Rob's Mk1 VRS Combi

[LukeG99]

Looks great

[RMDavis]

Well overdue update on the barge!

 

Since fitting the seats (which truly are awesome!)

 

I ordered a few bits and pieces and have just been waiting for them to arrive, and also finding the time to fit them as work has been rather mental! Literally worked for nearly 24 hours straight last week... 😳

 

So the weekend just gone I had all the parts ready and I had the time to fit them, so here we go.

 

Firstly I fitted a Baf Motorsport rear 'K brace' as the Combi's don't come with any bracing in the boot like the hatchbacks.

 

IMO it looks great and certainly should stiffen the rear end much better than before!

 

I also replaced the rocker cover gasket as I found that was pretty worn and the plugs were wet with oil when I carried out my initial service a few weeks ago.

 

Nothing major but it needed to be done and has given me piece of mind.

 

The suspension was next and I removed the very tired front and rear shock absorbers and have replaced them with some KW V1's and Poweflex front strut top mount bushed.

 

I had previously bought a secondhand Mk1 Audi TT front strut brace, cut the unneeded brackets off gave it a coat in gloss black and fitted it whilst the suspension was out with some nice stainless cap head bolts. Not bad for £40 all in! 

 

The wheels went back on along with some huncentric H&R spacers 12mm up front and 8mm on the rear which has really improved the overall stance and I'm very happy with how they sit. 

 

I kind of guessed the ride heights when putting the coilovers together, obviously measuring each side equally and it turned out okay. Although I'm going to let the suspension settle for a week and then adjust it to suit.

 

On Friday I drove to my local Longlife Exhaust centre and had a 2.5" system made no centre silencer but with a rear silencer. At the same time they fitted a MP Developments 3" downpipe with sports cat.

 

I'm really pleased with how it's turned out! I couldn't find an off the shelf system that I liked and I knew that Matt would be able to build something that I would. I've know him for years and this is the 6th system he's built for me and he's never disappointed!

 

It has a lovely deep note and no noticeable drone whilst on the motorway, the downpipe had definitely improved the pull under load. Overall a bloody good step in the right direction!

 

I'm sorry for the lack of photos of the various parts and progress of the install, but I get carried away and just crack on with the work! I have much respect for the people that catalogue every detail of their build. 👍

 

I've got a long list of things I want/need to do but I'm just really enjoying modifying a car again, and I'm growing really rather fond of this one! 😁

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Endoof]

Your car is literally my inspiration... already on the hunt for the carpet out of a mk4 haha, have messaged like 6 people on ebay who are breaking 5dr mk4 golfs 😂

 

Out of curiosity, with the full black carpet, as well as the full black seats, what are your plans with the door inserts that are 'supposed' to be white also? is there an OEM replacement for them? 

 

Must say the 17" spiders do wonders to the look of the cars, i was heavily considering going for something aftermarket but after seeing yours with the spacers i'm more than half tempted to try source a set for myself... granted the cars on coilovers but have you noticed any differences with the ride comfort/ or speedo reading off due to the slightly larger wheels and tyres? 

Also, without sounding cheeky, around about how much did the custom 'zorst set you back? looks nice with the twin pipes..

Cheers!
 

[RMDavis]

12 minutes ago, Endoof said:

Your car is literally my inspiration... already on the hunt for the carpet out of a mk4 haha, have messaged like 6 people on ebay who are breaking 5dr mk4 golfs 😂

 

Out of curiosity, with the full black carpet, as well as the full black seats, what are your plans with the door inserts that are 'supposed' to be white also? is there an OEM replacement for them? 

 

Must say the 17" spiders do wonders to the look of the cars, i was heavily considering going for something aftermarket but after seeing yours with the spacers i'm more than half tempted to try source a set for myself... granted the cars on coilovers but have you noticed any differences with the ride comfort/ or speedo reading off due to the slightly larger wheels and tyres? 

Also, without sounding cheeky, around about how much did the custom 'zorst set you back? looks nice with the twin pipes..

Cheers!
 

 

Thank you for the kind words bud. It's great sharing our projects with like-minded people who are also on their own journey!

 

If it helps I don't think you specifically need a 5 door carpet as mine originally came from a Mk4 Golf Anniversary which was a 3 door and I didn't have any issues with fitment.

 

I'm unsure what to do with the door cards at the moment 🤔 I will either re-trim them myself in a suitable material to compliment the seats whether that's leather or alcantara. The second option would be try to source some leather door cards from an L&K Octavia combi for a direct fit, although nothing has come up recently on ebay etc.

 

I'm really pleased with how the wheels have turned out and that extra inch certainly adds a little more presence in the arch! There's plenty of 'for sale' groups on Facebook and 17" spiders often come up.

 

Recently seen a set for a £150 I think? As for speedo discrepancies I haven't noticed anything major. I'm pretty sure when I put the details into willtheyfit.com the variation between the two wheel/tyre combos were minimal. 

 

Happy to chat about the exhaust mate, I paid £550 and that included the fitment of the downpipe I supplied. I lucked out with that also and bought it brand new via ebay for £250 from a chap that never fitted it and had since sold his Mk1. 👍🏻

 

I did take a photo of the downpipe actually which I'll include here.

 

 

[Evil]

Nice.... looks great mate 😎

 

Got a k brace wating to go in mine (and waiting for swmbo to assist with bolting up the tt front brace), building up the courage to drill the holes.

 

There was a set of black 17" spiders for £80 recently.. I'm sticking with the 16s or would have snapped them up.

[RMDavis]

1 hour ago, Evil said:

Nice.... looks great mate 😎

 

Got a k brace wating to go in mine (and waiting for swmbo to assist with bolting up the tt front brace), building up the courage to drill the holes.

 

There was a set of black 17" spiders for £80 recently.. I'm sticking with the 16s or would have snapped them up.

 

Thank you mate, 

 

Another fellow black mk1 combi owner! 😁

 

The drilling isn't too bad, just make sure you get everything in the correct place and I would highly reccomend using a centre punch to assist the initial drilling.

 

Both for the strut brace, and the k brace.

[Evil]

3 minutes ago, RMDavis said:

 

Thank you mate, 

 

Another fellow black mk1 combi owner! 😁

 

The drilling isn't too bad, just make sure you get everything in the correct place and I would highly reccomend using a centre punch to assist the initial drilling.

 

Both for the strut brace, and the k brace.

Yeah man... I kinda cocked up the thread title, typically.. https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/492161-this-ones-ours/

 

 

I've already drilled the turrets, used masking tape, fairy dust and prayer - not the latter, I'm not religious. I just need a smaller pair of hands to get under there, save me jacking it up.

 

 

[RMDavis]

2 hours ago, Evil said:

Yeah man... I kinda cocked up the thread title, typically.. https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/492161-this-ones-ours/

 

 

I've already drilled the turrets, used masking tape, fairy dust and prayer - not the latter, I'm not religious. I just need a smaller pair of hands to get under there, save me jacking it up.

 

 

 

Haha I get that bud! It's certainly doable with everything in place but much easier with two people.

 

With the shock absorbers removed I had lots of access!

[skinnyman]

Great thread and I'm impressed with how you are cracking on with things.  

I'm looking to change the carpet & wondered how long it took to swap things over?

[RMDavis]

18 minutes ago, skinnyman said:

Great thread and I'm impressed with how you are cracking on with things.  

I'm looking to change the carpet & wondered how long it took to swap things over?

 

Thank you mate I'm giving it the TLC it's been long overdue!

 

I'm certainly not somebody that rushes things and I spent a morning to strip it out and get the new one in, but I'm fortunate I have a large workshop to do it in so I needn't worry about poor weather etc so I can take my time. 

 

The front seats and the front section of the carpet will be coming out again soon as I have ordered the loom and relay needed to wire in the heated Recaros.

 

With winter looming I thought this should be a priority! 😁

[skinnyman]

18 hours ago, RMDavis said:

The front seats and the front section of the carpet will be coming out again soon as I have ordered the loom and relay needed to wire in the heated Recaros

I'd be interested to see some pics of that & how you fit the loom as it's something I'm considering. 👍

[Evil]

23 hours ago, RMDavis said:

 

Thank you mate, 

 

Another fellow black mk1 combi owner! 😁

 

The drilling isn't too bad, just make sure you get everything in the correct place and I would highly reccomend using a centre punch to assist the initial drilling.

 

Both for the strut brace, and the k brace.

I have one of those conical drill bits.. 

Reckon that'd be OK? 

If not, my other bits stop at 8mm and then jump to 13.... they're all quality, and mostly new, but it's quite a jump. 

 

Need to order some punches I think.. 

[Dean]

Looking really good mate. I do love a VRS Estate!

Side nice, moving this to the project area.

[RMDavis]

4 hours ago, skinnyman said:

I'd be interested to see some pics of that & how you fit the loom as it's something I'm considering. 👍

 

I've never done one before but maybe I could try and put together a guide to help people installing heated seats to their own Mk1?

 

So far I've got the heated Recaros from a Mk4 Golf, and the heater control switch from an L&K Octavia. 

 

on order I have a '455 Relay' and the Kufatec wiring loom.

 

Will update once I've figured out how to do it myself! 😂

 

4 hours ago, Evil said:

I have one of those conical drill bits.. 

Reckon that'd be OK? 

If not, my other bits stop at 8mm and then jump to 13.... they're all quality, and mostly new, but it's quite a jump. 

 

Need to order some punches I think.. 

 

You should be fine with the conical step bits mate, I haven't used them myself but from what I've seen they are pretty accurate. 

 

I picked up one of these automatic punches from Halfords and has done an excellent job.

 

You don't need to use a hammer just push it against the surface until it clicks.

 

https://www.halfords.com/tools/hand-tools/all-hand-tools/halfords-automatic-centre-punch-124628.html

 

6 minutes ago, DeanVRS20VT said:

Looking really good mate. I do love a VRS Estate!

Side nice, moving this to the project area.

 

Cheers Dean, most appreciated! 😁 it's getting there, atleast passes the 10ft test... 😂

 

Hopefully over winter I will be respraying it ready for lots of events next year to show it off at its best!

 

Thanks for moving the thread I was going to ask whether you could for me! 👍

[Evil]

1 hour ago, RMDavis said:

 

I've never done one before but maybe I could try and put together a guide to help people installing heated seats to their own Mk1?

 

So far I've got the heated Recaros from a Mk4 Golf, and the heater control switch from an L&K Octavia. 

 

on order I have a '455 Relay' and the Kufatec wiring loom.

 

Will update once I've figured out how to do it myself! 😂

There's some very good guides for the Mk4 Golf (https://www.uk-mkivs.net/ is my go to for Mk4 stuff), should be very similar?

I put heated seats in my old Mk4, laid the loom under the carpet and got it up and behind the dash but got lazy then and took it no further. The wiring wasn't difficult, I just lost the motivation. Sold the car with the business end of the loom coiled up near the windscreen.

[RMDavis]

I've been busy with the Combi and got some jobs done over the last few weeks mainly trying to getting it up together for the colder months.

 

The nearside door mirror didn't de-mist and upon inspection found the previous owner must of fitted a MK4 Golf mirror glass as oddly the connecter for wiring is at the opposite end and wouldn't reach.

 

Both of the mirrors must of been replaced at some point because they didn't have the OE blue tint so I bit the bullet and replaced them with the correct versions and now work perfectly. 

 

The rear window de-mister also wasn't working, I checked the fuse first which was fine so I stripped down the tailgate trim and followed the wiring finding one of the tabs had broken away from the glass itself.

 

I managed to secure it and is also now working as it should! 

 

Finally I got round to wiring in the heated Recaro seats courtesy of loom from Kufatec. 

 

I'd sourced a 255 relay and the correct Skoda control switch from a L&K Octavia and got cracking. It's a fairly straightforward and with the use of a voltmeter you can easily work out what wires to splice into from the headlight switch.

 

Well worth the effort and it's great to have a car with heated seats again especially with winter looming! 

 

 

Now onto the big update:-

 

I've finally started the process of getting the car ready for its respray!

 

Today I got the rear bumper off and tackled something that's been bugging me for ages... The tow bar bracket IMO is hideous and I have no intention of using the car for towing.

 

I removed the crash bar and cut the bracket off with a plasma cutter - a little over kill but such an awesome bit of kit! 

 

I bolted the bar back on and offered up a secondhand bumper I picked up without any cutouts and I'm bloody chuffed with how much better it looks.

 

I continued stripping and got the front bumper off, all four arch liners, headlamps, taillights, side repeaters, and the tailgate trim.

 

I didn't find any horrors when removing the arch liners etc with bodyshell in good condition, even the tailgate only has minimal corrosion a well known issue with the Combi.

 

The only corrosion I do have to deal with and treat is behind the window rubber on the offside rear door and the bottom of both the wings. 

 

One note on the wings, if you haven't already I'd remove the arch liners and take a look behind them as I must of had about 2kg of earth/sand back there! absolutely horrendous, I can't imagine why the wings are suffering with rust! 😂

 

Plenty left to remove and I've got a ton of paint preparation to start but I'm really enjoying this process.

 

Without even thinking I was just going to go over again with 'Black Magic' but my colleagues (also petrol heads) have suggested a colour change and its got me thinking...

 

Granted its a little more prep work etc but I have access to a spray booth at work and will be doing everything myself and have plenty of time to do it justice. 

 

Obviously Red, Silver, and Yellow are off the table because I could just buy a Mk1 in those colours anyway but maybe a nice blue or a green would look smart?

 

It needs to be the right colour and sympathetic to the age and style of the Octavia, basically I don't want a bright orange or a TVR inspired flip paint! 😂

 

Perhaps a VAG based gloss or metallic colour?

 

Any opinions or suggestions would be most welcome, even if it's to keep it black which at the moment I am leaning towards as I'd like to keep it original. 

 

Sorry for the long and tedious post! 

 

 

 

 

[Evil]

Where did you source the blue mirror glass from ? 

Mine has grotty regular silver and it's bleugh. I have a pair of Golf 4 mirrors with blue glass but, as you say, the connectors are all the way over there and I cba to extend any wiring.

 

The grot behind the arch liners is well-known, I really need to do mine... only been on the to do list since March. 😐

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 hour ago, RMDavis said:

 

Perhaps a VAG based gloss or metallic colour?

 

How about Race Blue, as seen on later Octys and the Fabia vRS SE?

[Evil]

40 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

 

How about Race Blue, as seen on later Octys and the Fabia vRS SE?

Lovely colour,  an absolute pain in the bum to keep clean - although, so's black so.......

[AnnoyingPentium]

2 minutes ago, Evil said:

Lovely colour,  an absolute pain in the bum to keep clean - although, so's black so.......

 

Very true. Our black Toyota Auris was a right pain. You could blink after washing it and it was filthy! I always thought the Race Blue was a very nice colour and I'm gutted you can't get a standard Mk1 Fab in it... without a respray obviously. 

[RMDavis]

16 hours ago, Evil said:

Where did you source the blue mirror glass from ? 

Mine has grotty regular silver and it's bleugh. I have a pair of Golf 4 mirrors with blue glass but, as you say, the connectors are all the way over there and I cba to extend any wiring.

 

The grot behind the arch liners is well-known, I really need to do mine... only been on the to do list since March. 😐

 

I got the mirrors from this website mate.

 

https://thewingmirrorcompany.co.uk/searchresult.aspx?make=skoda&model=octavia&year=2000-to-2004&mtype=wing-mirror-glass,wing-mirror-glass-with-base

 

Very well packaged and quick delivery also.

 

I'd highly recommend having a good clear out behind those arch liners! 

 

16 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

 

How about Race Blue, as seen on later Octys and the Fabia vRS SE?

 

I do like Race Blue but not sure whether it would like right on a MK1? As it's a colour I associate with the MK2 and a much more modern car.

 

I fancy a change to green albeit a darker shade? Maybe Audi 'Cactus Green' or Vauxhall 'Jungle Green'

[AnnoyingPentium]

6 minutes ago, RMDavis said:

Vauxhall 'Jungle Green'

 

Like the one off the old Vectra?

[RMDavis]

28 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

 

Like the one off the old Vectra?

 

Yes exactly the same. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

5 minutes ago, RMDavis said:

Yes exactly the same.

 

Not that I'm a bad influence, but do it. 

[Evil]

I had a Jungle Green mk3 Cavalier... lovely colour, pearlescent - a bit darker than the Audi green iirc?

 

I've seen pics of Race Blue mk1's. They do look nice imo but (also imo) not quite right.