So been going on alot longer than expected and there have been many ups and downs along the way both with the car and my life in general.
When i first got the idea of doing the conversion i purchased a ax from the village i grew up in 2mins away from my moms, i spotted it forsale in the local paper due to needeing some welding to the sills and not having tax or test i got it resonably cheap and a friend of mine did the welding in return for me doing a head gasket for him.
I drove the car around for a few weeks commuting 80 mile a day it was ace on fuel and the engine was dry as a bone could not fault the little car.
In the mean time i spotted another ax come up on the forum forsale belonging to "axinshropshire" for scrap money so i decided id buy that to keep mobile whilst doing the conversion at home. Once i purchased the new ax i decided best to keep mine as it was and convert the new one due to needing a rear beam anyway after failing its mot and it only had the 4speed box so i got a lift from work conveniently my boss lived close to Pete (axinshropshire) and took me to fetch it where i took it to work and ......well it stayed there and i was aloud to work on it on saturdays.
When possible i worked on the car and meanwhile i purchased a good condition mk1 vts in standard form with 76k and fsh i got it cheap and thought it would be a great donor car.
I ended up doing a head gasket due to the cam ladders leaking i felt it only made sense to do it as i intended on doing the timing belt and water pump also with the engine removed it wasnt going to be much work.
Due to being original the rear beam had never been touched and ended up being completley stripped replacing necessary parts along the way. I had already got a set of rear braided brakelines i purchased a few years back from a xmas discount sale at halfords a few years back i bought them knowing one day id get the chance to do my convesion which after reading a french car magazine which featured Ryanmt's blue ax had inspired me to give it ago. I had started a gti-6 conversion to a 1.9 205 gti a few years ago which got sold off due to buying a house and regrettable i never finished so i was detirmined to complete the ax.
Anyway first off i decided after posting up on here regarding fuel consumption queries about ax's with vts engines that i wanted a quick yet economical car hence why i started the build, shortly after i split up with my partner resulting into me needing to sell the house but also opening up the oputunity for me to move closer to work, so with a ax at work stripped and a saxo vts on axle stands at home i quickly got cold feet and advertised the parts. After a little kick up the backside i decided to keep going and see how things went although all i could this was once i move i can have a stupidly fast and thirsty car due to no longer having to commute. Anyway that plan crumbled after i had to take a loan to pay for the sale of my house and realised i was going to keep the ax longer than intended.
so after many teething problems one being that i wanted to run vts wheels and werent going to bother with the image of the car but the flat arch ax didnt like running the vts rear beam so i decided i was going to get a kit and cut the arches.
I ditched the wheels for some 106 raptors which foolishly i hadnt realised had the same rolling radius as the vts wheels thanks to the larger profile. Anyhow i have stuck with them now and decided ill get some vtr alloys as i think they suite the ax and probably get them done in a gunmetal grey.
I did find a kit which unfortunately needed some work as i wanted a cheap black textured kit just to throw on shall we say this kit needed painting and after a little persuasion i spent 6hours flating the kit to get it smooth and untextured and had it colour coded wich on my opinion was the best thing to happen as i think its changed the look of the car drastically.
I did have big plans at firts for the car cam's,manifolds etc then due to changing in circumstances i opted to get the car up and running howver i feel ill maybe keep it longer than i first thought now and i do have some more ideas i want to do but i had to take a transfer at work or get made redundant so the car is still at my old workshop where i go and do a saturday just doing what i can.
Still got to fit the vts clocks and i purchased some new gear linkages but the car is almost ready just with xmas and that coming up its hard to do everything i completed the sale of my house last week so i should be able to spend a bit more time on her now,
she still needs to be cleaned up so bear with me on the pics hope you like ill update asap.
When i first got the idea of doing the conversion i purchased a ax from the village i grew up in 2mins away from my moms, i spotted it forsale in the local paper due to needeing some welding to the sills and not having tax or test i got it resonably cheap and a friend of mine did the welding in return for me doing a head gasket for him.
I drove the car around for a few weeks commuting 80 mile a day it was ace on fuel and the engine was dry as a bone could not fault the little car.
In the mean time i spotted another ax come up on the forum forsale belonging to "axinshropshire" for scrap money so i decided id buy that to keep mobile whilst doing the conversion at home. Once i purchased the new ax i decided best to keep mine as it was and convert the new one due to needing a rear beam anyway after failing its mot and it only had the 4speed box so i got a lift from work conveniently my boss lived close to Pete (axinshropshire) and took me to fetch it where i took it to work and ......well it stayed there and i was aloud to work on it on saturdays.
When possible i worked on the car and meanwhile i purchased a good condition mk1 vts in standard form with 76k and fsh i got it cheap and thought it would be a great donor car.
I ended up doing a head gasket due to the cam ladders leaking i felt it only made sense to do it as i intended on doing the timing belt and water pump also with the engine removed it wasnt going to be much work.
Due to being original the rear beam had never been touched and ended up being completley stripped replacing necessary parts along the way. I had already got a set of rear braided brakelines i purchased a few years back from a xmas discount sale at halfords a few years back i bought them knowing one day id get the chance to do my convesion which after reading a french car magazine which featured Ryanmt's blue ax had inspired me to give it ago. I had started a gti-6 conversion to a 1.9 205 gti a few years ago which got sold off due to buying a house and regrettable i never finished so i was detirmined to complete the ax.
Anyway first off i decided after posting up on here regarding fuel consumption queries about ax's with vts engines that i wanted a quick yet economical car hence why i started the build, shortly after i split up with my partner resulting into me needing to sell the house but also opening up the oputunity for me to move closer to work, so with a ax at work stripped and a saxo vts on axle stands at home i quickly got cold feet and advertised the parts. After a little kick up the backside i decided to keep going and see how things went although all i could this was once i move i can have a stupidly fast and thirsty car due to no longer having to commute. Anyway that plan crumbled after i had to take a loan to pay for the sale of my house and realised i was going to keep the ax longer than intended.
so after many teething problems one being that i wanted to run vts wheels and werent going to bother with the image of the car but the flat arch ax didnt like running the vts rear beam so i decided i was going to get a kit and cut the arches.
I ditched the wheels for some 106 raptors which foolishly i hadnt realised had the same rolling radius as the vts wheels thanks to the larger profile. Anyhow i have stuck with them now and decided ill get some vtr alloys as i think they suite the ax and probably get them done in a gunmetal grey.
I did find a kit which unfortunately needed some work as i wanted a cheap black textured kit just to throw on shall we say this kit needed painting and after a little persuasion i spent 6hours flating the kit to get it smooth and untextured and had it colour coded wich on my opinion was the best thing to happen as i think its changed the look of the car drastically.
I did have big plans at firts for the car cam's,manifolds etc then due to changing in circumstances i opted to get the car up and running howver i feel ill maybe keep it longer than i first thought now and i do have some more ideas i want to do but i had to take a transfer at work or get made redundant so the car is still at my old workshop where i go and do a saturday just doing what i can.
Still got to fit the vts clocks and i purchased some new gear linkages but the car is almost ready just with xmas and that coming up its hard to do everything i completed the sale of my house last week so i should be able to spend a bit more time on her now,
she still needs to be cleaned up so bear with me on the pics hope you like ill update asap.
) treated myself to some new wheels.
