For as long as I can remember I had a massive fascination for cars and driving, and becoming 17 and legal to drive couldn't come soon enough. I passed my driving test a few months later and was ready to hit the road and become independent. There was only 1 problem...I had a low paid job and had no chance affording the insane insurance prices I was being quoted. To give you an idea of the sort of prices I was being quoted for insurance, I was looking at a very basic first car such as a 10 year old Citroen Saxo 1.1 litre, worth roughly £1000. Nothing special, just to get from A to B and get valuable driving experience. The cheapest quotes I was getting were in the region of £3000, 3 times more than the cars value, and there was no way of getting this down. But then came the biggest surprise of my life. On my 18th birthday I opened a small jewellery box, and inside was a set of Peugeot keys, and hidden on a neighbours drive was a Peugeot 106 1.1 Independence. It wasn't flash and it didn't stand out, but it was my first car, my pride and joy, and the most amazing surprise I could ever of dreamt of after waking up that morning. I was free, and that's when my driving adventure began... It didn't take long for me to start sinking my wages into it, putting my personal stamp on it. I joined the Peugeot 106 owners club right away and searched for ideas. I also made loads of new friends and the help from the owners club was invaluable. I started off by putting a cheap and nasty open cone air filter on. It wouldn't of done the engine much good, but it actually sounded quite good. I had no experience at all with working on cars, so fitting basic parts such as this with friends who knew what they were doing was an amazing learning curve, and that's where my love for modifying cars began (even though it's cost a fortune ever since!) Next, I painted the steel wheels with an old school white wall style as alloy wheels for my fitment were hard to come by. They didn't look great close up because I painted them while they were still on the car, with a paint brush, without much preparation using Hammerite paint. It did look good from a distance though and while I was driving. The only problem was, it now looked a bit ridiculous, as if it was jacked up and put on stilts. So I set on lowering it, with -60mm springs on the front and matching it with the rear torsion bar. This was easier said than done though (for the mechanic that did it at least, as this was way over my skill level) as the torsion bar was seized just like most other things on this car...old Peugeots definitely aren't the best cars to work on that's for sure! Such a vast improvement, and the rear flat arch made it look even better in my opinion.
I think I'll leave it there for now, and continue in a couple of days. Part 2 will include more cosmetic "enhancements" (use that term loosely), club meets & shows and the endless problems I got myself into trying to "improve" my car (also used loosely). Thanks for reading, more on it's way!
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14/1/2024 06:01:27
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AuthorHey guys I'm Billy, a lorry driver from the UK. Join me throughout my various travels and projects. Archives
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