Red 20vt plus project thread

Hi All

Just wanted to share my project of my 20vt plus which is now finally back on the road.
I bought the car on eBay in August 2020 and it was a fair price for a plus .
Good things .
It was a plus , it had an MOT and it had been stored off road for 10 years( so little corrosion ) .engine ran well and had quite a lot of history and all the keys.
Bad things.
It was off the road for 10 years.
It was MOT,d (how it ever had one will be revealed in the post
The previous owner had the intention of restoring her but realised that sunroof models don't suit people over 6ft.
So the day arrived and she was delivered and I was excited to see what I was taking on.
This was my second coupe and my first since 2002 so I was expecting a lot of work was needed.

So the car arrived and from a distance looked ok, I did not want to drive her really because the belts had not been changed and I did not know the condition of the engine but I braved a quick go in it...
And absolutely no power what so ever, it made noise but had no boost even though the cheap aftermarket boost gauge said it did.
I did some investigating and found 3 boost controllers had been fitted to the car previous and they were all connected or unconnected in some way.
I managed to trace one pipe that was boosting but was not attached , so I called it a day and decided that the car needed to be put back to standard and all the previous works deleted.

I enquired around about who could take on the mechanical work for this car but with the pandemic and lockdown it was proving to be difficult so I waited patiently and finally in December John Cartlidge at MCS found me a slot and the car was transported over to his workshop to initially do the necessary mechanical work and give me an honest assessment of the vehicle and an MOT , work was hectic and I did not have the time to get the essentials done so I wanted a rolling working car I could work on at my leisure.

The assessment came back :

Chassis was really clean.
Engine was good.

And that's where it ended.

All the suspension was junk , broken springs leaking dampers and split Gators.
Brakes were low and discs no good.
Brake compensator broken.
Brake lines corroded.
No oil cooler connected.
Radiator leaking.
Cat was cut out.
Engine management light on.
Fuel pump wired incorrectly.
And all the boost pipes were going to the wrong places.
Headlights were intermittent and adjusters held in place with self tappers.

So you can now see why I questioned how it ever had an MOT
So the list grew and we agreed to dig deeper , I thought I'm in it now so I may as well go for it.

Looks like you are really on a journey with this Coupe but at least the fundamentals seem to be good so all being well it will be down to putting in the time and effort in sourcing parts & the money
Hope the list doesn’t get too long

Thanks Cooperman

Because I can only upload 5 photos up at a time it takes a while to show the restoration so far but the list did grow , mainly because of what I wanted to achieve so check back for updates coming soon.

So after a long discussion with John, I decided I wanted to put the car back to factory standard on the mechanical side, we decided to go ahead with the work.

So first thing to do was change the cambelt , tensioners water pump and belts, then the shocking bodge up, how did the belt even survive this long

First of all the someone fitted the wrong size bolt through the sump and it was rubbing the belt away !
The other issue was a snapped stud in the head but nothing too major , It was fixed and all new belts done along with water pump.

So belts were done and I decided to have all the hoses replaced with silicone hoses in the engine bay along with all the bulk head hoses, intercooler and oil cooler pipes replaced and all the air con pipes condenser and dryer done.
New gaskets for manifolds replaced and a new turbo and a new radiator.

I had a standard air box and filter fitted as well and a full service on the engine what I really liked was it had 5 different brand spark plugs fitted

Once the engine was sorted it was onto suspension and brakes I decided to have refreshed standard suspension fitted along with new wishbones and any other parts found along the way, new discs and pads and all the brake lines replaced front to back, while this was being done I had the wheel arches and underside stripped and undersealed .
And that's when a poor repair patch was found but that was all that needed welding wise so all in all not bad.

The exhaust was next , the car had a scorpion stainless steel exhaust fitted so I have kept this for the time being and had a second hand original cat fitted.
Tank straps were replaced along with new number plate lights

So all mechanical work done and all rust done to chassis and engine bay looking good now onto body and paint, car went for an MOT before this and passed but on the way back the front screen cracked completely but it needed replacing so no loss.
Picture of engine bay before and after.
New rocker cover fitted aswell.
Looking much better now.

So the car was done apart from body and I wanted a full respray but I was struggling to get in at my friend's bodyshop and he said he would do it when he had time in between other cars and I thought I'm never going to get it done so I had it done by someone John knows and it finally went out for prep , John loaned the car some wheels so I could get mine refurbished in Coventry and get new tyres fitted.

While I was waiting for the bodyshop I sourced a standard boot lid ( no spoiler ) and some wings and standard le/plus lips from Auto Ds.
So it went off to bodyshop and I waited for what lay beneath all the old paint.

After a week at bodyshop the assessment come back , the screen was not sealed correctly and had let water in so a repair was needed, and there was some seriously poor filling done to whole car and terrible paint bodges but I expected nothing else tbh.

The car was in the body shop for longer than I expected but the shop said it was the worst car he has ever prepped !
Ouch , well I knew it was going to be worth the wait so I was happy knowing it was being done correctly.

On more positive news the wheels were back from refurb and looked great but getting some Yoko's for them proved a mission, no stock at the big boys or black circles , thankfully F1 autocenter had some so I had them done and dropped them over to John.

There was a bit more work to do to some electrics in car, some bodged wiring had to be put back to standard and the clocks were faulty as the rev counter did not work.
The ECU was put back to factory standard and chip removed.

2 weeks ago car was finished and ready for me to pick up , once it was flatted and polished and ceramic coated it looked great, my wheels went on and it finally looked done outside and mechanically sound but I am no where near finished the interior needs some tlc now to get her just right.
Drives brilliantly.
Big thanks to John Cartlidge at MCS for getting it this far for me.

Picked up and back on drive ready for interior refurb before winter , just put center caps back on really happy with it.
Forgot to mention refurbished headlights aswell were fitted