Sasha’s Octavia vRS

[SashaGrace]

Lol no, Skoda don’t supply Haribo’s 😂😂 The floor was a bargain, managed to get it all discounted from a local place, solid oak throughout.

[Kental]

1 minute ago, SashaGrace said:

Lol no, Skoda don’t supply Haribo’s 😂😂 The floor was a bargain, managed to get it all discounted from a local place, solid oak throughout.

 

Problem with mine being a lease it has to go back as Skoda intended. Your enhancements are the ideal mix of usable daily driver and you do a heady mileage. How do you fit it all in? 

[Kental]

12 minutes ago, SashaGrace said:

Lol no, Skoda don’t supply Haribo’s 😂😂 The floor was a bargain, managed to get it all discounted from a local place, solid oak throughout.

 

Our Spaniel means non carpeted floor has to be kept to a minimum!

[SashaGrace]

Only having to work 5 days a week helps, sometimes less. From Jan last year until July I only worked 4 days a week. 14 weeks a year off also helps 😂

[Kental]

2 minutes ago, SashaGrace said:

Only having to work 5 days a week helps, sometimes less. From Jan last year until July I only worked 4 days a week. 14 weeks a year off also helps 😂

 

Silly me for thinking 5 days at work was full time!!! Is the 14 weeks off meaning you work in education?

Any way what you have done to your car whilst holding down any job is nothing short of incredible.

[SashaGrace]

Yes, I used to work 6 days a week when I was younger, week days in uni then out in the van from 6 until 11 on a week day and 6-10 on Saturday so doing a 8:20-3:40 working day with an hours lunch and 2 breaks is much less taxing. I’m also back in a mainstream school after a year in social inclusion and 2 years in a special school and I’m in a 3 form entry school so there’s a lot less personal planning as we team plan and I have 2 TA’s to plan for instead of 6. The planning and marking takes time but doing the Masters to specialise will be making life easier as I plan to roll down teaching hours and up assessment hours as it’s much more flexible and profitable. I have management time as well now as well as a student starting soon to take my class for the rest of the year so I’m not finding work too stressful at the moment but if you ask me that in September I’ll probably have a different answer! Nobody does this job to become a millionaire, you do it because you want the children in your care to succeed but I can help the children who really need that support of a Dyslexia diagnosis a whole lot more if I can do more assessments. That I can work less hours is a huge benefit but I want to spend that extra time with my own son as he grows up.

[Kental]

And I’m just a boring accountant, with a bit of IT support

[shyVRS245]

1 minute ago, Kental said:

And I’m just a boring accountant, with a bit of IT support

[SashaGrace]

Getting somewhere but had to stop for today as I ran out of light, got to insert the pins into the fuse box and connect to CAN and then boot button wiring in the front when that arrives and we should be done  

 

 

 

[shyVRS245]

Crikey glad I just have to press a button rather than install the wiring loom.

[SashaGrace]

It’s not as bad as it looks, just time consuming routing the cables.

[Kental]

Wow, that’s a lot of wires.

[SashaGrace]

14 minutes ago, Kental said:

Wow, that’s a lot of wires.

The control module needs to connect to the BCM, fusebox, CAN hi/lo, boot buzzer, boot button, boot lock, soft close boot latch, 2x strut connections on each side, drivers door and button in the centre console. So yeah, there is quite a bit 🤣

[ChoonDoode]

3 hours ago, SashaGrace said:

It’s not as bad as it looks, just time consuming routing the cables.

 

HA!! rather you than me. You must have the patience of a saint to start taking all those panels and whatnot off. I'd be employing a crow bar and hammer to yank them off and it would frustrate me to have to take time and be so delicate.

[Kental]

11 hours ago, SashaGrace said:

The control module needs to connect to the BCM, fusebox, CAN hi/lo, boot buzzer, boot button, boot lock, soft close boot latch, 2x strut connections on each side, drivers door and button in the centre console. So yeah, there is quite a bit 🤣

 

The payback time for all that work compared to opening & closing by hand must be significant.

Currently annoyed that our Fiesta mk8 has defeated me on just upgrading the headlight bulbs.  The instructions in the handbook aren't detailed enough and I'm afraid I'll break the lugs as you have to remove the physical headlamp unit. The handbook even warns you to be careful as the lugs are designed to fracture in an accident!!

Edited 20 January, 2020 by Kental

[Ecomatt]

53 minutes ago, Kental said:

 

The payback time for all that work compared to opening & closing by hand must be significant.

Currently annoyed that our Fiesta mk8 has defeated me on just upgrading the headlight bulbs.  The instructions in the handbook aren't detailed enough and I'm afraid I'll break the lugs as you have to remove the physical headlamp unit. The handbook even warns you to be careful as the lugs are designed to fracture in an accident!!

My last car had a powered boot and yes they are handy to have. But I dont miss not having one on my Octy.

[shyVRS245]

10 minutes ago, Ecomatt said:

My last car had a powered boot and yes they are handy to have. But I dont miss not having one on my Octy.

I've gone the other way from manual opening/closing Octavia hatch to the electric opening/closing Superb and clean hands are now the norm in winter and just feels so much more Premium. No more jealous looks of envy at Audi, BMW and Mercedes smug faces, because I've joined that club.BTW Sasha don't forget the button near the gearlever so you can open it from the drivers seat, so handy.

[Ecomatt]

27 minutes ago, shyVRS245 said:

I've gone the other way from manual opening/closing Octavia hatch to the electric opening/closing Superb and clean hands are now the norm in winter and just feels so much more Premium. No more jealous looks of envy at Audi, BMW and Mercedes smug faces, because I've joined that club.BTW Sasha don't forget the button near the gearlever so you can open it from the drivers seat, so handy.

There is the clean hands bit yes but I dont let my car get that dirty lol. I looked at the Superb and yours is a very nice example, but it was too big for my needs.

What Sasha has done to her car is amazing and a lot of time and effort put into it. But with my age now (40) I have come to the mindset I would rather buy a car with the features as standard than modify or change anything. 20 years ago when I was into modifying and spending all my wages on the car there was no issue But now I think all the money spent on modifications could have been invested on a newer or better car with the bits as standard.

Edited 20 January, 2020 by Ecomatt
Spelling

[SashaGrace]

15 hours ago, tunedude said:

 

HA!! rather you than me. You must have the patience of a saint to start taking all those panels and whatnot off. I'd be employing a crow bar and hammer to yank them off and it would frustrate me to have to take time and be so delicate.

I’ve done it all before on this car so nothing new for this which helped massively getting to this point so quickly and the loom is very intelligently designed; it is built to be fitted much more quickly and with less intrusion than the factory loom. This threw me for a while as I was expecting to route the cables as a factory installation and the instructions which are good, but are translated quite literally from German and leave a little to be desired caught me off guard until I had it all laid out in the car. It’s not how I thought it would be, but it’s getting there.

 

7 hours ago, Kental said:

 

The payback time for all that work compared to opening & closing by hand must be significant.

Currently annoyed that our Fiesta mk8 has defeated me on just upgrading the headlight bulbs.  The instructions in the handbook aren't detailed enough and I'm afraid I'll break the lugs as you have to remove the physical headlamp unit. The handbook even warns you to be careful as the lugs are designed to fracture in an accident!!

I enjoy these projects but yes, having the end result work is what I’m after. I’m patiently awaiting the next free day I have to work on it and finish it so I can test the operation of the boot lid.

 

6 hours ago, shyVRS245 said:

I've gone the other way from manual opening/closing Octavia hatch to the electric opening/closing Superb and clean hands are now the norm in winter and just feels so much more Premium. No more jealous looks of envy at Audi, BMW and Mercedes smug faces, because I've joined that club.BTW Sasha don't forget the button near the gearlever so you can open it from the drivers seat, so handy.

Still waiting for the button but it doesn’t seem essential with this kit, as above it’s not like a factory loom, it’s built to be retrofitted so it’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out. I’m hoping to make it work just from the key and tailgate buttons until the dash one arrives unless it comes this week and then I’ll fit it at the weekend.

 

6 hours ago, Ecomatt said:

There is the clean hands bit yes but I dont let my car get that dirty lol. I looked at the Superb and yours is a very nice example, but it was too big for my needs.

What Sasha has done to her car is amazing and a lot of time and effort put into it. But with my age now (40) I have come to the mindset I would rather buy a car with the features as standard than modify or change anything. 20 years ago when I was into modifying and spending all my wages on the car there was no issue But now I think all the money spent on modifications could have been invested on a newer or better car with the bits as standard.

I simply couldn’t find a car that had the right options at the time of buying and I couldn’t afford a new one. While I have spent more on the car than I will ever get back it is still less than car that would have came with these features from factory. The VC came in in 2018, 4 years after my car was built, the Columbus was a £1000 extra on top of the vRS spec, you can’t get full leather anymore etc so still cheaper than new car, but cheaper than a slightly higher spec one with the contemporary options I wanted installed? Probably not but I’ve enjoyed the journey fitting them nonetheless.

[Llwyngwernog]

I wouldn't dream of taking on the tasks you have ...but your last sentence says it all " I've enjoyed the journey"

Good luck to you ...I for one am enjoying reading about all your hard work .

Regards

[Kental]

Sasha, the fact you have an 80 page thread dedicated to your car on top of all the help & tips you offer elsewhere shows incredible dedication and knowledge. How you have time for a life, job and family on top of that is amazing. You could make car modifying more than just a hobby, but I see you want to give more back to the world. Wow.

[SashaGrace]

On 20/01/2020 at 16:12, Llwyngwernog said:

I wouldn't dream of taking on the tasks you have ...but your last sentence says it all " I've enjoyed the journey"

Good luck to you ...I for one am enjoying reading about all your hard work .

Regards

Thanks  I hope to have it working at the weekend.

20 hours ago, Kental said:

Sasha, the fact you have an 80 page thread dedicated to your car on top of all the help & tips you offer elsewhere shows incredible dedication and knowledge. How you have time for a life, job and family on top of that is amazing. You could make car modifying more than just a hobby, but I see you want to give more back to the world. Wow.

I have bought a GoPro and am considering looking for a project to film over summer as I get bored being at home for 6 weeks and although I have my wife (also a teacher) and our 4 year old (will be 5 by then) it’s nice to have a break. My bachelors degree is in graphic design and I am learning my way around some video editing software so there could be something on the horizon to watch this year, who knows 🤷‍♀️

[Kental]

Just now, SashaGrace said:

Thanks  I hope to have it working at the weekend.

I have bought a GoPro and am considering looking for a project to film over summer as I get bored being at home for 6 weeks and although I have my wife (also a teacher) and our 4 year old (will be 5 by then) it’s nice to have a break. My bachelors degree is in graphic design and I am learning my way around some video editing software so there could be something on the horizon to watch this year, who knows 🤷‍♀️

 

Guessing you put the same dedication & perfection into everything you do the same as the car, Spielberg & Tarantino better watch their backs!!!

[mhr]

On 18/01/2020 at 23:06, SashaGrace said:

Yes, I used to work 6 days a week when I was younger, week days in uni then out in the van from 6 until 11 on a week day and 6-10 on Saturday so doing a 8:20-3:40 working day with an hours lunch and 2 breaks is much less taxing. I’m also back in a mainstream school after a year in social inclusion and 2 years in a special school and I’m in a 3 form entry school so there’s a lot less personal planning as we team plan and I have 2 TA’s to plan for instead of 6. The planning and marking takes time but doing the Masters to specialise will be making life easier as I plan to roll down teaching hours and up assessment hours as it’s much more flexible and profitable. I have management time as well now as well as a student starting soon to take my class for the rest of the year so I’m not finding work too stressful at the moment but if you ask me that in September I’ll probably have a different answer! Nobody does this job to become a millionaire, you do it because you want the children in your care to succeed but I can help the children who really need that support of a Dyslexia diagnosis a whole lot more if I can do more assessments. That I can work less hours is a huge benefit but I want to spend that extra time with my own son as he grows up.

 

I take it your school has a totally invincible Greenpower Goblin or Formula 24 with your influence...? (maybe you could advise how I might assess the battery in ours to see if we need to replace it?)

 

[SashaGrace]

6 minutes ago, mhr said:

 

I take it your school has a totally invincible Greenpower Goblin or Formula 24 with your influence...? (maybe you could advise how I might assess the battery in ours to see if we need to replace it?)

 

We don’t sadly, until I arrived the technology provision was quite poor so I’ve taken the lead on delivering science and technology as the new curriculum details but I’m in Foundation Phase and I’m busy with Criw Cymraeg and dyslexia assessments and assisting the ALNCO in getting everything up to code ready for the final step of the ALN Transition from the old CoP to the new one as the school is very behind in this area so I have no time to dedicate myself to such a project. Battery testing wise, if you don’t have a multi meter to check the state of the battery I would try to power something else with the battery or test a known good battery in your device before doing anything else.