Hi all!

Thought I would start a project for my cabby because I've started doing some bits to it now. I bought it last winter and drove it for a few months and then put it away. Now that the weather is nicer I'm back in it! It just passed it's MOT (cheers MiniJosh92).

All I've done is tidy it up with some detailing and put the Minilites on it.

Few things to sort! I gave it a full service of everything before I put it away.

Central locking doesn't work
Suspension needs individualising and the rods cut down
Airbag wheel (I have the stalks for this just need to buy a wheel!)
Paint a part on the passenger sill which has just been welded and is currently in red oxide.
New roof! Mohair black comes in at just shy of £500.
Fit front and rear anti roll bars. I have a spare front but need a rear.
New rear bumper. This one has been butchered on the passenger rear quarter with a screw holding it on! who puts a self tapper through a bumper and thinks that is a solution to anything? new brackets are only £11 and readily available!
Eventually 16v! But will be a while before that happens. I have a spare engine so it's just a matter of time. It will need converting to MPI at the same time which is quite simple on these.

Piccies:

I managed to find a purple bumper from a 5 door which was lucky! Fitted that all up which has made the appearance a lot better now with no wonky rear bumper.

I visited a friend in Wolverhampton who has a Metro and we collected it/fitted it together.



Now I previously mentioned a 16v swap being on the cards in the future. My options were to change the cambelt on the cabbys original SPI 1.4 8v unit or just take the 16v from my red one which will eventually be going VVC160 in the hopefully not too distant future. I had everything to convert the cabby to MPI in stock including the fuel pump etc so it felt a bit like a no brainer... Do I spend out circa £100 on a timing belt kit and water pump on an engine that, whilst low milage I had no reason to future proof other than for means of reliability for the close future.. or do I just take the 16v from Rita, with her being off the road to receive a VVC and some other work it had to happen.

The problem? The cabby is my daily and I needed it for work on Monday morning at 7am. So! It was discussed between me and Simon and we took on the challenge. He started to strip down both cars on Friday whilst I was at work and then when I got home at 3 we continued together. By Friday evening both were totally stripped and ready to come out.

Friday night we had a friend round and drinks were had leaving us feeling a little less than willing to work on Saturday... but the pain was self inflicted and so we got up and cracked on!



There is a system here, honest.



SPI unit ready for removal.



and the 16v in Rita.



and removed by saturday lunch time!



an hour later...




and in!



Saturday night we were very happy with progress. Wiring was done, plumbing was done and the major mechanical parts were all done. It wouldn't start and that ended up being down to me putting the feed on the return for the fuel rail! DOH! I should've known better and it isn't my first time making this mistake.. we did it on the Mini too.

Anyway... Saturday night got MESSY! We hit Marlow with a friend and I don't remember much of it!



Sunday was extra painful. A vomit enducing drive home from our friends house... we got home, I was sick and then we slept for a bit before a lunch of BBQ hula hoops, pork pies and lucuzade... ALL BETTER!

So a few finishing touches and here we are, Sunday afternoon. 48 hour 16v conversion... TICK!



First drive, it was only fair that Simon did the honours after all of his hard work.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySGFz1axuqs

Heres a couple more shots before she was put away for winter!







https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cyvrNs8DxU

I really need to paint that damn sill!





I did a lot of tidying over the weekend, mainly fixing a few wiring problems etc. Got my subwoofer fitted discreetly which is a welcome addition on long drives. Also fitted this nice classic MOMO which me and Simon picked up from an Italian Innocenti seller at the IMM in 2012. Has made the car much nicer to drive when spirited, standard 100 wheels are awful things.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AitbjzB0fE0

So she's hibernating for winter now. I need to change out the inlet gasket and fit my 52mm throttle body plus a new TB gasket... its got an air leak somewhere and is DRINKING fuel! She'll be back on the road come April when the salt is gone.

Oh and I painted the rocker cover black at last. Was red when it was in my red car.

Looking good Craig

Looks good mate! Keep up the work and keep us updated

Amaranth purple R100 with 16v and minilite alloys, great combo!

Didn't you paint that rocker cover red on my garden table ?

Here's an update on this one!

I made a trip to Holland as my friends Erik and Cyril got themselves a low mileage (2000km, yep you read it right!) MK3 Metro cabriolet which had resided in Germany hidden for 20 years. We had a roof fitting weekend since both needed replacing. We both went for black mohair from a company simply called 'Car Hood' based in Chesington. Absolutely amazing quality. A steep learning curve to fit but we are really pleased with the outcome! Much better than the tired grey vinyl that was there before. We had a bit of a battle, working to a Rover dealer workshop manual, the tolerances were obviously for vinyl with more stretch since when we used those measurements on the Mohair it was WAY too tight... but we managed to resolve the issue It took 3 days to finish mine. All the rails were taken back and painted and the headling was wet-vaced and came up like new! My tension cables were rusted away so we had to be creative and make some new ones. All seals were replaced too.











And finished!



Here she is all wrapped up whilst we sealed the hood with a product from a super sanitary detailing shop in Holland called 'car-clean'



Next up she got a polish, cutting back some swirls with the DA and making her look factory fresh once again



And in a petrol station in Maasdam the night before I left. 600 miles taken in her stride!

looks like a new car. very nice!