Model: '91 Polo Fox

Engine: 1043cc

Suspension: TA Technix 60/40

Brakes: Factory

Wheels and Tyres: Ronal R8 14x6 with Dunlop 185/50 tyres.

Exterior Styling: Black Badges, removed Polo Emblem and smoothed pin holes. Rear Coupe S Arches. Smoothed side repeaters, painted Satin Red.

Interior Styling: Rev Counter Clocks, JDM style gearknob, Mountney wooden rim steering wheel, Corrado front Seats

ICE and Security: Pioneer Headunit. 4" JVC speakers in dash, 3.5" speakers in shelf supports
 

Plans: Vented 239mm brakes (in shed waiting to be fitted), different doorcards (waiting to be fitted), ARB blocks, Polybushes, some bodywork repair, engine swap, 5 speed box the list goes on and on. 

 

 

So whilst surfing eBay I stumbled on a little Polo Fox, localish and quite cheap.

At this point it has to be noted I have a history with this generation Polo. I’ve had a few (5 or 6) and I flipping love them. Easy and cheap to work on, pretty hardy and a laugh to drive.

I boshed a bid in and promptly saw it on a local cheap car Facebook page for less than my highest bit…..bumhats, but less than the current highest bid, all is not lost.

It didn’t look the best.

 

 

The ad also mentioned rear damage so I requested a pic

 

Hmmm doesn’t look great, doesn’t look terrible.

So I kept an eye on it, and as you can guess I won it.

Temp insurance procured and I went and picked it up. Gave it a cursory glance over and drove it home.

Arrived back at the homestead safe and sound

Gotta say it drives great! Just over 60k on it and looks to have been mechanically well looked after with seemingly recent timing belt, water pump, brakes, fuel tank and exhaust!

However the body work does let it down considerably!

 

Edited 31 May, 201610 yr by Qwerty

So once I got it home I made a quick assessment of what it needed.

The crash damage to the rear was a little a bit worse than I expected. So the first thing I needed was a bootlid. Quick scout about on couple of Facebook pages yielded this:

For £30 only 5 miles from my house with the added bonus of smoothed badge pin holes! Score!

Couple of shallow dents and a little bit of surface rust needed to be dealt with

 

Then I needed to decide what to do about paint. I had hoped that the car would come good with a bit of a polish and some localised repairs, but when I picked it up all hopes of that flew out the window.

 

It was/is never going to be a minter. The bodywork has loads of rust spots, some filler repairs and localised rot. So another plan had to be formulated. I knew what I wanted to do and its something I’ve wanted to do for a while. Searching a few forums and reading a few threads, asking a couple of people for advice and I knew it was going to happen!

 

A pretty dull colour choice but at least the door shuts etc won’t stand out to badly.

 

So got the bootlid painted, in a tent in the back garden.

Now to get on with straightening.

Edited 31 May, 201610 yr by Qwerty

The tools I chose for straightening were a sturdy fence post and a massive hammer.......

Don't have photos of the process but I'm sure you can imagine.
First round got me here

Close but not quite. Another couple of rounds got me where I wanted to be.

So old tailgate removed

and new one fitted

Not perfect but a big improvement. plan to go back to this area later

At the same time I bought a replacement wing for the one that had been rat looked and gave it the same treatment

Then I bought some Ronal R8's for cheap (£40) again off a local facebook group and wrapped them in some 185/50/14" tyres

Made some interior improvements in the way of my wooden mountney, a JDM style Gearknob and some cheap Corrado front seats.

I have a plan for the rest of the interior.

Half way through sorting the rest of the bodywork.

As you can see I was working on the drive so the weather held me back. 

I lowered it on a 60/40 kit:

I painted one side:

I borrowed my Uncle's garage and painted the other side:

I painted the bonnet and (badly) bonded some arches to cover the poor rear arches:

And now its time to use it for what I wanted it for, to meet up with car peeps and have a laugh.

Its definitely a good 10ft car, but overall I'm happy enough, especially as I've done everything myself.

I've got a few plans for it, but all stuff that can be done as and when. Now just to enjoy it!

Some top work going on there

Its looking good and so is the Opel Kadett, sweet

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

3 hours ago, kiran_182 said:

Some top work going on there

 

3 hours ago, volksfan1 said:

Its looking good and so is the Opel Kadett, sweet

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Cheers Peeps. Hoping to get on with some general maintenance this weekend so I can get back out in it. Its been sitting on the drive for the past 3 weeks!

Nice stuff, looks a lot better than when you bought it already

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

So after letting the Polo sit for aggggggggeeeeeeeeessssss I decided to get on with some stuff, all copied from another forum:

 

First of all fitting the PPP ARB brace. Fitting it was pretty easy and its supposedly a great handling upgrade. Time will tell:
20171007_155152 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

Next moving on to the front arches. Coupe S ones so no notches for rubbing strips. Quick cut and BEWM!:

20171007_163201 by Tom Horn, on Flickr
20171007_163212 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

I need some 3M foam tape to tighten up the top of the arches. I also have some new rear arches which I'm going to do a better job of fitting!

Then I'll have to move on to side skirts. The plan is to experiment with some of this:
20171007_164554 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

So as well as the arches and planned guttering/skirts I've also bought these bargain Chinese speedparts!

20171007_165438 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

I'm hoping to prove that the factory temp gauge is wildly inaccurate.

So hopefully next week will see the gauges fitted and working and some skirt experiment progress. I also have some more suspension upgrades in the form of ARB blocks and some TCA polybushes. 

Tom

After a bit of faffing around trying to decide where to mount the gauges I ended up buying a custom holder from a guy breaking a turbo G40. It looks way more professional than anything I could have managed!

20171120_145958 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

So got them fitted and working today ran it up to temp and it was running terrible and didn't want to idle, but a quick play with the timing had it idling fine.

However the fan isn't kicking in   ;-| however when I hotwire the fan switch it kicks in, so I'm hoping I'll get away with a new switch.

Next update should be, fan switch, ARB blocks and some skirt experimenting.

20171017_170217 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

Tom

So I then decided to move on to something I mentioned briefly in a previous post.

That was to see if I could turn some guttering into a side skirt......

My Inspiration for this mod came from Reuben Dovers C33 Laurel featured HERE on Speedhunters. So I thought I'd give it a go.

So started with a bit of guttering and a few cuts and notches, sorry no pics as I was a bit in the zone, and I ended up with this:
20171124_141217 by Tom Horn, on Flickr
20171124_141205 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

 

Then rolled it off the ramps for a better look:

20171124_141901 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

20171124_142346 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

20171124_142559 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

20171124_142633 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

 

It was a quick job using brown guttering mainly as a proof of concept. I am decidedly undecided about it. From some angles I think yes, from others no.

So what is your opinion? I think I may go for it. I may even give this one a quick blast with Matt black to give me a better Idea. I also may tweak it a bit more to bring it closer into the body of the car.

Edited 8 April, 20188 yr by Qwerty

So after that fitting ARB blocks. Supposedly a must do mod for all lowered Polo's of this suspension design. Bought off Chris Buxton

20171202_143552 by Tom Horn, on Flickr
1st Side.

20171202_144051 by Tom Horn, on Flickr
2nd Side

20171202_145222 by Tom Horn, on Flickr
Retaining collars.

20171202_150124 by Tom Horn, on Flickr
Dropped back on the floor and the wheels are noticeably further forward in the arches.

Trying to keep progress going even if its only a small amount.

Still to do:

Buy and fit a new fan switch
Replace the top radiator hose (and do a better job of cutting it for temp sender this time!)
Fit Polybushes to TCA's
Finalise and fit the Gutterskirts
Clean up and fit the G40 Brakes
Sort out the rear arches and fit the new rear arch covers.

Some of this will be done pre mot other bits will be done as and when. 
Very much looking forward to getting out and about in it!

Tom

So I went and did a little bit on the Polo, but because I suck there's not many pictures.

First things first I fitted the new Febi Fan Switch. Then I decided to "properly" fit the radiator. I say properly. I used these:
20180112_154944 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

Little bit of bending and some bolts:
20180112_154938 by Tom Horn, on Flickr
Not amazing but they're pretty solid and better than the cable ties that were holding it in previously.

Then I chopped some coolant pipe up and refitted the sender and adaptor. Still not perfect but slightly better:
20180112_154927 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

It will be revisited because I'm not totally happy with the fit of the 90° angle.

I then filled it up with coolant and tried to run it up to temperature, but its running terribly at the moment.

I plan to try and run it around the block tomorrow and see if a slight run improves it, in reality I need to time it since replacing the dizzy.

Then if the fan kicks in and works properly then I'm booking it in for MOT!

Then the fun jobs can begin!

Tom

So some progress since last update.
I bought a timing light and tried to get it running better. Problem was I couldn't really get it up to temperature properly and although I got it running slightly better it wasn't perfect, idling at 2k rpm and hunting etc.

With it running comparatively well I decided it was time to insure it and get it booked for MOT. 
After ringing a few companies I went for HIC for Insurance. I was quite surprised with how much I'm paying as it was relatively expensive but it now does have a higher mileage limit and commuting on.

Sooooo last night I got ready for taking it for MOT today. Gave the car a quick once over and stuck it at the front of the drive ready for the morning:

20180201_191529 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

Got up early and Set off this morning, and all was well. Then at the bottom of the hill the car started to hic and kick. Lost all power when accelerating, wouldn't pull at all :(

So pulled over in Sainsbury's to see if I could see anything wrong.
20180202_062712 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

Couldn't see anything apparent. So managed to get it home and abandoned it on the drive:
20180202_063657 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

Rang work and said I wasn't coming in and went back to bed in a huff!

Now the less sleep deprived of you will probably be shouting "PETROL!!" at the screen. Which is exactly what my wife suggested when I had stopped stropping.

So I went and bought a 20L Jerry can and filled that and my normal jerry can up with fuel. After getting the fuel through it ran again! So I repeatedly drove it around the block. It eventually got warm and I took it back home and fiddled about with the timing. Getting it a lot closer and running pretty well infact.

So off I set to the MOT station with the wife behind me. Car ran spot on. Temp was perfect. Feels a bit sluggish but that could just be the fact I'm used to faster cars.

Anyway after getting to MOT station and chatting with the lads there it got tested and:

Screenshot_20180202-171358 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

Whoop! 
Only issue was that the battery went flat mid test, we bump started it. 
Then on the way home it completely died. When trying to restart not even a click. Battery completely dead.

Fortunately I broke down right next to an Installer of car alarms etc. Popped in and for £40 I had a brand new battery.
Had tools in car. Stuck in on and it fired straight up and ran great.

So I cruised home:

20180202_152324 by Tom Horn, on Flickr.

So now its fully road legal! Now the fun stuff can start! Like tidying it cosmetically and putting some miles on it!

Tom

Erm so that "battery" issue was the alternator. Despite having no battery light on the dash. Resulted in this:

20180206_152458 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

Turned out to be the same recovery driver as 16 months ago haha.

Anyway 2nd hand alternator sorted that out. Still wouldn't run right and fan still wasn't kicking in. So I rigged some wires to the old fan temp sensor plug and ran it to a switch that I had in my box of Polo "bits":

IMG-20180217-WA0001 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

Also some fiddling on with the timing has it running decent.

So I've been using it daily and loving it!

20180220_155204 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

Next update will probably be some welding.

Tom

So Polo has been in daily use. All was going well until last Friday:

20180223_125312 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

Felt a lot like running out of fuel......but I had only done 138 miles on £30.......hmmm thats not a lot. Funnily though, when I filled it with fuel it worked.....some investigation revealed that the overflow pipe had not been reattached by whoever had installed the tank, so it was all slosing out.

Oh thats fine....I'll just poke this silicone out of the hole......

20180225_145148 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

BUMHATS
Nothing sometime with the weldy stick won't fix, but not in this weather. So I reattached the overflow pipe. Seems to be fine(ish)* and I have been using it in the great weather we're having up here!

20180227_210913 by Tom Horn, on Flickr
20180227_064447 by Tom Horn, on Flickr
20180228_065815 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

*although it does seem to be running pretty well, it has done this weird thing a couple of times where it seems to act as if its being starved of fuel. I've already replaced the main pump, so I have bought another lift pump.

Tom

Not much has been happening of late. Just using it and enjoying it:

20180323_133421 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

Its beginning to use water, so I'm going to change the headgasket and water pump.

In the meantime. My brother has bought a mk2 Polo, so I used his boot carpet as a template as this has never had one and created this:

20180407_163059 by Tom Horn, on Flickr

£8 from Ikea over some corex board!

Tom