Did you do them silver??

Gunmetal, so you're safe .

your lucky...

haha

Next is a full colour change to Comet Blue and some Derby headlamps .

I would actually squeeze a massive turd out on your bonnet. Hahha

love this mate, keep it up and make it fast

Beauty rings on Mattigs

I spaced my rear axle 10mm each side, by using MK3 Golf drum assemblies. Straight fit, stronger bearings, stronger brakes, cost me £20.

love this mate, keep it up and make it fast

Cheers dude. I'm thinking a few things through. Gonna work on the chassis a bit first, then I've kinda ear-marked it for a 16v.

Beauty rings on Mattigs

I spaced my rear axle 10mm each side, by using MK3 Golf drum assemblies. Straight fit, stronger bearings, stronger brakes, cost me £20.

I hadn't even thought of that option. Got the spacers waiting for me at the post office delivery office now though .

Heres a small taster of how the wheels have come out. I think I might be too scared to run beauty rings now in case I damage the fresh paint .

Paint the beauty rings the same colour, and i recon that'd give the wheels a better profile. They'd look chunky like reinforced-rim rally alloys.

Trouble with experimenting is for it to be reversible (nitromors) you wouldn't key the chrome, and then the paint probably wouldn't last. Even though chrome is actually porus.

So another month has passed, time for some updates :-).

Firstly, I managed to acquire some new seats. I felt a bit guilty wearing out the Dennis the Menace seats whilst its being used daily, and I've already re-bolstered both of them once before, so don't fancy doing it again quite so soon! With all this in mind, and the colour scheme of the new seats I thought they'd be great in the Mark2.

As I got them they had already had the Mark1 Golf subframe virtually fully chopped off one seat, and the other was partially cut. So, we set about making some hybrid subframes using bits of Polo subframe and what was left of the Golf subframe.

Heres the finished result next to the original seat:

And both seats fitted:

they're not A1 by any means, but saves me wearing out some seats which are possibly rarer!

Next I wanted to make some preparation for the Mattigs going back on. I noticed at VW Action the rears sat tucked under the arch. A test fit of some bolt on universal spacers showed 10mm to be about right, so I opted then to go for some stub axle spacers courtesy of our very own DKnight.

A proper decent bit of kit with all bolts supplied, and thankfully being 10mm there wasn't any need to replace the solid brake lines.

After fitting the poly bushes to the ARB mounts whilst fitting the gearbox, I really wanted to get the whole front end sorted.

With both bottom ball joint boots split (which is now an MOT failure apparently) and an MOT due in the next few months, plus a clunking noise under acceleration and some turning I managed to find a set of bottom arm poly bushes cheap on here. So, on they went:

Finally a pair of tyres later and the Mattigs were back on:

Next on the to do list is find me some VWIIs in preparation for something

Looks so nice Karl,

Sorry, but what are the recarro seats? Can't seem to see the spec.

Thanks dude!

The seats after some investigation, are Golf Clipper Sportline seats:

And you're right. I need to update my spec!

Look fantastic.

Gonna buy some

Was going to say sportline's big till they are mate always wanted some!

Look fantastic.

Gonna buy some

they will set you back a fair bit of coin, seen full sportline interiors go for 600+. I've sold front seats alone for 350!

Karl the MRS is looking piiiiimp as hell!

Cheers chaps :-).

I fell very, very lucky with the Recaros thanks to a very good friend.

Next task is building up a shopping list for a heart transplant (yes another one ).

Got my brakes sourced. Just need to either get a seal kit and refurbish the calipers myself or be lazy and send them off to Bigg Red.

I want to get a few bits painted and powder-coated on the new engine too. I'm not going to say too much about the new set-up, but it's 8 valve and should hopefully see around 100bhp.

Those recaros look lush! red polo with red seats! 100bhp in a polo is big fun

Car looks fantastic

Damn - they've cleaned up well!

Nicely done sir! :-D

Looks great!!! Seats and wheels suite it perfectly! :)

love the seats karl

Cheers all :-).

Just a little update. I've been giving the bodywork a little fettle after it's done me loyal service through the winter months.

First on the to-do list was deal with some rust that was starting to bubble on the spare wheel well. After a quick investigation underneath it turned out that where the rear panel attaches to the spare wheel tub, had become detached and was trapping dirt causing a little grot spot.

So one Saturday spent in work gave me this:

Grot chopped out and new metal being welded in.

I'm quite anal when it comes to certain details and didn't like the idea of a visible plate showing, even in somewhere as un-noticed as the spare wheel well, so out came the filler and stone-chip paint.

Unfortunately I forgot to grab a picture of the finished article in paint. But suffice to say its looking a lot better than it did!

Next came a few tweeks outside. The bonnet had an area where the paint had been burnt through during polishing, some stone chips and some peculiar blistering and I had noticed when doing a thorough clean of the car that some paint was flaking off the leading edge of the passenger wing . So one day after work this happened:

Finally after leaving a day or so for the paint to cure we polished up the fresh paint on the bonnet and gave the car a bit of a mop.

I also replaced the coolant expansion cap after it decided it wasn't going to hold pressure anymore. Theres a few other bits and pieces I want to sort out too ready for this year, as I'm being quite picky.

One of the next jobs is to get a Mattig repaired and re-painted after one of Nottingham's finest roads decided round wheels were unacceptable.

looks great karlossss. shame its not blue though.. hehe

Looks awesome with the Mattigs!

So, it's been a very long time since this has been updated. The M.R.S. Became known as Purdy. And Purdy served me well as a daily until 2015, when she was retired.

 

Since then, she's received a brake upgrade with VWIIs and braided hoses, a stainless 4 branch and custom exhaust and after the Pierburg didn't like not being used, a Weber 32/34 DMTL.

 

I was very surprised and honoured to receive 3rd in this year's Polo Social Show and Shine.

 

I intend to do a few bits and pieces for next year, before she's comes off the road for a full restoration, as using her in all weathers has taken its toll over the last 7 years.

 

When I can get my head around pictures, I'll update.