Noddy's COTY... hope you guys like pics lol

[Noddy]

I bought my COTY on the 22nd of July 2012. The car was up on Ebay for £2000 but after I told the lady that I was a FTOOC member, she let me have it for £1500
The car was a private import in 2006( bought by her husband who went to Japan to find her the right car for her 60th birthday) with 58k Kms on the clock. She drove the car for 2 years, then fell out of her husbands 4x4 breaking her hip. The car was sold to a "car collector" in his 70s who used the car for pottering around town until he decided he had had enough of replacing the front bumper( 3 times) through his inability to see the front end of the car when parking. He went and bought a mini cooper s, and gave the car back to the couple to sell for him, hence it came into my hands
The car is number 35 on the build list, not 33 as earlier stated durrrr
VIN No DE3A0019060
These are the pics when I actually got my car home, with black painted rims they looked cack














I then had a look at the engine bay to see where the rot was.....













I looked at all the danger spots, which wern't too bad, but I could tell that I only had about a year to save the car, hmmmm.

The following weekend I ripped it over to Birmingham to my mate at F1 and he let me put it on the ramp for a good look at the car underneath

To be continued ..........

[Noddy]

Here are the pics I took of the car while it was up on my mates ramp
http://s1095.photobucket.com/user/pilli ... %20COTY/F1
They frightened the life out of me I can tell you....

But then things went from bad to worse
DEER STRIKE
http://s1095.photobucket.com/user/pilli ... R%20STRIKE

On my way to work , early one morning, I got stuck behind an articulated lorry going up the hill nearby where I live, I was doing 35mph in 3rd gear, and was 1 cars length distance wise away from the lorry, when a deer ran out in front of my car. The bloody thing actually made it across the road, then ran back out, resulting in a knackered bumper, with my air-con radiator in bits
I had owned the car 3 weeks
I bought a new air-con radiator and coolant radiator to get the car movable again and took the car to a club member (Chinna),who has a body shop. He sold me a black pre facelift bumper from his project car, fitted it and sprayed it yellow for me and saved my life . We had a long chat about how bad my car was underneath, and because the car was now 3 shades of yellow, a respray.He knew that I had done a bit of research on my car, and I knew I had his support in getting the car back to its original showroom standard condition

Just after the Deer strike, my car went into CMS in Redditch for a full service, cam belt/water pump change,front and rear drop links, and new ARBs all round and after it was discovered that the exhaust pipe from the cat-back to the back box , was the original pipe ( 18 yrs old !!!) a new exhaust.The car was also MOT'd and passed with no advisories and I was in heaven ( for a while).
I took the car to the JAE where we have an annual meet and won Best Standard Car runner up, which totally "blew my mind" as the car was still a rot box as far as I was concerned

Then in 2013, when I had saved up enough money to get the welding done on the car, I took the car back over to Chinna's workshop and told him "save it" no matter the cost because the little rotty bits I had seen when I bought the car were getting pretty bad.....

[Noddy]

Well Chinna worked his magic on my cars underneath, wire brushing all the rusty bits and a coat of Vatcan (anti rust treatment) and the under-sealing the car properly for the first time in its life



Then I saw this


Wow! the colour difference was massive. I went over to see Chinna about it. and asked him if that was the proper colour of the car, he showed me the boot area where he had fitted the rear strut brace, and indeed , it was the same colour as the inner flitch. He also explained that the outside had been sun washed over the years and obviously the paint had faded. A quick phone call to the wife, and my dream came true
Lots of prep









And then the respray





Till she looked like this









Taking my pride and joy home was one of the happiest days of my life. I grinned from ear to ear all the way home like a Cheshire cat




and its not finished yet .......

[SchumieFan]

Wow... that's um.... had a hard life... Also your rear camber is out

[Noddy]

Thanks for the "heads up" mate appreciated

[Daniel2019]

That doesn't look like factory yellow.

[destinationtoby]

That doesn't look like factory yellow.

Probably cos it's not couple photos up there ^ of the respray mayte

[Daniel2019]

I know ya parrot

I'm saying the color they put on during the respray isn't the same as factory.

[destinationtoby]

[Noddy]

that is the proper Y77 paint-code ( taken from the boot area of the car )

[SchumieFan]

Did they not just run the paint code through a computer?
Or did they just take a sample from the boot?

[Noddy]

When the rear strut bar was put in the boot, Chinna found the proper colour of the car, he matched it on the paint computer and it came up with a "match" Y77, so the car was resprayed in that colour.The car recieved 5 coats of paint

In 1996 I saw a COTY outside the Shakespeare theatre ( the guy thought I was trying to steal his car!!. You didn't peer into peoples cars like you can now-days guys lol) on foreign plates. It was the first FTO I ever saw, it was as yellow as this one is now.

I know the car looks different in the "spray area" but when the paint dried it came out the right colour, as can be seen when it is alongside other yellow cars

[SchumieFan]

It looks new... I wouldn't say it looks wrong... but I'd be pissed if they didn't re spray it by the paint code!

I'll probably go a full re spray in a year or so

[Noddy]

All I set out to do was to make my car look like new make it look as if it just came out of the factory

To set a standard for others to follow

I spent £780 just on the welding of this car to make it a solid example, then I had it rust treated and then undersealed properly. The respray was a present from my loving wife as I had planned to get the car resprayed next year, when I was satisfied with the car in itself
The underneath of the car is good
The top side of the car is good
Now I can concentrate on my engine bay and start cleaning the engine up. I do not intend to bung on a lot of "bling" bits, just clean the engine so that it is at the same standard as the rest of the car, to make it look as if it too , just came out of the factory. There is a lot of work to do on the car yet to achieve the standard, I am getting there slowly

It looks new...

Thank-you for that very kind comment mate
I hope to return the compliment in the not too distant future about your own car.

and for all you "yellow haters" go squat on a sharp stick lmao

[PHIL069]

Great work you have had done there Noddy.
It's great to see another FTO get some propper lovin'
Your misses must love you to pay for your respray, good to see.
Are you going to takle the engine bay revamp yourself, or pay someone to do it?

I know it's not yellow, but my FTO has had a lot of work done to it, by me
I get a lot of satisfaction doing my own work.
After I resprayed my FTO, I too was smiling like a "Cheshire cat" and still do whenever I look at it.

You should take a look at my threads...
http://ftoaustralia.com/v3/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=25753
http://ftoaustralia.com/v3/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=28648
I know I'm self advertising, but I am a proud Mitsi owner.
Be warned there are a lot of photos.

[SchumieFan]

No I meant the paint looks new.

Car looks like rubbish, rust and rot and I have no idea why you preach on about 'showroom' this and 'out of the factory' then you put those seats in... I don't get what you're trying to achieve on here.

I think you need some ritalin

[destinationtoby]

image.jpg

[Blue Spirit]

The car is number 35 on the build list, not 33 as earlier stated durrrr
VIN No DE3A0019060

Hi Noddy
Re the above bit in your first post...
Your COTY VIN code inception was the 53rd. (In numerical order of all COTY VINs)
Your COTY was the 35th in order of build completion (Inc manuals & autos)
BUT, was the 31st auto COTY build completed.

Trust that helps mate.
==
EDIT: PS - re paint comments in thread above, ‘Y77’ is the correct ‘Dandelion Yellow’ paint code for the COTY. (Like the Passion Red FTOs, the colour is susceptible to sun-fade - particularly on the ‘plastic’ parts like bumpers, rear spoiler & mirrors - and the yellow goes ‘creamy’ after time).

[bjk]

Don't think he's gonna reply to a four year old thread

[Blue Spirit]

He was around in FTOOC the other day...
Just giving him a heads up here down under mate

The man with one of his COTYs at Ace Cafe London
.

NoddyAce2017xx.png