This is my first car, a 1988 Polo breadvan. Currently completely stock and my first priority is to sort out the paintwork which has a lot of rusted stonechips and a large patch of rust wjere a previous fuel tank leaked. Bodywork is all solid however in person the laint lacks shine. Eventually i plan to lower the car on different wheels before chasing power however being 17 and having had my licence for less than a month the insurance is already ridiculous without any modifications.

Edited 7 June, 201610 yr by POlliffe22

Hi there, welcome to the forum. That looks quite tidy and original, what are your plans for the car?

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7 minutes ago, wizardmanjm said:

Hi there, welcome to the forum. That looks quite tidy and original, what are your plans for the car?

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Hi there, car is completely original apart from the front bumper and right wing (the doing of a previous owner). I want to tidy up a few areas of the body which has suffered from stonechips in areas. Car is solid and has no major rust. Eventually i want to lower the car and squeeze more power out of it but at the moment my budget of £0 doesnt allow that.

welcome to the polo world! mine was my first car aswell and still is [emoji16] good choice!! youll soon be hooked if you already arent

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If anyone has an air filter cover or rocker cover going cheap in or near staffordshire i might want is as i want to paint mine but as it is my daily i cant take them off the car to paint.

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Very dissapointed to find that the blaupunkt speakers that i bought the car with had dry rotted. They sounded surprisingly good considering the size and the standard panasonic head unit. Any suggestions on 6x4s to take their place.

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Welcome to the club that Looks nice and original

I have these in my 6x4 holes, very happy with them and a pretty reasonable price too!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/401078297089

Ended up with some jbl 6x4s as tgey were cheap and from amazon so easy returns is any problems arise. Need some sort of spacer though as they press against the plastic cover.

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So the car has been reliable for the last month's. Put almost 3000 miles on it so far and have just passed its mot. It failed at first on a rear wheel bearing, which I replaced. It also failed on rear brake imbalance so I changed the shoes however found that the cylinder had been changed on the one side and can only assume it is the wrong one and is causing the force to not be evenly shared between the two sides. The car still stops straight and quickly enough so they let that problem slide and they welded the centre exhaust bracket back on for me as I have no access to a welder and no welding experience.

Then to celebrate its pass I treated it to a Sony bluetooth head unit which is a decent improvement to the sound quality.

Then I took a stab in the dark and have ordered some mk2 golf door pockets with 13cm speaker holes and hope they fit. They should be here within a week and If they do fit straight away or fit with little modification then i plan to get some component speakers to get some sound in the front of the car.

My next goal for the car is I want to swap the pieberg carb and have had the idea of using a SU hs4 carb like the minis run. So I need to get a few quotes for a custom side draught manifold and see if I can get this done at any point.

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Edit-the radio wiring has been partly tidied up however I am currently only using web constant on the power and ignition input. With the can not having accessory power I am toying with the idea of getting another switch for around the instrument cluster to go alongside the rear window heater ETC and have this as my 12v switched power source.

The goods have arrived. Going to cut bits off until it they clear the seat and then fill any gaps afterwards most likely with fibreglass.

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So I finished this little project shortly after the previous post but never updated. I did get it to mount to the door car and fit reasonably well however found that the hard plastic is prone to rattles and the non VW speaker grilles don't fit that well and don't mount solidly. I have decided to attempt custom speaker pods for the front. I have done a basic design on sketchy to give myself an idea of proportions.


They are similar in principle design to the mk2 golf ones however will be made very differently. I will likely make an MDF frame and then fibreglass to give shape. Also l, I want to try and mount to the just below and in front of the door card to give a proper mount. These will also be sized to fit 6.5 inch components with tweeter mount. Hope to be attempting this soon.
Also picked up some old compomotive CX 14 inch wheels which are currently being professionally diamond cut (refurbishment is an early 18th birthday present). Tried them on the car before however also need much smaller tyres but should look nice when I get tyres on them.

On a worse note, this morning my speedometer ( I think) started making a whirring noise with pitch varying with speed. Has anyone else experienced this. It was still reading true and stopped soon after. Should I start sourcing a new Speedo or just see if it persists. My brother has a '79 mini so I am not alarmed by a temporary lack of speedo but this car being fairly low mileage(for now, almost at 60k having done over 4k miles since passing my test in may) and I would like to keep original miles.


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Went to collect the a couple of weeks ago only to find that they had only diamond cut the face and not the lip as well. Then, called them up today and was told that they were now finished. So a nice drive through traffic into Birmingham only to find out that the "specialist diamond cutter" isn't in at the moment and that the wheels still aren't done.
New door speakers are coming on slowly and the car has otherwise been reliable. Seems the speedo noise was a freak occurrence.

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A year and a bit on and much has changed and more to come. The car is sat on the compomotives and H&R cup 60/40 kit. In addition to this a full John ashley stainess exhaust and mild steel 4-2-1 manifold and bike carbs. Certainly noticed a difference with the bike carbs although still have problems with the needle jets which i have had to grind down to allow more fuel through but i have yet to get aftermarket needles to properly fix this.

Picked up a 1.3 MH engine and 8P gearbox in May with plans for a top end rebuild and a Newman cam, probably fast road. Still after a 5 speed gearbox mount if anyone has a spare. Hoping to get running then get it rolling road tuned as soon after as time and the bank account allows.

Finally, upgrading the brakes to 239mm vented and braided lines as always had problems with cooking the brakes during spirited driving even with a 1.0. Probably sticking with standard pagid pads unless anyone has reccomendations of good value performance pads.

I know the salt is bad but it is too much fun to resist going out for some handbrake action in the snow.

Living up to the van part of the name well here. 2 hrs each way, 80mph all the way. Good car.

Cleaning up the block and pistons, amazing what wd40 can do

Managed to get a 5spd mount at last. Got a 5 speed anti roll bar as well although i have read that some 4 speed ones fit anyway. Upgraded to vented discs an vw2 calipers a short while ago. Stuck with standard pagid discs and pads but having done a few spirited drive will upgerade to some better pads when these are dead. Any pad suggestions appreciated. Moved down to uni in swansea so engine is on hold probably until next spring/summer to get done properly. Some good roads around south wales. 

 

Finally replaced the dremel modified needles in the bike carbs and have had over 30mpg out of the last 2 tanks of fuel to kent and back for the ohsoretro show even though i was sat between 85 and 100mph everywhere that there wasnt a speed camera or traffic. Car is performing very well for a 1l.

Other plans for the car at the moment are ARB blocks and upgrading the stereo with an amp. Just found out if i switch to a hsbc student they will give me an £80 amazon voucher so that will likely go toward the amp. Looking for a small one i can fit in the second skin of the boot behind the light cluster. Bassface db4.3 and a jbl both possible at the moment.

good stuff mate keep it up

Although your pistons looked pretty fucked, it's  not always a good idea to remove all of the carbon build up. This actually can help to seal the pistons, especially in a worn block

Only gave the tops of the pistons a clean and its highly likely that the engine is going to get shells and rings before it goes in. Can still see clear honing marks on the bores so assuming it hasnt been rebuilt already(i was told it hadnt) there should be no issue with excessive wear on the block.

 

Now doing more town miles at uni ( i cant be arsed to cycle in the wind and rain of a welsh winter) the fuel economy is down to around 25mpg, still needs more fettling. New tyres coming before i go back to uni, any suggestions im running 165/60/14. Was looking at nankang as-1 but was told by the mr tyre next to where i work that they dont do that size. going to try the better tyre place down the road from home but welcome any suggestions.

 

Sunroof and bonnet release cable grommet have both been leaking over the last couple of months. A new grommet from vw sorted 1 leak out (i believe) and the sunroof seal had deformed slightly over 30 years so gentle persuasion back under the glass stopped the leak. Havnt dared to open it since as im hoping after a few months it will reshape to what it should be.

Get the Nankang AS-1 in 165/60/r14 delivered from mytyres.co.uk and pay for fitting and balance and disposal at an independent. Usually ~£15 per tyre, but check first 

Did get the nankang as-1 at christmas. Were useless in the snow but did give some pretty good slides. Good tyres, nice predictable limit on them and car can really be thrown about with confidence. Polo has been retired for a month after the purchase of a volvo 940 turbo to do motorway duties and since im only at uni for a month this term there was no point trying to get both cars down. Running 2 cars on a student budget (even working full time in holidays) may put the engine on hold again sadly but the car is still a blast to drive through the twistys. Took most of the interior out to see how much difference it makes and the back end was rather more lively which a good dose of full throttle sorts out.

Also had her on the uni dyno and she made a grand 47.5 to the wheels with bike carbs and full manifold/exhaust. At least its more than standard, would have been gutted if it came out less.

That's from the 1.3 MH engine right? 73.9bhp from 1.0 litre would be impressive. The 1.3 litre GK with a single Pierburg carb was rated 75ps =73.9bhp standard.

 

Always nice to see a dyno curve with the lambda reading. 

Making good power/torque at ~0.83 lambda (12.2:1 AFR) over 4000rpm.

You can see the small torque drop at ~0.75 lambda (11:1 AFR) around 3000 to 3800rpm.

 

Thats a 1.0 HZ engine with yamaha fzs600 carbs, 4 branch and 2" stainless single box system. Factory power is 45hp so VW must have quoted at the wheels not the crank on these cars. The 1,3 was rated at <65 i thought because the MPI GT 2f was rated at 75hp.

non gt was always 55hp

3 hours ago, POlliffe22 said:

Thats a 1.0 HZ engine with yamaha fzs600 carbs, 4 branch and 2" stainless single box system.

Excellent - all about the breathing.

45ps (33kw) engine horsepower on HZ as standard

https://www.polotreff.de/werkstatt/mkb/