Hi all.
Well I picked this car up cheap to tinker with as I've always liked the look of them and the quirkiness of the design.
A future classic IMO and drives really nice, so nice that after my wife drove it she decided she wanted it as her runaround. She prefers the drive of the A2 to her Mini Cooper so that was that
It had a few faults but nothing that concerned me too much.
I've been lurking here and trawling for info and it has really helped me in some of the issues.
First was the hot start problem which was cured with a £10 temp sensor from ECP.
Next was changing the dog bone to tighten the engine and box on gear changes and on/off acceleration.
The fuel flap button was intermittent and also the central locking cycled when you put the ignition on.
Interior lights were not functioning on the drivers door and rear doors.
This was the drivers door microswitch which the nipple had worn down. I cut half of the switch locating lugs away so the switch moved closer to the cam and packed the underneath and hot glued it into position.
Dry solder joints were also present in the lock pcb which I sorted. I also had to solder the pcbs on both rear doors so that everything functioned correctly.
I have to say this was a ball-ache of a job and stripping the drivers door wasn't much fun.
I scanned with vcds and the door errors were gone. Also the engine had no errors.
The drivers door strap was also changed with one from a breakers for £15.
A rear winder was also bought for £10 as it had snapped. The window channels were lubricated and all function as they should as the drivers side used to go halfway and go down which was the anti-finger trap kicking in because of the drag of the dry seals.
So the basics of the car were sorted but there was still more to do.
One side of the glovebox hinge was moving around and it was a pain to close it.
The hinge pin on the centre side of the glovebox was missing so I cut some correct size metal bar and fitted it. A glovebox out job but no biggy.
Next to tackle was the usual worn soft touch buttons and switches which were pretty bad all over.
First was the surrounds of the heater, cup holders and their facias, drivers door switch surround and the headlight switch.
I used isopropyl alcohol to remove what was left of the soft touch and polished them up.
Next was what to do with the buttons. Various solutions were considered but a sharpie and needle were used to colour in the worn bits. Some of the switches I had to remove it all and start from scratch.
I don't have the steadiest hand in the world but they look ok from 50ft .
I had to do a few coats of the sharpie to build up the black but as people know here it can look shiny and a bit purple so I used about 5 or 6 coats of matt laquer bought from Halfords.
They don't look perfect but for under a tenner they are acceptable to me. I'm sure the artists among you could get a better result.
I had the aircon regassed at kwikfit for £49 which resulted in ice cold air which was a godsend on the few recent days of hot weather we've had.
Well I picked this car up cheap to tinker with as I've always liked the look of them and the quirkiness of the design.
A future classic IMO and drives really nice, so nice that after my wife drove it she decided she wanted it as her runaround. She prefers the drive of the A2 to her Mini Cooper so that was that
It had a few faults but nothing that concerned me too much.
I've been lurking here and trawling for info and it has really helped me in some of the issues.
First was the hot start problem which was cured with a £10 temp sensor from ECP.
Next was changing the dog bone to tighten the engine and box on gear changes and on/off acceleration.
The fuel flap button was intermittent and also the central locking cycled when you put the ignition on.
Interior lights were not functioning on the drivers door and rear doors.
This was the drivers door microswitch which the nipple had worn down. I cut half of the switch locating lugs away so the switch moved closer to the cam and packed the underneath and hot glued it into position.
Dry solder joints were also present in the lock pcb which I sorted. I also had to solder the pcbs on both rear doors so that everything functioned correctly.
I have to say this was a ball-ache of a job and stripping the drivers door wasn't much fun.
I scanned with vcds and the door errors were gone. Also the engine had no errors.
The drivers door strap was also changed with one from a breakers for £15.
A rear winder was also bought for £10 as it had snapped. The window channels were lubricated and all function as they should as the drivers side used to go halfway and go down which was the anti-finger trap kicking in because of the drag of the dry seals.
So the basics of the car were sorted but there was still more to do.
One side of the glovebox hinge was moving around and it was a pain to close it.
The hinge pin on the centre side of the glovebox was missing so I cut some correct size metal bar and fitted it. A glovebox out job but no biggy.
Next to tackle was the usual worn soft touch buttons and switches which were pretty bad all over.
First was the surrounds of the heater, cup holders and their facias, drivers door switch surround and the headlight switch.
I used isopropyl alcohol to remove what was left of the soft touch and polished them up.
Next was what to do with the buttons. Various solutions were considered but a sharpie and needle were used to colour in the worn bits. Some of the switches I had to remove it all and start from scratch.
I don't have the steadiest hand in the world but they look ok from 50ft
.I had to do a few coats of the sharpie to build up the black but as people know here it can look shiny and a bit purple so I used about 5 or 6 coats of matt laquer bought from Halfords.
They don't look perfect but for under a tenner they are acceptable to me. I'm sure the artists among you could get a better result.
I had the aircon regassed at kwikfit for £49 which resulted in ice cold air which was a godsend on the few recent days of hot weather we've had.