Lofty's Black Magic Fabia vRS MK1 - "Project Naomi"

[Dark_Hero]

Love it. Looks amazing

[Lofty]

Slowly working my way round the car with the  DASpro6+ DA Polisher and Meguiars Micro Fibre correction kit, I’m blown away by how good it is after years of using the rotary and foam pads.

 

The results speak for themselves, this was just after machining, no wax or glaze on yet...

 

 

 

 

So far done the drivers side, roof and tailgate, I’ll get the rest done on the evenings this week- too hot in the days, not very often we can say that lol!

[bonelorry]

Top Effort, I have not used the Megs M/F stuff yet still been on the Hexlogic Pads on my DAS6 Pro but they have given me decent results.

I might look into getting the M/F Kit next time.

[Lofty]

7 hours ago, bonelorry said:

Top Effort, I have not used the Megs M/F stuff yet still been on the Hexlogic Pads on my DAS6 Pro but they have given me decent results.

I might look into getting the M/F Kit next time.

 

I was a sceptic. For the last 20 yrs I’ve used a rotary, made a living from it but thought I’d try a DA, especially after the hype of the MF kit. Genuinely blown away, lack of mess and speed of correction has amazed me. Yes I suspect for major defects or chronic oxidation of paint to restore, the rotary would be my choice but this MF on the DA is my new favourite weapon of choice!

[Lofty]

Still progressing with the machine polishing, trying to do a bit each evening, as it’s the only time I get at present.

 

Managed to do the rear bumper this evening so only really the whole passenger side left. 

 

There had been an annoying scuff bang in the middle of the passenger door since I had the car, I had resigned myself to it having to be painted at some point.

 

The offending blighter....

 

 

 

I decided to have a go wet sanding it out, I’ve used wet sanding in the past on some real nasty damage and been successful so I thought if it needs paint after I’ve had a go, I’m no worse of anyway.

 

Hit it with some 1200 grit and 2000 grit wet and dry , in soapy water....

 

 

 

 

Needed a couple of goes....

 

 

 

 

Then machined up, I’d say a good 95% improvement, certainly can’t see it now and certainly doesn’t need painting!! Not bad for 10 mins work lol....

 

 

[Dark_Hero]

I think that’s what my car needs. It’s got scratches/ blemishes on almost every panel

[Titanium_Man]

Awesome work 

 

Also so been using a rotary for years and been considering the megs MF system for a wee while. Very interesting .....

[Lofty]

Couple of updates - The Das6Pro DA polisher is now broken, looks like the switch has gone faulty, so I've sent an email off to Clean Your Car about sending it back for repair/replacement. Not the best of starts as my rotary is 20 yrs old and has never missed a beat..

 

The rear pressed alloy number plate is due for change - some oaf tried to lever it off months ago so I've ordered some new raised letter gel ones - these arrived today and will hopefully be fitted this evening..

 

 

Hopefully no scumbag will try and pull this one off!!!

[Lofty]

The trusty Black Beauty is still giving excellent service, rapidly approaching the 150k mark (in the next 3 weeks I think) so I’ve got all the stuff round me for a major service, brake fluid change and also Cambelt and water pump change. It’s booked into my local paint guy in September to have some remedial work done on the front and drivers side so I’ll take that chance to fit the new front bumper and n/s/f wing that have been painted already. 

 

It is still averaging 52 to 56 mpg on every single tank which I’m dead chuffed with as it’s a punchy little thing. Also getting more use now carting bikes round for us both.

 

 

Also getting to the point of thinking about winter tyres - generally try and fit them in November, so I’m having to price up 17” winters as the brakes are bigger this winter than last....

[Dark_Hero]

The struggle of finding wheels that clear bigger brakes can be a bit tedious. Let me know what you find

[Lofty]

Milestone reached!

 

 

The main 150k service has been done (just need to reset the service indicator with VCDS as I forgot), it’s also had the Cambelt, water pump and tensioner done by my local VAG specialist.

 

Ive also ordered some 205/40/17 winter tyres which will be going on the end of October.

 

 

 

 

[Lofty]

Not much to report, sailed through it's MOT in February with no advisories, the 4 x winter tyres have proved to be a slight overkill this winter compared to the last one but hey ho, just the way it goes.

 

The car itself is running fine, still putting a fair few miles on every week, saying that i'm now working from home once a week which is helping the old girls mileage out a bit. The 160k service is due next weekend, need to change the brake fluid as well as the full service so that'll be a bit more involved.

 

I've no more modifications planned, just to keep her healthy and reliable. We're off to mid France in the summer holidays so that'll be another 2500 miles in a week, fully loaded, will even have a roof box on.. My aim is to get her to 200k then see whats's what. Might think about a change then, see how she holds up I guess?

[bonelorry]

Glad to hear its still going strong! Mighty Machine, 200K shouldn't be any bother at all

They do make excellent Daily's.

[Lofty]

Bugger me! An update!!!

 

Sort of...

 

The tailpipes of the Miltek exhaust had been Plasti-dipped when the exhaust was on the Daffodil so it must have been getting on for 4 years or so, being steadily baked by 70k motorway miles meant it was looking a bit shabby. So off it came.

 

Not quite a quick pick and peel, more like 2 hours of softening the dip with WD40 then rubbing like fury with wire wool. Gonna leave them polished for now..

 

 

Also in the interests of having visually similar Fabia vRS’s i debadged the bootlid, again to match the Daffodil..

 

 

And that’s it! Still plodding on as normal.

[Lofty]

Bit of a summer update for the daily. We decided on another annual holiday to France, and what better choice of car for two adults and two grumpy teenagers than a modified, lowered, small Fabia vRS lol!!!

 

The house we booked was in the very south western edge of Brittany, some 700 miles from our house. Gave the car a cursory check over before departure, fitted the roofbox, filled every corner with luggage, food and aforementioned teenagers and set off.

 

Approx 12 hours drive, including tunnel crossing and food/wee stops, saw the trusty furby cruising at 110/130kmh and averaging about 48mpg. The car felt very heavy, not it’s usual perky self, purely because of the weight on board. 

 

Outside the house..

 

 

 

En route, about 29.5c at this point..

 

 

one of the teenagers muttering something about WiFi or Snapchat??

 

 

Compulsory channel tunnel pic!!

 

 

Even Mrs Lofty drove on the wrong side of the road, please note the French magic tree!!

 

 

Got home last night, 2366 miles in a week, never missed a beat, used no oil or water and is now ready for the 170k service next weekend. I love this little car!!

[Dark_Hero]

Glad you had a great break

looks like the car performed well

[Lofty]

Well readers, she’s still here, still plodding along and still getting used as a van/people carrier/taxi at every opportunity. 
 

Rapidly approaching the 180k mark, it’s time I updated the thread with stuff that’s been done, going to be done and is on the wish list of being done to her

 

If you’ve read my other thread “Daffodil” - blinding read by the way, just taking an eternity!!!!, I needed a 2.5” bore Milltek centre section exhaust for it, couldn’t find a used one, they don’t make new anymore so I robbed the one off the black one.

 

To replace it I went to the finest exhaust shop money can buy. eBay.

 

For the princely sum of a mere £169 I purchased a decat, centre section and shock horror a straight through rear section with a bolt on oval tip. Cue much pi55 taking on the group chat about being a grey haired 45yr old chav, blah blah....

 

Truth is, it fits ace, and if I’m being totally honest is just about quiet enough when commuting/pottering about. It definitely IS louder when on WOT, and it makes quite amusing noises when and if you clip the Rev limiter. See that inner child never really goes away! It’s more than livable with on a daily and as the turbo isn’t the OE KKK Grenade, it doesn’t make that silly owl noise either. Win win.

 

Exhaust aside it’s not had any other mechanical work, but I did need new tyres on the front before the bad weather comes.

 

I took a decision to try and run winter tyres all year this year, and I had some fitted just before the cambelt change at 150k. These have now been on 28k miles and had got down to 2.5mm to 3.0mm across the tread and wet weather grip has suddenly become questionable, so they have lasted as long as the previous set of Pilot Sport 3’s and equally as long as the original set of budget 17”s.

 

Hence the decision to fit another pair of 205 40 17 Nankang winters to it, not before I started getting the wheels refurbished. another colour change again, this time to light gunmetal to match the yellow car.

 

 

 

 

The car is currently suffering an issue with the headlights performance dropping off drastically, I’m devising a solution to this which i’ll update the thread with shortly, but to coincide with the new lights black mask appearance I’ve had the grille painted gloss black. Again. 
 

 

Hopefully this will tie the front end together from a colour perspective and again match the yellow one. 
 

I’ll show you what I’ve been up to with the headlights soon!

[Lofty]

As I mentioned in my last post the lighting performance of the OE Xenons has fallen off a metaphorical cliff in the last few months. This is due to a couple of issues which i'll talk you through in greater depth (and pictures here)

 

The Fabia's with factory Xenons have a ride height sensor attached to the rear axle, which measures the mechanical change in ride height via a lever, translates this movement via a potentiometer in the actual sensor, and transmits a signal to the headlight levelling motors within each headlight. When the ride height at the rear drops due to passengers / luggage weight, it lowers the headlights to reduce dazzle. This is all fine and dandy when the system works. Alas the sensor on this car has failed, meaning the headlights default to the lowest setting, ie pointing at the floor.

 

New sensors are still available from TPS but are an unpleasant £400 plus each, so the need to be creative has arisen. The MOT test will check for the levelling sensor to be in place - check. The MOT will check the headlight washers - check. The MOT will then check for the beam pattern and alignment as per all headlights - This is the bit I need to work on.

 

The individual headlight motors were removed and stripped apart. Each motor was then mechanically adjusted to maximum extension. This will put the lights to the same as the 0 level on non Xenon cars. Adjustment for alignment will then have to take place using the top headlight adjusters as per all other cars.

 

This will at least ensure that the lights are aligned correctly for MOT purposes and I can actually see where i'm going at night. 

 

This cures the alignment issue, what it does not cure is the poor light output from aging units. Again this is where the need to be creative comes in.

 

I had in storage a set of genuine factory OE Xenon light units, date stamped 2006, so with the careful application of heat and some burnt fingers I separated the lenses off the body of the lamps. This was required as I wanted to "black mask" the chrome inner surround. A good few hours was spent heating up and digging out the old adhesive, this will be replaced with a roll of circular profile Butyl seal, heated and clamped into place to ensure they go back together water tight.

 

I then stripped ALL the inner guts of the lights down to component level.

 

 

The inner glass projectors were not damaged but they were coated in a dry thick film of hardened dust. This soon came off with normal cleaning methods. The issue most modern Xenon light have is burning on the reflector bowls. In this case these bowls had just started to show signs of burning, see the oval dull patch starting to appear.

 

 

In time, the dull patch will spread, blister and then the coating will fail totally. Then light output is zero. I spent a large amount of time trawling the net for replacement bowls, even had lengthy correspondence with Hella UK and Hella Germany to see if they could be replaced and due to the age of these lights, spares were discontinued years and years ago, so a solution was needed.

 

The plastic reflector bowls are coated in a chrome like plastic coating, this is achieved by a process called Metalisation, whereby Zinc an aluminium vapor is layered on the plastic, then high temp lacquer applied over the top. Not something you can replicate in the shed.

 

I found a firm locally who specialise in this process, and in fact have Hella as a customer so they are an OEM supplier. They agreed to re-metalise the bowls. Not cheap but the only way to do this properly.

 

How they came out.

 

 

The inner projector was all polished up

 

 

 

The reflector bowl was built up with the inner projector.

 

 

The outer glass projector lens was also polished up and built back into the chrome inner housing

 

 

 

And then the inner reflector and projector all fitted back into the outer chrome surround

 

 

 

All the chrome work was polished and then the lenses loosely fitted 

 

 

 

Almost there!

 

The lenses will be sealed back on over the weekend, then the bulbs all changed for new versions. Osram Night Breaker "Laser" D2S for dipped beam, uprated Phillips H7 for main, and then some new 501w for sides.

 

More pics when back on the car.

 

 

[Titanium_Man]

Amazing work, Lofty 🤜🤛

[Lofty]

Wheels are on, car is filthy, many more miles to cover before the next wash....

 

 

 

[DriverTom]

I'm glad to see you found a solution to the headlights. Can you get some pics of the beam cutoff once they're installed?

[Maverick vRS]

I need to do the same to my projectors, as the bowls have completely failed.

 

Out of interest, what was the cost for re-plating them?

 

My second option is instead of replacing the bowls, to custom fit some mini h1 bixenon units - the standard lens size appears to be 2.5" so should in theory work with some minor modification.