just thought i'd introduce myself here, as i am now the proud owner of this mk2 derby

the names george and i'm currently studying motorsport engineering at uni. i bought my polo a couple of weeks ago after seeing the insurance renewal on my current car (an '84 civic). it worked out cheaper to buy and insure the polo than to pay for next years insurance so i went for it xD i was originally on the look out for a mk2 golf 1.3 but since no good ones were available, i had a look at polos. found a nice red saloon on ebay and after noticing it was only 5 miles away from my house i went for a nose. and i'm glad i did as it turned out to be really nice, much more so than the pictures indicated. the next day we agreed on a price and i collected it 2 weeks ago. anyway, onto the pics!!

those are the only pics i have ATM, but i hope to get some better ones once its on the road :)

its a 1.1 4 speed and was headed for the scrapyard after being dry stored for 2 years. it used to be showed and it really shows, the car it really clean throughout. the drivers sill its abit scratched and rusting where the paint has chipped, but nothing serious. its had a headgasket done not long ago and i think the head was rebuilt at the same time.

overall the cars a little beast! already lowered and adjustable on the rear (currently as high as it will go) and its had its arches rolled already, as well as new front wings.

so far the plans are a 5 speed gearbox and some GT or mk1 golf clocks (with a rev counter) and hopefully an engine swap. i also think some deep dish wheels would be good; it used to run round on 13x8 alleycats (Y)

any comments/suggestions welcome and if i ask any noobish questions i apologize in advance, dont really know much about polos xD

Welcome. And it's goo to see another square light 'loon.

Lookin clean mate .. I gunna hunt around for some derby lights look much better than the round one i got on my loon :)

Think I've seen this before, remember the wheels somehow. Good to see it back on the road.

looks lovely, look after it :)

thanks for the comments guys!

yeah, i think the square lights really suit the saloons.

had abit of a play around with it yesterday. found out the exhaust rubbers had broken so re hung it with some thick o-rings (will replace the rubbers eventually)

tried out a set of minilights i had lying around on it and i think they look pretty good :)

so i set about refurbing them...

left them in anti rust primer while a decide on a colour for them... i'm thinking this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CANDY-CONCENTRAT...d#ht_1197wt_956 any suggestions?

also had a poke around the engine which didnt fill me with joy on the condition of it. the oil filler smells quite strongly of petrol but i suspect this is left from the previous head gasket failure, since it's not burning any oil (that i can tell). the plugs are also very black but i've only driven it 11 miles and moved it around on choke so once its on the road i'll check again.

either way i have sorted a new engine for it, an AVY/AFH hybrid bought from mclovin on here

i wasnt originally looking for an engine swap for it but i do want a 5 speed box and if the box is coming out then i'll already be halfway there and besides, at the price of this lot i couldn't really say no anyway, i've started collecting rebuild parts for it, anyone got any suggestions on where to get shell bearings for these engines?

and lastly a couple of pics of it in the stupid amount of snow we had last week!

made a start on rebuilding the AFH today. cleaned up the 1.4 pistons and fitted them to the AVY rods. then fitted new piston rings to them.

Also thought i'd try out the GSF online shop and ordered my shell bearings and thrust washers.

few questions about the AFH/AVY and the swap in general, first off, are the big end bolts and crank caps stretch bolts? the big end look like they are but dont know about the crank caps?

i know that a mk2 flywheel fits the AFH and works with the slim starter motor, but does this also go for an early solid lifter type flywheel as well?

on the subject of flywheels, i'm planning on using the light flywheel and keeping the 4 speed box for the time being. i'll replace the clutch while i'm at it but will a standard mk2 180mm clutch cope with the extra power? will a early type flywheel work with a larger clutch? or will i need to find another fly?

and just to check, the flywheel bolts are stretch bolts too?

i think thats it for now... i have some pics of the pistons that i'll upload later, as well as some of the whole lot of engine bits xD

thanks in advance :)

My mk2 fly wheel works fine with the bigger afh clutch mate, if your buying a new clutch anyway then you might as well go for the afh/g40 clutch (both the same).

I've never had any issues reusing the flywheel bolts, just a dab of thread lock and stick them back in

cheers guy, that clears up a couple of points for me :) i've since found out that the main caps and big end bolts should be replaced too so i'll pop over to VW sometime soon and no doubt be robbed blind xD

anyway, heres some pics of the pistons:

cleaned them up with parts cleaner and scotchbrite and scraped the carbon deposits out of the ring lands with a broken up old piston ring

theres a comparison to one of the broken AVY pistons xD

fitted the new rings. i'm using federal-mogul rings if anyones interesrted

all 4 done :) wrapped them up and put them in a box to keep them somewhat clean

and put them with the rest of the engine :)

also, if anyone does know anything about the history of my polo, i'd be interested to hear it :)

bit of an update for you guys :-D

not much has actually happened with the polo, mostly due to it being 15 miles out of my way and me being busy. i have spent the time collecting parts tho, and currently only need a clutch, some big end bearings that actually fit (bloody useless GSF) and and AFH exhaust fannymould if anyone has one?

i've also found some new seats for it...

from an alfa

but by far the biggest news is that i actually bought some insurance for it!!! so as of next week, the 'loon is officially on the road!!! :D

hmm, the old polo is well overdue an update i think.

been on the road a couple of months now, and not the smoothest couple of months either. the old 1.1 really was on its last legs, once spent a whole sunday cleaning the ignition system just to coax some life into it. shortly after that the bottom end started knocking, luckily just as i finished the 1.6 AFH build :) that also gave me the kick to get the engine in there. Spent a week pretty much solid getting the engine in and sorting out problems, one major one being that an AFH clutch dont fit an old solid lifter gearbox without abit of grinding

jetwashed and thoroughly cleaned the engine bay while it was out and i was waiting on a water pump for the new engine

then after the whole clutch/gearbox fiasco was sorted, and the ARB mount was ground away some, the AFH sat in its new home

welded some stubs of pipe onto an AFH manifold flange (also ported the head to suit said flange) to mount the carbs to, and got it fired up, with the help of a jump pack and some jump leads as earths xD

the we had loads of fun adapting the standard downpipe to fit and AFH downpipe flange. got there in the end and it meant i didnt need to move the ARB. i'm looking at doing a wishbone conversion in the future, and plan to fit a 4-2-1 mani then :)

did a load of finishing off things to get it running properly, ended up having to rebuild the carbs as it was misfiring on fuel quite badly. also fitted 4 vac feeds to the dizzy to make it abit more tolerable in everyday driving xD

when it was on the road at last, it had one hell of an overheating problem, you'd get about 5 miles before the temp was off the gauge... i think the thermostat and housing was the main problem, but the water pump had picked up on the block when we fitted it and cracked the impeller, so we replaced that too, and flushed the radiator and heater matrix. atm its running quite sweetly, i thought it was overheating still, but left it idling for half an hour last night and the fan cut in and cooled it down as it should so i dont know where to go from here

is that a standard 1.1 rad?