FrozenJakalope

Just done a reg check, it's still on the road, last sold august of last year and it's on keeper number 8. Might help with knowing if it's been sold on again after the last time.

Does the dick who sold it on after you not have contact info for the person he sold it to?

JRs, for sure. They look awesome.

Pressure plate was worn all to hell, it went this morning. New clutch it is.

First step I'm aiming for is new inlet mani and exhaust. Beyond that, struts and coilovers to try and improve the handling some. After that, I'm open to suggestions

The clutch actually died when I tried to move it this morning, so she's down until next week when I can sort that.

That's looking absolutely spot on, love it.

The shifter knob is, er, interesting

She's a beauty, tinted windows and spoiler should look awesome as well.

Sucks about the knobhead wrecking your bumper, glad he didn't do any real damage to you or the car. Was there anything back from the popo about him? Kinda hoping he suffered.

Cheers guys and girl

Definitely going to give her a good service on the far side of payday, spark plugs/filters etc. then on with trying to edge her towards 100hp. Though not for a little while, Kate wants me to sort out a ding I put in the Kia a few months back before I start sinking proper money into this shitpiece.

Hey guys,

The bite on my clutch is really high, to the point where I can change gear smoothly by depressing the pedal about 5mm. There's also a lag between revs increasing and speed increasing, ie I floor the throttle and engine noise goes way up but speed catches up quite gradually. Oddly, though, the car will stall out perfectly well if I let the clutch out when still. Wouldn't clutch wear cause some slipping before stalling?

I've never had any dealings with hydraulic clutches before, could it be a problem with the fluid? Or do I need a whole new clutch assembly?

Cheers,

Josh

Looking awesome man, can't wait to see it when it's lowered

Hello

Life story incoming, if you fancy skipping to the bit with the Starlet I'll make it obvious where that starts, feel free to scroll.

I'm Josh, I'm 24 and I live in mid Cornwall.

I've packed in the fags since then

I was late getting into cars, I didn't learn to drive until I was 22, passing my test (first time) 3 weeks after my 23rd birthday. I fell in love with driving immediately.

My first car was a Peugeot 206 1.4, which was pretty good, until we had a tire explode from under us at 80mph on the M5. My other half was driving at the time, in the outside lane, and managed to get the speed right down before stacking it (on purpose) into the centre barrier. Had to replace the slave cylinder, rear light cluster and wing panel where the barrier had hit, but the brakes were never the same again.


This is what was left of the wheel afterwards. She remained roadworthy (just) for another 5 months, but as MOT was approaching we knew she was going to bomb, so we part ex'd her for a new Kia Picanto last year. T'other half's dad worked at the dealer at the time, so we got a good deal on it.



The red one front and centre is ours. She's a nice little runner, can almost break 100 going downhill with a tailwind, and my fiance loves it. I thought I'd be driving that for a good long while until I could afford to run a toy/project as well, but then I decided to go back to college so I could get a job I enjoy (instead of the bitch admin work I do in a supermarket at the moment). I'm going to be studying engineering in a college that's 26 miles away from home 3 days a week, and I didn't want to put 150 miles/week on the newish car just in commuting. So I started trawling Auto Trader.

I almost got a V6 Golf 4Motion before I worked out how much I'd be spending on petrol. Then I was looking at an Audi A6, but the insurance was £700. Then I saw a Starlet, and thought it was quite nice looking. I did a bit of Googling and found a lot of reviews saying how good they were, and this forum. One test drive later and I was down £350 but up a car.

STARLET BIT STARTS HERE

My aim with this is to restore a car that's had a rougher life than she deserved , and learn a lot about car repair and modification at the same time. I'm eager but ignorant at the moment, so I'm probably full of idiot questions and stupid ideas, I won't take offence if you tell me that I'm being a twat with anything.

Here's the pictures from the Auto Trader listing.








And here's a couple that I took today after giving her a good clean. I'll update with more as I take them.





Todo list:

• Clutch -- Plates are quite worn, foot goes down, revs go up but not much power is transferred to the road.
• P/S door lock -- Mechanism's fine, lock barrel has seized. Going to sort this at the same time as the next one.
• P/s and D/s outside door handles -- Both got snapped at some point, got bids going on both sides on eBay at the moment.
• Interior bits missing/broken -- Parcel shelf is AWOL, P/S boot trim where the shelf sits is broken, gear lever gaiter is torn just below knob, driver's seat has a small tear in a seam. I've emailed a local breakers yard for a quote on these from a couple of EP91s he's got.
• Engine bay clean -- Look at the fecker, it's filthy.
• Anti roll bar bushes worn -- MOT advisory, got a year to do this and I hear it's a minor job.
• New wheels/tires -- Wanting some alloys, and 3 tires are showing signs of wear. Considering doing a sly swap with the Kia and seeing if the missus notices
• Front speakers -- Rocking the stock ones up front at the moment. Head unit and rear speakers are all pretty good though, so this one's quite far down the list.
• Interior light bulb -- Absolutely pathetic, swapping the bulb with SMD LED unit which is en route.
• New clocks with tacho -- Also included in the email to the breakers. Figure these guides will help here.
• D/s front indicator mount -- The bolt that goes into the wing panel seems to have fallen out at some point, so the light's a bit wiggly.
• Square plates -- Because of course.
• Handbrake -- Another MOT advisory, ratchet mech worn. Assuming I can just get a new one and replace?

What do you think? As I said, I'm new to all this but keen to learn I'm on a tight(ish) budget, see shitty job above.

I'm aiming to have the clutch done by September, and everything else as and when I have time. This guide for doing the clutch doesn't seem too bad, am I underestimating here? The guy I bought it off had a quote for £250 to have a garage replace it, which is more than I have laying around after buying, insuring and taxing a car. £50-£100 for a new clutch kit and a lost day off seems a lot more reasonable to me.

Cheers all for the welcome

Just doing some exploratory surgery etc at the moment to see what needs doing and what bits are missing (bleddy parcel shelf for one, how does someone lose one of those?). I'll stick a build thread up in the next week or so, and get on with asking all my dumbass questions.

Been lurking and reading through various threads for about a week now and the sheer knowledge and willingness to help in this community is amazing

EDIT: Build thread now exists

Hi everyone, new owner here. I just got a 1999 S (by "just" I mean she's been home for less than an hour). Can't wait to get stuck in to making her all pretty and running well, then hopefully selling her on for a bit more than the £350 that I paid and putting the proceeds towards a Glanza. Gotta say, I'd never been in a Starlet before, and the 100 mile drive home was the most fun I've had in a car since I passed my test. And that's with a slightly knackered clutch. I can see why people love these beasts.

Looking forward to getting to know you all