The subtle modder

Love your car as always, sorry sarahs car its the little details like this which should make it stand out at the shows, i love the mods like this which you dont notice straight away, me and mum work at the same place and have the same cars so i park next to hers and its brilliant seeing the lads on break looking at the cars and wondering why mine looks so different so whats next? the front? wayne

Looking pretty smart , got to say its looking alot tidier than when i drove it, everything still alright with it? on the plates side if you go anywhere near kidsgrove centre dont bother, the police this last month or so are really cracking down, i know because i got pulled and he was pretty pissed he couldnt find anything wrong and quite surprised i have never seen you about wayne

im running 7x15's on a 25 offset on the arosa with 195/45 proxes, perfect stretch and i THINK they will just about go under gti arches they are level with the arch edges on the rosa needing about 15-20mm for them to tuck inside nicely which is what the gti has if i remember correctly 165/50's look stupid on 7's IMO no offence to 'lowlupo' on here his is a damn nice car but he runs 15x7 ATS cups with 165 tyres and it looks bloody lethal and he admited to me it does NOT handle wayne

You and Dickyp are so alike, you both manage to convince your other halves that they need a raven blue gti (a good achievment in itself) you then manage to mod the cars without them moaning must admit though every time i see your wifes lupo pics i think its your lupo and every time i see sarahs gti at a show i keep telling rich he has a damn nice car before remembering its sarahs very nice mod by the way, love the subtle mods like this which many wont notice wayne

I suppose you could use some universal frames, just to me it seems pointless paying out good money on stuff that wont enasble you to fit them straight away without alot of extra work auto electricians can be good but also can be really bad i have heard and seen many horror stories so make sure you know hes good and have recomendations before you let him anywhere near the car or seats you can use a mk2 arosa rear bumper yes and as far as i understand its a straught bolt on fit , if i was you i would keep witht he mk1 rear but smooth the ridges in it, Ramirez's proves how good they look when this is done wayne

As above i find tweeks quite reasonable on piping, only other place i have found is POTN.com, also PM 'stevewp' as he did his custom on his missus's 1.0 look good and would sound good as well, below is what our engine wiould look like with the induction kit and no engine cover (strongly suggest a cover) and close up this is what it will look like on the pipework side tell you what if i get chance early next week i will dig the pipercross out, put it on the arosa and video the sound coming back through the country lane on way from way work, that will make you want one wayne

just had a quick look and same as when i looked last year i cant find anything decent, your looking for ones that fit the mk1 & 2 arosa 1.4 8v, polo mk4 1.4 ov or lupo/arosa 1.0 8v all use the 50mm throttle body and have the same general engine bay layout i would highly recomend pipercross, not so keen on green or K&n anymore to be honest agreed mines completely standard again now and i miss the sound majorly partly because i havent got my mini on the road to thrash about though you could go custom like i and arosasdi have all you need is a 90 degree bend silicone house with a 50mm inlet one end and a 7-75mm outlet the other side (general size) although personally i find it quite expensive to do it properly this way it is sometimes the only way to get what you want wayne

The TT Recaro seats are manual ajustment unfortunately, always wanted electrioc ones as they are so classy , mine are heated but i have never got round to getting the looms to connect them up i went for the denim blue seats partly becasue as you say the black leathers are very common and i could have bolted set of lupo lethers in to achieve that, but also becsue the denim blue goes so well with the pale blue bodywork that many people who have looked at it think its a factory option, its only when i bore them with the amount of work the took that they realise there quite special the wiring is fairly straightforward for the electric adjusments as long as porche havent made them stupidly awkward, from experience from when a mate did some into a mini they generally require permanent live, earth and ignition live providing that the controls are on the side of the seats as above rear complete bumper fits but why would you want to/ the lupo has a bubble butt whereas the arosa bumpers have a swage line instead of a straight down curve, like more shaped to match the chunkyness of the arosa lines if you get what i mean the front bottom splitter from a lupo APPARENTLY fits mk1 rosa's but dont quote me on that, but the whole bumper certainly wont without a fair amount of work 'Universal' seat subframes can be brought from Demon tweeks as said above but if i was you i would just do as i said above like i did get some brackets made up to go from the seat frames to the car ( i made all mine myself but same theory ) the way i figure it you either spend the money on the car or waste it, the only other good use is a nice house and a family when the time arrises but this 'piss it up the wall' idea really doesnt attract me like it does with the lads at work wayne

Chopping springs as said is totally stupid even more dangerous than running coilover springs on the back with no collars and thats saying something if you cant afford to do the mods properly and DECLARE them then leave the car alone untill you can wayne

what about a swap for some deep dish 15's ? wayne

Worst that could happen? you could blow it up by getting addicted to nailing it everywhere doubt you could do any harm, mines been on and off quite a few times now and no noticeable problems, only thing i will say is it was on for few months and recently i took it off so its now standard again and it took 3 weeks for the ECU to get the settings back as i would set off and it wasnt getting the air it was used to getting i find the 1.4 8v/1.0 8v air box (there identical on the mk 2's and dont think they are too different on mk1) quite restrictive, both my brother and my dad have driven my car with and without and both said like i do that the car is so much nicer to drive with the induction kit on with the only down side being it PARTLY looses its snappy in gear acceleration but when at about 2800-3000 revs the pick up is much stronger would definately recomend the pipercross (mines custom), by far the best i have used or heard on other cars and have tried a few wayne

Yes you can fit them, if you look at my readers rides thread you will see i have fitted Audi TT full leather front and rear seats and the 911 seats are quite narrow so should be easier, the frames on the bottom i would imagine are quite simmilar to how my TT seats were, you need to get rid of the extra little brackers etc using a spot weld drill so that you end up with a flat runner each side which is the same height each side if that makes sense not unequal like corsa frames? you will then need to make up brackets to go down to the arosa runners (which are in the car shell) and then fix onto the porche frames, i would advise against making totally new frames or using universal ones as from experience i find they have short adjustment, feel harsh and sticky and can give a cheap aftermarket feel rather than what i think (and hope others think) have achieved in the fact mine feels like and has the same adjustment as sitting in a TT rear seat retrimming is a whole different kettle of fish, i had a quote of a full retrim of rover 600Ti recaros (my original seats), rear seats and 4 door cards and that quote was just under £1200 which is a general price, i would think you would be looking in the region of 5-600 for decentish retrim of door cards and rear seats masybe less if you shop around but avoid the cheaper places as the lether jobs look baggy after a short period which wont match the fronts if you do the mods you will spend a fortune, you will see my car in my sig and i got it from dealers when 2 years old and pamper the car and have spent a considerable amount on mods and now coming to sell it of cours cant get any where near as much back but if its what you like doing then dont focus on the money too much wayne

To be honest unless it is a goodprice, well really good price then i think you would be mad to consider this, how do you know the new engine is any good? i severly doubt they were looking for the best engine they could find like you or i would do, it would have been the cheapest engine they could find that day just my 2p worth wayne

quite disagree, my 1.4 8v (same as you have demolover) is so much better to drive with the pipercross induction kit, yes admitadly it does give it a tiny flat spot but the overall free revving and better delivery makes up for it welcome to the forum and enjoy the car wayne

oddly i have this problem on the arosa 1.4, was only dropped 45-50mm as wel ............

Sorry Clifford i thought you had had it locked when i mentioned it didnt realise it was Tigz style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" /> Tigz what did you mean by new owner? dread to think, i bet Tigz is the highest poster in there though style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":P" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" /> style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":lol:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> wayne

Love it mitch im trying to get dad to have a an A4 tourer but mum wont let him spend that much style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":rolleyes:" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" /> these can look really nice with slight mods, id do remap, lower it and be happy with it assume this is a daily while the lupo is the weekend/show toy? wayne

disagree with most of the above the wheels you posted are nice, i actually looked at them myself for the rosa in 16's they would look smart and fill the arches nicely, TSW wheels like FOX rims are highly criticesed yet the quality is very good and in some styles that can suit a car a treat the problem with most people off here is they dont choose anything other than BBS, ronal and the like and anything other than deep dish or euro rims in general is criticised as chav style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":rolleyes:" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" /> (no offence meant to anyone) black multispokes as Adam saids would look sweet on your car i had planned on a set of 16" Pro race 1's in gloss black for your exact car but the seller was a prick and after confirming with me that i had got all the cash out and done a HPI check it was only on my way down and me ringing for house number that he told me the car had sold but thats another story.......... wayne

quite a rare spec car, nearly all lupo's and arosa's are 4 seater as 5 was a rare option, to have pop outs is another nice feature of the very early cars, seat air bags are odd on a 1.0 didnt thinkthat was even an option, are they standard seats? looks pretty smart wayne

Yes and No, i had this problem partly after a touch in the arosa, it ended up with one wheel pointing in slighly, i had the tracking adjusted so that both wheels pointed straight and when booting it without holding the wheel it will drive straight, but the steering is a quarter of a turn to the left, i replced the bottom arm and that wasnt bent, after severe checking by both garage and me its still unknown whats wrong with it, although i swear mitch told me it would be the hub's bent choose the best garage you know off at bodywork and mechanics not the local FORD dealers etc style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":rolleyes:" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" /> (a few recomendations can mean a hell of a lot) take it there and get a quote of whats damaged and how much, flux will probably want to use a main franchise as they do good deals but most of time this equates to less than average quality dont let off the insurance though my brother got crashed into on feb 5th and it took untill end of may to get the payout wiht me ringing up every week giving bother on my daytimes off style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":lol:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> if you leave it to them your just another file in that multi filing cabinet without meaning to sound harsh here though if they write the car off for whatever daft reson though sell me the salvage style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":shades:" border="0" alt="shades.gif" /> wayne

i rang dealers the other day asking for a price on a new shell as was thinking of this car, but he said "you cannot buy the complete shell or even a base shell just the body panels are you sure it downt just need a chassic leg etc?" (to which i replied it needs alot more than that) i find this hard to believe as you can for most other car so why not a lupo gti especially considering all the cup racers who probably write them off and need new shells is he right? wayne

Nice to see ebay actually listened, to us in the end, mine and mitches and other's endless complaints obviously got the message across style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> disapointing to hear its been for sale by a different seller before though spoke to girl at my mates works the other day when i was about to go and look at a 172 she noticed the HPI check paperwork in my hand (was about to HPi when it when i got there) and she said "whats one of them?" i explained and she told me how she had just brought a 04 MG ZR for £4k with 30k miles on it it was quite a good buy IMO, i then relised she hadnt had it checked at all, now this car was worth every penny she paid (orevious owner lost license so needed it gone) now this is the type of buyer this seller is aiming for, No offence to women her (because i certainly dont mean it that way) but women in general are very impulisve buyers, they see what they want and get it and dont like to wait and an offer of £4.5k to take it off his drivway im sure this seller would have obliged style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":o" border="0" alt="ohmy.gif" /> i think jons idea of a stolen car is possible, the car doesnt look overly out of shape although i did kinda work it out the other day, cat B is 100% loss so not worth even thinking of repair, now imagine a heavy front on, you need the following new from dealers plus fitting with VAT new engine, gearbox, 2 chassis legs, alu bonnet, bumper, 2x exenon head lamps, 2 alu wings, 2x bottom arms, antiroll bar, front fibre cassin, coolant rad that is easily 100% of an 03's value BUT buy the car for 1k get a second hand engine and box for £400, and front end panels and arms for £300 from a breakers and for £2k roughly all in youve got a car to sell on for the hoped £5k with £3k profit style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad.gif" /> wayne

Deano that looks friggin awesome, i have just dropped the arosa a fair amount more this week ahnd it now scrapes going in and out of my drive but yours is truly slammed and the stance is just right, love the new wheels get a readers rides thread up its a damn smart car wayne

okay bit different, Vauxhall sapphire black, looks heavy metali black when polished up but when sun hits it its got a purple pearl, use some red and blue in the laquer and it would bring the pearl out even more? wayne

very nice, looks a good job and its nice that like me you do the stuff yourself style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> loving the sills, how deep have you made them? down to the bottom lip by any chance? wayne