Hi,
I thought I'd show what I've been up to with my Mk2 Polo in the last year or so here's my ongoing Breadvan Ranger project.
There's still plenty of things I want to do to it but here's the story so far...

After I bought this Polo it didn't take long before I fitted some BBS alloys I had lying around. I knew they weren't going to stay there for long because I had other ideas about the wheels but I just wanted to see what they would look like and also to get it through it's first M.O.T in my possession.








14 inch wheels in my opinion, doesn't suit this car. Even though I hadn't lowered it at this point, the wheels just seemed too big.

After I had bought some coilovers for the rear and shocks and springs for the front I had to lose the alloys for a while because they were rubbing.
Trying to get the car sitting level made me realise I needed extra lowering on the front but this will take a bit of time and effort before I'm happy with it.




I had a Mk2 Golf lower spoiler lying around and test fitted it to the front to see how well it fitted. It was such a good fit I decided to go ahead with it and with a bit of chopping around it looks like it was made to fit the Mk2 Polo.
Please excuse the rust on the front valance. That was just another thing on the list of to-do's and planned for it not to be there for very long after this photo was taken.



In the meantime I decided to debadge the front grille.
It took a while to get it looking right but I was determined to debadge it.



I always thought Minilites suited this car down to the ground so my heart was set on a set of these. I bought a set of 13x7's with an offset of -7! Fitted with Yokohama A539 175/50/13's. I knew they weren't going to fit but had always planned for flaring the rear arches. A test fit showed how much flaring was needed!! The rear looked to be achievable but the front didn't look too easy!












After a lot of work peeling the rear arches apart and flaring the outer skins and welding back together, I finally managed to get the rear tyres covered.
As I was working on the arches I cleaned up all of the surface rust at the rear of the car so I could blend all of the finished work together. I didn't want the towbar so I welded up the holes in the rear panel and smoothed them over. The panel joins needed slight attention so I cleaned, treated and repainted the whole lower rear panel on the outside and inside, (under the car). I finished off the underside with clear wax oil once I was finished with the paint.
I also tinted the indicator lenses and reversing lamp to clean up the look of the rear end. I also bought some black tinted side repeater lenses.









Now it was time to move on to the front arches. The front wheels stuck out so much I knew there wasn't enough metal in the front arches to be able to stretch over the front wheels without some serious flaring and/or welding. With the wheels out this far I knew it wasn't going to pass it's next M.O.T.
Working next to my Mk1 Golf, I kept wondering how the rear plastic arches could cover the front wheels on the Polo. I had a spare set of arches so did a test fit to see what they would look like and if they would cover the distance the wheels were making. I got my brother to hold them steady as I took photos and I was pleased with how they looked.
Decision made so I cracked on with fitting them. I may still flare the original front arches but the Golf arches really suit the front so I'm still undecided.

Yeah, I noticed the ding in the front wing too. :) It didn't stay there for long.

The whole lower front valance was resprayed including the strip under the grille and the wings were blended in too. The rust around the towing eye needed cutting out and I had to panel beat a replacement and weld it in.



This is a side project I've been working on :P It will be ready for this summer.



With the front and rear end metalwork finished there were some minor bits and pieces still to do.
I made some carbon fibre spats for the rear arches. They came out of the mold beautifully and I love the way they look but they haven't fared well. With the intention of taking some photos of them fitted, after a week they had been bombarded with stones and the polyester clearcoat had pitted and chipped on the surface. The next set I make will have to be vinyl wrapped to preserve the surface.

I have debadged, dehandled, delocked and dewipered the bootlid. A switch in the dashboard operates a solenoid to open the boot.

I have resprayed the front bumper and covered with clear vinyl on the white paint but with the bad weather recently I have yet to take a decent photo of this fitted. I will respray the rear bumper when the weather gets a bit warmer this year.

I have also fitted a 2" stainless exhaust.
I took some photos last summer before I repainted the front bumper.





















With a few more ideas still brewing in my head for this Polo, I've spent the last few winter weeks making these.....





Making these leather seats has been a challenge. I have never sewn leather before and with no capable sewing machine I've had to hand stitch every last detail. With the first seat nearly finished I expect the second seat to go a lot more smoothly having gained a bit more knowledge than I had before starting them.
The rear bench will get the same treatment but with a proper look at the rear bench, I think it won't be as hard to make as the fronts are. I may also change the design in the foam in the rear slightly just to look a bit different to the way they look standard.

When the weather gets a bit better I plan to make my own coilovers for the front. The front sits just over an inch higher than I would like. I need to source some old/broken coilovers before I crack on with this though,

I also need to finish these seats before I start anything else. I may even treat the doorcards to some cream leather if there is enough leather left. I think there will be enough so the area behind the grab handle will probably be covered sometime soon.
Maybe something to do for next winter will be to cover the dashboard in leather. I don't like the plastic feel so it has been on my mind for a while.

I have a two year old baby girl to look after so finding the time to finish these side missions takes patience lol! But I am determined to get this Polo the way I want it.

The project continues and I love this car so much I hope it continues for a few good years yet.

Cracking little motor you have there.

Shows what can be done with enthusiasm.

Keep up the good work!

I like this, I like this a lot (except the splitter, but each to their own). Look forward to seeing what else is done with this! Love that you're making stuff yourself too and doing a good job of it, seats look sweet

So, it's been a while since my last update but things have been progressing steadily this year and the decent weather this summer has helped me progress faster than I had originally thought.
Although I have almost finished the front leather seats, (They are fitted to the Polo), but need some slight adjustments to look perfect),

The rear bench has proved more difficult than I originally thought. The original design in the cloth of the rear seats is fairly simple but for me, it was too simple to show off the leatherwork to its full potential.

I'm kind of going overboard with the detail in the rears but I know I just wouldn't be happy with the original cloth design exactly replicated with leather, so it's going to take a few more weeks until the rears are finished.

The last couple of pictures above show how far I've got with the lower rear bench. The leather looks loose because they still haven't been attached to the underneath of the bench yet but will surely smooth out when complete.

At the beginning of this summer it was time for it's yearly M.O.T. The M.O.T showed that there was a failure due to a small rust hole behind the front, nearside wheel. (Smaller than my thumb tip). After proper inspection by me the rust had creeped a bit further inside the seams than was visible. I decided to fix it properly with a small weld patch. The damage had affected three overlap panels but was fairly simple to restore. By the time I had removed the offending areas, the size of the hole ended up being about half the size of the palm of my hand. I used to work for Aston Martin restoration before I took full time care of my daughter so I feel confident with this type of fix. I also enjoy it which makes things easier.

The end result stands out against the dirt and grime in the original wax coating.

Maybe it's time to completely redo the wax coating on the underside but I fear that will unearth a little more hidden surface rust which will take more time to resolve. That will have to be a job for next year seeing as there's no more summer left this year.

In the meantime while I get bored sewing leather all day, I have been tidying up the exterior a bit. The rear bumper needed respraying so got to work on completing that during the summer.

With both bumpers now complete, I have had a bit of time to tidy up other bits and pieces. Most of the rubbers were almost perished on the anti-roll bar and control arms so I replaced them with polyurethane bushes and restored and repainted the anti-roll bar before reassembly.

I have spent a few days during the summer to give the paintwork a much needed T-Cut. There were a lot of specks of tar on the lower half of the car so I had to remove all of that before mopping the paint. It took three days to clean and mop nearly the whole car! And it hurt for a while afterwards!

The above pics show that the plastics needed some attention with some Back to Black but by the time I had finished mopping the car I was too exhausted to spend time on that before taking some photos! Lol!

But, I have taken some photos with a bit of decent weather before it got wet recently. I pick my daughter up from this beautiful local spot...

(Still needs lowering on the front)(Annoys me a little bit lol!)

Although it looks complete, there are plenty of things that I feel need attending to.

I have a five speed gearbox that really want to fit but I dont have a five speed gearbox mount. I may be forced to fabricate my own but if anyone on here can help me with that it would be much appreciated. But I have a balanced crank and lightened and balanced (to said crank), flywheel to fit while swapping gearboxes. It shouldn't take too long to fit all of that but I need to have everything needed before starting the conversion.

Also the original interior needs some attention. I'm missing the glovebox, which isn't essential at the moment but I have been on the lookout for one since I bought the car.

All in all the car is pretty together and I hope that by this time next year I should have a pretty immaculate motor.

I accumulated less than 2000 miles on the clock last year. Seeing as I only use it to pick up my daughter locally, I expect it to be about the same this year.

I'll add some more updates as they get finished and hopefully the next update will include the finished seats and door cards.

Hi there, how's the car doing these days as not been any updates for months?

If you get the time and can remember the details, I was wondering if you could help with some info regarding a couple of things with the ranger?

I myself have one and is an ongoing work in progress lol, but one of the things you've done to yours I'm considering adding to mine which is the switch and solenoid setup for opening the boot from the dash.

Would you be able to elaborate on this please for those of us who might want to do the same?

Also mine doesn't have a towbar but I've seen a few breadvans with them on and I'm just wondering if you or anyone else might know where to get one and are they an easy bolt on fit?

I looked on eBay but nothing really on there.

Many thanks and regards

Tony

Edited 9 November, 201510 yr by TonyEdwardFairhurst