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Nat's MK1 Arosa 1.4 8V


Natst8
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So I'm back, after selling my lupo I went and bought a MK1 TT. I always wanted one since I was a kid, it was an obtainable dream car.

I had the TT for about 6 months before realising there was no way I could afford to fuel my heavy right foot with everything going on. So it was quickly put up for sale and I managed to make £500 profit off it too, all thanks to a proper machine polish and tidy up.

Then I started looking at lupos and Arosas again, as they're cheap and they're a platform I've worked with before, so now both the Mrs and I own MK1 1.4 Arosas with 60k miles each. Her's is tornado red (might be flash red, I can't actually remember) while mine is techno blue pearl.

Oh yes, I live in Worcester and the thermostat broke 5 miles out from Ipswich where I bought it, unfortunately it broke in the closed position, so tow poled it all the way back. I've since replaced the thermostat and it runs pretty good.

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Of course, once I got it running I did what I do best, bought lots of parts for it. I went the next day to go and fetch a set of 3SDM 0.05. They were well priced and I wanted a set since I ran some on my TT. They were 16x8 fronts and 16x9 rears so I knew it's going to be a job and a half to make them fit.

Eager to see what it looked like on the car, even with stock suspension, I put them on.

Only then I realised it was going to be interesting making them fit on a static car.

There's a serious amount of poke on them, but definitely do-able with enough work. So instead of going static like originally planned, I saved my spine and ordered an Airlift 3P kit.

This car was originally meant to be something I'd rag around everywhere but was quickly heading the other direction.

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As the car had started spiralling into a full blown project I decided, may as well go and buy a full open air kit and pop outs, so thats exactly what I did, much to the dismay of my wallet.

I then broke out the machine polisher and went to town on the 22 year old paint. And I was pleasantly surprised to see how many imperfections came out of it. Its by no means perfect but it is a hell of a lot better.

The photo at night is really shows how well the paint has survived, and I'm glad to say, no rust on it either.

 

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It currently has no wheels at all as it's on jackstands😂

 

Mk2 - I found them on FB marketplace, same as everything I buy nowadays. I think they were about 500 if you don't mind travelling for them

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So the car is on jackstands, lockdown 3.0 means I can't really go anywhere anyway, so I may as well work on the car. So I've started fitting components for the air ride. Made a frame and top for the false floor, with the manifold and compressor hidden underneath. The frame uses the original seat mounting too so it's secure, and we've tested it to over 100kg so far.

 

I've also got some much brighter bulbs fitted, sidelights and headlights, I was pleasantly impressed by the quality and performance of them too.

 

As the weather has been a little bit rough I've not done much more, I have done all 4 wheel wells just to tidy them up and protect them, as I don't want to have to deal with rust in the future. I'll tidy the bits I went too high with some touch up paint.

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I've also extracted my front seats as I didnt fancy them being as dirty as they were. I was happy with how they came out, just need to do the carpets and dye them black

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  • 4 weeks later...

So I've finally got all of the wiring complete for the air install now. I've also put the car back together temporarily for an MOT on saturday, hopefully should pass with no major issues. Cleaned up the engine bay and underside to make it a little nicer for them too, as they tend to appreciate it.

 

I've also created brackets ready for the tank mounts and got some additional fittings to allow for the tight fitment due to the manifold location.

 

Also bought some stub axles and bearings to convert from the taper bearings that it cam with, as they have clearly failed prior to my ownership and I don't want to put them back together again when I get new drums and shoes.

 

Future plans include:

- a double din conversion

-fitting the open air and pop outs

-gti/sport front hubs, housings and calipers with 280mm disks

-cupra r or mk4 seats (probably the cupra as theres a set local super cheap)

-dye the carpet black, and either locate some black trim pieces or spray them black

 

I do want to eventually either sport or 6n2 gti swap down the line, when it enevitably blows up, I just have a feeling it might despite how much I look after it.

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  • 3 months later...

Realised I went MIA from this forum for a while, despite cleaning up my old seats i decided to go out and get mk1 cupra seats to keep to the Seat brand.

I've also dyed my carpets and I think it went quite well, the lines are just from vacuuming so not permanent.

I've done a lot more in the time I've been gone so will update it all on here

I update more often on my Instagram @n4tst8 

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1 hour ago, mk2 said:

That looks good. What dye product did you use?

Its Carbusonic black carpet dye, got a 5L one on amazon. Used under half of it to do the whole car with 3 coats

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More updates from the last couple months, this was probably April time.

 

Got the airride complete, not notched yet and still on standard rear shocks at this point.

Was mega happy considering I'd managed to run all the lines without drilling holes in this pretty tidy shell so I don't have to worry about rust and water getting in.

False floor fits in super tight, to the point of hammering it in, +1 for rigidity at least.

Couldn't believe how much difference there was in the length of the struts and how tucked up it was even at full droop (comparison with stock rear)

Still lots more to come

Edit* forgot to say that yes, I've fitted pop outs to an arosa, only took 3 hours to cut out one, so smashed the other out with a hammer, took less time to clean up the mess

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Edited by Natst8
Missed a bit
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8 hours ago, C3peteo said:

Are those cupra seats a straight swap?

They're the same as the mk4 recaros, ideally need grinding down underneath slightly... or just take out the insulation under the carpet and it should be able to slide (bit difficult but manageable)

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3SDMs back on, still on standard rear shocks so can't go lower, also sat on the front tyres so need to sort that

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  • 1 month later...

More updates as I keep forgetting to add to the page.

Dyed the roof and headliner for the openair, also got it fitted.

Put lamin-x tint on the indicators as it looks way better than the off white they were before.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Decided that the other half and I should get some matching plates (she's an anime nerd and its just a funny thing we reference).

So of course I cleaned behind both bumpers before making a magnetic setup for the plates.

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  • 1 month later...

You may have seen in the last post that I had some Ultraleggeras, well they went on the car and immediately after I split a boot so had to put steels back on the save having to clean the alloys all the time until it got fixed

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  • 1 year later...
On 9/1/2021 at 1:55 AM, Natst8 said:

Decided that the other half and I should get some matching plates (she's an anime nerd and its just a funny thing we reference).

So of course I cleaned behind both bumpers before making a magnetic setup for the plates.

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hello, I am very interested in your license plate fixing system, can you tell me more about it and possibly a place where I can get it please

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