Project Pixie

welcome to my little project car, Pixie the Polo. I'll be updating this as i go along and to start with there aren't too many pictures and it probably won't be done in any particular order, but ... here goes.

I decided to get a cheap run around to go to and from the shops in and to try and reduce some of the running costs of the Cupra (I think its alcoholic but the petrol equivalent :thumb:) and also because I now have 8 or 9 parking dents in it, it also doesn't help that people park like this ........

and that when the wife takes the TT shopping they do this .......

apparently the wife let the other car out then drove behind.... not sure how that would happen and besides if the TT was moving how come it didn't peel the door off ? anyway that's for the insures to sort

so the hunt was on, for some reason i decided a Polo would be nice, the car was going to go up and down the A1 and so i thought the VW is a bit nicer inside than a Fiesta, actually I did consider Clio's and 206's but they went for more than i wanted to pay and whilst i really like the KA they seem to rust ... lots :wall:

So it was a Polo i wanted, i kept checking ebay and autotrader and went to the local auction house, but nothing met my requirements, that being a 1.4 3 door in Red with open air ( big sunroof) when cars did come up they sold quickly.

In the end the budget was stretched and a car found, it was listed on ebay and also advertised for £995 and although my budget was £550-550 due to the fact the wife needed to take my car to Wales and the TT was being repaired i decided to spend a little extra instead of hiring a car for a weekend. After a quick trip on the train - 3 different ones this was collected from buton on trent. So Pixie was purchased and here it is on its first night in the garage - which will be its only one !

As you will have noticed from this picture - even though the snow foam is hiding it ...

the polo is nothing like my original requirements,

Polo - check

Red - erm ok so the foam won't hide the fact its silver

3 door - well 5 doors are easier aren't they ?

1.4 - well the 1.6 has more, not that i have found it yet.

Still as a positive it does have open air and it works, more importantly it doesn't appear to leak.

So what do we know about it, well It appears to be a 2 owner car, the first we think was VW and then the second owner owning since then. Unfortunately there is no history with the car, I have last years MOT and the handbooks. To be honest history is nice to look through but on a 12 year old car its not going to make a bit of difference to its value.

What do i have planned for it, well a tidy up is on the cards, its tidy inside with just dirt built up over time. The headlining needs a good scrub as do all of the plastics. I'll remove the airvents and get the dust out and remove all of the seats. This should allow me to wet vac the carpets and get the seats cleaned or i might just swap them for the 6n2 interior. I started on the car yesterday just giving it a Hoover and removing the glass from under the seats and getting the dirt out of the spare wheel well and cleaning the space saver.

Wash time was a quick wash with Raceglaze snowfoam (really good) and some dodo born to be mild. I fitted new wiper blades and attempted to change the cambelt, I got as far as draining the cooling system and flushing it only to realise when i'd got access to the crank pulley that I needed a spline drive spanner ... so I'll wimp out and pay somebody to do it (£70), for labour but i need to get it done quickly as it has a VW belt on, so either its original or it was cared for by the local VW dealer. I've also changed the plugs, Distributor cap and rotor arm, i have the cambelt and water pump on standby.

Bodywork isn't bad, there is some damage around the drivers lock and the rear passenger door has been painted, the paintwork isn't bad but it looks like there is some filler thats has grown behind it. Still a second hand door is cheap enough in the right colour. There is a scab of rust on an arch and the wheels have some kerbing but on the whole its not bad.

So over the next few months I'll be doing various bits and as i do I'll post some pictures up