This isn't your usual VW scene Polo (how low can you go isn't the order of business!) I bought the car as a knackered gearbox, won't crank on the key (had to short two wires under the dash to start it!) slightly tatty project car for the princely sum of 200 Having some space around the back of my garage (which wasn't the most thoughtfully used up) I took the extreme measure of modifying my garden so I could modify a car, turning the area from this: to this: before collecting the car: First order of business was stripping down (the car, not me - you don't want to see that) and getting the gearbox sorted We then got to work removing the seam sealer and seam welding the chassis up, a long and laborious process that involves grazed knuckles, swearing and copious amounts of sweat. The results should be well worth it though: Goodies from all over the UK started to arrive - the biggest (and most expensive) was this one... Unfortunately it wasn't right (being for a 9N polo, introduced in 2002!) so we cracked on with cleaning the interior up, making a fill in plate for the sunroof and getting the car watertight. After some lengthy negotiations with Custom cages, they agreed to take the car and cage, and make it fit, leaving it tacked in place for us to continue welding (for them to do it would be another 1000 on top of what I'd already paid, and my wallet isn't that fat) Former for the sunroof panel (letting me exercise some creative juice in woodwork) Panel beat to shape and tacked in at the front A skim of filler prior to painting (that was an abysmal job - if I do painting, I prefer the "paint by colour" type, numbers confuse me) Painted the interior white (it's going to be white anyway, but I was bored and had nothing else to do, plus it made the car look good prior to going to custom cages) two weeks later (it was supposed to be 1 week) the car came back At around the same time, some more goodies arrived Had a brief sojourn from the polo working on another mates car that needed some tinworm sorting quite badly (S12 Silvia) before getting the Polo back to the workshop for more welding - this time, the roll cage! Step 1: Weld around the A-pillar bars where they join to the main hoop, get as much as you can get at. Cut 4 big holes in the floor and drop the roll cage down, weld the rest! Step 2: Raise the roll cage and weld up the big holes you just cut. Weld in the feet under the cage and weld the cage to the feet: Then it was a case of adding bars and sections, getting them welded into place and snugly fitted Door bars and main hoop cross A lick of primer all over (a 2 hour job on it's own!)
With the roll cage in place, the next job was to make a sump guard. First we decided where it needs to come to - coming all the way up isn't really any good (it obstructs airflow through the rad, doesn't protect the rad) so we made some stays up to come down from the chassis rails. Lugs were added to the subframe for the rear mounts and it will be a very shallow ramped plate with a step up at the front to protect the radiator. Start by creating the frame, and get your plasma cutter out and cut 3mm plate steel to size The tow eye was also welded into the guard on the drivers side Discs and pads weren't too good looking, so EBC Ultimax discs and Greenstuff pads were ordered Inside I've trimmed the dash to fit, got that all mounted up with the wiring loom routed around the car to where it needs to go. I've also run fuel and brake lines inside the car (in some proper conduit) and back to the tank. Installed the regulation FIA master switch (T-pull outside the car needs installing) Discovered the problems with the mysterious non-starting - the switch in the steering column is knackered (it doesn't make the connection when the key is turned to "crank") so I put in a temporary push start button, mounted next to the kill switch Checked the lines for leaks when we primed the fuel system, no smoke escaped from the wires (always a good sign!!!) so we put fluids in the engine, etc, cranked it and she lives again! I did a few local events (clubman events) and then my oh so understanding girlfriend (and navigator!) bought me some Bucket seats for christmas (came in handy when parents came over - extra seats for the dads!) which completed the interior I wasn't happy with ride height, so I had a go at adapting standard shockers and seeing if I could get some extra ground clearance Damping was miles out, but acceptable. Avo's ordered for front and rear - rear tubes in stock, but fronts are to order - I got the rears fitted as soon as they arrived (in time for my first national B event) Car before: Car after: Finally, yesterday, my fronts arrived! for comparison (left to right) Stock, new, modified stock 2 hours spent removing the old ones, removing springs and then transferring them over to the new struts - I just need to get out on track and set them up, but GF's birthday, two events before the next pay day and all the regular bills coming out means I'll probably have to tweak as I go on the road Would love to go to Blyton on the 20th, but I can't afford to do it and do everything else - unless they'll do a discount on the day, might turn up with 50 in my pocket and see what they say!
Heya bud - yep, hoping they're going to do the trick, a bit cheaper than Proflex units (quoted me silly money, this setup is less than 1k!) Hmm, spoke to a few peeps on clubpolo - it's ok, some good people, but I dnt do txt spk mch n cnt unnerstd sum peepl
Knobbly tyres, setup sessions and that's it for this engine. Might try and get hold of a 1.6 16v, cam's and remap and change the gearbox for something a bit better (with a quaife LSD and hopefully sequential straight cut!)
Well, an afternoon at blyton showed up a few problem areas (oil cooling!) and a few positives (Avo's are ace!) although looking at the wear on the tyres, I've got camber issues. I did a rolling road day the Saturday after blyton - massive camber issue! One wheel was about spot on, the other was around 5degrees negative! So today I stripped my wishbones down and fitted some powerflex bushes (a deal from someone on the polo website - 45 for both front wishbone bushes, delivered), reset the balljoint positions (I'd fiddled with them a bit when I rebuilt the car) and then concentrated on getting around 0.5 degrees negative camber on both wheels, wish I'd taken some pictures, but I'll try and explain my method with the primitive tools I had to hand: Step 1) Set ride height - it has an impact on camber, so get that first. I'm using a rally gravel setup (courtesy of vwmotorsport.com - group n setup sheets for the polo as a starting point) so my rideheight is 375mm (measured from centre hub, to the point vertically above, on the bottom of the wheel arch lip) Step 2) Measure camber - several ways of doing this, the one I'm using is a spirit level, faced up to the centre bore of the hub. Step 3) If camber is out, slacken bolts that retain suspension strut to the hub carrier and adjust (I can't remember what stock setups are like, but the Avo's I've got have a slightly slotted hole that allows for a few degrees of adjustment) Repeat step 2 until camber is not out. I knew camber wasn't out when my spirit level bubble was just crossing over the line (its one of those levels that have a horizontal and a vertical measuring component) The powerflex bushes and the correctly set suspension means my car now drives straight! Oh, and the rolling road day gave me a power figure of 110bhp and a nice flat torque line!
well a slight update to the rallying scenario.... I've been doing it a year now and decided to invest in some decent gearbox tools - I can now strip (completely and almost totally non-destructively) the 085 gearboxes down - the only bearing race I had a problem with was the output shaft clutch housing side bearing (pinion bearing) which basically exploded when I was trying to get a splitted in behind it - never mind, it needed replacing anyway! So the car had a duff gearbox when I got it, which I bodged a bearing in to keep it going (at the cost of 36) and that lasted 6 months. I've since acquired 2 more gearboxes, one was "good" but lasted one rally and now sounds like a bag of nails and the other was grinding a bit. With me now having three duff gearboxes, I took apart both of the two out of the car and examined them - one missing some teeth, one needs all it's bearings replacing but otherwise fine - and decided to rebuild them both. I've now completely stripped one down, cleaned out the entire casing (fun) washed all the gears and needle bearings (fortunately serviceable - not perfect, but will do while I rebuild the other two boxes) and replaced all the major bearings with OE parts. I started this afternoon with this and finished this evening with this Had a slight oversite on ordering parts, I didn't get a pair of zero shims for the diff bearings (managed to salvage one, the other is sized and no good for initial assembly) Worked out that I'd need to do this 6-7 times to get my investment back on the tools (working on 300 for a recon gearbox and replacing every single bearing in the gearbox - I could probably have left the diff bearings in and saved 40) and given that two of these are recon gearboxes and haven't lasted too long, I can probably do a better job - might need to start taking orders soon! Two weeks to go before the next one (and there's one the weekend after that as well, so I need this gearbox to last at least three weeks!)
No - the synchros are well within wear limits and there's no sign of play/chatter in any of the rivets. They look like steel and not copper, so I'm inclined to leave them alone - might do it on the next box, but if I've got space on a card, I'll probably stick an LSD in it
Started last night stripping the car to get at the gearbox - the recommended way is to remove the front slam panel and pull it out of the front. I couldn't be bothered, so I removed the sump guard, lifted the car up and removed the exhaust so I could drop it out of the bottom. Overnight parts to finish the gearbox this morning, fill it with oil - it feels smooth as a baby's bottom I finished dropping the gearbox out and got the newly reconditioned box in - as I was on a roll, I got the selection mechanism, the drive shafts, starter motor and all the rest of the gubbins attached. Here's a couple of pics of the removed gearbox and the sump guard - note the amount of mud stuck in there! Exhaust and battery tray to refit and it's time for a test drive
