The story of this car actually starts back here:
https://ozvolvo.org/discussion/4149/the-mirage-rally-car/p1
Bubbling away in the background was the idea of building a really good Mirage - Mivec 2.4, Motec, MCA shocks etc etc.
I bought a really tidy white car that was missing some panels, and another ratty car for the replacement panels (in the correct colour!). I also bought a DIY weld-in cage from Bond Roll Bars and a few other bits.
And then I remembered that I don't have enough spare time and sold it all to a mate.
Said mate fitted the cage, did the 1.8 conversion and a bunch of other work.
Then he got sick - proper, shitty, life-changing sick. :( He advertised it at a silly high price, then a more sensible price, and then at a price that was only marginally more than he'd paid me when he bought it.
El Wifeo saw that ad and rang me with the instruction to buy it back...
So we owned it for a second time.
Thinking about it, my mate's labour would be something like $0.50/hour...
On the down side, he'd absolutely raped it cosmetically. Both the good white bumper bars apparently had been "broken", the lovely white bonnet had been hit with rattle can black that was already flaking off, and a bunch of other stuff that left me shaking my head.
I'm not a shiny-things person, but this made me super twitchy.
Some stuff was just about different priorities, but some of it was just... dumb. I began to speculate about him working on the car full of grog, and am still not certain that this isn't correct.
First step was to paint the silver MR front bumper white:
Then add some 'graphics' to hide the ugliest parts. The front guards had been lipped with a house brick, which is why the stickers go over the wheel arches.
/\ The black loop below the tailgate is the release for the boot latch. AND it has the springs?!
\/ So I ditched the latch and just used the springs.
Then the twitching got too bad, and I bought a $300 Lancer coupe for the front panels. Took the parts I wanted, and got $180 for the wreck as scrap, so that worked out OK.
And re-did the graphics. Running out of vinyl, so a different design to the original...
New Monza winged seats are cheap, and appear to be good quality. The fabric is clearly not up to the standards of a Velo or Sparco, but the rest of them is good. These are a copy of the Sparco ProADV - the genuine Sparco seats are $900~1000 each, the Monzas are ~$750/pair.
I mounted the nav's seat as low and as far back as possible, which meant that the harness bar was too high.
Today I cut and mitered a new harness bar. Obviously still has to be welded in.
The black line is the new harness bar - took me a while, but this was when I know I got it right.
Token bling... Chinabay aluminium bolts. Really only save a token amount of weight, but you know...
Front brakes are CH Lancer, rears are S40. The CH front brakes have the exact same rotor as an Evo3, and appear to use the same pad - but are single piston instead of twin piston of the Evo.
Wheels are early Magna. I
assume they're strong because they are bloody heavy...
Also spent some time with the paint pen on the worst of the avoidable paint chips and gouges.
Annnnnnnd here's the real news... I bought a rear bumper from Pick A Part when I was in Melbourne a few weeks back. Finally got around to fitting it today.
The twitching has finally stopped!
The tidy little car I sold, is a tidy little car again!
No photos, but I have also revalved and rebuilt the MCA shocks. I had thought/hoped that I could use S40 rear springs on the MCAs (they are very close to the correct rate), but they're just a bit too big on the coil diameter. I'll order the proper springs tomorrow.
