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

[Hyphons]

4 minutes ago, pip_vrs said:

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

Bucket seats?

[Lofty]

On 14/01/2019 at 21:39, pip_vrs said:

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

 

It's addictive TBH, but the expense side is enough to stop me at this point! Plus there is a danger of going over the top and it end up looking too much, fine if that's what you're into but not me.

 

In other news, "Secret Kev" waved the magic TIG torch about last night...

 

 

 

 

Edited 29 March, 2021 by Lofty

[pip_vrs]

Yeah id quit whilst your ahead or else you might aswell have the car dipped. If my fabia was actually nice id do my seats and a few bits. But theres no point wasting money on visual mods when its beige 

[Lofty]

Intercooler brackets now trimmed to the right length, drilled for the T30 Torx fitting bolts and given a splash of acid etch.

 

This is a close up of the one top fitting.

 

 

 

 

And how the support bars run down the rear of the cooler. They have a 90 degree return underneath to support the weight, which has been seam welded to the base of the cooler. 

 

 

A further bracket has been welded on the bottom which then picks up on the rad support panel in a M6 Rivnut. 

 

Foolishly run run out of satin black so more pics when it’s painted and on the car for the final time.

Edited 29 March, 2021 by Lofty

[Lofty]

The intercooler is now finished. I decided to paint the core satin black and the outside in crackle black for a touch of contrast. 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally fitted into place, all lines up lovely. Here you can see how straight the top boost pipe run is. No distortion of the silicon joiner hoses here!!!

 

 

And a close up of the hangers which replicate how the Forge FMIC hangs.

 

 

Ordered a new water rad today, that’ll be here in a few days and I can fit that up with the refurbished fan pack and wiring. 

Edited 29 March, 2021 by Lofty

[TrevorB33]

Looks lurvely, have you gone for the dark side alloy rad? 

[Lofty]

Just now, TrevorB33 said:

Looks lurvely, have you gone for the dark side alloy rad? 

 

No Trevor, just a standard one, it won’t be seeing any hard track work so the OE one should be fine. 

[Dark_Hero]

Just had a thought. My estate has some plastic trim that sits under the car. That could help protect your nicely finished underside.

its not something I had on my hatch and I’ve not seen many others with them

[Lofty]

8 minutes ago, Dark_Hero said:

Just had a thought. My estate has some plastic trim that sits under the car. That could help protect your nicely finished underside.

its not something I had on my hatch and I’ve not seen many others with them

 

I know what you mean Charlie, my dad has a 2004 54 Fabia Ambiente 1.9 TDi 100pd and that has underfloor covers on both sides, from what I've researched, they only ever fitted them on non vRS PD's, and indeed on ETKA they are shown under the Soundproofing section.

 

I did think about them but i'll only be ever using the car in nice weather for shows etc, I want to kind of show it off a bit. 

[Dark_Hero]

With the attention to detail you’ve done I’m not surprised

need some mirrors to put on the floor when you park up

[Lofty]

The new Valeo radiator was delivered so I then went playing a game called “Hunt the fan pack”. Turns out I’d put it somewhere safe, in other words I couldn’t find it and stumbled across it buried under parts in the loft...

 

I stripped the fans down, cleaned up the plastic housing and derusted all of the fixings with Bilt Hambers excellent Deox-c. 

 

Fitted all back up and now ready to go on the car. Hopefully this will be done on Friday evening then all the water hoses can be finally fitted as well.

 

 

 

 

Other fiddly job’s have been done, remember I’d fitted the Darkside silicon intake pipe between the MAF and the TIP pipe, well I’d got concerns over it collapsing under boost as I’ve seen that happen before, so I bought a 100mm section of stainless hose (80mm OD) joining tube and cut it up so I’d got a couple of 30mm sections of tube. The silicon was then taken off the car and these two collars slid tightly inside, holds the pipe open perfectly and is undetectable from the outside. They won’t impact on the airflow as they’re such a low profile. No pics of these as you can’t see them - kinda the idea!

 

Next job is to final build the front end then try headlights in etc before the top front panel gets taken off and sent to the body shop for painting. Yes I know it’s been done in gloss black powdercoat but I’m not happy with the finish so James at the dippers is going to flat it, fill all the spot weld indentations and then paint and hi gloss lacquer it gloss black. That way it’ll have a mirror finish to match the rest of the dipped parts.

 

I’m also waiting delivery of a new bonnet catch as they’re on back order at TPS.

 

More soon... 

Edited 29 March, 2021 by Lofty

[Lofty]

Not had a great deal of time recently, been away with work and stuff so had only limited time to tinker...

 

I did have a few hours last night, so removed the powder coated slam panel in order to correctly drill and fit the drivers side OE Xenon ballast in the right place. 

 

 

 

 

 

You’ll see it’s been stripped and refurbished as well.. Of course with the slam panel back in place the fixings are hidden from view.

 

Also got the upper boost pipe finished and fitted using the Murray CTS clamps. It sits exactly where I wanted it and looks perfectly (in my eyes at least) OEM+ in the crackle textured black. Just peeking out from under the Dipped engine cover..

 

 

 

Next job is to push the car back a bit, get it up on stands then start fitting the lower solid boost pipe which I’m going to modify to make it fit much better. New starter motor is on order so that can be fitted and all the loom finally reconnected and clipped up in the OE positions. 

 

Cheers for watching still!!!

 

Matt

Edited 29 March, 2021 by Lofty

[Dark_Hero]

Can almost see the finish line now.

bet you can’t wait to get out in it

[DC2990]

Great work.

Any updates on the black one,have you still got it ?

[Lofty]

On 22/02/2019 at 20:24, DC2990 said:

Great work.

Any updates on the black one,have you still got it ?

 

Yeah the Black vRS is still here, putting lots of miles on her every week, almost up to its 160k service now. 

[ady1970]

Awesome work and a great thread 

 

[Jase009]

Lovely car mate excellent work and attention to detail. Where did you get the crinkle paint from and do you know how it’ll hold up against wear etc and not ‘chip’ off? I’ve recently got hold of a full darkside fmic kit and am looking to turn it black. 

 

Mess also wondering what rubber you’ve used on the cut out for your crash bar

[Lofty]

9 hours ago, Jase009 said:

Lovely car mate excellent work and attention to detail. Where did you get the crinkle paint from and do you know how it’ll hold up against wear etc and not ‘chip’ off? I’ve recently got hold of a full darkside fmic kit and am looking to turn it black. 

 

Mess also wondering what rubber you’ve used on the cut out for your crash bar

Cheers for the comments. The wrinkle paint is VHT Wrinkle Black, sold by a number of places on eBay, about £10 a can delivered, it’s pretty evil stuff to breathe in so wear a decent mask etc.

 

The rubber seal is just that, search for “U section rubber seal/edge trim “ on eBay and there’s loads of different lengths and profiles. Tidied up the bare edge a treat

[Lofty]

Sneaky peak at the idea I have for the exhaust tailpipe...

 

 

The idea is to have a downwards swept 3” brushed stainless tailpipe, but this will mean modifications being made to the rear bumper, the back panel of the car and the exhaust heat shielding above the rear box, so a fair bit of work, but hey, who likes easy eh?

 

 

 

[TrevorB33]

That’s exactly the tip I want on mine, but pie cut. You can’t beat a nice pie cut downturn. My old one was pie cut but side exit lol 

Edited 27 February, 2019 by TrevorB33

[Robshaw]

Your car is fantastic! The exhaust/heat shield shown above however really doesn't do it for me!

 

Then again, not my car so do what makes you happy

 

 

[Lofty]

3 hours ago, Robshaw said:

Your car is fantastic! The exhaust/heat shield shown above however really doesn't do it for me!

 

Then again, not my car so do what makes you happy

 

 

Trust me, the heat shield thing won’t be making an appearance! But the tailpipe will. 

[Lofty]

Morning!

 

Work is progressing at a glacial pace, suits me at the moment as it keeps me ticking along nicely. The front slam panel has been taken to the body shop with some very particular (aka fussy) instructions on how I want it back so the last few evenings have been spent fitting the new starter motor and reorganising the engine bay loom. Not very exciting to photograph so I’ve spared you from that...

 

While this is going on I needed to turn my attention to the wheel centre caps. 

 

These are the standard Team Dynamics Pro-Race 3 centres.

 

 

 

 

 

”Just fit them FFS” I hear you cry! Well I could but they just look a bit too aftermarket.

 

They feature the same bore as the factory alloys 56mm so I have explored a number of OE caps but non of them have a deep enough shank (for want of a better word) to secure into the deep lip of the wheel. These wheels are approx 5mm deeper in the centre cap hole than factory.

 

So I’m left with modifying the TD caps. 

 

Remove the centre gel badge. Easy done from behind. The standard TD badge is 45mm diameter and nobody sells the OE looking Skoda green badge on line. I eventually found a firm in Lithuania who would make them up custom for me. Cracking service and great finish.

 

So far I’ve scuffed up the TD Cap and I’m thinking along the lines of filling the false bolt holes, smoothing the outer rim level then having them either painted or carbon dipped before fitting the new Skoda gel badge.

 

 

 

 

the new badges...

 

 

 

 

 

 

more soon when I’ve made my mind up!!!

 

 

Edited 29 March, 2021 by Lofty

[Dark_Hero]

I had the same issue when I had the td 1.2. We still had pasty boy doing the gel badges back then, but I don’t think he’s on here much now

[Lofty]

Progress is trickling along. Made some good headway with the wheel centre caps, I sanded all the gloss paint off them and then plastic filled the little fake bolt holes, took a bloody age.... (no wonder I’m 2yrs+ into it), then plastic primed twice, flatted down then textured painted, to match the other black finished items on the car. 

 

Popped the new Skoda gel badges in and I’m quite pleased. Total waste of man hours but what part of this project isn’t?

 

 

 

 

 

My attention was then turned to sorting out the front towing eye position. As most of you will know, running the big FMIC means no chance of fitting the original temporary towing eye.

 

So I started off with this...

 

 

 

Sliced the end off, and machined two flats onto it so I can tighten it with a 17mm spanner..

 

 

 

 

Left hand thread kids - don’t forget!!!

 

 

The plan is to drill and tap it to take a m10 bolt, m10x1.5, and then bold a lurid coloured strap directly to it. It’ll be hidden away thankfully so shhhh, nobody will ever know.

 

Example of how deep it will go, don’t worry I’ll fit a high tensile bolt when it arrives..

 

 

 

Currently waiting for a new 8.5mm HSS drill bit to be delivered then I’ll drill and tap it. 

 

More soon..

 

 

 

 

Edited 29 March, 2021 by Lofty