Diesel Monte's 2001 Skoda Fabia "Project vRSDI"

[DieselMonte]

I decided that since I have a thread started for my Monte Carlo,Why not have a thread dedicated to the car that got me to appreciate the Fabia platform as a whole.

 

This is my 2001 Skoda Fabia Comfort 1.9 Sdi.

I was given this car in February of 2017 as a car to practice how to drive in .It was bought for just €100 and was out of test about 3 months,however it had new tyres and new brake pads/discs but failed on emissions and a broken handbrake.

I took it through all the fields on our farm and learned a massive amount of car control in the process. Since it had 64 hp I had to be constantly changing from gear to gear to keep it moving. And since it had no ABS I learned to put my left foot on the brake to stop the front wheels locking up,but that usually meant the rear wheels would lock instead and I would have to go through corners sideways!

However by October I managed to crash it in a field,badly.

Edited 5 January, 2021 by DieselMonte
New project name

[DieselMonte]

Here's a picture of the aftermath.

In the crash I managed to:

-Blow both airbags

-Damage the hood latch

-Fold the radiator in two

-Fold the fan in two

-Bend the Front crash bar into a V shape

-Slightly tweak both chassis legs

-Destroy the bumper

And Lastly:

-I managed to push the radiator so far back it actually SNAPPED THE STARTER MOTOR. 

Things were not looking good for the fabia.

It ended up laying outside for a year until some work taking place on the farm forced it to be moved inside.However,because Mk1 Fabia's are notorious for their lackluster rear door seals, water had gotten in on the cabin and mould had destroyed the interior. 

[DieselMonte]

Eventually I decided to take it apart and see if it could ever run again,Keep in mind my knowledge of mechanics at this point consisted of taking apart bicycles so I was really,truly in unknown waters.

I found that I needed at least a starter and a radiator,and a lot of the bits that hold together the front ( like the slam bar and radiator support. Both were completely mangled beyond belief.)

 

[DieselMonte]

I eventually ended up with most of the car in pieces and it was moved to the large shed where I had access to all the tools on the farm.

[DieselMonte]

I found a starter motor on ebay going cheap and ordered it, I installed it when it arrived and turned the key expecting nothing,but i got a solid turn. At this point I stopped,Turned on my camera and recorded its first start.

 

Here is a Link to the first start of the car

[DieselMonte]

I was so excited I simply put back on the bonnet( to stop rainwater getting into the exposed intake.) And drove it for a few minutes. While the engine ran well and it still tracked straight , it wasnt without its problems. For a start,it still didnt have a radiator,or a fan,the power steering didnt work,the gear shifter was stiff from lying up and the window regulators decided to not work,but no matter, all would be fixed in time.

[DieselMonte]

Eventually I found an oem radiator on eBay for cheap and bought it, since I couldnt afford to buy replacement bits for the support I repaired the original one with zipties and epoxy glue ( no,i'm serious)

Eventually I found a fan to match on eBay too and mounted it,though it has never needed to kick on strangely.

[DieselMonte]

I eventually figured out a way to drift stitch the front bumper back together,Not the prettiest job I know but it would do for now.

I also got the passenger side headlight working (it hadn't worked since the crash)

This would be the most I would do to it for a while  although the original battery finally went so bad It wouldnt take a jump,It was replaced with a much larger battery from a jeep.A battery so large in fact that I had to forgo the bonnet until I could find a way to properly trim the battery tray to fit it.

[DieselMonte]

I noticed it was sitting low on the drivers side and found out that the top of the front coil spring on that side had snapped.I'll have to get another one in a while but it still runs for now. 

[DieselMonte]

I recently took the car apart again since I've been off due to the covid-19 pandemic. During this I rotated the wheels,Topped off the oil (it leaks from a stripped sump plug) and gave the paint a serious overhaul using meguairs ultimate series of products,while far from a perfect job it has made the car look twice as good as I've ever seen it. I also restored the trim and removed the bumper to redo and reinforce the driftstitches on it.

 

[DieselMonte]

I also recently got front seats from a B6 Passat and installed them, while far from a perfect fit in the car They are in tight enough to not move about and clean up what little of the interior there is quite nicely.

Ill try get pictures up for them in the coming days.

[DieselMonte]

While this car isn't worth anything to anyone,I'll always consider it my first car and don't plan on getting rid of it anytime soon. As I see it,The car has proven itself as a strong,reliable workhorse through the years,even considering it has 195,000 miles on it at this point,it doesn't matter to me. I know I would have regretted it if I just had the car scrapped and so Im content in having it running well,even if its far from being a roadworthy example. And who knows? Maybe I'll find a donor car with enough parts in it to put mine back on the road. I'm hoping that this pandemic will bring car prices back down to earth in the coming months so I can actually conceive of a plan to put in motion.

[Breezy_Pete]

I enjoyed reading this, thanks for sharing.

[DieselMonte]

Have had to crop the picture to all hell but here it is,B6 passat seats in a 6Y Fabia.

[DieselMonte]

I apologise for the shoddy crop of the photos but it will only allow me to upload .7mb photos.

Also I rerouted the CCV to under the car and blocked off the intake with a homemade cap painted JCB yellow.

Don't worry,I put a clip on the top of the hose afterwards.

[DieselMonte]

Some minor updates:

I flushed out the old water from the radiator and finally fixed the heater. And found a few days later that I'm missing the two clips that hold the radiator pipes to the radiator, the bottom one came off and dumped coolant everywhere. Also I found that the drivers Cv joint is clicking. The parts are dirt cheap even new so i'll order them eventually,but I want to put it to one side until I can get the monte carlo 100% sorted. Realistically the only way to get this car in decent shape again would be to wait for another fabia to come up cheap nearby, seemingly most of the parts I need are common to all mk1 fabias so I may wait and see if there are any up for sale nearby.

[DieselMonte]

Some good work done today, The car is slowly coming back together, wanted to straighten the top radiator support as it was still bent up on one side. Got it looking close to normal , sanded it down and sprayed it with gloss black,only it didn't come out gloss black. It came out looking flocked and it looks so much nicer than gloss,even if I didn't intend for it to happen.

[DieselMonte]

Also spent time polishing all of the metal bits. The valve cover,Vacuum pump,Fuel Pump,Prop Rod, Intake Manifold, even the front tow hook. For a bit of elbow grease and some metal polish it cleaned things up a treat.

[kentdale]

Hi, interesting how you learned the basics of driving on a farm, it brings back happy memories of my late father and a farmer friend letting me drive my dads old pick up truck in his big flat fields, didn't have any crashes so that was good.

I also drove a lovely small dexta tractor back in the late 70s.

Tough old motors these Fabias.

Martin

[DieselMonte]

12 hours ago, kentdale said:

Hi, interesting how you learned the basics of driving on a farm, it brings back happy memories of my late father and a farmer friend letting me drive my dads old pick up truck in his big flat fields, didn't have any crashes so that was good.

I also drove a lovely small dexta tractor back in the late 70s.

Tough old motors these Fabias.

Martin

In my opinion it was the best way for me to learn,I could do all the dumb crap one does when learning to drive without putting anyone except myself in danger. It gave me the confidence to work on a car and not be afraid to tear it all down, in anycase the crash turned into a learning experience for me. Ironically the crash worked in my favor more than anything else. 

[shyVRS245]

I bought a Red Seat Ibiza with that engine (SDi) brand new in 2000 trying to be sensible after a number of 8V and 16V GTi Ibiza's but I had no idea how slow and totally lacking in acceleration it was replaced by a 177bhp Leon Cupra in August 2003 just 6 weeks before I got married as a present to myself for being able to buy a larger house for us in December 2002 which we moved into in March 2003. Like Wino I enjoyed reading this thread and you really shouldn't become a Doctor looking at those front bumper stitches.😁

[john999boy]

This is certainly ‘different’ to most other Project threads!

Looking forward to seeing it progress. 

[DieselMonte]

12 hours ago, shyVRS245 said:

I bought a Red Seat Ibiza with that engine (SDi) brand new in 2000 trying to be sensible after a number of 8V and 16V GTi Ibiza's but I had no idea how slow and totally lacking in acceleration it was replaced by a 177bhp Leon Cupra in August 2003 just 6 weeks before I got married as a present to myself for being able to buy a larger house for us in December 2002 which we moved into in March 2003. Like Wino I enjoyed reading this thread and you really shouldn't become a Doctor looking at those front bumper stitches.😁

Its crappy and those stitches are rough as anything but trust it looks a hell of a lot better than what it was before. Atleast now I have a front bumper.

 

7 hours ago, john999boy said:

This is certainly ‘different’ to most other Project threads!

Looking forward to seeing it progress. 

The best way forward for me is to keep an eye out for a fabia local to me going cheap and swap over the parts to fix this one,or put the sdi lump and assorted bits on a donor car. Either way progress is going to be slow as I have the monte carlo to keep maintained too.

[DieselMonte]

Got some cheapo gauges to put in the fabia under the radio. It has oil and water temp plus an oil pressure gauge. Got them cheap enough and while they're probably not the best and most accurate gauges they'll do the job in the sense that it'll show that I have some oil pressure and the temps aren't too high. Also decided to throw up my most recent picture of it, dirt et al.

Finally, with the covid situation as it is I have seen a few fabias up going cheap enough for me to look at. I actually went to see an identical fabia to mine with a 1.4 mpi engine but ended up not getting it. Even though it only had 95000 miles it was arguably in WORSE condition than my car. I didnt think the engine would make it the 30 km or so home and so I left empty handed.

The search continues!

[shyVRS245]

3 minutes ago, DieselMonte said:

Got some cheapo gauges to put in the fabia under the radio. It has oil and water temp plus an oil pressure gauge. Got them cheap enough and while they're probably not the best and most accurate gauges they'll do the job in the sense that it'll show that I have some oil pressure and the temps aren't too high. Also decided to throw up my most recent picture of it, dirt et al.

Finally, with the covid situation as it is I have seen a few fabias up going cheap enough for me to look at. I actually went to see an identical fabia to mine with a 1.4 mpi engine but ended up not getting it. Even though it only had 95000 miles it was arguably in WORSE condition than my car. I didnt think the engine would make it the 30 km or so home and so I left empty handed.

The search continues!

Needs a clean, might not need wax and polish though.