Mopar Muscle Association UK

Episode IV: A New Hope ...

First off here's a pic of my former daily driver, nicknamed 'headache' after it's had a new cam, lifters, alternator, gearbox, driveshafts, hubs, three sets of wheelbearings and front discs, recored radiator, and lots of welding (and some other stuff I can't remember right now, lol).

It's going to be chopped up for parts as I'm fed up with throwing wheelbearings at it thanks to a bent front frame rail ... I'll be using the whole buffalo though - anything taken off will be stashed for future use

And here's the new aquisition, a nice rare little hot hatch that needs reworking from the ground up to make nice

It's going to be restified, performance mods are to include a monster intercooler, computer upgrade, reinforced diff housing, race spec springs & shocks, uprated brakes from a Dodge Caravan with braided flexis, and Stage 2 computer. Eventually I'll go for a 4 or 6 point rollcage, plumbed fire extinguisher, proper harnesses etc. so I can go racing!

The bonnet, nose and front wings are all from an early '80s Plymouth Turismo (the hood is quite rare, I'll be keeping that for a future project ), this would appear to have been put on following a light front-end smash - I'm assured by the seller that both frame rails are straight (and it definately has the original slam panel), anything else can be fixed

Today I have been mostly playing with my new toy!

A clean of the contacts and a bit of a new charge, and it fired right up and ran nicely Some smoke occured, but thats just a cracked turbo oil line ...

Shame the selector forks are trashed, so I couldn't drive it into the workshop; with the help of my Dad and slever use of a lifter ratchet we managed to drag it up.





Next week I should be able to get started, first up is getting the interior out, and it'll be off with the back end ...

And here's how the Rust Rocket looked at the Nats (photo courtesy of Dave McBride).

Is the 2.2 engine VW based or was that the earlier cars?

The early Horizon based cars used the VW 1.7 engine as seen in the Golf, this 2.2 is basically an old Mopar slant 6 with 2 cylinders chopped off, mated to a VW 'inspired' (read: ripped off) head. Slant 6 Mopar big end bearings etc all fit, it's roots explain why these can take more of a beating than stuff like the Chevy 'Iron Duke' 4 cyl engine.

The replacement for the 1.7 in '83 for the low-end FWD cars was the Peugeot 1.6 as seen in the 205 etc, which ironically was made from a design by Chrysler Europe which was sold to Peugeot in '79 when Chrysler were short of cash.

I know all kinds of useless information, lol.

The big intercooler arrived today, cue maniacal laughter: muahahahahaha!

A Talbot Horizon with ooomph!

Today I have been mostly removing the interior ...

Got stuck on the seats though, so they and the dash will have to wait until next Saturday! It's not as bad as it looks in the photo, the only nasty surprise being that some little animals had been nesting in the sound insulation in the rear quarters, and it all smelt like pee Could have been worse, at least all the residents were long gone!

Smells like pee?
That's coz it'll go like stink when it's done

Doesn't smell any more! I took out about 10Kg of sound insulation (some of it was damp), and there's some more to come ...

Last week, with a hand from my Dad, I got the front end off (most of it is going on the other car, the cowl hood will look very cool 8)) and all the interior out apart from the dash. This week I've wirebrushed most of the floorpan, and found there's lots of welding to do! I've also decided I hate the smell or burnt panel sealer ...

Great work mate

I think this counts as past the point of no return, lol. Its nice to get encouragement from everyone Thanks!