Neat and Tidy

I read this article last week and it gave me some hope. I wouldn't be a very flamboyant driver so to hear that the two men who I regard as being the fastest rally drivers in the world (Meeke and Loeb) have a neat and tidy style was a great relief. Also it seems like I should get the front anti roll bar installed on my Nova.

Sordo and Meeke talk style and set up

Updating the Tax Book

I sent the Nova rally cars tax book to the DVLNI yesterday so that the engine change can be record and everything can be kept above board and legal. The engine came out of a red Nova I bought years back so I sent a copy of its tax book too to show where I had gotten the engine. That's not one of the methods that the DVLNI list as proof of an engine swap but hopefully it will be good enough, however as they are a large government organisation I don't expect it to be that easy, no doubt it will turn into a whole saga. I hope it doesn't cause too much of a hold up though as I can't get the rally car MOT'ed until the tax book comes back.

Nearly There

I had another great Saturday. Picked the Nova up from Nigel's workshop near Kilrea and was blown away by the work that he and Hargie had done in only two weeks. I was only really interested in getting the car straight and I wasn't that worried about how the car looked but it's good as new, all the panels have been repaired and there isn't a mark on it anywhere, amazing work. We got the car home and built it back up again from where it had been stripped for painting. Got all the glass back in, seats and harnesses back in, build up the "new" drivers door and other wee bits. Just need to get the engine back in and it should be ready to get back out on the road. Niall is servicing the engine this week and refitting it so when I get down on Saturday it should be all ready to fire up. It's great that Niall is so keen to help out, I wouldn't get anything done without him pushing me on, and also doing the work.

So to add up the costs of the rebuild:
New front panel, £123
Drivers door, £35
Nova saloon donor, £40
Hargie for the bench work, £170
Nigel for body work, £380
Service parts and oils for engine/gearbox, £80
Radiator, £54 + £20 coolant, added 06 June 2011

So a current running total of £902, not including diesel for towing the bent shell about the country, not too far away from my £1000 estimate. I think this was the cheapest option. If I had chosen to re-shell the rally car I don't think I could have done it for under a grand, and I would have struggled to find a shell as solid as mine.

The Nova is Straight Once More

I got the good news yesterday that the jig work is finished on the Nova and everything (well not everything, but the important parts) are back pointing in the right direction. I haven't seen it yet but my brother tells me that Hargie has done a great job with it, and for £170 I'm delighted. Niall and my Dad did me a huge favour last night by collecting the car and taking it round to Nigel's. He previously sorted out the bodywork and painted it last year, he did a great job in 4 days so hopefully he can work his magic again. There is a fair bit more work this time but I'm not in a rush so he can take as long as he needs.

Niall's Corolla Rebuild

My brother has finally got his Toyota Corolla coupe restoration finished. He has put a lot of time, effort and money into it and it really is a credit to him, it look brilliant, factory fresh. I don't know what he's going to do with it now though as it's too nice to drive.

Very Productive Day

Yesterday was a great day. I spent it down at my parents house helping my brother to make some progress on the Nova rally car. We removed the engine from the rally car and stripped all the parts that I need to fix it from the Nova saloon donor car. Everything came apart easily with no headaches so we has all the machanicing done in a few hours.

Bent chassis leg:

The donor Nova looking sorry for itself:

Unfortunately the man that we had lined up to do the pulling work had a heart attack around Easter time so he is out of commission for a while. We were given the number for another local man who has a good reputation so gave him a ring on the off chance. He said he had space this week so to bring the car round straight away, happy days.

Bent car, straight bonnet:

As I don't have my trailer test yet I had to wait for my Dad to get home from work so he could tow the car round for me. It's a weird feeling being a fully grown man but still having to get my Dad to drive me places, it's been a long time since that's happened. I'll have to try to find the time over the summer to sit my trailer test. I'm planning on doing a lot of events in the future so being able to tow will be essential.

Nova Saloon Parts Car

Being off work on Friday for the Royal Wedding was great, it gave me a chance to finally pick up the Nova saloon that I'm going to use to repair the rally car. The saloon has a rally history of it's own as it was campaigned with success in the NI nav rally championship by Neil Anderson and Andy Hughes. It's last event was the Dawnbreaker Inter-Association Rally in 2004 where it took a class win. It was then parked up in a garage in Ballywalter until I dragged it back out so that, at least some of its parts, can hopefully go on to future class wins. The saloon wings are different from the hatchback wings but they will do for now to get her back on the road.

It's still wearing its competition numbers from its last rally.

A big thank you to Richard Swanston for giving up his day to tow the car home.

Just out of interest these are the results and report from the saloon's last outing.
http://www.anicc.org.uk/Resources/Documents/20041112_NIMC_DawnbreakerRally_Results.pdf
http://www.anicc.org.uk/Blog.aspx?b=210