S-Club Reserve Plan

[mk1fan]

Well, as has been elluded to by others, I have taken a punt on a 'Reserve Plan' S3 for the S-Club Tour so that I can 'fit in' properly.

Overall, in good nick and solid.

Done a few little jobs but will set aside a weekend to go over it.

Seatbelt mod done. Punto clip stalks ordered and due to arrive.


Surrey roof fitted.


Micra wiper fitted on the passenger side. From this;


To this;


Bonnet needs some adjusting;



Throttle linkage needs straightening;

[mk1fan]

Fitted LEDs to the rears, side repeaters and front indicators. Also fitted BMW clear indicator covers. Head lights to be altered at a later date.



Also had a go at adjusting the bonnet. Not brilliant but no longer binding above the wheels.

[mk1fan]

Alan461 said:

Looks great, green ones are best!
Do you want the throttle plate doing?

Morning Alan. Thanks for the offer but I have a straight one spare waiting to be fitted.

[mk1fan]

Fitted the wheels this morning.



Interior is fine.


Found a small patch of rusted outrigger which I shall deal with with the body on before the Tour.

[mk1fan]

Went to the TVRCC Surrey meet on Thursday. Reserve ran well there, the tyres are very positive on the dry/damp mixed conditions.

Unfortunately, the rear lights refused to operate properly come home time. Ended up having the fogs on and using hand signals. Current diagnosis is the crappy Ford plugs are at fault, so will swap for narrow spade connectors (as I did on Samy).

Got a TT cabriolet third brake to fit as additional safety measure, again as per Samy.

Will speak with Racetech on Tuesday about a V8S hand brake cable. Assuming in stock the the brakes should be swapped out next weekend.

[mk1fan]

DamianS3 said:

That's a a damn fine idea I was about to get the soldering iron out...

Damian s3

I too thought about soldering fly leads and fitting proper plugs. Priced it up and then thought £2 of spade connectors and heat shrink was better value.

[mk1fan]

Alan461 said:

Which tyres did you choose?
They look good but I cant see a badge or a previous reverence to them.
The wheels look great too

They are the wheels off Samy. Nankang NS-2R in 195/55/15. They were great on the road. Look forward to seeing the track performance on the 17th.

[mk1fan]

So, chopped off the crappy Ford light plugs. Then fitted narrow spade connectors along with some heatshrink.

Didn't totally sort the problem. Helped though. Reverse lights plus brake lights aren't working. The indicators and fogs are now working constantly.

Extended the wiring up to serve the third brake light.

I have all Wednesday to work on it whilst the shutters are being serviced and fixed.

[mk1fan]

Lights fixed. The fuse had blown which I hope was caused by my sausage fingers rather than something else.

Weather looks positive for tomorrow so shall work through some jobs.

Will pencil in the front brake upgrade for Saturday.

[mk1fan]

Spent the day on the cars whilst the shutters were serviced and repaired.

Swapped the seats out of Suni - found €8 - into to Tamy - found £3 - so that I can investegate Suni's intermittent dash and get Tamy's seats repaired.

The onto the Reserve S.

Fixed the intermittent side repeater by putting a proper connector on.

[mk1fan]

Then swapped to the straight throttle plate.

[mk1fan]

Swapped the driver's side wiper for an 18-inch blade. Then re-adjusted the wipers so that the screen is properly swept. Sitting a bit high though. I prefer the screen being cleaned effectively.



Then adjusted the bonnet. A lot better now. Passenger side catch not brilliant. Perhaps a friendly S Clubber can advise on the tour?

[mk1fan]

Last task was a front lighting mod.

Car has a dim-dip function which would be nice to remove. Anyway, did this;

Cable secured with cable ties after photo taken.

For the other side I made the fly lead first, forgetting that the wire needs to pass through the light bowl grommet. Quick rejig and it fitted fine.


Efforts produced this;

[mk1fan]

Picked up more shiney from the blasters;



This arrived in the post;



Bought as the car has a missing bit to the fuel filler neck;



Was going to trim but will try squishing first;



Hopefully, will help prevent fuel spillage on the track.

Edited by mk1fan on Thursday 3rd September 19:59

[mk1fan]

Don't be fooled by the camera angle. Whilst Samy's body is off centre byabout 10mm the Reserve S is pretty bob on. The wheels sit under each arch, just.

[mk1fan]

Spent the afternoon working on the Reserve.

Fettled with the bonnet latches again and I think the bonnet is now level and secured.

Fitted the 'mk1' turnbuckle adjuster to the alternator. For no reason other than it was sitting around in a bag 'spare';



The air filter had been fouling on the bonnet and was ripped. So fitted Samy's old one and used the face of the broken one as a sacrificial layer. Other than removing the rubber bobbins or re-drilling the mounts I can't think of how to fix this.



The throttle was very notchy. The bushing between the two throttle plates was seized so I fitted a 2rs bearing. Got two bearings left if others wish to copy;



The passenger side rocker cover was leaking badly so I fitted one off Samy that had a new gasket. I'll fit the matching one but it sounds like the tapets on that side need adjusting. So, I'll adjust them and fit the matching rocker cover.



Working on the house tomorrow. I have set aside Monday to do some more bits. One of the manifold joints is leaking so will try a mikalor clamp instead of the U clamp.

Edited by mk1fan on Saturday 5th September 21:27

[mk1fan]

They are the side lights. They are cool white, 5050 LED T10 bulbs. There's 5 LEDs on each bulb. There are 4 bulbs in total (1 in each headlamp and 1 in each indicator).

The dipped and main bulbs are pretty good. I was thinking of getting some Nightbreakers but they are not needed.

[mk1fan]

Had today working on bits and pieces. A few of what was done.

278mm brake trickled down from Samy;



Some bad rust on the passenger side outrigger. Ce la vie.



New boot release incase if battery failure.



Fitted the fire extinguisher and a map net.



Seats to go in this weekend.

Edited by mk1fan on Monday 7th September 23:01

[mk1fan]

Didn't seem to get much done today.

Got the third brake light in and smoothed over the number plate light.



The fitted the USB socket.



The fan override switch and some wire didn't arrive so changed the otterswitch connectors and made up half the fly lead / loom ready to fit it as the parts arrive.



Also going to wire in an indicator LED for the fan. I'll take the live from the USB socket.

[mk1fan]

Didn't get the tappets done. Having not done it before I decided five days before a trackday and seven before S-Club was not the time to do engine work I'm not confident in doing.

I'll let Mat Smith have a listen on Wednesday and listen to his advice.

So, fan overide, Lotus seats, a wash and a vacuum before the fun begins.