Right apologies as I’ve been a little slow getting round to writing this. I’m not promising that this is the perfect body shop way to do it but I’ve smoothed a few boots now (this is my second polo) so I have a rough idea of what I’m doing but my paint skills are terrible. I’m gonna write this as if I’m teaching an idiot but I’m not the best writer myself so apologies if I miss bits.

The other thing ill add is I was also fitting a reversing camera at the same time so there’s a lot of extra wiring going on that won’t be necessary for most people but ill let you work that out yourselves. I’m also assuming that you have removed the rear wiper and motor.

If anybody is local to Hayes and I’ve got spare time then I may be able to help fitting the popper.

Things you’ll need;

Boot popper/ solenoid – I’m using a central locking motor (about £12) as I had a 5 wire one lying around but 2 wire would be better. These tend to be more powerful than the cheap ones and less likely to go wrong.

1 tin of filler

1 tin of fibreglass

Small bit of metal sheet or very hard plastic board (stolen Mc Donald’s tray)

The best glue you can buy

Couple of G clamps

Various grades of wet and dry paper

Sanding block

Spring(s)

Cable ties

Very very basic electrical knowledge

A few tools to take boot apart.

Right to start off with open the boot, unhook the parcel shelf and throw that on the back seats then undo the Philips screw inside the interior handle on the boot and unclip the boot trim at the edge nearest the window and slide the other edge out.

If your gonna be running extra wires then also remove the c pillar trim on the passenger side its clipped in mainly but there’s two 10mm nuts at the bottom and a 17mm bolt through the seat belt.

As you look up into the boot you can see the lock and handle stuff. (See picture below). On the right you can see a leaver with a silver rod attached, this moves when you pull the handle, check you’ve got the right rod and disconnect it at the handle end (not the leaver end) this rod will form part of your popper mechanism.

As you look on the left you can see the lock. This has a U clip holding in, you should be able to pop it off with a screw driver but even though I’ve got one of the newest Polos mine was corroded on and required a lot of brute force to remove it however once it was gone all of the locking stuff fell out. Next bit is just to the right of the lock and there’s a circular clip on the end of the rod that goes through the handle, pop this off and then tap the rod through so the handle can be removed from the surround.

There’s 3 torx screws holding the lock and handle surround in now so undo them and leaver the surround out from the bottom edge.

With that out the way remove the rod from the lock and bend it to look like the picture below, also remove all the paint from the area around the surround and deal with any rust.

Next up make a cardboard template of the hole, when your happy with that copy it to metal or hard plastic, check your fitment and if you’re happy glue and/or weld it in place. I used some 2 tube araldite that needed mixing and it really does go solid when it’s fully dry. Once glued use your g clamps to hold it nice and tight in place.

Once that’s dried firmly in place remove the clamps and get your wire brush out again to key the surfaces your gonna fill then fill them with fibreglass to the depth of a few mm below the level of the boot.

You need to mount the solenoid so it pulls the rod and leaver across, I didn’t get any pictures of this as the bright sunlight outside just ruined them all. Basically the inner lip of the boot needs flattening with a set of grips or pliers so the solenoid can sit with its side against it, you’ll need to drill a couple of holes and possible run a thin bit of metal or plastic strip to help support it. Behind the back end of the solenoid is a thin bit of metal, I just smashed this out the way with a rubber mallet.

So anyway some wiring stuff now. If your not gonna run a camera in the boot or anything else like rear cameras, fancy flip down screens or 6x9s (would be a good place for them) then you can use the wiring for the rear wiper motor and not have to run any new wires or even a switch. I will say if your gonna run a switch make sure you take power from an ignition live so that any scrote that breaks in can’t pop your boot. If you’re using the wiper wires and the wiper switch just cut the brown and the black/green wire off the wiper plug then attach them to the wires on your solenoid. Black/green to solenoid green and solenoid blue to wiper brown. Your popper will now operate on the intermittent rear wiper switch but there’s nothing to return it.

Again sorry for the missing pictures but to make it return you need to use cable ties and a stiff spring to pull it back into place. If you use a few ties and have one that starches over a larger distance then you can use that spring as an adjuster mechanism for if the spring starts going slack in the future. The tension will require a bit of trial and error. Do this with the boot open and just use a screw driver to push the latch into place each time, saves you climbing through the car each time its not right.

If you’re gonna run extra wires into the car the best bet it cut all the stuff you can see holding the washer hose to all the wiring both inside and outside the car then attach your wires to the end of the hose in the boot very tightly using electrical tape and just pull it through. Do this one section at a time to make it easy on yourself, first up the side of the boot and out the hole before the rubber trunking, then pull through the trunking and finally into the car and down the c pillar. In the last picture you can see all of the wiring I’ve run from the rear. Purple is reverse switch, blue is camera power, green is solenoid earth (going to handbrake switch so it can’t be popped with vehicle in motion), orange is solenoid live and black is video feed.

So back to the smoothing, use rough sand paper or ali oxide paper or similar to take down any high points on the fibreglass and give it a strong key for the filler. Blow he dust out and then fill the hole, you will not get this right in one go so don’t try. Don’t put in so little your gonna have to do it 100 times to get it up to level and don’t put in too much so it’s massively over cos its you that’s gotta sand it back when it’s dried.

Once the filler has dried get your rough sand paper, ali oxide paper or similar and a sanding block (preferably with a curved edge for the contour of the boot) and sand it back again to roughly the contour of the boot, don’t worry if you take too much off. Now you’ll be able to see where you didn’t fill properly first time and where you’ve taken too much off so get the filler out again and fill these imperfections.

Again once it’s dried its time to sand but this time use a finer grade of wet and dry paper 600 grit maybe with your sanding block and use it wet and try and get the shape of the boot. If you think its nearly done swap to 800 or 1000 grit to give a fine finish, if you’ve mucked up or there’s imperfections just fill it again. Keep repeating this step till its perfect. Run your fingers along it and they’ll pick up anything that’s not right also look at it from all angles to check.

On mine you can see where I put in too much fibreglass. Because I’m running out of weekend and good weather I quickly masked it up and blasted some very cheap black paint over it to stop it going rusty. Remember filler and primer are porous and will absorb water ruining your good work. If I was painting the whole boot I’d of masked up a lot better but I wasn’t interested in a good finish today.

tbh mate the filler shouldn't be rubbed down to you can see the outline of the indent/hole

think i'll do a guide showing welding in plates and feathering the filler