SR ROLLA's 1974 Mitsi Colt GTO

[SR ROLLA]

Finally got the suspension sorted at long, long last. The guys at Racelign have smashed it with a pretty full-on set up – sectioned struts converted to coilover with camber adjust top plates up front, reset leaves and blocks in the rear, custom shocks, custom urethane bushes all around, ball joints, tie rod ends etc etc. Rides great, looks great. I need to get some decent photos, but here's some cell phone quickies.

Before:

After:

The lack of width of the rear wheels becomes even more apparent, but one thing at a time.

I'm nearly done with the Enkeis, all polished up (which took aaaages), just need to finish painting them. I've done the first one, to test the colour, it's the same gunmetal grey as the steel wheels.

Before (left) and after (right) showing how lumpy they were:

Lots of sanding:

Then LOTS of polishing and some paint:

Daily driving it and it's fucking choice. Won't be doing anything else on it for a bit, while the bank account recovers.

[SR ROLLA]

Took the car for it's cert today. No issues with the suspension, so all good there, pretty stoked. I really recommend Racelign, they have done a great job and everything seems very high quality.

There are a couple of other little things to take care of though: fan needs a shroud or cover of some kind, so now would be a good time to finally ditch it and get an electric replacement. Steering wheel needs different bolts, the supplied ones are no good. Easy peasy. The real bummer is that getting whitewalls painted on counts as a modification to the tyres, which is a no-no, so those fail. I'll have to either buy a full new set of tyres for the 13s or finish refurbing the 14s, get a couple of new tyres for those and get it complied with those wheels instead. I can always get it complied for the other wheels later, if I can find some affordable whitewall tyres. I guess flappers could be an option too? but I think those are mostly only really wide/full wall white. Not really keen on plain balloony black tyres.

[SR ROLLA]

I got everything sorted for the cert. Got some new, real white wall tyres and a new, programmable brain for my electric fan, which has also been relocated to inside the radiator, so I could ditch the viscous fan.

 

Here's how the engine bay currently looks, you can see the fan's new location at the bottom.

 

I also got tyres for the Enkei Mosports, which look pretty slick. I've got some centre caps on the way and the height will be coming down another half inch to remove some of the increased guard gap that comes with the smaller rolling diameter. I'm also going to look into spacing the rears out, so they sit more flush with the body, until such time as I can get two of the wheels widened for the rear.

 

Sailed through a warrant last week too, no issues.

[SR ROLLA]

Lots of driving, it's sweet as hell. Took it back to the suspension guys to get a check over and tune up. They also brought it down another half inch, which means it is now as low as it can be and still be legal.

Pics

[SR ROLLA]

Just repeating myself really, but this thing is cool as. Great summer cruiser. Love the colour when the sun hits it.

 

I'm at the point where I kind of need to look for things to do on it now. I took the old black plates off and tidied them up for maximum crispiness. Bit of a shame to lose the concentric factory machine marks but way cleaner, and much more visible now.

[SR ROLLA]

Don't think I've ever shown the GTO on the Galant hubcaps that i got a while ago. Nice option to have for nanna spec.

 

One little job ticked off recently was the grotty seatbelt 'press' buttons. I recently had the belts re-webbed, so they are looking super nice and these munted little stickers were not doing it for me.
I found a place that does cool holographic stickers cheap, drew up a re-creation of the original design and bob's your uncle. You can see the original on the left, with my new version on the right.

 

I also got another set of wheels. This time a untidy set of 15 inch SSR mesh, one pair 7 inch wide, the other 8 inch.

 

Lots of polishing, stripping and prepping later I was ready to repaint and reassemble with new hardware, valves and centrecaps (courtesy of Pine Engineering, who also answered many questions and gave helpful advice throughout the process).

 

Then it became a bit of a task to find tyres that would fit them under the car without rubbing.

 

All done now and sitting pretty with no rubs or scrapes. Pretty pleased, looks much better without the wheels set back into the guards.

[SR ROLLA]

Very tiny but pretty satisfying job

   

   

Did a few other switches too, lights, hazards etc all clean and crispy.

And here is a picture more interesting than closeups of switch details: GTO in the sun