About a month ago I crashed my Mk3. Spent 2 years getting it to pretty much how i wanted it and 2 days after its MOT...I spun it.

Damage:

Personally I think it was fixable but more hassle than what it was worth and I decided it would be better to reshell it seen as all the suspension, brakes, interior and engine bits had been renewed.

So a week later I bought this beast to replace/reshell it.

...and quickly set to work on the interior.

Then the front suspension (not got a finnished picture yet - still to do the brakes pipes)

Tidied up the tired bumpers

Then I set about the engine. The headgasket had gone and seen as the engine from the old car was in much better condition with lower milage I decided to swap.

Had a bit of help from my wee bro

Before:

After:

And the fresh engine:

I do intend on an aee conversion at some point but the 1.0L should be running sweet for now. I changed some new bits over from the engine from the red car and bought some new bits.

So now it has: New alternator, distributor, rotor arm, cap, leads, plugs, timing belt, water pump, oil filter, alternator belt. freshly painted rocker cover, new rocker gasket and seals.

It's in!

Spent about a week working on it so far and I'm pretty pleased with progress.

Still to do:

Refit loom etc and get engine running.

Upgrade master cylinder to 22.2mm

Replace all brake pipes!

Replace n/s/f wheel bearing

Swap rear suspension and brakes from white car

swap speakers from white car

Let me know what you think!

Edited 27 May, 201115 yr by Guinnane

Good work mate, should have boshed a GT in there whilst you were at it though :p

Loving the red mk3 though, best colour if its looked after IMO

I know mate, just want back on the road asap and so far I've not spent any money on it. I will do a conversion further down the line tho.

About a month ago I crashed my Mk3. Spent 2 years getting it to pretty much how i wanted it and 2 days after its MOT...I spun it.

Damage:

noooooooooooooooo i liked this car!

how did you get your bumpers like that? you painted them? (the new red one)

Edited 19 May, 201115 yr by VW+SWFC=:)

I know, the red one will be much better though.

and autoglym bumper care stuff absolutely brilliant.

Got a few things done over the last few days when the rain stopped.

Front suspension painted, drive shafts fitted (still to do brake pipes)

Got the engine in and running (needs a bit of tweeking, i think the ignition timing has been knocked out slightly when i changed the dissys), bay cleaned. and put the lights and grill back on. (yes I know it's not a 1.6 but it'l do til i can find a 1.0L engine cover )

Then began work stripping the rear suspension:

Rotten old spring and shock:

Freshly painted lowering shocky/spring:

Couldn't do anymore due to shitty weather.

Don't bother with the larger master cylinder unless you plan on bigger brakes, will add more travel to the pedal. Looks nice though, that bay scrubbed up well!

Don't bother with the larger master cylinder unless you plan on bigger brakes, will add more travel to the pedal.

It reduces travel.

Nice build dude.

Whoops yeah, wrong way around

Why not bother with it then if it decreases pedal travel?

The brakes on the front are the biggest I can fit without buying larger wheels.

aww thats a shame, your wee white one was a very nice polo.

glad to see your transfering all the bits across to the new one and cleaning it all as you go will make it look 100 times better when you finish.

weathers meant to be crap all week unfortunately with 80+ mph winds etc

bigger master cylinder is ok i had it on my saloon with VW II brakes. But i had silicone (automec) brake fluid which somepeople say make the pedal feel slightly more spongy but i swear buy it its good shit put it in every car i own.

aww thats a shame, your wee white one was a very nice polo.

glad to see your transfering all the bits across to the new one and cleaning it all as you go will make it look 100 times better when you finish.

weathers meant to be crap all week unfortunately with 80+ mph winds etc

bigger master cylinder is ok i had it on my saloon with VW II brakes. But i had silicone (automec) brake fluid which somepeople say make the pedal feel slightly more spongy but i swear buy it its good shit put it in every car i own.

cheers rich, yeah i thought I would do this one properly this time. Gives you a bit of satisfaction knowing everything on the car is sound.

you breaking the white one? did the drivers door get damaged in the bump?

I'll be selling a few bits once I get the red one on the road and sort out what I need/dont need.

To be honest the only savable panel on the car is the bonnet the rest are dented or rotten.

The tops of both doors have rotted away below the glass and have rust at the bottom so not worth your while atall mate.

Such a shame about your white polo but looks like the red one is really coming together, and going to be as nice as the white if not better.

Excuse the crap phone pics (the paint isnt actually pink)

I worked through the rain to get the back suspension done and the cars sitting alot nicer. Also got the engine running properly after some issues. The Ignition timing needs set up properly but I adjusted the dizzy and sorted the leads so It's now running alot better.

I also got some red tape for the bumper recess and decided I'd try it on the wheels. I'm still a bit unsure but it's a change. I removed the bumpstrip glue from the driver side and painted the wheel nuts then gave it a clean.

Also fitted the exhaust and brighter headlight bulbs.

Still to do:

Master cylinder, brake pipes and rear brakes

Remove the glue from the passenger door and clean the wheels

Give the car a proper polish and clean inside.

Fix the horn

comments please.

Hate to be the miserable cnut but spinning a 1litre polo 2 days after getting it on the road does suggest some reckless driving. Hopefully not but if so then hopefully you have learned from it and glad you're ok.

Think the wheels look mint, loads of these polos on those wheels and makes a really nice change to see someone mix it up. :grin:

Deffo a thumbs up from me on those! Love both of these polos 2bh, specially the white one! (nothing agians the red one, jsut that I own 1 too!)

Wil be keeping an eye on this thread!

I didn't spin it 2 days after getting it on the road. I spun it 2 days after it's MOT and I had been driving it for a year before that. What I meant was I had put alot of work into the car over a period of almost 2 years.

I wasn't speeding when I spun the car. It was pouring with rain after 3 days of very hot weather on a bend exiting a roundabout and I was driving too fast for the road conditions. It was only myself in the car and the road was empty so I'm glad that no-one was hurt. It was my first crash and lesson learned I can assure you.

Thanks for the comments anyway I'm pleased with how its coming along.

I didn't spin it 2 days after getting it on the road. I spun it 2 days after it's MOT and I had been driving it for a year before that. What I meant was I had put alot of work into the car over a period of almost 2 years.

I wasn't speeding when I spun the car. It was pouring with rain after 3 days of very hot weather on a bend exiting a roundabout and I was driving too fast for the road conditions. It was only myself in the car and the road was empty so I'm glad that no-one was hurt. It was my first crash and lesson learned I can assure you.

Thanks for the comments anyway I'm pleased with how its coming along.

Oh, sorry bout that. Was jumping the gun a bit there after a few brews

Sounded like you spent 2 years doing it up then spun it after 2 days of driving it!

How is it that both the cars paint look so good?

Have you been lucky finding good examples or have you t-cut/treated it some way?

Like I said, mine is red but doesnt look as sharp as that even after a decent polish.

So is it pretty much just the engine conversion on the to-do list after those little bits and pieces?

haha no worries mate. If I were you I'd probably be thinking the same.

I suppose I've been lucky in finding decent polos. (considering that I only paid £180 for the white one and £175 for the red one -which actually has T&T! lol)

The paint on the white one was ok but there was a fair few rust spots which I did well to hide / paint over. It didnt have anything major wrong with it but the passenger wing had surface rust all round the arch before I covered it with the mk2 arch, the O/S wing was from another polo and the paint was faded on it and the rear arches were both dented/scratched. Also the tops and bottomsof both doors were badly corroded and there was a hole in the O/S footwell which I descovered after stripping the interior

The red one I would say Is better but It still needs work. If you look at the second picture of it at the top you'll notice 2 rust spots on the N/S door, the N/S arch has a dent in it and the paint looks faded a bit. All it need Is a once over with a machine polisher and some G3 then a good polish and wax. Sometimes its the stuff you use aswell. If you look at how well the bumpers came out after I scrubbed bumper care into them instead of back to black It's such a better finnish. I'm going to get the mk2 arch and sill kit again so that will cover up the dent in the arch but it's getting there.

once the car is on the road I'll just be saving up for a while for either an afh or aee conversion and with that a full new exhaust and 4-branch mani. As I said Ill be fitting mk2 arches and sills aswell as a few other things. strut braces, late spec tail lights (well all I need is an o/s one seen as it got broken in the crash) possibly a show cage and upgrade the sound system a bit. should turn out really nice. Might even make some shows in it this year!

Not keen on the exhaust or tape on the wheels but the rest is nice

yeah the exhaust is only temporary and the tape will probably be coming off i think.

sorry a bit of a sill questions what mill is that red tape you used for and wheels the bumpers ?

6mm as far as I remember. I got it from ebay. It's now removed from the wheels and grill as it looked crap.

What exhaust is that? or is it just a tip ?

Cheers Marcus.