Well I have now added to my collection a new toy, yes I purchased a Mk3, but i thought what would be the best way to go, so I bought a Brame.

The car arrived and i have already observed that there is going to be a lot of work to get this car restored back to its glory days.

I will be putting a post in 'Parts Wanted' soon as I will require

1/ Mk3 rear tailgate (black)
2/ both front guards Mk3 (black)
3/ Mk3 bonnet (black)
4/ possibly both doors Mk3 (at least a new internal liners for passenger side)
5/ I will need some help for a good graphics person to make new graphics for the brame labels on both front fenders and a new rear graphic (it is not there)
6/ New good condition engine cover
7/ good condtion rear parcel shelf

This will start to get the car back on the road towards the car it should be. Once I have these parts, will get he roof etc repainted and then once i have the Simmons have the centres returned to gold centres.

will post pics soon

Going by your MK1's before this I am keen to see a build thread and see how you go restoring this! Good luck with it

Here is the condition of the car it needs massive TLC

Looks like it's had a few red panels resprayed there. Hatch, guard and bonnet?
Poor thing has had a tough life

Easy to see those points, that is why I am trying to source black panels first, if I cannot, then I will have to get all these panels resprayed fully inside and out, to get the best outcome to ensure they look the part.

I does appear to have suffered over the years, I hope she appreciates some TLC.

Hi,

Congratulations on the purchase. A very nice find I must say and well worth preserving!

Is this car the 'stage one' version that was described in the Fast Fours article? It appears to have a stock GTi exhaust manifold (?)

Cheers,

Drew

I believe that yes this was a stage one model as described in the article - thus would be a Group 'E' level car - not a Group 'A' as the extra stages were outlined. Also as the handbook image shows the car was sold as 'STOCK'. That's not to say I can do some extra work to make it little better, within the gambits of what was done to these cars.

Hi Neo,

I think the word 'stock' written on the handbook actually refers to the Action Motors vehicle 'stock number' which in this case was 'stock #118587'. Nothing to do with any modifications.

She will certainly look a treat when painted up nicely again with the gold 15" Simmons in place!

Best of luck with the build!

Drew

Car is still with mechanic getting all the work required for the road worthy certificate ... big list

Have decided to get personalised plates from PPQ and gone with '8RAM3' (Gold letters on Black) ... hope they will look good.

Whilst that is happening still waiting for rims to be couriered up from Sydney - once here will get them pulled apart and the centres reverted back to the powdered coated gold

Also will be organising for Goodyear F1 tyres to go on the Simmons rims.

Hope to have this on the road for my Xmas present - fingers crossed.

This is awesome! Cannot wait to see the end product!

Still some work to go with suspension but wheels back on brings back the Brame memories

Subscribed to thread!

Going to take a lot of love to bring her back; but its in good hands!

The car is back on the road .. after so much work required to just make it roadworthy

The safety inspection required

1/ Full brake overhaul as two of the calipers were seized, and the discs were beyond machining (one had a serious warp)

So decided to go with new slotted rears and dimpled and slotted fronts

newer (reconditioned) larger calipers have also been fitted

2/ Gearbox - due to the oil coming up the speedo cable (O rings needed to be replaced) the gearbox had been left nearly empty and some damage had occurred - the remaining 'liquid' that came out was burnt sludge - so an overhaul, (HD clutch and flywheel machined) and new oil.

3/ The suspension required new top mounts and bearings - the fronts were completely shot.

4/ New drive shaft on passenger side and new CV's on drivers side

5/ Air Cond - this was in terrible state, from the actual bracket and block mount needed to be replaced, a new reconditioned compressor, replacement of relays - and it will still need some more work by a Auto Electrician (anyone know a good one?)

6/ New Battery and a number of fuses

7/ new fan belt and AC belts

8/ Wiper replacements

So all now completed and car on road.

Other things done:

I have replaced the 14in alloys that had been fitted on the car (these will be for sale) with a set of original Simmons (from my Mk1).

I have replaced the parcel shelf thanks to Nic70, as well as a few other parts to go on.

replaced the steering wheel with a Momo - not the same as the original but one with padding, that was 'donated' from the red Mk1

I have given it a good bath and sort of polish - the paint is in terrible condition (even in the repainted parts).

Still to be done:

Clean up all the oil from where it came up the speedo cable - still more cleaning to be done as it has gone through all behind the dash.

More work on suspension

Now that I have finally received the original Simmons (sent with tyres so extra cost in freight) that were from the car these will need to be pulled apart as they have beed painted silver including the bolts etc, so will need to replace all of them, and have the centres powder coated gold, plus source new Simmons centre caps from Tempe Tyres.

Engine - do I go for bigger cams? I have a set of 4-1 headers - may put them on?

Strut brace

Repaint the entire car - was hoping to just paint the roof etc, but the whole car will need doing.

Once I get my new personalised plates, put them on.

Get the AC fixed by a auto electrician.

Decals to be replaced - better after repaint

So a car that I bought and was told was ready for safety inspection, would probably be able to be driven back to Brisbane, I am glad I had it transported now.

Well done getting it this far in the short amount of time you have had it
Good luck with getting the oil out from under the dash. It gets in EVERYWHERE All the wiring that runs along under the dash to the centre console gets bathed in oil and is not much fun cleaning. I thought I had done a good job until a couple of years later, I pulled the entire dash out and there was still a good lathering of it on everything.

Thanks for the heads up, not looking forward to it, so much already has been cleaned under the dash, and it feels like i haven't done much ..

The car is looking a little better now .. all clean



and new rego plates





you can also see the cargo tray at the back - helps make the car look better.

Today was trying to work on 'Simmons' day

I finally was able to get these rims up from Sydney as they weren't sent with the car.

When couriered the previous owner sent with tyres still on (they were old retreads) and this added tremendously to the freight cost. I found that when they arrived that the inner valves had been removed and each rim had one of the bolts removed. The silver paint job matched the rest of the car's paint work, very poor.



I had the tyres removed from the rims (thanks to my mechanic was done whilst all other work was completed) and went to split the centres to send them away to get soda blasted (I have heard sand blasting will cause damage) and to powder-coated in gold.

I found that each of the wheels (once removing some paint) has a serial number and all four run in succession xxx36 - 39.



So I went to undo all the bolts for the centres and here is where everything has hit a snag with issues.

Firstly each of the 80 bolts (well less a couple missing) that is 20 per wheel, use 10 point decagon nuts that are proprietary to Simmons. The bolt is an allen key configuration. (As seen in previous image)



I was able to locate a socket to suit through Tempe Tyres (Simmons Wheels is a part of this company) and they only cost $100.00 each WTF for a socket?



Then I went to see if I could obtain new bolts and decagon nuts, well they have the suitable nuts,



but the bolts are now star format - not the original allen key.



These cost $2.50 each as a nut and bolt - so $200.00 for complete set of 80.

So now I have to wait until Monday to organise purchasing.

Restoring this Brame .. hmm I hope it is worth all the trouble

Wow mate that is a lot of stuffing about for the rims but hopefully they will look like new when it's all done and there aren't many people who can say they have legit Simmons rims in number sequence! So that is something at least.

Loving the attention to detail on this, it should turn out out of the best Brames getting about easily!

I'm restoring a set of Simmons rims that are in sequential order on my Gti.
I knew they were cool rims but didn't think they were to special.
Interesting.

Any update on this.