Grannie's shopping trolley (Ax VTS content)

[ruffgeezer]

Ok, well this has most likely run it's course in my ownership, so is now up for sale, before I go all autotrader though, I'll post up the car's history in my hands;

 

 

November 2010:

Well if you've read my threads before you'll know that in 2009, I finished the build of my shitbox Ax VTR, and drove around in it for a bit, and for a while it was fun, but even though it all worked nicely, the underlying problem was that the shell was terrible, so all bets were off as to the car's future.

 

Last thursday, I snagged a lift down south to have a look at a potential replacement, the story goes as follows:

 

At around 5.50am, Thursday morning, my dad and his colleague arrive outside my place to head to the office in Saffron Walden, Essex, leg 1 and 105 miles of the journey...

 

Watching the sunrise on the outskirts of peterboghorror:

 

At the end of leg 1, I collect my ticket and await the (late) train from Audley End into London Liverpool Street:

 

Its not hard to see why people don't take the train, grim innit?

 

At the end of leg 2, just off of the train into the station concourse:

 

Now after this, I got on the tube where you aren't allowed to take pictures, so I didn't... and I didn't get any that show just how truely crappy Picadilly Station is either, but it is. In any case, I arrived in Reading to collect this:

 

 

Unfortunately, the ebay turned out to be a lying fat bastard, the car had a busted bootlid (annoying but not really an issue) and when I went to drive it the next day, the battery was dead.

 

I will be taking a dump on his ebay feedback. (ok I forgot to do this bit)

 

 

After a fairly epic journey, including some filthy weather and a dusting of snow, I arrived back at home at around 3.30pm, I parked the new ride up next to it's older brother...

 

This might give the game away as to my plans:

 

 

Yeah its going to be a saxo vts engine under the bonnet, with a lot of the running gear from my previous effort...

 

This is what I got up to that weekend:

 

The best thing about the new shell, is that in spite of several cosmetic problems, its base is fairly solid, and it all comes apart nicely:

 

I must remember to swap the plates back around, but I'm going again for the look of the mk1 ax, I haven't decided whether to get an older plate for the car, I'll see how it comes out I guess!

 

Front end converted to mk1, save for the badge being in the wrong place, I feel kinda bad for the smurf, but I know I'm doing the right thing long term.

 

Update as of Feb 1st 2011:

 

because last Friday after I finished work near Lincoln, I dragged the silver ax kicking and screaming across the country to Warrington, where the frankly crappy 1.1 was liberated.

 

As soon as I arrived, the car was backed in on the lift and we started preparing the engine for removal, I think we spent about 1.5 hours on this and by the time we left that night, both the ax's engine and that of the doner car were ready to be lifted out the next day.

 

Saturday was one of those days where nothing seemed to go to plan, even the little jobs were taking forever! We battled on with the conversion for 12 hours solid, so sadly there wasn't a lot of time for pictures, but here is what I got anyhow:

 

Early saturday, the 1.1 engine is removed:

 

View from the 3rd floor: The ax sits behind it's previous engine, and nearer the door, it's next engine.

 

Obligatory artsy fartsy shot through the crane's jib:

 

Later that evening, its seriously cold but we've replaced the new engine's cam covers, headgasket, water pump and timing belt, and it's ready to be hoisted into the ax

 

Finally, a warning to all on doing 12hours solid is not big and it's not clever, and it could lead to you looking like us:

 

Myself:

The ever-so-helpful RyanMT:

 

I've still a lot of work to do before it's properly finished, needless to say, it is shit your pants quick, which I like a whole lot!

[ruffgeezer]

Well the build on the ax continued, sadly as it's was a bit of a whirlwind build, there aren't as many progress pictures as I'd like, but most of the ground covered is that similar to the smurf build last year, I didn't think it was worth boring you all with second time around!

 

As time goes along, the uprated parts from the Smurf are slowly migrating to the silver car:

 

 

I actually prefer the smurf with silver bumpers, its a different look, which I hope it's new owner will like.

 

I acquired a new exhaust this time round, this time a powerflow system so I could lop the tailpipes off and stick something a little less max power on.

 

unfortunately, the exhaust was just too loud, as I've already problems with my hearing, it had to go, I was lucky as I still had the old system from poor smurfy, so that came across too:

 

As you can see, the grey mk1 bumpers make an appearance on this car now too, I just prefer the shapes of a mk1, but being as they are relatively rare now, I couldn't bring myself to go butchering one for the hell of it, anyway, the Ax's cosy up to each other of a night, it won't be long before I get the smurf roadworthy again ready for it's new owner.

 

 

Today I had a bit of a ride out in the silver car, it's now got 4 stud all round and I've replaced a wheel bearing that died during lay-up, nothing too major but there is still some vibes through the running gear at speed, I might have to replace the drive shafts at some point.

 

Anyway the ride out consisted of an 180 mile round trip, primarily to collect a pas pump for my 106, but secondly, to grab a better bootlid. Its not in mint condition but it is the right colour, it just needs a bloody good clean!

 

 

 

After that year's FCS, I noticed that a pheasant strike had caused a slow leak from the radiator, so that in mind, along with some fresh brakes and a bit of welding to attend to, I took the car to work, where my tame(ish) welder, John got the deal done for me:

 

I had to remount the rad fan as the fins clips were broken, luckily I joggled the mounts around a bit and mounted it to the slam panel, all I had to do was nibble a couple of slots into the grille which aren't visible with the bonnet shut:

 

What was the can in the last update for then? Oh yes, about bloody time!

 

Rubrubrubrubrub:

 

A bit of the local rag and some tape:

 

PSsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst!

 

Oh yeah, on the way home from moving my brother from his flat in central London to south Birmingham (Interestingly the Delica got 30mpg on the way down, because the middle seats that I took out weigh 36kgs EACH!) We got all of his stuff in and chucked him on the train, after unloading him in Birmingham, I stopped in on karlos5 to collect these:

 

They were filthy but seem to have cleaned up alright with upholstery shampoo and a blast with the steam cleaner.

[ruffgeezer]

That about rounds out the build of the car, all this summer I used it as my daily transport, and noticed a couple of niggles:

1) The local tyre shop are shit at balancing wheels.

2) The exhaust needs adjusting again as it rattles.

 

At the moment it has mot until January but no tax. There is 65k on the shell and probably around 100k on the engine. It has a full set of toyo proxes tyres including the spare, a stainless exhaust and manifold as well as a pipercross induction kit.

 

The seats are half leather, the steering wheel is a leather item from a zx volcane, it has central locking and (slightly lazy) electric front windows.

 

Because it looks like Grannie's shopper, it is great fun for the traffic light GP, and has benefited from new shocks all round, new pads and wheel cylinders in the last 2 years.

 

Trouble is that I'm a bit bored with it, I have at last count 5 cars, 1 of which is road worthy, 2 at work nearing completion and the next project, trev2.

 

So I'm hoping to re-home this one fairly soon, and will be asking around £950.

 

I'll get some up to date pictures just as soon as I get time to give her a clean!

[Craig the Princess]

Looking good, my 1.1ax went like skint up to about 40 so a quick one must be most fun. GLWTS.

[ruffgeezer]

I should really post some pictures of the final product shouldn't I?

 

And here it is as it stands today, as is typical, the moment I decided to hang onto it for another year, I get 2 emails asking for more pictures, I best get some then...

 

Taking a moment out from Audi baiting:

 

On stand at FCS:

 

So then, back to today, just how long has it been parked up?

 

During the scrubbing:

 

After a quick clean, lather and rinse:

[Lord Sterling]

Sweet. I'm starting to warm to early AXs. I particularly like this shot:

 

 

Your brother must be pretty local to me now that he has moved up here (unless he has moved since last update) is the AX off into your new garage then?

[ruffgeezer]

It's actually a pretty late shell (the last were made in 1996), but I was lucky to source a Mk1 tailgate to match the bumpers I had early on in the build.

 

At the time I had just bought a 106 1.5d from work with a knackered PAS pump, a mate of mine was breaking a 106 gti and I happened to spot the tailgate on the remains of an Ax gt he had in his shed, the bumpers were from a F reg car we had in the yard at work that was scrapped a long while ago.

 

I'm starting to think it looks better on the Bx wheel trims I had on it for a bit:

 

My brother is due to move again soon, he was in Mosley, and Selly Oak currently, if you know of the University, you might have heard of the musical he wrote and directed? Sometimes I think I'm the only uncultured twat in our family!

[Lord Sterling]

I thought so about the shell, I knew you took some early parts off the other car to make it look earlier. It just looks great. Not sure about the BX trims colour, they might look good in a darker Grey colour or even a matching coloyr to the car. I wonder if they'd look good on Angyl's BX? I spotted similar trims in Wackywacerwill's old BX and they looked great on it.

 

My brother is due to move again soon, he was in Mosley, and Selly Oak currently, if you know of the University, you might have heard of the musical he wrote and directed? Sometimes I think I'm the only uncultured twat in our family!

 

I know Selly Oak very well, its my manor currently. Uni is on my doorstep. Didn't hear of the musical but I'll look it up and go and have look if its still running.

[ruffgeezer]

Yeah annoyingly the other set of trims that were floating about must have stayed with the car that was wearing them when it was baled (search for my end of an era thread to see a lot of old shit meeting it's maker)

 

I think the musical has finished for now, it probably won't be his last though!

[Jim Bell]

Lovely car that. Have much envy for it.

Wish I had had the cash when it was up for sale. Too late as ever.

[ruffgeezer]

Well it hasn't sold yet, once I get the snow off, and clear a bit of room, I'm going to get it inside for a good scrub up!

[ruffgeezer]

I have been beavering away at the Ax whilst it's been in the garage, mostly to sort out the sticking door handles that prevented the doors from staying shut, a common occurrence on 5 door Axs.

 

I brought it inside a few weeks ago and started giving it a volksangyl inspired scrub up, it was utterly minging from it's lay up, in spite of the fact it hasn't been anywhere.

 

So here is her sorry state before I started; I think I stopped using her in November:

 

A little clean patch for comparison:

 

After a quick wash over during a flurry of snow:

 

I parked it inside overnight and the next day, continued the cleaning:

 

There was manky black shit growing under all the seals...

...and only one way of cleaning them all out:

 

Close ups of some mucky bits after a bit of G101 action:

 

Here is the result of the big scrub;

 

The picture is rather flattering, the paint still hasn't got much shine to it, so it will need a full clay/cut/wax in the future, perhaps I can bribe Angyl with a set of Bx wheel trims and some furry dice?

 

As a parting shot, I had a little play with some scene setting with camera and flash gun, unfortunately catching my own fat arse in the shot, but here is the best of the batch: