looking forward to updates!

looking forward to updates!

Me too

Hoping to get her moved early next year, then, hopefully the work can commence.

Tempted to sell my daily GT in favour of an A4 estate or similar and chuck all the decent parts and engine at the Derby. Got enough spares now to build a GT engine with hopefully 100bhp+ which would be immense in the Derby, a little lowerage and keep everything else stock.

One half of me thinks to go with my above plans and one half of me says to go down the restoration route. I guess a MK2 Polo would be just as cool with the GT engine and good suspension whilst I have the Derby to grow old with.

18 months on and the Derby will finally be moved to my Brothers place this week where a lot of the work will be happening :)

Will be chucking some fuel and a battery in her tonight so she can be moved around whilst getting on and off the trailer etc.

I now live in Oxford and start a new job here too so I will have a lot more time to work on the car!

awesome cant wait for an update

Nice, I wanna see some progress!

This is now at my Brothers place! We both can't wait to strip her down and see the extent of the rot, he says it's surprisingly OK bar the shit panels that are currently visible.

Updates soon...

Went and visited my brother his mk1 and my derby today... Making plans!

What a lovely setting, Can i ask a quickie though? Is the derby a totally seperate car or is it like the vauxhall astra belmont basically the same car with a sticky out boot?

Hello!

Yes, it's the same as the Belmont setup really. Same chassis with a boot plonked on the back!

Need more polo saloons on scene

Sold the Corrado and now share a Passat B5.5 PD130 with the missus.

Went to Stonor Park last weekend and realised that the Derby needs a lot of my attention!

Couldn't sleep last night as I was thinking of some plans for her. I will be keeping the plans nice and simple with the focus being on getting the bodywork sorted!

Biggest update so far...

My Brother, the instrumental force behind this project has his mk1 on the road again (more about that later) and has shown willing in helping me with the Derby.

Today started with a trip over to the parents to collect all the panels that i’ve accumulated in the 4+ years; a pair of doors, a pair of wings, NOS front panel, NOS VW rear panel, sill repair panel, inner wing repair panels and a battery repair panel.

I then headed over to my Brother’s place and started poking around with the Derby – haven’t been inside the car in a year and I was shocked to see a soggy carpet & big puddle under the rear bench!

I proceeded to remove the interior and find out the source of the leaks – I came across another leak in the boot – the spare wheel well was full and the wheel was floating!

We mopped all of the water up and got the hosepipe out – Brother sprayed water on the car and I immediately saw water coming under the drivers side door – upon further inspection, both door seals are knackered. Onto the boot and again, very straightforward to see – the water was leaking in through the rear N/S cluster – looks like the seal has gone. So to sum up, 3x seals need replacing to make the inside watertight!

We inspected the floorpan from the inside and it’s rock solid, to our delight. The passenger side sill has rot, level with the jacking point. There’s also rot on the N/S rear wing and on the front panel, where the N/S wing meets it.

Gave the engine bay a quick rinse with water and filled the cooling system up to see if it leaks (header tank was empty).

All in all, it was a productive few hours, my Brother is aware of what he needs to do and is looking forward to getting the bodywork sorted.

Plans are to get her solid and give her a coat of Oxide red. New bushes/brakes round, Weitec rear shocks with Bilstein B8 (or B6, can’t remember what I have stashed away now), cambelt/waterpump and give the engine a service and do anything required for an MOT. This seems a long way off at this point but today was a turning point for the Derby.

This is rotten: located under the O/S rear arch – fuel tank filler neck or axle related?

Pic below of my Brothers mk1 – one lady from new until he bought it a couple of years ago, extensive history and original bar Weitec 60/40 kit and polo mk3 steels. (new wheels in the pipeline)

Few more pics from today:

4 years nearly man and its barely changed lol. Get a wiggle on :)

There's no rush!

Collected new wheels last night from g40jon - these are the wheels i've always wanted for the Derby - 13x5.5j - nice sensible size.

The centrebore is larger than the Derby's hub - will this be OK to run as it is or should I consider spigot rings?

Dragged the car out of it's resting place earlier today, had to hammer the brake pad away from the n/s disc as it was seized from being parked up for a year or so!

This is rotten: located under the O/S rear arch – fuel tank filler neck or axle related?

What's it attached to? It looks like it's in the filler neck area but I can't really tell - the plastic stud on the right looks like it's an arch spat attachment but can see arch spats fitted in your other pics. :/

If the pic is taken from inside the car the it is the notorious 'pipe of doom' its a metal pipe that the plastic balance pipe for the fuel tank runs though. it is a well know place to rot out. My green one was very bad here.

Edited 16 July, 201412 yr by Gaz

I think that may be the doorcard plastic fitting, Gaz!

Ah ok, so this is taken from inside the car then?!

Yeah, behind the door card, looking down towards the ground!

That'll be the pipe of doom then! The pipe inside is the balance pipe running between the filler neck and the top of the fuel tank.

Shite, so is this not the filler neck on the fuel tank?!

The filler neck is on the outside of the car, in the wheel arch. It's a lot bigger diameter.

Edited 16 July, 201412 yr by Gaz

Bought new leads/plugs/dizzy cap/rotor arm/points last night - hopefully grabbing a battery in the week as well. Once it runs it will be able to be driven from it's current nesting place on the farm to the workshop so it can get welded up eventually

Purchased a pair of rear arch repair panels tonight from VW Heritage. I think I just require 1 more repair panel (sill) and that should be all bases covered :)

Finally getting traction on the Derby now...

Last Saturday my brother and I emptied his wood shed and pushed the Derby in. Removed the doors and remaining wing.

Lots of rot on the sills where they meet the rear wheel arches and also lots of corrosion around the back end.

It was going to be a 'patch everything up' and replace all panels project however, in order for my brother to weld it in the shed he will need to get the car propped up and be able to manoeuvre it easily. So we're taking the engine out on Saturday!

Ideally, i'd love to pop in a GT and now is the best opportunity to do so. I also have a huge desire to get the car on the road and worry about the engine another time though. Removing the engine will be new territory for me so i'm not too bothered either way :)

I'm quite particular about the engine and I only want to fit a better engine once - I think i've mentioned it before on this thread years ago but i'd love a modded 1.4 GT on injection.