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Tom's Soft Blue - Creamy BBS and Custom Springs!


TomCanham
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Hey guys, I’ve been lurking here for well over a year now. Been checking out some of the sweet rides here and decided that its finally time to write up a built thread of my own!

I bought my Lupo in January 2012 for my first car, It was a pretty bog standard black Lupo 1.0 E. Got it for £800 and that is reflected in the paint work as there is a scuff on the front bumper and the paint is fairly poor all over and it was on 84k miles.

This is the car when I first bought it:

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The car sat on the drive until March, when I turned 18 and sorted out my insurance. Straight away I de-wipered and de-badged the car, sorted out a cup holder as I had a gaping DIN hole in my dash and bought a Sony BTU3900 head unit.

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Didn't do much for a while, then some pop-out windows 'popped' up for sale and I snapped them up. Was a bit of a ball ache fitting them, Used a push-bike v-brake cable to cut out the old windows. Managed to shatter one of the old windows on the way out and ended up having to clean glass up of most of my driveway and inside the car as it sort of exploded.

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After the pop-outs were fitted I didn't. really do much else to the car for a while until a few months later I bought some coilovers. Didn't have much money so I bought myself some JOMS. Took the car down to a relatives garage when they arrived and had them fitted in about 30 minutes. Didn't go too low at first as this was the first time I was doing anything like this and didn't know what to expect.

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Shortly after on a routine Ebay trawl I found some wheels that I really liked on Ebay. They were Borbet Atiwes – 13 x 7 et20. Managed to pick them up at the bargain price of £170 posted for 5 wheels. Got them for that as they were in dire need of a refurb. I got them like this:

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After many hand blistering hours over the winter I managed to get the dish like glass. I held a newspaper up to it and could read it in the reflection. Once that was done, I prepped the centers and masked the dish and took the wheels to a guy I knew in the powder coating industry, So I managed to get them done on the side for free. This is what they looked like after the refurb:

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While in the process of sorting out tires for the wheels I also removed the bump strips from the car with a lot of help from my friend James Brown as I think it makes them looks a lot cleaner. I eventually ordered the tires and as you can see above I went for some 165/55 Nankangs. Headed over to my granddads as he has a decent garage and tools, got the wheels fitted and lowered the car to compensate for the 13" wheels.
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Since putting the wheels on I've not really done much apart from the (very) occasional clean and just generally driven it around.

I've borrowed some roof bars off a mate to see how they look and I'm loving it. They have completely transformed the look of my car in my eyes. This is how the car is currently sitting taking as of this weekend at some events:

At the Might Car Mods meet in Gaydon on Saturday:
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Just after when I got home and fitted the roofbars that I am currently borrowing:

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And this was yesterday at this years last MFN meet:
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Just a quick shot to show how it has changed over the last year or so:

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Well thats what I have done so far. Some possible plans for the future are:

- Smooth the front bumper
- Re trim the interior

- Buy some of my own roofbars
- Possibly paint the insides of my headlights black

- Roll my arches due to light scrubbing

- Pressed plates



Thanks for reading

Edited by TomCanham
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Thanks for the nice comments guys :) Im thinking of putting the standard wheels back on this weekend as the weather is starting to get worse, Might even give the Borbet's a refurb over winter.

Also a new front bumper mid section arrived yesterday, Going to give it a go at smoothing it myself and see how that turns out so watch this space!

Edited by TomCanham
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  • 2 weeks later...

So then, I spent last weekend having a go at smoothing my bumper with the help from a mate or two and my grandad!

I bought a new bumper off eBay to save me having to remove mine and take the car off the road while doing it. Once that arrived we drilled some hole into the plate recess for the fiberglass resin to sort of go through to give it some extra hold.
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Once the holes had been drilled we added a few layers of fiberglass and left it over night to dry (took ages as the weather was too cold). The next day we drilled in several self taping screws to make sure the fiberglass had something solid to bond to and set about building up the layers of fiber glass trying to get it to match close as I possibly could to the natural shape of the bumper. It ended up looking like this:
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So the fiberglass was built up as close as possible to the shape of the bumper. This left some of the fiberglass over the edges and pretty rough around the edge, So we took a drill with a flapper wheel and began smoothing and leveling the edges as best as possible.

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Once it was all smooth and level-ish around the edges the filler-ing started:
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Had to have a mid bodywork snack!!
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Once all the filling and snacking had been done. We then thoroughly checked over it again and again to find any high and low spots in the filler that needed sorting out. These were circled in pencil and then either filled more or sanded down.

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Once all the high and low spots that we could feel were worked out and everything was sanded smooth and sanded more it was looking like this:
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Once we thought it was all smooth, we used some filler primer and coated the filler to see if we could find any imperfections that we missed. Turns out there was plenty of spots that were missed. So out came the filler and wet and dry to start working out the bad spots leaving this:
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Since that last picture was taken the bumper is now all primered up and ready for painting. Its going into my grandad's mate's body shop sometime mid-next week for a few coats of paint.

Im pretty happy with how it came out actually,pretty please with myself and the people that were involved in the process. I don't think its gone too bad for a few people that haven't done anything like this before. Will update again next week once it has got some paint on it!

Thanks

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well, I finally got my bumper back from being sprayed (Took so long as it was a job on the side from one of my grandad's mates and he was very busy) Pretty chuffed with how it turned out in the end and I cant wait to get in on the car! Probably will be a while till its on yet as im pretty busy for the next week or so, But this is the outcome:
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My grandad also picked my up some Thule roofbars for the bargain price of £8!! Though he didn't realise they are for a Jetta, so I am going to see if there is any way I can modify them to fit onto the Loop!

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Alright guys, Not much has happened recently as I sort of lost interest. Gave the car its first wash in 2 months(ish) on Sunday using my mates snow foam.

The front bumper went on the car, for it to crack straight away and one of the clips holing it in at the side snapped. So its currently not clipped in on ones side. Ill get around to it in the next few weeks. Planning on sanding it all back and starting again with the smoothing and getting the wheels refurbed again ASAP as ive proper neglected them.

Here are some pictures from a local get together from the weekend.

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I have thought about selling up for something a bit more modern, I've been thinking up some plans and i'm swaying towards keeping it. Will have to see what the future holds.

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Car is back on the standard wheels for now, Going to get my ass into gear and get the Atiwe's refurbed for some of the shows this year.

Also decided on keeping the car, got some big plans if I can get the wonga together!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Soooo the 1L is slighty old news now. I was having doubts about keeping it, But i wasn't sure I wanted to let go just yet as I love the feel of the Lupo.

Then this came up at the right price, So ive bought a soft blue 1.5 16v from a mate.

The car has a 4-2-1 manifold with a decat and a Pipercross induction kit, Its lowered on ProSport coilovers and sitting on Banded Steels.

Not even had it a week yet, Cant believe how much quicker it is than the 1L, Been a few times ive not realised what speed ive been going!

Not done much to it myself yet, Just fitted my headunit, roofbars, LED sidelights and the silver front badge. Ill let the picture do the rest of the talking.

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I don't like the way the steels are sitting on the front or the rear, but the rear more so, poke far too much. I'm currently refurbing the Atiwes at the minute, so hopefully I can get them on soon as.

Thanks

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  • 4 weeks later...

TDI's have bigger brakes (same size as fitted to the sport iirc) so I think generally the minimum size that fits is 14", without any work or modifications at least.

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  • 2 months later...

Alright chaps, Not sure anyone's interesterd, but here goes haha

Been a while, There's been a few changes to the car, But its going a bit slow at the minute as I don't have the need to drive the car much as I get lifts to a from work, But here is whats happened over the last few months.



Recently got round to fitting a rear Sharan badge as I think the standard one is far too mahooosive!

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Once I got that on the car, I got round to giving it a quick wash as she was filthy and she turned out alright for a quick once over :)

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A few weeks back I made a 6 hour round trip to get some new front seats that came up at a bargain price! Drove from Leicester to Bristol and back for some Full leather Mk4 golf v5 seats and I couldn't be happier! They are so comfy! Once I ground the bases down they sat in the rails perfectly! (In the pictures it looks as though the leather has some odd lumps in it, but they aren't there in person)

And after some ballache with the steering column adapter I managed to fit a super tiny Mountney GT 11" steering wheel and its changed the car unbelievably for the better!

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Some of the interiour trim is missing in the above images as they are off for paint :)


I've also changed all light grey plastics for black ones. The only ones I didn't have were the upper doorcards so i'm on the lookout for some of them.

I also am desperate to get these bandeds off and the car lowered more. I an 80% through refurbing the Atiwe allows, just need the centers painting, But i've put them on hold as I'm currently planning something big, So watch this space!


Tom

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  • 1 month later...

Alright guys, Not much been happening with the actual car apart from having the arches rolled the weekend just gone.. But I now have a new set of wheels!

I bought an old set of BBS RM's that were pretty dire, The dishes were proper had it and the paint was all chipping off, But I got them at a really good price!

This is how they were when I picked them up, 15 x 6.5j

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Bought them about a month and a half ago now and since then have been accumulating new parts for them. I got them back from the powder coaters today and built up one of the rears straight away.

I bought some standard 0.5" lips from a mate for the fronts and some 2" lips for the rears making them a staggered 15 x 6.5j & 8j. Also picked up a set of gold bolts and had the centers done in Creamy White / Ivory. Still need to get the center caps painted yet, But im hoping to get them ready for edition now, But that's getting rather close!

Here are some pictures!

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That's all for now! Thanks for looking

Edited by TomCanham
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Thought I recognised the back drop I'm from Leicester too haha great build, I thought you'd stuck to the black one as there is one sitting in a drive on banded steels not being used, what happened to the steels? I want some for my Lupo. :)

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