Nice to see more coverage of the polo again In Pvw

Today's been pretty epic, perfect G40 weather this morning and a 30-mile country lane commute down to Millbrook Proving Ground near Bedford. Then a trip back, not flat out or anything, just purring along with the windows down listening to the whirr of the G-Lader and enjoying being out in my car in such awesome weather.

Unfortunately not everything is as attached to my car as I am. Got home, took the above pic, then got my bag out of the boot and spotted something that was missing:

Time for some fresh plates. I'm thinking of going back to the old style font, as you can still get them made up:

But I'm not that arsed, and the weather's too nice not to use the car, so I can see myself grabbing another Halfords plate and get the car legal again ASAP. :)

My 'birth certificate' for the Polo arrived today, interesting stuff!

Not posting it on here as it's got my VIN on it. But details as follows:

Model: 803 5J2, VW Polo Coupé GT, five-speed

Engine: 3F, 75 DIN-PS / 55 kW, 1.3 litre

Colour: L 94 K Pearl Grey Metallic, Material slate black slate

Built on: 14 January 1991

Left factory on: 15 January 1991

Country of destination: Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Options: X2B Country Settlement Great Britain

3FB Tilt/Slide Sunroof

8V1 Cigarette Lighter

Interesting bits here (used to be a GT in case you didn't know) is the destination country (assume it's due to shipping the car from there?) and build date. It wasn't registered until June so it sat around for a while.

Also, tilt/slide sunroof?!? I guess it's a single code for all metal sunroofs.

This is based on the manufacturing slip from the factory.

Need to get one of those man. Fully worth the cost

I've not seen mine yet - had it delivered to my parents' house in Cardiff and Mum WhatsApp'd me a photo. It's really well presented, but I guess most of the cost goes into storing and then accessing all that data. It goes back decades, mine's still going to be close to the top of the pile really.

Nice bit of history to have with the car. Even though the "slate black slate" interior is long gone and the entire drivetrain bar the inlet manifold isn't there anymore either. But I'm not bothered because it had all of those bits when I bought it. When I bought it, my car still had mostly original paint, the remains of the original aerial, the black number plate tub lining and a set of four (heavily kerbed) hubcaps. Plus all the clips in place under the engine bay. Ridiculously original. Not so much any more though.

haha yeah, not much left of mine now tbh.

I'm more curious of the extras! The leccy windows and C/L. I'm assuming they were fitted at the dealer as tbh, the leccy window switches are bodged in :( But who knows!

Tis a great thing to have! Even though i have no intention of selling... ever

haha yeah, not much left of mine now tbh.

I'm more curious of the extras! The leccy windows and C/L. I'm assuming they were fitted at the dealer as tbh, the leccy window switches are bodged in :( But who knows!

Tis a great thing to have! Even though i have no intention of selling... ever

I'm the same. This is likely to be joined by another project when space and money allows, but it's never going to be sold on. What's the point?

I was saying to Caroline the other day, I set out a list of things I wanted to do to a car like this when I first bought it. And I've nearly done the whole lot. What I'm enjoying most at the moment is just using it and not thinking (for once) that it needs this or that doing. Once I've got a subframe, stainless manifold and my oh-so-subtle interior mods sorted it's just going to be a car that gets used and not tinkered with. I don't want any more power, or wider wheels, or anything like that. I love wheeling it out of the garage, where it starts first time, warming it up and going out for a drive. If I go much further it'll start getting ridiculously obsessive and big jobs mean time off the road. I miss it too much when it's not there - the respray/rebuild last year was hellish especially towards the end when the weather picked up.

People say modified cars are never finished, but I think this one might actually get there. We shall see.

(that said, I'd love a set of Golf Sportline Recaros some day)

Those seats would looks great in yours, be cool if you could somehow get the pattern onto the door cards too.

Yeah I've wanted a set for as long as I've had the car - but they're idiotic money for a cloth interior from an old Volkswagen. Scene tax rich.

Had a quick check of my Zertifikat today, just in case you're interested to see what you get for your cashmonies:

Those of you who I'm friends with on Facebook will also have seen me boring my friends list silly with talk of number plate replacements.

Having re-introduced some originality with the rebuild last year, I decided to go for the old style plates. But I made the mistake of ordering them on eBay, from a seller listing them as show plates because they're the old font. Fine for mine, I thought, because it's a pre-2001 car, so perfectly legal to have that old slightly wider font.

Trouble is, yes they're the old font, but they're also the wrong size. Basically they'd have been illegal even before 2001, when the old font was for sale from your local Halfords. I know it's being picky but if I'm going to the effort of having the right plates on the car, then they need to be the right plates.

Anyway, I've decided to put this down to experience and not use them. The eBay seller isn't interested. Had a dig about in my parents' garage while I was home in Cardiff for the bank holiday weekend and found not only my old pre-2001 rear plate, but the dealer-marked plate the car came with too.

Here they are with the new one I ordered this week, so you can see what a picky bastard I'm being. They just won't look right.

I've got the old pre-2001 front plate too. But it's not much use thanks to an incident while overtaking a gritter about nine years ago:

Umming and aching about whether to get a matching pre-2001 front plate, or a matching GB-striped rear now I have the V5 up here to go and order one. But at least I can get the car legal again now.

Bored yet?

In other news, Club Polo track day is approaching in August and I'm hoping to be there but I want to get it corner-weighted first. With a house move to deal with in the meantime (we've not found the new place yet) it's going to be a busy couple of months.

Oh yeah, and Mum's new car arrived this weekend. It's a Move up! with the Bluemotion Technology package, and an upgrade to the "Waffle" wheels. It's also very much a spiritual successor to the G-plate Tornado Red Polo CL breadie we had when I was a kid, which was written off my a stolen car.

She's had a 206 Quiksilver with the CC wheels, spoiler, arches and mesh grille for the last ten years, but this is such a huge upgrade! She loves it :) (older members might recognise the road from my old pics of the Polo too...)

Alex, where do i get a Zertifikat ?

Alex, where do i get a Zertifikat ?

If you Google VW Birth Certificate, it should be the top result.

You order them at the Stiftung AutoMuseum or via their website.

Alex, where do i get a Zertifikat ?

If you Google VW Birth Certificate, it should be the top result.

You order them at the Stiftung AutoMuseum or via their website.

Cheers Alex just ordered :)

Booked in for corner weighting at AmD on the 6th July. :-)

A small change for June. But I'm pleased with these :)

July plans - corner-weighting, new cam belt because it's getting old, and then Club Polo track day first weekend of August.

A small change for June. But I'm pleased with these :)

July plans - corner-weighting, new cam belt because it's getting old, and then Club Polo track day first weekend of August.

Looking wicked Alex, My first comment on this thread and its a quality one!

I didn't know the mirrors fold in?!

Thanks :)

Yep, there's a bit of resistance at first (presumably to stop them folding on the motorway) but they just slide around to almost touch the quarter light window. Ideal if, like me, you've got a garage that's just over a foot wider than the car.

So, yesterday I got invited to an unusual event that I wasn't expecting. Volkswagen Group UK Logistics, which deals with the movement of parts around the UK and Ireland, was celebrating ten years at its building on the Birch Coppice business park near Tamworth with an event for its employees. They needed a group of Volkswagen Group vehicles to display, standard and modded, and asked me to come along which was pretty cool.

Excuse the quality of the pics, my camera's packed in so I'm stuck with an iPhone and that's it :(

These were taken before most people arrived, was a really interesting day out too. The scale of the warehouse is staggering, there's enough space to park 9,600 Golfs inside and most of it is a few storeys high with parts, stacked on huge shelving units like this one:

I'll bet there are some really amazing parts hidden away in those racks. Spotted what I'm sure were a few pre-94 Polo fuel tanks in a crate as we were walking through. Incredible place!

Edited 17 June, 201214 yr by Alex

oh my alex, you have sorted me for a few weeks with my parts warehouse fetish.

I could spend days in there rooting around for interesting stuff.

So, I spent the weekend at Inters. First time I've done the whole weekend, including camping, since 2003 at Bentwaters.

I tend to bung the car in the show and shine at Inters, never really expect to pick anything up but it's free to enter and beats leaving the car in the car park. Much handier for nipping back to get stuff out of the boot too.

Gave it a quick wipe down with a wet micro fibre, topped up on bumper black, left it as is.

And... this happened. Staggered. The Show and Shine was quiet yesterday to be fair, but against what I'd say was a very high standard of cars in my class this was the last thing I was expecting. If you're reading this, and you voted for me, then BIG LOVE back. Made my day!

Camped over on the edge of the campsite. A good mix of Dubs :)

Got soaked earlier, and didn't get a chance to do the handling course as I wanted. But I'll be booking my place on the CP track day tonight, so I'll get to abuse my tyres there instead. Good times!

Well done dude!

Cheers Kiz! Tends to be a car people look at but don't vote for, I'm dead chuffed with this :)

nice one on the trophy! it just loks so fresh! I'm not suprised you picked one up!

Thanks Plenty of fresher ones about though - mine's got scuffed bumpers (previous owner) and the wheels and interior aren't immaculate. It's not really a showcar, unlike a few I was up against, but it's clean. I'd have made more of an effort to clean it if I'd known

Saw this at inters! FOOKING MINT!!!!! good work man