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I am the proud owner of a 2009 Westfield Seight with chrome pack, and lowered floor and for a number of reasons have upgraded the front and rear suspension. I have learnt that this is not a job to hurry, take on lightly or expect it to be cheap. It has taken months (since Stoneleigh in May) to acquire all of the bits, refurbish them and I have just finished this December. The reason - apart from the aesthetics of chrome peeling off, was that the car failed its Mot due to two cracks in the chassis. Both cracks were in identical places on each side just in front of the front lower wishbone. Another reason was that we hit the ground too often and when it is your seat bolts grating on the tarmac and sending vibrations up your back, it is something to fix. At Stoneleigh, I picked up from the WSCC auto jumble, a second hand set of front chrome wishbones followed by a visit to the Westfield parts stand where I purchased new bushes, a ball joint set and two new front springs. New cycle wing brackets were purchased via the WSCC Parts for Sale listings and all painted items prepared and painted. After several attempts to persuade mechanics to remove the old bushes without success, I had to resort to trying myself. I tried heat, long threaded bolts etc then brute force. In the end, I found that by drilling out the central sleeve, melting the rubber slightly and setting off the smoke alarms, I could then feed in a hacksaw blade and very carefully cut the outer sleeve until with the aid of a hammer and cold chisel, managed to extract the bush. This process was repeated eight times and took well over a day. Told you the job couldn't be hurried! The four wishbones and two front springs were then ready for re-chroming. I managed to get three quotes ranging from £600 to £400 and plumped for Custom Chroming at £450 as they offered reluctantly to press in the new bushes within their price if I supplied them. These parts were sent off in June and returned at the end of September - the six weeks quoted did not include the factory shutdown.... Out on the WSCC trips, I sort advise from those that know and it seemed a common thread that the Westfield ARB's fitted to my car may be slightly too robust and some of the forces were being transferred to the chassis. I contacted Luke at Plays-Kool who confirmed that this may be the case and it was suggested that I should replace the front ARB with a softer version and then would have to match up the rear with the equal grade bar. I also sent him photos of the rear dampers and springs in an effort to resolve the issue of hitting the ground and ended up purchasing some heavier grade springs. As I was now down for dismantling the rear suspension, I thought it wise to complete the job by replacing the four rod ends. So having gone though all of this, I settled down to actually getting my spanners out at the beginning on November and tackled the front first. One wishbone at a time, counting the turns whilst taking off the ball joints etc and putting new parts on like for like. One lesson learned was that in my effort to paint everything, I painted one of the locking nuts over the tin of Hammerite - obviously it fell in followed by quite a long time 'sticky fishing' trying to get it out. At least it was well coated. The new springs would not simply slip into place so I had to make my own spring press - don't try this at home! Having finished the front and adjusted the ride height to be as before, I stood back and noticed that the tracking was clearly out. Bummer. How could this be when I had been so careful to put this back counting on the turns? Mmmm. Did you know that there are less thread lengths on the new ball joints? I do now. Next job was to put in the old ball joints into the old wishbones by the thread count and then calliper measure, take apart the new suspension and adjust to match the measurement. Lesson learnt. Another lesson I had already learnt was that if you are having the tracking checked by a normal tyre company in the short term, leave off the cycle wings as they cannot fit the equipment and normally charge for the time spent taking off the wheels and removing the wings and likewise after tracking. I dry fitted my new cycle wing brackets before having the tracking checked. Now to the back. Having learnt from the front, I measured the rod ends so that I could put new ones in the same distance. There is a vast array of qualities and prices for rod ends - from £8.50 to over £200 each. Again sort advise and went for the Mba stainless steel version - a decision made easier when the bearing specialist said that he would not want to drive a car with cheap rod ends! There are four so £49 each becomes another £200 bill. Don't tell my wife but a business PayPal account hides a lot of expenses. Repainted the rear wishbones, fitted the new springs and rod ends and back down on the ground. Ok then - costs - both thumbs had large gouges and the red stuff oozing out. Puncture wound in index figure and torn nail. I am bad with the sight of blood so it seems silly to keep on hurting myself. Priceless. Wishbones £30 second hand Westfield parts department - ball joint set, front springs, bushes. Total approx. £120 Re-chroming £450 Plays-Kool new front and rear ARBs and higher strength springs Approx £350 ABC Bearings Rod Ends Approx £200 Cycle wing brackets, Hammerite, calliper paint etc £60 Time - months and months to get the bits and have some re-chromed etc. About 5 full days work - please remember I'm not a mechanic, learning on the job and with a V8 it takes over an hour just to get the front nose cone off! I'll add a photo of the finished article when it is daylight and I remember to take a photo. First trip out with two people in the car is tomorrow - wish me luck - hopefully the new springs will give a better ride and no hitting the ground!!

Well mine's just arrived. Nice picture of our new Speed Series champion at the end!

Whoohoo! My budding photographer son made the front cover of the calendar with one of his shots, taken from my car as we trundled along on one of Julie’s famous Peak District runs We even got a couple of thumbnail photos inside too well chuffed

Another great Christmas curry event! Many thanks @Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary for arranging.

Does this count. It's some of the Westfield

Do not forget the mustard Best regards Jürgen from germany

We will see you at GBS a little later in tin top!

There's fuel and there's potential nuclear volatility is a different and nigh on planet threatening potential league apart

Well in times of austerity tj, any free fuel is welcome eh!

Great write up in the Derby and Notts section as well from Matthew. He has captured the Derby & Notts area so well with his words.

@Andrew, was clearing the second memory card in my camera and found I had taken a shot of your car...

I have a suspicion that the AOs get their copies of the magazine etc. first, Ian. Us mere mortals have to be patient and wait our turn.

Meet at McDonalds, Ollerton, NG22 9DT, 9.30am to take the short journey to Great British Sports Cars, Ollerton. Meet us there after 10am if you prefer. There will be lots of cars to look at and owners to chat to, everyone is really friendly and welcoming. The Kit Spares Shop will be open and there is a Germanic BBQ, cakes and drinks available for free. Donations to the Air Ambulance gratefully received. If the weather is grim or you are SORN please feel free to come in your tin top, it is not a run out as such.

Happy Birthday John.

BTW Andy and Becky will be with us too.

Double enjoyment then .

Cut out the middle man like I do, and put them straight in the bin (recycling of course!). Double win, saves trees from being needed for Loo rolls as well . So these "business?" men, have committed to selling certain stock for a price, and hope their scaremongering will drive down the price, ready to pounce and buy, they hope at its lowest (coniving barstewards!). Or have I got that wrong. Hope they lose as well as win, somehow think I know the answer though .

Mine arrived today and distracted me from the decorating

Interesting and informative write up. Looking forward to photos of finished job, and feedback after test run. Well done.

Adge, I'm short Jon (in financial terms if you're 'long' you own the stock and if you're 'short' you don't but you've already committed to selling it to someone else for an agreed price in the future = simples)

Thoroughly enjoyable night with good company although suspect I must have had a bad curry as my head was thumping this morning! Cheers for organising Dave

I could have done you some sparkle silver powder coated dampers for you to match the springs .. and fitted the springs for you.

Arrived eventually today, postie very late had a less than smoth day by the sound of it! Nice to see 4 of the Dorset area cars in the calendar, reflects how "quietly" active the area is IMHO. Thanks to Dale for the great shot of my car at Shelsey.

Nice write up and good luck for tomorrow.

Arrived today in the (not so) sunny South West, lots of action shots and both my cars made it (although one's just the bonnet and a cycle wing!)

Think its 14 degrees here today ! Wacky weather , but this morning was biblical raining.

Ah, so the 'Thrusty Meets' series does have it perks...

Hmmmmmmm winter project turns into Mad Max Westy - instead of Carbon bits, start adding spiky bits and Boudecia Wheel Hubs?

The last thing my wife would ever want to feed me is tins of beans.................... I suspect it will keep the boiler running with its ' output' though

What a cheery post to start the weekend.

1 more sleep

Front cover of this months WW Mag :-)

Its not his real name...... Robert!

Mine arrived today. Looks great apart from not being in it

Well the flooring is here and we are supposed to be in Krakow for a long weekend with a rabble of friends , but the latest wife got struck down with sickness on Tuesday and she is still pretty poorly. So, my delivery driver from work drops the flooring off and she is crashed on the sofa........... i think you may have an inkling on what happens next. Yes, as per my previous post, it is raining and I am not one to really want to sit on my back door grapes, so I started and got about 2/3rds down. Easy as an easy thing, but I bought a upvc cutting disc from Screwfix to cut them. What happens then is you loose all vision for the grey fire that appears to fill the room. Not wanting to open the garage as the dehumidifier is on, I soldier on in pea soup vision I have also joined @Steve (sdh2903) club of angle grinding my knuckle , which is not a great thing to do really, but I didnt want to feel left out of his club. Come to think of it, its a daft club to be in as it bl**** hurts I then resorted to a laminate cutting hand saw and it makes less mess , no smoke bombs and also currently no fingers have claret leaking from them. First picture has a bit of a haze about it, weirdly and that was after I had left the room, had dinner and washed up Tomorrow consists of moving the tool boxes and shortening bench legs while it rains and if it stops raining , then push the Westie out and finish under there. Its not ' quite' the sizing they suggest , but I will put some alloy angle against the wall to hide the gap and still allow for expansion. Oh and also take the other 2 cutting discs for UPVC back to screwfix as they lied about being a cutting disc, they were fire discs Oh and Christmas job finished a little early again

I had thought about this and will be taking a charger to make sure the phone has plenty of power for pics.

Trina and Gary booked into #20 see you all there

CASTLE COMBE NOW CONFIRMED