'89 MK1 Merit - Budget Mods
Okay so here goes...
Got the car about 6 months ago....52k on it, old lady owner, hardly any rot...bit tatty on the outside
Whacked in a pair of cheapy 6x9's, a sub and amp off ebay....£60 all in for audio gear, good enough. Fitted up a cheapo mushroom filter on the carb for a better induction noise and i hoped a bit more go (diddent realy notice much tbh...) Fitted up a rev counter (again, ebay...went up to 8000, and had a shift light on it)
Then proceeded to drive the car over 6 months as it was...tyres wore out after about 5k miles, so changed all four wheels for some corsa steelies from the scrappy (half inch wider, figured might get a bit more grip and for £40 the lot given they had all but new mitchellens on em i diddent think was too sad)
racked up 10,000 miles in it when i stuffed it coming round a roundabout, back lost traction and i clipped the front on the roundabout. nice one. cracked some welds on the front panel...week later the tax ran out anyway..soddit.
So whilst getting the welding done i thought i'd tart it up a wee bit, get it looking a little more presentable...try and get a bit more go out of it...
First off i set about getting shot of the "heart rate" sticker going down the side...never liked it, and it was starting to flake off and all sorts...so that came off with a lot of boiling water and a cashcard. figured it diddent matter if i scratched the paint lightly due to the damage to the paint already. I plan to buff it all out with a mop & some t cut...see where that leaves it. If its still bad then it'll get the rattle can treatment. Off came the rubber strips down the bottom edge of the door an all...
Next off was the bumpers. they'd gone various shades of grey and looked real crappy, not to mention the grill had snapped off, so needed repairing...rattle canned em in satin black...seems to have come up well. need to put em on the car realy to see where im at.
I figured the best way of getting more go, with such a small engine would be to loose some weight. The sub, amp, 6x9's and all that were junked, along with the spare wheel and the interior from the front seats back. Should have lost enough weight to make a noticeable difference i feel.
Im trying to get ahold of some bits at the moment for it...looking at a fiberglass bonnet which ill fit up with bonnet pins on each corner, a set of alloys, and a nice exhaust at the moment...im working on a VERY tight budget, so course as and when i can do more ill do more.
In the long run i'd like it running the 1.4 16v lump, put in a pair of bucket seats, and get it dropped 60mm, SR bumpers. IDK...take it as it comes realy.
Ill add updates as it happens...
Yeti
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