Thought I'd finally wack a "build" thread up..

(Its a bit of a jumble, and might of missed bits I've done..)

1989 Polo CL Saloon (1272)

85K

Solid as anything underneath

I think it must of had a 5 speed gearbox put on at some point

Original Dealer Stickers and Numberplates lol

I've replaced the rear brakes in full, and the bearings. Cleaned up the rear beam a bit.

Refurbished the front chassis legs, and installed some GMax 70mm springs and shocks at the front

Fitted AVO rear coilys

Put some mazda mx-5 alloys on (175/50/14)

Cleaned all the paint up on the car

Removed bumpstrips

Removed side decals as they where a bit tatty

Removed the Pierburg Carb (that didnt work) and fitted a Weber DMTL (to a fashion LOL)

Replaced the radiator, including a coolant flush.

Cleaned the bay up as best I could without removing the engine

I'm basicly learning as I go, and tbh, get a bit put off incase i break things, but I'm willing to get stuck in.

how it looked when i went to collect it

Drove it back the mile or so to work as I'd put a days insurance on it to drive it home, even though it had been SORNed lol, I didnt want to tax it for 6months for it to be left in the garage....

stopped off at work to leave the Leon in the workshop

I got about 3 miles before it broke down....

I think it was a mixture of failed thermostat, dodgy autochoke and dead battery..

After a scary tow home, kindly by my girlfriends dad in there 4x4 lol, got it home and into the garage.

Changed the battery for another one i had in the shed, and it started up again, but kept cutting out as soon as you touched the accelerator..

To cut a long story short, had a mess with it changed the thermostat, broke the radiator :( and changed the waterpump, oh and replaced the broken rad...

After that, started to fiddle with the carb, took the autochoke housing off, just to see what was behind it really lol, wound the copper back inside, and reassembled it. I subsquently learned how you could adjust it on the car, so i put it all back together and twised it untill it stayed running.

autochoke housing

now you see me..

now you dont..

how it stood untill i got paid again..

was bored and skint, but had high temp paint...

Managed to suss it out anyway and have got it running again, which now means I can get the jet wash on it for a thorough cleaning.

Started the detailing work today, got myself a variable speed polisher, so I'm still renovating the paint at the minute, but its coming up good.

Started to notice a few bits of rust that I'm going to have to sort, but nothing major.

• fornt, bottom corners of the doors
• small hole by N/S scuttle panel corner
• few bubbles on the bottom edges of the doors, that are hidden in with the splodges of tarmac..

Edited 23 March, 201214 yr by brightsideteeem

I then set about the bodywork with a polisher...

Still need to black the bumpers, and then waxed and sealed. Then can make a start on the engine bay...

Managed to clean the bonnet while it was off

Also got a set of these (that needs a return fuel line 'nipple')

Also got a manifold for it, but forgot about getting the vac advance so they will need modifying..

Got it out of the garage to have a look in the light

What do you guys think?

cheap way of lowering the back...

bananasmile.gif just need to sort the inside out now haha

I've postponed the bike carb idea and got a weber dmtl that its currently on, but thought it would be rude to not see what they looked like on..

I put lowered the front by 70mm with Gmaxx shocks and springs, the rear by 40mil and standard shocks.

I had an incident when I put them back on the car at the front though...

I'd put a washer back in the wrong place....

just the nose down after sorting that balls up lol

the front bumper needs some attention, trying to smooth some scratches out of it etc

The new alloys up the road after what seemed like an age reboring them...

The back bumper seems to be distored so that will be off next to try rectify otherwise another bumper will have to be sourced.

Ideally I want the bumpers with the red stripe on them.

Oh and dont worry, I'm changing the tyres and these are just some cheap alloys I got for now, i do like them though. Kinda reminds me of an old rally car or something lol

I still need to sort the throttle cable out properly, and fit a proper choke instead of the pikey version I've made it, some new ARB washers, 4-2-1 manifold, and to find a place that will make me a stainless steel exhaust, without having the car, so I can fit it myself, I've done everything so far lol

I then got some coilys for the back for bugger all, cleaned them up and stuck them on aswell.

Pics of the refurbed front struts and ARB

I got back from work, the sun was shining and I was feeling frisky.

After months of umming and arring, I finally took the rubstrips off.

its showed up a couple more surface rust bubbles, but overall it looks good I think.

Ideally, I want to put the GT stripe there :)

Also took managed to get more wax and grime out of the engine bay, and refitted the front bumper.

No pics of bumper back on, but after takin it round the block a few times I got a quick snap of the two beasty's :)

Nothing special but I like this shot lol

Then finally tried an idea I'd been toying with..

I've now fitted a single lamp grill fitted centre caps, and got it legit on the road.

Still playing with it as its my little hobby car so I dont got out in it much.

MOT'd and Taxed it in a week, then went to Edition in it to see what all the fuss was about. (Mixed feelings about it)

The car didnt miss a beat in 400miles, apart from running extremely rich and drinking loooooaaaads, but I can fiddle with it :)

Also have these to go on at some point :)

Heres some pics of it from Edition:

Yeah... I haven't got an air filter for it yet lol

I also spent ages pulling the vinyl stripes off the side as it was quite tatty in places. Have another idea to go on instead :)

I dont think I've done bad considering it had been stood for about 3 years in total. I know I've not done anything too adventuress yet but I'm learning more thing's as I go.

Luckily for me a very good friend of mine used to be pretty well known for a certain red wide arched breadvan, so he helps me out loads (little shout out for you, you know who you are )

I'm trying to save up for some front coilys atm to get it properly low, also discovered that my exhaust is blowing (proabably for banging it on speedhumps) so it might be a full system before coilys lol, but I'm sure as a lot of you know when you get idea's that something else might happen before hand.

I'm trying to get rid of my clio next so I can spend some more money on the polo because I love it so much.

I normally just lurk in the background on here picking up hints/tips and usually getting idea's that are probably way above my capabilities, but hey ho, I'll learn :)

What do people think anyway? (be kind, its my pride and joy lol...)

Edited 25 September, 201114 yr by brightsideteeem

really like it mate !! , keep up the good work , got 2 Mk II's myself and can completely see the appeal :-D

Cheers :) Dont wanna go too mad with it, as its really solid underneath and would be shame in one way to mess about to much with it.

I've also replaced the rear brakes and bearings (after having some fun with the races lol..) and gave it a quick service. It is running extremly rich, its drinking fuel and when I pulled the plugs out they were black as hell.

So might need some help in tuning the carb... (it has a dodgy choke atm aswell)

Also need some wider 14" rim's... lol

AP Racing Active 4 pots

brackets changed on them, but yeah pretty much lol

Edited 27 September, 201114 yr by brightsideteeem

where did you get the oil filler cap from mate looks amazing is it an alloy one.

Yeah its alloy, it was only cheap off ebay mate. Just didnt want it getting all sludgy under there as the original one was cracked

I got a rear bumper off a bready today to test as I like the way it cuts off at an angle(and my bumper is all bent and wierd).

Need to remove the tab things that hold the "sides" in place (stops the bumper flapping) but dont want to yet incase I knacker them..

Looking for idea's as to what else I can do to it, I want it to be kind of OEM+ as people are always all over it if I leave it anywhere (I'd never seen one when I first saw it lol) so anything I do I want it to look as if Vw did it.

Dont think anyones arsed really, as stated its nothing compared to some of the awesome conversions and upgrades people do on here, but I just love my polo lol

PS. Anybody want to buy a Renaultsport Clio 197? So I can spend more money on the polo haha

id keep those wheels mate, the look brilliant.

look alot better without the center caps too.

matt.

Looking for idea's as to what else I can do to it, I want it to be kind of OEM+ as people are always all over it if I leave it anywhere (I'd never seen one when I first saw it lol) so anything I do I want it to look as if Vw did it.

With regards the OEM+ thats what I'm doing mate, as daft as it sounds look for catalogues for say porsche or passat of the same/similar era and preferably VAG (always a higher spec than your car) and see what they came with as optional extras then fit them bits to your car

Comments are always great wit good quality pics and quite a few of them... as long as there is a steady progress (cant always be helped) you'll get them comments

Thanks, I'll do that :)

id keep those wheels mate, the look brilliant.

look alot better without the center caps too.

matt.

Yeah I'll keep them either way as they're not worth selling. You prefare with them off? I thought they looked better with the caps on lol. Just need to fill over the mazda badges.

Keep getting asked to spray them silly colour's but I prefare them silver lol

I did see a set of wire wheels for it today, but I'm not sure its low enough to pull them off lol

liking this mate didnt see it at edition but i was only there on the sunday.

i want your chrome window trims :)

keep up the good work

Dan

Cheers mate, its gone a bit funny in places, but it's all original, tinted glass aswell :)

We left at around 2pm on the Sunday as we were all fubard from the night before lol

how did i miss this then i saw another red one on ats i think but didnt see yours oh well theres always next year. what are the plans now then matey?

erm, just to get it running right for now haha. Carb needs setting up so bad...

So not done anything to shout about recently, just enjoying driving it lol

Fitted a choke cable, so its a lot better to drive now and easier to keep running when its cold. Really suprised at how nippy it is. Triple figures are more than capable. (long private road.)

Also fitted my stereo and some FLi 13cm component speakers in the back, in place of the original's (they're slighly oversize, but managed to squeeze them in the holes.)

Oh also finally got round to fitting something I've had a while...

Not alot done atm as money is a bit tight atm.. Still always fiddling with the carb and the timing for peak performance (surprised an s-line A3 2.0 tdi the other night)

I'm semi-on the look out for some new seats as these arnt really very supportive as I fall out of them going around roundabouts a bit quick lol

Took the rear seats out while I give it a good cleaning, (and possibly think about recovering them) so thought it would be rude not too...

While I was faffing I took the rear door cards off and was a bit surprised to find a bit of rot

Its on the O/S and its like a tube inside the panel? It seems pretty isolated, I did my best to use a wire brush on what I could reach and the pipe beneath all the flaky metal seems solid.

2 potential problems as A) I'm not sure what it is B)It looks like its going to be a bit of a bugger to sort out because of where it is.

I'l upload some pics tomorrow and hopefully someone could shed some light

Pictures of the offending area

It's the pipe which holds the fuel tank breather hose in place. Nothing major and fairly common thought for some reason the one on my loon is intact- I was surprised! For now I would prob just cut out the worst of it and round off any sharp edges.

Really like your loon.