Joe's Gti Progress Thread- Leaky

[joe2612]

Had to join the club really...

[Aquavalver]

Hi Mate, i did mine with Halfords high temp paint a few years ago, in terms of cleaning, i use bilberry wheel cleaner with a wheel brush that looks like a thick paint brush. It fits nicely between the spokes and you and manoeuvre it around to froth the cleaner .

Has the paint held up well? Any peeling/flaking or chipping? Did you get all the paint off before to bare metal, or did just just get all the loose/flaky paint off?

[joe2612]

Nope still going strong, the advantage of using halfords high temp is you can really slap it on without too much prep work, i did about 2- 3 coats after some light sanding. It's seriously tough stuff!

[joe2612]

Not much change really i'm afraid! I fitted a new aux belt yesterday as mine was sounding like a castrated mouse. If anyone will be doing this in the future, as you release the automatic tensioner, two small holes line up that you can slot an allen key into. Saves you trying to fit the belt whilst holding the tensioner at the same time. Handy

I guess over the summer i'll be detailing the car again, just a general tidy up of the body work. I'm still wanting a change of seats. My originals have been nibbled whilst in storage which is a massive pain.

MOT on saturday

[joe2612]

MOT passed! Only a few minor advisories, first of all one of which I've noticed since I put the 16s on is the perishing of the outside edge of the front tyres. Is this an an alignment problem or due to the age of the tyres? They still have plenty of tread though....



Also attacked the the headlights with some 2000 grit. Came up very well!

Before:

After:




Also my lower grill made a bid for freedom a few weeks back. VW want £38 for a new one!! If anyone knows/ or has one going spare i'd really appreciate it!

[alexperkins]

The toyos and continentals notably in this size often start to crack on the edges as they get older. It's nothing to worry about though

As for the grille they are rare to come by with all the clips intact - I would personally bite the bullet and get one from vw before they become discontinued.

[joe2612]

Ah okay , thats reassuring Alex thanks. I Should be able to get one through TPS luckily which should save some ££. Just feel very hard done by paying such a high price for some plastic lol!

[alexperkins]

I paid £54 the other week for the moulded insert for the 6R boot - believe me...£38 for a grille is cheap by comparison!

Youll get 8% off as a minimum at TPS so a small saving nonetheless

[6N2 GTI 00]

Wheels look great fitted Joe glad they have gone to a good home, they are perfect for the GTI

As Alex said it's quite common for the T1R's to crack on the outer edge, it is just age related but won't cause you any problems.
3 of the tyres were purchased in 2010 whereas the other tyre was brand new.

What other plans have you got for the GTI?

[joe2612]

Thanks ben yeah I can relax about it now and not worry , well Short term I need to replace the grill. Also having an aircon recharge next Saturday. Other than that not any big plans... nothing exciting anyway:(

[joe2612]

Tell a lie to the above post...... big surprise coming soon.....


In the meantime i did some bumper touch up work. This nasty scrape was done by the previous owner. Touch up pen, wet and dry and a DA.





And after..

[Endi_GTI]

looks great Joe. good effort

[joe2612]

So been a busy past few weeks! First things first :

S3 recaros anyone?







Haven't had to modify any parts of the car, just the Recaro subframe itself and a custom bracket for fixing the subfame to the original polo front mount. They are sooooooooooo comfy and in great condition considering what i paid for them. The rears are in too



Front bracket :



Rear leg cut and re-welded to fit polo runners:




Have also downgraded some might say to shock and spring set-up. Mainly due to comfort and wanting to try something different! Also fixed the wobbly suspension noise i've been plagued with for 2 years - turns out the top mount bolts weren't exactly aligned properly. I DIY'd the camber setup using spirit level and string to give a few degrees of negative camber for a bit more grip round the corners than before.

Made a trip to TPS for some service items, the usual oil filter, pollen filter and air filter.



Comments welcome

[Endi_GTI]

Looks really nice Joe, can't wait to sit in them

[joe2612]

Thanks Matt,

Quick shot i took in work carpark this morning, giving an idea of ride height ( 40mm). I think the camber might be a little extremem at the moment. It certainly handles very nicely though.