Two bit's of news in this post, a minor service in the shape of a coolant flush, and the much more excited start of a custom face off grille project.
Coolant Flush
Having previously suffered head gasket failure, which was fully fixed, the coolant tank was dirty and the coolant level obscured. Clearly the tank hadn't been cleaned out as a part of the fix.
Taking the opportunity whilst the coolant was drained, I removed the coolant tank and gave it a thorough clean. The purpose being that monitoring the coolant level, and identifying any future signs of head gasket failure would be easier.
The coolant that was removed from the car didn't have much antifreeze in at all, certainly not a 50/50 mix, so I ensured the mix was correct when refilling.
Taking the opportunity whilst the coolant was drained, I removed the coolant tank and gave it a thorough clean. The purpose being that monitoring the coolant level, and identifying any future signs of head gasket failure would be easier.
The coolant that was removed from the car didn't have much antifreeze in at all, certainly not a 50/50 mix, so I ensured the mix was correct when refilling.
Close up
Before (left) - After (right)
Face Off Grille
Right, mundane stuff out the way, on to the interesting stuff.
Much the same as the wheels and seats, the standard Rover 25 grille doesn't scream sports hatch. To help remedy that I ordered a fibre glass face off grille from Moto-build on eBay. I had a 10% off coupon too that helped persuade me to buy it.
On first inspection the grille seemed pretty well made, but after trial fitting it on, it really wasn't that great. The tabs for fixing the grille to the bumper didn't fit the aperture, which held the grille off the bumper preventing seating down.
Clearly the tabs had to be removed and then sanded down to a clean edge.
Along with the tabs on the face off grille, the bumper upright in the middle of the grille aperture was also preventing the grille from fitting correctly. It didn't take much doing to remove it with a hack saw though.
Work could now start on making some mock up mounting tabs from some thin metal sheet ahead of fabricating some final ones out of thicker, more robust metal. The plan is to fibre glass them on once tailored to the car. To stop the grille from flapping about in the wind I also made some hooks for the lower edge of the grille.
That's it for now, the next steps are to; fabricate the final brackets, find a method of attaching the mesh to the grille, get the grilled sprayed and finally get it fitted.
Let me know what you guys think in the comments below, have you used Moto build parts before? Did you find their quality as poor as I did?
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