This is a guide of how I made my delocked rear plinth and relocated button/lock:

Boot Button/Lock:

1. Remove the boot plinth by unscrewing the 4 retaining screws.

2. Remove the interior bootlid cover by popping out all the retaining clips.

3. Pop out the metal rod joining the button/lock to the boot catch.

4. Unclip the button/lock assembly from the bootlid and take it all apart by removing the ‘C’ clip (now is a good time to flush out the lock barrel with some sort of spray cleaner if it doesn’t always work properly regrease and rebuild)

5. With a junior hacksaw or Stanley knife carefully cut the surrounding plastic from the button/lock slider/holder.

6. You need to find a hardware store and get 2 small 90 deg brackets, some nuts and bolts and some of the smallest self taps they sell.

7. With a tap and a hammer tap back the backward pointing corners of the semi-circular hole in the bootlid so that they are facing upwards at 90 degrees and so that the hole is larger (The reason for this is so that the button/lock can operate at 90 degrees allowing the key to clear the boot plinth when locking and unlocking.

8. You will also need to grind out with a slitting disc a 90 degree angle from the strut inside the bootlid for the button/lock to catch rod to clear:

9. Put the rebuilt button/lock into the bootlid until it is flush with the bodywork and measure where the hole of the 90 deg bracket lines up to and mark it both sides.

10. Carefully drill a hole on each side of the button/lock slider/holder with a tiny drill bit then cut the ends off the 2 screws so that they do not foul on the sliding action of the button/lock they need to be flush with the inside of the slider/holder.

11. Line the button/lock outside the bootlid again and mark 2 holes on the outside of the boot lid where the brackets line up.

12. Drill 2 holes and then nut and bolt the button/lock to the boot lid with the brackets on the inside.

13. Cut the button/lock to catch rod in half 50/50.

14. Bend a 90 degree bracket to 45 degrees with 2 pairs of pliers.

15. Nut and bolt 2 long straight brackets 1 to each side to make a long 45 degree bracket.

16. Drill 2 holes in the end of each about 15mm apart.

17. Next get 4 nuts and 4 bolts.

18. Slide the bolts through the ends of the bracket and drill a 2mm? (measure the width of the rod cause I can't remember) hole through each bolt right against the flat of the bracket.

19. Bolt the 2 half rods together with the holed bolts so that the 45 degree bracket is pointing towards the back of the car.

20. DON'T put the interior bootlid cover or parcel shelf back on until the connecting rod is adjusted and tested so that it locks/unlocks opens and closes!

Boot Plinth:

1. Source another MK3 Polo / MK2 Golf boot plinth (I got mine for £2 from the scrappy).

2. Remove the original boot plinth by unscrewing the 4 retaining screws.

3. Sand down the original boot plinth with 120, 240, 320 to get rid of the texture.

4. Measure the button/lock hole in the original handle exactly score it out on the scrap handle next to the hole on it.

5. CAREFULLY use a hacksaw, Stanley knife or soldering to saw, slice or melt the 'blank' out if the handle.

6. Sand down the 3 cut edges with 120g paper and try it in the original handle to check that it fits ok.

7. Cut away the bottom button support on the original boot plinth but leave a 1-2mm strut joining the bottom of the original hole as this acts as support. The part you have cut out is going to be the hole for the relocated lock/button.

8. The blank you have made should fit well enough to stay in the original handle. Line the blank up in the original hole on the original plinth and support it with superglue at the back so it doesn’t move out of place.

9. Heat up a soldering iron and get some cable ties. The soldering iron is going to act as your plastic welder and the cable ties as your solder!

10. Put a mask on. Soften the plastic around the join and melt a small channel between the parts with the soldering iron and feed in the cable tie/solder into the area and sort of spread the melted plastic into the channel (search plastic welding on you tube for more information)

11. Use bodywork filler (P38 is best) to skim of the plinth and fill the channel on the front side of the plinth, sand the filler down with 120, 240, 320. Go over with filler again if there or pits or scratches from the courser papers, get a good smooth layer and you can use the 320g to make it smooth without damaging the filler.

12. Use high build plastic primer to prime the plinth. Get a good few coats and then smooth with 800 wet.

13. once its smooth, paint with plastic primer and then paint with mottled satin black paint or colour code it.

- Jimmy

Edited 18 March, 200917 yr by JimmyB

Dude that's awesome.

May have to try this out sometime :)

Thanx

Plus it don't cost much either!

Can I just ask. is the guide easy enough to understand?

Some bits I'm not sure of as I cant figure out what's what.

BUT I think if I had the boot in front of me it would all make sense.

Same with everything really. The Haynes manual makes no sense until its all in front of you.

Sweet. Might be able to give you a hand if you decide to do it.

- Jimmy

Why isn't this a sticky? I'm going through the process of doing this now and all is going well, really appreciate this guide

Good stuff Jimmy! I'd do this if I hadn't boxed off where the lock should go. I think I'll have to just stick with having a boot popper

Excellent guide, get it pinned!

i'd like to have ago at this but i a dared coz i dont fully understand it and i useless with stuff like this lol

I have just bought a rear apron to replace my cracked reiger one, but this does not include the fitting kit.

What does a fitting kit include?

Can i still fit it?

Cheers

This is exactly what I want to do to my car! I fully understand all the plastic welding, filler, primer and paint side of it as I done all that 100 times before but I don't really understand the technical side of it and all the stuff about the popper lock. I guess if I have the popper and boot in front of me it would make more sense.

Thanks for the tutorial I can't wait to get started on this. If i get stuck would you mind me asking for some advice?

Thanks.