One of my special talents is buying Silvias without realising they have chassis damage. With the whole idea of the red car being sort of a do-over of my first Silvia (in spirit, not a scene-by-scene Hollywood remake), I guess it made sense to do that again with this one.

The damage has been hanging over my head and making me reluctant to really do anything with the car. So with 2019 rolling around and bringing with it the realisation that I actually have to finish this Silvia so that I can finish the other Silvia, it was time to repair it. So repair it we did.

It went off to Mini’s Paint and Panel and came back 2 days later all straight. Easy as that. The rail was bowed in rather than pushed back, seemingly a legacy of an impact at some point in this car’s life that pushed the RHF wheel inwards and contacted the rail.

No more kinked rail.

The wheel now sits in the right spot in the fender, caster and track is even (although it still needs more caster), and I feel marginally better about the state of the world.

Before it went to Mini’s I fitted Tein Super Street coilovers, and today I fitted some ZSS tension rods. So now it looks a bit better underneath and has some more parts I don’t know how to use properly.

I’ll do a full ‘machine check’ on this and the other cars soon. But for now, this is progress. It needs a tune next.

Special thanks to Mini’s Paint and Panel.