Race car build Australia
 

Hey guys, probably seen ive been a member on this forum for a while and with a fair few zs's. Thought i would update about my red zs hatch which some of you would have seen for sale a few months back. Well after some major deliberation i decided to bite the bullet and ship the zs out to Australia to join me. I wasnt going to sell it for a lot in the uk as it had been sat in storage and was a part stripped out track car. Probably a crazy thing to do as the shipping costs far more than i was going to sell it for in the uk but it was my first MG and mainly ive never driven anything that gives me joy like the zs. Sure theres lots of other track cars i could have bought here but who wants to be the same as everyone else?:p ON the plus side its the only hatch thats ever been in Australia so its definitely unusual. Heres a pic of the car in the UK, plus showing what it was like inside, and now the stripping out begins. PLus cleaning the headlights as the they had badly clouded in storage.

first job was removing all the interior trim, sound deadening to come out this weekend hopefully. Then i started on the rear doors, cut up (decided to leave the side impact bar in as the mark 1 this is easy but the mk2 is not so easy as its welding and glued in and its easy to warp the door panel a bit and its only about 500g) also had a brain wave on operation of the door and by using the lock button and attaching it to the door opening loop means i still can open from the inside and it looks a bit more oem than a pull cable. Perspex to go in this week too.

I got some ultra light foam/plastic material for the door card as i like things to be light and also a bit aesthetically pleasing. Battery also moved waiting on the cut off switch gear to arrive.

Got to do the front doors next, im fitting a manual winder in place of the electric for the front windows, having non opening perspex is not an option in Aus! Then just need to make some nice door cards and recess the original door handle for the inside.

Also a bit which is likely to get some frowns is im keeping the MG heater set up for the time being at least. my last race car (the blue one) only had a old one from a mini fitted which only blew hot air and only from two pipes and it was crap at the best of times. id much rather a car with better cold and hot airflow which works well and i'll look to save the weight elsewhere so this is staying oem.

SAGGY BUMPER FIX! bit of a brain wave, saggy bumpers been annoying me for a while and especially as i have the clio diffuser fitted which seems to make it a bit worse. so i found a plumbing solution! Ball **** float valve arm is a long threaded arm with a bend in one end, turns out is the perfect size and is a 5 minute job to fix the bumper problems!! :trampoline::trampoline: (picture of the ball valve isnt the one is used its just to show roughly what i mean)

Next jobs;

Remove sound deadening
front doors strip down
service and remove aircon
service the coilovers
Fit 300mm brakes (when i can find some ATR calipers!)
Fiberglass bootlid/bonnet
Hopefully fit btcc kit to it as i might have got my hands on some parts:trampoline:
Find a suitable single wiper motor for front
new gear box
Hopefully test fit a dc2 full bolt in roll cage as rough measurements seem to show this should fit :hmmm:

Sounds like you are being busy.

Why are you servicing the air con before removing it?
Seriously though, you'll need to swap the heater box for a non climate control version if running without A/C.

You may be able to modify the current wiper set up to run a single wiper, the link is to my how to from my maestro and gives the basic idea.
http://home.btconnect.com/talkingcar...er/wipers2.htm

well done for sticking with the ZS, people seem to be breaking them if they get a stone chip on the bonnet!!!

Good luck with it and keep us informed of its progress on track.

:):):)

This is one to watch :D

Looks great, never knew they only sold the saloon over there.

Thanks for the link. I meant full service with belts but using the non aircon belts so I can remove the compressor etc save extra weight while
I'm doing the belts etc!

Only about 30 were sold as well apparently, already found one in a scrap yard but it was totalled, rate for them to come up for sale