Can't wait to see the finished product, so good!!

I admire your commitment dude.

Thank you buddy :)

And update!

Goodies from The UK have arrived! Once again... Thank you Mark Crox.. You rock!

Engine will start coming apart soon!

New page :)

New page :)

Glad they all got there! :)

Did customs open it?

New page :)

Glad they all got there! :)

Did customs open it?

Nope.. Everything was sealed the way you had it :)

Surprising!

Whats the CD? I'm going to hope ETKA or similar? And not some sort of home movie/pictures mark has made

Edited 1 March, 201313 yr by B-shaw

Surprising!

Whats the CD? I'm going to hope ETKA or similar? And not some sort of home movie/pictures mark has made

Can't wait to see the finished product, so good!!

thank you

Surprising!

Whats the CD? I'm going to hope ETKA or similar? And not some sort of home movie/pictures mark has made

we will leave that up to your imagination!

Wow.. and I thought my afh had to travel a long way... Very cool project and shows great dedication having a build like this when there isn't many service parts you can buy locally. Two thumbs up!

This is a cool project. Not because the car looks nice, but because people (mark) are helping out to get this car together so far away. Top marks to, well, mark. It's nice to see the 'special' relationship is still strong in the polo community.

This is a cool project. Not because the car looks nice, but because people (mark) are helping out to get this car together so far away. Top marks to, well, mark. It's nice to see the 'special' relationship is still strong in the polo community.

http://www.clubpolo.co.uk/forum/index.php?...=301757&hl=

Wow.. and I thought my afh had to travel a long way... Very cool project and shows great dedication having a build like this when there isn't many service parts you can buy locally. Two thumbs up!

thank you :)

This is a cool project. Not because the car looks nice, but because people (mark) are helping out to get this car together so far away. Top marks to, well, mark. It's nice to see the 'special' relationship is still strong in the polo community.

Everyone should work together! Makes it more fun and restores some faith in humans!

This is a cool project. Not because the car looks nice, but because people (mark) are helping out to get this car together so far away. Top marks to, well, mark. It's nice to see the 'special' relationship is still strong in the polo community.

http://www.clubpolo.co.uk/forum/index.php?...=301757&hl=

Thanks man! I'm glad i was able to help!!

And update time:

Today i will try to pull the engine out if time allows!

Update:

So today i removed the engine and drivetrain parts

Tomorrow will start strippig metal to get ready for sandblasting.. Also removing the rear beam and steering arms all for stripping and powdercoating!

Update:

Stripped the engine apart! The only thing i didnt get around removing was the valves by the lack of tool for it! I also broke a bolt on the block :(

All the stuff for powdercoating is at the paint stripper and waiting for sandblast! Hopefully will happen tomorrow! And the powdercoating can begin!

Stuff bagged so they go back to their proper locations!

The engine inside overall is good! But the pistons have some light scoring! But the sidewalls are good! So a good hot tank and honing is on the works once the block is powdered!

sweet!! :)

Something I haven't thought about... does this car have a 4 speed gearbox? If it did then you might have a 4 speed anti roll bar which using the 5 speed gearbox might not work/foul the gearbox. Someone on here might be able to confirm that though!

Yeah you will need a 5 speed ARB if you currently have a 4 speed.

Liking the progress.. unlucky about the snapped bolt. Easy enough to drill out I'd have thought though :)

More progress on those mad wheels wanted :p

You know what actually, everyone says you need the 5 speed ARB. But by how much does a 4 speed one foul?? Wonder if just using ARB blocks would stop the problem?

In most cases for us its cheaper/easier to just get 5 speed arb... but its probably cheaper and easier to get ARB blocks sent to the US than an ARB.

Edited 20 March, 201313 yr by B-shaw

ARB blocks he has, so it may just be the case of seeing what the fit is like. :)

sweet!! :)

Something I haven't thought about... does this car have a 4 speed gearbox? If it did then you might have a 4 speed anti roll bar which using the 5 speed gearbox might not work/foul the gearbox. Someone on here might be able to confirm that though!

Its a 4 speed!

Yeah you will need a 5 speed ARB if you currently have a 4 speed.

Liking the progress.. unlucky about the snapped bolt. Easy enough to drill out I'd have thought though :)

More progress on those mad wheels wanted :p

You know what actually, everyone says you need the 5 speed ARB. But by how much does a 4 speed one foul?? Wonder if just using ARB blocks would stop the problem?

In most cases for us its cheaper/easier to just get 5 speed arb... but its probably cheaper and easier to get ARB blocks sent to the US than an ARB.

Thanks man! I will drill it out today! Hopefully i wont do any damage to the block!

I have ARB blocks! I will see what the fitment will be like.. I may make a little spacer plate to push it down a little furter if needed.

The wheels are going to be a long project.. For now i will be running bbs :)

ARB blocks he has, so it may just be the case of seeing what the fit is like. :)

I will report on that! Maybe the blocks with a little spacer will do!

4 speed and 5 speed ARB

Couldn't find much difference when I tried them both

Not much difference, and there's still a gap between the box and arb anyway. I reckon blocks will do the job!

Regarding the ARB

The difference is in the curvature of the ARB as it bends to meet the track control arms. The 5 speed ARBs have more of a bend to them to allow clearance for the gearbox end casing of a 5 speed. You can run a 5 speed box with the 4 speed ARB, but the end casing usually fouls causing ocassional vibration through the car.

Whether the ARB blocks would lower the ARB sufficiently that it would clear the end casing on a 5 speed box remains to be confirmed.

4 speed and 5 speed ARB

Couldn't find much difference when I tried them both

Not much difference, and there's still a gap between the box and arb anyway. I reckon blocks will do the job!

Regarding the ARB

The difference is in the curvature of the ARB as it bends to meet the track control arms. The 5 speed ARBs have more of a bend to them to allow clearance for the gearbox end casing of a 5 speed. You can run a 5 speed box with the 4 speed ARB, but the end casing usually fouls causing ocassional vibration through the car.

Whether the ARB blocks would lower the ARB sufficiently that it would clear the end casing on a 5 speed box remains to be confirmed.

I guess i will be confirming whats up!

Another update:

Sandblasted stuff is sandblasted :)

Got most of the stuff ready to powdercoat! I need to remove the steering stuff to get it stripped sandblasted and powdered as well! Today i didnt have much done besides that.

I'm the original importer of this Polo, and am stoked to see Joe building it up with the swap. I actually met Mark the seller of the 16v engine in the UK and imported it for Joe too.

This is one of three breadvans that I brought in to the USA, and was by far the nicest condition wise - it really was the dream. When I bought the car it was actually really clean and had been detailed (a friend was helping the widower sell it), I drove into the middle of nowhere to buy it with 'full service history', but the old deary had managed to lose all the paperwork. I drove to the only service centre in town, who knew the car very well, and had worked on it for years and years - they actually asked how the owner was doing, to which I replied something along the lines of "not so well..". I asked them to print off all the history.. they agreed and cranked up the dot matrix printer printing about 1 page per minute, haha. I stopped them after about 15 pages.. I then drove on a whim to the nearest VW dealership, who also had records - they wouldn't give me any name/address info, but printed off the overall service date history which was awesome of them, and confirmed that the car was legit. As part of my company I imported the car and did all the importation paperwork and docs etc.

With how sweet the car was I decided I really didn't want to modify the one-previous-owner car, and I generally have about 10 cars at any one time, so I sold it on to the new owner (who Joe got it from). I later imported a slightly beat up and okay-to-daily-drive white breadvan, made coilovers for it, and rocked that for a while.

I drove the car back to where I ship from in England, past Stonehenge etc. I actually took this photo in the middle of the street outside my house in the USA:

Are there no polos in USA then? Might explain why my search for US bumpers still hasn't returned anything...

Only imports but there are more over there than you might guess. I know there is at least 3 MK2's and 5 MK1s.

There are a decent amount of Polos, but still less than maybe 15 in the whole country (which is freaking big!). They were NEVER sold here officially, so all have been imported. Any Polo US-Spec is either BS or off another car, haha.

Here's my later breadvan, which I lowered etc:

and one of my favourite cars, which is obviously a 6KV estate. I still own this one, and don't plan to give it up any time soon. It was owned by the US Air Force and used at their Thule Air Force Base in Greenland, way inside the arctic circle. I would put money on it being the Polo that's been the furthest north, haha.

(Full build thread over on the VWVortex: http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?...-Greenland-Polo )

Anyway, that's enough off topic, haha. I'm super excited to see the JHOX breadvan come together with Joe :-) :-) :-)

Hey Jamie! Good to see you around! Thank you for importing this beautiful piece... I'm glad i rescued it from Mike!

Here is another update!

Degreased the whole bay and fenders! Next is sandblast to get it painted!

Before:

After:

Small update:

Bushings arrived! Thanks to Mark, again! He is awsome!

All the bits will be powdercoated today !

I'm the original importer of this Polo, and am stoked to see Joe building it up with the swap. I actually met Mark the seller of the 16v engine in the UK and imported it for Joe too.

Hi Jamie...

Was good to meet you too! :) I have a feeling you might be shipping even more Polo stuff when I get over there! :)

Love the Greenland Polo too!

Small update:

Bushings arrived! Thanks to Mark, again! He is awsome!

Yeah I know :-D