I wouldn't be surprised if VW rang you and asked to buy it back after all the work going into this, it's going to be 100% perfect

Looking good as ever. I did exactly the same with the Grommet, i cant believe there wasn't one there from factory!

I re-made the end of my drivers side Sill but didn't realize the bottom edge was shaped, so fitting the tank took ages! Hopefully yours smoothly.

Thanks chap, when the pipe is still intact the car is sealed but the problem comes when the tip of the pipe at the wheel arch end fills with damp dirt and then starts to rot the welds around the tip.

As for the bottom of the arch I did exactly the same on my first one many years ago and couldn't get the tank back in lol, I'd sealed and painted it by this stage as well I had to pull it all out and start again lol.

If you look carefully at mine I've made mine so it slopes a bit steeper so that I can clean it easier plus I've made a bigger gap around the bottom of the filler next to allow crud to naturally wash away better, well that's the plan anyway lol.

What special tools do you need for fitting those VW clips Dubs? C'mon, stop holding out on the details!

http://thumbs3.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/md8gWOPKZsy7Iu1OtZPw47Q.jpg

This is a pic of the tool needed and the clips are called "CLIC" clips you can order them in many sizes from your Vag dealer or on line but I recommend only reusing them two or three times as they will lose there tension. Hope that helps

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KENNEDY-TOOLS-CLIC-CLIP-PLIERS-FOR-SNAP-CLIP-HOSE-CLIPS-ON-HOSES-ETC-503-481-/380798612974?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item58a95db5ee

If you fancy a set.

Edited 5 March, 201511 yr by dirtydubs

Thanks for all the nice comments peeps I will be back soon I promise

I wouldn't be surprised if VW rang you and asked to buy it back after all the work going into this, it's going to be 100% perfect

They can bugger off I won't find one this solid again

U gonna update this yet wanna see more if this awesome build keep it up

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the lack of updates but work has taken control of everything this year so the Polo has been put on the back burner a tad. My old job was boring me and after a faceoff with the MD I left the world of composite and decided to give the construction industry a go but it’s safe to say I won’t ever be doing that again after a few months of having to case my wages and then being made redundant a week before xmas I decided to start my own engineering company and chase my own contracts. Thankfully I landed myself and contract at local motorsport company so I’m glad say I have had some progress with the Polo, it’s been slow but I’m getting there.

The main aim of this build is to keep as much of the car as original and factory as possible I will be refurbishing as much as possible instead of replacing.

I love powder coating so I will let the next few pics do the talking.

First part of the beam to install was the mounting bushes, tbh I'm not a big fan of poly bushes it always makes the car feel a bit too twitchy. I had already removed the old ones before the beam went off for shot blasting and powder, so in with some new Topran standard ones with the aid of some Red Rubber Grease (don’t use normal oil based grease’s or lubricants as these will perish the rubber over time).

Once pushed in place.

This done I could get all the parts I’d been hording fitted to the beam. Next up was the rear Stub axels these needed a good clean (sorry about the picture quality)

After a good clean, I also vapour blasted the handbrake clips too.

Once painted I then refaced the mounting faces.

Next was the old solid brake lines.

I used new copper hard line and a set of pipe bending pliers to copy the exact shape of the old ones.

This and new wheel bearings and slave cylinders gave me this cool bunch of bits.

You may notice that my wheel/slave cylinders are from different manufactures I wouldn’t usually recommend this but I’m trying to use up some of my nos parts and as long as you make sure the cylinders have the same size pistons then you shouldn’t have any issues (I used 14.4mm pistons iirc).

ATTENTION!!!

ALL SUSPENTION FIXINGS SHOULD ALWAYS BE REPLACED ON A LIKE FOR LIKE BASIS

DO NOT BE TEMPTED TO REPLACE BOLTS WITH STAINLESS STEEL ITEMS AS THEY ARE NOT STRONG ENOUGH!

In the UK and Europe we have three main strength ratings for automotive use 8.8, 10.9 and 12.9 grades all with matching nuts. As a golden rule of thumb I would say if its chassis then its 10.9 but some none load bearing bolts are 8.8 if you can’t see a marking on the bolt and you’re in any doubt then fit a 10.9. Stainless stuff has an approximate strength rating of about 8.8 so is fine for things like cambelt covers and exhaust clamps but will not be suitable for the day to day pounding of suspension components. There are of cause exceptions from this like titanium or high tensile stainless bolts but these are only really used in motorsport and cost an arm and a leg so not really needed here.

Right back to it, the next step was getting all the new hardware to install all these new parts, this proved a little tougher then I was expecting as some of these nuts and bolts seem to have gone obsolete at the main dealers. My main issue was the six short shouldered bolts that mount the pivot brackets to the floor, I tried online but couldn’t find any bolts that were M10 thread, the right length with the right size shoulder and that were 10.9 grade and galvanised.

Here is what I ended up with.

I couldn’t make my mind up which washer to use so I got both.

My next issue was the bolts that mounted the rear shocks to the beam these were still available for the dealers so I ordered a couple.

But there was a problem, they are the right length and were 10.9 grade but they are fully threaded and uncoated.

I really wasn’t happy with these they would have worked ok even though they were fully threaded but they wouldn’t last five minutes under the car before they started corroding so I swapped um out for these.

Matching 10 grade nuts and washers.

This left me with this little lot mmmmmm shiny lol.

With that sorted I could rebuild and reinstall my rear beam.

Amazing. Love your powdercoating work and brilliant seeing that you are replacing/refurbing everything.

Amazing. Love your powdercoating work and brilliant seeing that you are replacing/refurbing everything.

Cheers chap, If I can reuse it I will just to keep the origality but everything else is going to be factory fresh

The rear beam on a mk2 polo is a joy to assemble there is simply nothing to it. The plan was to get everything built bar from the shoe's, drum's and wheel bearings as these I find easier to install once the beam is bolted to the car.

First things first the mounting brackets, a tip here is always pass the bolts through the bushes so that the nut faces to the outside of the car so if you need to drop the beam in the future you will be able to leave the brackets bolted to the floor and as such keep your rear wheel alignment.

Plenty of copper slip to keep things from seizing in the future

And all torqued up and ready to go.

Now the rest of it.

I got rid of the useless socket head bolts that hold the wheel cylinders in and fitted stainless bolts instead.

Plenty of copper slip to keep things fresh for as long as possible.

I now had a beam ready to refit.

Till next time hope it been of some use to someone lol

Cheers for reading.

Edited 22 July, 201511 yr by dirtydubs

Love the attention to detail on this. Do you have access to blasting/powder coating equipment?

Its worth raising a point here, its one many of you will know but some may not so I will point it out anyway. The rear beam of the Mk2 Polo is adjustable so before removal it is best to make some alignment marks on the mounting brackets and the floor so when you refit it you can simply put it back were it came from. This is all very well if you don't intend on getting everything shot blasted or the floor stone chipped as both these processes will remove your markings DOH!

So before removing the beam on your own car please be aware that you will need to have a proper four wheel alignment done when your back on the road, this will save you tyre's and fuel in the long run and after all there is no point in spending all the money on suspension mods then falling down at the final hurdle.

Right once the beam was lifted back into its rightful home I could sling some rear brakes on the old girl.

The old drum's had seen better days.

That said they were the original drums you can just make out the VW/AUDI logo.

Although old they didn't really have a great amount of wear

So I made the decision to reuse them After all there OE and I'm on a budget, well kinda lol.

First of all a quick dust off with a wire wheel (wear some eye protection I don't mean to sound like a know it all but you only get one pair)

The lip around the outside of the braking surface was about 0.75mm so there is a bit of life left in um yet. It will make your life a lot easier if you remove this lip as it will get in the way when setting up the shoes later. There are many ways to remove this lip but a grinder is NOT one of them, I used whats called a "Spiraband" from 3M its basically a rubber barrel that you slide a sandpaper belt over these can be used in a drill or air powered grinder I used mine in the latter.

This leaves a finish like so.

Its important to note here that although I have marked the surface area where the shoes contact I have not done it aggressively. I have literally only just taken off the corrosion if you are doing this on a car that is in use then DO NOT contact the braking surface just remove the lip and nothing more.

After a bit more cleaning there ready for some primer.

And then I splash of engine enamel.

Obviously it goes without saying that if you get any paint on the braking surface or where the bearing is fitted, remove it as it will bugger things up later on and you'll be doing it again.

The next bonus was the brake shoes on closer inspection it looked like someone had overhauled these before I had purchased the car.

Notice how I've kept the shoe's and springs assembled whilst they have been in storage this makes refitting them a lot easier as you wont forget were everything goes

Other than some compression marks from the corrosion on the drums they were still in very good nick with "as new" meat left so a quick sand off with some 80 grit and they looked a lot better.

Before.

After.

The next stage is just a grease up before fitting but here is a how I do it. First of all I fill a syringe with fresh copper grease then grab a can of spray-able copper grease this makes applying the grease without getting it on the braking surfaces a lot easier.

It's also worth covering the shoe's with masking tape just to make sure, this can be removed later once the shoe's are fitted. Now to grease up all the pivot points and any metal on metal surfaces.

The finished item.

Before the shoes could be fitted I had to lube the wheel cylinders this is not essential but its something I like to do to help the them last the bit longer, like I've said before I want this car to fly though all future MOT's for as long as possible.

All I'm doing here is carefully lifting back the rubber boot of the wheel cylinder and pushing the piston out from the other side like so.

Obviously don't do this unless you are going to bleed the brakes after .

Then I simply apply a small amount of red rubber grease and pop them back in.

This really helps everything to settle in properly and and stops any scoring during the assembly of the shoe's.

Be back in a mo I've just got to take the dogs for a work lol.

Edited 22 July, 201511 yr by dirtydubs

Love the attention to detail on this. Do you have access to blasting/powder coating equipment?

Thanks bud, I have access to blasting equipment but all of my powder coating is done by a local company called Penfold coatings.

Next up was the need for some new handbrake cables and all the fittings that went with them this is what I removed.

All pretty nasty really, the only survivor was the front cable as that looked like it had been changed at some point. The rears where toast and the mounting brackets had a bolt snapped in each one but were still salvageable.

The rest of the hardwear didn't look to sweat either.

After drilling and tapping the snapped bolts out I then spent some serious time in the vapour blaster after which they looked a little better, you can even see the original markings on them .

After a good coat of acid etch.

Then some engine enamel.

I also gave the old front cable a lick of paint don't ask sad ain't it.

After the rear handbrake cables arrived I had this little lot.

Stainless bolts for the mounting cables.

Fitted they looked a little like this.

The original securing clips to the rear beam cleaned up lovely (mainly because there stainless from new) so on they went.

Its at this point I found out that vapour blasting works really well on old plastic fixings, here's all the fuel line clips, brake line clips and hand brake hangers. I'm truly shocked how well these look considering they have been on the car all these years.

The all important handbrake hangers.

Here's where they came from, just to the N,S of the petrol tank.

Fitted.

and just in front of the tank.

Here I decided to fit a little neoprene anti vibration pad.

This gets pinned by the cable like so.

At this point I also fitted the brake and fuel line clips. This took longer than expected because as an extra measure I decided to coat every thread that the clips screwed on to with MS polymer sealer this way hopefully in the future the water wont get in there. If you look closely in the middle of the clips you will see the black sealer.

I have refitted the exhaust and front wheels at this stage so it will move under its own steam just in case I have to move it out of the workshop.

After all that I could chuck some rear brakes on this old polo. When fitting rear brake shoes its always wise to lubricate the six alignment pads on the drum backing plates.

put some on the lower lever points also

and on the wheel cylinders.

now on the handbrake cable and lever

and finally the retainer springs.

This left me with something like this.

Now for drums and new wheel bearings.

One of my all time pet hates is dented bearing caps it really really boils my pi . So this is my solution, a length of 4mm thick irrigation tubing.

This slots over the new bearing cap like so

so I can then hit the end of the tube not the cap like so

which leaves a perfectly unharmed bearing cap.

One final thing to do before I could pop the wheels back on was to pin back the fuel vapour pipes from the tank these usually get clipped to the edge of the tank put as this always seems to create a rust point on the tank I decided to run them along the beam.

So that was that another mile stone in my Polo's road to recovery my deepest apologies for the next bit as its just a plain case of picture whoring but you just cant beat shiny new stuff

Don't worry the old suspension is not staying its just been fitted so I can move the car about.

Hope you like the progress so far and as always thanks for reading.

Edited 22 July, 201511 yr by dirtydubs

Looks absolutely amazing so far, I don't think any of it is sad like you said lol. I wish I had the patience to do this to mine!

this is awesome!!! :-D

Cheers guys thats really sound of you.

I've had some great news this week, I've managed to track down one of the previous owners of the car this is great news for me as I've managed to learn a little about the history of the car.

All these years I've owned the car it's always felt like I've seen it before so I made a few phone calls and It turns out that I used to work with a guy who had this very Polo as his very first car! I managed to track him down through Faceache and a few messages later and he confirmed the reg details and explained a few of the changes he made to the car to say we are chuffed is a understatement. Because I rescued the car from being banger raced I have never had any history in fact I didn't even get a V5! I had to prove to the DVLA that it hadn't been scrapped just to get a V5 lol, so to finally have some kind of connection with the cars past is great. On top of all this there might be a very very very slim chance I may be able to get hold of some history from another owner of the car so I'm keeping all of my fingers crossed at the moment.

Looking at the last picture of the brake build, you've not got the spring connected to the self adjuster wedge ??

Looking at the last picture of the brake build, you've not got the spring connected to the self adjuster wedge ??

You sir have a very keen eye but fear not one went missing when in storage so I fitted new ones before I installed the drums if you look above I have the pictures slightly out of order but in the third photo up the spring is there . Cheers anyway dude just seeing if I can catch any of you guys out lol

Yep my bad :( I missed that pic and just went with the sequence of the pics and assumed the last one was just prior to fitting the drum.

Absolutely cracking build thread, this is going to be better than when it left the factory ( sorry any factory workers reading this )

Yep my bad :( I missed that pic and just went with the sequence of the pics and assumed the last one was just prior to fitting the drum.

Absolutely cracking build thread, this is going to be better than when it left the factory ( sorry any factory workers reading this )

Thanks chap, at the end of the day VW had a budget for one of these cars back in the day but its now my job to up that budget to bomb proof levels lol

I love your attention to detail dubs, you're doing a fantastic job. I'm looking forward to seeing this in the metal one day :)

Hi everyone, Its been over 6 months since I last did an update and I'm happy to say that there has been a lot of progress on the Saloon so without further delay I shall get on with it.

With the car now back on all four wheels it could now move under its own steam (well minus rear brakes lol

) I had to have it so it moves because I look after a fleet of Vw's plus my work commitments mean I have to use the workshop for all sorts of task's.

It was now time to turn my attention to the bodywork this car on the outside is very original and by that I mean it wears its scares for everyone to see. There is no structural damage to this car whatsoever in fact I like the fact all the car park dings are there for me to see it lets me know the car hasn't been botched or covered up over the years. The worse part of this car is the frontend it's clearly had a low speed shunt at some point, not enough to cause any major damage but just enough to put lots of small dents and ripples on the front valance and a very slight deformity to the fronts of the wings.

The other issue the car has is water leaks, in fact you park this car in the rain it will soon be supporting aquatic life forms in less than ten minutes, this thing literally soaks up water!

The water leaks are my first port of call as there is no point in repairing any rust or damage if you’re going to end up fighting damp from the inside as well as out.

My first area of attack was the sunroof, sunroofs always come under a lot of flak for being rust traps or always leaking and the truth is that most of them have gone unserviced for many years and as such have a multitude of faults that can be easily fixed if you just chuck some time at it. This car is no exception it has the dreaded Britax glass flip out sunroof, unlike most people I like these a lot I think there a great sunroof in the summer as you can completely remove them and drive with same sort of feeling as a Targa top (well kind of lol).

A great many of these were sold and fitted by dealers and dealer certified body shop’s back in the day and pretty much everyone nowadays leaks and so would you if you'd been baked in the sun and frozen in the winter as many times as these have so in the next following updates I will show you how you can totally restore your glass sunroof and start to enjoy it instead of having to put up with a freezing cold shower every time you go round a corner.

This is the offending item in my lovely saloon.

There are only a handful of parts to these types of sunroofs so it's quite an easy job with low risk, be methodical with your removal and have a few pots or jam jars to put the screws and plastic pieces in as you go.

First job remove the glass, this is done by opening the sunroof as fare as it will go then pushing up on the little red catch on the lever, then simply open the sunroof some more and it will literally lift out.

Next on the list is to carefully remove the sunroof seal, this should just pull out but in most cases the seal has had loads of lazy people smear a tone of sealer all over it. It's at this point you need to make sure that the sealer that’s been applied to yours over the years will peel off! This is very important as you will need to reuse the seal and it will need to look like new for it to work again. If your seal is beyond rescue than you will need to source a new one, it's at this point I wish you good luck as I can’t find them anywhere.

Nine times out of ten it’s the sealer that is making the roof leak not the seal itself the most common fault was the seal shrinking over time and then pulling popping out in the corners as soon as the roof was opened this then caused the seal to hold the glass off in the middle of the frame, this in turn allowed water in.

Now it’s time to clean all that sealer out of the groove the seal sits in, for this I would recommend some kind of plastic scrapper I've found the plastic spreaders that come in bodywork filler tubs quite good. In my case I'm using a set of Bojo tools these are anti-scratch plastic tools that are designed for removing trim in modern cars.

This was all the sealer I pulled out of the groove that is supposed to take the seal itself no wonder its was leaking.

The next job is to remove the frame I'm doing this for two reasons 1) I know the sealant has gone under the frame so this will be a leak point too. 2) The frame has lost a lot of its paint and has started to corrode so it’s off to my painter for a tart up.

First remove all the screws from inside the car. You can see them here on mine, there the rusty ones lol.

You need to be careful as you don’t want to dent or scratch your roof so again only use plastic tools. Slowly work your way around the frame doing a little at a time, don't just lift one corner as this will pull on the roof skin and may deform the roof.

This left another little pile of sealer. I trimmed most of this off the roof skin with a scalpel.

Now I needed to refurbish the sunroof frame ready for paint, most of these frames are made from a very cheap cast alloy type metal and as such are quite brittle so try not to drop it as they can shatter.

You will need to remove these plastic spacers from the frame first as these set the depth for the glass once reassembled so don't lose these, just gently pries them out like so.

As you can see it corrodes a lot like alloy.

You must make sure that all traces of sealer have been removed as most sealer is silicone based so will react badly with new paint. Start with the channel the seal sits in but be careful not to make it any bigger as the seal will not be pinched in place like it should.

Then just work your way round the rest of the frame I used a DA on the face of the frame just to help get rid of the corrosion then I used scotch brite on the rest.

Getting there.

Ready to be delivered to my painter.

While that was away getting a fresh coat of satin black I started work on the front windscreen but for the interest of continuity my next post will be the refitting.

Cheers as always for taking the time and I hope the following update will be helpful to people if they have the same damp struggles as I do, peace out.

Edited 31 December, 201510 yr by dirtydubs

Great quality of work. I've always desired cars built to this standard, ever since reading MiniWorld magazines in the late '80s. It's not profitable for manufacturers to build new cars to the highest standards so re-builds can be far better (you can even get parts galvanised - including body shells, but that's money).

Unfortunately, i'm in no position to apply this standard to my own car, so it's great to see a MK2 getting some love, and with a good write-up too.

Great quality of work. I've always desired cars built to this standard, ever since reading MiniWorld magazines in the late '80s. It's not profitable for manufacturers to build new cars to the highest standards so re-builds can be far better (you can even get parts galvanised - including body shells, but that's money).

Unfortunately, i'm in no position to apply this standard to my own car, so it's great to see a MK2 getting some love, and with a good write-up too.

Thank bud that's very kind of you, Hopefully it will be on the road this year ready to take a battering lol