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

[Lofty]

18 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

 

Wonderful. Fabia or not, will you be going to Skodafest on the 4th, Matt?

I’m not I’m afraid Ryan were off on holiday on Monday so we’re gonna miss it. Next year 100% I’ll be there though

[Lofty]

They say a picture paints a thousand words so .............

 

 

 

 

Still jobs to do but it's the first drive in nearly 7 years so was quite nervous/emotional!

 

Matt

 

 

Edited 14 June, 2023 by Lofty

[Gaz]

You took it outside!

 

Blimey, if I had a car that nice, I'd only want to drive it on freshly vacuumed Wilton or Axminster carpet 😎

 

Looks jubbly btw 👍👍

 

Gaz

[TrevorB33]

5 hours ago, Lofty said:

They say a picture paints a thousand words so .............

 

 

 

 

Still jobs to do but it's the first drive in nearly 7 years so was quite nervous/emotional!

 

Matt

 

 

Just saw it on your insta, so glad it’s out in the wild, congrats it’s been a awesome build now go enjoy it 😍

[Lofty]

I've booked the Fabia in for it's MOT a week today (28th June). 

 

This will be the first MOT since it expired in September 2016, so the break in the MOT history will be substantial to say the least.

 

I'll get some better full underneath shots when it's up on the ramp.

Once it's MOT'd, I shall tax it for 6 months then start using it to get the miles on.

(for those of you worried about me driving it in the post above it was on Trade Plates to get it home.)

[TrevorB33]

6 hours ago, Lofty said:

I've booked the Fabia in for it's MOT a week today (28th June). 

 

This will be the first MOT since it expired in September 2016, so the break in the MOT history will be substantial to say the least.

 

I'll get some better full underneath shots when it's up on the ramp.

Once it's MOT'd, I shall tax it for 6 months then start using it to get the miles on.

(for those of you worried about me driving it in the post above it was on Trade Plates to get it home.)

Wow can’t believe it’s been that long, I’m sure I saw it in person at one of the either briskoda national meets or Skodafest back then around 2015 

[Lofty]

Well today was the day....

 

 

 

 

Just noticed the Tailpipe is not level. B****cks.

 

*job for later me thinks

 

[Lofty]

It passed, clean sheet as well. 

 

The MOT guy I use I've know for years and he said that he didn't think I was going "that far" with the car! He gathered his guys round to look underneath it with various expletives of approval.

 

More pics of it on the MOT ramp..

 

 

Got the car back home - 23 miles now covered since rebuild, put it back in the garage and put the cover back on it.

 

I have now taxed the car for the next 6 months, so I can start using it and putting some gentle running in miles on it.

I might even get it to a couple of local shows so you might see the car doing car things for a change!

 

Matt

 

[Gaz]

3 hours ago, Lofty said:

Just noticed the Tailpipe is not level. B****cks.

 

Surely not   Must be a hoptical lusion due to the flat roof being on the squint - they've obviously dropped the offside of the car lift to make up for it 👍😇

 

Congrats on the MOT pass (as if in doubt!) and expletives of approval 😎

 

G

[Lofty]

Cheers Gaz.

 

First thing my mate said when I sent him the pic was "Tailpipe is wonky"

 

Cruel Ba**ard. 😝

[softscoop]

This is simply one of the best Fabia projects ever.

 

It must be cleaner than if they MOTd a brand new car.

 

 

[Lofty]

Thank you for all the kind words. Ross (tech1e) asked me to post the pics on the Facebook group "Fabia Owners Club" and the response was great from all the people on there.

 

First big show is "Rollhard", I didn't think the Fabia would be interesting enough for them to have on display, especially considering the level of other modified cars but here we are...

 

 

Looks like it'll be on display on Sunday 6th August at Bicester Heritage. Can't wait. 

[Lofty]

The Fabia has been out and about, attended the Oddly titled "Wheels on Wednesday" car meet on Sunday (go figure) in Worcestershire last weekend. It's the furthest it's been driven in many years so i'm still nervous when driving it, listening for every noise and sniffing for every smell.

 

Car drove fine of course and was parked up in amongst the Hot (???) hatch section. Got a fair bit of interest but to many it's just a clean Fabia with yellow wheels. The many small details take a while to see and appreciate.

 

 

I have a few jobs to do on her now though. The steering tie rods need changing as there is slight play in them, so I have new genuine TPS supplied parts to go on, and then I'm going to give the entire car a thorough spanner check to make sure everything is tight. This is more for my own peace of mind as anything else.

 

Once I have done the tie rods, I'll take it for a front wheel alignment as well, even though I think it's pretty close as it is, it'll need doing to be sure.

 

Then it's just a case of more miles on it. Done 75 so far, so that's 7.5% run in now. 

 

 

[AnnoyingPentium]

Looks absolutely stunning, Matt. True dedication here.

[Lofty]

135 miles covered now, so that's 13.5% towards the running in target of 1000 miles.

 

I have the "Rollhard" show coming up this coming weekend, so I need to have a couple of evenings this week getting it cleaned to within an inch of it's life.

 

Display ramps are away being powdercoated Rall6029 Skoda Mint green and I "may" have bought a display mirror to show off it's undersides.... it's all got very out of hand.

 

One thing I'll need to address in the next few weeks is the exhaust tailpipe. Quite simply the OE style of oval tailpipe, coupled with the bigger fuel injector nozzles is making me all twitchy on a long run with soot deposits on the tailgate, so i'll dig out the downswept tailpipe I made back in 2019, and find a local trusted exhaust specialist who can complete the missing piece to fit to the car.

 

This is what it looks like, and i've already modified the heat shield, rear panel and rear bumper to fit it nice and high so you'll not see the whole thing hanging down.

 

 

I have mocked it up before and it's nice and subtle, well as subtle as a 3" brushed stainless steel pipe can be...

 

 

 

 

 

More soon weary readers. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

I have a lot of love for this car.

[mdk1]

Congratulations it’s been an epic build, now time to enjoy it.

[Lofty]

Small update - better than none I guess!

 

300 miles into the running in period and it's going kind of ok. Got a slight issue with limp mode at times, plugged VCDS in and it's pointing to the MAP sensor being at fault, so some investigative work is needed there. I have my suspicions that the wiring to the MAP sensor is too tight, and it'll pulled the connector and damaged it, not uncommon with the alloy boost pipes as it does move the sensor somewhat further away from the original location.

 

I've bought a new 4 pin terminal/connector for the MAP sensor which comes pre-pinned with 150mm of wiring so i'll extend the loom to hopefully reduce the strain on the connector. Then i'll try it and see how it goes. Could well be that a new MAP sensor is indeed required as well, but for now i'll do the cheaper option.

 

Rollhard Show - Bicester Heritage - Hmm, went to the show, displayed the car but didn't really "get" the whole show tbh. I know it's probably down to my age, but the majority of cars there were all Air-Bagged with massive rims. That seemed to be the flavour of the day. Left at lunchtime as it did nothing for me. I think i'll focus more on local stuff from now on, plus the next Skodafest get together next year.

 

I did fit a new sticker, not normally a fan of stickers but the colour matched the car - The Hesketh Racing Superbear!

 

 

Edited 21 August, 2023 by Lofty

[Cropzy]

Rollhard is about stance and fitment. It's what most show cars are now.

[DieselMonte]

Should take it to dubshed in ni next time it's on.

You'd get inside for sure

[wolfsburger]

Just caught up on the last 4 years of updates since I left VRS ownership....  Wow!... Just Wow!... 😵

[Lofty]

On 14/02/2024 at 12:39, wolfsburger said:

Just caught up on the last 4 years of updates since I left VRS ownership....  Wow!... Just Wow!... 😵

Cheers Fella,

 

It's currently hibernating under its cover in the garage, and is doubling as a storage shelf for lightweight Mercedes Benz parts but the plan is to get it taxed in March, weather permitting and get using it a bit more to at least get the running in miles under its belt, then it can go for final mapping.

[wolfsburger]

Sounds like a plan 🫡