Hi everyone. 

 

I've just joined so I'll put the link to my introduction so I don't clog up this thread...

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/291876-hi-fabia-vrs-mk1/

 

Now to the business. I have owned this 05 plate Fabia vrs and I love it. This is my first 'fast' car and it blew me away on the drive home. I literally giggled and smiled to myself like a kid. 

 

As it's a daily, the plan was to keep it standard and just use it for my journeys to and from work. However, since finding this forum and looking at a lot of project thread, brilliant ones at that, it has completely turned me to start modding it. I won't go mental as I have a Ford Fiesta si project car at the moment anyway, however looks wise and performance I have a few things in mind:

 

Coilovers 

Stage 1 map

refurbished alloys

 

Along with the usual colour coding of the front grill, upgrading the speakers, replacing the wing mirror glasses and the top bit of the gearnob. I may take the modifications further over the next couple of years but that will depend on time and money constraints.

 

Anyhow, onto some pictures. I've recently got into detailing. I'm looking to invest in a DA in the new year to widen my skills so I can really get her gleaming. So the pictures don't really do it justice but nevertheless:

 

I don't have any pictures of the interior, however it is in brilliant condition. I don't understand why Skoda chose that colour but people seem to like it! 

Anyway, suggestions, comments, questions will be appreciated! 

Thanks everyone.

I actually forgot to ask, I noticed the leaky rear doors are a common fault, which was a relief! I noticed people having sealant kits. Are these only purchasable from Skoda themselves?

And secondly, what is the colour of the calipers? I read it was mint green somewhere, but I just want to double check.

 

Thanks

sealkit is from skoda only i think. other people have used gutter sealant and had success. 

 

the caliper paint is hammerite smooth green. its discontinued so its rare to find it, but comes up on the for sale section sometimes. 

 

nice car by the way and your plans sound good 

Nice clean looking car look forward to reading more about it.

Looks how mine did when I got it just over a year ago coilovers are a must it transforms the look of it. Looks a tidy one too

Hi Deadmau, nice one mate. Will see if I can get hold of some, if not I'll try some home DIY stuff. Was going to do it today but ironically it is raining. 

Will keep a look out for the hammerite too, nice one.

 

Cheers David. Christmas/new year time will see the bulk of the updates but i'll be getting little jobs done in between to keep myself satisfied lol.

 

Thanks Kyle. I've seen your thread and love what you've done to it!

 

Update time anyway. Not massive due to the weather but I got all the bulbs changed. 

Plan was to fit Osram night breaker bulbs, silver lined indicator bulbs, and Philips xenon sidelights.

Managed to get the lights out without having to remove the bumper. Found it all fairly straight forward.

This is the Philips one (it looks fairly yellow, but compared to the other it's a lot whiter, especially in person.)

Standard

 

 

Also noticed I had a slow puncture, due to a nail. I've fitted the spare (a full size spare) and will be getting the tyre repaired (fingers crossed it's repairable and its not a new tyre!). However, i'm curious as to why there is a 50mph limit on the spare when its a full sized steel wheel? Can anybody shed any light on this? thanks.

 

And one last question, how do you remove the front grill? I had a quick look before I came in, is it just a case of removing the screws and it pops out or do you pop those metal clips off at the bottom? Thanks again everyone.

Grill easy enough just the screw you see when you open the bonnet and the rest all un clips once you've removed the chrome but you can put it back on the car and clip the chrome bit back into place once you finished it

Caliper paint if you search German caliper paint on eBay there's a seller on there who does any colour £12 a tin I think for 250ml and pure green(ROL 6037 I think)is very close I think to original saw it on a project thread on here can't remember who's it was tho (try and search for it)

That'll want a new tyre sadly!

I thought it would be Phil :( Bloody nails.

 

That will be getting sorted this week. Problem I have is that I leave at 6:00am and then return at 6:00pm! So I'm having to get my mum to sort it out for me. Nothing worse than getting somebody who knows bugger all about cars, so I'm expecting either a stupidly cheap, crap tyre or the most expensive.

 

Thanks Rich, will get that done this weekend!

I did look at that, but I wasn't sure which would be the correct shade so thanks again for clearing that up for me.

Update time: had been a while as I've been having major issues with the ECU so it's been stagnant for a while now. Nevertheless there have been a couple of things done/and are in the pipeline.

 

I finally had the wheels powdercoated as the laquer peel and general ****ty look of the silver ****ed me off. Also the fact I cover over 500miles a week meant they looked dirty from the word go. So I chose a popular colour of anthracite!

 

 

Next plan is to lower it slightly. Coilovers are out of the question as i don't want to go that low. So i'm thinking about 35mm springs.

I'm not sure who's car that is as I found it on google images but I think it looks a good height for a daily.

 

I have also replaced the centre caps as being badgeless looked wrong. 

 

Any comments will be appreciated.

 

Thanks, Ben

Looks a nice clean base mate, if you ,lowering it on spring, make sure you get shocks aswell

Love the new colour on the alloys, exact colour i want on mine! Get it lowered

When you get it lowered it looks like I'll have a twin!! You just need to get a 3" single exhaust then   

I'll look into it Kyle ha!

 

Thanks skodalad, I will be fitting new shocks as you say, I imagine 80,000 miles will have given the shocks a good beating!

 

Warner, yes I love the colour, much easier on the eyes and show the dirt up a lot less. 

 

Would love a LCR splitter as well but they go for silly money! 

Not much to update on this apart from service and keeping the wax topped up. 

 

I'll be looking at lowering it soon and tyres, but first I have a couple of questions.

 

Does anyone make 40mm lowering springs or is it 35mm, then if you want lower, coilovers?

 

In regards to tyres, How suitable are 195's over the 205's you should have? I've just bought 4 part worn 195's to use until I can afford 4 brand new tyres. I notices that 4 toyo T1r's are a fraction of the price of 205's. I know car companies spend a lot of money on R&D with tyres so if it says 205, you should stick with it, but if its not a massive difference then id rather save the money!

 

Thanks

Quite a few people have gone to 195s as it looks abit better. Isn't going to make a great deal of difference I'd run them. I've just put some eibach lowering springs on mine and I think it sits quite high but I've had it on coilovers for a year with no arch gap so I probably think it looks worse than it is. Apex seem to give a nice drop, I was going to get some but the eibachs ride better so got them instead. I don't think you can get 40 mm springs in all honesty and if you did you'd ideally need matched shocks. Stick to eibach, apex or vogtland if I were you they all seem to have good reviews or ap shocks and springs

I think i'll have a look at the ap shocks and springs, wouldn't mind replacing the lot.

 

Yeah and I do silly miles a week so the cheaper the better! 

 

Ta Kyle

Right everyone, big update time (nothing exciting yet sadly).

 

Window reg **** itself so I set about replacing that on Monday.

 

 

Why Skoda riveted these on is beyond me, and the size of the rivets they used is once again, beyond me. I managed to collect a few rivets that fit and borrowed a battery powered rivet gun from work (wow it made it ridiculously easy).

 

 

The whole process was fairly straight foward until I snapped part of the locking, which pops the lock indicator up and down. Good job it's not too important!

 

Once I had the panel on, I sealed it all in and set about fitting everything back on. I got to the interior door handle latch where it joins with the cable and connected it up. It seemed extremely tight and I struggled with pliers popping it into position. I tested it and low and behold it did not work. It seemed there was too much tension so it prevented the door from shutting at all. 

 

I couldn't work it out and snapped part of the interior handle off which meant I had to bodge it. I did a pretty good job of the bodge and it opened and closed just fine. 

 

 

I finished off the fitting the rest of the door card and gazed at my success of replacing my first window regulator. I shut up, locked up and cleaned the glass... I then realised I had forgotten to clean the inside of the glass and swiftly went to open the door. At first I thought I hadn't unlocked it, but I soon realised the door would not open whatsoever, not from the outside, not from the inside, not from me pressing the open button on my key thousands of times trying to catch a small glimmer of hope that it would spring open.

 

So my issue is, well, what is the issue!? I would love to get behind the door card but I'd rather not destroy it from the inside. Will a diagnostics check point anything out? My only guess is that the main plug to the central locking unit has come lose, or it's wire related somehow.

 

I really am baffled, and to finish it off I have my MOT on friday!?