£500 Winter Beater build

[lincolndanny]

Everyone needs a winter car don't they?

 

After spending all of last winter bringing a 106 GTI back from the dead I don't fancy ruining it this winter SO... I'm going to take it off the road from October till march and treat it to the next stage of OCD sadness.

 

With this in mind I have set myself a target. £500 budget for some winter fun!

 

Has to handle as well as the 106

Be cheaper to tax and run

Still be presentable

Just a tinkering in the evenings kind of car rather than turning into a STRESS LEVEL 1000+++ project

 

A few days and £250 later we dragged this MOT-less chav chariot home.

 

 

 

 

1999 1.4 Saxo Westcoast MK1

 

Aim is to have it MOT'd and on the road ready for 1st October for £500 all in.

 

STRAP YOURSELFS IN BLUDD FOR AN AWESOME PROJEKT FRED INNIT!!

 

 

 

 

[2MB]

I was shocked to see how few Saxos there were at the Scarborough cruise a couple of weeks back. If they weren't there they must be mostly in the scrappers, and ones like this without the stupid later face are future classics I reckon, about when their original owners reach their mid 40s. Looks well for the money

[UltraWomble]

Thats rather a nice looking thing.

[lincolndanny]

The Mrs reckons that at 30 I'm too old for these cars?

 

WOT DUZ SHE NO I LUK FINE 4 IT?

 

 

Start the spending!

 

Only things I want to change are the wheels and the interior. The wheels look like castors and the interior looks like a 13 year olds pencil case!

 

Fortunately amongst my pile of random wheels I have a set of 4 VTS wheels. I also have 3 good matching ARROWSPEED tyres. Unfortunately, only 1 of those tyres is on the wheels I need...

 

So £50 later I have a 4th Arrowspeed tyre fitted to the 2nd VTS wheel..

 

 

Annoyingly the other 2 matching Arrowspeed tyres are currently on the front of the 106 GTI. I'll get them swapped over at the end of September......

 

Ebay came up trumps for an interior. A mint set of MK1 VTS seats turned up in Rotherham with a start bid of £10 and a 9 day listing.   9 days later after sleepless nights and constant thoughts of how much of my budget would be swallowed by these dam seats I won them for.........£10

 

YO IZ YOUR GTI A VAN MISTER?

 

 

Yes it is actually smart arse..

 

 

Genuinely can't believe the condition of them, they don't look like they have seen many miles? Anyway, they've been boshed in along with a full set of black belts that I had left over from our 106 GTI track car. The standard belts were green, red, blue and grey  Need to find matching bloody door cards now...

 

 

 

Total cost at Skinflint motors now up to £310...

[John F]

Top bombing!

 

Saxos are guaranteed future classics. Sort of.

[lincolndanny]

So then, issues to sort...

 

Power steering doesn't work. Looking at the wiring and missing relay, I'm not surprised either...

 

 

Radio is missing and wiring behind dash is shocking!

 

 

Glove box lid is broken.

 

 

Parcel shelf shows signs of previous BANGIN CHOONZ

 

 

Wrong backbox fitted, should have a chrome oval tailpipe, not this pathetic common scum 106 downswept effort.

 

 

CHECK ME RUSTY HOLE, LOLZ KID!

 

 

manky plates

 

 

This wants a full service.

 

 

When I bought it the bloke reckoned it had just had a full service. What you can get invisible air filters now can you?

 

 

And finally an MOT. I've checked the MOT database and it did actually fail a test in April on emissions and the rear brakes. Luckily I have a new cat in the garage that I bought for the GTI but didn't end up needing. Did I mention I only have £190 of my budget left? Hmmmm

[lincolndanny]

So nearly up to date now, £30 at the local breakers bagged me this Bounty.

 

 

I know, pretty exciting photograph that isn't it?!?!

 

Another £6 landed me with a replacement plate

 

 

and £14 got me 4 replacement plugs and an air filter. Total expenditure, £360 for god sakes man!

 

 

More evidence of that recent full service...

 

 

Anyway, that hoard of parts meant that I could get the wiring for the stereo sorted and the glovebox lid working.

 

 

Missing interior handle got replaced with one of the spare ones removed from the track car.

 

 

 

and to finish off for now the power steering loom got swapped over(with success, now works!) and fitted a missing ECU cover from the stash of spares I have from the trac...Oh you know by now surely

 

[dieselassist]

Im liking this! ...I did a 'similar' budget build of a €150 mk4 1.4 golf -180K miles; I just bought it on a whim, on St.paddy;s day last year , with 5 months test on it; previous owner; a polish neighbour mate had fitted a 100k miles replacement engine  n new clutch- my €150 beer budget for paddy's day is what it basically cost...... needed a gearbox (cracked casing); box sourced for €60 (60k miles on the car it came out of).... the car owed me all of 210euros....

...no profit, on it for me; my mother took a liking to it n  bought it 'at cost'/outlay, as she was selling her mk5 TDi, n needed a 'runaround'.... I fitted a new battery I had as she drives a hard bargain, n it was pressed into constant use...

 

...since then Ive fitted one new door rear handle - for the test; bora (ticker) rear springs @ €20 the pair, one replacement rear caliper (old one was sticking), lift pump n fuel line -€30, n  with new front part worns recently, the car owes her €400,incl last test fee of Ã¢â€šÂ¬55 n shes had  pretty much trouble free 18 months motoring out of it n about 8k miles racked up on the clock.... her previous  mk5 Tdi gave much more jip- lots of expensive rad, oil/coolant exchanger, fuel pump n ECU probs, but she loves the mk4 n has banked the 'downgrade' cash .....

[mouseflakes]

Good work there. Having owned a '96 Saxo Dizzler for 12 years I've really come to like the early ones. Sadly mine was recently written off by an attempted theft (from a children's respite hospice car park - thanks for that). Early 106's looking good these days too. Never thought I'd like either of them.

[purplebargeken]

That is bloody impressive stuff and bargain bonus on the scrappies find. Nice looking little car

[J-Rod]

It's great to see something brought back from the otherwise inevitable trip to the Great Breaker's Yard In The Sky. Top job!  

[skattrd]

Nice work, but I thought winter beaters were supposed to be rwd and/or convertible.

[320touring]

Nice work, but I thought winter beaters were supposed to be rwd and/or convertible.

He's bought an m30 manual off of me-he just doesnt know it yet..

 

and a 9" grinder is not that expensive

[UltraWomble]

Am I the only one that liked the original Westlife interior then?

 

I'll get me coat.

[Aston Martin]

Tiny hatchbacks are meant to be stupid... Keep the original belts and keep the yellow gearknob.

[Essex V6]

I had a similar vintage VTS in the same colour a few years ago. Only shifted it cos I got a (Dis) Astra company chariot. Reckon the prefacelift looks so much better!

[Sealtainn]

Did they not do these in Vomit Yellow too, or was that the Eastcoast or something ?

[Aston Martin]

Did they not do these in Vomit Yellow too, or was that the Eastcoast or something ?

 

They did a bright yellow one with a comedy roof. That I came really close to buying. 

 

 

 

 

 

Old Panda won in the end.

[cms206]

I'm sorry this is all well and good but I demand more pictures of the flat face 850. KTHXBAI

[Sigmund Fraud]

£500 ? For a single car ? This is Autoshite, man... That kind of money should be able to buy you 2-3 cars

 

Liking the work so far, Saxos are proper old-fashioned French small cars : flimsy, frugal and fun !

 

Will you be doing the belts ?

[Hendry]

I like threads like these and I think VTR/S kitted prefacelift Saxos look smart, I'll be following this with interest.

 

Good job on the interior but I actually like the steelies and trims, they suit it in an odd "Corsa B/Cav mk3 SRi sporty but with wheel trims" kind of way.

[ruffgeezer]

Nice looking car that, bit pricey mind!

 

I have a set of 185 55 14s here near horncastle if you want to save swapping them about. £30 for 4. Some are better than others but all legal I think.

[HH-R]

My cousin bought one of those brand spanking new in the same blue when he passed his test in 1999. My brother was running round in a light blue 1986 205 and my dad had a 1983 Orion Ghia, halcyon days.

 

It all seems like yesterday, yet so long ago.

[explosive-cabbage]

Good work.

Not much 'winter' about this yet though, you need a suspension lift and some second hand 13 inch steelies off eBay fitted with Kingpin/Colway remold snow tyres, and a set of snow chains, then your sorted!

[Jim Bell]

Just add bovril and Mexican blanket.

[forddeliveryboy]

Evenly-balanced (esp back which should be drum) brakes for no white knuckles when braking, an engine in the front, tallish narrowish tyres with rubber which isn't like bakelite and an ancient unblown diesel is about right for reliable progress through December, Jan and Feb when it seems to be permanently dark and wet.

 

Something like a 1987 Audi 80 could last many more winters - the zinc layer is measured in mm, rather than microns as today. Saxos make much sense, they look increasingly sensible as time wears on.

[Tetleysmooth]

While we're on the subject of Saxo's:

 

 

http://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/180957/citroen-saxo-till-1015-bideford

 

Check out the price. 80 quid to you sir....

A true Autoshiter if ever I've seen one.