Harlequin Lupo Sport..........Rubi

[Kegs11]

Hi everyone!

I`ve been lurking on these forums for the past few weeks now and thought it was about time I introduced myself properly.

So where to begin?

Well it started with the finding of a new job, and with it, the need for my own transport once more. Public transport just wasn't going to cut it this time, so it was time to get back to car ownership.

Having owned a few older VWs previously, starting with a MK2 Golf, MK2 Polo Breadvan and a MK1 Golf diesel, initially I wanted to get back to driving another MK2, still having a number of small rare parts kept from the last one. Well a trawl of the usual places revealed no decent base vehicle at all, and time wasn't a luxury I had in my choice. So I did a quick search for other vehicles, eventually looking for Lupos, having always had a soft spot for them.

And there she was. Literally standing out like a sore thumb, I knew immediately I had to have it....

Yeah, a Harlequin Lupo I knew of the Harlequin Golfs & Polos of the mid 90s, and its fair to say they`re my sense of humour all over.

I had to have it.

A deal was struck, cash was sourced, and arrangements were made. On 11th August, I picked her up (Like I said, lurking for a while). I knew of a couple of issues before sale, and there have been a few more that have come to light since, and she had seen a few miles, at almost 129,000. Was I bothered? Not really. The way I see it, I bought into an idea. It may have made more sense to buy my own mint Lupo and try to imitate it, but there was always the chance of passing this one, that there was always going to be at least one other on the road somewhere.

So what is the car? Well I didnt know too much about the model variants, other than the GTi of course, so I did a bit of digging on this. It soon became apparent that I was know the owner of a Lupo Sport, the rear discs & ABS mainly giving it away amongst other sport only equipment, along with the AUB engine code. And after finding a few stats about how many Sports are left, am quite happy with the rarity I now own.

The car itself is a yellow model, and the previous owner sourced a red donor car for its parts. The Green panels also appear to be off a scrapped 3rd car, bearing a few tell tale signs, and lastly the blue pieces are just the red ones resprayed. Unfortunately this means she has lost a few pieces of equipment, as the donors obviously weren`t as well specced as the Sport. So I have lost the heated electric mirrors, electric windows and possibly the heated screen washers (I havent investigated them properly yet), along with the central locking not seem to be wired together anymore. Also for a bit of a headshaker, it also means I need 2 different sets of keys. One for ignition and one for entry. Except the boot, whose lock seems to have seized completely. The previous owner did install a set of pop out rear windows though, which I do like, and also a set of MK4 golf seats I believe, which are a plus.

So whats the plan? Well I always wanted to strip a car right down to its bare bones. To completely lighten it out, and chase the BHP/Ton figure instead of it being just a single minded approach to power, to have something that may as well be a road legal kart with a roof. Having owned older cars with no luxuries at all, a loss of electric windows, heaters radios etc was just the norm for me. So why not go all the way? With the Lupo already weighing as much as a bag of crisps, and stripping requiring no extra cost, that was the first thing I did the very next day, starting with the rear seats...

The cargo nets are actually out of modern day Peugeots. Cant say exactly how I came about them but they look pretty well I think, alright for free

The next to go was carpets the following week.....

Even found £2 under the sound deadening, kaching!

Behold! The sound deadening and carpets are gone!

And yeah I forgot to take a follow up pic with the seats back in, sorry

The center console and heating controls etc are back in for now, they`ll come out properly when I have more free time to strip the dash down and have a play behind it, without needing to have the car ready for work the next day

Since then I have been busy putting in some overtime at work (more money to spend on her...), and have been identifying a few faults with the car, so nothing much radical has been done since then. The plan this payday is a full service to get her running healthy again, along with a new set of brake pads. Beyond that I should have a little spare for a lightweight window kit, and from there we`ll see what else can be fitted into the list.

As a quick blitz of the future plans, my rundown is to try and keep it cheap for now. As I said a focus on weight is the main objective, but theres no way in hell I can afford the likes of Carbon Fibre, so being smart about material choice, weights and price will also come into this build. So for now, I leave you with a few plans/to do list and ideas over the coming months-

• A damn good clean!
• All lights could do with attention at some point
• Roof lining to be stripped
• Lightweight plastic kitcar seats/harnesses
• Eventual GTi aluminium bonnet/doors
• Heater/Radio/Airbags/Dash stripped
• rusting roof needs sorting, and getting rid of the black vinyl currently covering it (although its preventing the rust getting worse for now)
• I want all the blue parts to be sourced from a blue Lupo, as they already have small chips which are showing the red paint underneath
• Matching locks all round!
• Bumper/wiring is present for foglights, but the actual lamp units are missing? Although wouldnt mind sourcing a front bumper without a plate recess if it exists, anyone know if the Lupo was sold in markets where a front number plate wasnt needed?
• Rear bumper from a standard Lupo has been cut to accomodate centre exit exhaust, could do with a proper job of smoothing down or a Sport one sourcing
• A set of OZ Superleggeras, as from what I can find are the lightest available wheels without braking the bank or resorting to magnesium (which arent suitable for road use)

More long term would be starting to focus on decent suspension, brakes, anti-roll bars and obviously some sort of tuning program, but that probably wont happen till some time next year. Lets walk before we run after all.

If you`re still reading this then thanks! I hope you`ve enjoyed reading it, and hope you will enjoy the build progress as I continue with work. As I said Im not exactly made of money, and this is still to be my daily driver. I dont have a garage, driveway or even a street outside my house, so work on this will happen when time, budget and weather collide, but I hope to update as often as possible

Also my name isnt John, that plate belongs to the previous owner, and when the DVLA pull their finger out their arse, he will be getting it back. The Lupo is on an X plate, registered early 2001, which means slightly cheaper tax too!

And if you see Rubi about (call me sad, but all cars deserve names. Girls names too...) dont feel shy about posing in front of her with a massive gurn on your face. You wont be the first, I can assure you!

Thanks again!

[Danyutz]

Great story so far and the plans sound interesting! Always found Harlequin cars funny, but the Lupo fits the theme even better!

[JoeA]

Good find

[mattarosa]

Second picture, is that another harlequin?

[James827]

is this a GENUINE harlequin? or did you build?

i like the harlequin cars.

[Kegs11]

Thanks guys

The Lupo at the back in the second picture is the red donor car, so it just has a few yellow parts but not the full treatment.

It isnt a factory Harlequin no, it was built by the previous owner for bugjam this year, and he has sinced moved to another project.

Edited October 2, 2013 by Kegs11

[James827]

ah right. maybe one day il build myself a Harlequin lupo.

i would have used Jazz Blue panels mind

[rapidebrothers]

Well have to say that, that Lupo looks well cool & certainly is different! Easy to find in a car park too lol

[Kegs11]

ah right. maybe one day il build myself a Harlequin lupo.

i would have used Jazz Blue panels mind

Well the bodywork is to be changed in time, the blue panels are painted over red items, so there`s some small paint chipping that is showing the red through, so I want to source some proper blue panels. I need to have another look at that thread with the Lupo colours, but Im pretty sure its soft blue at the moment, and I think it works well. I want to see a jazz blue Lupo next to mine and have a ponder....

Well have to say that, that Lupo looks well cool & certainly is different! Easy to find in a car park too lol

Haha thanks, and yes that is the upside

So yesterday I managed to find a bit of time to get some work done to Rubi, starting with a small disaster with the rear lights. Having owned her for a couple of months now and a building going up opposite my works car park, she was looking a tad dusty, and having no way of being able to use a pressure washer without a 100m hose and electric extension at home, I figured I`d use an automatic car wash when next filling up.

Yeah I know, and I paid for my sins........ £3 later and upon immediate inspection as leaving the booth, she was still dusty, and somehow one of the large rollers had pulled out the nearside rear light out of its brackets, and had pulled it that hard that the plastic surrounding the big screw had deformed, meaning that when the light was put back in, the hole was miles out of alignment. Bugger.

So my plan for the rear lights, as I`ve always had the plan for if I ever owned a Lupo, was for a pair of Arosa MK2 lights. Well if I ever needed an excuse, this was it, it just had to happen sooner than I planned

So they turned up first thing yesterday morning on my day off, clearly my day had an agenda! So off came my standard lights with temporary duct tape solution...

Filthy I know, so a sponge and a 2 litre bottle of pop filled with soapy water was used just to clean down the soot from a drilled exhaust (not my idea btw....)

Having a small background in auto electrics I was pretty confident in cutting and soldering for the job of the main harness, however when the plugs arrived and I realised they were exact same fitment, just had wires the wrong way round, I went for a more neater approach of popping the pins out the plug, and aligning them as so. Fiddly, and lost some skin of my thumbs, but worth it for a tidy job

In case you`re wondering that's a small screwdriver out of a swiss army knife to push the metal tabs up and over the plastic grooves to get them out. The plugs themselves can gently be opened halfway which was a big help, but had to be wary of not causing too much stress so it wouldn't break.

And voila! In no time at all she was done

Like I said I`ve always liked these lights, but I think they look great considering the nature of the car

And yeah still waiting on the DVLA to transfer the reg...

So the next job I had to hand was stripping the roof lining as per the rest of the car. Cant say much really, after unscrewing the 4 grab handles and sunvisors it came out pretty easily, till this bit stumped me....

I found another screw hidden underneath the quite useless "3rd sunvisor", but the other clips proved more elusive, till a screwdriver prised off the top covers for these screws underneath it...

So yeah simples One roof lining was removed! While I`m here was there any reason for VW to run the interior light wiring all the way from the dash, across the drivers side floor, all the way to the back of the car, up the C-Pillar and back across the roof? What was wrong with straight up the A-Pillar?

So as some may know I`m now left with this handy bit of cardboard on the roof...

Was this soundproofing? To aid structural rigidity? Help with the center of gravity somehow? Whatever it is, it appears to be stuck on with some sort of concentrated black-hole formula, so till I find a heat gun, it will have to stay....

Further to the rear lights, and with winter approaching I thought it best to pay a bit of attention to the front bulbs, and also to get some silver indicator bulbs to clean up the front and sides...

Wanted to keep the bulbs bright but legal, not dazzle you off the road d**khead, so went with Rings Xenon Ultima bulbs (although I do want some rallysport 135w bulbs for the fogs for late night country road driving with no-one around)

Having heard its a bit of a nightmare to remove the bulbs, a quick survey of my car and I reckoned it was just easier to pull the front panel off to get access, it worked out pretty easy really

Easy access to indicators too...

Finally managed to get rid of the naff single blue sidelight that was annoying the hell out of me too....

All ready for winter driving, and not an "Ice Blue" light in sight!

Side indicators are soon to be done, as one of them is being held on with insulation tape, there is a replacement set on the way, which will be fitted with the sliver bulbs and installed as so. Slowly but surely working out the little niggles

Well tomorrow is payday, so hopefully I can continue with more bits as the month progresses.

Thanks for reading, hope you`ve enjoyed it!

[puzzlement13]

Never thought of the arosa lights on the lupo... But really suits it! Loving this car, can't wait to see the progress

All the best for it

Sarah

[Dblock]

I don't know why, but I like it.

Nice one.

[puzzlement13]

Never thought of the arosa lights on the lupo... But really suits it! Loving this car, can't wait to see the progress

All the best for it

Sarah

[lupoluke]

Looking well, nice story too .

[Afksam]

This looks like its gonna be a bit of fun to follow, looking forward to seeing whats happening next

[Kegs11]

Thanks again guys

Quick update while Im sitting at work doing nothing, the side indicators arrived the other day, and for a ballache turned up with amber lenses inside the units, meaning even if I use the above silver bulbs there will still be hints of orange in the indicators. Arse.

So back to the drawing board with those.

Meanwhile, the harnesses are on the way, and my lightweight solution for a drivers seat has already arrived, but its going to take a bit of prep to get it in the car..... Keep em peeled for that one

Beyond that just a few parts have been ordered for general servicing and maintenance, with a small overhaul of the brakes planned too.

Will chuck another update on when theres something a bit more substantial been done!

Edited October 17, 2013 by Kegs11

[Orangepeel]

Anyone know why I can't see the photos in this ??

[Pete]

Maybe because it's nearly 2 years since the last comment and the owner has probably deleted the pics off the photo uploader site?

[Nathan94]

Fairly sure it was for sale last week too