u/Jakeee03

Chaps. I have just brought home my ‘96 1.6 NA project and I’m absolutely buzzing - she has a mere 55k miles. She even has full service history back to 2001. There is always a caveat however and in this instance it hasn’t been on the road since COVID. I was told from the previous owner that he bought it around a year ago and serviced it, with the intention of getting it back on the road with a mate. It starts and runs first time every time after I put a new battery in it, but before he owned it (I believe) it had been sat since 2020.

She has (shock horror) rusty rear sills and a hole in one of the chassis rails, hence the postponement of an MOT, but SEEMS mechanically okay. Just off the bat, I plan on doing a timing belt at some stage because I don’t know when it was last done, and reviewing suspension components as they’re obviously quite rusty. The pads and discs were done 6 years ago but only have 2k miles on them, so may well sand all the rust off and see how that goes. Bar the elephant in the room, chassis hole and rusty sill, are there any immediate things that this community can suggest that needs doing that might not be instantly apparent to get it working well again? Obviously I get a car that’s been sat for a while will need fluids done and some TLC but anything not immediately obvious that is easily overlooked would be a big help - just thought I would ask the question. Thank you kindly.

Oh dear