This looks absolutely amazing andy, I cant wait to see this finished!

Cracked on some more with this at the weekend.

Painted up the driver's footrest thing. Wasn't going to bother, but there were a few bits of surface rust so it got Vactan'd and satin blacked.

Now all the painting in that area is done, I could put the servo back into position. Battery tray is still to do, but I'm waiting for some seam sealer there to dry as I've had to level out the corner of it with seam sealer to stop water puddling. Given the recent temps it's taking ages to cure!

This meant that the pedal box could go back in, along with the steering column. With those done, I put the bulkhead sound deadening back in too (after a bloody good hoover out!). It was tearing in a few places, hence the gaffer tape.

Bumper iron bolted back on.

Secondary door seal bits were a pain to put back on, but only because the double-sided tape I've got is really narrow so it needed lots of strips of tape. Bodyshop had lost a few of the clips, but I'd remembered to nick some off one of the many cars Yoof's broken recently!

Started putting some of the trim back on. That's after a dose of heatgun too, so thinking I might need to shell out for new trim - or buy shares in Back to Black!

Powder coated engine mounts got the rubbers re-installed. The rubbers are pretty much brand new, so haven't replaced them. Forgot to take photos of the pikey puller I made to reinstall them - it was basically some 10mm bar with big lumps of metal acting like washers either end and a couple of nuts to tighten it all together. Worked a treat with some silicone spray and didn't damage the powder coating.

Finally, the tailgate got its badges back - for the second time in the rebuild! When it went back to the bodyshop for the battery tray 're-work'/bodging they repainted the bonnet and tailgate as they had a few blebs in them.

I keep tripping over the Polo's carpets in our lounge, so will have to get around to putting them back in tonight. Interior pimping might be a project for next year - I fancy a re-trim to clean it all up, but really want to drive the car next year so it can wait. Aim of the game now is to get it back together with all the bits I've already got and actually use the bloody thing.

Gaz coilovers ordered last week too with Andy-spec springs to see how they work with Stage 3 frame and no ARB. They'll be going on there with a refurbed G40 axle and rear disc conversion I've had knocking around for years, and some new 256mm calipers up front. Master cylinder and bias valve choice to be confirmed.

Awesome

Glad to see you're progressing again mate, will soon be back together and on the road :)

Looking Good :-D

coming along nicely now!

So, made some progress on this over Christmas...

Found a random bit courtesy of the bodyshop's collection of bits left over:

Forum geekery (thanks Guy!) identified the location for the missing part in the steering column - so that came apart:

Carpets went in, and I started tidying and re-routing the dash harness. The heater box foam seal was all knackered so I cut some automotive adhesive foam I'd got knocking around to shape and fitted it:

Reminded myself to sort a bigger oil cooler, mine's only a 13-row which with a turbo probably isn't enough. I think I've still got a monster one from my Saab 9000 Aero, so will have to dig that out.

Powder coated accelerator pedal installed, shite photo but it's nice and shiny! Only problem is that powder coat is thicker than paint, so it had to be thinned out where it fits into the nylon bushes for the pivot.

Battery tray got its final colour coat. It's not quite the standard I was hoping for when I asked a bodyshop to sort it, but given the circumstances I'm fairly happy with the outcome. Just hope that it doesn't bloody rust again! Now lacquered too, but no photos.

Dug out the speedo cable to fit a new rubber grommet on it as the old one was fucked. Ordered a new grommet, but hadn't really crossed my mind that there's huge crimped-on lumps either end. Heated the new bit up and managed to stretch it over. Cut the old one off. Exciting stuff eh?!

After some good swearing, and a few skinned knuckles I got the dashboard back in, heater controls hooked back up and dashboard harness all clipped in. Took the time to tidy up the 'professional' immobiliser installation too. Might take a thief at least 60s to hot wire it now instead of 10s...

Have just rebuilt a set of clocks to go in, and then it'll be time to put in the chairs and door cards. Got some decent door membranes from SamG40 to fit too - cheers mate! Hoping to get an ETA from Gaz next week on my coilovers too, then I can crack on with fitting a G40 rear axle; rear discs and my 256mm brake conversion up front.

Now have a firm finish date for the project too, needs to be done by May - when this arrives!

Cars coming on well mate also congratulations on the soon to be new arrival :p

looking good andy cant wait to see it when its finished

Cracking project, rebuild is coming along nicely

Congratulations on the news

Awesome dude, loving the attention to detail - while it's apart, renew/refurb

Engine will look nice too

Congrats too!

CRacking rebuild mate keep up with the good work fancy rebuilding mine

Thanks everyone for the kind words and encouragement! Made some more progress at the weekend.

Bit of tinworm that'd got missed on the inside of the passenger door - had just given it a dose of rust eater, but it was a bit too deep for that, so got taken back to metal before re-treating.

Followed that up with a top coat of colour to protect it. Dropped a bollock and got some overspray on my newly repainted metal carpet strip, so will have to repaint that. ::)

Got the 'refurbed' (ish!) speedo cable installed with new clips into the back of the dash, and new grommet.

Removed the masking from the battery tray area finally. Doesn't look too bad in the end.

I kept the aerial hole. I know most people don't, but I always liked the fact that my car looked pretty standard - and a whippy ancient aerial adds to the image of poverty-spec shopping car cheapness which adds to the 200bhp sleeper effect. So anyway, aerial back in.

Whipped the heater matrix/blower assembly apart to clean it. This bit had been removed whilst the car was painted, but for some reason got left inside whilst the car was sprayed - so it was covered in paint dust etc.

Cleaned the lot including the motor in solvent, and then used electrical contact cleaner on the motor before re-greasing the bearings. Going to need to back-to-black the plastic I think, but worth a try as a new assembly is £165ish! I did order a new matrix though, as hopefully it'll save me a job in the future if/when the originally finally decided to let go.

Re-glued the headlining into place wherever it was coming loose. Bulldog clips easily hold it into place while the Evostick dries and are easy to remove afterwards.

Managed to rescue my original door card membranes in the end. A clean up with solvent, touch of tape on a few small tears, and some double-sided tape and they were good to go. Can't seem to buy new ones any more, and I could've just cut up a bin bag - but it'd have been a pain to get the right shapes and cut-outs sorted, so I was pleased how these turned out.

Door cards on front and rear, and rear chairs in. Leaving the fronts out 'til I've got clutch and throttle cables installed. Makes installation easier and saves them getting dirty!

Going to be back to doing some oily bits soon, will do cambelt and some other odds n sods on the engine whilst it's out. Hopefully by the time I've done that my new suspension will've arrived, though Gaz Shocks's weeks seem to be longer than mine!

looking stunning Andy , lots of time consuming work done to get it looking that nice. congratulations also on the Daddy news.

Thanks Richard!

Tarted up heater unit back in, complete with new matrix and foam seals.

Front wiper linkage and motor back in too. Didn't feel flush enough to buy a new motor just for the sake of having another new shiny bit.

Door mirrors back on. The bases need some back to black!

Brand new door seals installed. These were fecking expensive for what they are, and a bit of a pain in the arse to fit perfectly - but I got there in the end. I'm hoping that having new seals will cut down on the wind noise!

Looking more like a car again - at least inside!

And a late Christmas present finally arrived. Shame that they've omitted the helper springs I spec'd, but hopefully they'll post those on to me.

where did you get your new door seals from? I'm after a pair and the ebay universal stuff is £6 a metre!

resto's looking good

Door seals were from VW Classic Parts/VW Heritage. They were a lot more than £6/metre!!

Getting there. I hate fitting the headlinings in them. Its always a pain to get in and out. Stupid design. Modern ones are much easier!

Congrats on the baby. Being a dad is awesome but really time consuming. I've went from being down the garage tinkering twice a week to around once a month!

Nice work Andy.

Where did you get new B pillar trims from?

Trims or the stickers?

One trim was NOS from eBay, and the other was from VW Heritage. The stickers for the doors were from VW Stickers run by DKnight on here.

Been plodding on with this slowly. Helper springs arrived from Gaz, so bought some SKF wheel bearings and some new hubs ready to build the struts up. Just need a free Friday afternoon to press the bearings in at work now.

Pulled the rear axle off ready to fit a G40 item with Mk2 Golf rear discs hanging off it. The rear shock bolts were seized to the shock bushes, so ended up cutting the bolts off. Will drill the remnants out at some point as the shockers are still serviceable.

Progress got stalled as I noticed a few scabby bits underneath which really needed attention. I think being in and out of a paint oven a couple of times probably exacerbated things where the stonechip/underseal's going baggy.

Anyway, I've hit the lot with a wire brush and Vactaned it. No pictures of it as it stands now, after each session my eyes were full of underseal and rust, so didn't really feel like taking pics! Next job is to seam seal and/or stonechip the appropriate parts.

Removed the rear axle brackets and the fuel pump assembly carrier. After 20+ years and a spate living by the sea before my ownership, these bits looked like they'd been down the bottom of the sea. They got shipped off for blasting and powder coating.

After:

The fuel pump carrier looks fairly pitted still, but given that it's £75ish for a new one and special order from VW Classic Parts it'll do as is!

Need to get my finger out to get the arse end back together and throw brakes and suspension back on. Then it's easy street and engine refresh time.

Had the seam sealer out tonight to sort the underneath at the rear. Have some stonechip to go on the areas that don't need seam sealer, so hopefully it'll help things last a fair bit longer without further attention. The blue/black/purple areas are where I've painted it with Vactan. Any slightly rusty bits were taken back to bare metal and Vactan'd.

Sealed the rear rolled arches up with seam sealer. I was under the impression that the bodyshop were going to do that, but they were still black hammerite as per my efforts 8 or 9 years ago. Presumably another optional part of the job as far as they were concerned.

Yellowy brown shite in this picture is Waxoyl rather than tinworm!

Was feeling pretty chipper after all that, not far off being able to bolt the new rear axle back up and stick the new coilovers on. Whilst I was lying on the floor I thought I spotted a bit of crap stuck to the bottom of the passenger door. It's not dirt though, it's tin worm. Really starting to feel like I paid top dollar for a backstreet spray job.

the tin worm really sucks dude.. :(

Is that existing tinworm that's been painted over?