Workshop/Project car thread. Maestro rust repairs.

[grogee]

19 hours ago, JMotor said:

The lower shocker bolt seized to the inner part of the bush.

Ah yes that happened to mine as well. I had to do some surgery with a cutter if some kind. 

Nice to see it back on the road, I sometimes wonder if the giffers get misty eyed if they see one on the streets...

[jim89]

1 hour ago, grogee said:

Ah yes that happened to mine as well. I had to do some surgery with a cutter if some kind. 

Nice to see it back on the road, I sometimes wonder if the giffers get misty eyed if they see one on the streets...

Nah s'cataracts usually 👍🏻 damhikt 😬

[JMotor]

They might or go "oh god, you poor unfortunate person" 😆.

The car does attract a fair bit of interest. I know for a fact mine is the only one about my area.

[tooSavvy]

I saw 'our' local PO red estate just yesterday...

North of Gosforth/Sandy lane...

🚙💨

[Matty]

14 minutes ago, JMotor said:

The car does attract a fair bit of interest. I know for a fact mine is the only one about my area

I see one quite regular. Admittedly it is yours mind 😄

[Stinkwheel]

Reading all the comments about NLA parts, yo have my full sympathy. Virtually everything i ever try to get for our maestro is not available or is but you have to trawl ebay for badly described bits.

Luckily ours is a bit of a rotten shitheap so i dont feel so bad cak handedly bodging it up yet again, as long as it stays functional and passes its MOT's 🤣

[JMotor]

This suspension rebuild is now getting silly!

Pay once, cry once? Fuck knows! Fed up now and want the bloody thing sorted.

Found a another steering wheel too. It wasn't strictly necessary. I just hated the minging steering wheel that was on the car.

Why that was done, I've no clue. The coating was coming off too.

The replacement is in much better condition. 

Hopefully I'll finish up the suspension refresh shortly.

[tooSavvy]

My 'SuzyQ' was greatly enhanced, in the driving pleasure dept, when the $hyte factory wheel was skipped and replaced with the thin rimmed BL MeTrO one ...👍

Coming on a treat M9 😉

🚙💨

[Matty]

29 minutes ago, JMotor said:

This suspension rebuild is now getting silly!

Pay once, cry once? Fuck knows! Fed up now and want the bloody thing sorted.

Found a another steering wheel too. It wasn't strictly necessary. I just hated the minging steering wheel that was on the car.

Why that was done, I've no clue. The coating was coming off too.

The replacement is in much better condition. 

Hopefully I'll finish up the suspension refresh shortly.

Yeah I mean it's a cyunt of a job mind but on the other hand it's unlikely you'll ever do it again 🤣

also strangely heart warming to see so much effort going into an old nail for no other reason than you can and you want to. Top effort 👌 

[rm36house]

Top job Sir!  Are those struts Bilstein B4 who I spy in the picture? If so than thumbs up from me, awesome struts I have those on to my wife's 2006 XC90 on the front and original self leveling nivomats on the back. It handle's brilliantly. I have Bilstein B4 on the shelf too for my e36 coupe for the front and the back of the car. I could imagine how e36 will handle with those mhm... Can't wait but bodyworks at first. I'm spying from You and juular some metal fabrication tricks and soon will start my own resto. Fingers crossed. 

[JMotor]

1 hour ago, tooSavvy said:

My 'SuzyQ' was greatly enhanced, in the driving pleasure dept, when the $hyte factory wheel was skipped and replaced with the thin rimmed BL MeTrO one ...👍

Coming on a treat M9 😉

🚙💨

Anything that improves upon the experience is always an net positive. Small details make the biggest difference in my mind. Must admit I was surprised to see a Metro wheel in a Swift!

1 hour ago, Matty said:

Yeah I mean it's a cyunt of a job mind but on the other hand it's unlikely you'll ever do it again 🤣

also strangely heart warming to see so much effort going into an old nail for no other reason than you can and you want to. Top effort 👌 

Sounds daft this. But it's the lazy way to do it. Then I don't have to work on that bit again or for a long time. I hope 😂.

It definitely is an old nail and it's getting more attention than it has a right too. But it's one car I've owned I can just about enjoy working on 🤣.

[JMotor]

24 minutes ago, rm36house said:

Top job Sir!  Are those struts Bilstein B4 who I spy in the picture? If so than thumbs up from me, awesome struts I have those on to my wife's 2006 XC90 on the front and original self leveling nivomats on the back. It handle's brilliantly. I have Bilstein B4 on the shelf too for my e36 coupe for the front and the back of the car. I could imagine how e36 will handle with those mhm... Can't wait but bodyworks at first. I'm spying from You and juular some metal fabrication tricks and soon will start my own resto. Fingers crossed. 

Thank you!

To be honest I have absolutely no clue on what brand the shocks that are coming  for the Maestro 🤣. 

I am a BIG fan of Bilstein gear! My Corsa runs Bilstein coilovers and my Astra will be getting a special set of yellow Billies.

Totally agree about the B4's. They are good kit and not that dear either.

Best of luck with your E36 resto. I look forward to seeing it. Hopefully it's not a major amount of work needed done?

[rm36house]

Yeah me too, Bilstein know their dress for sure. Love those B4, can't beat for that money.

Thank you very much, it will be some work to do with my own e36 but I have seen worse looking examples too here in Latvia. I need to find some time outside other things and family. It's sitting in the garage for so long and today I got some feelings again that I'll need to start when I have seen some nice looking 6 cylinder E36 in the petrol station. 

I will make my own build thread soon about cars I promise. 

There you go some pictures for some teaser.

p.s sorry for offtopic Sir! 

 

[Noel Tidybeard]

the steering wheel off a Rover Metro (not a 100) fits an monstro and is nicely sculpted

[IronStar]

Inspiring work! Judging by Florida, having suspension sorted after driving with no suspension makes a world of a difference to driving a car.

I’ve never seen one of those over here, so every time I see this and few other BL cars on here I have to fight the urge to buy one of the cars we did get. You lot will have explaining to do to Mrs Star when I inevitably cave in and get a Rover. 🤣

[JMotor]

Take a guess what I'm not getting 😢.

🫤

This is the part I hate with Monstros. The sheer lack of certain parts. I also blame myself too.

[JMotor]

Happy to see this message.

Did look into other possibilities. GAZ shocks have rebuilt struts in the past for other owners and I've messaged a fella who bought the remains of the Ledbury stock. 

[grogee]

1 hour ago, JMotor said:

Happy to see this message.

Did look into other possibilities. GAZ shocks have rebuilt struts in the past for other owners and I've messaged a fella who bought the remains of the Ledbury stock. 

Do you know what else he's got? Sounds like a useful contact. 

[JMotor]

At the moment I don't.

Sells parts on eBay. Worth a message. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333341071511?_skw=rover+maestro&itmmeta=01JB40MMTC7ZKCKVNCVJB1KZAF&hash=item4d9cad1897:g:RbcAAOSwA3dYieht&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKkc5IciZLd8ekfGSWYZuLSK%2Ban8rufHFb7cifwCc8nrZZBQ3l3yEm4rCcBnu1Y37C4brGITUb%2Fy3vmnTutGWI1w%2FH%2BU4IMHNEd6864RlMM0nRUkBViONdtwib7UzZehY5sBsXq4l48P4LrMrsxRL%2BGy%2F14sTCoO1Ikgotr%2BnJZzeCBToEfuDr7kJonvnwAd2xJwN7twmABQlxDqVJV8IxQOvD80pCGHKM6KcC3HuDpEV9kbElI%2Bp2ggag378AB23aSRahJBZO9Y%2FiGF956YGfHR%2FO0Rh4LSyCRszn4mjMW7tw%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR6jN0oDZZA

If I read right. He bought this lot from the owners club years ago.

[Austin-Rover]

33 minutes ago, JMotor said:

If I read right. He bought this lot from the owners club years ago.

...and a good proportion of that came from Parkway Services in Ledbury when they were junking all their Maestro left-overs.

[grogee]

Was anyone looking for bottom arms? 

I can't speak for the condition but these and the ARB links attached to them are unobtanium. £90

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/116372647438

[JMotor]

*Sharp intake of breath*

Fuckin finally! 

All this hassle thanks to me being an idiot and not buying dampers when I had the chance given to me.

I'll be happy when these are fitted and the car is back on the ground.

[Stinkwheel]

On 28/10/2024 at 16:42, grogee said:

Was anyone looking for bottom arms? 

I can't speak for the condition but these and the ARB links attached to them are unobtanium. £90

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/116372647438

I was looking for some, but no way i can collect from chesterfield anytime soon unfortunately

[JMotor]

I'm lucky/unlucky.

1300's weren't worthy enough for front anti roll bar. But the arms are still in good nick and so are the ball joints.

I do believe someone had some arb links reproduced on the FB Monstro page. Likely they were all sold by now.

[grogee]

3 hours ago, JMotor said:

I'm lucky/unlucky.

1300's weren't worthy enough for front anti roll bar. But the arms are still in good nick and so are the ball joints.

I do believe someone had some arb links reproduced on the FB Monstro page. Likely they were all sold by now.

Yeah they're long gone and they were £££ as well. But there is a work around using (you've guessed it) VW Golf links! I haven't yet achieved it but it needs some shim work to match the ID of the bush to the OD of the Maestro ARB. 

[Stinkwheel]

12 minutes ago, grogee said:

Yeah they're long gone and they were £££ as well. But there is a work around using (you've guessed it) VW Golf links! I haven't yet achieved it but it needs some shim work to match the ID of the bush to the OD of the Maestro ARB. 

I havent tried it but did read that old skool 1/2" copper pipe slipped over the end of the antirollbar was the perfect thing to take up the slack when using the golf ARB links 

[JMotor]

How the engineers at BL/ARG did the Maestro.

[grogee]

4 hours ago, JMotor said:

I'm lucky/unlucky.

1300's weren't worthy enough for front anti roll bar. But the arms are still in good nick and so are the ball joints.

I do believe someone had some arb links reproduced on the FB Monstro page. Likely they were all sold by now.

I would think an ARB would be a good upgrade, if you can find one with the links attached. 

BLARG pretended there was a rear anti roll bar for MG versions. It's not a true rear ARB but it is a slight stiffening of the rear beam so it has a similar effect. 

[JMotor]

Pls no!

Me no want to find more NLA gear.

If I found one by chance I'd maybe try one as it looks quite easy to bolt one on. At this minute, I'll be happy with the sodding thing off my ramp! 😆

The MG rear bar looks the same way GM fitted one to the MK3 Cavalier. Same again it made a wee bit of difference. 

 

[Matty]

I love the way this is going. You're going to be so balls deep financially into this car you'll have to keep it forever.

 

 

 

(Exactly how it should be 😁👌)