I bought the five 16" rims and 235/70 R16 tyres, and when I took a look at them myself I couldn't really see any of the deterioration that the eBay listing mentioned (and the recent MOT mentioned nothing either, so I guess they were being excessively choosy to cover themselves) so I went ahead...

Fantastic. Well for the extra £50 for theirs to include everything including the trim it seems well worth it. Yeah, the guy in the video mentions that they're difficult so I was planning to look into better ideas than his one of basically undoing them for a bit. I think I see it in the...

Any idea how I can tell the difference? Are the other parts any different at all, or is it just the brackets and the same chair bolts to it? Will the floor have the mounting points to fit either option...

Yeah, I was a little concerned about that; but it's cheap enough to get a tap as you say. I'm having a lot of trouble finding the bolts and floor mount anchors for the seat belts, though; nobody seems to include them with the belts and my searches have turned up nothing. EDIT: as below, I've...

I've looked some stuff up but just want to check a few details. I'm aware of the controversy about it & air suspension (which I don't have), but I'll let my insurer know, I already have uprated springs in there, and it'll not be used that much - never for an adult. This guide appears pretty...

That part's over, now onto all the welding for the MOT - and the fuel leak I discovered yesterday. Yaay.

Well the fun is over, I have her back and fettled, hopefully. The upshot in the end is that we have no idea what caused the damage to the valve; the stud that fell out was from the top for securing something else entirely.

I'm not sure why everyone is obsessing over the skimming of the head which never happened; this is entirely irrelevant. The mechanic at my garage just seemed to think that it ought to have been done for no other reason than the head was removed. But I guess that a blown head gasket is probably...

In what sense? Why? There's a tiny possibility that my garage could have; but they'll know once they reassemble it if they have a stud missing. Yes, I've asked my garage for a report once they're done. Will be asking from the other place too. My main concern is the strength of my case...

My main concern is the he said/he said nature of the whole thing and how realistic that is at standing up in court. Obviously I want to try and pursue it, but I just feel pretty hopeless about the chances if the garage refuses to cooperate.

Well this is the "gift" that keeps on giving. When the new 3rd party have had the head to find the source of the fault with the valves they have discovered a stud inside the top of the head. Evidently it's this that has caught on the valve and caused the damage. This will likely mean the garage...

This turns out to be the gift that keeps on giving. After refitting the garage started turning her over by hand to make sure everything was OK, and have discovered that one of the valves was catching the piston head. So head is off again and back with someone to try and find out why and fettle...

Good to know, thanks.

Yeah, the manifold was skimmed. I've had the head off so that a broken stud could be removed and the hole fixed up again with a larger stud. While putting it back together again I got a call from the garage telling me that it's good practise to have the head skimmed whenever you take it off...

Call from the garage yesterday suggesting I ought to have got the head skimmed (assuming the face that seals with the head gasket) while it was off. No choice but to put her back together anyway at this point; but is that really a big deal?

To update; chap at Heads R Us in Bradford has done me proud with a larger stud to fix up the mess, £160 including skimming the manifold. Now to work out where the £1,300 for the garage is going to come from lol.

That makes more sense. Is it likely to need changing?

Based on the image there the garage seem to want to replace part 11 - some crusty coolant around that area.

Did you intend to include a link? The head is over with a guy who specialises in refurbishing heads. Assures me he can get it all spick & span for me again.

Got my 51 plate 15p engine done by Dynachip and love it. Apart from when the extra power warped my exhaust manifold. Twice.