Does that mean the Speedlines will get some R888's on?

Does that mean the Speedlines will get some R888's on?

Eventually yes, but I'd have said they'll spend next year stacked in my garage waiting for a proper refurb. My rattle can paint job is pretty sketchy!

Really has to be one of the best G's going. Shows wide wheels and major drops arent everything. Massive respect!

Agreed. I love this car and it sounds like it's treated you well, the only time I've seen you had problems is when you changed wheels a few times and in the end went back to the old ones

Not many people stick with a car that long and try to keep it looking like it did when it came out of the dealership (ignoring the fact it's now a g40!) but fair play, even when it's 'dirty' it's cleaner than most new cars I've owned after me spending an entire afternoon washing it.

This car is also one of the reasons I got myself a GT a good few years ago which started a rediculously long - at sometimes painful and at most times expensive period of mk3 ownership which in the space of 6 years had only seen me without a mk3 polo for the combined total of around 4 days. Thanks Alex

Glad there's still love for the G40 - it's made my 12 mile trip down the A1 every morning a lot more interesting! Especially now it's cold. :)

Really hope I don't get clearance issues on the new rims, but that can be fixed at the bodyshop.

Spilled some Quantum oil in the passenger side footwell yesterday. Oops. :(

Luckily it's only ruined the mat, not much has ended up on the carpet.

It's gone!

Took the car to Perkins Automotive near Solihull this morning, for its winter rebuild. I've said not to let it get in the way of other projects they're doing. I don't need it back until March anyway, realistically.

It'll be weird not having it around! But it'll be better once it's back.

I'll start a new thread when there's some progress to report.

Edited 29 October, 201015 yr by Alex

Long awaited update?

Some of you are probably wondering why I've not updated this for just over three months. I won't bore you with details, but as you probably know Max Power closed down in December. The announcement went out two weeks, to the day, after I dropped the car at Perkins and so we took the decision to leave it be until I knew where I was and what I was doing job wise.

New year, new start. I'm now freelance, writing for a wide range of mags (my first PVW feature is on the shelves at the moment) and so I've decided to get the project moving again. Unfortunately I don't have the internet at home (STILL) so I've tagged this update onto a little McDonald's WiFi leeching session. :)

Now some of you may be wondering why I'm refreshing my car. It's hardly a wreck.

Well, I've spent most of the last five years sorting the way it goes and handles. In the meantime, while I've hardly neglected the bodywork, it's become an old car. It'll be 20 in June! I had a quick respray back in 2004, which gave it a new lease of life, but as a cheap job the bodyshop masked around the windows, vinyl and bodykit instead of stripping it. That's fine, it didn't need much more than that at the time, but it's always bothered me that there are a few visible masking lines on the car.

But in the meantime it's spent time in a wet garage while I was getting press cars, picked up lots of stone chips and the paint has gone flat in a few areas. So it really wanted a tidy up.

Yesterday, I started the process of stripping the car. Now, before anyone comments, yes it is filthy. It's been sat inside a bodyshop overnight for the last 3 months, wheeled in and out to make room for customers' cars. Hence the mud and the dust.

The easiest place to start was removing the plastic trim. I've had the arches off before, back in 2001 when I lowered the car on its original Spax kit, but the rub strips and sill trims were still as they left the factory. So I spent yesterday afternoon carefully removing these, they need to go back on afterwards. And the relief is, all four arches have only light surface rust (coming from the rivet holes). A chunk of paint came off with the front passenger side arch but that's it. Bear in mind this is the original, untouched, 20 year old paint underneath.

The bit I was really dreading was the sill trims but it's the same story under there, all solid. A big relief, as I've seen a few Polos rotting badly here.

The area behind the filler neck is solid (despite the compost I found back there) and the bottom of the doors haven't gone either. The worst bit of rust I've uncovered so far is this, under the trim on the passenger side rear quarter, and there's some more in the boot on the suspension turret. I'm assured both are an easy fix though.

Removing traces of trim tape and the stuff I used to bond the arches on took most of yesterday afternoon so that's all I've got to report. I'm back next week for the next step - removing the windows, door handles and the rest of the trim. It's pretty much all bolt-off stuff from here, so no more gunk to remove.

The windscreen will be interesting. My A pillars were solid until I had my windscreen replaced, but they've since bubbled up. The seal is FULL of sealant (which actually stops it working properly) so we're going to cut it out and fit a new one. The rubber seals which go along the bottom of the door windows will be replaced too, as they're a bit shitty.

More next week!

That's not bad at all... :)

Absolutly loving the colour! With the performance upgrades what speed you had out of it? (obviously on that special german road!)

Yep - people have said they're amazed I'm not changing the colour as I've got the option to. But I wouldn't have it any other way. The boxy lines of the Polo get picked out by whatever direction the light is coming from. So if you're out and it's a sunset, for example, you get bits in a glittery orange/red, the lower bits go almost black and the very top of the car picks up whatever blue is left in the sky. Fuck changing that!

I've had 130mph out of it, but obviously that's just a speedo reading so how accurate it is I don't know. It was still pulling too. At that point the fear kicked in and I backed down. This was while it was on 15s so the speedo was more accurate than it is now.

Finish wise, imagine that rich grey but painted by one of the country's best bodyshops. They're quite well known for modified stuff but they're also in the classics game. As an example, here's one of the cars they painted before:

This is one they're working on now - the wing isn't bolted on at the bottom in this picture. It's a 1969 Porsche 911E Targa top. Full resto job.

And another - this was indoors at the NEC Classic Car Show:

I can't wait to get it back looking better than new! :) I've got a tub of Celeste Dettaglio wax waiting for it too...

Should mention that this isn't condoning doubling the speed limit on the road:

I've had 130mph out of it, but obviously that's just a speedo reading so how accurate it is I don't know. It was still pulling too. At that point the fear kicked in and I backed down. This was while it was on 15s so the speedo was more accurate than it is now.

This was on an airstrip. I value my license, safety and not killing someone else to drive too much like a tool on the road.

Just to show I got to piss about on an empty airstrip for a day:

That's pretty sweet man. Totally agree with you, the Grey is the way!! :)

Airfields are built for that, they just lied that their for planes

The finish on those cars is pretty awesome

That Porsche is beautiful btw

Still love to check in and see updates and info on your car Alex. The paint on those cars is unreal too so I can't wait to see how the Polo turns out.

Chris

Thanks :)

More progress today, though it'll look like I've done close to naff all.

First steps were getting a good idea of how good/bad the underside of the car is. So we pushed it outside and jet washed under the arches, behind the bumper and as much of the dirty bits as we could get to. Pushed it back in, up on the ramp and blow dried it with high pressure air to see where the rust-proofing was peeling off.

I had no idea the underside of my car was white until this morning!

Rust proofing is still pretty good, a few flakey bits but they'll be easy to clean up and re-cover. I'll be getting it all undersealed again next winter (budget doesn't stretch that far at the moment).

Rear valance is surprisingly solid too.

With that done, I got back to cleaning up the bodywork. The trim tape came off easily enough with a fudge wheel, but the bits I've removed and attached again (arches) had some stubborn stickaflex stuff to remove. Smelled awful when it was coming off.

I also had a go at the remains of the rivets that used to hold the sill trim and arches on. And, while I had the sander out, I decided to see what that spot of rust on the rear quarter looks like. It could be worse, but it's gone through in a couple of small spots. An easy repair, I'm told. Made me a bit sad when I saw them though. :(

Most of the afternoon was lost to the fudge wheel unfortunately, so the windows are still in. I found some interesting history under the passenger side door handle though. Someone tried breaking in outside my parents' house about ten years ago. You can still see the screwdriver mark.

So, this is how it looks now. Bumper, gutter trim, indicators and door handles came off today. I'm removing the windows, badges, headlights and front bumper on Thursday.

More progress today (a day late, I know)

But not a lot of pics. Sorry.

First step was removing the windows and stripping the vinyl from the b pillars.

The windscreen seal was knackered. I had the screen replaced on my insurance a few years back and the company who did the job made a real hash of it. The first screen leaked, badly, so they took it back off me and squirted silicone inside the seal. Made a real mess all over the screen and the paintwork too, so I made a scene in front of their other customers and got another screen out of it. But the seal was still full of crap, which blocked all the drain holes along the bottom of the screen. So I decided it wasn't worth salvaging and cut it out.

This unveiled a bit of surface rust all along the bottom of the screen, and these two blobs which I already knew about. Getting bad, but not holes (yet).

I spent the rest of the afternoon stripping the tailgate of its last few bits, then removed the rear lights. Looks like this now...

While the windows were out I removed the door cards in the back to see what it's like in there. Apart from the spots in the last post, it's solid as a rock in there. But the breather hose from the fuel tank is very crusty. I'm going to seal that up (as advised) to keep the inner wing waterproof. I'll vacuum the crap out of there too.

I'm heading back to Perkins on Monday, to remove the front bumper and headlights, strip the remaining vinyl and tidy the shell ready for prep, primer and paint. So from here on in, things will start to look better (rather than worse!).

simply awesome progress alex.

As it should be done :)

big thumb's up from me! :)

Just looking at the pics scares me slightly. I know it's not as stripped back as other projects on here but in the time I've had it I've never had it in so many component parts. It's pretty unnerving!

But it feels good knowing that when it leaves the bodyshop this time it won't just be shiny on top and untouched underneath. Even if I don't have the budget to change the wheels. They need to go. Like, badly. But I haven't found anything that fits my (pretty much non-existent) budget and tastes.

I tell you what else has been interesting is uncovering history I remember from my time with the car. Things like the screwdriver mark under the door handle, I remember that happening. That ruined windscreen seal. The silicone stuff I used to stick the arches on. And the crumpled bit on the rear panel where it had a tap to the back end. Stuff you can't see when it's all in one piece!

Edited 11 February, 201115 yr by Alex

Monday turned into Tuesday, I had a meeting yesterday so didn't make it up to see the car.

Today was a short day, but productive. It's now as stripped as it needs to be, ready for the bodywork to start.

Took out the headlights and the grille, then removed the front bumper. The bumper iron is filthy but it's not too haggered so I'm going to leave it where it is for now.

Since my last visit the guys had been around the car picking out dents and tiny rust spots to sort out. Marked here in masking tape, and there are a handful more on the other side. You can see in this pic I've finished removing the b pillar vinyl too. Baby smooth paintwork underneath.

Dropped the headlining and took the aerial off, then stood back to admire the bare bodywork. Here she is among the other projects at the Perkins workshop. Quite a mix!!

I've also got a fresh windscreen seal, a brand new one. There are a few packages on their way here over the next few days, and a few more to pick up from the local VW parts department tomorrow. :)

More pics later this week, but they won't be mine. I can't get back up until early next week, but Perky and Adam will be taking photos as they go along so I'll keep you informed.

Sweet! Good to see you still got her and progressing all the time :)

This car is going nowhere. Even if I hit serious financial problems it would be the last thing I'd sell. :-)

Odd thing is it's now worth more than the Passat. Hehe!

Only minor updates today. I'm up to my eyeballs in work, which has stopped me getting back over to the bodyshop.

Parts collection mostly. First up, a trip to Kettering VW to collect these - it's the trim for the driver's side seat mechanism and all the rivets I need to put the arches and sill trims back on. OE FTW.

Of course, OE doesn't always come up trumps. So I got Dan at Volkswagen Stickers (volkswagenstickers.co.uk) to make me a full set of factory vinyl warning stickers for the car. They're exact replicas of the originals, most of which are pretty haggered now. All in the details!

Keen-eyed G40 nerds may notice I'm not renewing the vinyl that goes inside the number plate tub. I'm not sure whether to bother so I'm leaving it. I think it makes the biggest difference on lighter coloured cars anyway. You can just make it out in this picture:

The tube the stickers came in made the postie blush too

Aiming to head over for bodywork prep late this week or early next. Probably the latter, but I'll keep you posted.

The tube the stickers came in made the postie blush too

Oh Dan

Can't wait to see this finished. Leave the number plate vinyl off. They are such a bitch to get right. Wrinkly ball ache.

The tube the stickers came in made the postie blush too

Aiming to head over for bodywork prep late this week or early next. Probably the latter, but I'll keep you posted.

Haha, this is awesome, I'm fully doing this next time i send some stuff out

Thats wicked haha