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

[Lofty]

A good few hours fiddling with bits and bobs this afternoon, dug the mirror internals out from storage and this is what I was dealing with..

 

 

 

 

The new mirror glass is the heated blue tinted ones off a Golf Mk4 which meant I had to extend the mirror glass wiring a few inches. In order to strip the bases down enough to have dipped I had to cut the loom so that needed rewriring as well. You’ll see the freshly painted Sprint yellow cases done by my own fair hands!!

 

Took ages to put back together and repair the wiring but now they are back together the carbon dipped parts look ace next to the yellow..

 

 

 

 

The grille was built back up with a brand new original badge, the grille surround polished etc..

 

 

 

 

 

The fog light surrounds were also built up with the dipped backings and fresh surrounds..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some more trick work is ongoing with a spare engine cover and a custom airbox lid will be featured on here soon!!!

 

 

 

 

Edited 29 March, 2021 by Lofty

[RobLarby]

Where did you get the mirror glass? I bought mine from eBay but it's cheap crap tbh, fit isn't great.

[Lofty]

10 hours ago, RobLarby said:

Where did you get the mirror glass? I bought mine from eBay but it's cheap crap tbh, fit isn't great.

 

Erm eBay LOL. Not expensive either but seem to fit ok, took some force to get them to clip on but they seem to fit properly with even gaps all the way round.

 

[RobLarby]

Hahaha, mine look fine but they don't keep an even gap around the edge so look cheap :(

[Lofty]

Still plodding away doing little bits as and when I get chance, been mad busy with work so the cars just tucked away under cover in the garage, however...

 

I’d had discussions with James at Bold Hydrographics about doing a custom engine cover so I purchased an early ATD TDi one, stripped it down and took it to him.

 

The plan was to fully smooth the cover, getting rid of the hundreds of circular indentations in it and then dipping in the same stealth carbon as all the other bits. 

 

James started by gently blasting the cover in his blasting cabinet with some walnut shell media, this ensures all the holes are clean from dirt, grease, oil, silicone etc.

 

Lots of prep work involved in filling the holes, he uses the same carbon reinforcing filler that is used in plastic bumper repairs..

 

 

 

 

 

 

once this was done, two good coats of 2k flexible primer, sanded in between and after..

 

 

 

 

Then two coats of satin black...

 

 

 

Dipped then multiple coats of tinted hi gloss lacquer...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baked at gas mark 2 in the booth over night then wet sanded and machine polished up. My Sprint Yellow insert was fitted when I picked it up tonight..

 

 

 

 

 

Yet again blown away by how it looks.

 

I’m In the process of doing a custom air box lid which is a messy laborious process, I’ll get more pics of that up soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 29 March, 2021 by Lofty

[Dark_Hero]

Love it mate. Absolutely stunning

[Lofty]

I’ve mentioned previously that I was meddling with a custom airbox lid. 

 

Now those of you who still have the standard airbox and not lobbed it into the skip to fit a Honda S2000 etc will know that the standard airbox lid ain’t exactly the smoothest and most attractive of parts. 

 

The plan was to work on it and get it to such a point that James at Bold Hydrographics can finish it and dip it in carbon.

 

First step was to cut the majority of the triangulation supporting webs off it. Notice I’ve not cut them ALL off, I’ve left enough to make sure it won’t flex.

 

This was a time consuming job with a tiny cutting disc in the Dremmel.

 

Left the surface like this.

 

Before.

 

 

Dont worry about the sanding marks in it, not finished yet.

 

Once i has done the sides I needed to focus on the top. Now the vRS top is heavily grooved and there’s nothing else in the model range with a smooth top. Believe me I’ve spent hours looking and pounds finding out. The other 1.9s have a smoother top but a smaller diameter air flow meter and I even researched mk2 Fabias and Roomster 1.9s as well, so I had to modify what I’d got. 

 

This...

 

 

 

 

I scuffed the grooves with some 120 grit and bought some Carbon reinforced Fibreglass filler which is the type used to reinforce plastic bumper repairs. Not cheap lol

 

 

 

First full looked bloody awful, especially as I had to build the side edges up to match the front and rear radius..

 

 

 

Countless hours with the DA sander left this 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting there slowly. Now because I’m a fussy sod, I noticed that the top of the lid isn’t totally flat, it dips in the middle so I built more  thin layer up to get it as flat as I could with the DA.

 

End result for this part looks like this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All prepped down to 400 grit level so James can take over now, plastic prime, final stopper in places, then 2k prime a few times then more flattting before even getting to the dipping stage. 

 

It’s crazy how much time and mess fannying about with stuff like this takes, I worked out I’m 11 hours into just the Airbox up to now.. it’ll be worthwhile I keep telling myself..

 

more when the stealth carbon has been applied by an expert who knows what he’s doing lol!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 29 March, 2021 by Lofty
can’t spell, filler dust in my eye

[Dark_Hero]

That is dedication. Will look amazing when it’s done

[Lofty]

22 minutes ago, Dark_Hero said:

That is dedication. Will look amazing when it’s done

 

Hope so, some days I hate it, just want it finished but I’m this far in, I may as well finish it properly. Good job I can shut the garage door and ignore it when I want to lol 

[Dark_Hero]

Shame there isn’t space to neatly use a bmc carbon air box/ filter. That would look pretty mega

[Lofty]

Anyone still looking??? Prob all wandered off bored now...

 

For those who are dedicated or daft enough to still be watching I’ve finally got the airbox done.

 

Following on from my highly skilled prep work (who am I kidding..) James at Bold Hydrographics cracked on with some very fine “stopper” filler...

 

 

 

 

Plastic Primed, then two thick coats of 2k primer, then flatted down with 800 grit 

 

 

 

 

A healthy coat of Satin Black 

 

 

 

 

 

Then dipped in Stealth Carbon, washed off, dried overnight to give this finish..

 

 

 

 

In order to match the rest of the dipped engine bay parts not only does the direction of the “weave” match but the pattern has been tinted by 10%, and lacquered with liquid glass hi gloss lacquer. Flatted and polished to leave this finish...

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m dead pleased with the work as normal!!

 

I will get some more pics when it’s fitted back on the car with the Darkside silicon intake pipe and Murray clamp.

 

More soon...

Edited 29 March, 2021 by Lofty

[TrevorB33]

Aw mate I’d be chuffed with that looks amazing as always 

[juanse_2691]

...and here I am, thinking I'm the cat's pajamas because I dress my lowly BBZ engine's airbox with shoe polish every now and then 

Impressive work. 

 

[krissyneillie1]

This is most likely the best looking fabia vrs in the world, the detail stuns me on this, fair play, I'd be scared to drive it anywhere after all that work, wouldn't let it out my sight

[fabdavrav]

22 hours ago, krissyneillie1 said:

This is most likely the best looking fabia vrs in the world, the detail stuns me on this, fair play, I'd be scared to drive it anywhere after all that work, wouldn't let it out my sight

 

Its a bit nuts..mind you.... having seen fully chrome underside, with shaved/smoothed engine bays etc MK1 Golf GTI in a VW mag a few years ago at least this is more drivable..

[Lofty]

I have been progressing on the front end build up of an evening, few hours here and there.

 

The plan is to fit the Darkside FMIC in such a way that I don't have to butcher the radiator support panel or lose the drivers side bumper mount. Also the intention is to make the FMIC sit both square and level as with the SEAT sport brackets the intercoolers always sit on the wonk. This simply won't DO!!!

 

The standard Fabia vRS crash bar is an enormous heavy girder of a thing which would have needed huge amounts chopping out of it to fit so I've purchased a used VW Polo one, which is the same as the SEAT Ibiza one and is much more slender than the Skoda version. It requires some fettling on the mountain bracket front (there's a large lip on it which needed slitting of with the 1mm cutting disc in the grinder, then all the edges flap wheeling back smooth, and I've lopped the overhanging edges off to make it more compact. 

 

Managed to build the scrap metal pile up with these offcuts..

 

 

 

 

I have also been checking that the rad panel and crash bar are both level to the ground..

 

 

 

 

 

For now the Darkside alloy hard boost pipes are loosely placed in position, but the angle to the cooler is looking promising. I'm aware that I've got a fair bit more trimming of the crash bar to do yet...

 

 

For the actual intercooling mounting, I'm sketching out ideas based around a similar upper mounting solution to the Forge FMIC where it hangs off the lower part of the slam panel with two slotted alloy fixings - these will need making and TIG welding to the cooler, and for the bottom of the cooler i'm looking at fabricating a lower support bracket in 3mm aluminium to support and space the cooler away from the rad support panel. Hard to describe but I've got the mental images in my head!!

 

All the brackets will be prepped and painted in wrinkle black, and so will the hard pipe boost hoses. Black silicon hoses will be used and Murray clamps as well.

 

I'll try and get more done over the Christmas break but the plan is to make it all look as factory as I can whilst being different enough to be noticed by the geeks.

 

Edited 29 March, 2021 by Lofty

[Dark_Hero]

Love the thinking for the intercooler mounting

[Lofty]

Now that the Christmas nonsense is out of the way, I sought happy refuge in the garage for a few hours this afternoon.

 

I fitted the rigid vacuum hose on the back of the tandem pump, and then fitted the Carbon Dipped Airbox. It fitted nicely along with the Darkside silicone intake pipe (needed major trimming to fit), and secured it with the right size Murray CTS (constant tension seal) clamp. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that this side of the intake is done I moved back onto the FMIC mounting solution. 

 

The darkside solid boost pipe and 4 Bar MAP sensor fitted up to the ASV and then I can start mocking up where I need some brackets TIG welding to the cooler. I found some mild steel 2mm thick angle (go Wilko!!!!) to use as templates and I’ve got it where it needs to be. 

 

The top of the cooler will hang from the front panel in the same way that a Forge FMIC does, this way it can sit level and square, and slightly lower than the SEAT FMIC brackets hold it. This has the added bonus of retaining the OSF bumper mount, albeit with a tiny trim.

 

The bottom of the cooler will have a 3mm alloy plate TIG’d to it and this will pick up on the M6 rivnut holes in the bottom of the rad support panel - these will also be the fixing points for the underneath of the bumper. Once it’s all prepped and painted black it’ll look borderline Factory I hope...

 

 

 

 

More soon I hope with some TIG welded goodness.

 

 

 

Edited 29 March, 2021 by Lofty

[faboka vrs]

Now your working on it Is the headlight washer 100% a no go?

[Lofty]

15 minutes ago, faboka vrs said:

Now your working on it Is the headlight washer 100% a no go?

I think so John. They were not plumbed in before so I’ll prob source a new pair of washer covers and bond them in place on the bumper. There’s no way the washer nozzle will fit on the drivers side I’m sure. 

[Dark_Hero]

Maybe not the best looking, but could you use a similar setup to the mk1 Octavia headlights washers?

[TrevorB33]

The forge fmic kit fits with washers, as I had that on my old white fab with oem xenons 

[Lofty]

On 30/12/2018 at 23:54, TrevorB33 said:

The forge fmic kit fits with washers, as I had that on my old white fab with oem xenons 

 

That's the kit I removed off the yellow one Trevor, downside of the Forge kit is it's ability to deal with the high air intake temperatures that are generated by the much bigger turbo i'm using, otherwise i'd have kept it.

 

So without going truly custom - what's left is the "Off the shelf" kits based around the SEAT Sport kit originally found on the Ibiza PD160's. The major downside to this is the routing of the top boost pipe off the cooler, it runs exactly where the OEM Drivers Side headlight washer is, so it has to be deleted. Unavoidable but it'll be fine as the car's never really going to need it's headlight washers I hope!! As for the MOT impacts of having factory Xenons and none functioning headlamp washers it's such a grey area for the MOT Testers it's never been an issue in all the years of owning a Fabia so far.

 

On other things, I've had a slight change of mind on the intercooler attachment brackets. Instead of having a 90degree bracket TIG welded to the top i'm going with a 24mm x 3mm Aluminium bar running up the back of the cooler, being TIG'd at top and bottom and hanging the cooler like this....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course it’ll all be painted Satin Black for as much stealth as possible 

 

 

Edited 29 March, 2021 by Lofty

[Lofty]

Hello weary readers. 

 

The postman has finally delivered the aluminium I needed to finish “dry” build of the intercooler before I go visit Secret Kev for him to wave the magic TIG stick and join the bits together. This is how it looks before welding.. 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the support bars are TIG’d onto the rear of the cooler, they will be cut to length and have the holes drilled for the T25 torx bolts to screw into the captive nuts on the front panel.

 

Its even level...

 

 

The Polo crash bar has been finished now, painted in crackle black for longevity. This is how the top boost pipe sits....

 

 

 

 

Speaking of boost pipes, I wanted to replicate the finish of the OE plastic top pipe, so a light textured black finish. Cue lots of 400grit wet and dry paper action on the aluminium boost pipes, a thorough degreasing then three coats of Upol acid etch primer, followed by a light coat of VHT Wrinkle Black, all cured with the hot air gun.

 

 

 

 

 

They’ll take a few days to fully harden but will compliment the engine bay quite nicely. All the boost silicon joiners are going to be black with Murray CTS clamps as well.

 

More pics once the cooler is welded and repainted and fitted into place finally!!

Edited 29 March, 2021 by Lofty

[pip_vrs]

I wish i had stuff to get dipped in that carbon. It looks ace.