E203UNW

These pictures show the restoration of my Exclusive Coupe.

I bought the car locally totally standard and after it had been unused for a couple of years. The exclusive shell had never been welded but needed quite a lot to make it solid again. It needed both sills (inner and outer), both front floors, inner wing tops, battery tray, lower A-pillars, rear arches, lower rear 1/4's, boot floor and spare wheel well.

I also added a rear rollcage, seam welded the shell, strengthened the front suspension wishbones, and fitted bilsteins and uprated springs, along with a sumpguard and quickrack.

For the engine i fitted a modified CIH from my last coupe, which had a stage3 big valve head and fast road cam on top of a freshly built bottom end with oversize pistons. Good for 145Bhp on the local rolling road on the original injection.

With that done i got the shell fully repainted apart from the roof. Luckily for me at the time i worked at a bodyshop. My navigator for rallies was a time served painter who also worked there. So over a weekend we borrowed the facilities and sorted the paintjob, which made it much cheaper for me.

Once painted i rebuilt the car adding 4 point harnesses, 16v front brakes, a hydraulic handbrake, and a big pair of spotlights ready for some road rallies.