Home made

I've been meaning to do this for a while. I have owned my '98 c2 aero for almost 2 years and it's been a major work I progress this last year. I'm just going to give a quick run down of the work so far as it could go on a bit. If anyone has any questions I can go back over some of it or dig out some pictures.

It's a decent car or so I thought. A 1998 midnight c2 aero 3.4 with lsd, m030 and sunroof. 74'000 miles with a good service history but unfortunately also an accident history but it was priced accordingly.

I have a fairly decent record of the work on my Instagram @nedhannon

Here goes

First few basic mods while still using the car as my weekend toy were
Home modified engine mounts
Omp steering wheel
Rebushed short shifter that was already fitted by a previous owner
Rear wiper delete
Spax springs and 15mm wheel spacers
Modified rear arb to make it adjustable
Fixed saggy drivers seat base
Hh removal and new piper x air filter
Iridium spark plugs and sure fire coil packs

The car was already fitted with a ss exhaust, manifolds and cats of unknown brand.
I had it on a local rolling road and it made 298hp and 239lbs ft with a good spread across the range.

Mot was up in June '19 so I decided to do brake pipes and anything else needing doing on the way. It had been wax oiled so I started to clean it off and discovered a lot of crusty bits.

I basically had to cut out the inner and outer sills and fabricate them from scratch, making jacking points and anything else there. You would not believe how bad this was. The rear arches weren't great, not bad but I thought while I was at it I'd sort them to. Made them from scratch along with inner tub sections and the rear of both quarter panels. Some parts of the floor but it was generally ok. All primed, seam sealed and coated with upon gravitex.

Next up I stripped out the front suspension. Cleaned back the turrets to bare metal, treated and again primed, sealed etc.
Cleaned all parts up, painted and made some upgrades. Cleaned and greased top mount bearings, new mounts, bump stops etc. New coffin arms with my own modified poly bushes. New brake pipes etc. Poly arb bushes.

While that was stripped I made new power steering lines and fitted a trw pump in the frunk. It's not wired yet but I'll get to it sometime.

Air con deleted as it didn't work any way so it's all ripped out.

Down the chassis it has new brake pipes etc. I still need to source decent under trays but I might make Ali ones.



Coming to the rear I have been busy. Suspension pulled out, cleaned up etc.
I made bespoke rear solid subframe bushes like the gt3 items. I can have these made for very reasonable money compared to anything for sale. I just couldn't stomach paying through the nose for a very simple item.
Again new modified coffin arms and I had a go at making my own dog bone poly bushes. Time will tell on these but I'm optimistic. I can make these in any hardness so I can alter stiffness. Adjustable rear toe arms also fitted.



The engine was dropped out. Ims checked. New rms and Sachs clutch along with a lwfw. Injectors cleaned. New aos and a general good clean up.
Modified power steering pump to just become a free turning pulley to use the non a/c belt. Air con pump removed along with all lines.

All new brake lines, including over the top of the box which is where this work all started. Hel braided brake lines as well.
The cassis in the engine bay needed a serious going over so it was stripped back, treated as before and painted white as I had no idea at that stage what colour the car was going to be painted.

The latest leg of the journey is painting the car guards red. This colour was chosen purely because I could have a go at it myself.
I have half of the shell done so far.

And that's where I'm at. Along way from finished but a serious amount of work done and lessons learned. Ill update with more as I go but the plan is to strip 100kgs out and make a decent track day toy on a budget.

As it was

Rear inner sill section with outer section removed. Just to give you an idea of how bad this was

Front inside the jacking point with outer and inner sill sections cut away

Inner sill made

...I wouldn't be at all surprised if most of the oe aerokit cars are hiding horrors under the sill trims...it's a moisture and salt trap...20 years of use and you have to accept that rust will be an outcome...

Enough of a reason for me to avoid an aero car tbh...imagine them in another 5-10 years

Outer sill made

Rear arches made

Front turrets cleaned up, sealed etc

Engine bay painted

That is unbelievably bad corrosion and great effort on fixing it.

I had my 2003 car up on stands over the winter to waxoil (Bilt Hamber) and I feared the worse. It was immaculate - sill bungs removed and it was like new inside at all four corners. Only rust found was minor - 1 bubble on front wing edge, few bits on inner arches where plastic liners rubbed and some both sides where the forward box sections weld to floor (looked like mig rather than spot welds as several thicknesses of steel). Brake pipes were shot so they've all been changed!

Good luck with the rest of the build.

Sills painted and seam sealed before upon gravitex applied

Almost finished floor

Awesome work my friend 8)

I'm almost afraid to check mine out properly now!!!

Power steering pump turned into a simple pulley