skoda_cat

It's not raining today, weird. Dropped the tail gate off because it's trying to blow out on the bottom edge and I don't want that to get worse, also will be WAY easier to repair off the truck. This gets us further away from MOT of course, because now I don't have a rear licence plate. Got some of the middle structure welded back in, so there's SOME strength in this back end of the sill. I'm not going to post a picture of what happened to my shoulder and neck, but molten steel is VERY hot and goes quite a long way into your skin, doesn't it? My bacon smells overdone, I think these tracks are going to be in my skin forever. I was wearing full overalls, welding mask, cap, and gloves; but the molten trickles are cleverer than me, I got got. sad face emoji. not to let that drama get the better of me I've started work on closing panels for the outer sill: I'll hold off welding that till I've made the one for the other side. Then it's just plating the inside of the arch and building a return for the end of the sill. I should be able to get my jack stand under THIS bit then, and repair the larger but simpler section which I can't get at right now because the stand is in the way. I'm happy to be making a bit of progress again anyway.

i hardly understand any of this, my tailgate is rotting and i want to cry. what's the checkerplate deck doing for you? it's interesting.

I've not given up, but I have slowed down, I bet none of you noticed. But I've jacked it up twice as high and it's WAY easier to get under now, my neighbour also loaned me a wheely sled thing which makes scooting in and out easier. Hopefully I can actually get in and rebuild some sill in the next few weeks. I'm feeling like I can make some progress again.

I got a dh100ix a week or two back and it came with a dmp3a. They’re now cabled together and I’ve got a 128GB MSATA SSD in the dmp3a which sends the music and metadata to the dh100ix It sounds really really good. My only sadness is that I don’t have the dmp3c (compact) that you can slide into the dh100ix behind the flip down front. If anyone has one lying around I have pennies… I wonder if anyone from this thread is still on the forum

It's kicking my ass. I've got the brake pipe unions apart, that's the easiest bit. I need to get the fuel tank out to access the axle bolt heads, and to drop the tank the handbrake needs to come out. I've got ONE of the bolts out from the top, but the other is STUUUUCCCKKK, and i believe i need to undo nuts on the bottom of the back pair, but they're fully SLATHERED in thick rubber underseal, sob. I thought I could get this thing done in a day, but I'm three days in and achieved NOTHING. Hahahahaha. I did get an impact gun drrrrrrr thing which is super fun, but hells the rains of rust.

Woohoo, this lot should help hide some crimes and make some repairs look a bit more professional for the MOT man. No doubt it will take me another year to get all this welded in, but it feels like a step towards road legality all the same.

I've got a load of repair panels paid for which should hopefully ship on weds, should be enough to get an MOT on this rotten mess. Best bit, they CAN get a bed repair and brand new tailgate protector using https://matkoakubko.com/ which I will be doing as a celebration the same week that the truck gets an MOT. Is this the year it happens?! Frogparts so far seem INCREDIBLE.

Awwww, they'll post seemingly ANYTHING to me except the gold-dust truck bed floor. I might actually have a go on a driving holiday to the czech republic, hahahahaha.

Why did none of you tell me about frogparts? Am I going to get beaten to **** on import duty?

I had to use this inappropriate hammer to SMACK this lifting cup out of the hole it was rusted into with copious penetrating oil. But with some light polishing and some lithium grease it spins like a top now, woo. It won't stop raining so I can't welllldddddddd. That's not even my jack, it's just on permanent loan. at least I get to restore SOMETHING.

sadly for you. Good luck with your explorations.

Yeh, as you face the front of the car, with the bonnet open obviously, the drain is at the right hand side of the block at the bottom of the cooling jacket around the cylinders. It just looks like a bolt, it’s probably easier to SEE from under the car but only if you have the deflector plate removed but if you fumble around under there you’ll find something like a bolt head, because it’s a bolt :p The channel inside goes in pretty deep, I had a wee rummage inside and a lot of snot eventually came out, followed by all the water I’d put in. There’s pictures of it somewhere in this thread (page 2, it’s just under the valve cover plate) I recall thinking it was on the bottom of the engine but it’s on the front, the engine leans slightly forwards I think though. Good luck. For the thread: the polo passed mot, no advisories.

entropy is such an arse, I've been welding on the polo for it's mot.

Normal brake fluid colour? Smells a bit dark. The whole lot is going to get drained for fresh. It old.

Well, that's torn it. I think it's the humidity but in the time it took me to get vise grips on the flexy hex and crack that flare my hands were DONE. But this is cool, now I've done one and the 'fluid' is falling out I feel like I'm just a paint marker, a couple of flare fittings, and 3 bolts away from getting the axle out! I really need to park this and finish my solar panel frame because all the wood bits are in the middle of my garage and I'm going to break a leg climbing over them.

I tried to crack a line at the back but my spanners are too crap, after work I went and picked up a couple of 'correct ones' that wrap further round and just have a slit so you can get them over the brake line. I took the cap off the master cylinder in prep to let the system drain (the fluid is decades old) and found that someone had popped the level sensor thingy out of the cap so it was actually open to the air all this time, hygroscopically poisoning the fluid. I've managed to pop that back in so it'll be ok for the future when it has fresh juice. Later on I was watching a bit of old telly and felt a bit seen:

Yay, I found out what the thing with 4 pipes in it is, it's the brake bias thing, so when heavy stuff goes in the back a spring presses a piston and puts more braking on the rear. I need to paint mark it before I disconnect it because it's calibrated. That's awesome, one less thing to panic me about dropping the axle. I'm now wondering if it's axle out first or tank out first because I THINK the brake line goes up over the tank. I need to spend more time under there with a big torch.

The flats on the top of the shocks are very narrow so hard to get a good grip on to oppose the nut. I tried penetrant, fire, penetrant, ice spray, fire, and violence which achieved nothing. So I had a go at the other end with an entirely normal arrangement of bars. Both sides have had that nut wound off, and if I lightly jack the axle (which maybe I can spell) then the bolt will come out. I've left both bolts in for now because I've not worked out how to drop the axle and I don't want it hanging all the weight on the torsion bar nonsense. This image currently has me beat: We've got two wheels at the back and a feed from the front which should lead to 3 connections for brakes. We have 4, whyyyyyyyyy. One of the hoses loops down to the lower junction for the flexy you can see which loops over to the wheel on the right of the image. Another hose goes up over the tank and vanishes, apparently reappearing a way down the beam where it goes though a flexy for some reason and then hardlines all the way to the wheel in the left hand side of the picture. If I undo the union between the flexy and hardline right in the middle of the photo then the right hand (in the image) wheel will be disconnected from the brake system but the left hand one won't and I can't yet figure out what to undo to liberate it :/ I have not put any spanners on the main bolts that attach the axle to the chassis. I'll get there.

They are. tum te tum, choices... I might see what dingbro have. https://www.autodoc.co.uk/car-parts/shock-absorber-10221/skoda/felicia/felicia-i-fun-797/11187-1-3?criteria%5B100%5D%5B%5D=VA

I popped off the rubber cap from the RH top mount (which split, yay) and found this underneath. I've poked at it a bit with a screw driver and I THINK there's a nut in there somewhere. After more digging and a bit of wire wheel, there may even be a suggestion of THREADS! I'm sure the LHS will be in much better condition... Sort of possibly saveable... They're soaking in some de-blocker xl (idk) very expensive penetrant stuff now. I did stick a 17mm socket on one and give it a wiggle, but obviously it's all rubber mounted.. I think there's supposed to be flats on the top of the post so I'll try and clean them up, I expect we put a wrench on that flat and one on the nut and oppose them to back the nut off. Off to youtube to find out. I'm wondering if I should get new shock absorbers for this or explore going straight to coil overs... I'm not sure how much space there is in those towers. Probably just new shocks so it rides nice and standard. I don't really want to have to go specialist insurance for this thing.

Ok, it snowed last night and was freezing this morning but it wasn't actually RAINING so the car got seen momentarily. No great shakes, but plans need to be made. I build another wee plate to avoid crushing the sill lip ridge thingy at the bottom and jacked the other side of its bum in the air The jack my neighbour has perma-loaned me is SOOOOOOO nice to use. It's mostly brake I think that are going to be the hassle, like what the hell is THIS mess? Some kind of proportioning system? I THINK these two chunky lads running under the tank are the handbrake, but I can follow them back and see where they go, I hoped I can get them off at the front and and bring them out with the axle. So I think I will undo the tops of the suspension, crack these bolts holding the axel to to the chassis, figure out where there brakes split and drain them, then hopefully the whole rear axel, brakes, hubs and suspension should be able to wriggle out from underneath. Then we can get the tank and filler out and get to fixing up the sill rears and anything under the bed that needs love. I'm SO happy to have laid hands back on this thing. I also stuck the GSXR on the battery tender, because it's almost time for that insanity to start back up.

It being nearly spring and whatnot (in my dreams at least) I've been reading the HBoL about removing my rear suspension stuff. The book is probably talking about the car not the truck and I don't know if they actually share a rear axle or not but the PRINCIPLES will be the same regardless. Getting to the point, it contains gems like: Is there anything magic about these nuts or are they the ones with a sort of oval section somewhere in them so that they JAM when screwed in, removing them releases the jam and they become normal nuts sort of thing? I'm wondering what I can replace them with and where I might source them if I need 'the right magic nuts'. Are any of you in the know? I need to make another spreader plate for my other axle stand and get the other side of the rear off the ground and then I can get on with removing the suspension in prep for welding up the everything. This truck is going back on the road in 2026 I SWEAR (and I will swear if it doesn't as well )

I wish I could with my eunos turbo but it cuddled a tree that time.

It's still there, under the decaying bag. doesn't seem any more rusty than usual. I popped the hood, stuck the earth lead on it and turned the key. started right up. what a champ. I ran it for 10 mins or so, then stuck a battery charger on it which said it was full in less than 10 mins. I'll do that a couple more times over winter. I cannot WAIT for spring.

Sigh, I'm feeling so wistful about it. I do want to do stuff, but the drizzle and the constantly wet floor and the cold. I did unzip the cover enough to open the drivers door to crawl in and check it wasn't filling with water or anything. It's not. I'm going to try and get the bonnet open tomorrow and start it and run it up to temp, give the battery a bit of charge. C'mon spring! If it gets a bit colder, maybe the rain will stop and I can look at dropping the rear axle and fuel tank, but I dunno.