Day 2.1
Well not much going on right now, had my replacement battery tray and cover turn up so decided with what little daylight left I had by the time i got home that iId fit it. Went on pretty much without any trouble and refitted the battery and clamp. Theres a little seperate bit which is missing but I'm gonna try to find that on ebay or from a scrappys.
Still waiting on the intercooler to arrive so I decided to strip down the fixings off of what i had left of the original rad pack. I disassembled the fans from the water radiator, it was more like i picked the rad pack up by the fans and the rest parted company of its own accord.
The torx screws are a tad rusty so i might replace them if i get the chance. Whats left of the fans are above. The new fans came in fairly cheap off of ebay at £60, they've only covered 4.5k miles and look brand new, the GM parts label is still on it! so i think maybe it is new. I coupled the fans to the new 'pattern' part radiator hoping that all the fixing points line up, which they did luckily enough. So heres the assembled fans and water radiator.
Day 2.2
Being impatient I decided to hook this up to the car just because i could! The intercooler and aircon rad will wait till later but this gave me a good chance to check the rest of the cooling system. The original hose clips were still in good condition so i've reused them. I cleaned out the little hose which goes from the top of the radiator back to the expansion tank, the radiator decided to part company with the hose and took the end with it. Hooked up all 3 pipes and duly filled up with Vx's best anti-freeze, btw, dont get this on your hands it dont taste nice! The tank had a nice little drink and kept topping it up until it had enough. Then was the moment of truth. I fired the engine up and let it run. Checked around the hoses and unfortunately the little hose end had taken a beaten previously and had a nice split in it and decided to try to empty my antifreeze back onto the ground. I took the hose off and snipped about an inch off of the end and refitted it. Problem solved. I let it run upto temperature and whilst waiting I checked the intercooler hoses, the left had one was like a hair dryer but a cold one at that. The right hand one i closer inspected and almost lost my hand down it! Man that thing has got more pulling power than brad pitt.
Whacked the intercooler on before anything fell down there and gently revved the car to aid in warming up, except i think i revved a bit too hard and the hose decided it had had enough of the present intercooler and tried to find a nice resting place elsewhere.
Had a phone call from the Don of Paint (Don Paul) to say my wings and bumpers were ready.. Excellent job considering the time frame he managed to turn them around in. Thanks for pulling out all the stop Paul
So right now the intercooler should be turning up on Friday, shipped to me by a helper who did some legwork for me whilst i was at work. The bonnet which is a brand spanker I managed to get off of ebay from FG Barnes dealership. I've checked the price they bought it in for and i can swear they are losing out on it! £176 plus £12 p&p but my local Vx dealer can only buy them in at £177 plus vat!! Thats being delivered straight to Don Paul's on friday and hopefully expecting a nice turnaround on that too. Got some sundry items ordered from Vx to make the bonnet up like bonnet stay, clips etc etc, that should all be in Friday, and oh there was a broken clip on one of the intercooler plastic pipe fittings so decided to replace this to be on the safe side.
I'm taking the day off work wednesday and everything needed to complete the car (except headlights, just this second though of that) and my co-hort helper is coming around to help finish it off. Still need to find an evening to go collect my headlights off a member on here. So thats it for now. Except my alarm going off last night at 3am due to me forgetting not to close the windows up. Next instalment will be on the wednesday.
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