\'89 EGI \'it\' - Work in Progress

[Lacey]

Okay so you\'ve probably mostly all seen pictures so far so you know the story so far, but for those of you who don\'t here\'s a sum-up.



Bought for £550 including the flatbed delivery to the door as a non-starter I assumed it was going to have a horrendous amount of issues and problems and probably cost about another £1000 to put right.

Surprisingly, the underside of the car is practically perfect other than obvious corrosion in general places like arms and things that can be wire brushed - there was no rot, not real damage to the chassis itself, and very VERY little actual rust to speak of. There is some bubble-rust on the back drivers arch, but that\'s about all to be honest - it has a completely intact floor, score!

So far I\'ve come to realise that the jacking points are completely toast, buckle before the suspension starts to lift, so those need cutting out and replacing, which is the first bit of welding work to be done, but I\'m severely hoping that that\'s all the welding work that will actually need doing. The inside is in okay condition - the back seats and carpets are in great condition, the head-lining looks like it only went on yesterday, and it had Corbeau Forza reclining adjustable buckets in when I bought it, which to be fair need a bit of a refurb - I\'m probably going to take them to a specialist re-fitter and have them covered in the closest material I can find to the original seats so they look a lot more in-keeping with the cars interior.



Having dismantled a bunch of things over time to get to various bits and pieces (having the fairly (possibly extremely?) rare red leatherette interior) i\'ve discovered that at least half of the cars interior pieces have actually been sprayed some REALLY crappy gloss black spraypaint that\'s REALLY difficult to get back off again, but it\'s coming off slowly, it\'s just an agonizing task.

Here\'s a before and after;





So those sorts of things are getting done very slowly when I can handle being around paint stripper long enough to actually make a dent, which is a daunting task when this is the pile of stuff I have that still needs stripping off, and this isn\'t all of it either, this is just what I;ve pulled out so far, with more still needing to come out.....



Yes, all of that should be red, and when I\'m finished, it will be, and I\'ll have died from inhalation driving around in a car that\'s made of plastic and paint stripper! :rollin

Thanks to Brett I\'ve managed to get replacements for most of the little bits inside the cabin that have been damaged over time, as well as replacement door cards in Grey, not sure if I prefer the current black-on-red cards or the gray-on-red yet, but will see! And also a replacement rear bumper, as mine\'s for some reason severely melted around the drivers side can, wonder how that happened... :evillaugh lol

(still on the hunt for OEM red door cards if anybody has any of those, I really want to restore the original interior back to standard)

Anyway, moving along.

Since then we\'ve sorted out the reason it didn\'t run (was flooded) and also discovered that my EGI (not sure if it\'s the same for all EGI\'s) doesn\'t actually have the \'foot-to-the-floor\' fuel cut off circuit when you start the car, so the first time we started it with that method, we were just constantly re-flooding it over and over - clever! :rollin

Anyway that\'s all sorted now, still a bit funny about starting without some fiddling about with the EGI fuse and sometimes needing two people to start it, so going to wire in a manual fuel-cut circuit on a switch so I can do both the cranking and the job of taking the EGI fuse out of action and popping it back in at the right time from the drivers seat without lifting the bonnet and going through all the fuss and hassle.

Also since then we\'ve discovered that the exhaust blows quite badly, originally we thought it was because the split air feed pipe to the CAT (yes it still has one....for now) wasn\'t bolted onto the rest of the exhaust system, so after re-attaching that and finding out that it\'s still blowing, we found a nice, rather large hold in the exhaust header system behind the cat where (I assume) a pipe from the passenger side merged into the main bulk of the exhaust where rust has eaten through, the metal there is extremely thin so I\'m guessing it\'s heat shielding and the pipe underneath it went first then blasted the crap out of the heat shielding until it gave up the ghost.

Also in addition it was suffering a severe case of flappy-gearstick syndrome where it was missing practically EVERYTHING under the leather cowling of the shifter stick itself so nothing was keeping the ball joint of the gearstick from knocking about aimlessly which is also now fixed having been lucky enough to get some gearstick washer bushing things from the awesomely generous Mitch. So that\'s one more problem ticked off the list and closer to driveable. Also got rid of that HORRIBLE chrome gear knob handle for the (slightly worse for where) OEM standard leather one courtesy of Prof\'s box \'o spare stuff.

And the final problem are the god awful wheels - not only are they from a Mitsubishi FTO (On a Mazda? Why? WHY?!) but the tyres on them were got awful, no two are the same and they\'re badly perished all the way around. So, again courtesy of Mitch, two of the wheels are now replaced with OEM T-II Coupe wheels (minus centre caps for now), and the front ones have been swapped about so that of the 4 FTO wheels it\'s wearing the ones that have the closest possible to legal rubber on.

That\'s about where things stand so far!

It;s running, mostly repaired, and apart from the blowing exhaust is roadworthy, just needs sorting a bit more before the MOT in October and \'should\' be finished for now!

Peripheral port time? ^_^

[B.Martin]

You\'ve been a busy lad mate. Good to see that your putting time and effort into getting an egi back on road. Large thumbs up from me...

[Lacey]

Lass not Lad :p but thanks!

Also thank you very much to pdtaylor for the bits I got today in the post!! Which include the original orange side indicator covers which I\'ll put on when the car\'s resprayed, and thank you also for the battery bracket! Was in need of one before it gets driven!

Also thank you for the gearstick bushings!! Now I even have spares!

Now all I really need for the engine bay are the bolt-down pins that go with the battery cover, thank you for looking for them Pete, even if you didn\'t find them I appreciate it!

[1990_fc3s_t2]

Do you want some t2 alloys? Got two egi alloys aswell. Free to a good loving home :chat

[B.Martin]

Lass not Lad :p but thanks!

Apologies, typed out of habit :Hammer

[1990_fc3s_t2]

Also got an egi gearknob in mint condition (doesnt fit the t2)

[Lacey]

Do you want some t2 alloys? Got two egi alloys aswell. Free to a good loving home :chat

Ooooh, wicked! Would love them! Any chance there\'s good rubber on them? :Laugh

Lol, but no I;d love to give them a good home I have a pair of EGI ones already I was going to refurb and spray a funky colour and have slicks put on, so looking for either 2 more or a set of TII\'s that match. The TII ones I have are the Coupe ones, apparently the Cabriolet TII wheels are 15\'s not 16\'s and are a different BBS style pattern? Not sure if that makes a difference or not! But if it\'s a set then can\'t go wrong lol

Apologies, typed out of habit :Hammer

No worries I thought my avatar gave it away? :p lol

Also got an egi gearknob in mint condition (doesnt fit the t2)

Oh really? The TII one from Prof\'s Cab fit\'s my EGI just fine! I\'d hapily have whatevers going though! :Laugh

So the answer is yes to all of the above minus the EGI wheels, got some already ^_^ thank you!

Yorkshire\'s a bit of a trek though! You coming to anything show-wise upcoming?

Also another thing I;m on the hunt for is a replacement OEM spoiler (TII or EGI doesn\'t matter to me) since mine\'s obviously been used in an attempt to open the boot a few times in the past! >_>

[1990_fc3s_t2]

Mine are coupe 16" meshies with centre caps not sure on the tyres though I know they are few years old at least.
Got a spoiler but its in red you can have too.
I\'ve never been to a show yet so im desperate to get to one soon now the cars running, sadly can\'t make japfest but whatever\'s coming up after that I\'m gonna do my best to get to.

[Lacey]

Mine are coupe 16" meshies with centre caps not sure on the tyres though I know they are few years old at least.
Got a spoiler but its in red you can have too.
I\'ve never been to a show yet so im desperate to get to one soon now the cars running, sadly can\'t make japfest but whatever\'s coming up after that I\'m gonna do my best to get to.

Sounds good to me, thank you!

Since I\'m picking up so much from you I;d be happy to compensate you for so much stuff

Red spoiler doesn\'t matter to me as I;m planning on having the whole thing resprayed white when I can afford anyway, so the colour things are really makes no difference! :Laugh

I will hopefully) be at rotorstock in the EGI if all goes well!! So could pick everything up from you then maybe?

If not I can look into courier costs or how much it is to drive there and back.

[1990_fc3s_t2]

Yeah that\'s fine If you don\'t mind waiting till rotorstock I\'ll bring it all then otherwise a courier would be best as it\'s a long drive, my mum lives near Chichester in Sussex and that takes me 5-6 hours if the traffics bad. I hate the m25 with a passion it\'s seems to be always gridlocked when I\'m on it. :Grrr

[Nik da Greek]

Good work, Bonkers Girl :Giggle Nice to see someone putting so much effort into "only" an EGI, won\'t be long before they\'ve all gone back to the soil and we\'ll all be wondering why no-one saved any when we had the chance.

If it\'s any help, I\'m just down the road from Chichester (as is Brett, for that matter). Sure if you need anything collecting we could sort simething out. :Thumbs-up

[Lacey]

Yeah that\'s fine If you don\'t mind waiting till rotorstock I\'ll bring it all then otherwise a courier would be best as it\'s a long drive, my mum lives near Chichester in Sussex and that takes me 5-6 hours if the traffics bad. I hate the m25 with a passion it\'s seems to be always gridlocked when I\'m on it. :Grrr

I know exactly what you mean, what with my arsed up knee I can\'t handle driving in stop-start traffic anymore as it dramatically reduces how long I can be in the car before it gets too much for my knee, so I don\'t drive far whenever I can help it. My parents and back in Fareham is bad enough and that\'s just an hour away!

Good work, Bonkers Girl :Giggle Nice to see someone putting so much effort into "only" an EGI, won\'t be long before they\'ve all gone back to the soil and we\'ll all be wondering why no-one saved any when we had the chance.

If it\'s any help, I\'m just down the road from Chichester (as is Brett, for that matter). Sure if you need anything collecting we could sort simething out. :Thumbs-up

Oh I know it\'s \'only\' an EGI, still works fine for me! No real reason not to turbo it or supercharge it in the future! :p lol

But thanks! Just trying to get it as much back to stock as possible at the moment more than anything else, especially things like the currently black interior which REALLY annoys me, why do people have to spraypaint rare interiors naff colours and do such a tacky job of it?! :Grrr if your gonna spray an interior a different colour at least TRY and make it look like it\'s meant to be that colour!

What d\'ya mean picking stuff up? Yorkshires miiiiiiiiiiiiiles away!

[Nik da Greek]

I didn\'t mean "only" an EGI as a derrogatory thing, I mean it\'s good to see that you don\'t think of it in that way and reckon it\'s worth rescuing. Too many people see a 500 quid car as a long MOT to be weighed in when it expires, not a car worth restoring to former glories.

From what I inferred from what Mr 1990 fc3s t2 was saying, the stuff you want from him is at his parent\'s place in Chi which is why he wouldn\'t be able to get it to you before Rotorstock. On account of being in the aforementioned Yorkshire. Which, as you say, is miles away. Maybe I\'m wrong? That happens :Giggle

[Lacey]

I didn\'t mean "only" an EGI as a derrogatory thing, I mean it\'s good to see that you don\'t think of it in that way and reckon it\'s worth rescuing. Too many people see a 500 quid car as a long MOT to be weighed in when it expires, not a car worth restoring to former glories.

From what I inferred from what Mr 1990 fc3s t2 was saying, the stuff you want from him is at his parent\'s place in Chi which is why he wouldn\'t be able to get it to you before Rotorstock. On account of being in the aforementioned Yorkshire. Which, as you say, is miles away. Maybe I\'m wrong? That happens :Giggle

Haha, nah I don\'t have the attitude of \'just\' an EGI, I just see it as untapped potential. It\'s a rotary, it\'s a 13b, it\'s good for like 900hp if I want to throw enough cash at it. What 1.3l piston engine can say that even with stupid money with the exclusion of stupidly powerful bikes? :Giggle

Besides, top end HP on an NA is around the 300 mark, not half bad for an NA considering its 100 more than the stock T-II! Gotta love extreme porting <3

Ahhhh I;m with ya now, sure, if Mr 1990 wants to dump stuff off at his parents in Chi when he\'s next down I;d gladly arrange some kinda pickup from there. Sure something can be arranged if lugging everything to Rotorstock is inconvenient

[1990_fc3s_t2]

It might be easier for me to drop the stuff off cos I\'m not sure I\'d get the spoiler in with the wheels! I don\'t know when I\'ll next be going though cos she\'s coming up north this month sometime but saying that I don\'t think she\'d be up for putting the wheels in her car, she\'s got one of them new jags "x something!" :rolleyes:
I could always give her the spoiler and if someone wants to collect it she lives just off the a27 in slindon then I could bring the wheels with me to rotorstock unless there\'s anything on sooner.