hi everyone

[funfan]

hello im gav

i have nine cars at the moment but only the 4 listed are on the road, and i suspect i will only be discussing my fun and the magic i bought last week, on here

firstly my fun

i found her with 128 000 miles for £1200 on auto trader at the end of 09, but she was in Devon which is about 250miles away, so i took out a days insurance got a one way train ticket down hoping she was good.

this is how she looked when i bought her.

she had obvious bodywork issues, a whining lay-shaft bearing and i tired clutch but nothing serious.

she had some interior trim missing (rear seat base, drivers door pocket, speaker grills and ashtray) but i got these of eBay.

i drove her home and she didn't miss a beat, and set about removing the ****ty after-market alarm and central locking, as it didn't work anyway, after a few weeks i got tired of her sounding electric, so i had a look for a gearbox and found one for £15 from a standard 1.6, so i swapped it out and did the clutch at the same time.

i took the bumpers off as i was going to repair them, and i still haven't got round to it.

having had the car for about 6 months, some woman ran in the back of it ("sorry, i didnt see you" "really REALLY!!! its bright f***ing yellow!!") and dented the tailgate, for this i got £800 (go figure). so i bought one of a guy through ebay for £100, i didn't get round to fitting it and a month later a kid (just passed his test the day before) ran in to the back of it, having been payed out once i wasn't going to screw up his insurance as he hadn't damaged anything that wasn't already shagged, so i let it slide. with the rest of the money, i decided to get her LPG'ed. the LPG is great but they hacked up the wood slats bolting the tank where the spare wheel was. ive managed to get a part set of new old stock slats which should sort it out.

after another 6 months of happy (end of 2010), cheap motoring, she developed engine trouble (don't know exactly what until i get into the motor) so she came off the road, as i didn't have the time to deal with her. i found a motor with 60,000 on it for £60 and stuck that in, but by this time there were a few other jobs i wanted to do to her, so she got sidelined again till the beginning of this year.

when i fitted a thermal wrapped, stainless header and de-cat.

had to extend the de-cat to marry up the diesel mid/back box i bought ( basically a 2" bore)

unfortunately, the rad fan and housing didn't fit with the header on.

so i cut the back off it, widened it by 2" and welded a sheet to the back to install a pair of spal fans i had kicking around

now when the fans come on they only run for 12 seconds

i also did a cv, as it was a bit worn, new discs, pads and shoes, 35mm lowering springs on the front, K&N panel filter and some 18" wheels i got on the cheap as i wanted more rubber on the road, but i had to trim the inside of the front arches to get them to clear comfortably.

still alot left to do, ive just bought a magic which i am stealing the c/locking and e/windows from then fitting the manual parts from the fun and selling it to my mate.

ive also got a nitrous system with programmable controller, but i dont really want to fit that untill ive fitted some better connecting rods and ported the head. i am going the nitrous route as i want the reliability and fuel economy of the stock motor (as its my parts getter) but with the extra power there when i want it.

when i have got it mechanically where i want, i will move onto the body work, as i have since sorced anothe pair off bumpers, which i will soda blast and spray.

ill keep you all posted as to how i get on.

[vrsadz]

welcome to briskoda

[alkip]

Hello Gav and welcome along

Love the fun

[Fabia_19]

Welcome to Briskoda.

[gallego1968]

Hi and welcome aboard.

[robk1]

Hi Gav, have touched base with you in another post and am now sure that we did meet up around the Crewe area when stopped at a petrol station. I think you took a picture of my fun before we headed off in separate directions, really good to hear from you here. Love what you're doing with the fun and clearly it's a labour of love. Mine sailed through the mot today, not bad for a 13 year old car.

As we discussed before am still plagued from time to time by a combination of it running on fast idle and momentarily bogging out. Am still on the case and the vw guys hooked it up today to see if readjustment would help, time will tell.

Take care mate, keep up the good work. Rob.

[funfan]

the car now has electric windows and central locking,

i don't know weather there are general problems with gearbox's, but is sounds like the beginning of the same problem as mine. i suspect most boxes never get there oil changed, which wont help, but mine had nearly done 140k by the time it was irritating enough to want to change it.

[robk1]

Sounds like you're spec'ing up that fun! The oil in mine was changed around 60k so isn't that old. Mind you if she's got another 20 to 30k in her shan't worry too much. I know my old Favorit didn't have the most refined of boxes but kept going regardless (sold at around 135k).

[funfan]

edit

Edited 5 March, 2012 by funfan