All posts by Alan Addison

You know, I’d love to get back to a point when owning a car is about keeping up to date with regular maintenance, maybe the odd improvement and be able to enjoy driving them rather than rebuilding. 🙁

The focus has got it’s MOT coming up and needs a fair bit of rust repair work on it (Similar to the WRX). Got the week off work so able to spend a wee bit of time on it, but doesn’t look like it’s going to be anywhere near enough time to get it sorted (probably didn’t help having to go into work to cover for myself being off [huh!] 🙁 )

The odd bush replacement here and there or brakes no problem but when it comes to rebuilding rotten panels (arches and rear sills) It may seem like fun for a while but takes a lot of time to clean up, find good metal, re-fabricate, weld, fill and paint.

Could source replacement arches/sills but the overall cost of the bits would be more than the value of the car, and would still have to weld them in place and paint so wouldn’t save that much hassle really.

For a classic/project car, sure it’s fun to chip away at it but not for the daily runabouts. Wheel bearing already replaced and rear brakes have been given a strip down and clean up. The front brake lines have seen better days and will need replacing, although I’ve yet to discover their windy path through the engine bay.

On the plus side if this the left to a garage to do the work it’d cost several times what the car is worth! And at least if it gets through the next MOT it may have some trade-in / re sale value rather than none.

Would be nice to be able to replace it with something newer with less corrosion but sadly not a feasible option at the moment. It’s still a great car to drive but years of moisture and salt having the inevitable affect on certain areas.

The WRX project is defiantly on the shelf. Couple other cars in the family also have MOT’s approaching and have priority. ;(

… Maybe next year… again.