Bren's Westfield Clubman

[Bren 435]

Here it is guys, I got around to doing a thread

 

So for a number of years now I have loved Lotus 7 replica's. I started off wanting to buy one of my own. Then that changed to wanting to building one from a kit. I was set on the McGregor Motorsports kit from NZ, but they just stopped communicating, and didn't seem keen. Then I found another kit I wanted to build, which is not a name brand one. It is built by a one man setup in England, and made for either the Ford Zetec, or Duratec engine, which suited me as I was set on using a Duratec.

 

Then last night shift I was sitting in the truck and had something of an epiphany. The missus and I have a 7 month old, and we want to buy a block of land as soon as possible, then build a house. So I decided the extra expense, as well as the effort and pain in the arse of getting an ICV registered probaby isn't worth it at the moment. So I started looking for an already rego'd car. Started looking on Ozclubbies, and then Ebay and Gumtree.

 

On the drive home from the airport last Wednesday night I came across a Westfield on Gumtree that had only been advertised that day. Sent him an email that night, then called him on Thursday. On Friday I went down to check it out and it was great! I did a typical TT lowball, and he declined, so I went home with my tail between my legs. Decided I must have the car, so scraped together some more money, and on Saturday I went to pick it up.

 

All was going well, and it was fast and fun. Then about 20 or so min in to the drive home on the highway shit went wrong. It lost power and stalled. I thought it may have been out of fuel as the fuel gauge is dodgy. Put some in, no good. Turns out the alternator isn't charging the battery. I am shit at wiring so this had me scratching my head the rest of the break after getting it towed home. The alternator is good, as I had it tested after removing it. Anyway, should be getting fixed next break.

 

Specs

 

2000 model Aussie Westfield SEiW

Bigport 4AGE

T50 gearbox

IRS rear suspension with Escort diff and Quaife LSD centre. Apparently 3.9 diff ratio, but I reckon 4.44

Cortina front uprights

Escort rack

Not sure about front shocks and springs

Some kind of aftermarket ECU

Oil cooler

 

When I bought it it had some stupid electric "turbo" thing that the air filter was mounted on. That got binned. I need to replace the pod filter, but it will do for now.

 

Plans, get it running, then get roady and rego in my name. After that enjoy it and learn to drive it. Long term, build stroker bottom end, good head with big cams and quad throttle bodies, and paint it/vinyl wrap it a different colour.

 

Pics

 

[Pleb 137]

Bren it's simply lovely.

 

A bit of TLC and it looks like it will come up a treat.

 

Bit funny the color as is looks like something Ferdie would use :-)

Don't let him talk you into silver hehe.

 

Cheers and keep us update on the stalling issue.

Have you charged the battery up and given it a run as if the alternator is good then it's puzzling.

[Bren 435]

Thanks mate. Haha, Ferdie won't be talking me in to changing the colour to silver. I already know what colour it will be when(if) it gets changed.

 

Yeah battery has been fully charged. The alternator problem will be because there is no power to it from the ignition. I'll get that sorted when I am home next and it should be all good.

[ShanO 86]

Hell yeah, that is cool.

 

Looks much more fun than an 86.

[Pleb 137]

Just admiring the photos again and low and behold is that a 86 sneaking into shot to share the limelight.

 

Oh no power from ignition so that definitely sounds easy to trace though concerned that I hope nothing is shorting as that's a bit of wattage going down that line. Hopefully it's just a broken wire.

 

So what's your wet weather drive, or are you planning to wear a raincoat. Hehe I would :-)

[Bren 435]

Thanks Shano, I think it's pretty cool too! Can't wait to have a good drive of it and take it on the back way up and down Toowoomba range!

 

Pleb, it is an 86 just out of shot That is Nafe's 86. I am lucky he was there, as he identified the problem quite quickly. He is a bit of a 4AGE expert after having his AE86

 

This car actually came with a canvas roof and doors for wet weather, but I haven't fitted them yet! My regular wet weather drive would be the Mitsu ASX family rig. But if I am ever going anywhere on my own and the weather looks iffy, I'll put the canvas roof on and see how it goes

[Bren 435]

I should actually thank Ferdie for pushing quite hard for me to buy rather than build. Much better idea

[stevo_12v 88]

Nice car, I woulda gone the new kit car route myself.  Much more rewarding and you have the satisfaction that you built it.  Spose getting whipped by the missues isn't a good idea though lol.

[Bren 435]

Whipped by the missus? She didn't give a fuck whether I bought or built. I chose to buy for a few reasons. 1, the guy I was going to buy the kit from is still a long way Off even starting my kit, so realistically it would have been over a year before I was driving. 2, building would have cost at least 15k more, and we want to buy land asap, so this made more sense. 3, it is getting more and more painful to get a home built car registered. People who don't know much about these cars don't know that sort of stuff 4, I had the money sitting in the bank and wanted a car.

 

Simple. Trust me, missus had nothing to do with I was sitting in the truck on my own last night shift and decided buying makes more sense. She tried to talk me out of it.

[Bren 435]

And you bought an already built 86, so aren't really in a position to talk about how rewarding, and having the satisfaction of building a car yourself is Just like you with your 86, there is plenty of stuff I can tinker with to keep me happy. But with a baby and 2 week on 1 week off roster, I'd rather go home and drive it instead of not having much time to build

[ferdie 739]

Shano, the clubman and the 86 are both fun,  just slightly different fun, the clubman is more raw, but having both the "feel" is somewhat similar (I have often said the closest thing to driving my clubbie is the 86) 

 

Pleb, when I rains you get wet, when its hot you get really hot, but either way the smile is still there.  I will try find a a pic of one of the runs I went on back around 2008, we got rained on for 4hrs straight after leaving Brisbane and had lunch at mapelton, was one of the most fun days ive ever had in my clubbie.

 

Stevo, from having my one since 2005, I can say that building from scratch might mean you put it together in the first place, owning one means you will take it apart and put it back together more than once yourself.  from my time there is not a single bolt on the car that has not been undone, at one point or another had all but one of the panels off. Ive had every inch of wire out and a "new hand built loom installed" (saved about 20kgs out of interest)

 

these cars are "never finished", and that's the beauty of them, there are no 2 cars the same anywhere in the world.

 

its not just "what wheels are you running and what coil overs do you have", they are full custom and full hand modified, and im sure all on here can understand how cool that is

[mof 0]

Bren, very envious. Huge amount of fun ahead.

[Bren 435]

Ferdie nailed it

 

Mof, I am looking forward to the fun times

[Pleb 137]

Yeah Ferdie that's what I was referring too.

 

I would so much enjoy it in the wet, but that is just me always loved driving in the rain as its when all the senses come alive.

[stevo_12v 88]

Ferdie's is absolutely right, but given the option.  I would rather build my own one from scratch rather than buying someone's sloppy seconds.  Unless its a killer deal.
If you buy secondhand, you don't 100% know the history of the car, whereas when you buy brand new from scratch you know your car has been well looked after because you built it by hand.

I personally like those 550 Spyder Replica's myself if I were to build a kit car, comes with a subi boxer engine.. Imagine putting in a well built FA20 into that.. I'm not up to that stage into car modding yet.
But yeah, the proper approach would be to ditch the cars, and buy a property.  Buy the house FIRST, then splurge on the toys, that's the sensible option if you got your head on straight

[Bren 435]

I bought the car first because if I bought land/house first it would be years before I got the car. And who are you to say what is the "proper approach" and what is the "sensible" option? I owe nothing on this car, so from now on all of our savings go towards property. That is what is right for us. And I got a pretty good deal on this car.

 

And stop filling my build thread with off topic shit. Start your own thread about how buying a house first is more sensible than buying a car, and how anyone who does it the other way around doesn't have their head screwed on properly.

[Bren 435]

In regards to the "sloppy seconds" comment, have you never bought a second hand car? Because if you have then it is no different. When built, prior to registration, these cars need to be inspected and signed off by a certified engineer. And even after a few owners, clubbies are heaps easier to pull apart and check everything out than regular cars, so even if there's a few things to sort out, it's easy to do.

[Bren 435]

Got the charging issue sorted today! It was a bad connection on the ignition wire, as suspected.

 

Unfortunately it now has another problem, maybe two. It runs really well when cold, and first up at temp, but then after a little while it is a bit of a pig at low revs. When stopping at lights, round abouts etc it just wants to stall. Runs well still at high rpm, lots of load etc.

 

Got it home and let it cool down and started it again. Still charging good. It sat there idling well, then after 7 - 10min it shut down. Really "cleanly" for lack of a better word. It was as if the key had been turned off. It didn't fart or splutter or anything like that. Seems strange. Any ideas?

[Pleb 137]

That excellent news Bren and glad it's sorted.

 

I may be wrong on your new issue but sounds to me a classic 4AGE issue.

Memory is escaping me at moment but I perhaps a bit of google trawling as I think it's a common issue in a 4AGE motor for the fix.

 

Hmmm let me help.

 

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/showthread.php/69237-16v-4AGE-Wax-pellet-Idle-control-valve-Experiences-woes-advice

[Bren 435]

Thanks mate, I'll look in to that. Somebody else has mentioned that one too.

 

Roady got done today Big thanks goes to Kyle and Matt from 6Boost for sorting it out! Rego will be transferred to my name next break.

[Mrmango 172]

Not my type of car but I can definitely appreciate the work that has went into it, I bet it is super fun to be on the track in this thing

[Bren 435]

It's great fun to drive on the road. I'll let you know how it goes on track when I get a chance to race it

[Bren 435]

New dizzy cap arrived, and so did a collection of paperwork including engineering paperwork etc. On the way is a heatshield for the dizzy cap. I am away till mid next week, so hopefully heatshield arrives before me, and hopefully paperwork is useful!

[Bren 435]

Heatshield didn't fit, but dizzy cap did. Put it on then took the car to Forced Performance & Tuning for some diagnosis and a run on the dyno. The stalling issue is because the tune is very lean at idle. Very lean. Unfortunately this can't be fixed without tuning it, and it has an old, obsolete ecu called an Injec EM3. It is quite hard to come across the cable and software to tune it. I am hoping I can get my hands on it, then Jamie can fix the idle issue as well as give the rest of the tune a bit of a tidy up. Might even make a bit more power if he does that. The problem has been temporarily fixed by manually adjusting the idle a little bit, and also the TPS wasn't plugged in, which was hidden by a whole heap of conduit and a bit of messy wiring.

 

After that was all done we did a few power runs. It ended up with 118.2rwhp!! I am very happy with that! That is a fair whack of power for a 3 rib big port.

 

Was meant to go for a decent drive today, but woke up this morning to heaps of rain, which is not ideal conditions for a Clubman with semi slicks. Hopefully tomorrow is a bit nicer!

[Pleb 137]

That's good to hear Bren.

 

I am sure your ecu parts can be sourced, it will just take a little effort.

 

Although if it's that old perhaps look at something newer but in the secondhand market if money is tight.

 

Some of the old software technologies are best to be left in the past and can be quite limited in ability (bugged).