jars' '05 Fabia vRS

Following a recent road trip to Hereford, my little furby is pretty close to looking how I want it, so thought I would show you my progress over the last 15 months of ownership.

Having spent a few weeks looking on here into common vRS issues and things to look for when buying one, I already had a pretty good idea what the common mods were being done, what having a decent bank balance can do to the torque figures under the hood, and at the ripe age of 30, decided that this little beauty was going to be my first "customized" car and was not staying standard for long!

I drove from Bristol to Reading on a Sunday afternoon in January 2011, and following a quick inspection, very clean in the engine bay and boot, which is always a good sign in my eyes, no sign of leaky door carrier.....

So little bit of sweet talking, got her with 70k on the clock, 2 brand new tyres when I returned 4 days later, full service history,(done 1k ago and cambelt changed at 50k) 1 doctor owner from new, heated seats (amazing on a cold morning!) and extra airbags. Xenons would have been nice, as would leather, but a luxury that I didn't have time to wait for. :(

So after 2 weeks I had to drive back to the dealership as the DMF had failed. They initially tried to get me accept all sorts of conditions for them to fix under warranty, but I stuck to me guns and after 2 weeks and a road trip up to Amsterdam in their 500 mile old Volvo R-Design C3, and returning with a healthy 2k on the clock, walked away with new clutch and DMF free of charge.... result!!

So quickly removed the annoying dealer sign on the rear under the vRS badge and stayed like the above for another 3 months when I bought a set of 312's off a fellow brisky member. I took a week off work and got busy......

Subtle tint Lamin-x for headlights and fogs, I removed the chrome grill surround the week before and stripped, sanded, primed, painted and lacquered. I also upgrade the brakes to the 312's I bought the week before, replaced the bonnet badge with a "Pastyboy" replacement, (top work, will be back for more!) along with the wheel caps and front vRS badge on the bonnet.

I did have pictures for the brake change and the grill painting, but lost my original iphone on a snowboarding trip back in January this year.... d'oh! This also means not many pictures of how it was after a very long deep clean including full car clayed and machine polish, she was looking her best.... for then at least!

From this...

To this...

Over the next 2 weeks attempted to colour code my doorhandles myself, but the paint made up by halfrauds didn't get anywhere near a decent match, so swallowed my price and took the door handles and relevant parts to a local paint sprayer. (lost these pictures too!!) They did a pretty decent job and only cost me £60, half the price of other quotes I got, and only about £25 more than I originally paid for the various bits and pieces attempting to do it myself.

So after just 4 weeks of 312 ownership, a fellow Briskoda member posted up a swap request, my standard wheels, 312's and suspension for LCR Brembo's, Porsche Twists and KW-V1 Coilovers.....all I had to do was to drive to Aberdeenshire... road trip!!

How she stood once all had been put on .....

We were originally meant to change over the parts ourself, but quickly realised we were short of a tool or 2, so quickly arranged for someone else to do it for us, meaning I could actually enjoy my trip to Scotland!

The guy who changed the parts bent a locking wheel nuts, so popped into Blackpool on the way home...

Although I liked the way she looked, this was not the original plan.... I wanted subtle changes. Sat on it's a**e with the Twists on it was not on the agenda, or subtle!!

Following a blow out on the M5 back in January this year, I decided I no longer wanted the Brembo's and Twists, so posted up a swap thread on here, but ended up doing a swap with me mate in the end.

So I sourced a refurbished set of 312's with discs and pads off ebay (paid for by him)and we swapped the brakes and the wheels. I made a bit of money and fresh brakes, he got the brake replacement his vRS badly needed as he had the standard brakes, which felt inadequate to say the lest on his remaped car.

As they arrived

I managed to source the holy grail that is Hammerite Smooth Green from a fellow Briskoda member I've had the pleasure to meet a couple of times now. Thanks again Garry, top top man. This is what your generosity helped me achieve....

Now to get them put on.

Just dropped off at the garage....

And when I returned that evening

So this is how she stood just last week after several washes with fairy liquid (no I'm not going mad...to strip the old wax and polish!!) lower half of the car sprayed with tardis to reduce and remove tar, another fairy liquid wash, then clayed the entire car, followed by a final wash. Cheap back to black spray for the black bits and tyres as this was just a quick was and would have looked rubbish had I not done it!

When I picked her up after the brake change, I developed a new noise, so dropped it back to my mate a few days later. When I collected it that night, I left him with fog light surrounds and missing thump part off the rear door handle for a new local body shop who had previously popped in the garage asking my mate to display his leaflet. My mate will get a look at his work and all's good, will agree to dish out his leaflets, and I hopefully will get my parts professionally painted Black Magic and Diamond Silver at a decent price!

So to last week.... fellow brisky member DeadMau5 posted up a swap, his spiders for my standard wheels plus a plus a little cash. No questions asked, I wanted these! So road tripped up on 04/04/12 to *cough* sunny Hereford. I hooked up with Dan, his car was looking good with the Spiders on it, and headed to a local multi story car park as it was p*****g it down!

Didn't take any pictures as had my little lad and a mate with me, so had to change the wheels and dash. (sorry Dan, would had been good to go for a pint otherwise!)

So up to today..... no hosepipe ban here in Brizzol,(that I'm aware of anyway, I did check!) so carried on where I started last week. Gave her another jet wash, fairy liquid wash, 2 coats of AG super resin polish (couldn't machine polish her yet as have didn't have the right pads and didn't realise!) followed by (currently) 1 coat of AG HD Wax and Meguiars Endurance for the brand new rubber following a good hard brush clean.....

missing part of door handle

nice reflection on the boot!

Missing surround hides a dark secret!

And gone (mostly apart from the damaged paintwork)...

So should be getting back the fog light surrounds and thump handle thingy next week, then will contemplate the wheel caps.... do I replace with new OEM caps or "pastyboy" stickers the same as the bonnet badge.... hhhhhmmmm?!?

Then a decent jet wash, nice wash with Zymol shampoo, door shuts, various nooks and crannies followed by another coat of AG HD Wax, Autosmart trim wizzard for the black bits left not painted, and if I have time, will do the engine bay again, take the wheels off for a proper clean and wax as only went over them with the noodle mit and microfibre cloth today.

Once the surrounds are back on, I'll "de-tango" the indicator bulbs with the replacements sat in my bedroom along with some LED's, but can't remember if they were for the reg plate light or interior lights... arrgh! I'll work it out!

Then need to get my hands on a carpet cleaner of sorts to have a go at my seats. They were nice and freshly professionally cleaned when I first got her, but 15 months of parental ownership has taken it's toll! (If there's anyone in the local area willing to lend me something for some beer tokens that would be amazing?!?) Then give the interior going over,) possibly new mats as mine are looking tatty now.

So plans.... well once I've replaced other bulbs in the glove box and boot, a remap is missing and has always been on the cards. The only issue is all the known places are miles away from me, with Revo being the only recognised name in the area.... unless anyone else can suggest someone closer, will probably delay the map for a while, well til later this year I reckon?!? (Why are Revo widely recommended by Audi owners but not Fabia owners, and Shark by Skoda/Fabia owners but not many Audi owners?!?)

Beyond that, well who knows, family, money and holidays aside, I love my car to look at, I like to drive it in it's current form, but hope to love it once the next stage has started!

Thanks for reading, I'll update things as they go, including a picture with the new surrounds on next week!

Jay