Lofty

Nice one Ryan, I’ll have a go when I’m on the laptop as I’m laid up in bed with a bad back on the phone, hence looking for daft finishing touches like this! 👍🏻

Evening all, I need to pick some brains greater than mine and it’s easier if I give you some context as to what I’m on about. I’m looking at getting a build sticker / plate done for the slam panel of my Fabia project and quite fancy a QR code that will take you to the project thread here on Briskoda. Big question is, is that even possible and how do you do it? I’d need to send the QR code to someone who can laser etch it onto an aluminium foil decal you see. Any help gratefully received. Matt

Ant (the Gaffer) is VIP Autos, so I think they'll be moving to the new bigger premises in time.

Ahh I know Ant and Rob, Ant is the nephew of my best mates other half, he's the one who moved the Fabia for me when I moved house. Cracking fella, proper grafter, he's bought a new unit somewhere in Dudley as well I think?

Big Red do some great work, I know a few people who've used them in the past and they're always spot on, plus local (ish) for us.

'Tis a small world it seems. I tend not to use many garages apart from MOT's and suchlike, was it Martin @ Welch Autos?

Cheers John, I've ordered an adaptor now, from Eastern Europe so hopefully it'll arrive in the next 12 months or so....

I just can’t leave things alone. The supplied exhaust clamps were ok, just not quite ok enough so I have stripped them apart, acid bathed the plating off them and have zinc plated and yellow passivated them myself. The 3” V-band clamp between the Downpipe and the mid section broke while I was undoing it, otherwise that would’ve been done as well. The sections of the exhaust are being prepped and coated in POR-15 Ultra hight temp Manifold Grey colour which should keep it tidy under there.

Cracking start. As usual!!!

Good word that. I'm going to use that in future.

Engine bay looms are still available new from Skoda, well at least they were last year. Just as a guide, the vRS loom (different to yours I know) was over £500 back then.

You'll also find that the genuine CV boot clips are massively thicker/stronger than the ones that are supplied by the aftermarket. As changing the boot is quite an involved and messy job i've always fitted genuine for the peace of mind especially knowing how poor the aftermarket stuff is, bugger doing a job twice

Thanks for the headsup Ryan - there is a bluetooth adaptor available for the aux port it seems for the MFD1 and VW gamma headunits, gonna give one of those a try

I've tried the Lightning to 3.5mm adaptor today and it's not working, so i'll give AS a look over.

Hey folks, I have the factory navigation head unit in the vRS, and had a "Connects 2" adaptor in the (rear of the unit) blue CD changer output - this ran to a 3.5mm jack plug. This used to connect on my old iPhone 5 in the headphone socket and allowed me to play spotify etc via the AUX feature on the head unit. Now time has moved on, my current iPhone has a lightening connector, but I cannot for the life of me find a compatible connector for the MFD1. Anyone got any ideas? Quite like the look of the factory nav unit even though it's crap, just need to play some music that isn't Radio 1 etc.

Attention ! Actual update time ! The Piper rear exhaust section arrived, kindly dumped in the black wheelie bin by whatever knuckle dragging courier that was sent with it, so first job was to hose off the various food debris and tinned Mackrel splatters off the package before I could get round to the unwrapping. Once unwrapped I fitted it. Then unfitted it to adjust the hangers, then fitted, then unfitted etc etc - repeat to early painful death, then it was finally fitted. For now. Taipipe is a slide on type fitting, with a very discreet clamp, and I went for the 5" x 3" option as I didnt want too big a drain pipe out the back. Good news is the Piper 2.5" system mates up to the Miltek 2.5" system just fine so anyone wanting to delete the Miltek rear silencer and go "straight through" can do so with the Piper hardware knowing now it mates up well. All of this of course is temporary as I still plan to get a custom rear silencer made up with my 3" brushed stainless downswept tail pipe, at least this will get the car moving and ready for an MOT.

Agree on the previous post, the number plate surround looks loads better now. Always enjoy seeing the progress on your cars, money is spent in all the right areas and the car is a credit to you now you've put your own stamp on it.

If you have managed to get 200K out of the original clutch you've done well and it's a sign of how well engineered the standard components are. In this case, having been there with SMF conversions on PD's, you will find the noise unpleasant. As you've said finances are dictating this route currently but as long as you go in with eyes and ears open you'll be fine.

So while I’m waiting for the exhaust bits to arrive I decided to put some rivnut fixings in the tailgate so that it’s easy to swap the road number plate for the showroom vRS plates when at shows etc. The road plate was held on with double sided foam strips so no easy way of swapping them over and over. Pretty uneventful, not really photo worthy but I drilled the factory punched square holes out to 9mm then fitted two m6 rivnuts into the bootlid. Carefully measured the hole centres onto the show plate then drilled two 8mm holes for the black plastic m6 screws to go through. I’ll keep yellow screws in the car for the road plate obviously. looks quite smart with the small Detailing World sticker as well.. Speaking of stickers, I’ve put this underneath the bumper purely for the MOT man’s (and other nosey folks) amusement 😂 more soon when the exhaust gets here.

Exhaust located - couldn't get any sense out of the lad with a supposed Milltek back box so based on the research I've done, a Piper 2.5" rear box will mount to the Milltek 2.5" mid-section. With this information I spent some time on the Piper website and they list a 2.5" rear section, without a silencer and with a 5"x3" oval tailpipe. This is only intended to be a temporary measure until I can get it into the custom exhaust place for my 3" downswept tailpipe section in due course. It should be here within the week so I can get it on and the car ran up to see how it sounds. I'm expecting it to be similar to my Black vRS which had the unsilenced Ulta Tip exhaust on it and that was acceptable.

Sunday update. Car looks the same as yesterday apart from the bumpers now painted inside and the carbon dipped fog light surrounds are fitted. Had both front wheels off to give all the arches a blow out with the Tornador which has a weak mixture of Bilt Hamber Surfex HD in it, this cleans off the collected dust and after a wipe with a microfibre they’re as good as new. Polished the wheels in and out as they were caked in dust from sitting. So that’s the front end done. I’ve started deep cleaning the back now with the Tornador with a view to finalising the exhaust set up. I have been messaged by a Fabia fella on the “socials” saying he’s got a Milltek back box so I’ll wait and see if it comes good.

Test fit of the front bumper was a success. I even found the fixings after all these years. Bumper is back off now as I’m painting the inside edges, be back on tomorrow along with the fig light surrounds. Once it’s finally on I’ll give it a good clay barring then machine polish it. The 30degree boost hoses were an inspired choice, they take all the struggle out of trying to manipulate a short straight hose and fit almost perfectly. More pics when it’s all buttoned up at the front.

Assuming they come out! They'll be as corroded as the back plates. M6 x 13mm is bang on though. Best bet would be if they are hanging off to tear them off and forget about them, unless you're going down a rebuild worm hole. Not many have the original backplates anyway now (on vRS models at least) as most have fitted bigger front discs so would have been discarded long ago.

It's a bug bear for sure, to pull the passenger side forward would mean hacking off that bumper mount as well so I'm leaning towards leaving it where it is having looked at it in depth. Good news is the 30 degree bend boost pipes fit nice and easy, that removes at least that struggle. I dug the front bumper out of storage last night, found the fixings for the external air temp sensor and the air temp sensor so i'll be cleaning that up next and trial fitting that.

You know what, I think you're correct. It looked ok initially to me last night but now I'm sat here studying the pictures the more it's bugging me. I'm now looking at getting the right hand SEAT Sport intercooler bracket modified to bring the cooler out flush with the left had side. Sent some images to a fabrication buddy of mine who can work his magic.