1982 VW Polo Breadvan... Noob alert!

[jason13]

Hey! I thought I'd share with everyone my VW Polo "project".

But firstly I'd like to point out that I am a complete novice at anything mechanical, in fact the only thing I have ever managed to change on a car is a wheel. Hopefully through trial and error plus guides on t'interweb I'll come out the other end with at least a car I can weigh in . So this will be one hell of a baptism of fire!

Anyway, the car...

It's a 1982 VW Polo C Formel E, according to "mycarcheck", 85k miles (I think the milometer has recently died though) and it is my daily driver.



I've got loads of asthetical (is that a word?) ideas for the little breadvan, I won't divulge any of my ideas just yet as I tend to change my mind more than my socks!

Wish me luck!

[retrowagen1234]

Black!! And a formal E !! With the 1100 engine and not the 1300 !! Thats a RARE car!

[Deleted]

I'll say, I wish mine was black to start with! It's likely you'll run into the same problems I have mechanically, and Retrowagen knows his stuff with Polos as does Mk2PoloBloke (another RR'r).

Here's my little packmule, I call him Wilhelm. He helped me move house recently even with an overheating problem and a gearbox with not enough oil in it. Properly tough little cars that benefit hugely from a tap with the lowering stick.

[mk2moo]

Looks a tidy car. I had one about a year ago but sold it to get a scirocco.
Get it dropped on some lovely wheels and it transforms them straight away.

[mattmk1]

Your in the right place approximately a year ago, I had never even changed the oil... now I'm stripping down car two, nice car I wouldn't mind one actually

[jason13]

I love the chrome bits Volksangel, I was looking at some similar wing mirrors on eBay. I've yet to name mine though haha!

retrowagon, after a quick look on howmanyleft.com I've seen that there's currently only 10 formel E's from 1982 on the road at the minute. Wasn't aware that this particular model was as rare as it is.

Anyway, I've just had a rather pleasant 70 mile round trip to the mothers and I've been informed that her other half has a handful of mk2 polo's, a couple of which are breadvans that he's had stored up for stock car racing. So I've been offered any parts I may want or need. Result.

Next week I'll hopefully have some Polo coupe S alloy wheels and if I'm able to sell my other car I'll be able to get some decent coilovers (any suggestions?).

[retrowagen1234]

Coilovers are expensive for these, If I was you id just drop it on a set of lowering springs and shocks. Easy to do that way.


The reason coilovers are expensive is the hub is part of the strut... Last time I even checked , spax wanted £500+ for a pair!!
For cheap parts like lowering kits, Go on www.clubpolo.co.uk and look at jackson tuning section on there, Thats PHIL-J (hes on here too) He can supply what ya need and it realy wont break the bank


As for how many left, That 10formal E's doesnt supprise me... Hopefully one of em is my old spearmint green one.... But yours.... BLACK!! rare as a rare thing...

[Deleted]

I'm on Gmax suspension, got it second hand off RR I think from Mk2polobloke (could be wrong, sorry if I am!) and it's been a fantastic set up. I've been told by numerous people that the Phil J kit is a bit hard compared to the Gmax set up. The mirrors I've got are listed usually as 'Ital style' for some reason, be aware that if you wing mount them like I have the passenger one is mostly obscured by the wiper on that side. If you stick them on the doors you won't get this problem.

[foxy99]

This is getting scary: 10 1982 Formel E's left on road!!

I have an unusual Vauxhall Royale and there are apparently only 8 of them left on road but I assumed there were hundreds, if not thousands, of Mk2 Polos of every year and engine size left.

I have a 1982 bready which was factory black and I have re-sprayed it black too but it is the more common 1043cc model. Surely there are loads of these left?

I always wanted to try one of the '1100' engined (HH, HB) models to see if it was much different from the '1050' engined (GL) ones. I've had 3 of them and always thought it was strange they produced another with such a small difference in cc to be sold alongside.


my 1043cc Mk2 Polo C

[MatsOldCars]

nice polo, it looks really smart from that pic, look after it!
my mk2's a formel e, only an 83 and mars red.
more pics please!

[jason13]

I've had a quick look at prices for coilovers and they are rather expensive, I'll pop over to the clubpolo.co.uk and check out the stuff on there! Thanks for the tip.

How low have you dropped yours, Volksangel? My old BMW e36 was dropped quite a bit and didn't have too many problems with it, I just had to avoid multi storey car parks! I had gotten used to the fairly harsh ride as well so that won't be a problem

After all of the discussion about how rare these little cars are, I saw a White one around my way earlier today!

Anyway, roll on the weekend, hopefully I'll have some actual progress to show you all. I'll have some decent pictures up then ;D


A picture of the day I bought her!

[dubloon]

looks nice i too wish mine was black but aparently i got a rare colour though
heres my formel e 83 year though and i also know where there are 2 more about 5 miles from my house lol not sure on the years though

and a lil photoshop i had done

sadly its going friday as i just have no use for a car and being unemployed is starting to hit the bank

[Deleted]

I'm on 60/40, but I'm more about aesthetic lows than low-lows and I've seen others go 90/80 on the Breadvans with some rear arch bashing.

[foxy99]

Hi Jason

Any pics of your tailgate?

Reason I ask is that your car looks totally original and has the plastic B post trim and slightly higher spec wheel trims that the C model doesn't have.

Is yours a CL as well as being a Formel E?

[MatsOldCars]

Sept 12, 2011 23:18:16 GMT jason13 said:

After all of the discussion about how rare these little cars are, I saw a White one around my way earlier today!

mk2 polos are rare these days, however not amazingly rare in general. However the majority (atleast I find) are the late spec ones, 89/90. Yours is particularly rare because;
1) its an 82 which was when they were first on the market (EDIT: they were lanched in 81, but the earliest i've seen are 82's)
2)its a formel e model which only ran for a few years
3) its black, I havn't seen another original black mk2 bready, let alone an 82 formel e

great choice of car to learn mechanics with too, they're so simple! and no ecu's to mess around with.

[brycewilson]

heres a pic of mine.

[foxy99]

They are great little cars but I had a hell of a lot of trouble with the idling on the three 1043cc GL engine cars I had ('82 Y reg, '83 A reg & '84 B reg) and only ever heard idle perfect idle once when I had slightly wrong carb on one of them.

I rebuilt mine car a few years ago and have never used it as it handled awful with the 15" wheels and again wouldn't idle well but I am determined to get it on the road again and found a brand new carb of the exact right type on Ebay in Germany so may fulfill the dream one day


brand new Solex 31 PIC(T) 7

[jason13]

I haven't contributed to this at all as I'm still trying to sell the BMW to fund anything, but having since come into a handy wedge of sorts I think it's about time I ordered some parts and spent a bit of cash on the poor thing.

I don't think it enjoys the 5 mile of dual carriageway I have to take to get to work every day. Recently the car has developed a slight problem, I'm not mechanically minded so I'll try describe the condition best I can... Anyway, after starting up the car after it has been sat for a while (over night) it splutters into life, so I wait for it to warm up a bit and all seems fine, until I drive off. There's a lot of popping and banging from the exhaust and the car jolts forward, it's all a bit comical if you were to see it. Not so funny from inside the car, it's all a bit "carry on". This was earlier today so it's only something that's happened recently, so I got the car back home eventually, turned the ignition off, left it for about 15 minutes, started it up and all seemed fine again. No spluttering, banging, popping, jolting or whatever.

Is there anything I can do to solve this or figure out what the problem is?

Anywho, I've recently acquired a set of Teardrops, three of which were painted black, two of those were painted red previously and the other was green!


That's two of them ^

The tyres seem huge and after a trial fitting the rear tyres are actually touching the suspension, so I'm thinking new, lower profile tyres are needed, maybe small spacers. I'll have to get some expert advice. The wheels don't do anything for the ride height either!



So for now I've managed to get all the paint off the wheels and I'm just waiting on some bevel discs and polishing gear for my brand spanking new £13 angle grinder and hopefully I'll have some super shiny wheels!

I'm currently on the look out for some lowering springs and shocks, I've seen the ones priced up on eBay at about £119 but I'm a bit wary of buying those. I've tried tracking down that PhilJ guy about the ones he can supply but he seem about as allusive as an old mondeo without duct tape holding it's bumpers together.

[Deleted]

From what I've read, the PhilJ kit is great if you don't mind a hard ride. I'm on a set of Gmax and it feels quite comfortable compared to other lowered stuff I've ridden in. I'm told Spax is another good brand for smaller cars too.

I can't offer expert advice on the starting issue, but it might be worth having a look at your spark plugs and points to check they're healthy, starting with the easy stuff first is always a good idea. These cars don't like the cold and the damp so much, but once they get up to temperature they seem a lot happier.

[Thrasher]

Rare car mate, look after it !

You might find those rims will rub on the rear arches with some mates in the back ! :-o

Have a good MH 1300 engine here if you wanna go a bit faster. :-D