Alban\'s Elford Turbo Project

[jinx]

Burlen Services, Salisbury will have parts to overhaul any SU.

[alban1973]

It is  about a year since the story began on this project. I have covered nearly 9000 miles in the old bus, and as it is only really a 3rd to 4th car in the fleet  is quite good going..  only a few problems, and lots of fond memories. If only i was in the country for the old skool meet that would have really made a good finish to the year..  High points were traveling to the top of scotland and back in the depths of winter, with the clutch master cylinder melting due to the turbo heat on the 6 hr + drive up. shame a scotish meet was not organised in time, but i did meet a guy from Forfar with his gen 3.. All the meets local and not so local attended, and meeting excellent people along the way.. Low points were a few months ago when selling the car was very much on the cards, but for now we have over come that issue...
 
I have learned a lot about the car. the original performance issues seem to be with intake heat, as all winter the car has performed very well and is much much faster, get a warm day and it is back to struggling.  Just have to live with that for now......On the last drive before I went away 2 weeks ago I was making progress on my way home from a concert and blew the rear exhaust off after a large backfire on a down change. But to sum up, it is a very usable and drivable car with bags of low down torgue, good brakes even with the added performance. the car is excellent on long journeys with fuel consumption that is not even an issue, fantastic performance when you look at the simplicity and the era of a car which has not been changed from its original elford conversion, a good alround package. and most of all to date reliable.

So, where to from here.  MOT is due soon, I am now going to go through the complete suspension system, all the bushes look as if they have been on the car since new, and after the miles and abuse it has received in the last year do need changing, the shockers are well past their sell by date and I think I will try for lowering springs even thou I didnt want to do this in the begining, I want to see what it looks like ..I am very happy with the ride and handling of the car so i am not after any more grip of harder suspension so shocker rates I will try to keep the same..I ordered a complete poly bush kit yesterday from Superflex. I have used their stuff a lot in the past to excellent results.  I am looking into lowering springs, which i think P.i look to be ok, shockers seem difficult to get hold of but as I want standardish ones I will try kyb, used those a lot in other applications and find them up to most jobs. so when I recieve all the parts the car will have all its axles, suspension ripped off and reconditioned painted and then the car will be at phase 2 standard.

So once again let battle and work comence.. I will ofcourse keep things upto date on the work as we go...

[mpk490p]

i have just taken so KYB shocks off mine, the rears are fine, (not cheked the fronts yet) but i know the guy who had the car before me replaced everything from bushes to shocks so i would imagine they have only had 1 years use from me (3,000 miles)
if you intresed,
i have changed them as i have just lowered the car and thought the fronts were shot but it turns out it may be the top mounts
Mark

[mpk490p]

they have a bit of overspray on the rears and where the fronts have moved because of the top mounts being shot it has rubbed the paint off, but all four are good and strong on compression and fully recall
best thing to do is pop in when you come to pod for some shows?!

Mark

[alban1973]

This week I had the very hard task of opening the package to reveal my new blue bushes from superflex. I have a couple missing that are still on order, but no excuse for getting on now.  in the end i opted for spax springs which will take 2 weeks for them to be made. I am going to have the suspension alinement checked before i start messing around and take a note of the settings, then I can see where to start with settings after completion ,the cars tread wear is good and drives very well and straight at the moment.

[alban1973]

http://www.superflex.co.uk/SuperFlex_Mazda_RX7,_MKI_&_II_Prices.pdf

If anyone wants the same bushes, this is where to get them from

[alban1973]

Finally got round to the car .   All bushes are here, springs will be here by the 4th.     Attacked the rear suspension today, took me over half a day to get the bloody thing off due to most of the bolts sheering, and then I had to extract the seized bots to get the suspension arms free from their locations.  it is ready for stripping now...

[grinder]

i need a garage that big

looks like one hell of a job matey

[mpk490p]

ah memories of mine, did you still want the shocks i have, open to offers on them, its nice when all the new bits turn up lets hope you can get them all on in time for some shows!!

Mark

[alban1973]

Not really sure what to do on the shocks front, time is moving on, and bits are arriving thick and fast, hope to have the rear painted and ready for the springs after the weekend.    problem is I cannot find shocks in the uk easally. and not sure what I need for the lowered springs due to the poor roads up here?..

[mpk490p]

i have King Spring super lows on mine and the shocks coped fine as i say the problems i had were with the top mounts rather than the shocks, but i didnt know how old the front were untill i pulled them out, thought it was a good opertunity to upgrade them, the guy i brought the car off said everything under the car had been changed but i only had his word for it but he was true to his word!
dont mind even loaning them and pay me in a month, there only sitting in my garage!!
Mark

[shaunwil]

At least all your control arms are straight. I\'ve got the bushes sat here and i need some straight control arms :wiggle

Looking good though, took me a whole day to get the anti-roll bar off to change the bushes !

Shaun

[alban1973]

had another few hours on the car today, got most of the hard work done. Will crack on over the weekend and hopefully will have most of the rear done, ready for the springs next week.

[shaunwil]

Looking great

What paint did you use ?

Shaun

[alban1973]

thats just standard red oxide out of a tin:eek , I will use stone chip primer on top of that and then I am still trying to decide what colour top coat, I think either red or blue..  not a lot of things go with gold, but you wont see it anyway so as long as it look clean..