Model: Polo Van

Engine: 1272cc 3F GT lump, Ashley 4 branch exhaust manifold, port match GT inlet manifold, de-wedged throttle body, AHD gearbox and lightened flywheel

Suspension: -80mm cheap eBay kit, G40 TCAs, G40 steering arms, G-Ladersite ARB blocks and TCA bushes, PPP Stage 2 subframe

 

Brakes: Standard

 

Wheels and Tyres: 14" BBS RAs

Exterior Styling: Slowly becoming Alpine White again

Interior Styling: G40 seats, GT clock, bar tap gear knob
 

To Do List: Fix it, drive it. 

 

I think everyone knows this van, it was on here for a while and it has appeared on Facebook a few times. Don't know much about its history but I know it used to be pretty tidy in white. Then someone painted it camo green, then it was cream and then a 3 year old must have gotten near it with a paintbrush and a tin of Ronseal.

Anyway I missed out on it once, but finally I got my hands on it last weekend. Always fancied a genuine van and now I have one....the roughest one ever, but it is a genuine van none the less.

 

This is what it looked like when I picked it up.....

 

 

 

Basically just an utter mess!! It is about 20 different colours including rust, the arches have been rolled and pulled with nothing more than a pair of Vice Grips but despite all that the shell itself seems pretty solid.

 

So onward with the drive home, the 600 mile drive home. Putting a lot of faith in a van I didn't pay a lot of money for and that looks like that....It managed 400 miles and myself and @tobyk were happy enough.

 

 

But then something happened which earned the van it's name, the Death Van. 

 

 

 

I don't know if the bracket was bent up like that on purpose or not. But going by the other mechanical bodges I've found on the van since, I wouldn't be surprised if it was done for wheel clearance or something. So that burst brake line put an end to driving it home and the rest of the journey had to be completed with the help of RAC.

 

So the next day I got it pulled into the garage, first job on the list was to fit a bonnet stay as the van didn't have one...

 

 

Then I cut the tie wraps on those drift style bumper holder things and this happened.

 

 

Literally nothing else holding the bumper on, no idea why. But here is when I found one of the first bodges....the drivers side bumper holder thing, instead of being bolted on like the other side had been welded, yes welded, to the washer behind it. 

 

 

Oh well, the work goes on..

 

 

Exhaust off next, I knew from looking the van over that it was a bit of a bodged together system.

 

 

But for some reason someone decided to ruin a perfectly good 4 branch....

 

 

I know they don't come with a lambda boss, but surely there is a better way to fit one than this.....

 

 

On to the rest of the issues, this is the brake hose that almost killed us.

 

 

Turns out the hard line had taken some damage too, the end that meets the hose literally came off in the hand.

 

 

Didn't take me long to knock a new one up though.

 

 

There it is installed.

 

 

On the drive up there was a vibration that steadily got worse, on closer inspection the passenger side drive shaft was just knackered, but luckily I have spares of pretty much everything :)

 

 

The exhaust was held up purely by cable ties due to the usual Polo exhaust hanger issue.

 

 

Luckily @citrus donated a repair panel to me not so long ago, so that came in handy :)

 

 

And there it is fitted.

 

 

As for the exhaust itself I had an old Ashley 4 branch laying about, So I decided to clean it up a bit and have a slightly better attempt at making a system. My one looks slightly more free flowing :) It mates up the the rear section just fine too.

 

 

Here is the 4 branch fitted, notice the inlet is off in this picture too.

 

 

The inlet came off to make way for a 1.3 version :)

 

 

The eagle eyed may notice the throttle cable bracket is at a funny angle. I couldn't find the correct bracket for that manifold, started getting annoyed then I thought...this is a pikey bodged up van, I'll do my own bodge....

 

 

Sorted!!

 

Then the 1.3 throttle body can go on the match the 1.3 inlet. 

 

 

That's it so far, working the next few weeks but I'll try and get a few hours on it each day and get it back on the road ASAP.

But currently it is sitting like this in my garage.

 

 

There were loads more bodges and just general stupidity which I've found but not mentioned here. But hopefully I can rectify all those and at least get it safe for road use again. Even though it may still look a bit ratty.

 

I remember that build thread, Jack's wasnt it? Good god what happened

 

At least it's in good hands now though! Save the van

intresting to see all the bodges ...makes you wonder what goes on in peoples heads 

 

good luck getting it roadworthy again

I kinda like the multitude of different colours 

 

Quick question, how did you get it on axle stands at the front? I always find I can't get axle stands under the jack points because the jack is always in the way 

I dont know whether to smile because you've saved it, or cry because its been bodged within inches of its life

 

look forward to the resto on this one! haha

Good work @kwijibo_coupe glad you finally got it!

 

Good work Steven, that thing was something when we looked round it when you popped in on the way back, that exhaust was comical  loose mounts and all sorts of other bits and bobs, should be a good un when you're through, not sticking the G in though?

7 hours ago, herrdavies said:

I kinda like the multitude of different colours 

 

Quick question, how did you get it on axle stands at the front? I always find I can't get axle stands under the jack points because the jack is always in the way 

 

I kinda like the current 'colour scheme' too, however in the couple hours I had it parked outside the house before I pulled it into the garage it attracted a lot of attention from the neighbours. So I don't they they would be too pleased if I kept it that way. 

 

As for jacking it up I go for the ARB to jack it up. Maybe not the best method but I do it on all my Polos and haven't caused any damage yet. 

 

Thanks for all the support guys. Hopefully it doesn't turn into a full on restoration as I bought it to use as a daily.

 

Didn't do much on it today, just started putting it all back together. This was the state of the threads on the driver side steering arm though.

 

 

Oh well at least I had a spare. It now has G40 steering arms fitted :)

 

Hopefully tomorrow it will be back on its wheels.

Coming together nicely mate. I'm just buzzing that another divvy hasn't bought it tbf. Hope to hear it on the road soon sporting a G lol

I've also jacked in the arb when using stands...it's also the only place I can currently get my jack under!

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Back on it's wheels today with a new passenger front wing and bonnet. 

 

Thanks to @citrus for the help :)

 

Should go 15" casteletts all round

I'm thinking that Toby, could look cool. Needs some lows too though.

Wow looks a lot better with the new wings and bonnet on!

 

When i brought the van it was even more of a death trap!

 

It was so low with the washers to give it camber on the rear with stiff coilovers and with the standard high profile tyres on standard steels when driving it from my house to my unit like 2 miles threw my village i thought the rear end was hoping from one side of the road to the other!

 

Sorry about the brakes issue you had steven on the drive home!!!! i was not the one to fuck the brake line but i should of pointed it out to you but i forgot all about it the van has so many issues when i brought it that i already fixed and still it felt horrible to drive and looked like shit and still had so many things needing doing to it!

 

putting the standard GT suspension made it so much better to drive.

 

And i agree why would you fuck a 421 manifold like that the last owner proper fucked shit and should never be aloud to modify any thing!

 

Edited 13 May, 201610 yr by cheddarcheese

Amen to that @cheddarcheese

Got some time today so got a bit of work done with the van. Next task on the list is to sort out the pedal box, so went out to the garage and did this...

 

 

The dash must have been off before and for some reason there was blue roll stuffed into one of the cold air ducts.

 

 

Then I found another bodge and this one really annoyed me. Basically someone has run a wire from here.

 

 

To here.

 

 

So basically the fuel pump runs all the time when the ignition is on. I cut the wire out (it was actually routed rather neatly) and sure enough the fuel pump didn't prime. Went and checked the yellow blade fuse, looked OK but decided to swap it out for good measure.

 

 

Then guess what??? The fuel pump primed!! So instead of checking and replacing a fuse someone has spliced into two wires, ran a new wire all nice and neat and even soldered both ends! I actually can't get over it, a proper example of a bodge that would have taken longer, more effort and probably more expensive than a proper fix!

 

Anyway back to the job in hand, pedal box out.

 

 

Turns out it is cracked and the top captive bolt thing has sheared off.

 

 

 

So broke out the welder and repaired the crack.

 

 

Little lick of paint and it looks as good as new :)

 

 

Then onto the top bolt, decided the easiest way was to weld a bolt to a bit of plate like so (ignore the horrible welds).

 

 

Then weld the plate to the car. Kinda hard to get the welder in there but I think I've done enough for it to last a good while.

 

 

Pedal box can then go back in :) 

 

 

Clutch pedal feels better now and the unit doesn't flex about a mile a touch on the steering column now. There is still a bit of flex there though so may need a gusset or something in the future. But for now it will hold.

 

Next job when I get time will be to tidy the wiring again and get the dash back in. 

 

So that's why the fuel pump was constantly priming did have a look to see if there was a bodge like that but didn't check under the dash!

 

BTW the blue roll was me your find that the vents make a horrible noise and you get a horrible cold draft from under the dash on your legs not nice when the weather was cold probably from when someone removed the dash at some point and the vent and air duct had a bad connection!

 

Ah ok fair enough mate. I'll take a look at the rest of the blower system and see if I can see anything wrong :)

The blue roll will come in handy anyway, always loosing rags in the garage :)

Looking good mate, this is going to be a full resto! would look nice with a new coat of white :)

It isn't going to be a full resto, funds and time won't allow for that. But I do like the idea of making it white again. So many options!!

That fuel pump fuse catches a lot of people out. It corrodes so much that it turns into a resistor. Visualy it looks fine and people convince themselves that it's not blown so it must be fine.

 

Good work so far Steve.

Yeah I've seen a few now that look fine but when tested with a multimeter show an open circuit. 

 

Cheers Scott, hopefully we can have a meet after the Polo Social and I can bring the van along :)

Not much of an update, but carpet got hoovered, dash back in and all tidied up better than it was before :)

 

 

Also I've come to a decision that I'm going to make the van white again as it was originally. However the next time you see progress will be after the Polo Social as I'm going to spend the next month making sure the GT is up to scratch :)

Glad this is getting some love!

Some more love for the van and a bit of a hefty update. 

 

Slowly sorting out the bodywork, doing as much of it as I can the lazy way by just replacing panels. But with each one I replace the difference is amazing!

 

Old front wing..

 

 

New front wing..

 

 

Old front door...

 

 

New front door....

 

 

Really pleased with how it looks with just swapping those panels over. But I'm going to have to crack the paint out for the rear quarters, roof (obviously) and the tailgate as I doubt I'll find an Alpine white breadvan tailgate local.

 

Anyway I'm not a bodywork man, I enjoy all the mechanical stuff more so lets get some fun stuff on the go. 

 

Here is a dirty van engine bay with a tiny little 1.0 with 45 raging horses.

 

 

Here is the dirty van engine bay with no engine.

 

 

 

And here is the underpowered lump on the floor.

 

 

Next to it is a much cleaner looking 1.3 GT lump just waiting to go in :) Also little bit of useless information, this is the original GT engine from my GT :)

 

 

But first I had to clean up the engine bay a bit, I don't think it has ever had a proper clean before and someone has had a go at painting bits in the past so not the cleanest bay in the world but I certainly got it better than it was.

 

 

While the engine was out this arrived :)

 

 

So perfect time to test fit it. To my surprise the van is straight! The subframe bolts up a treat! No drilling or modifying required :)

 

 

So subframe test fitted, engine bay tidied up time to introduce the GT engine to its new home. And yes this is how I fit engines in my garage now I no longer have access to an engine crane

 

 

There she is in and exhaust manifold on.

 

 

Before I went any further I also fitted a GT steering damper, just because I had one laying around as you do...

 

 

Next make the engine look more like a GT engine, this is how it currently looks until I get time to work on it again. All standard parts apart from the inlet is a port matched GT item so might give a bit more flow.

 

 

Onto the suspension now, I'm fitting G40 TCAs with the old green G-Ladersite TCA bushes. Not the cleanest but will do for now.

 

 

To go with the green TCA bushes I also have a set of the green ARB block too, so they have been fitted along with the subframe. The ARB was painted blue by a previous owner so it gives quite a funky colour combination under the car.

 

 

That is this pretty much up to date now, so engine is in, subframe and TCAs are on just a case of wiring up the engine, fitting the front struts and she should be close to being ready for an MOT. I'll hopefully have this ready and back on the road for the Retro Rides gathering so if I don't update before then hopefully anyone interested will see it then if you go.

Looks bloody awesome haha. Such a change already and I can tell it will be very smart, might be worth trying the roller paint and then flitting and polishing it when you get round to that :)

Top marks sir

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