Kevin_Mc

Cheers for the replies lads. I was seething when i saw it, and for a good few days afterwards. I was genuinely close to tears at one point. At first i thought about sending it somewhere to get professionally sorted and sending them the bill but i decided against it for a few reasons. I've distanced myself from the group for now although we're all going away together to Germany in December so we'll see what happens. I've actually been wanting to take the seats out and give the inside a proper clean out, check for leaks etc so this gives me the perfect excuse. The dash i could have done without of course! I've got plenty more photos to post but i'll leave them for another day when there's a better update than snow foam and a quick wash with a mitt.

When we got back i decided to keep the car and set about vacuuming the inside. I only have befores as i've only given it a vacuum and haven't taken the seats and centre console out to remove all the crap down them, under the handbrake lever, in the gear gaiter... the little plastic cover was off the centre console as i had been changing the cigarette lighter and plan on fitting my armrest soon - it a bugger to get off so it was left off - which is why the Weatabix is all down below the handbrake too. Unfortunately, it's also down behind the dash and into all the vents so at some point i'm going to take the dash out and clean it all out. Yipee. This is where it pretty much is just now - i've vacuumed out the interior but every time i put the vents on more Weatabix comes out - especially in the rear footwells - so that's next on the list. The car sailed through the MOT with no advisories, which i knew it would. I've given it a bit of clean using Tardis to get rid of the tar thanks to driving through roadworks everyday, had the wheels off to clean them with Dragon's Breath and reseal them with Jetseal 109 and bought a few wee bits for it here and there to cheer me up. I'll post some pics of the last clean soon, probably just before i start taking the inside apart. I'm desperate for coilovers now, shocks and springs will only lower it to the point where it should have been from factory so I'm going to take the plunge when i get paid. I was used to coilovers on my Punto which was lowered to the maximum i could get it down so a stiffer ride won't be a problem, as long as it's not too crashy. Thanks for reading - more updates soon.

And this is afterwards: As you can see the paint is marred and there's still some Weatabixx baked onto the surface. At this point i was close to tears and genuinely thought about cleaning the car up a bit, getting it MOT'd and selling it but i had 10 days to switch off and consider what to do. We had a brilliant holiday, ate and drank too much, went out on boats, went jumping off rocks into the sea - the usual holiday nonsense.

I finally got my Octavia Spider wheels painted. They were done by myself, with Audi L1H7 paint mixed for rattle cans, in my grandad's garage and i'm over the moon with the finish. I had them sandblasted earlier this year as, although they had never been kerbed or refurbished, they had been painted previously and it was starting to flake off. The amount of rubbing down required would have taken forever so they were blasted back to bare metal, sprayed with etch primer and then high build primer shortly afterwards. Once i had built up enough coats to hide the bare metal texture i left them 48 hours to fully dry. They were then wet sanded back with 1200 grit to smooth any high points out before being given 5 coats of Audi L1H7 silver (which is the same as the original Skoda colour) and left to dry - i think i left them for a week but that was due to my work. They were then rubbed back gently with 1500 grit before being treated to 5 coats of lacquer. Once that had dried they were then rubbed back with 2000 grit, followed by 2500 grit followed by a machine polish and two coats of Jetseal 109. The day before my wedding i managed to get the tyres fitted - 205/40/17 Toyo Proxes T1-R and i thought it was looking damn good. here it is with me and my best man David (who refused to wear a kilt) I had a brilliant day, David made a cracking speech focused around my love of cars and the fact that i have 8 of them (!) and my mum drove my car to the Reception so i could get my daughter home the next day, ready for our honeymoon. Unfortunately, a group of my friends managed to get hold of my keys, and the wife's car keys, which resulted in this: Shaving foam, toilet roll, silly string, cling film and filled with balloons - all of which was quite funny and didn't bother me until i saw that they had crushed Weatabix all over the paint and rubbed it in, and then crushed loads more up and put it everywhere inside the car. I have never been so angry in all my life. I'm not sure if there's a swear filter here but i was f*cking ragin'. I sent a series of expletive filled messages to the Whatsapp group we're all in and i haven't seen any of them since. For me to get out and clean my car is a huge hassle - i get grief off the wife for it due to the fact that my daughter is disabled and she wants us to spend all of our time with her as a family, which is fair enough. So when i do manage to arrange time to do it it's a big deal for me and i try and get as much done as humanly possible. Coupled with the fact that we were going on honeymoon for ten days straight after the wedding - so i spent the next day, when i should have been chilling out, cleaning the car. My MOT was due to expire when we were away so i was under pressure to get it sorted for as soon as we came back so i could get the car in for the test. My dad had removed the cling film before i even saw the car so my cousin, uncle and i picked off the remaining toilet roll and silly string and got all the balloons out the car so that i could drive it home. I only had time to blast the worst of the crap off before leaving it until we returned. This is before the pressure washer: [

tell me about it! I have a collection of Tamiyas, all which need something to finish them, and no time or money to do anything thanks to a wedding and a Fabia...!

i see you're a Clyde 1 fan - whereabouts are you? I'm in Glasgow / North Lanarkshire and into my RCs as well.

you're in good company Kris - i remember when you had a silver Fiesta on Strathy (and MSN!)

i haven't read all of this thread so forgive me if i step on any toes... I was given a loan of a mk3 1.2 TSI for a night while my own mk1 vRS SE was in for work after a service (the garage burst one of the fuel pipes to/from the filter and i had diesel leaking everywhere). I thought it was a really good looking car, lovely inside but it just lacked the performance i would want. I kicked it's head in and thought it was reasonably brisk fro 30 - 60mph but anything above that and it was slow. I couldn't get it past 105mph (on the speedo) on the same strip of private land that my own vRS will comfortably sit at 120mph (again, on the speedo) on. I was intrigued about a vRS version and asked about it the next day and was told that the one i had been given was the most powerful available so that put me off right away.

I saw L14 TEX today on a posh looking Audi. Maybe an executive with a fetish?!

Nice!!

double post

i'm still tempted by a Forge FMIC for my Fabia, they're extortionate though!

should be a doddle with this guide!

i seen Alex up in Oban a few times when i lived there, could have been you at the wheel

As you know Hutchy, i've got the same arm rest and i bought the brackets off Sean as well. Going to fit it one night this week.

then when we came back, this beauty was sitting opposite where the Pug was parked.

Cheers lads. It's both of your cars that have inspired me to start looking at performance upgrades. I'll bend your ears over PM in a couple of weeks.

It's 17" Octavia Spiders going on the car so i think 20mm & 15mm will be too much. There's a user on here posted a pic of his Fabia vRS with the same wheels and the 10 / 15mm combo looked like exactly what i was after. The picture above looks a bit too wide for me and i think the offset of the Spiders would make them stick out more than that. Are those 16" steels pictured?

I'll fire you a PM once i get new tyres fitted and am ready to fit the wheels Cheers

that's lovely Paul!

Cheers - that explains it then. Looks like i'll need to get longer wheel bolts (plus lockers) Any suggestions on decent ones?

Delboy would be proud!! Chushty!

It just needs a good pull once it's fully unscrewed. Well, the mk1 does. 2009 is mk2

The youth of today are total numpties (trust me, i know plenty of them), i'm glad to see there's a normal person left from your generation. Good for you young man. Hope you find a cracking Fabia Estate and get using it like it was intended.

Lads I've had a look using the search function but can't see anything that answers my question. I'm looking for a set of bolt-on spacers. I want to be able to use the original wheel bolts / locking wheel bolts when fitting them so bolt-on is ideal. I know i need at least 15mm on the rear to sit flat on the hub / disc, so 15mm is what i'm going for - and 10mm on the front. Back in my Punto days i had H&R spacers (Type B from memory) which were 4x100, 20mm thick, hubcentric and used the original wheel bolts but they don't seem to do this style any more. Can anyone recommend a set that will do the job? I'd rather not get some cheapo ones from eBay as i've seen a set warp on my mate's car and were a nightmare to get off and i'm quite happy to pay a bit more for good quality material. Can anyone help out with suggestions?