VIN 4494 - James, Scotland

[jwrayth]

Just realized I keep asking for help but haven't really documented any of my work on the car here despite owning her for over 2 years now! A bit rude of me, so thought I'd share.

VIN 4494 was a California car that was well kept by the first owner, but the owner immediately before me was more of a driver and less of a hands-on chap so there were a few rough edges. Then I imported her to the UK and she got introduced to English and then Scottish weather, so the suspension components got a bit of a beating.

This past winter I embarked on a rebuild of the front/rear suspension and ended up having to tackle a few other jobs whilst I'm in there since with everything off the car I have much better access.

So here are a few shots from my "before" progress as I stripped the parts off;


Running out of space for bits in my garage


Fortunately I have a little cubby area that I can pile up with more parts


I have the complete service history and no mention of the bushings ever being replaced


No cracks, but plenty of rust. Needs boxing, but already had PJ Grady ball-joint collars. Got rid of the DMCH repro ball-joints though and will be replaced with UK ones soon enough

[A Van]

Nice pics and info James, thanks

[Dan 6511]

There's something very familiar about all this

[jerzybondov]

Funnily enough I looked at 4494 before I bought mine! PO was a nice guy.

[jwrayth]

Yeah, he was a nice chap to talk with and made the deal real sweet! Owner before that was really into it too and put a lot of effort into making 4494 what she is now as detailed on this site.

Especially useful that they both kept all the receipts and logs of modifications, and I am keeping up the tradition with my own logbook (both digital and paper!)

[Admin-bloke]

Keep up the good work there James

[ALEXAKOS]

Another sweet turnaround!!!;) yay!!!

[jwrayth]

I got waylaid with overtime at work, but still kept up working on the car on my lunch-break and at weekends. So being that it was the MOT today, I thought it was only fair to share some progress;


Trailing Arms needed some touching up, but mostly good!


LCAs needed more work, but now boxed and with proper UK Balljoints now


Rebuilt Master Cylinder. Didn't want to pull the pedal-box, so just treated the rust and put a light paint coat over to cover up the bare metal.


Rear end came together a treat! Shiny-shiny


Front end scrubbed up pretty well too. LCA braces, bushings, shocks, tie-rod ends, ball-joints and bearings all new so the handling is totally transformed.


...and since the MOT passed with no advisories, I took her for a 200 mile "road-test" in the West-coast of Scotland. Windy roads gave me ample chance to try out all the new bits and man-oh-man did it feel transformed.

[A Van]

Well done mate! Really pleased for you thanks for taking the time to upload the pics

[Admin-bloke]

Excellent