where you heading to on your first road trip? nervous?

Cheers - yeah,I'm more excited getting this car on the road than with all my turbo/supercharger builds on my old mx5's.

Not actually thaqt far south - my car is at my father in laws at Barnsley in south yorkshire, I'm bringing it home to Stortford!

I hope to get the new wheels and tyres on it on Sunday!

sweet man all the best :)

Well today i got a stupidly early train and made my way to Yorkshire to bring the loon to its new home.

Got it taxed, filled the tank and drove it 180 miles.

Was a bit scary as had no idea if the engine was good.

Brakes are absolutely terrible if there are any there at all.

It stalled a lot early on - think its need plugs and maybe some carb issues.

Also i have some noises on breaking which is due to the front wheels impacting the trim behind - ill open a question thread on the.

Obviously its needing a big clean, these are a few shots of it today for the journey.

Basically it is a decent car but yet to be a nice one.

Here it is - ready to drive off for its first journey since going back on the road.

Half way home and you can see the clearance issues i get on breaking by the lack of space between the wheel and trim on the rear of the front wheel.

And finally its home - after two years of ownership!

Tomorrow:

New wheels and tyres

changing the door cards and anything else i can do from the parts bin I've been building!

Start polishing the lacquer as it no where near shiny as yet.

Edited 20 May, 201313 yr by Retrotub

Lovely!

Cheers Martin.

Well obviously after nearly two years of working on the car once every few months I've now got it home.

First things first I set about changing the temporary wheels.

something not right with the caps - going to sort when i can make the wheel swap permanent.

Much more the look I'm going for!

Then fitted these ARB block's to try to centre the front wheels as had been rubbing under breaking as too close to back of arch after lowering. (I had bought them for handling ages ago- but a search on here and comments from the guys said it was the thing to do.

You cant tell completely as the angles dont give a good enough match, but there is a big difference - and it seems enough to stop the rubbing - so far.

Went form this :

to this:

Then I bled the front brakes again as they are soooooo crap - terrifying drive from Barnsley 185 miles - had to really drive differently to my bm. 50% improvement since bleeding again.

The changed a door card to see how it looked and added a fancy door lock pin

You can see over-spray and stuff from previous owners - black rattle can etc. - I've so much to do to make it nice.

Original:

What I'm changing to - I have full set and also black carpets.

the new wheel combo didnt work out as yet - just slightly wider fits but as i hit a bump I'm scoring rubber (id just bought those yoko's) so back to temps while i investigate some slight arch rolling - only need a bit - not sure if i can keep he arch trims though if i do?

The rear I thought were ok but they grounded badly when i had the boot full of wheels and hit a bad bump at about 45mph.

Another weird thing - it gets really hot on a medium to long drive in the car - no heater on.

Cheers for looking!

JC

Edited 20 May, 201313 yr by Retrotub

You could roll the arches and cut the trim slightly where the tyres rub i guess?Really nice car, love the new wheels!

Looking good.

Have you tried bleeding the coolant system? Mine was overheating something chronic and turned out I had a hug air lock in the system. There's a bleed screw on top of the heater matric (small white wing nut). Try opening that

Just had a look through most of this!

Can see alot of work has gone into it!!

Interior is same as my breadvan i think! I've got same standard brown door cards and the standard brown seats you had!

Top marks!

What up with the finish? Anything that will flat & polish up? Stick some pics up!

However, it was mainly the fact I left 1k acrylic lacquer for 3 weeks before polishing. The DA and using G3 barely touched it so it hasnt got a smooth finish to the lacquer.

Na man I don't agree, how many coats of lacquer are on there?

Get your self a hard flatting block and some 1500, and sand any mottle/imperfections out, then buy a lambs wool mop head to polish it up, but be warned its very aggressive, but exactly what you need! Then move onto some G6 with a suitable mop head.

Opinion may vary on the 1500 and lambs wool, but I'd feel comfortable doing.

Stick to the flat parts of panels first to reduce the chance of cutting through

Hello mate, I know you posted those comments up quite a while ago, so sorry for not responding.

There is a fair bit of lacquer on there. I cant say in coats but id guess at about 5L on the car but some was rubbed back when re-done sections so maybe a bit less.

I'm terrified of going near it with wet and dry though no matter how kind the grade. - I'm really heavy handed and the bodywork and paint isnt good enough to make that good.

Ill give it my best shot over the next few weeks and see what you think at polo show.

Cheers

JC

If you're not sure about wet and dry, try a cutting compound first. You should get an improvement from that. If you're still unhappy, try out the W&D on a small area or get yourself a test panel.

If you use a block and minimal pressure you should be ok W&D. It's easy to use too much pressure but remember, your not trying to remove much paint, just the overspray essentially (assuming you don't have orange peel). Did you use cans, I can't remember? If so, you really don't have to work hard to remove the material you want, but there will be less paint on as the majority of can paint is thinners/solvents. Try with a fine grit first (e.g. 1500) on a small area, rub it wet and then try some cutting compound on that area. If you're happy with the finish, do the rest of the car. If not, step down a grit level and work your way back to 1500, compound etc. Usually you'd start with the coarser grit, but since you're not confident, a finer grit is more forgiving and thus worth starting with. Be aware you are removing material each time you W&D or using a cutting compound so don't keep testing the same area. This is where a nice big test panel comes in handy (a bonnet or even just a piece of sheet metal).

Well its been a while since i did an update.

No pictures though. Ill get some soon.

Spent a lot of time trying to get the slotmags to fit without rubbing - 15" x 7" et 35 shod with yokohama 195/45/15's so in some opinions a bit big and no stretch, but thats the way i like it.

60mm drop was causing rubbing on bends bumps and any uneven surface.

I've now rolled the arches more and jacked out the rears with bits of wood, bottle jack and a hammer - I've trimmed the plastic trims and now the metal fills the plastic trim if you get me. So slot mags are on and only occasional rubbing in more extreme situations. It still looks like its not got any flare to the arches from standard but has given me some clearance.

All summer I've had issues with the pierburg. At polo show both Liz and Vic told me some things I should be doing and i put a new mounting flange etc and stuff like that. It all improved but it was still not right.

After tuning and fiddling for basically weeks I've put on a weber DMTR and it runs beautifully and is a lot more responsive and feels a bit more torquey. So sorry pierburg but I'm not going back.

Now I've wasted the summer on the pierburg, I'm keen to get on with the rest of the car.

So been re-scrubbing the arch trims and re-painting as the "bumper" paint had flaked off in places. So scrubbed them and sprayed with plastic primer and new bumper paint. I'm about half way though this process.

Going to get the carpets swapped over for black next. Had them sitting in the garage for months.

Cheers

JC

Just took some pics, obviously in the rain and the wheels, especially the polished bit could do with a wipe, but you get the idea.

I'm really pleased with the look.

I haven't updated in a while.

Bought an engine off co RyanC and fitted it this weekend.

It was the same as mine but everything refreshed and valves lapped, GT cam and double spring valves.

Also a cbr600 carb conversion.

Everything i on now and its running nice.

Still stuff to do, and my car is never going to be great cosmetically.

Fixed a load of the little issues and a lot of time fixing things so the conversion worked. (sawing bolts etc)

Not got good pictures and my start up video was being taken by my 7 year old and didint happen.

Photo's and proper update when I'm not exhausted.- It sounds fantastic though!

The paint didn't look too bad last year...

Thanks mate, but being the first time painting and especially with not knowing much about 1k, it always felt like a test coat and one to get the rain off. I never really put a finish on it, but it's all staying to come together at last.

staying to think I should go back to the 13's plan.

I'll post pictures of conversion up later.

good to see this stll alive, this used to be my girl friends car years ago

Thanks Ben, if you have any info on when you think she had it please let me know. I would be interested in anything you remember.

Well, we have just been painting the Type 2 bay, and found the 1k acrylic to be really easy to use and we were doing it all wrong when I did the polo. So in the next year its getting another DY respray, but if the result on the bay are to go by it will be much better.

I've just been putting the other front grill in that I've prep'd and painted. Made a big difference to the look.

Lots of little cosmetic jobs, but hope to get it MOT'd this weekend.

Some engine swap shots: - the whole thing would have taken half the time if it were not for the drive shaft bots being rounded and ceased.

quick first start vid here.

http://vid17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/RoadsterChinsk/IMG_2504short_zps4fc1f6ed.mp4

Sweet!! :)

Looking really good man, aw can't wait to get on with my loon!

sounds nice dude. decent exhaust on there and a nice cam and your onto a winner.

Cheers folks.

Nearly back on the road.

I've got a stainless manifold and I'm not sure what to do about the exhaust. I've got a G40 one - but will need extending!

Might just get a custom one once its MOT'd.

Ok, tomorrow its booked in for its MOT.

Its not been on the road for two years and that was with the standard engine etc.

I know its not a revolutionary engine upgrade and bike carbs are commonplace for this forum, but it has been a big bit of work for me. I'm not mechanically inclined.

I've fitted the stainless manifold and also the G40 exhaust - with a couple of changes to extend it to the rear bumper of the saloon - with a rusty pipe - it looks right ghetto! (but I sort of like it)

Fingers crossed for the morrow.

Fingers crossed for you :)

I'm in a similar situation - i'm not mechanically minded either but i've got an engine swap on the cards - seems a bit daunting at first (and still does) although like you, a tried and trusted conversion is a good upgrade, especially with a lot of advice & knowledge on the forum.

Hope it passes!

edit: tailpipe sounds interesting in a good way, be sure to get a pic up!

Well it didnt pass!

It was a joke - the guy failed it on some ridiculous things.

The first of whihc was the 'inappropriate antri roll bar mounting repairs' - oh do you mean the G-lader upgrade blocks...........

It passed braking and emissions with flying colours - but the gy just nit picked.

My seat rattles a little - So its not secured !

Wont go back there. - couple of genuine things to tidy but nothing a couple of hours wont fix. Headlight alignment and the like.

I've never heard of anyone failing on the G-Lader blocks before. Did he explain why he thought it was inappropriate? Probably the single best cheap upgrade you can do to an early Polo.

Your seat is probably missing those little plastic tabs in the runners is it?

At least you have a list of jobs so you know what you need to do. So will this be making an appearance at the show this year?