FE54 - making her mine.
 

I have just bought FE54 - a stunning pearl black mk2 ZS180 saloon from ZS Sam at a price we were both happy with. Two trains and a taxi took just over two hours to get to Sams, not bad considering the drive back is over an hour.

Before I go any further I want to say that I mean no disrespect to any of the previous owners, mechanically the car is spot on and she drives as well as my mk1 did when I bought her in 2008 at 56k, they have all loved the car and looked after her and many if not all the things I have found are probably me being picky, she is nearly 10 years old after all.

So where do we start? I think the worst bit is finding signs of previous accident repair from a heavy rear end shunt. The bottoms of both c pillers have had filler which is starting to fail, the panels at the back of the car have been seam welded rather than spot welded, the gap around the boot isn't quite even and there is signs of repainting around the openings for the rear lights.

However the repair has been to a high standard as there are no mismatchs to the paint work and as there has been no mention of an accident in all the time the car has been on the forum I guess it happened many years ago. I have a couple of ideas about how to repair the c piller flaking without having a full respray. I wouldn't be suprised if the previous 3 owners didn't even know of the repair.

I was also a bit disappointed with the number of changed fixings but these are easily changed so will be, proberbly with new ones from ebay.

My final concern after the drive home was that the seats just didn't feel as comfitable as I was expecting.

As Mrs TC ws away for a couple of days over the weekend she didn't know about the car until I picked her up from Stansted and after a frosty reception for a few minutes because "we always do things like this togeather" she warmed to the car and identified why the seats felt different, they have firmer side bolsters so are more body hugging.

Knowing I might get a bit of a reaction I spent my spare car time over the weekend doing bits on the MGF and made sure the house was clean and tidy for when she got home, it worked as I've been released to spend time on FE54.

I had Wedensday off so started swapping a few bits over from the MK1.

So far we have swapped the rear lights for the ones I smoked after I first got the MK1, the dull red suits both cars more than the bright red ones. I also swapped the bulb panels so have got LED rear lights.

Then I did a bit of steering wheel swapping - FE54 came with a TF wheel which has gone on to Mrs TC's ZR, the O/E wheel has gone back on GV51 and the R45 wheel has gone into FE54. This has meant that I have had to borrow the ZR airbag to go in GV51 but I have bought one from Cally180 so I will have a complete ZR set up.

I also had to swap rotary couplers on FE54 and the ZR as the airbag connections are different.

I swapped the dome bolts from the spoiler on GV51 for the normal bolts on FE54 (was this a project drive saving?) and the carpet mats as I prefer the grey ones, doesn't make the car so dark inside.

Finally I swapped the steering wheel cowling so I could fit the scangaugeII which has shown up that the car is running a bit cool - looks like I will be doing a thermostat change.

What temperature are you seeing on average ?

Plans over the next few weeks are to swap the speakers for O/E ones, the vibe focals are very good but I can't get the base from them that I like and I'm sure someone out there will appriciate them more than I do.

I will be putting all the audio from GV51 in (and giving back Mrs TC her head unit, don't think she knows it's missing yet).

Coming across will be the induction set up I designed, the battery tray arrived today, just need to order the cable etc.

I will be getting rear electrics, this will be less hasle than swapping all the bits over.

I may well swap some of the project drive parts from GV51.

It is taking twice as long to get up to opperating temp and it isn't going over 81'.

Ah yeah, thats low, mid nineties seems about right, the slow warm up certainly sounds like a stuck thermostat.

Longer term plans include
Sheddist (I'd forgotten how bad the O/E set up is).
Try and get that cruise working.
Maybe some tints and C/F wrap and black woven mesh on the grill.

and sell GV51.
(and start taking photos)

I've gone through the "have I done the right thing" stage I go through with every car and am falling in love, I even got to see the true colour of the paint the other day - lush.

Good project, looking forward to some pics.

Is the carpet in your mk1 better quality than the mk2.

Not sure but as I maybe swapping seats I can check it out at the same time.