Matt
Well-known member
Here is my 1991 Eunos Roadster 1.6. It was imported in 2000 and had 4 previous owners. The reason the previous owner was selling was due to the fact that the car had failed its MOT with rust and other small issues. It was an absolute bargain and if I had chosen to simply restore it I would have made a fair chunk of money. Sod that though, this is going to be my little toy and longterm project 
When the car arrived home it sat on the driveway for a couple of days whilst I checked over all the electrial items etc and made sure everything was working. Noticed that a few plugs/switches were left dangling and so the research started. Whilst this was happening we were also making room for it to live beside the house out of the way. Fence posts are a b*tch to move!!
Anyway, first task was to strip out the interior and the poxy aftermarket immobiliser. Didn't take long and was happy to see that no rust had made its way to the interior of the car. Into the bin with all of that horrible tan leather... Yuk! The immobiliser was incredibly easy to remove and took about 10 minutes to trace the wires and snip them off. After rejoining a few cables, voila! Everything was tested again and then out with the battery whilst we pull the dash out and sort out these dodgy cables. The previous owner installed some guages... well, tried to. That's for the list, too - sort those out!
Neither of the electric windows worked and the previous owner gave me a new O/S cable. Got this installed and the door back together only to realise there was no window switch! WHAT?! Ok so a few PMs later and I now have one on the way to me so hopefully it'll just be a case of plug it in and electric windows galore. I'm fairly certain the N/S doesn't have a cable either (snapped/removed/who knows) so there's another job
Work started on the welding... after an inspection on the whole chassis we were happy that all the rust was on the sills and nowhere else. Looks like some rust here has been plated before and that looks solid. What we saw as a quick job patching up two holes ended up being 6 small holes along the whole O/S sill. The underseal did a good job at fooling us! Haven't had a chance to start the N/S yet due to weather but hopefully it'll be soon.
While this was happening (my father-in-law was doing the welding for me) I started to wire brush and treat any surface rust on the panels then filler the dents/holes. Decided the aerial was coming out as I hated it and I filled the hole. Onwards with the primer! A quick key over the rest of the panels and a few cans later I had sprayed a rear wing, boot and numberplate surround (not sure what you guys call this panel?). Unfortunately I struggled with removing it and ended up cracking it - in two places! I attempted to repair this but gave up... sod it! It'll do...
The wiper arms were incredibly rusty so a small session with a dremel and some spray paint later, they were like new again. Got some new blades to go on them too (green is a protector on the blade not the actual blade).
The engine bay looks really dated and could do with a tidy up so I'll be ordering a new hose kit and some new bottles, etc. I removed the cam cover to give this a quick spray with some VHT black paint (which ended up gunmetal grey but kinda cool) only to find the rubber gasket had a chunk missing at the back.
Upon further inspection I noticed it had been leaking oil down the back, too. Ordered a new one for a tenner forgetting it's an import and ofcourse it didn't fit. Quick phone call to the company in question and they sent another for me the next day - Perfect! Got this back on and just need to get MAF sensor off and inlet manifold off for a spruce up. Hoping to come across a nice looking induction setup in the meantime too.
I decided I wanted to smooth off the boot lock as I'll get a central locking kit with boot popper. I don't trust these cheapy kits so I've got a petrol cap release lever and cable coming from another member here. The idea is to hook this up to the boot bar and have it as a manual release. No idea if it'll work but hey ho! Hopefully I'll be smoothing this off and respraying it at the weekend (fingers crossed for good weather).
The interior has been painted black and without carpets/sound deadening but the dash will go back in (after a dremel session and respray).
More to come soon!
In the process of writing more...
When the car arrived home it sat on the driveway for a couple of days whilst I checked over all the electrial items etc and made sure everything was working. Noticed that a few plugs/switches were left dangling and so the research started. Whilst this was happening we were also making room for it to live beside the house out of the way. Fence posts are a b*tch to move!!
Anyway, first task was to strip out the interior and the poxy aftermarket immobiliser. Didn't take long and was happy to see that no rust had made its way to the interior of the car. Into the bin with all of that horrible tan leather... Yuk! The immobiliser was incredibly easy to remove and took about 10 minutes to trace the wires and snip them off. After rejoining a few cables, voila! Everything was tested again and then out with the battery whilst we pull the dash out and sort out these dodgy cables. The previous owner installed some guages... well, tried to. That's for the list, too - sort those out!
Neither of the electric windows worked and the previous owner gave me a new O/S cable. Got this installed and the door back together only to realise there was no window switch! WHAT?! Ok so a few PMs later and I now have one on the way to me so hopefully it'll just be a case of plug it in and electric windows galore. I'm fairly certain the N/S doesn't have a cable either (snapped/removed/who knows) so there's another job
Work started on the welding... after an inspection on the whole chassis we were happy that all the rust was on the sills and nowhere else. Looks like some rust here has been plated before and that looks solid. What we saw as a quick job patching up two holes ended up being 6 small holes along the whole O/S sill. The underseal did a good job at fooling us! Haven't had a chance to start the N/S yet due to weather but hopefully it'll be soon.
While this was happening (my father-in-law was doing the welding for me) I started to wire brush and treat any surface rust on the panels then filler the dents/holes. Decided the aerial was coming out as I hated it and I filled the hole. Onwards with the primer! A quick key over the rest of the panels and a few cans later I had sprayed a rear wing, boot and numberplate surround (not sure what you guys call this panel?). Unfortunately I struggled with removing it and ended up cracking it - in two places! I attempted to repair this but gave up... sod it! It'll do...
The wiper arms were incredibly rusty so a small session with a dremel and some spray paint later, they were like new again. Got some new blades to go on them too (green is a protector on the blade not the actual blade).
The engine bay looks really dated and could do with a tidy up so I'll be ordering a new hose kit and some new bottles, etc. I removed the cam cover to give this a quick spray with some VHT black paint (which ended up gunmetal grey but kinda cool) only to find the rubber gasket had a chunk missing at the back.
Upon further inspection I noticed it had been leaking oil down the back, too. Ordered a new one for a tenner forgetting it's an import and ofcourse it didn't fit. Quick phone call to the company in question and they sent another for me the next day - Perfect! Got this back on and just need to get MAF sensor off and inlet manifold off for a spruce up. Hoping to come across a nice looking induction setup in the meantime too.
I decided I wanted to smooth off the boot lock as I'll get a central locking kit with boot popper. I don't trust these cheapy kits so I've got a petrol cap release lever and cable coming from another member here. The idea is to hook this up to the boot bar and have it as a manual release. No idea if it'll work but hey ho! Hopefully I'll be smoothing this off and respraying it at the weekend (fingers crossed for good weather).
The interior has been painted black and without carpets/sound deadening but the dash will go back in (after a dremel session and respray).
More to come soon!
In the process of writing more...
