Might as well do a build thread... Most of this is copied from my local forum. Purchased this, my ninth car in March 2011 for £300...

Lovely Coupe goodness.

Got some love Friday afternoon, had a quick polish with AutoGlym Ultra Deep Shine. It's a filler, didn't want to use any cutting compound until I had a look at what condition the paint was in... Heatgunned one arch to get rid of the faded oxidation and it came up nice and black :)

Wheels on it are 13" Corsa steels brush painted with hammerite. 5J ET49 That's how I roll....

Gave the front wing a bit of polish with AutoGlym Ultra Deep Shine applied by hand. Didn't want to use a cutting compound until I had a go with this first. This is what I started with...

And after with the heat-gunned arch

Next on my 'cleaning list' was the engine bay. Degreased the passenger inner wing, did the same with the slam panel and gave it a bit of polish.

Before:

After:

nner wing needs another degreasing to get rid of the stubborn grime. Also need to tuck that wire somewhere, looks messing running across diagonally.

And finally.... The exhaust had a rattle that was doing my head in so poked underneath and found a bracket on the exhaust manifold was loose and was letting the exhaust rest on the front subframe. Did it up and now no rattle

My plan is to do a bit each night before I leave work, bit by bit it'll get done :)

Had some fun using a camera rig...

Next on the 'to do' list... Filler cap area.

Removed the grotty white filler cap, took out the fuel neck rubber gaitor, sanded out all the surface rust, and gave it a quick go over with primer to stop the bare metal rusting. Then gave it another sand down to remove a few blemishes and popped the filler neck back in

Then gave it another go over with primer then a blow over with black

The rear quarter has quite a few deep scratches so weighing up spraying the whole rear 1/4... Filler flap is now black and cleared, just needs flatting and refitting :)

Flatted the fuel lid, polished and refitted

This is how is looked last weekend -

And spent the day painting and polishing and fitting wheels for Early Edition (2011)

Only problem is the 195/50/15 tyres that scrub if I accelerate, brake or corner :( So this happened...

Rear coilovers are ready to go on and for the time being shorter springs will go on the front until I get the coilover struts built. Not amazing progress but progress none the less

The Peirburg carb was causing me no end of grief with the choke getting stuck on, jets blocking and just being a right pain in the arse. So I ditched it and four days later had these on...

Total cost, £60 all in Made the manifold at work and although it's not perfect it works well and is alot better than some of the DIY efforts I'd seen!

An opportunist buy also got me some new rears. I had 6J all round and the rear stance was just plain weak :ph34r:

When I got them the lips were laquer peeled and centres were corroding so stripped off all the old paint and laquer, polished the lips and painted the centres Bronze to match the fronts. 15x7.5 ET8, no spacers here kids!

And it took an actual age to get the tyres on but got there in the end. Stretch much

Unfortunately, I didn't call Gavin from AutoGlass when a stone chip appeared and one day in the hot sun caused a 6 inch crack in the windscreen.... :(

A weird night lead to this...

Driving through town about 2am on a Friday night and a kid about 17 runs out front of the car. I almost hit him and then he goes mental and starts punching my bonnet... A older bloke then comes out of no where and punches the kid to the floor. "He's my little cousin and he's always causing trouble" he says.

Riiiight, what the hell is going on?! The kid then starts crying saying he was really sorry and that week he'd lost his job and girlfriend and just took out his anger on my car. SO with the bonnet now dented to buggery, I paint strippered it. Rat look and all... I'll come back to this story.

Meanwhile, I got a straight bonnet

So, even though I like the work in progress primered/fillered look I suppose it'd make sense to get it all painted before the winter sets in...

So, the large dent on the rear quarter was pulled out

Bit of filler to smooth it out

And there were a few little dings on the other side so they got filled and a rust bubble near the sill got blocked out

Once all that lot had gone off the filler was blocked down with a bit of 400 which left me with this

Ready for paint y'all

Edited 17 September, 201213 yr by ska_wars

Went to Edition 2011...

Polo's been painted about a month now... Haven't done much on it lately and probably won't until the spring. Got a few weeks off over Christmas/new year so may do a bit weather dependant. In the mean time I'll just keep collecting bits

Not much has happened on the little Polo.... Arches have been hammered a bit more to hopefully stop it scrubbing.

Oh, and the exhaust decided to fall off. Kept scraping on the way into work and I thought 'how odd' until I looked under the car....

So the back box came off/apart

And then I cut the rear pipe in half, bought a 2 meter bit of tube for £4.80 and welded that on.

Painted it in some matt black BBQ paint and fitted it back on...

Yea, it's on the piss but for £5 my exhaust now doesn't scrape and goes BWAAAAARPPPPPP!!!! Also suprsingly quicker...

FIN. Andy.

Edited 17 September, 201213 yr by ska_wars

Not exactly an update that will set the world on fire but...

Common problem on lowered Polo's is the top cap not sitting properly on the turret leading to this -

So whilst at the breakers I picked up some shallower ones off a 6N and popped them on

At least that's one clunk that's now fixed.

Also, I attempted to paint the cam belt cover in textured paint. Turned out it couldn't handle heat so all started flaking off and looked poop. So I took it off, shotblast off all the old paint and rust and gave it coat of satin black

It's rust inhibitor and anti chip so should hopefully hold well whilst looking OEM (that's what I'm tryinmg to achieve)

This weeks been a week of mk2 Coupes...Went to PC World and parked next to this -

Completely standard and rather good condition...

then went and did aweful things to a standard rather decent nick Coupe S.

I now have a garage full of parts, swaps will be made. RIP Little Polo....

Going backwards to progress forwards....

Fitted a set of OEM Coupe S wheels in a crazy 13x5.5J!!! But, it has allowed me to sell/prepare to sell the 15's and hunt for some new wheels

Also, the old rear bumper was twisted and missing the clips on both ends that hold the sides in. So in my hoard of bits from the Coupe I raped previously, I had a straight bumper with clips and both numberplate lights which went on...

Not exactly an update that will set the world on fire but...

Common problem on lowered Polo's is the top cap not sitting properly on the turret leading to this -

So whilst at the breakers I picked up some shallower ones off a 6N and popped them on

At least that's one clunk that's now fixed.

lovely thread!

With the top caps, were you noticing that you get a clunk when steering/turning at low speeds?

Standard front shocks on -60mm springs died a slow leaky death so got replaced...

Hopefully stop the front end feeling like it's made of blamange

Stupid snow.

Well after an afternoon of head scratching I finally fitted the G-Lader anti roll bar blocks using a system of a trolley and two scissor jacks! The idea being they move the anti roll bar which in turn pulls the front wheels forwards increasing castor that is lost when you lower them. Also being polyurethane they also stop the ARB moving around...

One of the KW front dampers is in, the other side needs a wheel bearing so will press the new one in at work whilst the struts off.

All I need then is to get the tracking done :)

In other news, I foolishly thought an exhaust with no silencers I made 'wouldn't be that loud'. 100 yards later I decided that yes, yes it is :(

lovely thread!

With the top caps, were you noticing that you get a clunk when steering/turning at low speeds?

Cheers buddy, thought I might as well do one...

Top cap is a clunk/bonk when the front suspension is moving so more over ruts and potholes. Low speed 'bonging' is the bearings in the top mounts binding so the spring winds up then slips round. Cheap and easy enough to replace :)

Looking good. Those nuts should tighten up more though, theres no way there should be that small amount of thread

Awesome. Seen this on edition and also got a couple shots of it yesterday at players i think. Will put them up later.

Looking good. Those nuts should tighten up more though, theres no way there should be that small amount of thread

They weren't properly done up in that photo. I gunned them on and there's a fair bit of thread now once it'd squished up.

Awesome. Seen this on edition and also got a couple shots of it yesterday at players i think. Will put them up later.

You had the red oxide Coupe didn't you? And put the derby front off it on your current blue one?...

If you can't leave it be, might as well make it bleed...

The 1.3 in it was starting to piss oil out of everywhere and rather than repair it, man logic dictates it's time for a change...

Took a week off work to do the swap as I'd never done it so thought it'd make sense to plod along rather than rush.

Like a BAWSE!

While the engine was out I fitted a new rack coz the old one had a fair bit of play in. Cleaned the bay and painted it all satin black. Surprised how easy it was all told... Done a few conversions in my time and although not easy peasy, by far not the hardest. FAQ is worth it's weight in gold! Brain fade on fitting the dizzy 180 out. After I'd realised that it fired up just fine.

Seen as I was on a bit of a splurge I also bought some new wheels...

Then went to Early Edition 2012

Did a temp wheel swap with my friend Fisher...

Then I broke down...

Problem was...

The 6n's with an AFH have power steering. So that belt won't fit. A 6 rib rubs on the chassis leg, so it needs to be four or less. So I bought a selcetion of belts from Halfrauds when it went in but none fitted. Found one that worked and tensioned fine. But, as it's stretched I run out of adjustment on the tensioner, (alterntor was banging on the front panel) it starting slipping, which then lead to that ^^^

But, made a new tensioner along with a shorter belt. So no slipping and more clearance

Lowered the front more with ummmm 'custom' springs (-60's with a coil out).

I'm running a 6n" GTi fanimold and it was getting rather warm so used this

to do this

Went to Edition and did a whoopsie

So made a new exhaust the week after. Titanium centre section with a stainless backbox. It's pretty loud though so the silencer may get swapped.

And then today did this -

Clutch finally gave up. So, this afternoon the engines coming out for a new clutch and cambelt and maybe a different box...

Tbh, I've done a fair bit to it but can never be bothered taking photos or updating the internetz. But if you ever see me/the car at a show I'll happily chat away all day

Looking good. Those nuts should tighten up more though, theres no way there should be that small amount of thread

They weren't properly done up in that photo. I gunned them on and there's a fair bit of thread now once it'd squished up.

Awesome. Seen this on edition and also got a couple shots of it yesterday at players i think. Will put them up later.

You had the red oxide Coupe didn't you? And put the derby front off it on your current blue one?...

Yeah dude sold the red coupe and mines the blue coupe s with a derby front :)

Also you are alternator belt didnt fit cos u have to grind the ARB bracket

Sickkkkkkkk! Well done man!

What happened to the rear valance btw? Looked pretty mashed up!

I did grind the flange off the bracket but a 6 rib still didn't fit. Running a 6n alternator just because I had one...

Rear valance is junk. It's got a fair few holes in and when the exhuast got pulled off it bent the left hand side. When I did the exhaust the tailpipe came out into the valance so I just chain drilled/hacked a hole in it

I did try for ages to get a new one, but gave up after people said 'yea we can get one'. Then never did.

Looks incredible!

Ta. Got a feeling I PM'ed you aaages ago asking about tuning the 1.3... Coupe S bottom end, GT head you were running or something?

It's not the prettiest or the fastest, but end of the day I drive it about everywhere to work and that. Stuff gets thrown in the back without a care. It does make me smile when I drive it and to me, that's worth everything :)

I can't remember dude, i get shit loads of PM's

Never mind now. you've gone to the dark side with the AFH

Yea this was literally not long after I got the car so don't blame you on that.

Bang for buck I don't really see a better option than an AFH

Gorgeous car!

I'll own a mk2 someday...

Saw this at DC12, kept looking at it throughout the day and loved it! awesome car man!

Thanks :)

Had a quiet afternoon at work so got cracking. Only got the two mounts to take off then it'll be out tomorrow. With any luck the parts will also turn up tomorrow!

These look great in black, 5x13et49 are perfect for banding on these, but add some polished rims and..

I like the red oxide for the cam cover, i've thought of various reds/textures for it, can't believe i didn't think of that.

You didn't leave the rev counter clocks in the grey scrapper, as per photo, did you..?!

I like the red cam cover too, but are you sure its red oxide? I've sprayed plenty of things red oxide and its more of a brown!

Just looks like textured matt red!