Polo G40 1,2+3

[sleag40]

The story behind this car is an unusual one. This car and two (maybe three) others were shipped out to Malaysia in the early nineties. They sat around unused and unregistered (presumably outdoors by the state of that battery tray!) until late 1998/1999 when they were acquired by a company called Corner Park Garage in Wales. This car had a SVA test in February 1999 and was registered on March 1st 1999. It was sold to it's first owners on March 30th and they used it until some time in 2006 clocking up 53k miles. I assume it was taken off the road due to the battery tray, and was laid up until some time in 2010 when I think it was sold to its next owner (never registered in second owner's name!) It had some work done (all receipts are present from both owners) and was MOT'd in December 2010 but was never used. The guy ended up emigrating to Australia and left the car with his brother who didn't really want it. This was the lad I bought it from.
So, in the 21 years since it was built it had only actually been in use for seven years. This would explain the fantastic condition of the sills and arches.
There are two other T registered G40s, a Montana green one down in Southampton and a black one in the Mansfield area. Both have circa 100k miles on them. There is rumoured to be a fourth one on an S plate but never found out anything about it.
This car and the green car (probably the black one too) came with an odd specification - metric speedos converted by the importer to read as MPH with a reduction gear in the cable. They were fitted with LHD seats - the passenger seats were height adjustable but not the driver's (!) They didn't have cig lighters fitted, and they didn't have the passenger grab handle above the door like a UK one does.

Pic of service book sticker and last tax disc -



MOT'd it as soon as the V5c came back. Needed a master cylinder and a brake strip/clean/rebuild to get the brakes up to par. All four tyres were perished so I had the wheels refurbed before fitting the new tyres. It only failed on the front brake flexy hoses but I had some braided ones in my parts stash so it was a cheap and easy fix.
Had a good look underneath while it was up in the air too.

Brake lines and compensator not corroded -



Engine looked pretty good underneath -



Gear selector shaft seal was leaking - piece of curse word to sort that though -



Did more miles that day than in the last 7 years! -



Did a few miles pootling around town before its first proper trip for a long time - GTI Festival at Santa Pod on October 13th. curse word it down all weekend!



270 mile trip and it never missed a beat!

[polo6n1600i]

I really enjoyed my 4 years of G40 ownership - nice to still see that the G40's are a coveted car!
Shame about the Black one - was the subframe reused, or was it bent?

[sleag40]

Jan 29, 2015 14:35:59 GMT polo6n1600i said:

I really enjoyed my 4 years of G40 ownership - nice to still see that the G40's are a coveted car!
Shame about the Black one - was the subframe reused, or was it bent?

The black car seemed to bend around the subframe! I stripped the paint off it to check the welds hadn't cracked - all was in good order so it was offered up to the grey one. Fitted perfectly so clearly not distorted. The bloke that makes them said they were strong!

[sleag40]

Drove it occasionally for the next few months, clocking up about a thousand miles or so. Only work done so far was fitting a new fuel pump as the one it came with was noisy. Really enjoy driving this car, its nice and smooth and really comfortable and quiet compared to my modified one. Properly pleased with it - but wanted it to look nice close up!

A few shots of it before restoration commenced -

[sleag40]

One fine day in May 2014 I decided to get stuck into fettling it. I'd done a thousand miles or so since buying it and with the better weather came a bit of enthusiasm!

Got to work stripping out the interior.



All the carpet underlay had turned to brown dust!



Now the dash was out the full horror of the battery tray is revealed.



Time to get stuck in!

[sleag40]

Stuck the drivers seat back in and drove the car to my unit so rain wouldn't stop play -



Then bought a cheap donor car with a good battery tray to harvest -



Started stripping prior to cutting -



Massive chopping session complete with a couple of blim burns to the face and -

[sleag40]

This was what we wanted -



Started unpicking all the spot welds holding it together -



And was finally left with this piece to go into the blue one -



Managed to sell a load of parts off it a couple of days later which more than paid for the cost of the car!

[sleag40]

Chiselled out the fibreglass/sheet steel/seam sealer "repair" and was left with a big hole - not as big as the one in the donor car though!





I reckon it spent a long time (6-7 years?) sat outside with the passenger side lower down so the water couldn't drain out, never seen one as bad as that before. Somebody must have got very wet feet at some point!

[sleag40]

Removing what was left of the original battery tray - just the back wall left to come out here.



And donor piece welded in







And a small repair to the slightly poxy drain hole -



Once POR15'd and seam sealed should be a good bodge free repair - and the battery'll fit too!

[sleag40]

The next round of fettling was a tedious one - all rubber sealant, wax and chod on the inner wings was scraped off - I wanted to make sure there was no hidden car pox -







Followed by stripping everything out to get the engine ready for removal -



And a bit more stripping whilst I waited for the engine crane to come back!

[sleag40]

Sills were ground back to bare metal - no surprises were found! - and hit with POR15-




As was the battery tray -



Then inner wings -

[sleag40]

There were a few spots of surface rust in the engine bay - some from under the seam sealer - so it all had to come off (sucker for punishment)







Any surface rust found was ground back then it was hit with the grey stuff -

[cavboy80]

A very interesting resto on a late date survivor, nice to see it being done correctly too.

[sleag40]

Jan 29, 2015 20:35:06 GMT cavboy80 said:

A very interesting resto on a late date survivor, nice to see it being done correctly too.

Cheers, much appreciated!

Cleaned up the wings and treated a little bit of surface rust on the edges that bolt to the a-pillars -



Then replaced all the seam sealer I removed looking for manky bits -





Was really coming along now!

[sleag40]

Slam panel next up for treatment - dirt and wax removed and any rusty bits ground back before POR15 application -





Engine bay was painted next -





Fresh paint can't be beaten as a motivational aid!

[Fungus]

Looking great, is that Windsor Blue? My mate has one in the same, I've always thought it was the best colour for mk2f's.

What did you use to flat the engine bay with? Or was it all bare-metalled? Engine bay is next on the list for my Mk2.

[sleag40]

Jan 29, 2015 22:49:52 GMT Fungus said:

Looking great, is that Windsor Blue? My mate has one in the same, I've always thought it was the best colour for mk2f's.

What did you use to flat the engine bay with? Or was it all bare-metalled? Engine bay is next on the list for my Mk2.

Yes mate its Windsor blue. Parts of the engine bay were bare metalled with a cup brush, the rest was wet and dry'ed with a DA and by hand.

[sleag40]

Cleaned and painted legs,ARB,driveshafts,brake servo,steering arms etc -

[sleag40]

Started putting all the cleaned and painted parts back in the engine bay -



Fitted wishbones and ARB then stone chipped the inner wings and sills -



Fitted the brakes and suspension legs -



Threw some steelies on and it was rolling again! -

[sleag40]

Started reorganising all my stuff to get started on the engine.



One filthy gearbox - check out the little reduction gear that makes the factory fitted metric speedo read as mph.



One filthy charger - this was supposed to have been rebuilt in 2010 with a receipt too - its never been off the car though!