Dan's 20v 1.8T Fabia Estate

[Hyphons]

He's just told me..

Doing a chop on the pillars to make the roof lower. Gonna be bad ass [emoji41]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's is absolute epic!! Bit like a throwback to Midnight Club 3 Dub Edition where you could give your cars a chop top, can not wait to see it done!

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[DanHarper]

That's is absolute epic!! Bit like a throwback to Midnight Club 3 Dub Edition where you could give your cars a chop top, can not wait to see it done!

 

Yep. Roof is now away to a fab shop who are going to weld in sections to make it slightly longer and wider and replace the sheet metal with a composite. After that 6" will be taken out the pillars all round and the roof welded back in place. Then the front doors and rear hatch need the same treatment. Rear is going to be panels rather than glass... van style. Then a custom windscreen and rear glass. Oh and new seats so I can actually fit in with a helmet on

[TrevorB33]

What? Lol sounds like something I'd do

[skodalad]

Nice to see this in the flesh today mate! Thanks for the turbo, top guy

[DanHarper]

That's is absolute epic!! Bit like a throwback to Midnight Club 3 Dub Edition where you could give your cars a chop top, can not wait to see it done!

 

Sorry to disappoint but this is not a thing :P Phil and I are pulling your leg.

 

By the way the only person who said with conviction "Thats a hatch not an estate" has never owned a Fabia or had much interest in them. Phil and Trevor were both tentative and should be ashamed :P

 

Actual proper prep going on for Croft...

 

 

I gave up on painting them blue, the paint I bought was rubbish and really thin meaning I was never going to get a nice even coverage, so I did a coat of black over the top then sanded back. Overall I quite like it for track wheels, probably wouldn't do them on my normal wheels as it doesn't fit in with the sleeper style.

 

Quite a bit of work to do on the car this weekend to get it ready for Croft:

 

Paint intercooler pipes and intercooler

Hack off excess bumper bits

Remove catch can and install vent to atmos under the car

New brake discs and pads

Fit track wheels

[Tech1e]

I spotted it was the hatch you were breaking but didn't want to ruin the wind up.

[DanHarper]

I spotted it was the hatch you were breaking but didn't want to ruin the wind up.

 

I assumed you got it immediately, don't worry

[DanHarper]

A bit of a tidy up today. Before:

 

 

After:

 

 

 

And some new discs/pads on. The old DS2500s were really not happy, the edges were crumbling like sandstone:

 

 

And new wheels fitted... all was well until I got everything warm, then this happened:

 

 

So I'm back on to 15mm spacers! Hopefully with these being OEM bore and not needing spigot rings as well maybe I can finally get spacers to work without highspeed funnyness. Going to test it out tonight and if there is vibration then the steels will go on for Croft.

Edited 6 August, 2016 by DanHarper

[Adam_]

Nice new badge. Lol

[pip_vrs]

Removed the strut brace?

[DanHarper]

Nice new badge. Lol

 

Told you I had one CC'd grill too, few stone chips but I'm not fussed.

 

 

Removed the strut brace?

 

Yep. One it wouldn't fit after I fitted a replacement pipe from the turbo without cutting it down. Two I'm not sure it does much anyway.

 

Car is vibration free up to enough mph so good for Croft

[pip_vrs]

Gonna have a play tomorrow night with mine. Get it all ready

[DanHarper]

Decided to weigh my wheel sets. No real surprises:

 

Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 with 205/50/15 86 Vredstein Sportrac 5s: 14KG

Team Dynamics Jet with 195/50/15 86 Nokian WR A3s: 14KG

Seat Cosmic/Cosmos with 195/50/15 82 Zeta Linea Sport semi slicks: 15KG

Steels with 205/45/16 86 (? on load) Federal RSRs: 19KG

[DanHarper]

Another track day completed with relatively few issues, this time it was Croft.

 

Biggest oppsie of the day was when I discovered my brake fluid cap was missing while looking around the booster wondering why there was smoke after I'd done a few laps to warm things up and come back in for a checkup... it was fluid that had exited the reservoir and was burning off. Very very big oppsie from my end! Must not have tightened it after doing the brakes last weekend. Fortunately a replacement was procured from Outofthi5world's Dad's car and I was good to go.

 

The second issue was some time later, possibly after lunch, can't quite remember the time line, but I experienced quite big vibrations suddenly when coming through the esses. I crawled back to the pits causing waved yellows (must have been some time after lunch as it got quieter and I think only Phil was affected by my slowness) to discover I'd lost ALL the weights that had to be placed on the outside of the wheel. Sadly unlike the TD1.2s where this was done previously the Seat wheels don't have a flat shelf, so a combination of centrifugal force and heat melting the glue had caused them to fall off. Never mind, quick change to the RSR-S and I was back out

 

I have some video ready when I get round to it. But in the mean time here is a taster and an explanation as to why passengers are henceforth banned from my car (sound required):

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03GQAX9amQY

 

Not sure why its not embedding. :(

Edited 11 August, 2016 by DanHarper

[DanHarper]

I acquired a new thing today, and once its released from QC will be fitted

 

 

Standard size which fits my snugly

[DanHarper]

I'm glad you like it hutchy, I was thinking about you as I drove to Oswestry and back listening to my favorite Spotify playlist on Friday evening

[hutchysrs50]

That's a worry.

I just liked the Rabbits

[DanHarper]

New seat fitted (sorry for the poor pic, couldn't open the door fully):

 

 

 

I took some stock rails/sliders from a junk Ibiza seat (they just unbolt), used some 2cm/2cm box chopped off said junk seat to make some spacers and then some 3cm/3cm box to make the cross pieces. The first box 'spacers' are needed to raise the cross sections up clear of the slider arm and also on the other side I used a longer piece which is bolted twice to the slider which the seat belt bolts in to, rather than bolting it to the seat mounts. The 3cm/3cm box is probably overkill, but I wanted to raise the seat anyway as I'm short :p Its probably a little high at the moment but its at max height on the seat mounts so can be lowered a bit or lent back a bit. As the steel box is quite heavy the whole lot is 14kg, but still better than the 24kg for an Ibiza 3dr seat, its rock solid too with no movement or squeaks! All in £60 + fuel to collect from Shropshire. Yep I ran out of black spray paint. Happy with it

 

Comfort is fine, I did 400miles pretty much back to back yesterday without any discomfort except for my right foot, which I can never get comfortable no matter what setup. Normally I end up resting it on the side my heal a bit which eventually gets numb, with this seat I'm forced to keep it upright and my heal ends up getting pins and needles, but I only really noticed that after 6hours of driving so its not an every day issue.

 

400miles was completed with 5miles left on the range, though I managed it a bit and had a bit of fun when I realised I'd make it home without refuelling All to drop off some seats and collect these:

 

 

Another set of Unicorn Droppings, Team Dynamics 1.2 in 15" with 5x100 fitment (how I wish there was a 4 stud conversion route as there are so many 4 studs about!). These have been for sale for ages but had tyres on originally which I didn't really need as I have 10 track tyres to finish off first. Guy finally split them. Sadly he wouldn't box (so frustrating as I know for £5 you can get 2 suitable boxes from Wilkinsons and I could arrange a courier for £20 for the lot), so off I went to Wantage. Still, Spotify makes driving doable and selling some seats 20mins away was an added bonus

Edited 28 August, 2016 by DanHarper

[DanHarper]

I can confirm Wavetracs work with no load on one wheel after beaching the Fabia on a bank... oops. Kinda needs some welly though which was counter intuitive while driving on grass. Saved me from a very time consuming ramp building exercise as the road was a dead end and miles from anywhere

[DanHarper]

Fabia failed its MOT :(

 

Exhaust emissions carbon monoxide content at idle excessive

Exhaust emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits

 

CO was at 0.69% (0.2% allowed)

Lambda 1.060 (1.030 max)

 

Did a log with VCDS but not sure if its of much use:

 

 

Everything looks similar to my logs from last year, before it passed the MOT.

 

I'd rather it fail on pretty much anything else TBH, anyone know how to read the emissions at home? :(

[DanHarper]

Oh one difference of note from last year... I have an Open Circuit error for the SAI - its supposed to be mapped out! - after a year I decided to remove the resistors for all the deletes unfortunately this one popped back up. Soldered a resistor back in place but the code won't go away :( Not sure if its related.

[pip_vrs]

Go somewhere else :-/

[Outofthi5world]

Yeah, the place you're going to isn't dodgy enough mate. You want me to recommend somewhere? I managed to get the Crocty through

[DanHarper]

Go somewhere else :-/

 

Still has to pass the same emissions test...

[Outofthi5world]

There's ways round it.