Finally sorted the clocks this morning. The LED's i got off ebay were crap and didnt fit, so had to order some more from Ultra LED's. I ordered 2 blue, 1 red, and a spare of each. Broke one of the blue ones, so its a good job i got spares. They are frosted LED's, so less bright spotting. Red in the LCD clock, and Blue for the dials. I will wait till its dark later to add a pic. So watch this space people Got to solder an LED into the ciggy lighter too.

Dark now. So heres the clocks :

Close up:

And all the dash lights:

Still not entirely happy with them though, as there are 2 different blues, due to a mix of LED's and bulbs. But cant have it all

That's wicked dan!

Nice! Clocks look smart mate.

Small update incase anyones interested. Finally got all the dash put back together yesterday. The clock adventure is finally over. Started to take other sections of the dash apart now for cleaning. Centre console came out, as will the dash undertrays when i have chance:

I also replaced the heater vents, which had the usual problem of being much too loose and floppy. I know you can bend the clips, but i already had a nice stiff pair, so just swapped them out. Now they stay where you want them:

On the subject of heating, i also changed the resistor in the heater motor, so it now works on all 3 speeds, even though its still very loud.

I also needed an expansion tank, as somehow mine had melted where the cap screws on, meaning the cap stood proud and was touching on the bonnet. I decided to go for a used one, as the only one available new has a connector that sticks out, that isnt used on my engine. The problem with used tanks, they are horrible and yellowed. So i solved that by doing this:

Sanded down to give a key, and masked up the top, and over the level marks:

Primed:

Painted with satin black, and fitted :

This is the state of my coolant, which i drained from the old expansion tank. Looks like someone filled it with Bisto. I even drained it into a gravy jug Safe to say i'll be dropping the coolant and doing a system flush.

Cleaned up the centre console:

Fan shroud and fan removed:

Taken apart and cleaned up. Shroud is a bit rusty, so will be dropped off at powdercoaters soon (along with cam cover and battery clamp):

Stainless bolts for the tool tray:

And more for the wings. Will be fitted once i get the right washers:

Actually had these for a while, just never mentioned them before. So i'll mention them now. BMW E30 bumper vents. They will be fitted in the fog light positions once they have been trimmed a little, and painted with textured black:

More updates on the way soon, so keep checking back :-D

I literally cannot wait to see this! Especially when you've lowered it with some nice shoes. I'm going to be in awe

I literally cannot wait to see this! Especially when you've lowered it with some nice shoes. I'm going to be in awe

Yours is looking good now tho mate. I'm lowering this soon. Give me another month and it'll be out :-D

In time for the next Worcester volks meet??

In time for the next Worcester volks meet??

I'll see how ir goes. But i'm struggling to get some of the things i need.

Gooooo on! Big unveiling!

Gooooo on! Big unveiling!

Gooooo on! Big unveiling!

Been busy with this again today. But dont really have any pics, due to having gloves on, covered in coolant. Had a nice drive out to leominster and p&t moore scrappy. I relieved a MK3 coupe of its heater box to replace mine, which has noisy bearings in the fan. It was a right result, as the unit looks like its a nearly new one, with the resistor looking very fresh When i got home i set to work on the cooling sytem. I popped the rad hose off and drained the system. Then i took out the radiator and bought it inside and flushed it through and cleaned the fins in the bath (always make sure your mom is out before doing this) Then i removed the thermostat and flushed the block through, using a hose until it ran clear.

I also did a bit more cleaning in the engine bay, as its far easier with the rad out to get to some areas. I bought some GUNK spray, as my Autoglym engine cleaner ran out, and it was supposed to be very good. But its not a patch on the autoglym stuff when it comes to shifting the wax oil in the bay!

All that and i only managed this random pic:

Anally cleaning stuff ftw

Yep. Bout right!

Got some pics of some of what i did yesterday now. And i installed the new heater box today and got it all connected up.

Yesterday, as mentioned earlier, i drained the coolant, and flushed the rad/ engine. I also did some (very anal ) cleaning in the bay. I started to remove the dirty black wax oil from the chassis legs and inner wings. Theres still a lot more to be done, but alot of the blue parts were once either just dirty, or caked in wax oil:

Right side inner wing/ chassis leg. Round carbon canister was all wax oil, and also all the blue parts on chassis leg were covered. I gave the cross member a clean too, but its a bit scabby so would be rude not to whip it out and powdercoat :-):

Right side inner wing/ engine mount. Around the engine mount was wax oil (still is some but will all be removed). And engine mount was oily.

Only done a little here, but coming up well. Left side chassis leg.

Onto todays work. The stupid heater box . This decided to make my life as hard as possible. It was a world of inaccesible hose clips and awkward screws. But it finally came out, after much cursing. The first problem was the bottom hose clip. I couldnt get the mole grips anywhere near it. That problem was overcome by undoing the clips and freeing the unit from the fresh air box. The unit was almost out, well i thought it was. I pulled it, turned it wiggled it, but nothing would make it come out. After a while i realised the only option would be to remove the ecu, so out it came, along with its bracket:

With the ecu out of the way, i could slide the heater box to the end of the plenum chamber and finally remove it:

With the manky old heater unit out of the way, i decided to clean up the plenum chamber. I also unblocked the rubber drain tube, which had its own compost, and chopped off the tip, to prevent further blockages. Heres the result:

The brake servo, and the area around it looked dirty, so gave that a clean too:

With that done, it was time for the new heater box. Very clean looking:

And resistor is also nearly new :-D :

I ran a bead of silicone sealant round the edge, and gave it a clean, and placed it loosely in position. Before going any further, i re-connected the battery and tested it. All is well, and lovely and quiet. Result! . So it was refitted:

Then i connected it up and refitted the ecu. And all done:

Some of the parts i cleaned, you never see, but if its dirty, i'll clean it! Pretty sure i have OCD, as i've been through the exact same process cleaning the bay on all 3 cars

I've had. On the MK1 i even cleaned the back of the block, and the gearbox (including underneath). This will get the same treatment eventually

More too come soon!

Looking very nice man! Really clean =D love looking through this one! Good luck with it all :)

loving your work mate. i wanna do a similar thing with my clocks but i just wondered what that centre console was out of? gt/g40? I'm driving a coupe fox and want one..

loving your work mate. i wanna do a similar thing with my clocks but i just wondered what that centre console was out of? gt/g40? I'm driving a coupe fox and want one..

Cheers mate. Centre console can be found in most models of MK3 polo, and was standard in both my parade coupe (this one) and Genesis coupe. The fox like yours was the most basic, so didnt have one :-) .

Really like this mate ! OEM/ OEM+ is the way forward

More done today. Mostly disassembly and MORE cleaning.

Decided to remove the front cross member, seen as i have the radiator out. But got a little carried away i think. I thought it would be easier to get the cross member off if the bumper was out of the way of the bolts, But the grille was in the way of the bumper bolts. So off it came:

And off came the bumper:

And finally the cross member itself. A bit scabby, but will be powdercoated :-) :

Its now looking a bit naked, and i spotted some dirt, cant be doing with that :

And all clean . Even though youll never see any of this. The bumper bar is in very good nick too:

Cleaned up the front bumper, and also removed the numberplate, after cutting a new slot into the rusted head of one screw. And offered up the E30 bumper vents, to work out where they need to be trimmed a little:

Offered up my freebie splitter, but decided against using it as its just too deep. Want something more subtle. Any suggestions?

Thanks for looking, and will update soon. Maybe even some proper progress!

Todays work inolved a bit of driving round, but it was almost a summers day, so it was a windows down, tunes up kind of affair :-) Went to my local VW stealers to order some parts for the rear suspension. The same parts i ordered last year for my other coupe, but one of the bushes is now obsolete as of 01/01/2012 (like alot of of the early-mid 90's stuff i believe ) Had a look round the UP! and the New Beetle while i was there, both look much better in the metal than pics i'd seen. Beetle was baby blue and IMO looked awesome, and not at all girly. Dropped my fan shroud, cam cover, battery clamp and cross member off at the powdercoaters. Also popped into GSF for some parts. Top mounts, thermostat and rocker gasket:

Once i got home i had a go at my front bumper. I cut some rather big holes. Just after i'd cut the first one i thought, what the f**k have i done! as it looked a right mess, but it came good in the end. Goodbye foglight blanks :

I then placed my E30 vents in the holes to check fitment. Then trimmed the corners of the vents to suit, and ground the edges of the holes smooth:

And here are the vents in position. Both the vents and the bumper cut-outs need fettling to get the best fit, but you get the idea:

Close up:

Vents look pretty cool i think, even in red :-) . But i think i will be spraying them black. What do people think?

Siiiick! They fit very well.

Oh god no, please don't put the mk3 golf splitter on this. Just my opinion but they look shite.

Also have you thought about half colour coded bumpers, could look smart on this (keeping with the OEM theme).

Good work as always mate.

Dont worry mate. That splitter will not be going anywhere other than the bin . Its battered and IMO looks shite. Thought it might look good, but offered it up, and it didnt. Its far too deep. I still want a spliiter so will look for something more subtle. I have thought about half coded bumpers, but decided against them as i like the all black. I am giving gloss black smoothed bumpers a thought though

Edited 12 March, 201214 yr by malaga red

Dont worry mate. That splitter will not be going anywhere other than the bin . Its battered and IMO looks shite. Thought it might look good, but offered it up, and it didnt. Its far too deep. I still want a spliiter so will look for something more subtle.

Take a look at my splitter mate, about 1.5" so quite subtle.

Not much of an update. But i picked my parts from the stealers today. All i'd ordered was 2 rear bumpstops and 2 rear top mounts/ bushes. The price? £42 What a rip! But at least i have genuine parts and not repros, so they will last as long as the originals.

Also found some (almost) forgotten treasure in the loft. I spotted a VW motorsport gear knob on ebay and thought there may be one in the house somewhere. I was sure it used to be on my Moms Golf about 8-10 years ago. I was right and here it is. OEM rareness :