So this week has been a bad one to say the least i took out my cam and tappets to find out what the tapping noise was on the head, and well to say the least i wasnt pleased with what i found i found that 3 of my valve spring retainers were cracked and split. so i made the decision to take the head of and rebuild it my self with titanium spring retainers and sports springs from bar tek tuning. Whilst I'm at it i decided to take the inlet manifold and give it another damn good clean and then the fun of the day was to get my new thicker driveshafts fitted with new cvs all round then this week I'm gonna hopefully get the head cleaned up while in waiting on parts to arrive and finally get around to fitting the freshly painted rear beam .... heres a few pics of sandy as she stands on her last drive out for a while :(thanks for reading will update with picks of other work in the morning thanks for reading simonyatesvw52 :)

How much have you lowered it by?

60mm lowering kit all round but a coil cut out of the front ones the lowering kit will be coming off soon needs coilovers

Think I'm gonna wait and just go straight to coil overs

picture heavy post of work so far

knackered valve spring retainer

so this week I'm off to pick up my next toy as the polo bready is nearing completeion but i am in desperate need of repair panels for a mk2 coupe to make this new one a little less rough does anybody sell full rear quarters anymore ?here is a pic of the new project i thing it used to belong to someone on here but not sure...

hi guys i know i haven't updated in a long time but certain circumstances are forceing me to sell the breadvan i will be sad to see it go but just pm me a sensible offer it has no mot or tax and will be collection only in cumbria does haveing a fueling issue but can run for 5-10 minutes if u come to view cheers simon

i think its about time i updated this the bready seems to be staying made measures to keep it I'm just to attached.so i decided to treat it in the last coupe of weeks new strut braces have been ordered new steering rack boot 2 new tcas and a new fuel pump/ecu relay as i believe thats whats been causing my running issues all along ended up after buying a new fuel pump new fuel filter rewireing the fuel pump,and replaceing all of the leads coilpack dizzy,throttle body,injectors,ecu,rotor cap, rotor arm and it still wouldnt run right .so i bit the bullet and pulled the entire loom out of the engine bay sent it to a friend that offered to give it a once over and a check he told me the only issue with the whole loom was the relay amazing how such a small part can cause me so much trouble hopefully 2 weeks time she will be back on the road and doing what shes good at :) will update with pictures when parts sart arriveing and fingers crossd a video once she runs :)

This is a very nice mk2. You're doing some good work on it. What do you plan on replacing the GT engine with?

I'm planning on a g40 conversion but haven't come across a full conversion for sale in a while so being a bit difficult i need to chassis notch and plate the chassis legs and weld some bar in behind the struts to strrengthen it all up seen to many people with cracked chassis legs not to go ott

so i belive is about time i update this as I've been rather busy since i last posted anything the bready has lots of new panels that have arrived ready to be welded in but its about time i throw lots of photos on here so i will let the pictures do the talking of what I've been up to hope u enjoy

time for a update i believe as it goes the bready hasnt been running right in quite a long time so over the last week or so I've tried everything i could think of then i tried compression testing the engine as i had rebuilt the head and i wasnt 100% with my own work as you would turned out cylinder 2 had 11bar and the rest 14 so off the head came and now its gone to a local engine shop for a rebuild now I'm thinking to myslef will it be worth stipping the bottom end out and rebuilding it with new piston rings just to be safe any advise appreciated will update soon with pictures and hopefully of a day out in the old girl if its fixed

cheers for reading simon

Lovely car and top work. Not sure on the wheels though, little modern for a classic like that. Keep up the good work.

Could be worth rebuilding the bottom end. Worth sourcing parts first though as the GT rings are quite hard/expensive to get though

cheers bud i know the wheels looked horrendous after looking at them for a week so put the old ones back on for the time being already have a set of fondmetals to go on instead just waiting for the yoko a048's to arrive and they will be going on i think for the time being and with my luck I'm just gonna try the engine with the rebuilt head and hopefully if it fixes my issues then it will be getting left alone although i get a feeling my clutch release bearings on its wayout i hoope as last time i had it running it made some stange noises from the gearbox region shall update with photos when the head arrives thanks for reading

the head still hasnt arrived back from the engine shop so heres a few parts I've bought/modified thanks for reading simon

I'm sure theres others parts I've bought but forgot about will update sunday after work

I came close to buying a beige breadvan this week, it was my second choice to the white coupe i won on ebay.

Great looking car, i've been looking at '80s Cavalier alloys too, as most were 13s and deep offset, i'm surprised they're not more popular tbh. Especially both early and late GLS ones.

polo season is ahead over the last day I've got the head back from being skimmed and rebuilt with new exhaust valves and stem seals and it looks spot on started fitting it this morning but weather forced me to give up after so long the shiny new coilovers arrived today not sure how I'm gonna get the hubs pressed in as i dont have access to one :/ anyways pictures below thanks for reading will update when I've finished putting it back together again