True, slightly easier than boosted life going on race tracks then



I've been using buy car parts for most of my parts recently. I think they're part of Autodoc or just a different front, seem to have a decent selection of manufacturers at fair prices and both my orders have come from Germany. The only down side is it takes at least a week for the parts to arrive which isn't an issue if you're not in a hurry for them.

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Goldie the track car.

More progress since the last update.

New crank seal went in.
20200118_130609 by Steve Count, on Flickr

Lightened flywheel back on
20200118_131708 by Steve Count, on Flickr

Clutch back on
20200118_132504 by Steve Count, on Flickr

Converted the thermostat housing setup to use 4 studs instead of 2 and 2 of them funny long bolts they use as standard. Had to linish down one of the captive washers so it didnt foul the baker bm adapter but all in all this is a way better setup as the standard bolts only get a couple of threads of purchase into the head.
20200118_133709 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20200118_135105 by Steve Count, on Flickr

Replaced the seal in the water pump take off whilst i had easy access to it, also cleaned everything up between taking this photo and fitting it
20200118_135414 by Steve Count, on Flickr

Half way through putting everything back together
20200118_193049 by Steve Count, on Flickr

Bought a pair of 60mm id 140mm long ~350lb springs.
20200208_123841 by Steve Count, on Flickr

More of the front end back together. I've fitted the oil cooler in place but it's not plumbed in for the running in process.
20200208_123853 by Steve Count, on Flickr

Added some brake ducting once again
20200208_130039 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20200208_132038 by Steve Count, on Flickr

And all back together
20200208_150337 by Steve Count, on Flickr

I've had it started and it seems to run well enough for the brief time it was on. I'm just waiting for a day of decent weather with no salt on the roads so i can take it for a long run and get everything ran in.

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Goldie the track car.

Fantastic
Good luck Steve

Long overdue an update on here I think.
I've not really got much to add in terms of updates on Goldie but i've been pretty busy with other projects and thought I might as well include them in this update as I enjoy reading other peoples project threads which show other aspects of their lives.

As some may know i've had a diablo red '6 since around 2008 which was my daily for well over a decade. That took its toll on the car with lacquer peel and the usual rust so i decided it was time to give it the attention it deserved before i started working on goldie again.

20181111_144110 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20181111_144114 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20210327_173120 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20210401_170703 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20210402_153250 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20210402_153258 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20210406_152337 by Steve Count, on Flickr

With the underside, wheel arches and engine bay sorted i then sent the car off for a respray.

20211106_113002 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20211201_160636 by Steve Count, on Flickr

Bought it a few shiny bits and had a load of stuff powdercoated

20220326_145414 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20220327_164233 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20220410_171443 by Steve Count, on Flickr

Quite pleased with the car now, not shown is also a quaife atb diff that i fitted, its a great car to drive on the roads now but i've been busy with other stuff so havent really used it for much other than pugfest and the occasional local car meet.


Next up i decided to put a bit of time and effort into a 205 that i bought as a rolling shell a few years ago. It's still a work in progress (which has ground to a halt due to another project i took on which i'll get to in a bit )

20200728_181816 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20200801_190755 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20200805_180235 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20200805_180239 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20200805_185223 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20200807_175202 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20200807_175206 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20200809_110945 by Steve Count, on Flickr

The 205 still has a lot of stuff to sort out, but the plan is to eventually stick in a gti6 engine on throttle bodies, i've got a plate diff and an xsara 5 speed gearbox. I'll probably stick the DTA S40 ecu from goldie into this project and buy something a bit more comprehensive for goldie when the time comes.

Quite a few of my mates started doing trackdays again as the covid restrictions started to lift but at this point I didn't have anything track worthy, the goal was something relatively cheap and fun but quick enough to keep me interested. Along came my 172 cup

20221018_193733 by Steve Count, on Flickr

The cheap bit soon went out of the window though, before long it had new discs all round, Carbone Lorraine RC6's up front, braided lines, RBF660 fluid, new radiator, new cambelt kit and dephaser, new power steering pump, oil cooler, power steering cooler, coil pack, spark plugs, ht leads, crank position sensor, injectors, coolant temperature sensor, all new oils etc. I've probably forgotten a few things but it's now fine to take on track and not have to worry about a thing. So far it's done blyton a few times, Cadwell park and Bedford autodrome with no issues.

As you may have noticed, i do most of the work on my cars on the drive which has worked but is massively inconvenient. The old garage was ok as dry storage but not an awful lot more as you can see from this very old pic

1 by Steve Count, on Flickr

Anywho, I decided to bite the bullet and build myself a new garage. I got the plans drawn up by a mate (Birk on here) and applied for planning permission. I'd measured everything and figured out that i could go for 8x8m and that would just be within my allowance but still require planning permission. Unfortunately that was rejected for whatever reason but they would allow 8x7m which i decided should be enough, the next hurdle was they wanted me to have a flat roof but i wanted an apex. Again, had to compromise and go for an offset hip pitch roof.
I've got surprisingly few photos of the build to date somehow, and it's still a work in progress but about 90% of the way there now and very usable.

I got my cousin and a mate to help with the concrete base, it took us about 5 days all in, estimating around 40 tons of soil removed (2 grab wagons brimmed), and a few skips along the way.

20221029_140506 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20221031_115159 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20221031_172009 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20221031_180033 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20221101_102146 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20221101_103100 by Steve Count, on Flickr

In hindsight backing the lorry down the drives was not the move, it destroyed parts of mine and the neighbours drive which then cost a fair amount to fix afterwards

20221102_150044 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20221103_145046 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20221104_162619 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20221104_175427 by Steve Count, on Flickr

Next up was the brickwork. I fancied doing it myself but knew just how long it would take having to fit it in around work and only having weekends free, in the end I got a couple of brickies in and the brickwork was done in under 2 weeks.

20221119_093924_001 by Steve Count, on Flickr

Next was the roof. A neighbour has his own roofing company so I got him on the case. Once the scaffolding had been put up the roof and guttering was done in a couple of days. I can't find a photo of just the roof progress but the next job was fitting doors so here's that

20230609_195221 by Steve Count, on Flickr

The old garage only had one plug socket, which was frustrating to say the least! This was my time to add an insane amount of sockets throughout the garage, i did all the electrics to first fix then had to get a sparky in to finish and sign them off (part of building control was needing the certificate from a sparky)

20230326_153617 by Steve Count, on Flickr

Next up i wanted to insulate the roof before i filled the place. I left a 50mm air gap below the roof felt then used 50mm thick polystyrene. The hope is to help insulate sound as much as keep in heat during winter.

20230409_193519 by Steve Count, on Flickr

With the polystyrene fitted i cleared the floor and gave it two coats of epoxy floor paint. I didn't realise at the time when we powerfloated the concrete that it would make finding an epoxy paint thats compatible with that finish so difficult, but i found some which would work if i gave it a thorough clean, then applied some special primer then the paint. I'm not sure if i read into it a bit too much but it seems like very fussy stuff, wanting x amount of time between coats, needing x temperature and x humidity etc. It put me off doing it for weeks as i waited for a few days of decent weather forecast but i got there in the end.

20230601_180529 by Steve Count, on Flickr

Next up was to add some more concrete to join the old drive to the new garage and widen it to make use of the wide door. The original garage base took 11 cubic metres of concrete to make. I think this little drive extension came out at around 4 cubic metres but some of that was also used to repair my neighbours drive which got destroyed by backing the hardcore wagon down then two cement mixer wagons

20230804_133537 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20230805_115906 by Steve Count, on Flickr

Next up i decided to run a bit of a ring main for compressed air. I don't have any photos but its basically just blue plastic air pipe with several drops to pcl fittings along the walls. Eventially i'll plumb the compressor into it and have access to the compressed air in multiple locations. You can see the blue pipe in some of the following images.
My OCD also kicked in about the roof insulation maybe not being as good as it could be so i then decided to add 100mm of rockwool below the polystyrene, again, to absorb noise and keep heat in during winter and out during summer.

20231012_174450 by Steve Count, on Flickr

Next up, the reason i wanted a pitched roof was acquired

20231027_142505 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20231028_182715 by Steve Count, on Flickr

20231104_141557 by Steve Count, on Flickr

Next up, seeing as im a mad hoarder of old french crap i decided to add a bit of a mezzanine floor type thing. I'd got loads of spare timber from the roofing and some steel box section from a big gate that i'd made to keep the back garden hidden away from public view.
It can store a fair old amount of car parts up there now that it's complete

20231105_190024 by Steve Count, on Flickr

With that done i then started to board off the insulation to make it more aesthetically pleasing, like with everything else it was quite time consuming and a pain in the arse to fit on my own but i got there eventually. I also upgraded some of the lights inside the garage to newer LED battens, I still need to buy more but they are doing the job ok for now.

20240224_165119 by Steve Count, on Flickr

And the main reason why i wanted a pitched roof so badly, eventually the plan is for the 205, red 306 and goldie to all live within the garage whilst still having a bit of space for workshop activities.

20231210_113611 by Steve Count, on Flickr

I've also bought and fitted a chinese diesel heater and added a column radiator which the exhaust gasses flow through for a bit more heat extraction but for some reason i cant find a photo of that. It seems to work well when i tested it out the other day, next time i'm out there i'll grab a photo and update this thread again.

I'm hoping to actually start working on goldie again by the end of the year, fortunately most of the other cars are now in a pretty sorted place so i can turn my full attention to goldie once i've finished off the last few bits of the garage.

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Goldie the track car.