Skoda Rally Blog

So, the car is looking…. well, car-like. I’ve had a few days of “intermittent” work (it being Half Term means I don’t have teaching to do, but I have other things instead), but still managed to get the car all cleaned up, and do a few jobs that have needed fixing since WRGB.

Strut tops – these have been a constant problem since fitting them -the top nuts just come undone no matter how much impact gun work goes into their tightening. So i’ve cross-drilled and tapped them and fitted grub screws into them which I’ve tightened. I hope this will stop them working loose.

Bumpers – my first attempt at painting meant the paint flaked off in places, but for under ?5 it’s not all bad. So I took ’em off and re-painted them. Job done!

Steering wheel – the cheap allen bolts that came with the wheel were rubbish – they came loose on SS8 and nearly led to an untimely end. So they’ve been replaced with something that can actually be torqued up, and with locknuts on the back, no less.

Exhaust -this is a job for tomorrow, but replacing the tailpipe is a priority as it’s “a bit loud” at the moment…

There are lots of other things – cleanup from WRGB etc, but they’re mundane and boring, aside from getting the WRGB stickers off intact again, so I have another set to stick somewhere!

There was a bit of a surprise in store though – I decided to change the rocker cover to one I’d painted black (I know, it’s only looks) and to take a quick look at the top end. And to my surprise when I removed the old one…. two pieces of metal fell out. The original “splash guard”, and they’d been hammering into the valve gear for some time by the rounded-off look of them. They don’t seem to have done any serious damage, so I’ll have to go with them – this engine will be being removed and rebuilt after the Sunseeker, so it only has to do 230 miles or so…. hopefully it’ll do it OK!

But on the upside, I now have an engine bay that looks like this:

Which sounds AMAZING. It’s so different from the old engine in N158UBD it’s untrue. It really does sound great. And it goes really well too, so that’s nice!

Tomorrow, there are final things to do – stickers to apply, intercom to sort out and GPS as well as other minor issues and the exhaust which I hope won’t take the entire day, but given what I have to make up… maybe it will. Still, who wants to laze around anyway?