44 replies to this topic

[haggi961]

Hey all, im am quite new to the forum and have recently purchased a 250cc beta evo. It is in really good condtion but could do with a tart up so i will stick a project thread up at some point for any people that are interested. My other baby is my car which is a vx220 2.3 litre supercharged running around 300bhp but still needs to be dyno'd to find out. Please dont post until i have posted all my stuff.

I purchased the vx on the 12 Augusts 2009 and it was all standard.







First thing on my list was to give the car a really good polish and i used Meguiars 3 step system, £40 from halfords altogether.
Triplewax car shampoo with meguiars washing cloth

Step 1 meguiars deep crystal system paint cleaner which is put on with meguiars applicator pads and polished off with meguiars microfibre towels

Step 2 meguiars deep crystal system polish which is put on with meguiars applicator pads and polished off with meguiars microfibre towels

Step 3 meguiars deep crystal carnauba wax which is put on with meguiars applicator pads and polished off with meguiars microfibre towels

So after 8 hours polishing this was the result.







And it was worth it.

[haggi961]

Next on my list was to de badge the car and clean everything under the front clam and also paint the toeing eye.
So i started by taking the clam off (thanks for the remove guide dannynewport was a big help) there wasn't many problems getting the clam off just the 2 bolts near the fog light was a pain but the rest flew off.



Didn't need to take the wheels of remove the arch liner.








Now de badge and looking so much better already.


Front clam removed and the toeing eye looking old and rusty ready for a good clean and paint up.

[haggi961]

Started by wire brush then after i got rid of most of the rust and paint off i put on some krust.


Under the front clam before i started, was in need of a good clean.


All nice and clean now.




The toeing eye all painted and put back looks loads better.


And the final picture of it all finish and me very happy with the end result.


Then i fitted the mirror i got off Retset for £5 cheers mate.





i think its made a big difference to view out the front window.

[haggi961]

I also received my black bullet aerial off ebay £7.50





And big thanks to EssexVX for sorting the vx220 steering badge for me (for £6) as its made the momo steering wheel look loads better.




I got some new wheels the other week and haven't got round to adding the pictures so here they are.







The next thing on my project is to sort the radiator out so I purchased all the things I need to get it sorted:
1. Alloy radiator from Elise parts £200
2. Sfs silicon hoses from Elise parts number 12-£30 and number 15-£55
3. Halfords Ready Mixed antifreeze £17x3 for 5 litres
4. Holts speed radiator flush £3.50
5. Redline water wetter £12
6. Stainless steel nuts and bolts for the radiator housing £16.37
7. C-Clips from Elise parts £4.54
8. Anti rattle door pins form Elise parts £16.97
9. Mesh for the crash box vents £10.50
10. Chrome engine covers £40 thanks to Matt
11. The rest of the stuff is to paint the radiator housing so I've bought plastic paint, paint brushes, sand paper, spirits, copper grease, a silicon gun, tiger seal and Scotch-Brite for cleaning the engine £48

[haggi961]

A quick update on my radiator change, haven't quite finished it yet.
I started by removing the front clam again,



Once it was off i removed the rad housing which was ok till i got to last bolt and i couldnt get my hand in to take it off so was messing for ages trying to undo it , so in the end i had to slide the old radiator out then hack saw the C-clip in half then stick a little screw driver on it then held the screw driver with a pair of long nose pliers then and managed to undo it from inside the rad housing, took some time but i got there in the end.

Here is a picture of my old radiator that was leaking.



Next i sanded, primed and painted the radiator housing with plastic paint, which has made it look so much better once dried.



Then i removed the rust on the fan brackets and shined all the nuts and bolts up and painted the brackets black, once dried i pot riveted the fan on the new radiator and copper greased all the bolts.





I then cut some mesh to the size of the crash box vents and tiger sealed them on to stop the bugs getting into the cabin.

[haggi961]

Then I started putting the new radiator back in and i put new stainless steel bolts and washers in the radiator housing so it'll be easier in the future if i ever have to take it off again, when it was all fitted i also painted the towing eye again and a few other little hinges/bolts and the tow bracket and fitted the new pipes and gave everything a good clean up everywhere i could.












I've also i de badged the rear and the wheel centre caps.





I'm just waiting for my new header tank to complete the job and get the antifreeze in, I've also cleaned up the air filter.

[haggi961]

Right ive done a few more things, ive fitted my new anti rattle door pins and it has made a massive difference as it is a lot quieter now, would recommend them to anyone to get these and it also sounds nicer when shutting the door too.



And i have also got some new Blaupunkt 50watt speakers £28.50 off ebay and fitted them. This has made a huge difference to the sound, just need a new cd player, sub and amp to make it complete.



Whilst i was inside the car i put some isotta seat belt covers on £22 from halfords





And the radiator is fitted, bled and running a treat, i've put a brand new header tank £26 from ebay in and a new header cap £5 from my garage. Then fitted the chrome covers to my engine and put the carbon fibre jobby for the header tank off ebay for £13. Then gave the engine a good polish up with auto sol and cleaned all pipes and fitted the viper induction kit again.

Engine before i started.



And after all my work.

[haggi961]

Few more things i've bought and jobs i've done to the vx, one being i have fixed the back light that was letting the water in. What i did was break the old seal around the light.



Then I gave it all a good clean up and stuck it back down with a double side sticky tape



Then sealed around the light with tiger seal so if I ever need to take apart it should be an easy job for next time, also I have sealed the light cluster to stop water getting in there. Yeah it looks a mess but you cant see it when fitted. Once it had all dried I fitted them and got a hose to test it and it works a treat, no more problems.





I have also bought a vw relay wiper off ebay for £5, i'll probably never use the windscreen wiper as the car never comes out in the rain, but i had to have one anyway.



The Velcro that sticks the carpet in my boot was getting old and wasn't sticking the carpet down, so i bought some new Velcro. It cost £1.29 for 1 metre off ebay.



I also purchased some cleaning products and waterproofer for the roof as I don't think it has been done for a while, these were also from ebay and cost £17.64 for the both of them.

[haggi961]

Right i've managed to get a half decent day with some light to get some pictures and video's of the car to show you all what it sounds like with my custom built powerflow exhaust which I think sounds amazing and has saved a lot of weight in comparison to the original. I also had a remap done and had it put on the dyno today to see what bhp it's running at now. I'm impressed with the gain which is about 13bhp.

This is the tip design that I chose





and a video of it revving up to 4000 rpm at normal engine running temperature

http://www.youtube.c...u/0/Wy-2m223za8

And here is the dyno graph, the best run got 157.9 bhp and 162.2 lbft of torque.



Just purchased a new plastic aerial off ebay for £5.25 as the last one was crap and the paint rubbed off with it being metal.



Right iv got a few more things to up date. First thing first is that i bought two new clutch springs and towing eye cap from autovaux £8.06 and fitted them both today.I also purchased some touch up paint from Vauxhall £5.08 which i think is a bargain when you also get the lacquer.






I then put my vx220 chrome sill plates on that iv had for a while just never got round to fitting. They look the dogs B*****ks i think when fitted.

Before


After

[haggi961]

I then gave the vx a good polish and wax.











Looks loads better when finished.


Also i have a photo of the new aerial fitted now.



And i gave the roof a good clean with the turtle wax soft top cleaner and finished it off with the meguiars waterproofer to stop the rain getting it. Looks like new once it was all done.



Haven't had much time lately to do much on my car because of the weather, until today. So I've cleaned the engine bay and under the front clam and fitted the carbon fibre caps that I bought off Ebay for £41.35.







Next I replaced the wing mirror as mine fell off due to the frost, so I bought one off Ebay for £41 and fortunately it was sliver which was an extra bonus. When I received it, it had a few stone chips on it so I touched them up with the touch up paint and you can't really notice it much after it had dried.







I have now fitted my new black Richbrook twist off tax disk holder off ebay for £7, but i haven't taken a picture of it fitted just yet.

[haggi961]

Right I've got a picture of the of the tax disk fitted now, but I had to buy more of those sticky things to make it fit as the windscreen of the vx isn't flat so it wont fit unless I build it up with them.



Next I fitted the Seat Cupra R splitter that i got for Christmas and I think it was about £23 from seat and it was a PITA to fit and get it to sit even on both sides... I won't be fitting another anytime soon I'll just buy a proper one for it. It does look good fitted though I must admit.







Right i haven't done much up dating for a while as ive been waiting to do one big update.

First thing i did was fix my front lights as they were letting water in and steaming up, so it was the same process as the back lights, take them apart then stick them down with foam tape and then tiger sealed them to finish off.





Job done and refitted, hopefully they don't mist up now.



Next was to take my dash off and and fit my new cd player and fix the heaters to make them a bit better. So off came the dash and in the process i snapped my starter button wire, so I tried to solder it back together but had no luck so i bought one off ebay for £25.50



I then sealed around the heater/blower housing with tiger seal to stop it losing the air and make it come through the vents.

[haggi961]

I got a pair of my girlfriends tights and cut a little square to fit the heater housing and then duck taped it on to stop the rest of the bugs and dust the mesh in the crash box doesn't catch.





Next was to seal the sponge bit inside the dash with tiger seal as mine had come off a bit.



whilst it was off I thought I would fit my new cd player to make the job easier to thread all the wires through the dash.



Right that's the job done and next was to fit the dash back on and fit my carbon fibre dash plates and handle guards that my girlfriend bought me as a birthday present.(Sorry but i dont have pictures of just the dash plate and handle guards as i didnt get time so i just took a picture of the door cards that she also bought me later on).







I also had to fit the brain of the cd player, so the passenger seat needed to come out to fit it.

[haggi961]

Underneath the seat needed a good clean as it had never been done (i was hoping to find some money but no luck )
So i began fitting my the brain of the cd player ( for people who are wondering what this extra bit is for its makes the cd player work and it has all the pre-outs and necessary connectors to make my amp work when i buy one, I can also connect the sat-nav to it so it can be played through the 7inch screen. It can also have reversing cameras if i ever get round to buying them. So i fixed it down with the strongest Velcro that i could find which was £21 off ebay for a 10meter roll(sorry no pictures again)



Then i took out my plastic N/A centre console out and found out why my led wasn't working as it had fallen off.



and fitted it with my turbo centre console which looks loads better than the cheap plastic one in my opinion.
Then a good clean up was in order and to fit my seat back in again to finish the job off.





After the seat was fitted back in i put the dash back on and fitted my carbon fibre dash plates.

[haggi961]

A picture with the cd player open.



Then next was to fit my carbon handle guards and turbo door cards.(sorry i have no before pictures)





Then a picture of it all fitted with the cd player open.



Right I've got some more to update now. I bought a load of stuff from autovaux which consists of 30 new door card clips (£9.30) so I can do both sides and both triangle shape door cards bit, also a new alarm led as mine was broken (£10.57) and 2 door cover plates as mine were looking a bit tatty and some of the teeth had snapped off (£6.02) and 10 screws but autovaux sent me the wrong ones (£2.70) so a grand of £37.27 delivered.



next was to fit the carbon fibre door cards so i took the whole door cards off and put new door card clips in both side and the traingle bits





Now some pictures of all the carbon fibre interior fitted.

[haggi961]

I then fitted the door cover plates but they look dirty in the picture because i had to put in boiling hot water to soften them up to make them fit and they got a bit dirty in the process, but they cleaned up afterwards.



I bought some seat covers off ebay £8 to try and look after the leather better on my seats





Also bought a few more cleaning products to keep her gleaming



I bought some turbo wheel arches from someone on here a while ago but forgot who it was, I think I payed about £50 for them. They look loads better then the standard N/A arches as the turbo ones are shiny.Here are the old ones:



Here is the turbo ones fitted:







I recently bought a scangauge off ebay. This is one awesome bit of kit as it does so many things for such a small item, one of the features I like is that I can switch the radiator fan on and off as I please.



This is were I mounted it inside the cab.