The Greenland Polo by the brit

11 minute(s) of a 249 minute read

Finished the boost tubes, and vacuum lines. There's one i'm going to tidy up, but otherwise they'll do.

Had a issue with the fuel pump wiring, vdub2625 came through on the phone, got it sorted for now.

And...



Dozens of 'little' things to get done. Throttle cable brackets, clutch cover, boost brackets, wiring etc. I haven't started it since this morning, trying to make it driveable for the next time..

Nothing is simply a bolt on part

Choice of two clutch covers; the small and horribly dirty one is a normal 8v / 16v one that matches the oil pan. It doesn't match the transmission, so no go without welding etc.

The big one matches the transmission and block, but not the oil pan. It's also a reinforcing piece, so I like that part of it. I ended up cutting some pieces off, and then 'clearancing' it (i.e. grinding the hell out of one part of it to thin it down) to clear the different oil pan that I'm running. In the end, it fits like a grinded glove.



Remember that throttle bracket I needed.. here's parts it of:



And after some welding, bending, cleaning, drilling and more welding, it's now in the 'spray booth' i.e. some wire hanging over a bag on my lawn. Pure class.



Less photos and updates for now, sorry.

Working long into the night. Stopping for chinese food right now.

Lots to do still. Car is still on jack stands.



Chinese food now consumed. Left to go:

Some brackets
Some bolts
Fan switch
Exhaust
Rear suspension
Seats
????
Test drive?

Gonna be a late one!

9/24/10

Done for tonight!

Major progress though!





On route 1 in DE. Turbo blew. Awwwwwwwwsome.

Turbo burning water. Ran great before. Going to bypass and keep on trucking! Having fun, and it means the build continues!! Yeehaw.

Not water, turdo (sic) oil seal bad, pumped 1L oil into exhaust. At pepboys buying bolt to seal oil feed line. Fingers crossed.

9/25/10

9 hours and two oil changes worth of oil later... Yes!

Tomorrow I can start to work out what the heck happened. The car drove fantastically otherwise. The non power steering has a great weight and the brakes are perfect. The clutch pedal is still a bit low though.

9/29/10

So I finally made it home, 1.5 days later than expected. The Polo smells terrible with those oil fumes, but hey, it's a nice rust proofing

Current thought is to pull the engine again, clean everything up, replace the turbo, turbo lines, modify the downpipe for a little more clearance, and build custom boost tubes for it. That, or I have a ABF 16v from a mk3 european Golf GTI that I could use if I decide I'm mad enough at the 1.8T - it has roughly the same power output as a stock 1.8 turbo engine..

Originally Posted by Chapel
I'm always amazed that Ross never goes to shows with this stuff
it'd be great advertising for his business
I imported and sold him 'Lorry'. I actually brought it over for my wife, and to try importing first hand, but we sold her (Lorry, from the LOR81Y plate, not my wife) when our dog started a expensive course of chemotherapy after being diagnosed with Lymphoma.

The red 'breadvan' is Lory's replacement. I loved the blue, but the interior in the new one is amazing.

There are three breadvans in the USA that I know of; Ross' two and mine. There is one mk2 hatchback, that was beaten around RI for years and is now at NGPs shop in Maryland. There's a relative bunch of mk1 Polos and derbys (polo sedans) running around - likely 7 or 8 by now. Then there's all those weird cars that never go out, and just sit in a warehouse - i'm convined there's probably one of everything sitting out back in a dealership somewhere Remember that Renault Megane in the northwest? I rest my case.

6/15/11

So..

I've slowly been working on it, a few little things.

I got the missing trim piece for the center of the dashboard, so that's all back together for the first time since I got it.

The two mirrors that I bought to make one has been a PITA though.. That will get rid of that white early style mirror that I was running before at least, but it seems like the factory designed them to be built once and then never messed with again.

Right now the front end is all stripped apart for some engine work:

Just this last week I removed the USA market 1.8T 20v engine, and the wiring that I had put in with it. I have decided (for now) that long term I'm going to reinstall a correct european market 1.9SDI non-turbo diesel, with the stock wiring etc. That's going to take me a little while, as I will likely source the engine from one of my usual places and then get the correct LHD wiring and immob stuff seperately so that I can re-wire the front of the car using 100% stock and uncut wiring. I'm leaving in a few days to load a container of parts in Europe, so I'm sure I'll throw some more in if I can find things that the car needs, although I've got no idea when I'll have time to install a SDI engine if I can find one as summer's going to be pretty busy.

So... in the meantime I want to be able to to drive the car. In my warehouse I had a European market late model Golf 3 GTI 2.0 8v engine, which is somewhat related to the ABA that came in mk3 Golfs here, but without the emission controls etc. I also had all the wiring, immob parts etc to go with it, so in one day I removed the 20vT, it's wiring and the European engine from its engine bay. Ben stopped by to help my place the replacement engine in the bay, and then I finished reinstalling the axles, and found coolant lines that fitted with a mix of mk2 USA 1.8L and Mk3 European 2.0 pipes.

I then got my first taste of wiring in a European immobilizer setup, which went perfectly until I think I reset the immob two nights ago while disconnecting/reconnecting the battery a bunch of times. I still need to hook up the K-Line to be able to Vag-Com the modules. I might get a chance to do that this evening actually.

Lots of typing, no photos, and one video of the car starting a few days ago with no exhaust system at all. Sorry!



6/16/11

Today I learnt that sticking a key immob chip (RFID I presume) to the back of the reader does not allow it to work. I also learnt that while the new engines immob reader may be sitting on the floor of the car, it will still be able to read the old chip for the diesel immob. Which it takes great personal offense to, and shuts itself down like a turtle facing something really big and scary that turtles are terrified of.

After digging the old chip out of the key, installing the reading on the ignition column, putting the new chip in the key, and resetting the hell out of the ECU and immob, everything works correctly again.

I really do have to make sure that I get the immob unit, RFID chip and wiring to match the SDI. The wiring in the car is all there, but it's slightly cut up so I will try to replace it instead of fixing it up.

7/18/11

So the Polo is now running reliably with the 2.0 petrol engine, and should be on the road properly very soon.

Things on the list for this weekend:
Install new non-smashed front bumper
Install missing drivers door trim piece.
State Inspection Test
Work on low-clutch pedal issue - possible bleeding issue?

I'm also now going to try to spend a little time on the body work, specifically the paint.

I've never been a fan of detailing but have always wanted to learn more. I bought a Porter Cable 7424 buffer/polisher with matching yellow/white/blue/orange/black pads, so we'll see how I can get on with the faded red paint. I'm open to tips and pointers!

9/14/11

What I've done recently:

Put different rear coilovers on, based on mk1 Golf instead of mk2 Golf which were too high. Also installed some European market 14" steelies with their trim,which I perfer to the full hubcap versions that should be on the car. I'm going to put a set of alloys on soon enough, so that will not be staying OEM for too long.



Starting trying to clean / cut / polish the paint.. but there's probably hundreds of these stone chips all over the car. I guess it's a side effect of being in Greenland for so long in the weather there?

Here's a fender that hasn't been done next to the hood which has:



Fender and hood 'done'. There's still a LOT of deep swirls and it's not a great job by any means - I think my lack of skill and the general abuse that the paint has taken are the main problems.



Stone chips:



Correct red late style mirror installed, and missing door trim on drivers side installed too:



9/28/10

A friend drove the G.P. down to the H2Oi show in Ocean City, MD this weekend. The car preformed pretty flawlessly. I put some fun/silly wheels on it and lowered the suspension quite a bit more while down there. Before we left PA I spent about half a day with the D/A and a whole bunch of detailing products, and actually I'm pretty happy with how the paint came out.

Not my photos, but here's what was snapped by random other people: