1985 Polo Mk2 Bready - 08/03 - Secret Progress

I think I'd need to understand what said hedgehog does normally before I'd want to be modifying for extra power. That sort of shape I normally associate with heat sinks, but what does it actually do? (stupid question, I'm sure)

as well as killing the power its a hearter element for cold starts and stuff i had one on my old mk3 golf and it was painfully slow for a 1.8

If it helps with cold starts I might be as well leaving it alone, I don't know if it's just because a fair bit of the engine was knackered that caused it, but he never used to like cold starts and I don't want to make that any worse.

lol better lefrt alone then bud your doing a great job with it mate keep up the good work

Will do! Just discussing with my friend about MoT planning and it looks like there's two visits to go. One to prepare for the MoT next weekend and then another to collect the car when he's passed, which he will because I can't think of anything that he'll fail on apart from emissions which we can't check but can fix at the garage.

Then I get to go see my Gran in Louth and eat lots of tasty noms, because my Gran is awesome!

volksangyl wrote:

Today I finally passed my practical test.

First attempt, 5 minors.

I'm so giddy I could explode!

congratulations

I am now a happy, happy Polo owner, even though there was a bit of a willy up this weekend.

Usual drill for me heading to the barn is to check through everything I need to take, relying on public transport means you can't very well just turn around to pick up something you forgot. So I made my checks, remembered to put the important stuff in my bags and off I went... only, about 10 minutes into the car journey from the station to Adam's I remembered I'd forgotten to pack the carburettor flange seal.

D'OH!

This meant my engine didn't get sorted this weekend. But Adam was a star and after we did the other job on Saturday, Sunday he drove me home so he could collect the missing part in return for a Sunday dinner and some petrol pennies. It turned out he could also pick up the roofbars that I got from Retrowagen too so it wasn't an entirely wasted journey. The roofbars had arrived on Friday before I was due to set off, but for some reason UPS delivered them to my neighbours, and by the time I checked for a note they were out at work.

All was not lost, I had remembered to lug the 60/40 Gmax kit I got from mk2polobloke so we got to fitting that. Oh yes, my car now sits at the proper altitude.

Only real nuisance was the tie rod end bolt and nut threads decided they didn't want to exist anymore, but other than that it went very smoothly with Adam being the expert at undoing weird fastenings and doing the job faster than I could. I helped by being a third pair of hands and feeding Adam pork pies, this seemed to be a sensible arrangement.







You probably want to see the new ride height. I'm pleased that it all got to the height I wanted it straight away and even if it settles a little lower, I'll still be happy.




We dropped the back end first. No reduction of bumpstops or anything like that, just a straight swap over of the old suspension for the new. Could do with having the same profile tyres on the back as on the front, but other than that it's all good. Front is at stock height here.



Next was the front. This required big tools and a lot of brute force to unfasten the struts and get the old dampers out. We did find that the old oil dampers were pretty worn out, with the driver's side having very little oil left in. Probably just as well we upgraded it all.


He's looking much better, is far less bouncy. I've not had chance to drive him yet, of course, because we couldn't get the engine back together and have him running because of the above.




Rear valance really needs widening and reprofiling now. It could do with some repair on it anyway due to a few small non-structural rust holes so it seems a good opportunity to tackle some modding and some repair simultaneously come the summer.


Front looks really good, apart from my bent bumper.


There we go, that was my weekend. Adam has said he'll get the engine back together, get him running and get him through an MoT before next weekend. I look forward to the report on that one. I don't know when I'll get the opportunity to clean all the crap off the car, there's no washing facilities at the barn, so I may end up making his maiden voyage looking like he's a barn find custom, which is kinda awesome.

congrats on the test andon the car,looks soooooo much better slammed!

is it me or does it seem to sit to one side

looking way better... But i agree with Cotney, it is sitting slightly lower on the drivers side...
But loving the look of the front end..

phew thought it was just me

It's an illusion. Because it was requested I crop the pictures really heavily you can't see that the yard is on a bit of a slope, not much but enough to make things look a bit wonky. Once I've got him clean and/or out on the road I'll get some photos in a location where I don't have to crop things so brutally, maybe even at the seaside.

MoT pass with no advisories yesterday. This is very good news indeed. Next Sunday providing I can get Insurance and Tax sorted between now and then (shouldn't be an issue) I get to drive him the 70-80 miles home going back via the seaside and my grandparents.

It's unlikely I'll be trying to meet anyone in Woldland, it's already a pretty packed day.

congratulations on the mot ...get that tax and insurance sorted and go enjoy it

congrats mate, not be long now!!!

Nice one on the mot

Thanks chaps ^__^

Insurance sorted... £1400 for the year which is a bit of an ouch, but normal by today's standards :/ Still, it looks like a good policy with Sabre through The Green Insurance Company, so they plant trees and donate to charity to offset my carbon footprint, which is nice I suppose.

Paperwork should arrive in the post tomorrow and I can then get my Road Tax. Looks like Sunday is a definite go right now.

for £1400 a year, i would want a couple of oak trees thrown in.... really pleased i am old...lol

It's been ten years since my car saw the road. Ten long, frustrating years. But today I finally got to collect my car.

The day was off to a less than brilliant start when I woke up from a string of wasp-related nightmares and a dead leg at 6:30am. Pottered around until arrival of the parental units at about 9am. I then drove the first leg of the journey to the secret location, which was about 70 miles, in Dad's Lexus.

It took me a while to make the transition from Dorset (the Lexus) to Wilhelm (my Polo), especially going from power assisted brakes to non-servo brakes. I did manage it, it got more comfortable with time. We ate up some miles by first heading out to Mablethorpe with me taking the lead. There was a strange (to me) noise from the front of the car and from the rear so I pulled over and an impromptu picnic broke out.



Turned out the noise from the rear was gravel in the tread of the tyre and the noise from the front was just the new brakes bedding in. Nothing to worry about really.

So on we went to Mablethorpe. Being used to Sheffield prices I jumped at the nearly-on-the-seafront £3 all day car park. Comedy ensued because it took me 3 attempts to park (I'm useless at parking) and poor old Wilhelm looked like a toy! I thought I'd parked next to a Range Rover, but it turns out it was the much smaller (!) Land Rover.


We went for ice cream and stared at dogs and donkeys on the beach. It was great, I felt like a 12 year old. Eventually it was time to get back in the cars and head over to my Nan's in Louth. The last time she saw Wilhelm he was stock and navy blue, so she was quite surprised at what turned up.


Adam came with us (he was in the graphite Escort XR3i above) and made me stand next to the car so he could take a photograph. It was like I was mirroring so many old family photos, and perhaps I was.


Sitting comfortably in Nan's house I spotted a photo opportunity and took another.


Then we were off again, this time to North Kelsey Moor, through more beautiful scenery on a glorious spring day on nearly empty winding Lincolnshire roads. An absolute joy to drive. Dad's Lexus had been with us all day, obviously, lurking in the background.




Couldn't stop long at Grandad's so it was off home. I realised what road I was on and detoured to lankytom's (RR member) place since I bought my wheels off him. Turns out he's already moved out, unfortunately, but I took a snap anyway.


A fellow RR member in a black Skoda Rapid was pipping and flashing at me when I was trying to find lankytom's place, I wonder who that could have been?

Finally, we made the long trip home, pulling over once to figure out how to make the lights work, took me ages to find the correct combination for dipped beam, but we got it. Got home and it was dark.


All in it was a massive trip for me. My third journey driving and it started with 70ish miles in the Lexus followed up with a round trip of 170 miles in the Polo. No problems to report apart from wanting a fifth gear on the gearbox. Absolute awesome day in a very entertaining car.

Oh, and people *did* stare. I got the distinct impression nobody knew quite what to make of me.

Not a massive update today, but an update nonetheless.

Had a few errands to run for the family and it gave me the chance to experience driving entirely solo. Was interesting, and surprising how much more my intuition/memory and road sign reading took me the right way than the BIAB* or the map I'd printed out.

However, it was another lovely, if slightly muggy day so some photographs happened. Got my first chav-heckle from a couple of guys in a tatty Saxo who shouted "Take it to the scrapyard" out the window... [s]irony[/s] hypocrisy.

After getting out of Sheffield I could enjoy some B road driving. I love B roads.







Stopped in at my old flat too (top of the block to the left with the lace curtains), place looks a lot nicer than it did when I had to live there with the new windows and fancy front door.




Then I went to see my bro (chompysnake) and have a neb at his new project that he bought recently from MikeD.



Then I went home. Interesting moment sat on the approach to a roundabout when I managed to get my handbrake stuck for long enough to warrant putting my hazards on but apart from that it was uneventful, as driving ought to be. I've learned that unlike my driving instructor's car, my handbrake should not have the button pushed as it is pulled up, otherwise it gets stuck on.

Did you spot the difference? Oh, and I figured out how to use my parking light too, which is neat.



*Bitch In A Box, a.k.a. Sat Nav

So, today I went on a little photoshoot with the local club Motornutz, there's a thread on it here.

Later on I did the rounds of my friends and noticed that my temperature guage was a bit higher than usual, drove carefully and it seemed to sort itself out. Not losing water, car behaving, seemed okay. Later still I went to visit my parents and accidentally ended up on the Motorway.

Some people are fine with Motorways, I'm not. I find them intimidating, too fast and generally an all round unpleasant experience. However, it did highlight I actually did have a temperature issue as I ended up doing a steady 65mph with the window wide open and the heaters on full to keep the temperature down to something like healthy :/ Not good. Got to the parents and having assessed everything under the bonnet with my Dad we've come to the conclusion that the 25 year old radiator is actually shagged. Funnily enough, it's one of the few things that weren't replaced when we recommissioned the car.

Not happy that I've got to fork out about £40, but I'd rather have a car that doesn't overheat than £40 in my wallet.

In happier news, while gardening my parents found the old boot badge from the car. For ages I've been saying my car is 'just a Polo', that is to say it's not a Polo C, or a Polo with any sort of suffix. Proper poverty spec car, rare but not valuable, but now I have the badge to prove it.



I'll restore it, looks like it had a bit of a fight with a lawnmower which seems likely, the badge was removed, presumed missing about ten years ago.

Well hopefully my overheating woes will soon be over. Replacement rad is due to arrive tomorrow *yay*.

I went to Halfrauds today and picked up a mini socket set, ideal for what I want, for only £9.99. Nice quality tools too, Halfrauds hardware has never disappointed me before. While we were there I got some 1500 and 2000 grit paper so that I can get the paint polished when I've got myself a polishing machine sorted out.

Here's some pictures.

Last night I did some work on the Polo badge for the boot. To do this sort of thing you need some filler (Milliput, in this instance), a file and a fine tool for applying the filler with.


Took a bit of time to file down the high spots of the damage so that the whole badge was nice and smooth-ish.


Then applied a thin skim of filler where needed and built up the damaged corner.


Once the filler had cured it was sanded back smooth and I applied the first coat of paint. Most of the imperfections have gone and those that are left will disappear with some flatting and repainting. Eventually the badge will be black with a gold facing to the letters. I'll be relocating the badges at the bottom of the red section on the tailgate once I've had it smoothed later this year.


While we were at Halfrauds I got myself a silly bit of tat, in part because I didn't have an aerial bobble.


Wire brushed the crud off the fan shroud and gave it a couple of coats of gold paint both sides. Looks much smarter and is a cheap short term alternative to powder coating.




Just got to figure out what else to detail in gold and what to do in black under the bonnet now. Lots of cleaning and painting to be done.

that radiator cowling looks like its been gold plated!

yeah man nice work on the fan housing!

That Plastikote mirror paint is awesome stuff. It goes on nice and easy and in a couple of coats you get quite a convincing plated metal look. Best of all, it's only about £7 a tin. For little bits of chrome and stuff it's great, not sure how good it is for full bumpers though I must admit I'm tempted to spray mine in gold or chrome. Only trouble I've found is that if you use a lacquer over the top it goes sort of dull so it does tend to be a bit fragile on high wear stuff like buttons.