olethalb

i have been a little concerned with the potentail wear on the steering components / rack etc. well i had a 16v subframe hanging about for a while and my 16v arb that was ready to go on, then i remembered i had a low mileage rack i removed from my old polo gti so i went down the shed and dug it out. it was pretty clean still so i gave the rack a wipe over and wire bushed the track rod threads, then i thought i may aswell clean up the subframe and arb and build them up together. i'll have to get some new track rod ends etc now too i suppose. Olly

thanks ben and vwr, i'm looking forward to getting the seats in and getting an exhaust made up. i paid £100 for the seats bud. Olly

haha, well i sneaked an ebay buy today (whilst doing the whole valentines thing) hopefully it'll arrive this week and i can fit it up. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330402715493&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:GB:1123 so now the spend is £666

nice work! i've seen many friction plates like the above but never a pressure plate, it was a sachs clutch and the friction plate still had plenty of life left in it. Olly

after getting a call on thursday night off a mate saying his lupo gti had broken down and he thought it was the box, i talked him through a few things and diagnosed clutch failure over the phone. today i was supposed to be doing a drive shaft and gearbox seal on a polo and some welding on a clio, well the polo job couldn't be moved so i decided i'd do the lupo clutch today after the polo bits and the clio next week. got the polo done early and got on to the lupo earlyish, now i used to work in a gearbox recon garage and have done over 700 box changes some auto some manual with clutch but i've never seen this happen! anyway this is the pressure plate upon removal Olly

thanks chaps! i was chuffed with the shed find pipe kam! well picked up these today that i bought off ebay last night one has a little hole on the edge but this is budget box so they're good enough. Olly

mine's for sale on here for £30 + post Olly

oh and thanks marcusgrant.

oh dear, i was up to £510 + the silicon elbow off ebay for £16 delivered but just been browsing on there again and done another £100! so i'm up to £626! - £374 left unless i sell some bits! still need an exhaust and paint + lots of bits and bobs too, it's going to be tight at least the filter was free! Olly

been fannying around tonight, i went to my shed to my 'pipe bin' in search of a better pipe for the air filter - low and behold i find a nice stainless 90 degree bend AND it was 63mm - perfect! so i cut it down to fit where i wanted it, then i started to clean it and befor i knew it i had it on the bench giving it a polish. so now polished i fitted it up and it looked good - too good, now the cam cover looked rank so out came the wet and dry and auto sol and gave it a quick buff up. i kept looking at the plug leads thinking they were messy - back to the shed and found an off cut of carbon fibre and fashioned it into a plug cover, it's not perfect but it'll do for now. only downside is i'm going to have to knock something up to cover the rusty manifold now! Olly

not yet bud, i've got to make an exhaust system before it gets an 'outing'.

i wouldn't bother to be honest, it'll more than likely do damage than improve anything, i should imagine the pin locations vary from car to car on the ecu so you may plug it in and fry the ecu or engine sensors. does the sport have dbw too? Olly

i got my bottom pulley in the post today so i timed it up, refitted the aux belt, cambelt covers and engine mount. my budget ebay silicon elbow came in the post too so i mocked up a filter with some bits laying around, filled it up with anti freeze and ran it up. as soon it was warmed up it all settled down nicely, idle stabilised and tappets quietened down (where the oil had drained of from being stood) heaters all worked and the fan cut in at the right temp. i didn't get alot done tonight but it's still progress and i know it all runs fine now. Olly

apart from anything else the gti ecu will have to be de-immobilised or matched to your key+ immob box etc. Olly

i thought this was going to be something to do with the tv programme prisoner in cell block H.... Olly

thanks peeps, yea it was poundies from croydon but he sold it on after a rear end shunt. Olly

no probs, i've converted abs to non abs, non abs to abs, disc to drum and drum to disc and it's pretty easy really. you'll have to tweek your load compensator on the rear beam though probably bud. Olly

haha - shhh, yes i'll be getting rid of the cut out part under the grill too.

all i got done last night was to refit most of the dash and generally tidy the inside up. today after much indecision over the whole frowned bonnet work i decided to go for a straight badboy bonnet after i marked it up i changed my mind and added 30mm to the straight part then go up at a slant from there so i chopped them down then filed the edges, i was happy with the shape so i ran a seam weld around the inside of the bonnet and ground down the outer welds once they were flattened i threw on some filler, while the filler was curing i dug out some mk4 golf colour coded handles and stuck one in the drivers door i shaped the filler close to where i want it then before i could put the next skim of filler on it started to snow so i threw some paint on to protect it 'til tomorrow Olly

as stated in my above post you do not need splitters they are converted from 2 to 4 lines already via two T pieces below the header tank. all you need is the 2 flexi's from the caliper and two hard lines on the axle are desireable for oem look fitment. the two gold bits Olly

should be easy bolt on bud, stub axles etc all bolt up. 2 lines come from m/c to abs unit where they're distributed to 4 lines (2 front, 2 rear) on non abs models the 2 lines from the m/c go into two T pieces that distribute the same (2 front, 2 rear). the lines you need are already there, it's easiest if you get the hardlines from a gti that clip into the rear beam though. on each side the hard lines from the abs unit/front get to the rear beam where the then join a flexi pipe, this flexi then joins to the hard line that clips to the axle - on rear disc models this hard line then joins another flexi which goes to the caliper, on drum models the hard line goes into the slave cylinder in the drum. Olly

^^^lol! i'll have a play with the arosa front end and if all else fails i'll go lupo. Olly

haha, yea i had thought it would look better - may scrap it all off and lupo the front end! Olly

the flexi is an integral part of the down pipe and cat section, you can replace the flexi with one off ebay and have it welded in and should cost £50 ish to have it done. the decision is down to you though really. Olly

poundies polo...