well its sorted now , pressure regulator with the T piece its running really well no splutering and very nippy

Good to hear it. How's fuel consumption ATM, ok?

I'm going back across to my sisters tomorrow to do a bit more. Wong be hung over like last week, so should get more done. Will update with pics if progress

Simon

fuel consumption ,it drinks alot but then I'm used to the 1ltr

How bad is bad? The 1l is obviously frugal, but I'm sure mikeymk was getting circa 40mpg with the 1.6

Another Saturday, and another day at my sister working on the car. The jobs today were to finish the wire tuck, finish brake adaptors and fab up a rad shroud.

I'll let the pictures do the talking

Modifications to the strut. Note the bottom lug has been removed, and another hole drilled at the bottom. This is because the carrier fouls on the lower lug. The bolts are countersunk, again, to prevent carrier fowler. The treads have been drilled out, relying on the thread in the adaptors to hold them in place. In hindsight, I'd probably do it the other way around, counter sinking the bolts into the adaptors, and having the thread in the hub. However, there is minimal room on the 'disc side' of the adaptor, so the there may need to be more meat on them as the bolts would ned to be countersunk flush. Hmmmm, something to consider next time

A few pictures of how the adaptors look when bolted up the the hub. These have now been painted black. The bolts have been shortened too as the rub on the back of the discs.

Few pictures of the shroud I made up with my trusty grinder and bit of stainless.

First, the ugly radiator top, we all know how unsightly these are!

And some fitted, and in the car

I managed to finish the wire tuck on one side, and started work on my custom stainless exhaust hanger. No pictures of these yet. Hopefully another update next week

Edited 2 October, 201114 yr by prankstar2003

Another weekly update on progress from today. Things seem to be progressing now, probably because I can only get across once a week, but fully applying myself.

Anyhow, got the front brakes on today thanks to the adapters I've been working on the last few weeks. Few final issues with clearance, but got it all done in the end. Dead happy with the results bearing in mind my general lack of experience with this side of things, and the precision required thanks to the lack of space between disc, adapter carrier, caliper etc. Anyhow, I'll let the pictures do the talking. Oh, and for any one who missed it earlier in the project, these are Girling54s from a Golf mk2 GTi, 256mm discs with custom adapters

Also finished the exhaust hanger (forgot to take WIP photos!). This has been a pig of a job due to the exhaust being a breadvan/coupe item so I've had to lengthen the pipe so that the tail pipe reaches the end of the rear valance. Also, due to the cut out in the valance, I've tried to tuck it right up. However, it still hangs low, even with the rubbers horizontal. Need to source some solid hangers I think. Any way, more photos

Thanks again for reading. Going to have to tackle this engine soon. Just a bit depressing still, looking at how the paints all chipped after prizing the gearbox/clutch off last month

any progress with your engine?

Nah, not ATM. Had offsted in at work so been busy at weekends. Off for half term now, but have been working my second job too. Have started work on the interior though as I've lost interest in the engine for now. Really only needs a clutch and repaint, but it's depressing having to face it tbh.

However, interior is coming on. Started work on custom door cards. I'm going for a simple look, much like the simple, flat door cards found on mk1 polo/golfs. Also have some mk1 golf door handles to add. Then I'll put the vibe 6" in the doors. Currently I have a set of vibe qb69 6x9 speakers but they have horrendous grilles, which really won't go with look of the car. I was going to make some more period grilles when I found a set of qb69's with rectangle black grilles on eBay. So I snapped up another pair of qb69s with more period grilles for the princely sum of £6.50! Billy bargain. These will be mounted in the parcel shelf. Also have a trick idea for the tweeters too. But keeping that up my sleeve for now!

So back to the car tomorrow where hopefully i'll get all the door cards cut and half trimmed. Will update with photos aswell.

Have also been collecting parts for my solid lifter turbo. Currently have the flat faced head, full bottom end, gk cam and inlet, Renault 5 turbo carb and g40 intercooler. Not sure which engine to put in her now! have a diesel lying around too!

love the brake adapter matey - I've been working on a few myself!

been designing willwood adapters and 256mm brakes like yours. its pants that you have to drill the threads out though to get a good secure fixture. i think I'm going to make one which is bolted and welded on and is proper permanent job.

how did you size yours up? did you just wing it?

top work

oh - and if you decide to lower the hell out of it and need to move the steering arms down or need to give a set in exchange - dont bother - give me a call and il swap you a set of good struts for yours with the drilled out holes - i cut them up lol so it wouldnt bother me to swap

As mentioned above i have been doing some work on the interior. Started on door cards th other day, but its been a little wet since so haven't made much progress other than cutting out the basic shape. Rear fits lovely, but the front needs a little work. Although you may think a polo door is essentially flat behind the door card, where the door handle bolts too actually bows out. This causes a head ache as the flat door cards I have made won't sit flat. Any how, I think i have a solution, which i will share if it indeed works

Moving on, I mounted the 6x9s today. As mentioned above I have a set of QB69s. These are the rectangualr ones made by Vibe that came with vile grilles. The idea was to make some custom grilles but as seaid above, a pair of QB69s with old style rectangular black grilles. I snapped these up and proceded to mount them in the 'parcel shelf' cum bulkhead that the loon has.

Pictures of the shelf as it was when I got it. The holes were 'filled' with 3" square speakers. Nice and period but not up to the job i had in mind

The speakers against the current sized holes

The bulkhead with pre-cut holes. Obviously VW didnt forsee the production of HUGE car speakers!

After the trusty grinder popped in to say hello! Actually set fire to the sheet i had laid in the back to protect the contents of the boot!

Speakers fitted (disgusting ugly fuckers! Would really suit a Saxo or something! )

Hidden by the rectangualr grilles

So this was todays work. Away in scotland this weekend so no progress. Back to school/work next week, so return to one visit a week until Xmas. Had a ring around for a friction plate for the shagged clutch but nowhere seems willing to sell me one on there own. I have a friend who may be able to 'get' one for me Next on the list is to clean the interior completely and lay the cable for the stereo install. Oh, and get that bloody engine in!

Thanks for watching folks!

Cheers Kiz. I think I'm going to maintain a moderate drop as I want to maintain ride comfort. I'm also liking the stance as it is too! If i do drop her down, I'll bare your offer in mind. thanks though :-)

Regarding the adaptors, I made a very rough template with the struts off the car. Then made these in 8mm mild (milled down to 6mm in the end). But yeah, mostly it was trial and error. The worst bit it having to remove the bottom mounting lug as it means the brakes can never be returned to standard. Annoying thing is you can buy adaptors for 288mm adaptors from the caddy forum as they have 77mm (iirc) spacings for their brake carriers. However, I wanted 14" wheels.

It would be possible to countersink the mounting bolts into the adaptor and maintain the strut threads but i'm not to confident there would have been enough metal to make it safe.

i have them for 280mm brakes on mine

I took the idea for the shape from them. But since the 256mm obviously sit slightly closer to the center of the hub, they kept fouling everywhere. I had to remove that chuck from mine too so that the piston/reservoir wouldnt foul the plate. I'm sure next time i could make a neater job of it, but i wanted to retain the front mounting position of the caliper. I'm happy with the results though and now the are sprayed black, they look much better.

Small update. Continuing work on the interior yesterday. Took out all the carpet and the front seats, and started laying the cable for the 'ICE'. I originally intended to replace the seats or fabric at least as they are worn fairly badly. Also, the blue check didnt really go with the planned look for the car. However, over time it really has grown on me, which has created a bit of a headache now. I haven't protected the seats at all, clambering all over them with dirty overalls, as well as storing them under a load of shite for a year in a shed (luckily a dry one!). Anyhow, I cleaned the rears up last week ad they look awesome. Did the fornts yesterday and they have cleaned up well. Only problem is the wear on the white squares. I think i have a solution for this, but I'll need to try this out first.

On to the pictures (noting to exciing I'm afraid)

Rear seat back after cleaning

Carpet out. Floor pan a little wet due to a leaky window, but other not a spot of rust

Pleny of sound proofing under there, incuding these sand bag type items on the drivers side. I dont remember having these on the breadvan

Pictures of the worst of the seats. They have cleaned up much better now, but the wear is the issue

And finally, some shots of what constitutes the ICE install. Some folk aren't big fans of Vibe equipment, but i have used vibe for a while now and the quality is good enough for me. You might be able to tell that I'm quite into my music by looking at this lot! The set up should provide a nice combination of both Bass and mid tones being able to handle a range of music types. None of this is new stuff, and is fairly outdated but I had the majority of it in my breadvan and It sounded nice. I'm going to put more time and effort into the install this time so hopefully sound quality should improve

The total lot

3 x VP2 amps - 1 for each 6x9 (essentially running them as subs) and one for the 6"

1 x VP4 for dedicated sub

Vibe Pulse 3 sub. I had a 10" pulse last time and it gave a good punchy bass, but just not powerful enough for me. This 12" should give a good compromise for punchy rhythm bass, as well as being able to handle the occasional wobble (not as in DubStep though ket fiends!)

SR60 6" speakers. These are capable of handling up to 300W of power, so should provide plenty of back up for the QB69s. These I have never used so I'm looking forward to testing these outs

And finally the QB69s. These have an peak of 600W but more importantly 200W RMS, which perfectly matches the VP2 amps (peak 600, RMS 200) hence using one amp per speaker. Not sure how this will work, but so long as the signal is split equally to each side, I cant see an issue. I'll try it out obviously before installing it. Anyhow, the amps were quite cheap, and I really like the understated look of this series. Too much of the ICE these days is too garish and flashy.

Anyhow, I hope this gives a clearer view or what I'm aiming for with this car. The downside to all this ICE is the weight! It has to be pushing 50kg!

Enjoy

Edited 6 November, 201114 yr by prankstar2003

Little bit more work on the interior today.

Re-routed the wiring loom to the rear. As it ran before

And after. May not seem like a big change, but it means it runs the other side of the inner wing in the boot too, tidying things up there. I'm going to make panels for the boot too to tidy it even more. Having the loom in the original position makes fitting the panels harder

Also started work on something to hide these. Will just be a couple of pieces of wood at 90deg to each other covered in vinyl to match the door cards

Shampooed the carpet aswell. Come up a treat. The water was black with best part of 30 years of dirt!

And with the cleaned seats

Adios!

Edited 6 November, 201114 yr by prankstar2003

I love these updates! Keep them coming :)

How easy/difficult was it to remove the carpets? Mine could do with the same treatment.

Easy. Seats out, which is a bolt under the front for a front seat, then slide them all the way back. Flip your rear seat and you should see two big screws. Undo those. Front seat belts need to be undone where they bolt to the body at the bottom. Middle console out. Then under the rear seat and at the very front, under the dash are 5 largish plastic washers on threads these then need removing. Also you need to take the small bits off from the front off. For the passenger side you need to take the bonnet release handle off. Its only held on by 2 screws. Then the piece of metal inside each door needs removing. 4 screws per side iirc. Sounds like a lot of work, but I had this one out in half an hour

Tbh, a good vacuuming normally does the trick if its just black

Easy. Seats out, which is a bolt under the front for a front seat, then slide them all the way back. Flip your rear seat and you should see two big screws. Undo those. Front seat belts need to be undone where they bolt to the body at the bottom. Middle console out. Then under the rear seat and at the very front, under the dash are 5 largish plastic washers on threads these then need removing. Also you need to take the small bits off from the front off. For the passenger side you need to take the bonnet release handle off. Its only held on by 2 screws. Then the piece of metal inside each door needs removing. 4 screws per side iirc. Sounds like a lot of work, but I had this one out in half an hour

Tbh, a good vacuuming normally does the trick if its just black

Doesn't sound bad, just time consuming. Unfortunately I don't have a black carpet, I have the worst colour for getting dirty.

or do it the eric way, yank it a few times. hahahah!

What a terrific build thread, I've enjoyed reading through it this far very much, especially the engine bay which gives me some ideas for mine. The sandbag soundproofing is odd stuff, I had it in the floor of mine but they'd split and soaked up water so were binned years ago.

Thanks for the kind comments. Nice to see I have some ideas to share. The engine bay is nearly finished, so I'll need to get a few more pics up of washer bottle relocation etc.

The sand bags are weird as they are only on the driver side. Hopefully another decent update this weekend

looking forward to it!

Went to see about a lock up yesterday. My GFs sister cleans for this old bloke and he has a cavernous garage. He said I can use it for free, and store all my shit in there. Means I wont have to trek to my sisters all the time now once she's up and running. Proper nice guy aswell. Garage did have an inspection pit, but it has since been filled in, which is a shame.