Looking to 'pimp my ride'...

[Haladams]

@nu99et18

I am very much behind my plans - still have to do the plating of the wheel arch, but continuing to get parts sorted out.

I need your advice on the rear brakes please. You mentioned that the Polo GTi rears were the better option - the one with the integrated hub bearing. My problem with this is the actual stub axle! It seems to be the rarest part that VW make! This surprised me until I looked closer and see that although the Golf uses the same bearing, the caliper carrier mounts for the Golfs and others using the same is actually on the swing arm, making the Polo stub axle quite unique and of course the only option for the pickup.

You say the taper stub axle arrangement is retro and I can see your reasoning, but in reality how bad is it? Is it so bad that it is worth me shelling out £240 for a pair of VAG made stub axles?

There are a pair on one of the ebay sites, but they look very corroded.

[nu99et18]

@Haladams

Obviously not that bad as loads of the VAG range used the same roller bearing style over the years but they will usually wear quicker especially with bigger wheels etc aswell and i think they're more of a pain to change. 

What i would do is go on Ebay and type '6n2 polo breaking' find a gti or another model with rear discs and ask the seller for the complete rear brake setup, then buy new bearings, hub nuts, discs and pads to go with.

6n0501118 and 6n0501117 are the 6n2 stub axle part numbers incase you need them (right and left)

Or if you don't have any luck then just go for the other style.

[Haladams]

@nu99et18

Thanks! And guess what? the other day a 6N2 GTi appeared on ebay - 'spares or project', £330! Cheaper than what it will cost me for the stub axles and discs alone! Then the cost of collecting it and delivering to South France makes it a bit gold plated. I shall carry on and keep looking as I take your point about it being a better axle.

 

Tell me please, you have been around these cars a while - what is it about the inner rear wheel arches? I looked long and hard for this car, it had 70k kms on the clock, a high price of 4500€, which the seller refused to budge on. For some reason or other, these cars in mainland Europe seem to hold some value as rsuty ones with 200k on the clock go for a couple of thousand.  I crawled all over it and not a sign of rust or filler anywhere, got it home, whipped out the plastic bedliner and there it was - wheel arches pretty bad, but only on the tops. The turrets appeared to be OK. Cracking on with it now, I have had the car completely steam cleaned which has only confirmed my initial inspection - absolutely no rust anywhere, suspension and everything underneath solid. It has a really thick white rubberised coating in the outer wheel arches that is not broken and the metal under is solid as are the shock absorber turrets and well able to accomodate coil-overs on the rears.

 

So, where exactly is the water getting in, why do the arches rot from the top, and how do I plug up wherever it is the water is getting in?? The bedliner is not cut and fits well, so I cannot see water getting through the lip - and even if it did, it would roll off the arches onto the floor and if it were to rust anything, I would have thought it would rust the floor, but as I say, it is solid!

[nu99et18]

@Haladams

Best just message a load of sellers on Ebay and see who will send you the set up cheapest or take a trip to a local scrap yard and you might get a lucky find.

As for the rust I'm not entirely sure, yours doesn't sound too bad at all compared to some of the pick ups I've seen/heard about.

I've never owned a pick up so someone else may be better to answer that question for you.

[Haladams]

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Edited 26 November, 2017 by Haladams

[Haladams]

@nu99et18

 

Un update on things - dragging my heels a bit due to a few other things going on, but have now plated the rear arches which were not as bad as I first thought. I have strengthened the plating around the turrets in case I end up using coil-overs although my thoughts are to go with the standard suspension now. All nice and tidy with a good coat of Hercul Liner polyurethane paint.

 

A reputable tuning shop near me thinks he hs found a little used 1.9tdi with box, ecu and wiring loom etc which he reckons he can easily install and

 map to get 190bhp. Owner is holding out to sell apparantly so the price is currently pretty high!

 

Have been playing around with brakes and think I might go down the Scenic disc route - in fact I think I have to due to all the parts I have bought now! As you say, it certainly fills my 15" wheels - after some judicious metal removal though, it sits inside quite snugly now with maybe a quarter inch gap... wish I had got 16" in hindsight!

 

To mount the Mondeo calipers, I did not have to drill out the Skoda mounting holes - they were already 12mm - was this a change maybe in later models (mine is 2001)? I had to mill spacers to extend the carrier brackets - 4.6mm (although I am sure I could have used quality washers instead) and all tightened up with new 10.9 bolts, a tidy set-up! Thanks very much for getting me started!

 

Now, onto the rears...