At the end of May I'm moving back to my parent's house for a bit to save some extra cash for a house deposit. Before buying the latest addition I owned (and still do) a 1986 Polo and a T4 1.9td, neither of which were really suitable for my 37 mile each way commute. I started looking around for diesels around £1k and just couldn't find one I was happy to commit to that I would be confident wouldn't give me expensive repair bills. I therefore decided to stick with what I know and started hunting for a 1.3spi 5pd mk2f, luckily I found one an hour away and picked it up for £500. My aim for the car is maintain it cheaply and squeeze as much mpg as possible out of it. So hopefully this build thread will have a few how-to's of jobs (as long as I know what I'm doing) rather than cool mods, so it might be a bit boring.

 

 

It's only done 62k and underneath seems very solid, I checked around the filler and rear arch etc. and I will be treating theses areas when I get a chance. There is a few scabs around the body work, the worst of which can be seen below, I will also deal with these at some point as I think the windscreen one is causing a leak.

 

 

 

 

I also noticed that the bottom edge of the drivers door is a bit crusty, I'm fairly certain that water is getting in the door, doesn't help that I'm missing the trim around the wing mirror.

 

 

The bite point on the clutch is a guessing game at the moment, I think the self adjusting part of it has given up. So I've got a manual one to put on asap. The only other problem that is apparent is the front shocks seem to have gone, they're not too bad over big bumps like speed bumps etc. but over small sharp bumps at speed (a lot of pot holes and poor roads near me) it crashes around a lot, far more than my other polo. The top cap(?) also doesn't sit flush to the top of the turret(?) not sure if this is an issue or not. If anyone reads this and can advise what parts I should also renew along with the shocks, please let me know.

 

 

Cheers!

Good buy for £500.

Changed the clutch cable at the weekend, the hardest part was un-cliping the old one from the pedal but it's an easy enough job. The bite point is much more predictable now with a manual adjustable cable.

First tank of fuel done.... Average 48mpg!

The top caps sitting a little above the body is normal. Yours does look a tad excessive though.

 

Looks like you need new top mounts. Whip the top cap off with the car still on the ground and inspect the mount below. Mine was riding higher than yours and the bearing had pushed through the rubber of the mount.