1999 Skoda Pickup Project

[adamtyvm]

Hello hello

 

Thought I'd make a thread here documenting my pickups restoration to former glory.

 

Plans

 

• Swap broken AEF Engine to AHU, retaining stock gearbox
  • Hopefully I don't smoke the box, if so it'll be upgraded to something more withstanding
• Replace Hydraulic Power Steering with its modern electronic counterpart from a mk5/6 golf
  • Save complexity with hydro power steering, feels better, no fluid - will write a guide once installed.
• The previous owner swapped it to a VW Caddy, these will be gone and back to Skoda (I'll keep hold of them for VW events with free entry though )
• Welding, the strut towers need a bit of welding, the sills seem ok but kinda crumble when I jack it up, this will be sorted.
• Windscreen leak, thankfully it was stored inside but now it lives outside this needs addressing.
• Interior fuse box has some corrision on the contactors, works fine but will be cleaned up and end up replaced.
• Run 240v out to the bed, these a lovely void space between the skin and the bed of the truck so I'll be running electrics in there.
• I'm considering putting a roll bar over the top of the cab, this I can mount a lightbar directly to it and if the truck rolls it'll be on the bar and not me 👀
• Raise by 3-5mm, potentially swap out hubs to 5x100
• MOT!!!!

 

Those are my short to medium term plans, the end form for the truck was originally going to involve a DSG box & Haldex however with the way the worlds going it'll probally just be a tame clutchless EV swap running on whichever gearbox is in at the time.

 

 

Edited 12 March, 2022 by adamtyvm
more detail

[Bete Noir]

It will be nice to see another Felicia Pick-Up thread active on here 

[adamtyvm]

14 minutes ago, Bete Noir said:

It will be nice to see another Felicia Pick-Up thread active on here 

 

Hopefully

 

On another note I should have proofread the opening post, heyho.

[adamtyvm]

Got the throttle from a Rapid/ 6R Polo Platform 6R2 721 503 D, need to make a wiring harness and run it up to where the new ECU will be living. (Find one with a pigtail)

 

1k0 909 144 steering rack has arrived, waiting on a tool to pull the rod ends so I can get the stock steering rack out. (If anyone wants this they're welcome to it, it'll just be the rack, no supporting hoses, rod ends, fixings, etc.)

 

Not sure what my plan is regarding rod ends yet, if it'll be a cut cut weld weld job or if I can modify the hubs to support Golf platform rod ends.

 

Golf platform rod ends: M16X1.5

Felicia Platform rod ends: M12X1.5

 

Any input on this is welcome.

[adamtyvm]

Just measured the outer tie rod end on the VW rack (bit that attaches to the hub) and it shows 11.8mm, will get the pickup jacked up later and see what size the bolt is there, this could potentially bolt straight onto the pickup with no problem. May need to find shorter inner rod ends if they exist, not compared the track width yet. Looking interesting at least. 😁

[adamtyvm]

both are ~11.80mm or according to my calipers, looks like the rack will bolt straight into the hubs which is great, now for the track width. Lets hope for another easy win? save all the hard stuff for mounting! ❤️

[Papez]

This sound like an interesting project. I'm interested in how long the stock gearbox lasts torque of the AHU.

 

The electric steering is interesting idea, I've seen some Felicia with an electric pump, but electric steering is new..

 

Btw, what is your plan with brakes?

Edited 17 March, 2022 by Papez

[adamtyvm]

54 minutes ago, Papez said:

This sound like an interesting project. I'm interested in how long the stock gearbox lasts torque of the AHU.

 

The electric steering is interesting idea, I've seen some Felicia with an electric pump, but electric steering is new..

 

Btw, is your plan with brakes?

 

Yeah not sure about the gearbox, I hope it'll be ok, worst case it'll be a new set of CV axles and another stronger gearbox won't be driving it like I've stolen it (like my Rapid ;))

 

EPS will be for something called "Openpilot", I don't want to get into it too much here but it's basically fancy lane keep assist - you can use these new racks by providing 12V, GND and Ignition, it'll go into a fault state and assume a speed of 40mph so you don't really even need to do any electrical wizardry for a simple conversion (unless you want the assist to adjust itself based on your road speed)

 

It'll be needing some mods to the subframe to mount it, the track width is about 12cm too short for the rack I've got but I'm lead to believe I can cut and retap the rod ends, we'll see if that's the case or not soon, there's another option which is a column mounted EPS module akin to the 6R Polo/ MK3 Fabia for £50, if you want one for openpilot you need a fancy 2020 version which is around £3-400. Column mounted is pretty simple since it's just cutting out a gap and welding in the module.

 

Brakes will stay stock until it's passed the MOT, I guess I'll put some discs on the rear axle, I believe some people put old mondeo calipers and discs on the front end. Not really thought through braking yet. I need to consider the front hub swap, and everything else going on around the axle area. It may be worth getting some custom carriers made up and putting big brakes on, but with the stock gearbox and lack of ABS not sure it's worth it. I could potentially retrofit ABS but I don't think I'd go with the period ABS module, instead going for something a bit more modern, but that'd require quite a bit of hacking to get running since new VAG stuff does VIN checks with the instrument cluster, etc.

 

Happy to hear any input on any of these points - I saw a few engine&trans swapped Pickups hit ebay this week, pretty cool stuff.  (unrelated to me, just scouring looking for interesting parts) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334365721059 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255439037749

 

 

 

Edited 17 March, 2022 by adamtyvm
Typo

[Papez]

1 hour ago, adamtyvm said:

I could potentially retrofit ABS but I don't think I'd go with the period ABS module, instead going for something a bit more modern, but that'd require quite a bit of hacking to get running since new VAG stuff does VIN checks with the instrument cluster, etc.

 

I think that Felicia uses the same system as contemporary Polo/Lupo/Ibiza - these cars later used slightly more modern systems, with ASR (Felicia only had EDS option, because it didn't have electronic throttle). ESP was available, too, but that'd probably be too complex to build into a totally different car.

 

Bigger brakes are necessity for Felicia - I was able to overheat the stock brakes with the 1.3... They are just too small for the car. Yes, Sierra/Mondeo calipers and I thik Kia Picanto? discs were easy way to vented 256mm.

[D.FYLAKTOS]

29 minutes ago, Papez said:

Yes, Sierra/Mondeo calipers and I thik Kia Picanto? discs were easy way to vented 256mm

 You will change the stock discs with bigger? You think for bigger 2 piston calipers (stock from other cars) or 4 piston afyermarket?

[Papez]

42 minutes ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

You will change the stock discs with bigger? You think for bigger 2 piston calipers (stock from other cars) or 4 piston afyermarket?

 

I won't but stock Felicia brakes are already at limit even with a stock engine. They lack cooling capacity, because they are too small and non-vented. So it should be part of mods with the engine swap.

Luckily, Felicia brakes are a Girling licence, same model as contemporary Ford models, so calipers from the Mondeo are a near perfect fit (I think there was a topic about it on this forum, too), I think that some versions even have the same piston diameter, so they won't throw the brake balance off. Getting discs that fit with them is bigger issue, but there are configurations that work without any dangerous hacking.

 

[D.FYLAKTOS]

4 hours ago, Papez said:

 

They lack cooling capacity, because they are too small and non-vented.

same model as contemporary Ford models, so calipers from the Mondeo are a near perfect fit

 

 

Without going to something expensive as Tarox you mean something like this style or like this one?

[Thefeliciahacker]

6 hours ago, Papez said:

I won't but stock Felicia brakes are already at limit even with a stock engine. They lack cooling capacity, because they are too small and non-vented. So it should be part of mods with the engine swap.

Luckily, Felicia brakes are a Girling licence, same model as contemporary Ford models, so calipers from the Mondeo are a near perfect fit (I think there was a topic about it on this forum, too), I think that some versions even have the same piston diameter, so they won't throw the brake balance off. Getting discs that fit with them is bigger issue, but there are configurations that work without any dangerous hacking.

My friend if heat is your issue go with ebc yellow stuff and you are done

[adamtyvm]

8 hours ago, Thefeliciahacker said:

My friend if heat is your issue go with ebc yellow stuff and you are done

 

Looks like they work well under high heat, but they won't have any impact in creating less heat - keep in mind stopping power is a direct result of friction on the brake discs, the only way you could properly improve this is more airflow and a bigger surface to dissipate heat.

 

[D.FYLAKTOS]

The more ''rally'' or ''race'' the brake pad the more time needs to get warm so in city traffic or normal use will take too long time to come to proper temperature to have a decent brake.

It's like the tyres for example some Bridgestone have much worst gripping in the morning because it takes too much time (distance) with normal use to get warm.

[adamtyvm]

3 minutes ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

The more ''rally'' or ''race'' the brake pad the more time needs to get warm so in city traffic or normal use will take too long time to come to proper temperature to have a decent brake.

It's like the tyres for example some Bridgestone have much worst gripping in the morning because it takes too much time (distance) with normal use to get warm.

 

Speaking of tyres - what do people typically run? I've got 13 inch alloys & blackcircles doesn't give me many options lol. I run Pilot Sport 4S on my actual car but they'd be way too overkill for this.

[Thefeliciahacker]

8 hours ago, adamtyvm said:

 

Looks like they work well under high heat, but they won't have any impact in creating less heat - keep in mind stopping power is a direct result of friction on the brake discs, the only way you could properly improve this is more airflow and a bigger surface to dissipate heat.

 

the yellow stuff has the most friction coeff and the highest temperature before fade, thus everything is as it should

[Thefeliciahacker]

[adamtyvm]

9 minutes ago, Thefeliciahacker said:

 

 

Don't want to be argumentative here, because one way or another the brakes will be redone and I use EBC Green Stuff on my main car but this chart literally shows nothing of value, could kinda unsterstand the lack of actual metrics if it was against other EBC brakes, but what does "8 cold bite" or "9 low noise" even mean?

[D.FYLAKTOS]

Rally or Track or Racing brake pads wont ruin quicker the stock brake discs?

 

I jusy find something about EBC brake pads

https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/425257-another-reason-to-avoid-ebc-pads/

I had a similar problem with Ferodo.

 

 

Edited 18 March, 2022 by D.FYLAKTOS

[Thefeliciahacker]

They WILL but felly rotors are dirt cheap 

[D.FYLAKTOS]

22 hours ago, Thefeliciahacker said:

the yellow stuff has the most friction coeff and the highest temperature before fade, thus everything is as it should

 

DP4438R, these are what you have?

 

https://www.ebcbrakeshop.co.uk/info-brake-parts?range=Pad&make=SKODA&year=2000&model=Felicia&engineSelect=1.3&engine=1.3&bhp=

 

 

 

 

[RicardoM]

@adamtyvm

There is a dedicated section for Classic Skoda projects at https://www.briskoda.net/forums/forum/206-classic-skoda-projects/

Maybe you should ask a moderator to move your topic in the same category with the rest.