Mr.Badbrains

Few quick snaps from photoshoot yesterday: Danyutz: Got my flip key working. Local locksmith took 20€ for cutting the blade. Couldn't get the remote working with vcds. Had to match it with old method.

Clock on my Gti’s cluster seized yesterday. Needles don’t move on adjuster knobs either. I’m thinking that motors inside the clock might be broken somehow. Could it be possible to repair this or do I have to buy a cluster with working clock? Only thing I did to my cluster was to change the backlight LEDs, but it worked well after that. I didn't touch the mechanism inside the clock at all. Thanks.

Cheers! I've always wanted wheels on that colour. Front bumper straight from the paint booth:

Front bumper is coming along nicely. Welded and filled the licence plate recess with my friend. Came out pretty good for a first timer. Also some camber shims are waiting for install, so I shouldn’t have too much clearance issues. Some hook&loop tape to attach rear licence plate and obviously brand new shorter plates without holes drilled in them. Few pics of rm´s. Lips are polished with Mothers and barrels/faces sealed with Bouncers Fortify. Billet flat caps bought second hand and polished. Centre caps are original, just wet sanded and polished.

I started to assemble the wheels the other day and man were they pain! Because of the thickness of powder coat nothing fit in place. Then this happened: The guy who sandblasted these didn’t do so good job on protecting the threads. Unfortunately I realised that too late and snapped a bolt in one hole. There was left some very hard tiny metal? beads in bottom of the threads witch caused bolt snapping. Luckily I got the remainings out and two thread taps and few helicoils later, I got them assembled. (Pics coming later.) Meanwhile I bought some 3M Scotchprint brushed steel vinyl for interior panels. Few more things still need to be wrapped. Wiped all that annoying dust from heater vents while they were off.

LR7X, so Moon Silver that is.

No haven't tried it yet. Key itself was something around 50€ IIRC.

Meanwhile in Finland... Who needs powertools when you have a hacksaw blade and no idea what you're doing. My bodyshop didn't want to smooth my bumper, too much work they said. So I decided to give it a shot. Cut of the licence plate recess and then I bought some sheet of pp plastic to be welded in place. Should do the job.

Love this car. I'm looking forward to see how it looks on those rs's.

Nice Gti you got there! I would kill for that colour...

Look at your second picture. There is a plugged hole and a horseshoe clip between the existing sensor and engine block. When I think abaut it, it was my Golf where I put second sensor, not Lupo. Might be that it doesn't fit in Lupo.

If you release pressure from expansion tank and seal it tight again, you shouldn’t loose that much coolant. Sealing the expansion tank tight will create a slight vacuum there when coolant starts to flow out. As you can see, there is also a spare spot for second temp. sensor. I put one sensor in there too, so in case of sensor failure, you could just switch the connector from one to another sensor.

Yes, it's the green one on the left in that first picture. You don't need to disconnect the battery, just make sure that the engine is COLD. Coolant will start to come out when you pull that old temp sensor off, and it will burn your hands if its hot. If you are quick you won't loose much coolant, but buy some just in case.

Turned out that those Oz´s were just 7.5j and 8j (I was told they were half an inch wider). Anyway, I disassembled them and started sanding the faces. My original idea was just to sand and polish those flat surfaces and leave all hard-to-reach parts black. But paint started to chip off everywhere as I sanded, so I decided to use some paint stripper first. Polishing those gaps between all the spokes would be such a pita, so maybe I’m going to paint them again with silver. Also, throwing those lips from back to front wheels, and ordered some 3'' lips for back, so they are going to be 8j & 9j next season. And some oem goodies came from the dealer...

Thanks mate!

Any info about this? Absolutely stunning...

Loving the 240z. I've always had a soft spot for those.

It's been freezing cold lately so i've been working on stuff I can do indoors. Both of Lupos doors microswitches were death already when I bought the car. Interior light didn’t work when I opened a door and alarm would come on if I didn’t put my key in the ignition fast enough. It’s a common problem on mk4 based VWs and it’s an easy fix. One could buy a new door lock module or just replace the microswitch. As the stealers want 120 quid for that locking module, and a new, weather resistance switch costs a fiver, I did just the switches. Original switches are made by burgess, but I couldn’t find any so I bought some Cherry switches from local electric supplier. Those are just little taller than originals and wiring comes out from other side, so I had to cut some room for them. I used some industrial clue to attach them in place, but little screws could be better. Works like a charm now.

I would like to know too... I need a new boot and a knob, and that looks so nice.

Then you could search around the fuce box area. The interior light wires are probably going down behind the a-pillar... I dunno.

Sneak peek of the rm's. Sandblasted and powdercoated. DSC_1143 copy by L Myyry, on Flickr

Interior light is controlled by the comfort control module. The door lock module (microswitches) are connected to there. If you want to ad some led stripes (I recommend not to, because I prefer OEM), you could steal power from positive wire going to interior light behind roof lining. Depends on where you are locating your leds stripes.

Ok, here is the write up I promised. There were some pictures of really nice looking white/red backlit cluster on German Lupo forum, but I couldn’t find any diy on this, so I figured out how to do it, and made my own diy. I found out that it is possible to change the LEDs in the cluster circuit board. Since there are no actual bulbs in there but small smd LEDs, some soldering is required. My car is a 2001 Lupo Gti, so some things are different on non Gti ones. So keep that in mind. I don’t take responsibility if you mess up your car by following this diy. So far everything is working fine on my car, but there is always a risk to break something. Also, I didn’t invent this mod; it’s been done on mk4´s, Lupos etc. for many years. I just couldn’t find too much info on it. It takes some time (I did mine in about 2 hours) but I am really happy with the results. Even if you have zero soldering experience I think you can do this. Here is the list of tools and supplies needed: #20 torx key for dasha small hex key (or the actual proper tool) for taking the cluster apartsmall flathead screwdriverstweezers or small pliersa decent soldering ironsolder10 pcs of (white) “side view” LEDs for cluster backlight3 pcs of (red) “side view” LEDs for LCD screens6 pcs of (red) “plcc-2” LEDs for needle backlight4 pcs of (white) “plcc-2” LEDs for clock backlightFirst of all disconnect the battery cables from your battery like always when you mess up with car electronics. Just the negative cable could be enough but I did both just to be sure. To remove the cluster, there is one screw underneath the upper cluster cover. Remove that and a little yank towards steering wheel should do the trick to take out the first part of the cover. Below upper cover, there are 3 screws and three tabs keeping the second part attached. Remove screws and carefully take of the second part of the cover. Cluster itself comes of very easily. Two screws and just lift it up. Release connectors by prying that purple clip until it clicks. Connectors should now come off with ease. Don’t force them or you will break something. Flip the cluster over and unscrew 7 screws. Those are 5 point torx but I used a small hex key. Grab the circuit board and lift it up. Take off the rev and speedo needles by pulling up or rotating counterclockwise. Take off rev and speedo faces by prying with fingernails or gently with 2 screwdrivers on both sides. Pry up temp and fuel gauge needles. Separate the clock by prying the connector on both sides with 2 small screwdrivers. Take off the lcd screen frames and screens by pushing tabs against each other from below. Needles on the clock will just snap off. Then the mechanism can be pulled of the frame. This is what you should have on your hands now. You can see the LEDs soldered on circuit board. The ones circled with blue are the main backlights (I replaced with white). Ones circled with black are the needle backlights (I replaced with red). Ones circled with red are lcd screen backlights (I replaced with red). There are two kinds of smd´s as you can see. The smaller ones are “plcc-2” type and bigger ones are “side view” type. You can probably find these from eBay. At this point it’s just desolder and solder. I marked my old LEDs with marker to keep track which ones I had done. Keep an eye on the orientation of the LEDs, and solder them same way around like the old ones were. Note that they will work just one way. There is a small cutout on a corner of each of the LEDs to help you. When ready, assemble everything in reverse order. Test that everything works as supposed and enjoy your new, a lot modern looking cluster.

Yes I have some more photos to come. Need some time to go through them. I have manual controls, no climatronic. So only the ones on cluster. Well, to be honest, I forgot to buy polarize foil or whatever it's called. But then maby I like it more that way. Yours looks cool as well though. Blue turnsignal indicators would be cool as well, but I dont now for sure what our law says about that.

Just finished this cluster mod a week ago. Probably the best thing i've done so far to Lupo. I did'nt like that old dim blue backlight so I replaced the smd leds on cluster circuit board to brighter white and red on needles and lcd screens. lupocluster by L Myyry, on Flickr Some soldering is required, but very simple job to do.