In February 2000 I purchased this AA Cordia GSL to replace my original project car (aborted due to masses of rust found under bog). For $100 I got a silver GSL with a seized 1.6 litre carby engine, 4 speed gearbox and 199,179kms on the clock.
The previous owner claimed that it had leaked all the oil out of it and seized, and much to my dad and I's suprise, the engine fired up and went briefly before shutting it off due to lack of oil. Anyway, the car stayed in storage in my dad's wrecking yard for just over 2 years while I was at the wheel of a front wheel drive 323. In March 2002, the 323 was sounding sad and the registration was almost due, so the decision was made to get the Cordia onto the road as it was just so I had a fairly reliable car while I was doing my tafe course.

around 3 months and 5260kms later, the 1.6 decided to bend a valve and die just out of our local service station (conveniently when all my mates were headed to the footy oval..... i was the town joke for like 2 weeks afterwards ) and the diagnosis was that the motor was basically rooted. So with that, Dad and I removed the engine on sunday morning and had the new 1.8, new clutch and stuff bolted back in by sunday night and the car running by the monday.

Monday afternoon I get a phone call from dad. "I've had a set of alloy wheels dumped at work, do you want them?" Of course I jumped at the chance and he brought them home. We initially had no idea what they were off of until we discovered that they were nissan 180sx wheels. I fitted them on (with almost bald and wrong sized tires) and drove around for a fair while until it was decided to remove them in anticipation of getting them polished. 3 weeks ago they went in to be polished and fitted with Simex 195/50/15 tires. Now the wheels looked good, but the car still looked like a bag of shit. There was one simple answer. Have it painted.

On October the 12th, I took the cords for its last drive in it's former guise and then handed it over with a collection of parts to Graeme at A&G Crash Repairs in Yankalilla SA (08 85582150). Graeme had previously looked the car over and quoted on it and being that he was the best priced, we gave him the job.

On the 18th of October, the cords received 4 coats of new italian silver metallic and 2 coats of clear to keep it looking good. This picture is 3 days after it was sprayed and the reassembly of the exterior stuff begun.

The car is having the sill panels painted and is being polished up, with a delivery date of 25/10/02. Once home, the interior will be replaced with a complete AC cordia spec trim (that has taken me 2 weeks to clean so it looks as new) and more pictures will be taken of it with the alloy wheels fitted.

On the 25th of October I finally got the car back at around 6. Once home, the remaining trim was removed from the car and the AC spec replacements installed. Around 2 am, the trim was finally in (hardest part is the hoodlining) and the wheels fitted. Being 1/2 asleep, the pictures didnt turn out so well.

In the morning, I gave the car a 1 1/2 hour wash (it had rained when the car was coming back from the crash shop) and tidied up some of the parts of the interior.

Once done there, I took a couple of shots in the local beach car park.

Further down the track I would like to replace the 1.8 (perfectly good and not that old) for an efi 4g63 2 litre (l300 motor with tr magna injection hardware & computer)

Current spend (including motor, clutch, paint, interior and purchase price) comes to $3284.50