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[quote="devilspace"][b]So here's what's happened so far:[/b]

[b]THE MECHANIC'S[/b]
Took the little gem to the mechanic's a couple of months ago and had it up on the hoist for a few hours. After a lengthy look, the mechanic found the following things:

Tyres - rotated them, front ones were balding inside because of the wheels towing in. Will need to get the wheels aligned. Needed to get one of the tyres patched because of a nail.

Brakes - lines and pads had been replaced recently. Lines have since been bled as the brakes were VERY spongey!

Shock absorbers - had been replaced recently.

Engine - isn't blowing any smoke, head has been off recently and head gasket is probably very new.

Chasis - is straight! Thank God given that I bought the car at auction because it had been involved in a front-ender. Some evidence that the car had hit a speed hump pretty hard at some stage.

Steering rods - both bent, will need to replace eventually, but not a priority.

Hoses - all are fine.

Exhaust - pipe was starting to come away under the car, had to have it re-welded.

Auto transmission - had new fluid put in.

Handbrake - wasn't working, was fixed.

Horn - I thought it wasn't working, but apparently it wasn't working because the metallic ring inside the mechanism had worn out where the wheel was at neutral. When the wheel is in any other position, it works just fine. I'll need to get this fixed somehow before rego.

According to the mechanic, everything is fine mecahnically, just need to work on some rust spots before I can get it registered.

Seems that the car was heavily serviced just before it was involved in the light front end accident. Not bad for a cheapo car bought at auction!

[b]WHAT'S HAPPENED SINCE THEN:[/b]
Since then, I have bought two second hand doors off David in Canberra (thanks David!) because both of my existing doors had quite a bit of rust.

The car itself has rust in many of the usual places, behind the rear wheels, behind the front guards, the seam of the bonnet.

The bonnet was an absolute disaster! SO much rust all through the front, it would never get through rego.

After months and months of looking for a decent bonnet (I didn't have room to buy a parts car) I finally came across one about a month ago thanks to David in Canberra.

David knew I was on the lookout for a bonnet and emailed me one that he had seen on eBay. Unfortunately I hadn't been checking my emails and missed the auction *DAMN*!! I took a punt and emailed the seller. Turned out the bonnet hadn't sold at auction and was still available. Even better, Neil (the seller) lived only 10 minutes from my place! PERFECT!

Thank you David and thank you Neil!

Three weeks ago, I spent about 10 hours one day ginding out all the rust from the car (none structural) with my dad, changing the doors over and putting the new bonnet on.

Last weekend, we spent another 7 hours bogging up an holes left from rust removal and putting the bumper back on after my front brackets arrived courtesy of Jaymic. com.

The bumper looks awesome, two new pieces were put in thanks to Chris from Mt Kuringgai.

We then spent the rest of the day undercoating/priming any spots of bare metal or bog.

NEXT STEPS:
We're waiting for the door liners to come back from the upholsterers where they're getting new masonite backing.

Once they're back, I'll get the car registered, then it's off to the panel beaters. Not sure who I'm going to take it to yet, so if anyone knows a good panel beater in Sydney, let me know.

Once the car is straight, my mate Chris will be respraying the whole car Chamonix (at the moment the bonnet is green, not a good look).

Then I'll be removing the rear luggage shelf to install speakers for a new stereo.

The big question now is, what should I do with the car and the vinyl upholstry?! Replace it or make do?

I'll keep you posted, photos to come.[/quote]

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