korban Fabia VRS SE Build Thread

[korban]

Well not a build thread exactly more of a development thread as most of the work I wanted to do has been done!

 

At the Briskoda National Mega Meet last weekend chatting with old and new fellow members quite a few asked where my build thread was as they hadn’t seen it. Well I’m not much of a keyboard warrior but I do post up various pictures and how to’s occasionally but never got round to putting them all in to one place.

 

After winning the popular vote at the event and realising that the car may appeal to more people that I first thought I have decided to join the club and create my own build / development thread.

 

Just going to start with a few pictures of how the car looked at the beginning and how it has changed over the years.

Hope fully over the next few weeks I will sort through my photos and try to show you how many parts of the car have evolved over the four years that I have owned it.

 

Car was bought in July 2009 with 24000 miles on it.

It's first major modification was to fit a removable tow bar so that I could go camping with it.

Yes that tent trailer and bikes all went with me.

 

The following year started doing some small mods to the car

 

 

Nothing too drastic just splitter, colour coded grill surround, different badges, tinted windows and rear lights.

 

2011 saw me getting a bit more enthusiastic about mods

 

 

Won't list the mods as you should be able to work them out yourself and yes I did fit those stupid rear lights  

 

2012 saw more performance related mods as I was starting to take it to Castle Combe.

 

 

 

 

Front Rear strut brace, KW V1's, 312 Brakes, Octy Wheels and Xeon lights were the major ones and I got rid of those stupid rear light units.

 

Castle Combe April 2013 mode

 

 

And slight colour change due to opinions from members 

 

 

 As it stands today (taken at Mega Meet) not a great photo but you get the idea

 

 

 

 

Well I hope you enjoyed the read so far, and over the next few weeks will post up how various parts of the car have evolved. I hope it will give you some ideas for your cars

 

Cheers

 

Karl 

Edited 16 August, 2017 by korban

[Dark_Hero]

About time you got them all in one place Karl

Well done on the popular choice win too

[korban]

 

 

About time you got them all in one place Karl
Well done on the popular choice win too

 

Thanks Charlie, was a meaning to start one ages ago but never got round to it (didn't think anyone would be interested as its mostly cosmetic) , but so many people asked at the meet I thought I better start one.

 

Karl

[vRS19TD]

Great to see you're doing a project thread, Karl.

Will keep an eye on this.

[joe_vrs_tdi]

Good to see all your funky little mods will be in one place.

Nice work on the car all round its nice to see something abit different. Keep it up karl.

[korban]

Most probably bore people to death reading this but others have done it

 

Current List of Mods ( as far as I can remember)

 

Exterior

 

Octi Wheels (16”) Black & Blue (For Summer)

VRS Wheels Silver (16”) & M+S (For Winter)

Re-profiled  & Carbon Covered Cupra Front Splitter

Side Skirts with Skoda Motor Sport Decals

Custom all in one Grill and Surround

Custom Upper/Lower Mesh Grill

Carbon Rear Number Plate Holder

Carbon B Pillar Trim

Colour Coded Fog Light Surrounds

Colour Coded Headlamp Surrounds

Colour Coded Front Number Plate Holder

Graded Tinted Front Sun Strip

Removed VRS Badge from Grill

Aero Wiper Blades

Black Tinted Side Wing Indicators

De-lockered

Black VRS Badges Front & Rear

DAB Aerial

Removed Rear Wiper

Rear De badged

Limo Tinted Rear Screen

Dark Tinted Side and Qtr Windows

Rear View Camera

Removable Tow bar

Rear Mud Flaps

Front Modified Mud Flaps

Briskoda Badges on Bonnet

Briskoda Badge on Rear Screen

Briskoda Badge on Sun Strip

Blue Tinted Mirror Glass

VRS Decal on Door Mirrors

VRS Decal on Side Qtr Windows

Carbon Film on Roof & Spoiler

 

Interior

 

OEM Leather Seats

Leather Door Cards

Carbon Trim on Dash

Carbon Trim on Doors Handles

Chrome Trim on Instrument Cluster

Blue Piping on Dash

Custom Double Drinks Holder

Extra Cigarette Power Outlet and USB Power

Centre Armrest

Leatherette Covered Center Console

Leatherette Covered A pillars

Leatherette Covered Front Tweeter Covers

Chip Button / DRL Button

Int/Ext Temp, Clock Unit

VRS Stainless Steel Foot Rest

Passenger under seat Storage

Shortened Gear Stick

Carbon W8 Interior Light

Driver side Sun glasses holder

Black Aluminium Gear Stick Surround

R32 Steering Wheel

VRS Badge on Steering Wheel

Skoda Bags either side in boot

Skoda Rear Seat Boot Net

Skoda Boot Floor Net

BlackVue DR500GW HD Camera

 

ICE

 

Double Din JVC Navigation / Head Unit

JVC DAB Tuner

Parrot MKI9200 Hands Free

Sony Audio Stalk

Custom Android Tablet Install

Flat Sub under stealth panel with storage tray

Rear Tweeters Disconnected

 

Led Lamp Conversions / Additions

 

Xenon Headlamps

100 watt Main Beam Bulbs

Custom DLRs on Front

LED Front Side Lights

LED Number Plate Lights

Extra Side Lights by Fog Lights

Led Rear Lights (ALL)

Blue LED Instrument Lighting

Blue LED Air Vents

Blue Front / Rear Foot well LEDs

Dual LED Boot Light

Custom LED Parcel Shelf Boot Light

Red LED’s in Door Cards Lights

Puddle LED Lights

Red LED in Tailgate

5 Brake Light Mod

4 Side Light Mod

4 Indicator Light Mod

4 Reversing Light Mod

2 Fog Light Mod

Rear Interior LED Lights

White Foot Well Lights

LED Glove box light

High Power LED Interior Lights

Coming Home Lights

Flashing Third Brake Light

LED’s Mounted in Tailgate

 

Engine Bay

 

Painted & Carbon Film Engine Cover

Front Panel Painted Blue

Painted Radiator / Water Bottle Caps

R8 Oil Filler Cap

VRS Battery Cover

Hydraulic Bonnet Lifter

Carbon Wrapped Air Box & Misc

Extra Under Bonnet Sound Proofing

Automatic Under Bonnet Light

Blue Oil Catch Can & Vent Fitted

 

Performance / Handling

 

312 Front Brake Upgrade

256 Rear Beke Upgrade

Yellow Stuff Pads all round

Digital Tuning Box (Switchable)

PD160 Air Intake and K&N Air Filter

Mufflerectomy

Momo Front Strut Brace

KW V1 Coilovers

Whiteline RARB

Forge Rear Strut Brace

Pikey Wheel Arch Mod

Rear 20 mm Spacers

Front 8 mm Spacers      

 

If you've read all of this your are a proper petrol head    

 

Karl

[DanHam]

I love this car, was only just looking for a project thread of yours the other day. All those lighting mods sound so unique!

[Dark_Hero]

That is an impressive list of mods.

Would you still be interested in doing the rear tail light mod for me?

[korban]

Thanks Charlie,

 

There are most probably more but can't remember them. As I said don't mind doing the technical work modifying the bulb holders but as for the drilling holes and hot melting the LED's in place takes a lot of time, but its a relatively easy but tedious job to do - one for you to do as I know your great at soldering.

 

Karl  

[korban]

Development of the Front of the Car

 

How it originally looked

 

Fairly quickly a Cupra front splitter was added, body colored grill, new badge and unfortunately some eyebrows.

 

I then discovered Di-Noc carbon film and covered as much of the front as possible and also fitted some optic blue lamix film on the headlights but at least the eye brows came off.

 

Not happy with the grill I removed the vertical slates and replaced it with mesh, I also bought some headlamp surrounds from SuperSkoda which were painted to match.

 

 

The one thing I loved about the headlamp surround was it enabled me to fix LEDs behind them which really lit up the headlamps at night (pic below is only side lights)

 

Xenon were the next addition and the headlamp surround had to come off also the number plate holder was colour matched and lower grill converted to wire mesh.

 

Final addition was to smooth the front grill surround into one (not sure if I really like it)

 

 

Well that about it for the front there were a couple of other little mods in between but can't have taken any photos of them.

 

Hope you enjoy reading this and it might give you a few ideas

 

Karl   

 

[grr666]

You have a level of enthusiasm for your Fabia that is only possibly

matched by Jason and his mongrel.

For every thing you've added to yours he's removed something from his. :p 

Always liked your car Karl, and you are a very nice and helpful bloke with it.  

Congrats on the award, highly deserved.

[redcupraboy]

Karl do you still make up the coming home light kits? If so how much are they? PM me if preferred.

Well done on getting a build thread up, it's a good read.

[DanHam]

Every time I look at your upper grill I want one for mine with matching mesh that I've got in my wide mouth.

[MartynVRS]

And everything is well done too. Loads modify but very few do them well. Most seem thrown together. You've taken time and care to do them well, especially the tablet install. 

[BJB540]

Absolutely stunning looking car, only just picked mine up recently. Loving it at the moment I really hope I can find the same enthusiasm as you have.

[group1rs]

Stunning love it

[Jonny5ive]

B.E.A.Utiful

 

Keep it up Karl

[korban]

I love this car, was only just looking for a project thread of yours the other day. All those lighting mods sound so unique!

Thanks Dan

 

You have a level of enthusiasm for your Fabia that is only possibly

matched by Jason and his mongrel.

For every thing you've added to yours he's removed something from his. :p

Always liked your car Karl, and you are a very nice and helpful bloke with it.  

Congrats on the award, highly deserved.

Cheers Garry thanks for the complements. Hope to see you at Combe (looking forward to seeing your car) assuming your better and Jason will let you in

 

Karl do you still make up the coming home light kits? If so how much are they? PM me if preferred.

Well done on getting a build thread up, it's a good read.

Yes I do still make them to order, got one on the go at the moment but Maplins are awaiting stock of the modules I use (so there will be a bit of a delay) , price is £26 or £32 with extra relay for head/fog lights - pm me if still interested.

 

Every time I look at your upper grill I want one for mine with matching mesh that I've got in my wide mouth.

Go for it, not hard to do just remove slats, bit of filling and sanding and then hotmelt the mesh in place   ( I ended up using two layers of mesh because the blue metal work was too visible through the grill.

 

And everything is well done too. Loads modify but very few do them well. Most seem thrown together. You've taken time and care to do them well, especially the tablet install. 

Thanks Martyn, but you should have said do it once then do it properly the second or third time round LOL ( On my forth attempt of the Tablet install now).

 

Absolutely stunning looking car, only just picked mine up recently. Loving it at the moment I really hope I can find the same enthusiasm as you have.

They are a joy to drive and modify, should have sold mine last year (normally change every 3 years) but still loving it

 

Stunning love it

Thanks that's a great complement coming from you, seen both of your cars at the meet (might have even talked to you) and fair play you put a lot of excellent work into them

[korban]

 

B.E.A.Utiful

 

Keep it up Karl

 

Thanks Barry

 

By the way I did it first LOL

 

 

But not quite as camouflaged as yours (brilliant idea)

[Jonny5ive]

Thanks Barry

 

By the way I did it first LOL

 

 

But not quite as camouflaged as yours (brilliant idea)

 

Ha ha. I may well start a sideline in Bespoke Roofboxes. I have a half/ish order for one in Yellow camo

[korban]

Development of the Rear of the Car

 

As mentioned earlier the first mod to the rear was the addition of a removable tow bar. Followed by some rear screen tinted film.

I then removed the rear wiper and fitted  a SuperSkoda rear badge, removed the Fabia and VRS Logo and I used some tinting spray to darken the rear lights.  Also If you look above the number plate I also mounted a rear camera.

 

The SuperSkoda Badge did not look particularly great so it was replaced with a blue one I found off Ebay along with some Lexus style rear light clusters which I thought would look great but immediately covered with dark lamin-x.

I had also had a mufflerectomy done and fitted a number plate surround holder.

 

Later on I got rid of the Lexus clusters and covered the rear lenses with a dark matt film and changed the badge for a PastyBoy one and also fitted some custom carbon number plates along with a briskoda badge on the rear screen.

 

Due to being pulled over by the police a number of times I ended up removing the dark tint because the reflector was not visible and also had to remove the carbon effect number plates due to the skoda logo on it. The small briskoda logo was removed and a larger one at the top of the rear screen was fitted along with the Castle Combe Logo. 

 

This is how it stands at the moment, the one thing the pictures don't show is what I have done to the rear lights so a quick video to watch

 

 

 

Hope you enjoy

 

Cheers

 

Karl

 

[korban]

Knew I missed something

 

Carbon covered front splitter was starting to peel off (after two years) so as I had to take it off I decided to modify it a bit.

 

Before

 

 

 

 

And after

 

 

Subtle but I like it, only problem is the new carbon film is not as good as the old one so looks like I'm going to have to find some better quality and do it again

 

Karl 

[korban]

Development of the Sides and Roof

 

One of the first mods I did which affected the side of the car was to have the rear windows tinted darker, tinted the side indicators and added a VRS logo to each side.

 

 

 

One Ebay I found some side skirts which I sprayed myself and fitted, fitted some carbon film to the middle pillars and also de-lockered the drivers side door.

 

 

 

Front and rear mud flaps were added, lowered on KW V1's , 16" Octy spiders fitted, front and rear wind deflectors fitted along with some VRS/Briskoda etched glass effect stickers to the rear windows.

 

 

 

More or less as it looks now with the Octy siders painted blue and black.

 

 

 

 

Development of the roof

 

Not much really first covered the main part of the roof with carbon film

 

 

Then about a year or so later also covered the rear spoiler

 

 

 

Karl 

 

 

 

 

[Kyle_vrs]

Love that centre brake light mod!

[DanHam]

More updates needed, easily the best project thread