fun with my tigra

Sephnroth

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1995 Tigra 1.4 16V
Hey guys :)

i'm new here so first off: hi! nice to meet you all :)

I own a 1995 tigra 1.4 - it has a bit of a sad story! When I bought the car I had never even sat in a drivers seat before, let alone drive any car. I came to driving late and I was 24 when I bought this.

My boss was selling it and I had been thinking of driving for a long time. I trust my boss completely so wasnt afraid of getting ripped off and he offered me a superb deal: £700 split up into 3 installments. The car came with aftermarket alloys (cost about 700 new in the first place), a silly-but-fun large exhaust, a £300 when-new blaplunkt stereo, lexus lights and a few other bits and bobs - so I couldnt say no! I bought it and took up driving lessons soon after.

Anyway, in the mean time I didnt want it to sit unused because I knew that was bad for it. So I allowed my friend to be insured on it and use it for work and university which really helped him out. However, he hasnt had the best of luck. The first accident came when he rushed into the car out of the rain, started it up and slipped on the rather silly full-metal sports pedals that were installed in it and put it streight into a wall. Lights smashed and front bumper bent right in.

We got that fixed and it wasnt too much hastle - though soon after my radiator fan completely stopped working. Another friend of mine got it going for a while but then it stopped again. I bought a second hand radiator and fan from ebay (which incidently turned out to be from a corsa and I had to use the old fan on the new radiator just to fit it in!) hoping replacing the switch on the radiator would make the fan auto come on again - it didnt. The fan works when directly hooked to the battery, but wont turn itself on when engine is hot :(

Then more recently there was a comedy crash. Friend driving up a steep hill soon after heavy winds we had experienced and apprantly ran over a "branch" that had blown down. It got caught in the wheel arch so he stopped and got out and saw this branch sticking out of the car. He pulled it out.. which disconnected the hand break somehow. Car rolls off down the hill with him running after it - he managed to get to the window and pull on the wheel making the car avoid a very nice lexus with a woman still in it but instead it smashed into a wall.

Rear of car? ruined.

Bumper cracked and basically destroyed - metal work crumpled. If claimed on insurance would of been immediate write off. Damage was just too bad. So, we didnt claim :) We took it to my friends garage in dorset and spent a long weekend working on the car. Beating it out ourselfs and then fiber glassing and then filler. Still needs another sand down and another coat of filler and then painting but it looks OK.

Thats my story! From bargin to wreck without me even driving it but hey guess it goes that way sometimes! XD The flip side is now i know its a write off i've been a little more flamboyant in what im willing to do to it. We couldnt get a red bumper for it so we bought the cheapest we had found and I sanded it down, filled it, sanded, primed and then painted it matt black. Looks lovely actually and i've decided im going to do the skirts in black as well. Maybe the roof too, undecided! But it certainly looks unique :D If I can make the car "go" for another year i'll be happy.

I'm wondering if anyone has any clues about the fan (I hope its not the ecu) and what AFFORDABLE mods I can do performance wise? Theres no point me pouring cash into this thing if it wont last much longer. I would be considering an engine swap and all sorts otherwise. But i'd like some experience tweaking what i've got so I can get my hands dirty and learn some stuff.

Heres a scarey thing: its losing water somewhere and we cant find where. I thought oh great, there goes the gasket. But there is no gunk under the engine cap at all, it looks fine - it runs great. But after a couple of trips the water is completely gone... but i see no drips! Completely confused. Will probably take it to a garage to be looked over (unless anyone has any ideas) and if the water problem can be solved and the fan made to work properly then I will put a new exhaust on and see what I can get out of this vecheal before it dies!

I have this exhaust sat in my garage boxed and new:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270391351529&ssPageName=ADME:B:EF:GB:1123

but if the car cant be made to go I guess I sell that exhaust, sell the alloys, stereo, etc and look for a new car!

...sorry for writing so much.. I tend to get carried away!

-Dave
 
ok, time for a few photos now i have the post count-

lets start with the damage from the last crash:

tigra_damage1sml.jpg


metal work dented, bumper cracked...

tigra_damage2sml.jpg


after taking the bumper off it was worse than I thought. Metal work really bad and, perhaps worse, dreaded rust!

finally, after taking the inside out of the boot we see...

tigra_damage3sml.jpg


crumpled! heart dropped at this point as I realised how bad everything was. but I got over it and tried to buck myself up and just make the car look as nice as possiable and last as long as i can!

there was alot of panel beating on the back done. we knocked out some rust and welded on some fresh metal patches. Wont flood the thread with photos of all that :p I took the replacement bumper and sanded the paint off, filled in the scratches (it was second hand) and sanded again. Then we primed:

tigra_bumper_primedsml.jpg


and then I sprayed matt black. pretty much every panel on the tigra is a slightly different shade of red due to aged fading - very hard to match any colour that looks good :x so I went different and for black. Heres how it turned out:

tigra_bumper_black1sml.jpg


I intend to do the skirts in the same black, I think it will look very nice! my friend wants me to do the roof too, im undecided. Any opinions?

tigra_bumper_black2sml.jpg


and

tigra_bumper_black3sml.jpg


other jobs we were doing at the same time included fitting a new sub which started off as a FLI trap 1000w but first off when I got it back and then took out the head unit from the car I found NO inputs and outputs (I had been promised that stereo had ins and outs - i was not pleased) and when I had bought a new JVC head unit and we installed the sub we found the sub was actually faulty.

stressed we took back the sub but they had no more in stock so I accepted the smaller (but perfectly acceptable) 800w version.

I also bought a new air filter which had the wrong sized pipes (hah..) and the exhaust we wanted to fit didnt turn up till a week later (3 business days it should of been :/). But all that was GOOD because we barely had enough time to do the rest of the work!

After beating out as much as we could we fiber glassed over the top of the remaining dent trying to keep the curve of the original metal work and then applied filler - sanded and then filled again. Its still not finished and needs another GOOD sand before one final layer of filler and another sand before painting :) Heres how it looks atm, unfinished:

tigra_filler1sml.jpg


phew. My fondest hope is to get this car looking nice, fix its few problems under the hood and hopefully have it running another year or 2. I'm really rather attached to it, but i know its not well bless it :(

-Dave
 
guess not many people care for the tigra ;) but quick update incase anyone is silently reading: today we got the pipping and clips I needed and fitted the air filter.

I know reading the article on this car here that people recommend a panel air filter for a few reasons - but I bought my air filter before finding this site and as it was all I had I decided to try and fit it and see how it is - always possiable to get a panel later.

My experience has been its great! The noise is fantastic (certainly caught the attention of the usual guys hanging around on their scooters today :p) and there was a noticiable increase in performance which I really didnt expect. My friend gave it a test drive after and reported the same results - nice noise, truely noticiable increase in performance.

The filter was attached using a viper performance silicone hose (scored it cheap at the end of jap fest) and two hard plastic pipes. It sits nicely in the bottom left of the engine bay - zip ties keep it secure. We made a small modification to the standard tigra air intake vent (with a hacksaw :p) to feed it cold air.

Now just needs the new exhaust on and the finishing touches to the exterior :) In other news, water seems to of stopped leaking which worries me a bit because we did nothing to fix it - will look deeply into this. The fan definately works when attached directly to power so if its impossiable to make auto work without a new ecu then i'll fit a switch inside to turn it on and off manually - getting a professional to look at it on wednesday!

will keep you updated :)
 
Thats some good work there buddy keep it up. Check the seal on your filler cap for the water. When the engine gets up to temp it may be leaking some steam?
 
Nice work on the repairs so far, don't suppose i could drop mine round for you to do my rusty rear arches, lol!
 

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