1989 SEAT Ibiza 903cc Special - The Dream Machine - Rust Bubbles and Dodgy Breaks

[MantaGTE85]

10 hours ago, SEATMad said:

Thank you for the compliments! I don't believe there's any gold ones kicking about anymore unfortunate. 

2003/2004 Is when most of these disappeared I believe, As soon as they hit the 15 year mark it was game over it seems. 

My 2nd Ibiza was also a gold one that had an oil leak around the cam box gasket at the base of the rocker cover. Although my car was a 1990 registration (G), it was actually a 1988 build (a new old stock, as it were), so it could even have come from the same production batch as the E reg that danthecapriman described and used to look after. Again, the front wings and bonnet leading edges were getting rather crumbly sadly. I bought it at nearly 8 years old, sold it at 10, and scrapped by someone else in mid-2004 at 14 and a half. Otherwise, it was a great little car.

10 hours ago, SEATMad said:

I freeking love that @egg! 

The 1.5 really did rev like that! But they did like to drink the 4-star.

[SEATMad]

7 minutes ago, MantaGTE85 said:

My 2nd Ibiza was also a gold one that had an oil leak around the cam box gasket at the base of the rocker cover. Although my car was a 1990 registration (G), it was actually a 1988 build (a new old stock, as it were), so it could even have come from the same production batch as the E reg that danthecapriman described and used to look after. Again, the front wings and bonnet leading edges were getting rather crumbly sadly.

The 1.5 really did rev like that! But they did like to drink the 4-star.

It potentially could've done. How popular where Mk1 Ibiza's back in the day? I can't imagine very... 

I bet the 1.5 has a bit of poke in it. 

[warch]

That’s a corking little car, the design has aged really well. As a long time visitor to the Balearics I love seeing an ancient sun bleached Ibiza, coated in half an inch of dust and covered in parking dents and scrapes. 

[SEATMad]

1 hour ago, warch said:

That’s a corking little car, the design has aged really well. As a long time visitor to the Balearics I love seeing an ancient sun bleached Ibiza, coated in half an inch of dust and covered in parking dents and scrapes. 

Thank you and yeah I totally agree, these things have aged so well! These must be common (or used to be) in climates like that! 

[SEATMad]

The Hubnut social was a very good excuse to take the Ibiza and the Colt out for a good run. 60 mile round journey complete and neither of them missed a beat. However a couple of small issues have arisen. 
 

Ibiza - She ran pretty much without fault even managing to sit comfortably at 70 on the duel carriage way. However the breaks definitely need some attention. As I neared the event, break fade came very quickly and reduced my breaking capacity to nearly zero. This made the return journey very interesting indeed. So this will have to be my next job before I take it anywhere far. 
 

Also another thing I’ll definitely have to keep an eye on is rot. I’ve noticed my front wings have slightly deteriorated since the last time I had it out a little. I’ve got a spare set but I’ll be looking to tackle it before it becomes too bad so hopefully a change won’t be necessary. Other than that, she’s golden!

 

Colt - I’ll creat a dedicated threat for the Colt in due course however something my old man noticed as he was driving it, she’s running a little rich and she very sensitive on the throttle. Should be a simple enough thing to fix. I had to adjust the idle as she was idling a bit low so I’ll take the carb off and have a look. Could be the auto choke, could be something else, either way I’m not too concerned. She could also do with a new belt and tensioner as she’s squeaking a little. But those seem to me the only issues so far. 

[SEATMad]

So after a couple of weeks being away from home with work, I finally had the opportunity to take her out for a little blast. Here’s my attempt at taking decent photos of my car (I’m now photographer). 
 

I think I’ll have to give some attention to the front wings and rear arches at some point as the appears to be a couple of rust bubbles forming. Plus I completely forgot about the terrible breaks. Whoops 

[Matty]

This is what being into old cars was always supposed to be about. Good cheap fun. Not 30 grand minis and mk2 escorts.

[SEATMad]

1 hour ago, Matty said:

This is what being into old cars was always supposed to be about. Good cheap fun. Not 30 grand minis and mk2 escorts.

Couldn’t agree more! 

[rm36house]

Lovely car Sir! :))

[SEATMad]

1 hour ago, rm36house said:

Lovely car Sir! :))

Thank you very ☺️

[ProgRocker]

@SEATMad just watched the video for this on a certain YouTube channel.   

Also seen Mitsubishi one as well. 

[SEATMad]

On 13/06/2024 at 19:20, ProgRocker said:

@SEATMad just watched the video for this on a certain YouTube channel.   

Also seen Mitsubishi one as well. 

Yeah i definitely feel privileged that they’re YouTube worthy haha!