Hi all I have to fit a new front end on my octavia and wondering if I will have to change the front panel also if I decided to fit the face lift front end? If someone who has one van take a picture of the front panel (with the bonnet open) I can check if I need to change mine. Cheers

PS Im now using this as my build thread

Edited 29 September, 201015 yr by dainott

Bump, surely someone can take a pic of the front panel on the their facelift for me! Just wanna see the shape of it with the bonnet open so i can see it the mounting points are the same as the pre facelift?

I stripped the front end off mine yesterday and strange design on the front wings where they are bolted and bonded on (there were 4 rivets on the bonded panel 3 of which are not accessable :S) which was a suprise to me and my mate. The rads have had it and planned on fitting the S3 intercooler now anyway seeing as the front end is off. Also got a spare subframe with everything on it from a Leon FR so going to get a set of Eibach ARB's (unless anyone recommends different) and then drop the existing and swap it complete. Existing has a crack in it and has pulled the driveshaft out, but the car is straight and doesnt need the jig which is nice.

Landed that its only done 13,000 and as an ex police dog van it looks like they have upgraded the rear brakes, but didnt take a pic stupidly so if anyone has one of the standard rear i can check. I was also suprised how much work they do on these cop cars. There is a complete metal undertray with strengthening bars so they can fly over the speed bumps wthout sumping it and the added wiring for lights and sirens is suprising (all be coming out though although keeping the siren is and option when im late for work ).

If it cool with the moderators il use this thread to update on progress of the car and if anyone has any mods i should be doing other than above while rebuilding the car please let me know.

Cheers all

so far looks worse than it is

Ouch!!!! Where in Swansea did you do that!!!!!

Will try to take a pic tomorrow of my FL.

I am in Swansea too (West side) and you are more than welcome to come and have a look at the front of a FL for yourself.

No mate bought it like this. A careless copper put it through a fence lol.

Im in Skewen so would be spot on if i could take a quick look at the car, but a picture would be a massive help aswell. Nice to know there is someone around here on the forum Cheers Dai

I work up in Clydach so not far from you so could arrange something after work maybe.

The chassis is the same on both, so in theory all you need are, Wings, Bumper, lights, bonnet, grill and in addition you'll need a new crashbar and anything else missing from the frontend.

Magic thanks for the replies ( the old man is from clydach by the way). I need the complete front end but really not sure on whether I really do prefer the look of the facelift or not (the older one looks meaner if u know what I mean compared to the fl). I'm nights tonights and tomorrow and then I'm off until Friday then. Il be up the garage working on the car and will get some better pics to compare and then give u a shout on here to see if I can come take a look if that's ok? Cheers Dai

Dai, that won't take you long mate.... prob have yours fixed by the time mine arrives.... 30/9 and counting...

I really like the pre face lift look if I am honest and agree that "especially" in Silver it will prob be more the look you are after.....

Defo keep the siren though, they would love that at work

Rgs

Bobby

Hey mate thought it wouldnt be long before you were on here .

Yea decided to go for the pre facelift and bought most the parts for it today (in silver except the bumper) and will be picking them up monday. Only need a drivers headlight and the airbag kit (have the new dash but no bags) and will be sorted.

Bet you cant wait for the car now and its been a while aint it :(

Question i have is does anyone know if the passenger airbag can be fitted with the dash in place and if the golf and leon use the same passenger one?

Edited 13 September, 201015 yr by dainott

Got some pics o the front of my FL with bonnet up but struggling to figure out how to post the pics on here!!!!!!

i always use photobucket and then you just paste the direct link in. Free to sign up and presume there are other sites available that do the same thing. I have gone for the pre facelift front end now but would be worth posting for future referance mate.

i always use photobucket and then you just paste the direct link in. Free to sign up and presume there are other sites available that do the same thing. I have gone for the pre facelift front end now but would be worth posting for future referance mate.

Hope these help.

Magic thanks for the pics, really suprising how close the 2 fronts are and possibly in the future if i get bored of the front end then will fit the facelift.

I would be interested to see if the two fronts can be combined, say the FL front bumper on a pre-FL model?? :wonder:

Hey mate thought it wouldnt be long before you were on here .

Yea decided to go for the pre facelift and bought most the parts for it today (in silver except the bumper) and will be picking them up monday. Only need a drivers headlight and the airbag kit (have the new dash but no bags) and will be sorted.

Bet you cant wait for the car now and its been a while aint it :(

Question i have is does anyone know if the passenger airbag can be fitted with the dash in place and if the golf and leon use the same passenger one?

It gets del'd Tuesday, yes been a massive wait mate, order 17/05! don't care now though as it is within touching distance now......

Can't wait to see yours either as If you leon is anything to go by this will be an awesome car!

Kind Rgs

Bobby

All you'l need is the wings, bumper, lights and grill, im sure the bonnet is the same just with a new grill fitted!! Not much chance of fitting an FL bumper with pre FL wings as the FL wings are a different shape where they merge into the bumper on the arch line! Hope that helps!

Update on the car . Will post some pics next week when im back up the garage as been rushing about and aint had time.

Got the screen removed on mates rates of £90 for a new one fitted (aint fitted yet as much easier to change dash with no screen).

When the car was bumped the near side front wheel had a nudge and it broke the aluminium subframe mounting on one side and pulled the drive shaft out of the inner cv joint. I had a spare subframe (they are in 3 pieces and the same on the golf gti, leon fr and octavia petrol or diesel) off a 57 plate leon fr tdi which i removed the passenger mount from and this can be fitted without removing (or even loosening) the other side of the subframe which is so much easier.

While this was being changed i fitted the front Eibach ARB (which can also be fitted with the one mount removed) which i am really dissapointed with (all explained in another thread) for the money! Wish i could have also fitted the Whiteline caster kit but funds wont stretch at the moment and so will change in the future along with aluminium wishbones which wont take much to do.

I removed the drive shaft and cv joint and turned out that it had just pulled the shaft out of the inner cv joint and not damaged it and was rebuilt for £20 . Fitted back on the car and good as new.

Going Monday to collect new front end and also found the airbag kit i needed so will replace the dash next week aswell.

Back bumper had a bit of a nick in it from a previous reversing incident and so stripped the rear lights trim and removed the bumper to get it repaired without having to lose the car for a few days.

I now only need back seats and few rear interior plastics and have everything to finish the car

PS bit of information regarding the Hub nut. Looks like they have changed the nut recently (i have the old vw hub nut) and now use a 24mm 12 teeth (bi-hex or spline whatever people want to call it) socket. They put them on tight aswell!!!! I almost broke the bar trying to undo it and split 2 sockets in the process!!

Right been up to pick the front end and dash up today and off work tomorrow so will be back working on the car .

Il get some pictures taken on progress

Right then update time for anyone who fancies seeing my progress. Been stuck with the front end until today due to the complete front panel i had having the wrong water rad (anyone who ever needs to change theirs make sure you check the inlet/ outletside as some have one on each side and some have them both on the same side). The 2 diffent water rads are made by different manufacturers and have slightly different size cores so the end tanks cant be swapped over. Cost me £85 (trade) for the new rad. Below is the picture of the car at its most bare lol.

While waiting for the rad to come into stock i decided it was time to swap out the dash and remove all the police equipment added (incredible how much was added to the car. The dash takes about 4 hours to strip and replace (much much easier than replacing a mk2 Leon dash) but took me about another 3 hours to remove all the extra cabling that had been run in. While the dash was removed spend about 2 hours hoovering the car to get all the little nightmare pieces of glass out. Also changed the front 2 seatbelts which was also pretty painless. Just waiting for the airbag ECU to be reset now and will refit the glovebox. Pic below is the dash removed.

Was worried that removing the stereo completely would mean having to recode it but wasnt the case thankfully. Only issue i have now is that the hazard lights button is missing the small plastic insert that activates the button (acts like a spring) so gonna have to get one from somewhere of fork out for a new one. Below is dash back in and airbags replaced except for the little flip compartment at the bottom of the centre console that had a hole drilled in it for the siren/lights so will close that up before refitting.

Front end is nearly all back on now and all panels are silver which saves me a good bit of prep work. All easy enough with refitting as nothing much out of line. Picture below is without the wings and bonnet fitted which i forgot to take a picture of :(.

Rear bumper is still in having a slight repair so unable to refit everything on the back end (marks on the rear panel are duck tape that was holding the rear bumper and luckily no damage to the rear 1/4 panel.

Hated the new mahoosive wing mirrors so have gone for the previous normal size ones as replacements but i need to figure out the wiring as use a totally different clip and wiring setup. The new ones plug in well inside the door with the clips with the little red pull out tab where as the previous ones have only about 15cm of cable before the old style squeeze the two plastic bits at the top to remove. Dont think its gonna be difficult to sort but will take a bit of head work and testing. The old ones look so much better though and with the blue tinted glass. Il update when im over the next few hurdles

Edited 29 September, 201015 yr by dainott

Looks like a big job, is it a face lift car?

as the interior looks like a FL one.

No it's a pre face lift but right on the change so has some of the fl gear

Nice work.

You mention the massive wing mirrors, but then that it's a pre-FL. I thought those only changed over on the FL cars?

You've already got a bit of a 'hybrid' though, as it must have been a late pre-FL, given that it has the revised climate unit, Bolero stereo as std and the updated steering wheel.

Cheers,

Steve

You mention the massive wing mirrors, but then that it's a pre-FL. I thought those only changed over on the FL cars?

There was a very short build period sometime last year where pre-FL cars had the FL interior including the larger wing mirrors.

Here are some pictures of a 2009 pre-facelift Scout with the larger wing mirrors, new interior, updated rear light clusters and tailgate badging...

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/128064-red-scout-pictures/

Edited 29 September, 201015 yr by silver1011

Yea its right on the cross over and yea hybrid is a spot on desciption for it. It has the TSI lump, huge mirrors (not anymore ), new climate, the silver band on the airbag. To be honest it was difficult to get bits for due to it being on the change and was lucky with airbags and the mirrors, but unlucky with the water rad and few other little bits so swings and roundabouts really.

There are loads of things that i like about the pre face lift and the post and wanted to try and combine the best of both. Prob will find that in a few months i will want the facelift front end on it and will be stripping it down again lol, as just cant make my mind up on whether i like the new if slightly femenine FL front end but then i see one on the road and think it looks lovely (just not sure on a silver one).

Get the handling, brakes and power sorted before thinking about changing that again though

Il keep the updates on progress coming and if anyone does know of the little plastic piece for the hazard lights or the complete unit then please let me know.

Oh yea by the way there will be a Gloss black roof going on the car along with a few other little bits and bobs