Hutchysrs50 - 8th Fabia... Special edition

[andsoutham]

Car's looking excellent. Still jealous of the colour and condition of your front end, mine is just a mess :(

[hutchysrs50]

Headlight washer caps?

 

Thats correct! :P

 

 

Car's looking excellent. Still jealous of the colour and condition of your front end, mine is just a mess :(

 

The pictures help, the front bumper has stone chips which dont look great very close up when its been waxed since it fills them and turns white!

But i guess overall, it is in good condition

[hutchysrs50]

Well... A poor update if any... I should be ashamed.

- I've never washed it in a few weeks, so it's filthy.

- Every other time I start it, I get a coolant warning light on the dash.

- The throttle pedal is sticking so idle varies from 800rpm to 1800rpm.

- 1st and reverse gear are becoming a pain to select.

- despite sealing the rear door, it seems it's leaking still, looks like it's leaking from the top as the very top seal is hanging down.

Nothing to fancy or expensive but feel like I'd rather just sell up and buy a MK2 Monte.

 

Well thats every job on the list ticked off now with a few other things done as well. I've got to say cleaning it properly with a pre-wash and detailing brushes, polishing and applying a hard wax was defintiley hard work but gives the best results, its easier to love a clean car!

 

The new coolant bottle and cap has fixed the low coolant warning light, the new throttle pedal has fixed the idle issue as well as the throttle sticking, the new clutch and flywheel has fixed my 1st and reverse problems, it falls into every gear nice and smooth every time now hot or cold.

 

Washing the car then checking the rear doors showed where the water was coming in so sealing them again and apply self tappers to squash it up even more has fixed that issue finaly! 

 

So now i can honest say the car is running 100% and has no issues what so ever, and to top it off as i said in another post, the previous owner got in touch to say its had a brand new turbo fitted at the dealers not so long ago so thats helped put my mind at rest also

[Stewpotz]

where did you get your coolant bottle from (and do you have part number etc) as mine is doing the same, plenty of coolant and not frozen but still flashes up (turning off and on again makes it go away)

 

EDIT: NVM, found it for £10 on ECP.

Edited 4 May, 2016 by Stewpotz

[Wardy]

 

EDIT: NVM, found it for £10 on ECP.

 

Try DISCOUNT15 on ECP if you're about to order. Code worked earlier for me, for 15% off

[hutchysrs50]

Mines from EuroCarParts also, ive got a trade account anyway so get discount but have seen them advertising 25% off the past few days.

[AaronMountford1990]

have you retrofitted the front headlight washers?

 

And how did you end up creating the projector headlights? I'm curious on replacing mine with something like that!

[hutchysrs50]

have you retrofitted the front headlight washers?

And how did you end up creating the projector headlights? I'm curious on replacing mine with something like that!

Just the caps, I looked for headlight washers for 6 month, couldn't get any so just cut the caps and fitted them. A set of washers went on eBay a few days later so didn't bother!

Pm me if you want more information on retrofitted xenons

[hutchysrs50]

Some small updates.

My airbox has been cracked since I bought the car so got a replacement. I opend it up and snow foamed it all before scrubbing with a detailing brush

Got it looking brand new again and got a new Bosch air filter to go back in.

Since I was removing the airbox I thought it would be a good time to detail the engine bay.

Started off like this...

And ended up like this...

Not a great deal of difference considering I spent around 3 hours cleaning and swapping the airbox over!

It wasn't in a great state to start with really, more dusty I think!

Edited 10 May, 2016 by hutchysrs50

[hutchysrs50]

Got my hands on some genuine front and back Skoda mud flaps so set about fitting them.

I gave them all a coat of autoglym bumper and trim gel to keep them clean, cleaned all four wheel arches and applied a decent amount of autoglym HD hard wax to protect the paint.

Fronts needed a slight trim to the very bottom of the wheel arch but went on no problem.

Rears needed the usual trim along the edge of the bumper so the mud flap could slide inside.

Both sides trimmed down and 2 longer bolts for each side for the bottom two bolts and they went on nicely.

And then the final product!

[hutchysrs50]

I bought a genuine leather arm rest a while ago, been sitting in the garage as I've been reluctant to just self tapper it in place. I then seen proper brackets to mount it in place from a member on here so bought a set of them and got to work!

The arm rest with OEM bracket

And the aftermarket fitting kit brackets from here

I took a million pictures fitting it so will make a how to guide and post the link at the top of this post, but here's pretty much how it went.

Removed everything in the way

Fitted the fitting kit like so

Put the bracket on how it should be

Put everything back together after some adjustments to the centre console

And then fitted the arm rest, job done!

Really over the moon with it actually, the fitting kit is 100% and far better than I could have expected. I can confidently put any amount of weight on the arm rest and it's solid without anything bending. As with everything els I've done in the car, I've spent extra time and money doing jobs but at least I always get perfect results from it!

Edited 16 May, 2016 by hutchysrs50

[andsoutham]

I've got mine at home waiting to go on, I used self tappers first time round and its squeaky and horrible to trust with much weight, this should help a lot

[hutchysrs50]

I've got mine at home waiting to go on, I used self tappers first time round and its squeaky and horrible to trust with much weight, this should help a lot

Definitely a good bit of kit the brackets. At least it's done properly like it left the factory with it!

[AaronMountford1990]

Definitely a good bit of kit the brackets. At least it's done properly like it left the factory with it!

How much did all that set you back? I'm very interested ! The mrs' new Auris has a decent arm rest but mine's lacking :/

[duck]

What's it like operating the handbrake with the arm rest down? I keep umming and arhhing about centre armrest but it always looks like it's going to be hard to use handbrake with one installed.

 

Thanks

[hutchysrs50]

It folds up completely out the way and has about 8 different fixed positions.

It does get in the way of the usual operation but doesn't obstruct it or stop you from using it.

Another note is, it's tighter to get your seat belt on which I didn't think about or notice

As for the price, the brackets are about £25 from Sean on here and the arm rest is £40+ really. I went for a mint condition one that was basically new and in leather to match my leather seats so wasn't that cheap.

[hutchysrs50]

So these turned up today

 

Some nice blue tint mirror glass from a skoda superb!

Dont worry about the smashed glass in the above picture, it was already smashed on a spare wing mirror ive got, i just had a practise removing the glass from the housing before doing my own on the car.

 

They come off quite easily actually.

 

Had to then make the wires longer for the heated glass since its on the other side.

old glass, clip on the right, new glass clips on the left.

 

small bit of wire later...

 

and clipped into place.

[Wardy]

Nice job - look good and a nice blue tinge to match the bodywork

[hutchysrs50]

Nice job - look good and a nice blue tinge to match the bodywork

That was my thinking!

Sadly I think it hides the blue more I'm used to looking in the mirror and seing blue so don't notice much difference. Good to have nice shiny wing mirrors anyway

Edited 19 May, 2016 by hutchysrs50

[AaronMountford1990]

So these turned up today

 

 

Some nice blue tint mirror glass from a skoda superb!

Dont worry about the smashed glass in the above picture, it was already smashed on a spare wing mirror ive got, i just had a practise removing the glass from the housing before doing my own on the car.

 

They come off quite easily actually.

 

 

Had to then make the wires longer for the heated glass since its on the other side.

old glass, clip on the right, new glass clips on the left.

 

 

small bit of wire later...

 

 

and clipped into place.

 

That looks awesome. Are they easy enough to pick up parts wise? I'm assuming you've just ran the wires into terminal blocks? Dont you need to be conscious of melting the terminal block by the element? (not sure how hot it gets)

[hutchysrs50]

That looks awesome. Are they easy enough to pick up parts wise? I'm assuming you've just ran the wires into terminal blocks? Dont you need to be conscious of melting the terminal block by the element? (not sure how hot it gets)

 

Thanks, im happy with them. Another good OEM+ part i suppose, they all add up and make a difference.

They are easy enough to get hold of yeah, Euro Car Parts sell them for around £25 per glass or ebay sell them. 

Not worried about them melting at all, terminal blocks are designed to do the job im using them for, could have crimped them or solderd but room is tight basically. They dont get near hot enough to melt them either

[stevobeavo]

I find the blue tint really helps at night on the motorway. Reduces the glare which can affect me quite a bit.

[hutchysrs50]

I find the blue tint really helps at night on the motorway. Reduces the glare which can affect me quite a bit.

 

You've got a good point with that, never thought about it!

[hutchysrs50]

A quick picture showing my nice new flaps! can just see Jamie on the right with his polisher out

Edited 19 May, 2016 by hutchysrs50

[hutchysrs50]

The other half is using my car all next week, so thought I'd give the brakes a service. They've been squeaking for a few weeks now, sort of scraping noise, so thought I'd check them before letting someone else drive the car.

Turns out it was the shield over the piston rubbing on the caliper, so once that was sorted, pushed the Pistons in and out to keep them free, cleaned up the discs a little and cleaned up the pads.

Since it all went straight farward I thought I'd give them a lick of paint!

Before.

And after:

No before for the other side, but two after.

I'll be giving them another coat in a few weeks when I get the car back since it was only done quickly.