This all began several years ago, and is a project that has lain to the side for some time. I first got the car from another enthusiast who pulled up next to me in a hardware store parking lot in a "Suzie" Swift.
* My nickname for the project is "Little Suzie"
He had a parts car laying around, and since I had a Geo Metro that I gave to some one else before returning to Tennessee I was very interested in getting another. I know well the mileage these little buggies can achieve, and also the load space they are capable of.
The spare car turned out to be a 1993 GL three door hatchback, and it was awfully forlorn looking. It was previously owned by a high school kid who obviously had no idea what it was, or how great a little touring car it could be. For one thing it has an A/C system, something a lot of small cars lacked in my day.
I found lights kicked in at three of four corners, a mess of stupid and ignorant speaker and amplifier wiring inside it, and the hood for some unknown reason had been shot dull black and appeared to have been chopped at with a grinder. (the first job was to strip the crud off of the hood and put some decent paint on it)
By "IGNORANT" wiring I can point to a high tech welding cable guage positive wire attached to a modified positive terminal up forward leading back to where evidently there was once a massive audio amplifier installed - but all of the ground wires I found back there were fourteen guage speaker wire, essentially CRAP!
These cars have a garden tractor or motorcycle sized battery and an alternator about the size of a power steering pump in a V6 or V8 engine powered car - so this was as absolutely stupid a thing as I have ever found before...
As it sat alongside my own driveway (I was working on a highly modified truck) the left front tire (Tyre, for those who speak proper queens english) eventually blew out. So as things continued along it became sadder and sadder until the day I realized I had gone without a working set of wheels for more than two years - in which time I shopped at a nearby dollar store and ordered other necessary items online.
I know - it's hard for most people to imagine.
On top of everything else, on the day I went to haul the car out of the mans driveway whom I had bought it from (I was sold it for a mere $200.oo US) a kid came over and warned me that the prior owner had dumped a five pound (2 kilo) bag of sugar into the fuel tank to ensure that no one else would ever enjoy the use of it again...
The driver and passenger doors had stripped top gear teeth in the raising and lowering registers.
And there was a complete set of parts including a tensioner pulley to install a new cam timing belt in it, laying on the floor on the passenger side. One of the easier things to do in a free-wheeling engine design (the valves don't hit the piston tops if the belt breaks)
It looked like the silly bugger had also planted a foot in the side of the body just behind the drivers door...
It frankly beggars my imagination how ANYONE could be so resoundingly stupid!
But that is pretty much where things stood when I got it.
From Tire Kingdom - Tires & Routine Auto Maintenance I have a new set of Kumho Sense tires on it now, the hood is cleaned up. I put the engine back in order long ago to protect it. I have a new fuel pump installed on the tank top cover and am waiting on a fuel filter before restoring the fuel tank to the car - which I cleaned out with MANY cans of oven cleaner, no less.
I ripped out everything behind the front seats and intend to install a deck in the back similar to a 280-Z except with a split trap door where the second seat used to be.
This will be done by making a cardboard template and cutting sheets of plywood to size. I can weld, so brackets will be pretty simple.
*It was while removing the rear upholstery that all of the junk wiring was removed as well. I may mount a larger battery in the back in an exterior vented box.
From Tire Kingdom I expect to collect a set of Konig 16" alloy rims and 20 series tires to reduce rolling weight and resistance. The width will not be changed from stock, and the idea is to improve mileage.
Just now I'm waiting for a new fuel filter to arrive - earlier today I set up a new fuel pump as I said. It came with a filter sock.
It needs a lot.
The upper throttle body may have to be replaced because God alone knows what condition the injector and pressure regulator are in.
But this is what I have decided on in the face of ever increasing fuel prices...
~With apologies for the rotten image quality
As you see it there below - I had one last tire to mount, and the rim before clean-up is on the seat of the tractor next to it. Plainly in view is the spare space saver tire that was on it.
The tail light shown in the first picture is the only corner light that was not damaged...
* My nickname for the project is "Little Suzie"
He had a parts car laying around, and since I had a Geo Metro that I gave to some one else before returning to Tennessee I was very interested in getting another. I know well the mileage these little buggies can achieve, and also the load space they are capable of.
The spare car turned out to be a 1993 GL three door hatchback, and it was awfully forlorn looking. It was previously owned by a high school kid who obviously had no idea what it was, or how great a little touring car it could be. For one thing it has an A/C system, something a lot of small cars lacked in my day.
I found lights kicked in at three of four corners, a mess of stupid and ignorant speaker and amplifier wiring inside it, and the hood for some unknown reason had been shot dull black and appeared to have been chopped at with a grinder. (the first job was to strip the crud off of the hood and put some decent paint on it)
By "IGNORANT" wiring I can point to a high tech welding cable guage positive wire attached to a modified positive terminal up forward leading back to where evidently there was once a massive audio amplifier installed - but all of the ground wires I found back there were fourteen guage speaker wire, essentially CRAP!
These cars have a garden tractor or motorcycle sized battery and an alternator about the size of a power steering pump in a V6 or V8 engine powered car - so this was as absolutely stupid a thing as I have ever found before...
As it sat alongside my own driveway (I was working on a highly modified truck) the left front tire (Tyre, for those who speak proper queens english) eventually blew out. So as things continued along it became sadder and sadder until the day I realized I had gone without a working set of wheels for more than two years - in which time I shopped at a nearby dollar store and ordered other necessary items online.
I know - it's hard for most people to imagine.
On top of everything else, on the day I went to haul the car out of the mans driveway whom I had bought it from (I was sold it for a mere $200.oo US) a kid came over and warned me that the prior owner had dumped a five pound (2 kilo) bag of sugar into the fuel tank to ensure that no one else would ever enjoy the use of it again...
The driver and passenger doors had stripped top gear teeth in the raising and lowering registers.
And there was a complete set of parts including a tensioner pulley to install a new cam timing belt in it, laying on the floor on the passenger side. One of the easier things to do in a free-wheeling engine design (the valves don't hit the piston tops if the belt breaks)
It looked like the silly bugger had also planted a foot in the side of the body just behind the drivers door...
It frankly beggars my imagination how ANYONE could be so resoundingly stupid!
But that is pretty much where things stood when I got it.
From Tire Kingdom - Tires & Routine Auto Maintenance I have a new set of Kumho Sense tires on it now, the hood is cleaned up. I put the engine back in order long ago to protect it. I have a new fuel pump installed on the tank top cover and am waiting on a fuel filter before restoring the fuel tank to the car - which I cleaned out with MANY cans of oven cleaner, no less.
I ripped out everything behind the front seats and intend to install a deck in the back similar to a 280-Z except with a split trap door where the second seat used to be.
This will be done by making a cardboard template and cutting sheets of plywood to size. I can weld, so brackets will be pretty simple.
*It was while removing the rear upholstery that all of the junk wiring was removed as well. I may mount a larger battery in the back in an exterior vented box.
From Tire Kingdom I expect to collect a set of Konig 16" alloy rims and 20 series tires to reduce rolling weight and resistance. The width will not be changed from stock, and the idea is to improve mileage.
Just now I'm waiting for a new fuel filter to arrive - earlier today I set up a new fuel pump as I said. It came with a filter sock.
It needs a lot.
The upper throttle body may have to be replaced because God alone knows what condition the injector and pressure regulator are in.
But this is what I have decided on in the face of ever increasing fuel prices...
~With apologies for the rotten image quality
As you see it there below - I had one last tire to mount, and the rim before clean-up is on the seat of the tractor next to it. Plainly in view is the spare space saver tire that was on it.
The tail light shown in the first picture is the only corner light that was not damaged...
