Essential maintenance beckons....

 

 

 

 

The dual mass flywheel is protesting with a heavy vibration at certain loads, transferring the vibrations through the bulkhead and even making the accelerator pedal vibrate. The clutch itself appears fine, no slip or difficulty engaging gears, but with the miles I'm doing I can't afford to be stranded.

 

So a genuine OE fit Sachs dual mass flywheel, clutch, pressure plate and genuine Clutch slave cylinder are going in on Friday.

 

No complaints from me with the original clutch, it's done 113k with the last 14k miles at well over 200bhp, done some trackdays as well. 

 

 

 

Not much to report of late, had an issue following the clutch change, turbo failed two days later. Transpires the garage trapped and squashed the braided oil feed to the turbo, starved it of oil and it snapped the shaft clean in two. Cue lots of embarrassment on their part and in fairness to them they replaced the whole unit with a brand new hybrid PD150 mdx turbo with billet wheel. 

 

It's been back with me for over 1000 miles now and is spot on.

 

The Yellow fabia is taking up pretty much all my free time so the black ones just getting on with stuff, we go to the Nurburgring in three weeks so the black one will be pressed into further use then as well..

 

The only quick 5 minute mod I've done is to tint the clear section of the rear lights, very subtle but I'm pleased with how it looks for very little outlay!!

 

 

 

More soon. Maybe. 

 

 

It was about time the car had a holiday so based on the fact that the Daffodil is months off being finished, the black one was pressed into yet more service!

 

 

 

Our annual Spa Francochamps and Nurburgring trip kicked off today with a very early euro tunnel crossing and a leisurely schlep across the Low Countries.

 

Rich off here joined us as normal and the cars look quite good together outside our rented house for the week.

 

 

Loads more miles planned for this week along with the usual ring laps etc..

Cant wait for our trip. Jelous your out there now though. 

Lovely trip and fantastic cars.

 

That's one interesting shirt mind you!

Been exploring today, come across a very recently abandoned Skoda dealership...

 

 

 

Off to Spa francochamps circuit tomorrow for a track day, hope this good weather holds.

 

 

 

 

Spent Wednesday at Spa-Francochamps with very changeable weather..

 

 

 

 

As always even in the rain it's a beautiful place, a real treat for petrol heads. Mrs Loftys first time there and she was dead excited lol

Thursday was spent in Germany at the beautiful village called Cochem on the Mosel river then a quick blat up to the Nurburgring for the obligatory evening session 

 

 

 

 

Got back home this evening, done over 1300 miles in 5 days, saw over 140mph on the Autobahn yesterday and it's still averaged 48mpg for the whole trip, so she's done me proud 

Not a huge update, did the 120k service last week, nothing to report, no leaks or nasty things anywhere. Prob will get the stuff round me to do a cambelt /water pump on it at the 140k service.

 

Now that the cars settled into its weekly high mileage muncher role, it's time that I can start spending a bit here and there to at least get it looking half decent - to go with the excellent mechanics of the car.

 

The original front bumper was in a mess. Scuffed both sides, chipped, and damaged on the lower left bottom corner. Being a factory xenon fitted car means the bumper is unique to that version and second hand ones just don't seem to come up. Plus nearly every used bumper is just that - used so would need repair and repainting  at the very least, so I've bought a brand new bumper from TPS. This is currently at the body shop being primed and painted fresh Black Magic Metallic. 

 

I've bought new foglight surrounds and backings, and the surrounds are being painted at the same time.

 

The plan is to get the bumper back, fit it all up then at some point in the autumn, send the whole car back to the body shop for the bonnet/grille/wings and both sides to be painted all in one go. 

 

The temporarily painted black grille was also suffering with mileage and stone chips / subsequent jet wash damage...

 

 

Not a pretty sight. I bought a new chrome grille surround and new Skoda badge, keeping with the OE spec badging

 

 

 

Built it all up in between the today's thunderstorms 

 

 

Much better and will be staying chrome.

 

 

Edited 5 August, 20178 yr by Lofty

To coincide with the outside freshening up, the engine bay is also under the spotlight.

 

The BLT engine cars came with the engine cover combination of black Skoda badge and silver TDI lettering. Bit dull and boring. I did this same mod to the yellow ones engine cover so at least they will look the same side by side at a show with the bonnets open..

 

The early Mk1 Fabia's with the ATD PD engine had a cover with a full colour Skoda badge on and the red DI of the TDI. The securing pins on the back of the green and all black badges are in different places so you can't swap one badge for another, you have to swap the entire engine cover insert. I then bought the full red TDI script off a Mk4 Golf PD150, as that's more befitting of the turbo spec etc...

 

 

BLT bit at the bottom, my "hybrid" one above

 

 

There are a number of items going off for powdercoating soon so it'll start looking much better under there.

 

 

On 19/05/2017 at 08:53, Lofty said:

Not much to report of late, had an issue following the clutch change, turbo failed two days later. Transpires the garage trapped and squashed the braided oil feed to the turbo, starved it of oil and it snapped the shaft clean in two. Cue lots of embarrassment on their part and in fairness to them they replaced the whole unit with a brand new hybrid PD150 mdx turbo with billet wheel. 

 

It's been back with me for over 1000 miles now and is spot on.

 

The Yellow fabia is taking up pretty much all my free time so the black ones just getting on with stuff, we go to the Nurburgring in three weeks so the black one will be pressed into further use then as well..

 

The only quick 5 minute mod I've done is to tint the clear section of the rear lights, very subtle but I'm pleased with how it looks for very little outlay!!

 

 

 

More soon. Maybe. 

 

 

 

 

Lofty! Can i ask what was used and how you tinted the clear sections on the rear lights? I like.

Easy peasy! I used a very very light tint adhesive film off eBay, apply over water and squeegie it down, trim the bits overlapping the red bits with a sharp blade, and bobs your aunties live in lover 

3 hours ago, Lofty said:

Easy peasy! I used a very very light tint adhesive film off eBay, apply over water and squeegie it down, trim the bits overlapping the red bits with a sharp blade, and bobs your aunties live in lover 

 

 

Perfect mate! Don't suppose you have a link to said film? It's just right tint wise!

 

Nick

1 hour ago, broguer said:

 

Perfect mate! Don't suppose you have a link to said film? It's just right tint wise!

 

Nick

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172764432054 

 

that should be it

42 minutes ago, Lofty said:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172764432054 

 

that should be it

 

 

Listing removed matey :(

Few more bits collected to continue with the under bonnet tidy up

 

Slam panel powdercoated in candy red

 

 

 

Extremely pleased with the finish of it

I struggled to find a reasonably priced used SEAT sport strut brace but they were nearly the price that I could get a new one so I bought new and had that powdercoated candy red along with the fuel filter housing 

 

 

 

Need to source a set of hard pipes to get those done red as well..

Done some work on the daily tonight. Fitted the strut brace and Vacuum box bracket..

 

 

Also fitted the slam panel..

 

 

And it's different for sure....

 

The body shop rang today, the bumper and fog light surrounds are done, so I'll collect those soon. I'm trying to find a mint passenger wing as mines got a awkward dent in it that the dent man can't get out, so the plan is....

 

Strip the front end off, replace NSF wing, replace the entire radiator carrier panel as loads of the captive rivnuts are knackered, then build the front end back up with the new bumper, new fogs and rhino lip splitter. 

 

Then in the autumn the car can go into the body shop again and have the grille, bonnet and both sides painted 

 

 

Another milestone...

 

Good effort

Wow, good going. Must have taken quite a bit of calculating to work that out

New front bumper collected from the body shop this morning, currently placed in the spare bedroom with the rest of almost a whole Skoda fabia....

 

The fog light surrounds and backing pieces were so cheap it made no sense to repaint the old ones so Stu the painter did new ones of those for me as well.

 

 

 

New Depo Fog Lights to replace the old chipped ones.

 

 

Might start building it up in the week if there's a quiet evening 

 

 

 

Not much to report, she’s still doing big miles in all weathers, I did hunt down 4 x original vRS steel spare wheels, had them fitted with 4 x new Nankang Winter Tyres in the right 205/45/16 size.

 

I then fitted my wheel trim solution which were original fitment on early 1999 VW Bora SE. I sourced some correct size domed alloy Skoda badges to replace the VW centres. Look like genuine kit, and fit perfectly on the 16” steel as the Skoda Superb ones are not as perfect a fit.

 

The Tyres are proving to be very good in the bad weather, even if they are a bit Squidgy when pressing on a dry road, I can live with that.

 

 

The 17” Team Dynamics Pro-Race 3 wheels are off being powder coated in silver, this is what they will look like when done...(note generic internet image lol)

 

 

I’ve got a very slight click when on full lock which I’ve identified as the drivers outer CV joint so I’ve got a new joint and genuine VAG boot kit to go on in the next few weeks, not bad for 130k+ miles.

 

more soon

 

 

 

The OS cv joint was replaced last Saturday with a genuine VAG boot kit etc, car was presented for its MOT same day and it sailed through. Only advisory was for the handbrake cables outer sheathing breaking up and coming away, so I’ve sourced a pair of new genuine cables and will change those soon.

 

Before Christmas I was looking at maybe changing the stereo head unit in the car as the lack of Bluetooth and Spotify compatibility was hacking me off big time. 

 

I took a punt on a Chinese apple car play double din head unit, reckoning that spending £500 plus on a pioneer etc one was overkill on such a cheap car, so a little over £100 got me this!

 

 

I’ve had to make a proper loom up for it and I’m waiting for an aerial adapter but it works spot on, it’s not got DAB but I can live with that as I only ever listen to Radio 2 on the “wireless”. The Bluetooth and Spotify control work brilliantly. 

 

Its even got a DVD player for extra Sweeny moments lol

 

 

I’ll get some better pics when it’s all fitted and secure in the dash.