said flange.