Thought it was time to start a progress thread for my mk3. Its my first car, had it since i was 17. Here is a picture of how it used to look when i 1st lowered it and fitted the steelies i sprayed up, some might remeber it:

I made a few changes from that piont like; seats, harnesses, strut braces, steering wheel, engine mods, spacers etc etc. Was getting there really until i got driven into on an island, the car had also had a rear end impact when i got it which meant i got it cheapy cheapy. After that happened i didnt have time to do anything about it as i was off to uni. So now I've finished my 1st year and I'm puttin all my time into the car. I cant afford for any of the work to be pro done (student) so I'm doin everything myself in dads old storage garage. Anyways heres some pics in no order really:

how the car sits currently:

most of the heavy work is done now ready for the respray.

So far i have removed driver and passager door handles, smoothed out the swage lines in the front and rear bumpers, have removed the fog lamp blanks on the front bumper, complete smoothed boot, removed aerial hole, smoothed left hand wiper reccess, removed the shut gap on the 3 quarters ad fixed all the rear end and sill/door damage.

smoothed bumpers waiting for more sealer/plastic filler primer:

new bonnet, old one was dented:

smoother aerial and wiper blank(sorry bout poor pic) :

test fitting:

pic i took when i was half way through welding up the aerial:

All the smoothing has been done properly be me, always fully stitch welded b4 filler etc.

smoothed bootlid:

So right now I've just come in again from the garage cos i had cramp and decided to stick the pics up. I'm planning to get the primer on by next weekend. The colour will be Lb7z silver same as before (means i wont need to do the engine bay) but the guy at the paint store said he can stick a tad more mettalic in to help it look more spesh. I will be getting new wheels soon too, will post them when they arrive. Ill try and update most days. will update 2morrow as I'm expecting goodies in the post :-D.

Edited 27 July, 200719 yr by ELLpolo

looks lovery but what are you doing on the wing y did you drill it?? and just when your getting some progress and everything is how u want it some dik alsways manages to plow into you

I haven't drilled anything, that is were the hole for the arial mounts were, i have welded a plate in and smoothed it off to remove the aerial, and yeah i was so anoyed when the guy drove into me but its fixed now.

looks lovery but what are you doing on the wing y did you drill it?? and just when your getting some progress and everything is how u want it some dik alsways manages to plow into you

Looking good, shame about the idiot damaging it

looks lovery but what are you doing on the wing y did you drill it?? and just when your getting some progress and everything is how u want it some dik alsways manages to plow into you

Constructive comments only please

Looks like your making some good progress, I bet a lot of us wished we had a bit of time on our hands to do that

Smooth bumpers looks proper good, Wish i never gave away my spare ones :( .

Some goodies arrived in the post yesterday. New suction feed gun i ordered for primer (kestrel yd-102):

I'm using this gun for primer and my bro said he will lend me his clean devilbiss for base and clear coats.

Number plate fixings that also include white leds for my relocated number plate, will post pics of the new plate and the bracket i fabbed soon too. They are pretty trick, come with star head bolts, all tools and fixings. got them for a sweet price from my brother :-D :

think i will spray them black to try and make them more descreate and fit the yellow black contarst of the number plate, polished is a tad tacky.

dad got me this air water seperater and pressure regulator/monitor for my bday :-D , such a well built peice of kit:

F1 style mirrors from my bro again. I have spent alot of time considering mirror choice and these i think will work, match the shape of the car and are smaller and more subtle. i cut out a section of the stalk and re welded it to try and tuck it closer as the stalkes were a bit big, cos ther intended for kit cars i think:

on the car badly test mounted:

Edited 25 August, 200719 yr by ELLpolo

Looking good. Never been a fan of smoothed boots though.

Do you work in a bodyshop or something or have you just picked it up out of interested? Just seems like you know exactly what your doing!

My older brother taught himself and is v good at body work and he taught me alot. My dad has been building street rods all his life so i pick alot up from him. My dad is a competent fabricator too and i practise welding on his equipment. I spend alot of time in autopaint (getting supplies) and have got to know one of the guys well and he gives good advise. But mostly i have just read up on it and just worked with trial and error, the smoothed boot has taken me an age, i started that before i the strip down for the respray and have made alot mistakes

along the way. I can see were people are coming from with the anti smooth boot opinions but its part of the look and i hope i can pull it off.

ps i am looking for a new set of clocks too, must have rev counter. give me a shout if anyone can help me out.

Edited 29 July, 200719 yr by ELLpolo

quick update, went and boughtt 3 solenoid door popper kits from volksbits today:

just need to figure out what the hell I'm doin with them now. Also need a central locking kit if anyones got one.

and just a random shot of my seats:

a mate of mine saw this pic and told me i was a fool for running harnesses with seats that arent designed for it, what do you guys reckon?

i suppose it might meen ther is some side to side movement but cant b that bad?

Edited 30 July, 200719 yr by ELLpolo

I love that colour, nice work mate, looking forward to seeing it finished! :)

I have a set of mk3 clocks with a rev counter, ones out of a GT!

pm'd mate.

looks lovery but what are you doing on the wing y did you drill it?? and just when your getting some progress and everything is how u want it some dik alsways manages to plow into you

if you dont ask you will never no

and sorry for the randon hole drilling question I've not got a hole in mine so iw asent sure lol. for a second i thought you were plug welding it. silly me lol

and like the mirrors NICE

Edited 31 July, 200719 yr by POLOMON

Finally got the car into primer, after so many distractions (uni work) just needs flatting back. Put the first pass of paint on and a bug landed straight in it (the joy of a home job!) but came out nice and I'm pleased. Will blow the colour and laquer on soon for another update :-D Will also get some pics up 2morrow of the smoothed bumpers etc. Also the car is not at proper ride height cos its up on a jack:

and another i thought u guys might like, taken at this years hot rod nationals:

was bear metal all over with a coat of clear laquer! was awesome, note the wings mirrors too

Edited 31 August, 200719 yr by ELLpolo

lookin schweet, bring back so many memories lol

keep it up

mint progress and great that your doing it yourself i just wouldnt know where to start with body work.

hopefully mine will b in this guise sometime within the next 12months.

keep up the great work!

nah dan, that chav promised you he was gonna "twoc it" remember? lol, yours will never see the paint booth coz it'll be burnt out down hendon beach lmao.

Back on topic tho, tidy looking car, must be rewarding doing the work yourself.

So with the smoothed boot etc. I take it you're going for the full on euro look yeh? smoothed bumpers and that to come?

spose it will look quite euro, but i just want it to look clean, subtle and smooth with a custom influence, hence the extra mettalic in the paint. I still need new wheels b4 i will b happy and coilovers, its low but i have had it down bout 85/80 4 bout 2 years so I'm used to it and i want more drop and I'm gonna get the wheels banded out soon once i sell my alloys. but it had quiet alot of crash damage i had to fix so its been labour intense and cost me money i could have spent on wheels etc. the front and rear bumpers are smoothed and the boot, also a few little things like aerial, door handles etc.

Edited 1 September, 200719 yr by ELLpolo

Looks good! Got to admire the way your doing it all yourself.

Are you going to spray it silver? I think that colour at the moment looks mint, even if it is just the primer! I think a flat cream would look awesome!!

Awesome work so far, looks like you've got loads of space to work! My garage is pretty small so you can imagine how hard it was to respray my car in there!

LB72 - Satin Silver

Fucking lush colour. Major respect dude. haven't had a decent build thread in ages

Just a quick update to keep the thread going, everything has 3 coats or primer now. Each has been wet sanded, just need to wet sand the last till its perfect and then i can get going with blowing on the colour and laquer. I think i might aim to get it back together and ready 4 the polo show as a first outing. Was hoping to get my wheels banded b4 then too but wide wheels have a minimumn 4 weeks wait! Yeah and the colour will be LB7Z silver but i have an extra laquer stage with added mettalic for a more custom colour, should look pretty subtle still but catch the light better. Yeah i got alot of room too, me my dad and brothers built that polytuneel, took some serious hard work but is well handy! but its V dusty and dirty, its used normaly to store early fords as u can see in the background

Also someone buy my wheels please, its towards a good cause!: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ALLOY-WHEELS-14X6-PC...1QQcmdZViewItem

Edited 5 September, 200719 yr by ELLpolo

Looking like a pro job mate, keep up the hard work. Excited to see the final product.