So I've had some good time to get on with things in the last few weeks, I'm a bit behind but I'll try get back up to date again [emoji16].

Aluminium clutch bush fitted (Thanks Peter James again)

Little nice touches, nut covers for alternator and starter battery cables.

Then the fun started.. It was time to test fit the front end to see how I was going to make it all fit and with the standard bumper bar and lower rad support it wasn't going to happen without cutting the bumper which I don't really want to do.

First test fit to try work things out.

With the turbo at this position the boost hose will be hitting the rad and will look crap, this is with the rad right forward too..

The only way this was going to work and not look bodged was to clock the turbo right round and make a new actuator bracket to correct to rod angle. So I clocked the turbo more and tried again

A lot more room! And the intercooler fits behind the bumper without cutting it.

To get this all to fit how I want it, I'm going to have to make a new rad support that sits 55mm lower (inline with the lower part of the bumper) and a new bumper bar which will give me more room and more air flow.

I would explain the idea but I'll just put pics up. It took a hell of a lot of head scratching, measuring and checking to try think of a design that will work and be strong enough.

Firstly made the end plates with bolt holes for both bumper bar and rad support. The tabs on the end of plates for bumper bar are for fog lights ( may need to move them though)

So first started making the rad support bar. 55mm drop needed to make it all fit better and so the intercooler makes to most of the opening in the bumper.

End parts to drop it down 45deg cut and a 22.5deg cut

Main centre bar 22.5deg cut in both ends

Ends welded on.

Welds ground flat for a neater look

Then welded bolt plates and put some gussets on the end of each side.

Bar is set 10mm back in the bolt plates so it gives the clearance I need for the bumper to fit without cutting it at all.

Test fitted

A lot more to come!

Edited 22 February, 201610 yr by RyanC

Update time!

Progress has come to a massive holt as I was rushed to hospital again with another bowel obstruction and ended up having surgery again to fix it. So haven't seen the car in 5 weeks :(. At home recovering at the moment so gives me time to update this. Also as I've been resting for a few weeks now, it's given me time to spend too much money or more parts to get this thing finally finished. I am hoping (depending on recovery) to get it running and driving ready for retro rides gathering this year... But we will have to see.

So following on from the making of the front end.

Where I use to work, I knew a guy that made roll cages. So went to see him to bend some tube for the bumper bar. Wanted it out of one complete tube but his order hadn't turned up, so we used some off cuts, made two halves witch to be honest made it easier as I can cut it so it fits the plates where I want it as I could mess around with the spacing etc before I welded them together.

This is it cut ready to fit after working out where I was going to place it on the plates.

45deg edges so it makes a valley for the weld to be strong.

Made a sleeve (not perfect by far) but helps when welding to help gett lots of heat in the weld without it falling through.

Got it sitting flat and straight before I welded it together.

Done, lots of heat in the weld so should be plenty strong enough. Due to making a valley the welds are flush with the tube so looks a lot neater.

Then sat it straight on the car where I wanted it and got it welded to the end plates.

Happy with how it's turning out so far.

Made a bracket for the front panel to bolt to the bumper bar.

So far so good.

So that's the main parts done, now time to work out the mountings for the rad, intercooler, oil cooler, bumper and horn.

Few trial and errors but this is what I ended up settling on.

Intercooler/rad mounting for rad support.

So front part with the hole is for intercooler. Pictures will make it easier to understand my idea hopefully.

Small tower for lower rad support as the intercooler is sitting slightly lower than the rad so the intercooler sits better with the mouth of the bumper and the rad sits high to use the most of the air flow from the grill area.

Holes made for rad mount pins to sit in.

Stud covers and rubber used on lower mountings

Rad test fitted.

So that's the lower mounts done for rad and intercooler. Luckily the rad and intercooler mounts are about the same width apart so all fits nicely [emoji1305].

Edited 26 March, 201610 yr by RyanC

Then made mountings for top of rad and intercooler. Bit of a contraption but works well.

So that's the rad and intercooler mounted was going to rubber mount them at the top but I don't personally think it needs it as the hoses will flex enough without putting stress on them.

For some reason I didn't get any proper pictures of how I've mounted the oil cooler but this is it all mounted up. When I'm able to get out the house I'll get some pics of how I've mounted it.

Should still provide enough air flow to the rad. Running a lower temp stat and fan switch anyway so shouldn't have any issues with over heating but we will see. Can always re-locate later on but I like it in that location.

Horn mounted

Made bumper mounts too, for the two bolt holes under the mouth of the bumper. Just 2 tubes welded to the bumper bar with captive m8 nuts welded in the end. Took a bit of measuring etc to get the bumper sitting as well as I could get it.

Fog lights mounted to test fit bumper too.

Cut the holes in the bumper for the fog lights.

Had to cut the fog light mounts off and make new ones as they sat too low on the holes. Will make a bracket for the top hole once in happy with how the fit.

New brackets on

Very happy with how it all fits [emoji4]

So welded some brackets for the 3rd bolt hole for the fogs.

All ready to be powder coated [emoji51]

Edited 26 March, 201610 yr by RyanC

So my exhaust is a lot more solid than I thought with the power flex rubbers I'm using. Good idea I think for anyone who is getting annoyed with there system scrapping along the floor dude to the standard style rubber breaking. On g40's from standard they came with a rubber bush that fits to the little hole in the hanger on the boot floor between the hooks. Stops the system knocking into the hanger. Most are long gone after breaking of at some point. Ordered a new one from vw heritage as my system now sits very close due to the design of the rubbers I'm using and would make a knocking noise when the system moves.

Works perfect system now can't hit the hanger.

Got the braces back from powder coaters

Soldered the 250kpa MAP sensor in the ecu. This was a bit fiddly also never done any circuit board work before[emoji15] but seemed to be okay hopfully it works fine [emoji23].

Also put my chip in!

Put it back together and got it fitted.

Due to the rear disc conversation the handbrake cable now sits very close to the exhaust system, so ordered some sticky backed Kevlar gold heat wrap to the try protect it a bit.

Also redone the heat shield on the bonnet on the outside with it.

Painted the intercooler for a more stealth look [emoji41]

Came into a little issue with the intercooler/rad set up, the intercooler inlet and outlet are very close to the outside of the radiator. So close that with the hoses on, the rad is about 5mm out and won't sit between the intercooler.

So this happened.

Got a mate to TIG weld it for me. Wish I could TIG weld. Need to buy one I think and have a go. I use to gas weld a bit I've been told it's basically that same principle..

Anyway that was that issue sorted.

Edited 26 March, 201610 yr by RyanC

Really enjoyed doing this next bit and I'm so happy with how it's turned out [emoji38]

Downpipe making time!

Took a turbo to downpipe gasket to my local machine shop. They then laser cut me a flange.

Lots of stainless 90s, 45s a reducer and some flexi joints acquired then had a play..

I'm tack welding it all together then getting my mate to TIG it all up.

So 3 inch outlet to a 3 inch flexi at the front.

Then to a 3-2.5 inch reducer

Then under the sump to join to the 2.5 inch PPP system.

Early polos are known for the downpipes sitting low and scraping on everything. My plan is to tuck it as close as I possibly can so it sits higher than the lowest part of the subframe.

Meaning I'll have to shape the down pipe around the drive shaft, then back up to meet the system.

Very close the driveshaft heat shield and sump but it's exactly how I want it and is solid [emoji1305]

Lambda boss and mount for rear of downpipe

Now I've been asked and a lot of people are probably thinking if I put a rear mount on the down pipe I'm defeating the object of having a front flexi pipe. My plan is I'm now going to use 2 flexi pipes the second flexi will be on the front section of the PPP system before the first rubber mount by the gear selector box. This will take most the movement away from the rear part of the system. The mount by the lambda boss on the downpipe is rubber mounted so there is still movement through this part to the front flexi pipe so the down pipe still does move and will move under load so that's where the front flexi comes in, to take the stress from the system away from the turbo and manifold helping prevent cracks forming in the manifold.

Just above the front flexi on the down pipe I have welded a bracket to the 3 inch part of the system. I will then make a brace to the spare holes in the gearbox casing. This will hopefully take all the stress and weight of the system away from the turbo and manifold. So both flexi will work together with the braces and hopefully will stop any fractures in the manifold.

Here are some pictures if you can't understand my idea.

Mount above front flexi

Plates for brace bolted to spare holes in gearbox casing.

10mm rod bent and used to connect the plates to the bracket on the downpipe.

So that's that done just need to be powder coated.

Just because I wanted to and I thought it was a good idea, I also braced the turbo on the cold side to the engine mount.

Two plates and a 10mm rod to connect them, there are two spare m6 bolt holes on the cold side of the turbo so it worked out really well.

Plate bolted to turbo

Plated bolted to engine mount

Rod bent and welded to plates

So that's the turbo braced good and proper should make the manifold have an easier life.

Edited 26 March, 201610 yr by RyanC

So got them powder coated, due to getting so much stuff powder coated he did these for free [emoji4]

So took my downpipe and front section to my mate the TIG up and OMG his stainless TIG welding is on point! Will be a shame to heat wrap it but oh well. P.S sorry for all the pics but love how it's turned out!

Anyway haha! Time to cover it :(

I think it looks a lot smarter with the natural coloured wrap compared to white.

So got the downpipe fitted with the braces etc

Tucked perfectly [emoji106]

Cold side turbo brace

PPP system seems to sit very high compared to others I've seen too, but that will be down to the rubbers I'm using.

Spent so much on AN fittings to plum in the turbo be well worth it in my opinion.

Oil feed pipe made. Nylon sleeve to protect there it runs through the BRV hole in the rocker cover.

Turbo return line protected with Kevlar sleeve and high temp cable ties.

Then coolant lines, t-piece for return to small top hose on header tank and a revotec coolant hose t-piece with m14 fitting to screw in AN fitting adapter.

Kevlar sleeves also used near turbo and hose separators to neaten things up and also helps keep the pipes from moving about to much.

Turbo actuator bracket extended due to clocking turbo.

Rod sits nice and flat now.

Wow! Heat wrapping the water pipes? Well worth it, mine get so hot. And that exhaust looks great! i think ppp run differnt mounts on thier back boxes though? That tig welding is spot on 👍

Bit rubbish and getting pictures of some things but nothing to special.

Breather catch tank fitted to inner arch where charcoal canister use to be. Filter to atmosphere at the moment will see how stinky it is, might recirc it back to inlet.. Then just a pipe down the side of the drivers chassis leg to the pod on the back of the block. Sticky cable tie mounts used to hold the pipe neatly down the side of the engine bay.

Will get some pictures of the front end all back on can't seem to find any. Here is one

13 inch revotec fan with fan mounts just need to cut them down a bit.

Fan has plenty of clearance.

Also you can see in that picture the water/meth nozzle boss I got welded to the aluminium boost pipe.

Boost pipes fitted and forge recirc valve on. Rebuilt it before fitting it. It's a splitter type valve so can make it atmospheric if I wanted to, but I like stealth and to be honest you'll still hear it through the air filter I'm sure.

Made an air filter "heat shield" got the idea from the jabba sport ones just mines a bit more tailor made to my set up and it runs right down to the headlight to feed cold air towards the filter.

Made a template first to work everything out

Then out of sheet aluminium cut it to shape and bent it. Then the got my mate to TIG weld down the one seam that was left (where the duct tape is in the top two pics here).

Welded then fitted some edge trim to it.

Little bracket at the front is for it to bolt to front panel is to prevent the air guide from rattling around.

Rubber washers where it's bolting down.

Foam on underside to help any rubbing or rattles.

Then got that fitted.

Chris, yes I don't want it heating up the coolant more than it already is going to.

Also that is a PPP rear mount. They come with all of them from new.

Air filter then fitted. Think it's worth spending a bit more and getting a k&n so I did!

Sorry if the order is a bit out with a few pictures but tried to put it into sections.

Few extra progress shots.

Also this week I ordered some different type of induction hose (the flexi part) as the pipe on there at the moment is not really designed for induction vacuum and could possibly collapse, it is wire reinforced but don't want to take the risk. So got this stuff very similar to the jabba induction hose and is very strong so will work perfectly.

So stuck at home at the moment recovering :(, but will update a few more things in the next few weeks.

Then hopefully sooner rather than later I can get back on with getting it finished and running!

[emoji102]

Mate you're smashing it, inspirational, keep it up

Thanks dude [emoji16]

Loving that exhaust! Also reminded me I need to figure out a way to brace my turbo.

Out of interest what water/meth kit are you going to be using?

Thanks! Yeah is worth doing for sure.

I have bought a new devels own kit. Tank and pump in the boot

All I can say is wow, the execution of everything is amazing. This is one amazing car, hats off to you sir

Little something I've managed to do over the weekend.

Took the instrument cluster apart to clean the inside of the screen as it was covered in 25 year old dust.

Also swapped the speedo needle over for a better one as it has a small peace missing from it.

The two lights at the top have a green strip to show a green light on the cluster, got a milk carton and made one so it will show whatever colour bulb I put in there now (haven't decided if I want yellow or white yet)

All cleaned ready to put back together

Done [emoji4]

The level of detail going into this is incredible...cannot wait to see the final result

Few extra pics I took the other day [emoji4]

Few more of the front end set up

Oil cooler mounts

Fan has lots of clearance

Better pics of the left turbo brace

Boost pipe layout

Cut out in rad for boost pipe

Lambda and wideband gauge sensor in.

Used a proper band clamp to join the system instead of the u clamps that just look crap and bend the sleeve.

Another of the system..

Horn [emoji448]

I really look forward to your updates dude. Real inspiration in this thread.

Servo pipe extended with and extra takeoff for all the different things that need connecting

Map sensor is using its own take off

Then BOV is taken from the takeoff under the inlet

Fuel pressure reg and boost switch from new take off from extended

part.

Then other take of just before on way valve for water/meth switch and boost gauge. Both though's are mounted just behind the ecu tucked out the way.

Got bored so did something a bit different, rear speakers that I'm using.

Fitted, m5 nuts are perfect to hold them in place

Then put the supports in

So the plastic "s" boost pipe is not going to work now as I've decided to reposition the water/meth nozzle so I don't like the idea of tapping into plastic and rather make something that will flow better and look better. So ordered so aluminium pipe work and got cutting.

2x 1/8npt weld on bungs one for nozzle and other for intake air temp sensor gauge. Also a weld on co-pot bung

Big ass cop saw

Flared ends cut off ends that are being welded together

Done :) all the silicone hoses are just for mock up. So will be welded together as one pipe

Will get more pics once it's welded of the bung positions

All for now :)

You're my hero

[emoji8]