UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

dubpolo wrote:there not that bad! i think if it comes to welding you may as well buy a new set!

OK - the alternative is to get yourself a set of steelies cheap from a breakers and do it youself or bring the spare into play (cheapskate method) and do it a wheel at a time or buy one spare steelie and do em one at a time

Heres the method

Depends on the starting surface finish but as a general rule most surfaces tend to be painted or coated to start with.....

Strip the tyres of the rims (need a tyre place that's friendly and will store your tyre(s) cut the tyre valve out so it doesn't get in the way.......

Strip the centres out and get em shot blasted (£40 tops) and wet paint yourself - filler primer, sand and then primmer and top coat followed by laquer

Rims

1st Paint strip and degrease

2nd Coarse wet and dry - 200 or 400 for really badly kerbed - use with care

3rd Depending on the existing smoothness of the surface I select a grade of wet and dry (typically 600) and get to work flatting it down - switching to a finner grade (typically 1000 although sometimes I have to do a bit of 800 work first)

4th Get the buffing wheels and compound bars out (a kit on the net can be got for about £20) - I tend to use just green for alloy and buff away using min compound

5th Buff up using soft cloth to check for any areas that need further attention (go back to 2nd or 3rd stages as required)

6th Solvol Autosol (£4 a tube) on a buffing wheel

Last thing Brasso or t-cut to finish - laquer if you must but degrease again before if you do

It all sounds long winded but the trick is to maximise the buffing wheel time and minimise the use of wet and dry (the boring bit!!!)

Just seen the end result, and I love it. White car, black/polished BBS's... Sweet!

Just one thing;

You *must* get coilovers. That's all.

Speedlaw wrote:Just seen the end result, and I love it. White car, black/polished BBS's... Sweet!

Just one thing;

You *must* get coilovers. That's all.

Praise indeed - from someone with IMHO a very sweet car........

Coilovers - out of my budget till 2006 (major expense on the Lotus next year so the Polo will get fuel and servicing but thats it.....) - I'll drop it a bit on lowering springs this year if I get a cheap set of 30-40mm dropped springs anything more will have to wait

I've got a few cars so tend to concentrate on one till it's how I want and then just keep it up to scratch, then move to another and get that one up to scratch - 2005 I have to get the Lotus sorted and it's big bills for clutch, brakes, de-cat pipes and paintwork

coilovers are around £500 i believe for the mk4/5

carmadaaron wrote:coilovers are around £500 i believe for the mk4/5

I figured around that figure......

The bills for the work on my Lotus will be £2000 plus so 2006 looks favorite for coilovers - Hopefully I'll be looking for a 6n2 GTi then so I'll suffer just lowered on springs and spend the money on coilovers for a GTi

Black GTi should look quite tidy on my newly refurbed rims

bstardchild wrote:Black GTi should look quite tidy on my newly refurbed rims

You know what? I wanna see how that'd look, so I'll have a few minutes photoshopping tonight

But going back to refurbs, it seems if you want to pay a reputable company to sort them for you its about £300 ish, with most companies being in the South or South-West

Next year, February/March time, I will be having my wheels refurbed, in either black chrome or uber-shiny titanium (chrome finish without the chrome vulnerability) centres and polished rims. I'll be getting mine done in Wolverhampton, about 30 miles from where I live, where a set of replacement alloys will be bolted onto my car for a week whilst they split and strip my wheels down and rebuild them with a better more durable finish

FYI the company itself is called A1 Renovations, they don't have a website but I can provide contact details. I was quoted £75 per alloy for the work I described above, hence £300 for the lot. If I weren't going on holiday in January I'd have had them done by now...

Cheers

Speedlaw

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 2492850635

It'll have to be just springs for the moment won for £21 on Ebay...... That I can afford to do

thats a start!!! now black rear clusters or MK5 red ones

dubpolo wrote:thats a start!!! now black rear clusters or MK5 red ones

Cheers dubpolo

If I ever finish sorting the arrangements with VW 6n it'll be red ones - but we will get there in the end - looks like I've got to drive 200 miles to get em.......

where are they? if there closer to me ill go and get them and post them to you!

dubpolo wrote:where are they? if there closer to me ill go and get them and post them to you!

Bit too far south for you mate - thanks for the offer tho.....

We do that sort of thing in the other club I'm active in if it's too far and then sort it out when we meet up at a show.....

If anyone find anything in Norfolk Suffolk Cambs on ebay or for sale here I'm always happy to help out if I can

decided to do a quick photoshop with ur viper stripes, crap but u get a rough idea ...

LJ_87 wrote:decided to do a quick photoshop with ur viper stripes, crap but u get a rough idea ...

LOL - Love the stripes - bit darker next time please nice 'shopping

Ride Height - way way to low - I'd have trouble getting it off my drive let alone over any of the sleeping policemen round here - but half way would be bearable..

Thanks for making an effort to do that

PS can you stick the bump strips back on before I get any parking dents

With regards to the idea of black bbs alloys on a black GTi...



Bit of a poor photoshop as the car was in slightly dark conditions, but you kind of get the idea after a bit of fade correction on the original image, I guess. Looks a bit Knight Rider haha...

I'll play about with some new images when I next take photos of the car - should have been last night but by the time I'd gotten back from work, gotten changed and washed the car, it was going dark again

well how much do ur springs lower ur car? (thats a v good price btw!)

black with black alloys look stealthy