Lightning Yellow VX220 Rejuvenation
Discussion
Earlier this year I managed to acquire a 2002 VX220, having fond memories of racing these against my brother on the xbox when we were younger it seemed like a nice idea to have a go with a real one!
For this particular example I went into it fully aware that (with the thankful exception of the bodywork) it wasn't in the best of aesthetic condition. The interior especially was dire in places, the engine bay was mostly black with dust and grime, likewise the front end around the radiator, heater and battery.
With that said, the previous owner had done a very good job of maintaining it mechanically. I've got an enormous folder of receipts for parts and servicing, looking through that I don't think any part of the suspension is more than four years old, the brakes are brand new all round, the engine runs sweet as a nut, drives beautifully and has had almost all of the usual VX220 niggles sorted over time. Most notably, toe links, an all alloy radiator as the original plastic end tanks are known to part company and the timing chain had also been changed.
Bonus is that it's never been in an accident so as just over 100k miles must be one of the highest mileage VX220's with a clean V5! My plan being then to restore the car to as good a condition as possible over winter in time to enjoy it properly next year.
From a few meters away it looks to be very good. In fact most of the paintwork is in very good condition, there is a small amount of paint that has flaked off just behind the rear wheels so hopefully not the end of the world to sort out. Note the near side fog light's out of place, I later found out why.
Having never driven one of these or a Elise etc before, the four hours on the way home were something of a lesson in steering feel, I thought Porsche's had been good but this is something else altogether!
The same cannot be said for the state of the interior, the camera's very generous here but there's dust and rubbish all over the dash, none of the aluminium chassis is clean, the steering wheel feels properly nasty, all of the silver trim is scuffed and filthy. The seats also need a big clean up, the heater doesn't work (more on that later) and it looks like someone's tried gluing the drivers door trim together as there's some horrid residue making its way out from behind the trim panels.
Affirmative, that's a mess right there. Trusty piece of wood doing the job of holding the engine cover up as the prop's long gone so that'll need sorting, otherwise the boot seal needs changing and just a really deep clean should do the trick back here.
Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the state of under the front end cover, just imagine that but with a radiator in place of the engine!
A few more photos below, next post I'll dedicate to making a start on the interior work.
For this particular example I went into it fully aware that (with the thankful exception of the bodywork) it wasn't in the best of aesthetic condition. The interior especially was dire in places, the engine bay was mostly black with dust and grime, likewise the front end around the radiator, heater and battery.
With that said, the previous owner had done a very good job of maintaining it mechanically. I've got an enormous folder of receipts for parts and servicing, looking through that I don't think any part of the suspension is more than four years old, the brakes are brand new all round, the engine runs sweet as a nut, drives beautifully and has had almost all of the usual VX220 niggles sorted over time. Most notably, toe links, an all alloy radiator as the original plastic end tanks are known to part company and the timing chain had also been changed.
Bonus is that it's never been in an accident so as just over 100k miles must be one of the highest mileage VX220's with a clean V5! My plan being then to restore the car to as good a condition as possible over winter in time to enjoy it properly next year.
From a few meters away it looks to be very good. In fact most of the paintwork is in very good condition, there is a small amount of paint that has flaked off just behind the rear wheels so hopefully not the end of the world to sort out. Note the near side fog light's out of place, I later found out why.
Having never driven one of these or a Elise etc before, the four hours on the way home were something of a lesson in steering feel, I thought Porsche's had been good but this is something else altogether!
The same cannot be said for the state of the interior, the camera's very generous here but there's dust and rubbish all over the dash, none of the aluminium chassis is clean, the steering wheel feels properly nasty, all of the silver trim is scuffed and filthy. The seats also need a big clean up, the heater doesn't work (more on that later) and it looks like someone's tried gluing the drivers door trim together as there's some horrid residue making its way out from behind the trim panels.
Affirmative, that's a mess right there. Trusty piece of wood doing the job of holding the engine cover up as the prop's long gone so that'll need sorting, otherwise the boot seal needs changing and just a really deep clean should do the trick back here.
Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the state of under the front end cover, just imagine that but with a radiator in place of the engine!
A few more photos below, next post I'll dedicate to making a start on the interior work.
As there's not a lot to the interior, the easiest thing seemed just to pull everything out, clean up the tub and do everything else outside of the car.
Steering wheel was top of the list mind because having to wash your hands after every drive gets boring very quickly!
Started by pulling the seats out and taken just before the gear knob and handbrake trim came off, again the camera is very flattering and only really shows the worst of the rubbish.
Starting to look much better now, the aluminium is silver after all! I did get hold of some new fixings for the floor mat's too as one had disappeared.
The leather on the steering wheel came up with a nice matte finish and feels far better now.
The seats came out and were fully disassembled to clean up the frames as these were covered in debris as well. Like the wheel, the leather's come up very well indeed!
Before photo kind of missed but shows how shiny they were.
The dash came out nicely and also cleaned up well, I took the opportunity to clean everything under the dash too as there was a good helping of leaves and dust under there.
The silver trim pieces will take to most work to refurbish, the finish on them is a sort of rubberised silver that's accumulated heaps of scratches and grime over the years. For longevity I think the best thing is to sand them back to the black plastic, give a few coats of primer before silver and a gloss lacquer on top. A few photos below to demonstrate, this had been done to all the parts with the rubberised finish and will go back in once the rest of the work on the car is completed.
[url
|https://thumbsnap.com/WAWD2YKN[/url]
In addition to that, the black leather door trims were also removed and cleaned, the residue on the drivers side door seemed to come from what looked like carpet underlay tape that someone had 'fixed' the silver door trim in place with after losing the little pop clips that are supposed to hold it in. These clips are cheap as chips and I've got a good supply to replace every clip in the car with new ones.
The rubber door sill protectors will also be going and I'll make up some new ones from aluminium.
Steering wheel was top of the list mind because having to wash your hands after every drive gets boring very quickly!
Started by pulling the seats out and taken just before the gear knob and handbrake trim came off, again the camera is very flattering and only really shows the worst of the rubbish.
Starting to look much better now, the aluminium is silver after all! I did get hold of some new fixings for the floor mat's too as one had disappeared.
The leather on the steering wheel came up with a nice matte finish and feels far better now.
The seats came out and were fully disassembled to clean up the frames as these were covered in debris as well. Like the wheel, the leather's come up very well indeed!
Before photo kind of missed but shows how shiny they were.
The dash came out nicely and also cleaned up well, I took the opportunity to clean everything under the dash too as there was a good helping of leaves and dust under there.
The silver trim pieces will take to most work to refurbish, the finish on them is a sort of rubberised silver that's accumulated heaps of scratches and grime over the years. For longevity I think the best thing is to sand them back to the black plastic, give a few coats of primer before silver and a gloss lacquer on top. A few photos below to demonstrate, this had been done to all the parts with the rubberised finish and will go back in once the rest of the work on the car is completed.
[url
|https://thumbsnap.com/WAWD2YKN[/url]In addition to that, the black leather door trims were also removed and cleaned, the residue on the drivers side door seemed to come from what looked like carpet underlay tape that someone had 'fixed' the silver door trim in place with after losing the little pop clips that are supposed to hold it in. These clips are cheap as chips and I've got a good supply to replace every clip in the car with new ones.
The rubber door sill protectors will also be going and I'll make up some new ones from aluminium.
Edited by SamJB on Monday 17th December 12:26
A bit on the engine bay next!
After an awful lot of cleaning it's gone from looking like this:
To this:
Funnily enough, I found using a piece of wood as a prop less than ideal so I made up a new one with a small aluminium bracket to mount it and a length of 6mm aluminium rod.
Also popped some new bolts on the bonnet stops to replace those that had succumbed to rust. The cover itself also came off to make things easier and cleaned all the grime off of the inside of that too.
[url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/QVoxWRxD[/url]
I still want to give the rocker cover a bit more of a polish and I have since put a new boot seal on there too but for now it's a vast improvement, the engine itself is all in good condition and no oil leaks to report of whatsoever.
After an awful lot of cleaning it's gone from looking like this:
To this:
Funnily enough, I found using a piece of wood as a prop less than ideal so I made up a new one with a small aluminium bracket to mount it and a length of 6mm aluminium rod.
Also popped some new bolts on the bonnet stops to replace those that had succumbed to rust. The cover itself also came off to make things easier and cleaned all the grime off of the inside of that too.
[url]|https://thumbsnap.com/QVoxWRxD[/url]I still want to give the rocker cover a bit more of a polish and I have since put a new boot seal on there too but for now it's a vast improvement, the engine itself is all in good condition and no oil leaks to report of whatsoever.
Thank you very much everyone!
I must say, that ever since buying this I've been amazed by how much positivity is out there for these cars. There's a lot more knowledge than I expected too, especially one Fedex driver who immediately recognised it as a Lightning Yellow edition and asked which number it was (68 if anyone's interested).
Next post will be getting closer to where I am to date with it, tidying up under the front, sorting the fog lights and laughing (or crying, not quite sure which yet) at the 'heater'.
I did also manage to get hold of these little niceties to go in the history folder, the original 2002 sales brochure and Lightning Yellow flyer. The level of detail they go into about the chassis and engine work certainly is a stark contrast to today's marketing material!
I must say, that ever since buying this I've been amazed by how much positivity is out there for these cars. There's a lot more knowledge than I expected too, especially one Fedex driver who immediately recognised it as a Lightning Yellow edition and asked which number it was (68 if anyone's interested).
Next post will be getting closer to where I am to date with it, tidying up under the front, sorting the fog lights and laughing (or crying, not quite sure which yet) at the 'heater'.
I did also manage to get hold of these little niceties to go in the history folder, the original 2002 sales brochure and Lightning Yellow flyer. The level of detail they go into about the chassis and engine work certainly is a stark contrast to today's marketing material!
Back to it and after convincing myself that washing everything in the front won't kill the electrics I'm happy to say it's all come up rather well. Oh, and it's not dead, huzzah!
Cleaning it up has revealed some rusty screws that can be replaced and I'll want to remove the bonnet catch to repaint it too at some point.
Regarding the fog lights, I wanted to know why one was out of place and neither were working. They weren't working because there was no bulbs in either of them, I'm not entirely sure why but easy to fix at least.
The reason one was out of place however was because one bracket had completely rusted through and was in two pieces whilst the second was well on its way. The bracket themselves are quite straightforward so an afternoon's effort and I had knocked up a pair of new ones in aluminium.
That solves the rusting issue and saves me a whole 11 grams of weight each side, eat your heart out Porsche
A word on the heater box, it looks to have succumbed to 16 years of use and some attempts at repair in the past. The plastics gone brittle, its in several pieces and the fan only blows on speed 3. As my main work is in mobile air conditioning repairs, I've got a good supply of spare parts so I'm planning to scrap it entirely, fit a small universal heater unit and plumb in a hot water valve in place of the movable doors that Vauxhall/Lotus use.
This should be lighter, more efficient and filtered as well so no more leaves and rubbish flying out of the vents.
I've gotten all the parts together so shall return to this once it's all in there.
Cleaning it up has revealed some rusty screws that can be replaced and I'll want to remove the bonnet catch to repaint it too at some point.
Regarding the fog lights, I wanted to know why one was out of place and neither were working. They weren't working because there was no bulbs in either of them, I'm not entirely sure why but easy to fix at least.
The reason one was out of place however was because one bracket had completely rusted through and was in two pieces whilst the second was well on its way. The bracket themselves are quite straightforward so an afternoon's effort and I had knocked up a pair of new ones in aluminium.
That solves the rusting issue and saves me a whole 11 grams of weight each side, eat your heart out Porsche
A word on the heater box, it looks to have succumbed to 16 years of use and some attempts at repair in the past. The plastics gone brittle, its in several pieces and the fan only blows on speed 3. As my main work is in mobile air conditioning repairs, I've got a good supply of spare parts so I'm planning to scrap it entirely, fit a small universal heater unit and plumb in a hot water valve in place of the movable doors that Vauxhall/Lotus use.
This should be lighter, more efficient and filtered as well so no more leaves and rubbish flying out of the vents.
I've gotten all the parts together so shall return to this once it's all in there.
designforlife said:
He sold it after a few years and the new owner wrote it off in the first week of ownership!!
A not uncommon occurrence unfortunately! This time of year is known as 'culling season' when a few usually succumb and the vultures start circling for nice parts.. 
OP, you can solve all heating issues with this:
https://www.t7design.co.uk/vx220-s2-elise-replacem...
And of course, the inevitable..
http://www.vx220.org.uk/forums/topic/149135-stage-...
I'm on my 3rd.. Can't seem to shake them off despite being very frustrating at time. A lightly tweaked turbo or SC'r VX220 is a real performance bargain for a combination of both road and track work.
gofasterrosssco said:
designforlife said:
He sold it after a few years and the new owner wrote it off in the first week of ownership!!
A not uncommon occurrence unfortunately! This time of year is known as 'culling season' when a few usually succumb and the vultures start circling for nice parts.. OP, you can solve all heating issues with this:
https://www.t7design.co.uk/vx220-s2-elise-replacem...
And of course, the inevitable..
http://www.vx220.org.uk/forums/topic/149135-stage-...
I'm on my 3rd.. Can't seem to shake them off despite being very frustrating at time. A lightly tweaked turbo or SC'r VX220 is a real performance bargain for a combination of both road and track work.
Those vultures consist of me haha, I've already had a new passenger footrest
Thanks for the link, I have seen T7's heaters before and it's pretty much what I've got in mind. It's a good kit but as I'm already in the industry I can source the same parts for significantly less of an outlay. For example, T7's blower motor is that off of John Deere 6000 and 6R series tractors and the hot water valve is that from a London Taxi. Both of which I already have in stock.
Not 100% convinced about their claim of 4kw of heat though, that's more than most units twice the size produce!
Supercharging is tempting down the line for sure! Have you owned a supercharged one as yet?
AndrewGP said:
Brilliant car and thread, I love seeing cars like these brought back to their former glory. Very interested in how you do the heater too 
Any tracks plans for it or will it be a weekend car only?
Many thanks Andrew! The heater should be similar to the link Rossco has posted although will detail it properly once finished of course.Any tracks plans for it or will it be a weekend car only?
Most likely it'll be a weekend thing, as I'm in Cornwall the nearest track is about three hours away. If it was the Turbo version I think I'd feel differently but at the moment I'm finding it very well matched to have a lot of fun on the twisty roads we have down here without going silly fast.
With that said, there are a lot of hillclimb events nearby so there is a possibility of attending those. I'd have to be very careful however as pricey clamshells and no runoff area is quite the combination!
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