Lofty's Sprint Yellow Fabia vRS Mk1 - "Project Daffodil"

[Lofty]

On 17/11/2019 at 08:42, Paul thornton said:

Did you move house purely for the bigger garage?

 

I know I would lol!

 

 

Erm, aah, hmm, possibly the garage MAY have swayed the decision... 

[Lofty]

Edit - trying to get the photobucket pictures to show... PITA!!

Edited 26 February, 2020 by Lofty

[Tech1e]

On 26/02/2020 at 08:42, Lofty said:

Edit - trying to get the photobucket pictures to show... PITA!!

 

I think you have to pay an extortionate amount now to get them linking again.

[corndog]

You could try Imgur. Is free and hopefully will remain free. Frothing to see your next update...

 

[Titanium_Man]

Flickr 👍

 

Would transfer over my photos from PB, but my thread is cr@p 🤪 

[kentdale]

On 26/02/2020 at 08:42, Lofty said:

Edit - trying to get the photobucket pictures to show... PITA!!

Hi Lofty , just started looking at your thread again and wondered where the pics had gone, I hope you are able to show them again I need some inspiration at the moment with my Lemon.

Martin

[Lofty]

In the style of Jim from Friday Night Dinner.... "Hello All....."

 

It's been a while, nearly 12 months in fact since I gave a proper update, it's been a busy old year. We moved house mid November 2019, not far, less than 2 miles in fact but we have gone from renting to owning again after a few years. 

 

Needless to say, the house that was pretty much perfect, move straight in etc has occupied every single hour of spare time and money and the poor car has sat under cover in the new garage. Good news is the house is pretty much finished and the enforced COVID-19 lockdown period has allowed me to finish 5 years worth of house DIY in 6 months!

 

Some of you may remember the slightly bigger garage at the new house, in fact it's a usable large tandem garage that has been significantly enhanced in the period we have been here. I have insulated the roof, plasterboarded, 7x new 6' Twin LED lights, cut and installed a large double glazed window where there was a plain wall, new composite door to the patio as well as grinding the whole concrete floor by hand before laying a screed of Ardex K301 concrete floor compound. Oh yeah and a new electric roller door.

 

The plan was to build a lovely space to keep the car / cars and have a well lit, warm and dry place to do detailing & maintenance, so I have fitted the end of the garage out with units and worktop/tiles to finish it off.

 

Here is how the garage looked to start with..

 

 

 

 

 

Fast forward many months of graft, DIY injuries, late nights, early mornings and we're nearly finished now...

 

 

Coupled with the internals, we have had the front of the house changed, new driveway, fences, as well as rear decking - and I though cars could absorb money....

 

Upshot is, if anyone's still reading, is that i'll be back on the car soon, getting some more part from TPS the weekend so I've no excuse now to get stuck into it.

 

Just need to Epoxy resin coat the garage floor first....

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Matt

Edited 18 August, 2020 by Lofty

[TrevorB33]

Beautifull mate, severe garage envy

[kentdale]

On 18/08/2020 at 16:34, Lofty said:

In the style of Jim from Friday Night Dinner.... "Hello All....."

 

It's been a while, nearly 12 months in fact since I gave a proper update, it's been a busy old year. We moved house mid November 2019, not far, less than 2 miles in fact but we have gone from renting to owning again after a few years. 

 

Needless to say, the house that was pretty much perfect, move straight in etc has occupied every single hour of spare time and money and the poor car has sat under cover in the new garage. Good news is the house is pretty much finished and the enforced COVID-19 lockdown period has allowed me to finish 5 years worth of house DIY in 6 months!

 

Some of you may remember the slightly bigger garage at the new house, in fact it's a usable large tandem garage that has been significantly enhanced in the period we have been here. I have insulated the roof, plasterboarded, 7x new 6' Twin LED lights, cut and installed a large double glazed window where there was a plain wall, new composite door to the patio as well as grinding the whole concrete floor by hand before laying a screed of Ardex K301 concrete floor compound. Oh yeah and a new electric roller door.

 

The plan was to build a lovely space to keep the car / cars and have a well lit, warm and dry place to do detailing & maintenance, so I have fitted the end of the garage out with units and worktop/tiles to finish it off.

 

Here is how the garage looked to start with..

 

 

 

 

 

Fast forward many months of graft, DIY injuries, late nights, early mornings and we're nearly finished now...

 

 

Coupled with the internals, we have had the front of the house changed, new driveway, fences, as well as rear decking - and I though cars could absorb money....

 

Upshot is, if anyone's still reading, is that i'll be back on the car soon, getting some more part from TPS the weekend so I've no excuse now to get stuck into it.

 

Just need to Epoxy resin coat the garage floor first....

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Matt

Hi Lofty, pleased to see you back, I might possibly have garage envy, mines still ok for one car tho.

[Lofty]

Finally got the floor finished, I used the garage floor epoxy resin from Resincoat, two thick coats has seen it transformed.

 

 

So, no excuses to get back on with the yellow one..... he says hopefully.

 

In other news the Black daily vRS Fabia is moving onto pastures new, i'll update that thread accordingly.

 

Cheers

 

Matt

[Lofty]

Rejoice! i'm starting to get back onto the yellow car at last.

 

The yellow vRS is fitted with the Bilstein B14 coilover kit which for those of you who have seen it, has the height adjusters on TOP of the rear spring, between the spring and the body. Ever since I fitted the kit, and despite the adjusters being wound all the way to their lowest setting, it looked a little high on the back.

 

I ordered from TPS a pair of new rear spring rubbers, and set to work the other evening. I lowered the rear beam down and removed the Bilstein rear springs and height adjusters, replacing them with the new OE rubber mounts. Fitted like a glove and has now lowered the car by about 25mm. The springs are still held in tight between the rear beam and the body, so no danger of being too low.

 

I still have a access to the Black vRS which I sold to a friend so I was able to ask him to measure up the height of the top of the rear arch from the ground, and now the yellow one is EXACTLY the same as that. That car was lowered on some cheap Stance + coilovers and the height was always bang on in my mind.

 

No pics of this as the car is still in the garage so it's hard to get side on pics.

 

I have however started mocking up the rear tailpipe on the exhaust.

 

 

Its a brushed stainless 3" downswept tailpipe welded onto a 3" pipe which will be joined to the new back box (when made) with a stout V-Band clamp which will make cleaning the tailpipe easy off the car.

 

Just need to sort the back box out once the car is running.

 

I'm working through a list of small niggly jobs but hopefully we'll be at the point soon of turning the key.

 

I do have a "marmite" update on the yellow one which i'll share with you soon. That will 100% divide opinon….

 

Matt

[Lofty]

Look at this, two updates in two days, bit like the old times...

 

Right, here we go. I've fancied doing something different with the wheels for a little while, as the car will be a very lightly used garage queen / show pony etc, I feel able to exercise some "bravery".

 

I'm not 100% certain where this idea / inspiration has come from, in my mind it was old press pictures of the mid 90s Porsche 968 Clubsport in Yellow, and someone also pointed out a similar color scheme on the Felicia Fun.... so judge the following based on either of those two mental images LOL

 

Yellow wheels. There - I've said it.

 

For now (disclaimer alert) I have had only one wheel done, which happens to be the full size 17" spare wheel - same style as the rest of them so you'll get the idea....

 

 

I'm letting the idea settle at the moment before, or indeed IF I commit to having the rest of them done. It's a marmite move, but i'm certain I've not seen any UK Fabia's in Sprint Yellow with matching wheels.

 

Let me know what you think? (might regret asking that ha ha ha)

 

Matt

 

(EDIT - I know the front needs lowering, that's next on the list)

Edited 2 October, 2020 by Lofty

[TrevorB33]

Do it mate I did colour coded white on white on one of my last vrs 👍🏼

[Louisking1]

Cleanest bumblebee around lol some job it is mate well done 

[Robshaw]

I love your car and the vast time and effort that's gone into it so far.

 

The yellow wheels aren't for me (but what do I know!) It's your car, go for it.

[Lofty]

The wheels are certainly dividing opinion but I’m of the thought that I’ll run with them for a year, then can always change the colour again... 

 

tonight has seen only some mild tinkering, I got all the boot plastics out of storage, built everything back up, cleaned all the boot latch with small detail brushes and Surfex HD.

 

I then dug out a rare set of genuine Skoda accessory boot bags, and a new genuine Skoda boot liner. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

In readiness for the big start up, I’ve put 2x Jerry cans of Shell V-Power Diesel in the tank, connected all the fuel pump wiring back up (it’s been disconnected ever since I had the tank out to do the floor resto..) so we can connect the battery and cycle the fuel pump and check for leaks.

 

I’m going to pull the glow plugs out next week and put some oil down onto the piston tops, let it sit for a while then crank the engine over from the bottom pulley. Reason for this is the engine has been sat in the car for over two years now, and hasn’t spun at all apart from the initial turning over by hand. Just want to make sure nothing is stuck or overly dry in the block. 
 

more soon

[Lofty]

Well good news is the engine turns over freely, nothing has stuck or siezed in the 2years since the engine went back in. Only wound it over with a ratchet on the crank bolt but it’s a start.

 

I have now got a running in base map from Faboka (John) which will allow me to at least get it started and run in. Boost pressure is standard VRS which is more than enough to bed everything in.

 

Battery is on a long trickle charge, hopefully it’ll come back to life after 4yrs off the car. 
 

Tomorrow evening will see the battery reconnected, a test of all systems, then try and load the new map onto the ecu with my mpps cable- if I can remember how to do it??

 

I’ll try and bleed some fuel through up to the engine and check everything for leaks.

 

I’m not going for the big start until my two mates who’ve helped me out so much are round, beer and pizza have been mentioned so all will be good I hope.

 

I have fitted the spare wheel tonight, cleaned all the tools and that’s the boot finished..

 

 

More tomorrow 

[Titanium_Man]

Yeah, not sure about the yellow wheels, but can’t really decide on the basis of one wheel. But why not!

 

Glad to read that you managed to turn the engine over after two years ..... gives me hope my donor engine might be alright after a similar time not moving 

Edited 11 October, 2020 by jars

[Lofty]

I got distracted over the weekend just gone, ended up doing a full exterior and interior detail on this..

 

 

It's my dads Fabia 1.9 TDi 100PD Ambiente which he's had from new and only done 40k. He's approaching 80 so has reduced enthusiasm for scrabbling about polishing cars so I took pity on it and gave the old girl some love. It's a lovely old thing, drives perfectly and so smooth.

 

Anyway, I have now had all the wheels back from Project Powder Coating in Brierley Hill and they are utterly flawless, glossy and smooth. And Yellow.

 

Fitted back up with the new tyres, and back on the car.

 

 

The cars still up on stands as it's easier to work on while we get it running.

 

Speaking of running....

 

 

The running in map is now loaded up, just need to change a bit of fuel hose i'm not happy with and replace a suspect crank sensor with new genuine one and we should be good to fire..

 

 

[Louisking1]

Was looking back on ur photos looking at the rear b14 springs wondering do I have my springs upside down ? Having them ur way they don’t sit on the coupler to well 

[Lofty]

Bit of an update folks...

 

I loaded the new map onto the ecu, a base map for a 2.0 PD with the bigger nozzles, repaired the broken wire to the fuel temp sensor and then went for a fire up.

 

It ran but badly, wouldn't rev up, as soon as any revs were applied it died, showing up crank sensor fault. Replaced with new genuine crank sensor and while it'll now rev up, it wont idle, throwing up Glow plug flashing light and eml light. Still showing as crank sensor fault. Could it be another faulty sensor?

 

Anyone got any ideas how to check the sensor in situ to see if it's duff? Or how to check for wiring breaks up to the sensor connections? I kept the original crank sensor just in case as well.

[Lofty]

Not really much in the way of a full update. I have sourced a supposedly good (but used and still 15yr old) engine loom, and have bitten the bullet and ordered a new engine loom from TPS. That way I can rule out any electrical maladies from ECU to engine at least.

 

I have a new camshaft signal sensor to go on, so that means ALL the engine sensors are now brand new, Crank Sensor, Cam Sensor, CTS Sensor, Fuel Temp Sensor and MAF sensor as well. I have yet to collect the loom from TPS as it has had to be sourced from outer Mongolia it seems, so that will be this week at some point. 

 

If I still have Crank signal issues it's pointing to the signal reluctor ring on the crank possibly having a bent tooth (could have knocked it refitting the crank maybe) so that might mean sump coming off to check. That will deff have to wait till after xmas.

 

In the meantime I have sourced a bolt in rear strut brace (purely because I like the cosmetic look of it....) and had it powdercoated in RAL 6029 (mint green) This matches the calipers perfectly, so that has been fitted.

 

 

Excuse the pile of corruption in the boot... 

 

Whilst at the mercy of the powdercoaters, I decided to have the front strutbrace done to match as it will provide a splash of colour in the engine bay.

 

 

Please note the front brace isn't fitted properly, just popped roughly in place to take a pic, as I've got to strip a bit of the engine bay back out it made little sense bolting it down fully.

 

A while ago, prob 2 years tbh, I found a seller on facebook with the rare rear seat with the middle rear headrest option. Middle of nowhere in wet wales I picked it up for not a lot of money (£30 from memory) and stored it in the loft, I knew it was grubby and would need a deep clean so that's what else I've been doing.

 

Before...

 

 

 

 

Grubby but not holed or damaged thankfully. I did toy with the idea of stripping the material off the seat and washing it but the backrest looked possibly the hardest to do so I cleaned it in one piece. Using my trusted Autosmart Bio-Brisk interior shampoo, a splash of Bilt Hamber surfex in with it, I set to scrubbing the seat then extracting using very hot water in the extraction machine.

 

After one pass...

 

 

 

 

In all it has taken four sessions of scrubbing, extracting and drying to get it clean...

 

 

Nearly 100% dry now so can be fitted into the car this week.

 

Now I was left with the rear seat squab and other back rest of the used manky seat I bought, so I have stripped the upholstery off the seat bases just now in readiness to machine wash. Not a pretty sight...

 

 

 

 

These are currently having a good session in the washing machine at 40c so i'll see what they come out like. I suspect they will need to be washed again to get all the filth off. The water and suds in the machine was brown. And the missus noticed....

 

Once they are clean and dry i'll put them away somewhere safe for a little side project I have planned..... (watch this space)

 

Next interior job is to get the drivers seat out and then find in my loft, pretty much the last new seat foam base that was available from factory, purchased in 2015. I need to replace the base foam in the driver seat as it's starting to break down on the drivers side edge bolster an I don't want the material going in a hole over the framework.  More pics on that when I get to it.

 

Matt

 

Edited 7 December, 2020 by Lofty

[Lofty]

Hmm, the link to photobucket images now has to be added differently. They all seem to be working now though 👍🏻

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 10 December, 2020 by Lofty

[Lofty]

Here we go, looks like i'm only updating every 3 months or so........

 

Struggling for any enthusiasm at the moment for messing with the car, working from home for the last 12 months has seen me getting less and less bothered about it. I know it needs finishing but with not being able to drop things at suppliers, firms being closed, it's seen it sit yet again for months on end. Still, keeps the mileage down i guess..

 

But, i have been doing the odd bit here and there, continuing with the interior.

 

The rear seats are still out of the car, all clean and wrapped up ready to go back in, so i've been focusing on the drivers side floor/plastics. The carpet was given a prolonged cleaning session, wet cleaned with Chemical Guys carpet solution and then extracted, looks much nicer in there.

 

While the drivers seat is out, it was chance to address the knocked about plastic sill trim that bugged me everytime i opened the door.

 

 

 

 

Various bits of damage after 15 years is to be expected.

 

I sourced a replacement trim for both this piece and the panel underneath the seatbelt buckle, still available from TPS. Look how long it'd been on a dusty shelf in Czech Republic......

 

 

Yip, that's right, been on the shelf for nigh on 15 years... same as the other piece i bought.

 

Needless to say was a tricky bugger to fit, but looks loads better now.

 

 

Pedals have been steam cleaned and the used mat given a light hoover. I have got a new set of mats in the loft if i even need to change them in the future.

 

The seat fixing bolts have all been cleaned up and are being painted satin black as we speak.

 

Speaking of seats..... i have now built a bespoke adjustable subframe for a single Cobra Suzuka GT Width racing seat. The seat subframe is now being broken down into the component parts to be painted up, and the seat is going away to my trimmers next week.

 

The plan is to have the seat covered in vRS Fabia material, in the same style as the factory road seats, so light grey outer, onyx grey inner with the VRS logo in the right place. So it will look similar but different at the same time. Time will tell if i can live with it long term but it's something i've not seen done on a Fabia before and keeps it OEM+ instead of just throwing in a black bucket seat. The seat material has been a mission to get hold of but i'm confident it'll look stunning when done. I'm toying with the idea of getting the trimmer to make an elasticated waterproof cover to fit snug over the seat to keep mucky hands off it in the garage etc.

 

I'll get more pics up soon, promise... :-)

[TrevorB33]

I’m still here mate, keep it going! I always look forward to reading your updates 👍🏼