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

[Lofty]

Had a few hours spare today so got stuck into the car in preparation for a weeks holiday soon where the major mechanical swaps will be done.

Like a lot of things on this car I'm being faced with a mixture of things that have been neglected or repaired in a manner which can best be described as "temporary"...

The front bumper was only held on with the two large torx bolts by the radiator, no fixings in the inner arch and none underneath the bumper into the front panel.. at least it was easy to remove I guess...

The car has factory fitted xenons which were in dire need of the lenses being restored, so I borrowed an Autoglym headlight restoration kit and did them whilst still bolted to the car..

Hard to make out here but the film that degrades over time was half gone..

Turns out that these headlights have been split previously and I guess not sealed back up 100% as there is evidence of dried condensation inside both and even dead flies..

This is on the inside of the lense FFS

So I've finished the outer lenses, they will now be split indoors to clean the insides and to paint the black bits silver again

Headlights were removed, upper front panel removed and the boost pipes taken off. Guess what??

Blatant evidence of the alloy boost pipe rubbing on the chassis/inner wing by the fuel filter housing

And this is the result.

A hole which had been repaired with some kind of filler and had a crap bit of silicon pipe cable tied over it

The boost pipe will be sent off to an alloy fabrication specialist that Coskev knows and will be repaired and reinforced.

The car had a methanol injection system fitted.. guess what?

Pipe had been cut and blocked with a screw..

The meth kit won't be making an appearance on this car again so it'll be removed gently, repaired and hopefully will be ok to use on the yellow one.

The large front mount Pro-Alloy intercooler is a well made bit of kit, you can see the air guides that try and scoop all available air flow through the cooler..

The crash bar has foam insets in it to further try and stop the airflow being diverted away from the cooler.

That's where I'm at as of tonight, coolant needs to be drained next then the whole rad pack and cooler can be removed and I'll see what else I come across..

Edited 27 November, 2016 by Lofty

[pip_vrs]

I actually LOLd at that boost pipe. wow!!

[Lofty]

So, what to do with a week off work?i know, let's take Fabias apart for a laugh....

Started yesterday morning, greeted with below freezing temperatures and a decent frost.

Unperturbed by such chilly nonsense I'd soon got the front end stripped

Then it was lunch at the local..

Not much more was done after that unsurprisingly.

Today was a damp and misty start, having to work on both Fabias at once meant that the black one was pushed onto my neighbours drive while I stripped the yellow one.

The plan is to remove all the running gear of the black one, the gearbox with LSD will be reconditioned and used in the yellow one, the engine and box will be transplanted whole into Naomi so she will end up with the following spec..

Low mileage BLT engine

Turbo Dynamics MDX hybrid PD turbo with billet wheel

PD150 head bolts

Forge front mount intercooler

Miltek decat downpipe & Full system

Hidden power map running 1.9 bar- approx 215 reliable horsepower

Out she comes..

This left a rather grubby hole that I attacked with Bilt Hamber surfex and the jet wash

Tomorrow will see the Yellows engine back in the bay and hopefully started up.

[Lofty]

A very productive day yesterday, thankfully I've had the best help ever off a couple of mates for two days to break the back of the heavy work otherwise it's a lot harder work.

 

So, the engine and gearbox are now in, full Miltek exhaust and downpipe fitted and new fluids throughout. New genuine coolant expansion tank and cap and fresh G13 coolant.

 

Took a while to start, fuel filter was empty but fire up she did, noisily as there's no air box on at present.

 

 

Fitted all the front panel, new radiator and AC condenser rad, all new hoses and clips as well as the old ones were beyond scabby.

 

Newly powdercoated slam panel and crash bar went on

 

 

Ran her up to temperature, bled the clutch again (that was a pig to do) and shut her off for the day.

 

Next jobs are fitting all the air box back in and intake pipes, replace the battery box (broken naturally) and then give it a monster clean under there. Scuttle panel and wiper arms are coming off as there's tonnes of leafs and debris under there, than can get the arch liners and undertray back on.

 

Headlights are being split and repainted, new headlight backs are on order at TPS as they're also broken, then its ready for some paintwork.

 

I'm on the hunt for a passenger front wing, must be mint and ideally black (give me a shout if you know to one please)

 

More pics when its looking prettier!!

[Lofty]

Run out of steam the last day or so, had to change the bonnet release cable and handle and that was a mission in itself, had the scuttle panel off to remove the last of the methanol injection wiring, and to find out why one washer jet wasn't working- broke pipe of course!

New battery box is on, air box and new genuine air filter.

Sticking with the standard PD130 intake pipe on this one, just need a couple of the fixings that hold it to the front panel.

The list of jobs is getting smaller at least

[faboka vrs]

Looking good. I do like how the forge intercooler sits compared to seat one.

[Thomson]

Very nice. Liking the progress on this a lot!

Keep it up and look forward to updates :-)

[Lofty]

Progress has been very slow of late with this one. Plan was to finish it and let the missus use it as a daily, however an impending carrer move has necessitated it being pressed into a high mileage daily commuting car for me! 

 

I'm starting work with a new employer on March the 1st and will be covering 25k miles a year in commuting so what better to use than a 12 yr old Skoda...

 

So, best get it something like finished. I took the plunge and sourced from Hutchy on here a proper set of RHD OE spec xenon lamps, they came yesterday so I built them up tonight with new long life orange VW indicator bulbs, some new Osram D2S HID bulbs and some 12SMD LED side lights.

 

 

 

 

I need to swap the screenwash tank from this one to the yellow one as they are both the same spec 5 litre Xenon washer/screenwash tank but the one on the black car already has the fitting where the meth injection draws fluid from.

 

Once that's done, I'll replace the NSF wing as it's dented and send it off for painting. 

 

Get it out back together then all I need to do is a monster detail and a few silly jobs.

[wolfsburger]

Proper daily this, great work rejunating the owd girl 

[Lofty]

Another weekend and a few hours spent tinkering.

 

The paperwork for my private plate has gone off so I've fitted that in anticipation.

 

 

The plate was one I bought donkeys years ago for my old detailing firm, G3 Automotive, hence the other car having a G3 plate as well, this ones been on retention for the last 11yrs lol.

 

I fixed the screenwash bottle, and fitted the brand new Xenon headlights.

 

Osram 5500k DS2 dipped beam bulbs, multi SMD sidelights and some 80w osram main beam H7 bulbs

 

 

 

 

Next jobs are to seal the rear doors up, scrub the door cards, and await delivery of some Seat Ibiza Sport seats from a 2013 low mile car. Fancy a change from the impractical silver standard trim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lofty]

Seat Ibiza Sport seats are now here. A quick wipe over with a damp microfibre cloth and they're good to be fitted at the weekend.

 

 

 

Side airbags as well so hopefully they will have the same plug as the factory optioned side airbag seats that are currently in there.

[Kiddmeister1]

1 hour ago, Lofty said:

Seat Ibiza Sport seats are now here. A quick wipe over with a damp microfibre cloth and they're good to be fitted at the week

hi lofty, can i ask where u got the seats and do they just go straight in? no weld needed at back seat? cheers

[Lofty]

Seats came from a breaker, direct fit into the Mk1 Fabia

[Kiddmeister1]

8 hours ago, Lofty said:

Seats came from a breaker, direct fit into the Mk1 Fabia

cheers, mk4 or mk5? seen some mk2 fabia interior also, does that go straight in without welding? sorry for questions, but i want to do myself but cant weld

[Lofty]

These were 2013, no idea what mark of Ibiza that is tbh.

 

The key is with the rear seats, as long as the outermost fixings are pins, and the inner two are holes you should be fine. The Audi A1 rear seats are all pins so need  modification 

[Kiddmeister1]

2 hours ago, Lofty said:

These were 2013, no idea what mark of Ibiza that is tbh.

 

The key is with the rear seats, as long as the outermost fixings are pins, and the inner two are holes you should be fine. The Audi A1 rear seats are all pins so need  modification 

appreciate the advice mate thanks, i will look into seat ones like urs, what breakers was it used? i will avoid the a1 as want straight switch with no welding cheers

[pip_vrs]

1 hour ago, Kiddmeister1 said:

appreciate the advice mate thanks, i will look into seat ones like urs, what breakers was it used? i will avoid the a1 as want straight switch with no welding cheers

 

I have a set of Ibiza FR seats, which are pretty much the same if you want them? You've a bit far away though, I'm probably going to bin them when I clear the garage out.

[Lofty]

9 hours ago, pip_vrs said:

 

I have a set of Ibiza FR seats, which are pretty much the same if you want them? You've a bit far away though, I'm probably going to bin them when I clear the garage out.

 

Got any pictures Phil?

[wolfsburger]

Love the seats, much more practical. New interior is top my priorities.

[Kiddmeister1]

21 hours ago, pip_vrs said:

 

I have a set of Ibiza FR seats, which are pretty much the same if you want them? You've a bit far away though, I'm probably going to bin them when I clear the garage out.

any pics mate, is that front and rear, i could look into courier

[Kiddmeister1]

On 07/02/2017 at 22:03, Lofty said:

Seat Ibiza Sport seats are now here. A quick wipe over with a damp microfibre cloth and they're good to be fitted at the weekend.

 

 

 

Side airbags as well so hopefully they will have the same plug as the factory optioned side airbag seats that are currently in there.

Me again, sorry, cn you let me no if the plug fits and what to do if it doesnt, cheers

[pip_vrs]

1 hour ago, Kiddmeister1 said:

any pics mate, is that front and rear, i could look into courier

 

13 hours ago, Lofty said:

 

Got any pictures Phil?

 

Not got any to hand, when I've got a few days off work I'll get them out the loft and get a few pictures.

[Robert571]

I'd love some of those in mine, grey seats and black everything else doesn't quite go. I presume those seats would be heated being from a fairly high spec'd car?

Anyway I look forward to seeing how you get on fitting them, when I moved my leathers over from my 4motion Golf into a Leon the airbag connector was the same but the Leon didn't have the heated seat option so had to get a retro fit harness and find somewhere to put the heater switches.

 

Loving the thread, my god you've done a lot of work! and in the cold too.

 

* I need to go through mine and get it sorted. need to make a list :( Needs a turbo soon, not going to chance it! I'm not 100% sure if I need a CV/Driveshaft but they will keep going just get noisy so that can wait. Going to renew the brakes over the weekend if the bits come. I can at least change the brake fluid, going to get a garage to renew the clutch fluid, I'll reindex the gear linkage, didn't need to do that on my 4motion or Leon they use the same gearbox, can't hurt tho (can it?) Then once the critical stuff is done it's suspension time thinking of going for a B12 kit  (Couldn't come sooner). Then I'd like xenons, keep seeing all those new cars with blinding white headlights, if you can't beat them then join them.

[hutchysrs50]

For the people asking, the airbag plug won't fit, but is easy to change from the original seats.

 

Rare to find a heated set also, not many have that option.

[Kiddmeister1]

7 hours ago, hutchysrs50 said:

For the people asking, the airbag plug won't fit, but is easy to change from the original seats.

 

Rare to find a heated set also, not many have that option.

does the normal mk1 skoda fabia vrs have airbags in the seat, i was aware they never, thanks