70 pages.... had gotten too much So It's time for a fresh thread, hopefully with a huge lack of bullshit.

I'm now going to cram 70 pages, into one.. shouldn't be too difficult

The original: Clicky!

The beginning:

It started in 2007 when my 1st car adventure was a mini mayfair, it was a shed, but it was a start. I guess i wanted a mini because all my jates had them.. so i went on the hunt. It didnt take me long, i walked to the top of my road and found it.. Sat on a drive rusting away for years. the lady wanted scrap value and the deal was done. I played with it, took it to peices, attacked it with a screwdriver, bought an insane amount of parts for it (I'd just started working and felt rich ) then it all went down hill from their. Realising it was a huge huge task to complete, i wanted a car i could use as a 'daily' whilst doing it.

This is when.. i found the polo. I was talking to a mate at work who was also a car nut, about me looking for a cheap car to use when i pass my test. He just happened to have an 'old polo' sat in his dad's garage that he bought when his tomcat broke and he needed a car fast to go on holiday in.

Next thing i know, I'm round looking at it, then prepping it for an MOT, passing an MOT, then handing monies over and then its sat on my front garden This was December 2007

After having it for a couple of months, and just getting used to this place, i decided to get a build thread up

2008

Well, thought I'd best get a project thread up on here...

Keeping it simple;

This is the car:

The fact i wrote 'keeping it simple' cracks me up every time i look at it now

I didn't do much with it, it had an advisory of warped disks on the MOT... so i sorted that with new hoses, pads, disks, painted calipers. Think i did the rears too at that point.

Been as i hadnt yet passed my test, it sat on the front lawn for some time, with me just playing with it from time to time.

I for some reason back then, wanted to be able to pull a trailer, it had this beasty attached to it for some time

I did the obvious cheap mods, painting things with matt black and hammerite.

These i thought were awesome, i still have them in the garage somewhere. Just the VW symbols were painted to match the car!

Took it to bugjam, had a wale of a time. On the way home, the clutch went Fixed itself on the recovery truck (must have been the release bearing) later took it to a garage to get it sorted. I considered selling it, probably the only time this ever happened)

In June, i bought probably one of my most loved items on the car.. It set me back something like £80 off of dubmax on here. the awesome Hella grill!

Kitted it out with some bangin ice.

Fixed some pikeys attempt at theft

Wired the Hella in

Spunked more money, headlight protectors (group buy for the very last sets on here)

I later sold them, sad times :(

Bought a roof rack, and made it better (more usable)

Now is when stuff started to get out of hand, it it started going from a daily to a project.

I wasn't happy with all the small dents and scratches, they had to go. So i started getting rid of them, with the intention of giving it a respray at some point.

Got rid of the bump strips

Lots of filler and primer

Hit a milestone.. missed it by a mile though :(

Did what i think is a cool thing with the usb port for the stereo :)

Edited 11 October, 201213 yr by B-shaw

Winter/Spring 2009

I started the year with last years craze, matt black bonnets

Abused it through the winter

I was doing evening courses, a body work repair course at Wolverhampton college. You could take your car in and work on it if you wished... This is where the magic happened

This was in prep for GTI spring festival

Another update.

Only small but its something :)

All the primer is now one colour. instead of lots

Fitting new front panel

The dents

Off and hammerited rusty bits

After 6 hours of work getting the stupid thing to work and farting around the the bumper panel (straightening it up) it finally fitted.

Next job is to get the primer blue, and get the hella grill back on.

Then its ready to go to the pod :)

New gearbox on Friday

CHECK IT OUUUTTT!!!!

The car is all blue.... for the 1st time in what, 6 months? haha

Not the best (its really crap tbh) finish but at least its all one colour (ish)

The Stratos blue paint is actually rather similar. Just a little darker.

Gearbox time tomorrow

Should feel like a different car by Friday :)

And then after all the hard work of getting it ready, springfest lols!

Some pics from GTI springfest

And this makes mine look low

The 90 is one of the tutors cars from college, tis a beast

Shortly after this, the waterpump went, although i cant remember this happening, and what made me think it was the pump that had gone Possibly making a funny noise, but who knows lol.

Another milestone event

:ninja:

The cars last outing before its transformation.

Its last outing today to the mids meet

Then a few random photos down a lane with a red sunset in the background :p

Bottom one was taken on a mobile, other 2 with digi cam. Still couldn't capture how red the sunset was.

May/June 2009

Stripping began in prep for the respray

The plan was to do the shell in one evening (at college, so 3 hour period) and then the other panels and bits & bobs on following evenings.

Whilst stripping, i found out the car already had central locking, just it didn't work

All rubbed down

Work started on removing the rear wiper and 'polo' badges.

And the big day arrived

Well, its been a bad day tbh. Rained, got pissed off with taping it up.

then got to the booth and the paint reacted :crybaby:

Nahhh :p

Its been dry and mostly sunny today, bit of wind

Think I've perfecting masking up cars

And the paint went on PERFECTLY!!!!

The finish, well ill let the pics do the speaking

All taped up n ready to go

Basecoat done (3 coats)

Laquer done (2 coats)

I'm so fucking happy its unbelievable :D

Its far from perfect, few marks from me not getting some dents perfect etc. But other than that, the finish is amazing

The paint has came out better then I though. Its metallic satin. AMAZING. Steel blue basecoat with satin laquer

The tutor at college did the final coat of laquer. i did the 3 basecoats and 1st laquer. I'm shocked at how well I've done it tbh. considering i haven't had that much practise and jumped in at the deep end and done an entire car.

My was my arm aching after though

Anyway, I need a beer

A day i shall never forget, the feeling when standing back and looking at it. amazing <3

Some other panels done

Sooo, haven't done much today other than figure out I'm going to run out of paint before I get to colour coding even the rear spoiler and boot plinth etc.

SO... I need to decide on a colour I can get in cans to do them in. Might just gloss black them but not sure yet

Pic of the beaut on the door :(

How the car stands atm with all tape removed :) Paint looks awesome in daylight.

Got the heat gun out on the Bumpers tonight. Really really impressed with what it does to the bumpers

anyone know the reason it goes back to black when it gets heated up? Either way its awesome.

Still going to be putting Halfords bumper paint on um to get them really black. Just figured the blacker they where the less coats id need as I've only got one can. Hopefully it will do them both but I doubt it tbh.

Found some new locks for the roof box too!

Need to find a decent colour to do that in too! I was hoping colour coded but yeah... So its gotta be something cool!

I eventually want an Arctic camo roof so I might go with something along the lines of that on the roof box.

Any ideas on the plastic items and the roof box will be appreciated!

Going to the ring mate 2nd-8th sept

Halfords Bumper paint FTW....

And a few bits primed up

Just thought id show i haven't completely forgot about this

Everything that's going to be blue, will be blue by tomorrow. Hopefully I wont run out of paint.

One of the subtle touches i love.... the bumpers :)

Nahh, I'm going with this...

http://www.bh2nretro.com/

Few small updates

Sorted the scratch on the door and the bit I missed on the boot

Colour coded these...

And these I'm well impressed with

the pictures make the rough edge look worse and don't do them any justice tbf. They look awesome, the blue stand out so much :p

Few odds n sods to do satin black and that's all the painting done until I start on the roof-box.

Started building it back up..

Best £30 I've spent on the car, ever!

Drivers seat is bit dirty but going to give them both a really good clean and see what comes of it.

Sat in them and omg they are unbelievably comfy compared to the normal genesis seats. They really hug you

The guy had a MK1 rocco too

July 2009

SLAMMED!!!!!!

Get your rake on YO!

Rears done!

Still needs to settle obv but its still an improvement at that height

90 up front, and the rear is set on the middle setting.

EDIT:

Those pics are wrong, I cant find my pics with the rears done

Massive thanks to Steve (floyd) and dan for coming round n helping (doing) with the suspension

After realising the springs were wrong, got on to sorting that problem out :)

Sooo, nothing went to plan due to rain.

BUT, today things started to happen again

Springs arrived on sat. and bought some bits today :p

Got my satin black paint (after reserving 2 cans online, getting to halfords and they hadn't bothered to keep um, only 1 left ) But the 1 can just about did everything.

Yet another milestone...

Woooooop!!!

Day of much excitement!

Car is back on the road!!!!!

And the pikey fix on the new radiator.

Get the last remaining interior bits done tomorrow and hopefully get the rocco seats in (if it doesn't rain)

After this, i fitted remote central locking, and the rocco seats got cleaned and went in..

August/September/October 2009

Hit Poloshow 2009

Just a few pics of the beat. Been having too much fun driving it to be bothered about finishing stuff off

poloshow

Rocco seats

Today i took the rear suspension to its lowest setting as the rake was a bit too much to be good

Tested an ally cat on the rear. pimp is the only word that can describe it :p

An epic difference from just under a year ago...

:lol:

The arch gap never looked that bad, I'm sure of it lmao!

Some stickersss!!!

And my bodge at fixing my cut headlining

Super glue and pegs ftw. Nails glued to fingers FTL though haha

Blasted the hella grill back on...

Went on one of the best holidays of my life, i think it was after this that the car held such a place in my heart... the reason it has such a sentimental value.

Yeaaahhhhh!!!!!

Truly amazing... And its right what James May says, you go to the ring and then you start building it to be better, on the ring

I came back with warped disks and a sever want for more power!

Midsdubclub shoot, was a decent day in all fairness, had a good laugh.

Few of my pics from the MidsDubClub photoshoot this Sunday

High res pics will be added as soon as i get my hands on them :p

DSLR's FTW!

All went pretty dormant from here for a while, just got used a fair bit.

November 2009 onwards

Bought something awesome!

Washed it today so I took some pics

And I finally paid for one of the pro photos from on the ring

Then it rained all over my nicely cleaned (and dried) car so I though fuck it... went for a hard drive and its now filthy again haha!

Pikey exhaust fixes FTW, this is after the temp repair i gave it in Belgium, it lasted a fair few months those cable ties did lmao!

LHD rear light

Rolling shot at UD, 2010!

Satin beast v's Brett's G - before UD

Bought these for £40 (they are the ones on the MK3 golf way up before the respray!)

Even i didn't know how unique they would turn out

Epic Shot by Rob

Dancing diggers polos

Stole Bretts RA's for spring fest 2010

Spring2010

Went shopping at Dom's

Wonder why its that low at the back

Oh and whats missing from here

Has been a good day, Not as hot as predicted however it was still warm.

Good fun getting the engine out, had the help of Dom, Brett and Dan to get it out. Learnt a fair bot today as tbh, i didn't have a bloody clue what to do haha.

The car it came out of

Its a bit low when you run with no rear suspension

And a random coolie

Gotta tidy the engine up a bit, get a few bits n bobs then drop it into mine

Hopefully will be in in around a month, but i wont promise anything.

Picked up some shizz from the sand blasters today

The curbing on one of the wheels is pretty bad. not sure how to go about fixing it. Do i use chemical metal n risk it breaking off when tires are fitted. Or spend a load getting it welded up? Utter skint atm

Porka colours FTMFW!!!

Ohhh Yeaahhh!!!

After going to Germany, and running the magnets on the doors and boot of the car, it marked the paint. Due to it being satin it wasnt fixable with polish... so this happened. 1st attempt didnt go too well

Some pics from yesterday

Rob helping tape the car up

The finish:

Sorted out the RA's today

Most of the kerbing has been fixed with chemical metal. Its not all gone but the worst is sorted. Rest was savaged with the 150 grit wet n dry, so it looks a million times better.

They need some high build primer on them on the faces, will do that at home out of cans.

Then after I've rubbed it all down they shall be painted and completed

Also, picked the engine crane I'm borrowing up earlier. So can get cracking on with that soon.

Went back in the booth a few weeks later...

All satin again :D

Started on the GT engine

So...

Brake lines are ordered, uber pimp they are, but cant spill the colours

Going to GSF and VW tomorrow for manyer parts

Finally got the engine stripped fully (ish)

And just lol at this

Some shopping!

Summer/Winter 2010

Start of its 2nd makeover... engine and running gear side of things.

Work has started

So today, with the help of Dan (higgo) we got the exhaust off, rear beam off and petrol tank out.

The pipes on the petrol tank, my god they are a pain in the ass! And getting the tank itself out was a bugger too. But its all done now. Tomorrow i shall attack it with the wirebrush, along with a few other parts then paint it all up.

Will try to get it all back in over the weekend at some point.

How i left it yesterday

And now

Higgo, petrol thieving scum. Robbing a full can of petrol out of my tank

Went to get some hammerite the other week, went in wilkos after some smooth gloss black.

After having a look i noticed that the bigger tin of blue was actually cheaper than the smaller tin of black. Stood there for ages hmming n arring about what to do. In the end i thought fuck it, ill try the blue n see what happens

Opened the tin today and well.. i wasnt expecting such a blue blue if that makes sense? Was expecting something boring and dark.

Wasnt sure about it at 1st but now some stuff is painted in it i think its actually really cool.

Did a load of other bits that go under the car in it too

Plastered in runs as i really did wallop it on, but its under the car so i couldn't care less, never really going to see it unless you crawling around for some odd reason or working on it.

Petrol tank and rear beam back on tomorrow hopefully :)

The day that nearly got me kicked out of the garage

Been a good weekend of progress

Started Saturday by getting the Arch trims back on Bretts G after he rolled his arches

Only way to do ti....

Then got the rest of the shizz on the back of mine

Did a few finishing things on mine with the brakes and stub axle spacers and we had it back on the ground

Started removing bits off the engine, then it was time to chow down on Dominoes

Then out came the engine, after some rather funny events. One including me having a mild heart attack due to a rather large puff of smoke lmao!

Random wheel swapping then helping Brett get the windscreen back in after fitting a fresh headlining.

Heartless :(

And something to remeber the day by after the material glue stuff was spilt

Just a shame that all of us stood in it at some point lol!

Need to tidy everything up tomorrow and start sorting the bay out or building the GT back up.

Day wouldnt have been possible without Dom, Olly, Brett, Dan and Jay. Cheers lads

Cleaning...

I'll come n do another bay yeh!

I normally hate cleaning but i rather enjoyed doing this

Think its because it was such a transformation. i mean look at this comparison.

to

Hell yeaahhh!

VWII rebuild

I used white spirits and a bowl of fairy washing liquid to clean it.

Its not a great shine but it gets rid of all the muck with ease. Might polish it when everything is in (probably at poloshow as i wont have time to do it before lol)

Not a massive update really as its been a slow weekend due to a mass lack in motivation to do anything. Always feels like its one step forward and 3 steps back. Even simple problems piss me off atm haha! But, thanks to Brett i kept pushing on and did at least something today

Old front brakes are all off, drive shaft's both went back in, then i attempted to get the sump off only to realise the driveshaft is in the way

So off that came again to get the sump off.

Sump and anti-roll bar are now hammerited up and will be going back on tomorrow.

Also, tonight (at about 1) i decided to fit my new caliper seals. As its something i can do with a cuppa tea, in front of the computer in my bedroom.

Get all my brakes fitted tomorrow and hopefully back on 4 wheels again.

Have a few slight problems with some missing bits, and suspicions that the inlet manifold isnt a GT one :mad:

And when i kept it all a secret from people, then didnt get it done in time for poloshow due to fucked brakes and bare water leaks

The night before poloshow was insane, outside, in the rain, until about 3AM with Dan and Brett trying to make it work, then up at 6AM again to try some more

Welll.... It didnt make it to poloshow so I guess I'm going to have to put pics up :(

My aim now is Tatton park next weekend. Should be do-able providing all goes well with fixing it this week!

The reason it didnt leave for poloshow;

Even after sealing bits of the water housing up, when i filled it up on the morning (7am) it still decided to piss water out as i was filling it. Water housing has to be cracked because all the other possible places are sealed with shit loads of stuff. Gunna be some fun getting it off though haha!

Brakes, even though we bled them a fair bit there must still be air in the system as you put your foot to the bottom and the car is still moving. They are doing something but not near enough to stop me even at about 10mph.

Gear selector needs a lot of fiddling as you go for 1st and end up going backwards . Didnt try looking for 3rd and 4th as i dare go that fast haha.

Plus side, It runs pretty damn sweet

Taps a load but I'm guessing thats because the oil needs to get around the tappets again. Timing seems to be spot on which I'm soooo glad about. As i was genuinely scared about getting the cam timing wrong.

So, few niggles to sort, some more stuff to paint. then some tidying up and its good to go back on the road

Anyway,what you have all been after.......

Night the lump was dropped in:

Random cool one whilst doing some work

and, the finished (nearly) product

The leak

And the G-laderseit ARB's on and chassis brace.

I'll keep the wheels a secret still though

Another reet downer.

Got a letter of the council on Friday giving me a month notice..... to get out the garages due to complaints of me working on my car round there :mad:

Pissed tbh as I'm not harming anybody there. And now this has happened I'm going out of my way to piss the people in the flats off. Miserable fucking bastards. Got shit loads of stuff to find space for and a car that I've kept garaged for all my time owning it has got to stay outside. got a meeting with the council person on friday so I'm gunna try n keep them. I want them to show me proof of it lol.

Just cant believe some people, what right have they? its in the day so noise isnt a problem, i tidy up any mess and generally keep it tidy whilst I'm working as i get pissed off with mess as i loose shit. And i dont get in anybodys way, if for example i am i always move. I just don't get it.

I really am going to piss the people off that have been complaining tho. I'll go back to being a child, making lots of noise and playing knock a door run on them. Until i get fed up (which could take a while). I'm also going to go round there and just sit revving the engine. As apparently thats what I've been doing the past couple of weeks (when the engine has been out of the car)

Rant over

Bring on a nice running GT by next weekend

IT WORKSSS!!!!!!!!!!! no leaks now or anything. Did a bit at 1st but when it warmed up it stopped, guessing something expanded and sealed properly.

Tyres are being fitted to my RA's tomorrow and hopefully the tracking is being done

Then it really is just finishing touches

Started leaking water again

But no, really. it has actually started leaking water again, there isnt enough of a seal between the head and the water housing, even with the fresh rubber seal. Gunna have to get some sealant on the go n try n sort it.

Summer/Winter 2010

Its 1st run out with the GT engine, to the High Peaks, Low dub's show over in Buxton.. was epic!

Some pictures i found from the high peaks low dubs show on sunday, courtesy of Krazy :)

Sunday was awesome, car did me proud

It enjoyed been abused around the peak district, it mucho loved the snake pass when we got passed the sunday driver (6n 1.4 cl )

I miss Craig :(

DAS RA's!

Cheers Kam!

May aswell show you all the wheels now been as there on the car :)

The fronts....

The rears....

I think i succeeded in making whats normally a plain set of wheels into something a little special :)

I'm really happy with how they turned out, cant see the orange much but from certain angles it catches your eye, which was exactly the intention.

Went out in it today and something didnt sound quite right coming from the front suspension area.

Bearing in mind, I've had an odd clunking noise for the past like 700 miles when i braked, and it had started pulling to the left not long after having the tracking done...

Checked stuff ages ago and thought hmm, figure it out another time as nothing obv was loose. Well how wrong was i.

Looked at it today and erm yeh, the nut on the end of the ARB was about 2 turns before falling off. How the fuck i missed it the 1st time i checked i dont know haha. But its done loads of miles on a loose arb, Its done cat n fiddle and snake pass, its done action, then its done peak district again the other day. Fail!!!

Anyway, some new bits :)

Rear strut brace

New handles

Rolling shots from Action, thanks to Higgosaurus

And yesterday, tatting with my mates MGB

I think..... i possibly need a new master cylinder, and a copper brake line to the drivers side front caliper. Also somethings up with the rears, makes some odd noises (banging noises) when i drive with the handbrake on a bit, and it doesnt feel right when i pull the handbrake up, its also shit and still moves unless you really pull it hard.

So, Good look at the brakes is due when i can be bothered me thinks, and a bit of money spent on it again :mad:

Need to stop the exhaust from hitting the body too, annoying to buggery.

Vtec kicked in YYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Late night demolishing... Higgo robbing some items for his AFH conversion in his MK1. This be the end of this in GT spec!

:(

Entire of 2011 and 1st half of 2012

Feck all happened tbh...

I spent loads and loads and loads on bits, kept changing my mind and got through 3 engines, none of which ended up in the car.

I think these couple of pictures show everything that is needed... 30 pages down to one comment ahaha!

Out of the garage for the 1st time in about 16 months!

Built up AFH

There we have it, 70 pages into 11 comments WINNING!

More to come, as and when :)

Crap in here will be reported strait away :) So you know... don't do it!

Actually loved reading that mate, had never bothered to look through your old thread tbh, didn't realise you'd painted it yourself! Can't wait for it to be out and about now! Awesome read :)

Didn't realise you were as sad as me painting the underside stuff blue.

No orange on the AFH?

Cheers Yarris :)

People seem to forget how much I've done to this car, myself :)

haha yeah, it wasnt intentional. The blue hammerite was cheaper than the black so i bought that lmao. Glad i did.

Nope, no orange (yet)

I'm debating weather or not to do the plastic caps (that go on the top of the carbs) orange or not... not sure if it will look cheap/tacky or actually quite good

Same reason my stuff is blue (Mine is the hammered type as well so i can just lob it on) - 99p halfords reduced for the big tin

I was going to do the normal black and silver colour scheme.

Really nice car mate

Looks like you've up a load of effort into and and it has most certainly paid off

Putting afh on injection?

haha yeah, i went into wilko and the big tin of blue was cheaper than any other colour in a little tin! Still got a load left somewhere i think!

Cheers dude :)

Its going on carbs, CBR600's. On this badboy :)

That fannimold is sexy

Ally ? also are you using brake bleed nipz for the vac signals ?? thats what i had in mind of using :)

how do you stillhave the garage then?? handles are nice what are they?

This is more like it

Love the work and the story behind this, those pls's look awesome!

Good work tobes

yes mate great read!

i remember waiting for updates on here whilst you were re-spraying it, can't believe it was that long ago

love the pictures from the ring though, need to get myself there this year. look forward to seeing this with the AFH in!

Toby have you still got a roof rack btw ?? remember seeing on the thread you had one :) ?

wheres the carb manifold from mate? t'was a good read

Enjoyed browsing through this thread. Thanks.

wheres the carb manifold from mate? t'was a good read

Phataz1 mate

That most of taken you Ages to piece this together