Hello everyone and happy new year!
A lot has happened over the Christmas holidays so bear with me whilst I try and put it in an order which makes sense.
Ok first off, the burgundy mk2f Polo;
We arrived one Saturday morning at the lockup, armed with all the tools and parts we would need for the task in hand, even a haynes manual! (Although this was only used for the torque numbers for the head bolts, these engines are dead easy to work on!)
Unfortunately I have no pictures of the head off, as we decided to keep the intake and injection system hooked up which meant one of us had to hold the head out of the way and the other line up and slot in the gasket, everything went without a hitch, and the little 1.05 litre beast roared into life first turn of the key! After clearing the exhaust and cat it settled and ran like clockwork, brilliant. So we immediately changed the oil and filter and away it went!
After bringing it back home with a massive grin on my face, I ask my girlfriend if she wants to go out for a spin in it, immediately the childish grin was wiped from my face. "It feels like we are in a tin can!" she exclaims, clearly she has forgotten what it was like back when I had the charade, this feels like a tank compared to that!
But the thing is, we are moving in to our first house soon after being together for nearly 7 years, and she wasn't happy with me having 2 unsafe cars (the golf too) so the Polo had to go *cue a massive paddy on my front* Luckily I was able to pick up a Mazda 6 estate diesel on the cheap local to me, spares or repair due to a running issue, which was promptly (Accidentally) repaired by myself after taking the fuel rail pressure sensor out, and replacing it upside down(?!) Anyway it seems to run fine now, enough of that, its not retro enough for this thread!
So the Polo went up for sale on this very forum, along with club polo. And after some market research and apt re-pricing it sold quickly to someone who travelled all the way up from Kent to collect it, que one happy new owner and one slightly forlorn Michael. But such is life, here are a few pictures I took in the last couple of days I owned it, and one of it being driven away by the new owner!
And there she goes!
Moving on, the Golf,
Now the score with the Golf was, it failed MOT a while back requiring welding to both sills, and new brake flexi lines, along with rear brake cylinders. We replaced the cylinders, both headlamps, the throttle cable, and removed the body kit off to inspect the damage. The car then sat for a while due to the weather and the fact that my good friend Lawrence, also had to get his mk2 Gti sorted too!
A quick pic to show the extent of his restoration project, coming along nicely, but I am sure you can understand why my golf has been on hold for a while.
So to take the load off him and clear up some space in his parents back garden, I booked the golf in at my favourite local garage to get the work done, only issue is. This was in the way...
Not a great picture but this is Lawrence's girlfriend's ex car, and one I too previously owned, a '99 VW Polo 1.9D, unfortunately as reliable as it proved to be, the old tin worm got in and destroyed the sills along with some other structural things, so it was replaced with the Passat Tdi which you can see earlier in the thread! The Polo had been partially stripped including its alarm system so we couldn't get it to run, hence towing it out with the mighty Mazda.
Unfortunately after towing it out of the way and getting the golf out, we couldn't push the polo up the embankment to get it back behind the gates, so stupidly I suggested putting a sheet between the Mazda and it, and pushing it back into the garden. Que some awful noises and me stopping short. I should have known this wasn't going to end well...
Difficult to see due to how filthy the Mazda is, but the boot is nicely creased and scratched, all due to poor planning and rushing to get the golf to the garage in time, ah well, could be worse...
Got the golf started... eventually. And drove it roughly half a mile to the garage where it was dropped off and left for them to work their magic!
A couple of days later I receive a phone call from the garage, all work has been completed and the car now has a valid MOT for the first time in 13 years! I can't believe it, no advisories too! I picked it up yesterday evening and drove it to my parents house where it will be living for the next week and a half until it moves in with us at our first place! Exciting times!
There will probably be no more updates until we move in to the new place, as there is a lot of preparation and planning going on, they don't teach you how to prepare for moving in to your own place in school! Wish us luck!
P.s - After moving in it will be time to strip down the carb, rebuild it AGAIN, and renew the ignition system. I also need to get a move on with some of the newer stuff in the lockup to sell them on, Yawn.
