Sunday 24 May 2015

What a nightmare

Everything that could go wrong, did!!

I decided to tackle the rust on the rear, firstly the lower bumper is held on with 12mm nuts, which you cannot reach with a spanner (most of my sockets are at my house and just the basic (8,10,11,13,15,17,19,21) are in the garage), so I couldn't remove the bumper. Next, once I had sanded down, the filler had gone all hard and unuseable, so used seam sealer (which worked quite well). Then the brush (was only meant to be a temporary paint as the plan is to rustolium the car soon) thought it was a great idea to shed its bristles all over the paint, so had to sand it all back again and use a rattle can, typically only silver was available in the garage (so it looks very bodged).

Then, as my daily (Ford Fiesta) has developed a engine knock (I am assuming hydraulic tappet failure, but not investigated yet) I may have to use Logit as a temporary daily for a while. So I swapped the front and rear tyres round and topped up all the levels. Ran it up to temperature and just checked the top of the oil filler......mayo........(some say this can be condensation, and there was not any before I started the car or even a couple of minutes after starting it up, the expansion bottle is clear and the coolant is the cleanest I have ever seen, so maybe it is, only time will tell).

I have at least decided that the roof will be satin black, the body will he blue, the shade will be chosen by Chloe (my 5 year old daughter who has claimed the car for herself).

There is a small family of spiders who have decided the door is a great place to live (at least there outside).

I gave the body a full going over and checked what I needed, panels I am after, passenger side front wing, rear bumper (upper and lower).

So at least the rust is gone lol.

Saturday 23 May 2015

The begining, a very good place to start.

After owning french hot hatches for a while and seeing the scene change to the 'Euro' look, I always fancied a Polo 6n to 'Euro' for fun.

Owning a couple of classic VW's, I decided that although my Beetle (Michelle) is slowly getting there with the restoration/customisation, I wanted to start going to the meets and shows. So it was pretty obvious what was going to happen.

After a search on the VW forums, I found this stock '99 (crossover) 3 door with dodgy bodywork (rear bumper bumped, front wing mashed and lacquer peel all over).







It was never intended to be a daily, although as my current daily is having a couple of engine issues, you never know.

So, the plans;

  • Strip and underseal
  • Full engine service (its a 1000cc so never going to set any speed records)
  • Replace the N/S/F wing
  • Replace the rear bumper (possibly fix) and smooth
  • Remove the badges on the rear and smooth boot
  • Move number plate to rear bumper (and number plate lights)
  • Black roof
  • Rustolium paint the car
  • 14" banded steels
  • Subtle sticker bomb in the interior
  • Tint rear windows
  • Coil overs 
  • Clear side repeaters

The car has been claimed by my 5 year old, she wants to help me fix it up.