DavidG's XSi, Operation bodge job

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
DavidG's XSi, Operation bodge job
#1
A is for a-ok.

I bought the XSi a year and a half ago off my ex’s uncle. It had been garaged all its life and serviced every 6 months by pug from new and with 60k on the clock she was a mega bargain for £250!!     I’d had my eye on it for some time and he finally sold it to me. It had been standing 6 months before I got my hands on it and needed an MOT and ticket, picked it up, hovered the old man’s wirey hair out(vom), charged the battery and started my newly acquired motor. She started chundering out smoke you derv heads would be proud of! After a few mins she cleared her cancer ridden lungs and everything was a-ok!
Sailed through the MOT with advisories on the front shocks and rear beam so refurbished the rear beam and jobs a goodun.

B is for Bored.
I’ve always had a need for speed and the XSi was good fun, but I got bored with it being standard so went about selling it. Found a tasty looking 1999 seat Ibiza cupra, having had a TD Ibiza before thought it a good shout. Went to test it and it just wasn’t as “fun” as the 306, it didn’t seem to have any sole in it. So came to my senses and decided to mod up the pug with the money id put aside for the cupra.
Having just raped a load of cash from working for the Olympics and no job for the rest of the summer I got to work on newly named Sheila. I added GTi front shocks and lowered 60mm all round. Fitted a induction kit, cold air feed and sports backbox, quickshift and up rated gear linkage, wind deflectors, white dials, goona splitter (your be pleased to hear it didnt stay on for long)and some new dancing shoes in the form black speedlines.
           
My plan thus far, as reads (there will be changes and additions as time goes)
6 speed box.
Fast road cams.
4-2-1 or gti 6 mani.
Remove the aircon, it doesn’t work anyways and never gets hot enough over here that opening the windows wont solve.
Polycarb rear windows, I want to keep the electric front as im toooooooo lazy to be doing any window winding. So if it’s possible to thermo form a front window that winds down that’s what I’ll be doing.
Buckets.
Remove everything and anything I possibly can to make the car lighter but still liveable with and anything I want to keep making lighter.
Battery relocating to the back.
Alloy rad
Supercharger or Turbo still undecided everything says charger but a little bit of wee comes out every time I hear a dump valve. So any recommendations as to what is “easiest” would be welcome.

C is for creative.
Im a stingy bastard and if I can find a bodge something together cheaper without compromising quality (too much anyway) I’ll give it a bash. When I get bored I like to poke things and take them to bits and turn them into something else, normally using bicycles, lawn mower engines, my sisters hairdryers etc but my destructive fingers had a new target..... The interior of the 306.
Armed with my torx screwdriver and a mug of coffee I got to work on taking out any unwanted tings. Including the difference between the sports and the standard back box iv taken out 89.3kg.     Stupidly I haven’t weighed other things iv added so iv no idea how much lighter it is, if I take any off for some reason ill weight them up and work out the difference but probs about 15-20kg
   
Wacked on a Fiberglass bonnet weighing 5.8kg and the normal bonnet whops in at 18.5kg so saving more weight!
I made some door cards out of Polycarb I had laying around from an old project, didn’t want to f*ck them up so made an mdf template 1st, took me 4 goes to get it spot on, drew round onto the polly and jigsawed away, used two layers of 5mm mdf to make the window switch holders. I also had some flocking from an old parcel shelf so ripped it off and used spray contact adhesive to glue it on, then on one of my regular scrap yard missions found a homemade parcel shelf in a golf and ripped the flocking off, gave it a wash and used this for the other door. I decided to just have a basic door with some speakers out my dad’s escort and a pull sting to open. I could have cut the door card and mounted the OEM handle but that looked gay and ment more time and messing about making it a perfect fit. I Removed the standard handle bent the metal pollely openy thing to make a loop and popped a bit of braided ribbon on that it stitched into a small 3mm loop slid it on the poll and a large two finger size loop. Also put some chrome pipe on the old handle holder so the loop doesn’t rub on anything and can be opened by pulling at any angle. also made some for the rear and this is the end result.
           
They are held in with self tapping screws and work a treat. They only weigh half as much as the OEM ones too.
Reply
Thanks given by:
#2
Loving this so far Big Grin need to have another ports down meet soon so you can come along and I can have a gander Smile
[Image: 20A1806D-891D-40FB-BD52-AD519177A607-734...391753.jpg]
TEAM CONROD SHITTING RALLYE!
Reply
Thanks given by:
#3
(31-10-2012, 03:41 PM)Matt Wrote: Loving this so far Big Grin need to have another ports down meet soon so you can come along and I can have a gander Smile

Yeah Id love to, might got to the xmas meet if we dont have one down here befor then.
Reply
Thanks given by:
#4
Well if your heading up to Xmas meet can convoy with me. Only down the road anyway
[Image: 20A1806D-891D-40FB-BD52-AD519177A607-734...391753.jpg]
TEAM CONROD SHITTING RALLYE!
Reply
Thanks given by:
#5
Well I wanted to do something with my sun visors as they are just too boring. Was in Tesco (where all my epiphanies happen) doing the big shop and saw some funky PJ bottoms, was going to sticker bomb the visors like I did part of my bonnet but these where only £12 so far cheaper. Got them home got me needle and thread out and made some covers then put more of the material on other boring parts of the dash and on my newly bought wheel too, got some carbonfiber vinyl for the facia and speedo and other bits and made a new foot rest out of an old ally oven tray I chaved from a previous employer and popped on some skate board grip mat. Covered all the wires that where once hidden by carpet with some split loom to tidy it up a little too.                

Since fitting the fibreglass bonnet (ill probs pop up a thread about how I bodged this next time im bored) I wasn’t happy with the front grill, looked on tinterweb for a smoothed one and while looking thought to myself, I have body filler, I have expanding foam, iv bodged up holes in things before how hard can it be to make a smoothed grill? Well after three attempts im still not 100% happy but im sure a few more coats of paint and it will look fine and if it doesn’t I’ll use it to make a cast for a fibreglass one.
I started by making a plastic support for the filler
   
This didn’t work the second time so duck tapped over the front of the gap where the bonnet badge once rested     and pushed the expanding foam knob in through the hole in the back where the securing bolt went. Whipped the tape off once the foam had set, trimmed it all up and started layering on the body filler, after 3 layers and feck loads of sanding I was mega happy with the shape. Sprayed it black, got 2 layers of paint on at the mo and you can see that it has been filled, hoping once its stopped being stupidly windy I can put a few more layers on and it won’t show.    
The hole in the grill started off as a few holes drilled in just below the inlet, one day I went a little OTT and drilled 20 more holes in it and split between the holes. Bugger! So I got about making a new hole and using some mesh that I had to fill the hole. I think it looks alright and lets shite loads more air into the intake.

(31-10-2012, 03:59 PM)Matt Wrote: Well if your heading up to Xmas meet can convoy with me. Only down the road anyway

oh cool that would be wicked, where are you based then?
Reply
Thanks given by:
#6
nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reply
Thanks given by:
#7
Looks good mate, plenty of creative ideas, I like it!
Welding and fabrication projects undertaken, contact me for more information.

Reply
Thanks given by:
#8
would you not have fibre glassed the front grill??
Reply
Thanks given by:


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Matts rallye project. operation derust Matt 630 273,947 23-06-2016, 06:41 PM
Last Post: Frosty

Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)