right you lot!

got a bit of a post here to do.

This is of the Super legnum VR4 that i recently acquired....

Hope your all sitting tight!


then i will make a start....




Oh yes!!

Love has landed! for the first time in a very long time!

Well that i would admit to anyway!

Last week I was in talks with a member from the UK site about his beloved SuperVR4 that he has had to part with.
Now Iv always like the super, even before I knew what one really was!
The first time i saw one was when Don posted up about his, and what got me was the spoiler!, I loved the spoiler and was forever teasing about nicking Dons off his super when he wasnt looking
needless to say i got told were to go every time!

Any way time moves on and Kev comss to sell his, still not knowing that much about the super I joked about having it, I also joked about having the money he wanted for it!
Well, a few phoncalls later and some emails/texts, it was decided that on friday 28th May 2010 at 17.00 hours, Kev would drive down to Bristol and drop his super off on my drive way and take my galant away with him......

OMG! what on earth have i just gone and done?!

For a few days after.... and even now, im still in shock over what iv done, and in a strange sort of way I miss my Galant, even though I did say I didnt like it....
but I think I did... but shhhhhhh! dont tell anyone!

Well as far as I and others are aware of, this Red Super VR4 is beleived to be the only one in the UK.
It is missing a few of the bits that define it as a super, such as the Recaro front seats, side skirts and rear lip.
BUT!
I do have the canards that at this moment in time are being fitted to the front bumper and being flushed in to make them look tidy. (so for now i have a crappy silver one on the car, but it will do!)
I am on the hunt for a set of super side skirts, but for now the set of FL ones will do.
The rear lip, well im not to fussed about that part as i have a custom rear lip awaiting fitting, as it has the twin exit cut outs for the twin exhausts i will get round to having put on the car in due course.
Besides all that the car is in fairly good condition, I do have an error code that is in need of sorrting out, but that should be easy over come with a new ECU with a bit of luck, it still drives, but the flashing light pi$$es me off.
I will be dropping all the gear box oil and replacing it as its got some Volvo oil in there and on cold the gear box feels like it pulls away in 3rd or 4th, a quick flush and change should put that right.
there appears to be no rust on the body, and all in all its a sound car.
I will be taking it for a blast of clear over base, just to bring back the colour better.
Fitting the Evo bonnet will be on the list of things to do very soon as well as fitting all the ICE and car PC, Polishing up the bay is a must as well

With a bit of luck this one wont be long before its back to its former glory and be at the shows, and this time this one is for keeps!

Now for the pics!











[to be continued...]

Well with that TCL error code flashing, it really got up my nose and i started ripping out half the insides to get to the ECU's and wires to check everything!
I looked 3, 4 times? i checked and double checked all the fuses, in the bay and inside the car!
still this code was flashing, but the error '61' is a communication error, so it is deffo something to do electrical maybe?
So off i go again checking everything! I mean not even the green lights on the dash were it tells you what gear you are in was working, no reverse lights, no nothing!

?I take a step back and after going through self pitty mode i decided to over look the fuses inside the car again, but i didnt hold my breath......

Well blow me!

i got very angery with my self when i found a blown 10A fuse!
so before i decided to hurt myself for being an blind tw@ i replaced the fuse, re set the ECU (bugger lost all them settings the auto box had! ah well!) but the pins back in and turned the key......

right all lights flashing like they should when needing to read for any error codes.....
ooh TCL isnt giving a code.....
started the car.... and there it was! all lights lit up like they should be, reverse lights working, and no violent jerking when putting the box in to gear!

YEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!

so all that hassle all down to a sodding fuse!

god i still get mad at myself for over looking it and not spotting it in the first place!

anyway back to the progress......

PART I

First things on the list to do is the bodywork.

Unlike the Galant, where the bodywork was distinctly last on the list, the Super VR-4 is only distinguished from a standard VR-4 by the additional plastic stick-on-tat that Mitsubishi glued to the body as it came out of the factory.

Without the stick-on-tat (herein known as SOT), it won't stand out from the crowd - which is what pushed it to the top of the priority list.

Prior to importing to the UK, the SOT had all been removed (presumably to sell on to owners of a non-Super, who quite liked the look of the SOT and probably paid a pretty penny for it). The previous owner had managed to acquire a set of replica front cannards made from fibreglass, but, being a non-genuine part, they required a bit of work in order to fit. He had attempted to blend them into the bumper with copious amounts of body filler, making quite a mess of the bumper! However, as the genuine parts were not blended in, purely stuck on, hence "SOT", it was decided to make the replicas fit and look as close to standard as possible - which means definitive separate parts.

The filler was scraped out, which, unfortunately, damaged the red paint of the bumper, which was in otherwise very good condition. Because of this, the whole bumper was requiring a respray in P85 Palma Red.

So, work began in making the cannards fit nicely, and respraying to it's original colour scheme - red bumper, and a satin black SOT.

First off - making the SOT black:







We then kind of got carried away, and the camera didn't get brought out for the spraying of the red - again with some rattle cans.


As anyone who has sprayed with rattle cans will know, the finish you get is akin to the flatness of the Himalayas:



Which, of course, is not really suited to the bodywork of a car!

The answer is a selection of sandpaper, and a strong nerve to attack your freshly-painted bumper with said abrasive material!

We used an assortment of P320 to P2000 wet'n'dry sandpaper, aiming to turn the Himalayas into Holland:



After a mammoth sanding session of about 5 hours, it's onto the polish to finish the job.



Oh, erm, wrong type of polish! :sprint:



That's more like it!

The result of a couple more hours polishing is this:



Not a bad result for a rattle can....

[to be continued...]

PART II

A further few hours of furious polishing, and the rest of the bumper is finished:




Time to start the fitting...



Bumper gets fitted, plus our custom-built twin-projector headlights from the Galant, and the fog lights go into the bumper, as well as the standard grill.




The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that the Super headlights have a colour-coded interior shroud. We will, at some point, be putting the red shroud from the original lights into these modified ones, but keeping the black surround to the projector lenses to continue the original red/black colour scheme.

That concludes the restoration of the front end to standard - well, kind of - with our own twist of the custom headlights.

[to be continued...]

PART III

In addition to the SOT on the front bumper, the sideskirts on a Super were different to that of a standard VR-4.

Unfortuntely - we have yet to acquire a set of said skirts, but, we did keep hold of the facelift skirts that we fitted to the Galant, which are different enough from the standard VR-4 skirts to be noticeable.

Like the front cannards, these were also satin black, and were treated to the same treatment:






PART III.5

Another piece of SOT on the Super, and completing the loop, is a lip on the rear bumper. Again, like the skirts, we have not yet acquired a original part, so a custom-made one had to do.

Originally purchased for the Galant, now destined to live on the Super.

Again, like the rest of the SOT, this is finished in satin black.

Enthusiasm again took over, and the rear lip was on and off the car quicker than the lights on a pelican crossing, trimming and sanding off the slight excess material when it was released from the mould.

The custom rear lip is designed to accomodate a twin-exit exhaust system, so we had to hack away like the Yorkshire Ripper at the bumper to facilitate this.



You can also see the facelift skirts attached to the car here, too!


No sooner than we'd noticed, the rear lip too had a few coats of black, and was found crawling its way onto the car!

And lo - the exterior was complete (for now)!


Pictures to follow...

PART IV


So, to the pictures! Don't need much explanantion here, so I won't bore you by carrying on, and will just get on with posting the photos that you're all eagerly awaiting to view.


Honest, here come the photos!









Oh, yeah, erm, we also changed the grill for the facelift one and painted/sanded/polished that too, which looks MUCH better than the pre-facelift one. It comes out into the bumper and adds a bit more shape.

The Dia-Star in the front grill was also painted black to continue the red/black colour scheme.



That's it on the outside for the moment, more updates to follow as soon as we do any more to it

Good work! Also, that is one of the best write ups I have read in a long time. Well done.

oops forgot about here

well only a small update but an update non the less

PART V


With the new rear lip fitted, the Powerflow exhaust that had been fitted was now too short.

However, our other VR-4 has a Blueflame exhaust, which sits a lot further out from the exhaust.

A quick removal of the two exhausts:




And installation on the other car, and the exhausts sit much nicer now on both cars:






Eventually a dual-exit system will be made, but this is the best compromise for now. The other cut-out in the rear lip will soon home a fog light.


Next up... audio!

Looks awesome now, good job.

PART VI


Not only the exterior had cosmetic differences on the Super VR-4. The differences extended to the interior, where it gained red carpet, red/black gear lever & handbrake, red/black Momo steering wheel, purple-tinted dash gauges, and "carbon fibre" effect dash surround. Also on the list is are red/black door cards, rear seats, and matching Recaro fully adjustable front seats.

Most of this, fortunately, is present, other than the Recaro front seats, which have been replaced with other seats following a similar patterning to the doors, but only in blue, rather than red! :confused:

The steering wheel, too, has seen better days, with the red part VERY faded and damaged.



So, the aim has been to try to acquire the Recaro seats, a replacement steering wheel to restore the interior to factory "Super VR-4" standard.


Unfortunately for others, but very fortunately for us, we have managed to acquire not only these parts, but also original front canards, and sideskirts - from another complete Super VR-4 - this time, however, a Galant saloon:





And, now, the love-child of our other two


Unfortunately, this is how it was delivered to us...



The damage is, regrettably, terminal.







(We would like to meet the person who did this to the car... and punch them in the ovaries)

However - every cloud has a silver lining, and in this case, it means that the Legnum can now have the correct OEM parts - Recaro's, skirts, canards, and a steering wheel in better condition than the one currently there.

The plus side, too, is that by breaking the saloon for parts, we'll be able to make a bit of money back on it.

Every time we've gone outside today and seen that parked up there, it's made us feel physically sick seeing the damage to it, and knowing we can't fix it

Did you but it like that, or has that happened since you parted with your cash?

Was delivered with the rear end damage.

Saw all these cars in the flesh last night, the red Super is looking good!!

Hiya, yeah we got it like that with the pure intention of either fixing it if it could be done, or parting it out.
sadly the unseen damage to the chassis choose its fate to be parted
not something we was hoping for.

Anyway.....

PART VII

Super VR4's came with an option for tri-spoke wheels.








They're not the official optional wheels, but instead some Ray's 3-piece split wheels - and they give the car a completely different look.


PART VII.5

Now that the Super saloon has arrived, it's time to pillage for parts.

First on the list, as they're the easiest & cheapest to prepare, is the sideskirts.

The facelift skirts fitted in an earlier update are of course not the correct parts for a Super, so, they've got to come off again.

Unfortunately, the saloon has had quite a bad time in it's life, and quite a few bits are quite battered (other than the obvious rear end damage, the driver's side rear quarter has been previously repaired, as in some parts there is now 2-3mm of body filler visible, and flaking off!)

Additionally, the passenger sideskirt has been previously damaged, and repaired with filler. Some of this was flaking off, so we removed the damaged bits, and set to repairing it again ourselves.



Fill, sand, rinse, fill, sand, rinse, repeat...

And then some paint:



Brackets to hold top of skirt to body:



Plus some double-sided tape:



And on they go:

PART VIII

The Super VR-4 came with a different interior to the pre-facelift VR-4 that it was based on.

The interior colour scheme was red - and it came with a red carpet, steering wheel, handbrake lever, gear lever, and red flecked seats/doorcards.

It also came with a set of Recaro seats in the front, which had been removed at some previous point in it's life, replaced with a set of standard seats, but with the blue fleck instead - so it stuck out a bit!

The silver Super saloon again provides us with original parts, in way of the Recaro seats.





They have adjustable side bolsters, and the bits at the very front extend out to support more of your leg than normal


Much nicer than the old:



While the seats are all out, it gave a chance to give the insides a bit of a clean. No funky finds, however





And then all fitted to the car:

PART IX

When we had the Galant, we modified a set of VR-4 headlights, to fit twin projector units.

Most of below is a copy/paste from that (no point in reinventing the lights!), but it is different than before!

First off was to dig out the box of goodies:


Then set about dismantling the light units and de tangoing them:




Once this was done, we had the painstaking task of separating the reflectors from their housing and cutting holes by hand, that were big enough to hold the new units:






Next up was the easy task of priming and spraying:


Once this bit was done we set about cutting some tin to make the covers that would sit over the front of the light unit for each light (in this case it was 4), working with tin is fairly hard, but with the right tools we got there in the end, these were then primed and sprayed.

We decided to add some LEDs for sidelights:






On with the tin coverings

We used black silicone to seal the units and hold the tin in place along with araldite.

Time to put the units back into the lights and then another quick test just to make sure all is working!



We then got ourselves a 4300K HID kit, and proceeded to fit them:



One new, one old:






Now that the HIDs are in there - the projector lights are even better than they were with just halogen bulbs in - which themselves were miles better than the standard headlights!