VW Polo BUILD #3: CIAOS Continues...

[JTop]

To all those reading; this is the continuation of my previous build as found here:

https://www.vwwatercooled.com/forums/f127/jts-polo-building-adventure-130346.html

So essentially this happened. Friday afternoon on the way home from work


That's just coolant so don't be worried. Radiator split
Anyway repair bill came to 11.8k and I offered to sell the car to the person who caused the accident, only because their insurance expired. The car now resides on FB marketplace being parted out.

ANYWAY
Moving on from that Pain, I had to scramble and find another car to build. Unfortunately there weren't any options for the budget that I wished to play with.

Then a friendly gent by the name of Benjamin in Canberra. AKA TeamShaw
Offered his track build for a sum I couldn't complain about at the time. Flew down to Canberra the first weekend possible and picked up this badboy

Unfortunately as I arrived I found out the car is scratched to buggery apart from both rear quarters being damaged (which I thought would be fine, get those repaired) and the interior was in a mess and has taken me a few hours to clean up to a presentable state. I don't think it's ever been cleaned apart from the seats.
Car ran beautifully back, although I had a scare with the coolant as it's mixed with something. Gave a funny slightly brownish colour. I kept a bottle of it to test, which I am yet to do. It's fine now after the refresh, but need to run it longer.

Need to do a timing belt on it, it's not looking too great, which I'm time bound at this very moment. Currently buffing out all the swirlies and making it look presentable for its roadworthy and finally sale! I am trying to downsize to just one polo so they all have to go!

Anyway, after that trip, another ad popped up on Carsales. And I knew I had to have it
The next weekend we were flying up to the Gold Coast!


So was extremely ecstatic with this purchase. Stage 3, straightpiped and faulty
Secondary O2 sensor was killed by the previous owner and he didn't want the car anymore lol

As soon as it got home, I had a perfect opportunity to play pick and choose!
The dash was in 1000 pieces, and guess who had a perfect one available.
Sunroof was making a clunking noise with all the drains clogged (Hence the full interior out). Perfect one available too!
Interior trim pieces destroyed, PERFECT ONE NEXT TO ME!

So I did the unthinkable in 2 and a half days
FULL INTERIOR SWAP!

All panels off, everything sanitised and cleaned. Whilst having it all apart, I also ran my Sub and Watermeth cables to make life easier! Otherwise would be taking it apart to do it again, so why not
Also with the opportunity, borrowed all the suitable sensors that were damaged/giving a bad reading and played swapsies. All the error codes that were being thrown were fixed! Bloody radio fuse blew and the previous owner decided to solder the ignition wire to the key barrel... this caused heaps of troubles lol.

And now we're up to today!

Went for a roadworthy with this car from GC, failed for the turbo inlet pipe(TIP), the Forge 008 diverter valve is a BLOW OFF VALVE and Gavin's old exhaust which has a massive middle res and muffler out back... "need a sound test" bs.
And Windscreen had 3 small cracks, had those done up. List just goes on with so many stupid things.
Hanging Sec O2 sensor wire... of course it does on the stock mounting point lol
Castor bushings aren't allowed! Lower engine polybush is cracked, where its casting mark is.. No lol
Swaybar link is busted up. Bastard cut it up... It was whole when I checked and only looking funky after.
Parker lights not working. I legit checked first thing and they are there... ON when you ask them to be lmao! Auto headlight switch must have confused this joint XD
Whiteline rear swaybar also not acceptable, must be removed... come on, honestly...
That's really most the stuff, rest was dumb... like "oil leak" of course when I just done a oil and filter change and some was still sitting up on the block's ledge. Was the tiniest trickle... I mean if he properly checked, the rocker cover is leaking like a bitch, and cyl 2 and 3 are compromised.

Anyway, cleaning it up now and doing a few mods slowly lol. Passing its roadworthy this Friday if all goes well.

Then hopefully this weekend we do a Coilover swap and get the Team Dynamics back on. The BBS LM's need better tyres and the rear barrel one has a piece of metal stuck in it. Puncture. Engine bay also sorted and the boot items also in!

I have so many photos, just always a pain to upload here and in the wrong orientation! Takes the cake with time

*I also bought some conrods and ordered custom 83mm pistons. Stock stroke, 9:1CR to run the fun stuff soon
**Probably missed a heap of stuff, will remember soon lol

[guile]

you look like you know your way around a 9n Gti. nice work mate, keep the photos coming...

[h100vw]

Good work. LMK when the timing belt is getting done.

[sambb]

Is the VIC road worthy the same as our normal rego renewal check? or is it like our Blueslip check? Sounds ridiculously strict.

[Sydneykid]

Is the VIC road worthy the same as our normal rego renewal check? or is it like our Blueslip check? Sounds ridiculously strict.

Blueslip, one should always have a tame blueslip inspector

Cheers
Gary

[JTop]

Quick update, because I'm busy

@Guille, Thank you! #7 for me soooooo, I think I'm at an OK stage at working on any of these; with what I've got, ask Gavin about my tools. XD

@Gavin, lol forgot to mention it the other day when you were over. might as well leave it as a thing to do at the sale of the car. Got the full kit but no time right now

@Sam, we got them as one off green slips. red as rejection . Once this is done and complete, don't need to do it again unless selling the car or clearing a defect notice. Valid for 30 days so can literally pass the car along to 30 different owners if someone wanted lol

@Gary, Vicroads tightened their system so it's become heaps harder, as they require photos of all parts of the vehicle to be submitted.
I have fixed most things and have gotten another joint to do it for me overlooking all minor aspects, so will be rego'd hopefully this Saturday given that the Vicroads official in Maryborough is not having a cranky morning.


I have also received my TT lower ball joints, Thank you @simon k for the link for those! Will throw them in hopefully by next Tuesday. Will take the control arms BACK out and to work in order to properly drill the holes out on the mill because steel is steel. Just installed the front superpro bushes which I bought a while back. Rears are already installed with the car so I have a spare kit for when these die.

Photos keep rotating -90degrees, not entirely sure why or how to fix!

Have a Suspension weekend ahead of me, want to get the Yellowstone coilovers into this car, which are currently in the other car, so got to play swapsies to make everything work. Got the rears to do too, not sure how far I'll go with the Eiback shims I got. @Sam if you got a good idea on the specs for those, I'd be keen to try. Have two sets! I'll leave the rear brakes as stock for the moment because I need to get another set of rear lines to a shop so they can install the braided rears which I got with the HEL kit a while ago. Then do all the brake upgrades in one hit. Need to grab those Porsche brakes too... haha

Slow and steady wins this race lol
And empty pockets too. fml

[sambb]

Jan there's no one number for setting the shims. You need to get the car aligned so that you get base line figures for which way each rear wheel is pointing and by how much. You'll need to know each sides camber and toe. Just measuring total toe between/across the rears isnt good enough. That's because they could both be pointing left!! So get an alignment at a reputable place and by that I dont mean a big tyre brand, I mean a place that is known for doing proper cars properly. Like a race shop or at the least someone like Pedders who's whole deal is suspension rather than fitting lots of chinese tyres. I have literally driven out the driveway of a place who's gear said I had 6mm toe in and went around the corner to a place that said I had 2mm toe out, no ****. So you need to go to a place where you know they have good well maintained gear and good operators. And get a full print out. You'll have many calcs and head scratching to do after that to determine what shim changes will give you the angles you need, so I wouldnt recommend a grainy phone photo of their screen or going by what they say.
Another thing - the rear ride height has a big effect on toe numbers. When you take it in there make sure its measured with the ride height where you intend on running it once its shimmed. For instance the higher the rear the more toe in it'll have. If you use that as your reference and shim it, you wont get the result you want if you then lower the rear of the car significantly afterwards. You could loose a good chunk of the toe out you'd just added.

[JTop]

SO I did a thing

Got those LCA's done. Done all the holes with a Mill at work, so got them spot on where they needed to be. Will see how long the middle bolt lasts because there was about 2-3mm of material left between the previous hole and the new one. All 10mm bolts and used the nuts the kit provided. Bothered Simon a lot because he done them differently than what you've done Sam, soooo

Yellowstone adjustable coilovers in, a lot better than most actually. Really happy with how those turned out. Put them to 26/22 stiffness drivers side being the stiffest. Braided brake line also done, will see how long before I'll upgrade those front brakes xD

Car was up and running on this last Friday although it was pulling to the left a lot lol. Finally got out today and drove down to Hastings TyrePower, met up with Josh Elwin for the first time, @vulgerpolo on ig. and had him sort that out for me. Pretty much have 1.2/1.25 degrees of neg camber on the fronts which is at the furthest "in" position those ball joints can sit. For the track they can be pulled out all the way, and will see what those camber numbers are, hopefully find some comfortable spot in the middle for them between daily and track. The two sheets above represent a stockish setup on the left, with the whiteline rear toe+camber plates, and today's run with my car on the right

Baselined it exactly how you mentioned Sam, and next run will be doing the rear end. Got to figure out those shims now to get this done up proper. There is a table on the Eibach sheet, I'll PM you later when I got a chance on how to read that proper and what to cut up.
Bora 4Motion Brakes from 212mm to 256mm I believe, Braided lines and the Superpro subframe bushes. And I doubt I'll touch that rear end apart from swapping wheels haha

Have to also sort this on the Dyno, it's pulling nicely, would like to throw in a ported manifold and see what it does. Previously was holding 170kw atw, not sure how long ago but yeah. Need to do the rocker cover as cyl 2 is slowly leaking. Tidied up the engine bay as much as I could. Haven't put the phenolic spacer in nor the BAM intake, running the single pass. As the bumper and crash bar are chopped, will leave those as is for the moment. Can run them comfortably as I have the space to do it, just leaving those for the moment. Watermeth and the Subwoofer have to get some power, otherwise all the cables are there and ready to go.


Some fancy photos, I have headlights coming any day now, so can fit them off too
Probably missing a few ideas, but that's the majority for the moment. Have the other Polo to sort stock wise, got to get new pads and rotors for it as they are completely gone and the stock shocks to fit back in. Tidy and clean everything up with it.

[sambb]

not sure whats going on there but you've somehow gone from a touch of toe out on the rear in the left image to miles of toe in on the right hand image. You said you added whiteline rear toe shims for the alignment that's on the right? or they'd been installed in the left image??

[JTop]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, left sheet is for another polo which has those whiteline shims, as an example of what to aim for
Right sheet is what got done today. I've got that 3.8mm of toe in on the left and 3.5mm toe in on the right with a bit of neg camber squatting lower.
Definitely passing the shoe test

[sambb]

oh ok. I thought you'd fitted shims and it had gone the wrong way. yeah you have a bucket load of rear toe in. Correcting that to a bit of toe out will be a massive change to the handling. Was that measured at the ride height that you intend on running?
Basically from here you just need to work out what you realistically want the car to do ie track setup which will burn through street tyres if you dont actually track it, or streetable setup that will probably be insufficient with camber and toe when you're on the track but be better for safer handling on the street and prolong tyre life.
Basically the more track setup ish you go will mean decent amounts of toe out and more neg camber at the same time or street which will be say 1.5-1.75 deg neg and zero toe.

[JTop]

Ideally I'd like to put the Team Dynamics on for the track, the height in the rear seems perfect for the BBS's so should be fine with clearance. Felt pretty good on the drive today
For the moment, the car's just the daily to and from work, albeit I've got to swap the two front tyres to something better than these Sailun Altrezzos the previous owner put on for a roadworthy probably. I was spinning up to 5th gear in the wet with them haha cleaned up the filthy fender liners when I checked today.

Anyway, this is the tricky part like always. I've got two shim sets so can maybe run two different styles for the rear. I don't mind taking apart and swapping them out a few times if it'll provide some benefit on the day.
So do a Street setup with one set and aggressive track on the other.

Obviously the front can be easily switched up. Pulling the ball joint further out from the LCA giving more neg camber
And then running the castor position up top, or turning the head and running strong camber.

As for bracing etc, pretty much running all Ultraracing braces and the whiteline rear swaybar on the hardest setting as opposed to the UR solid brace. *OCD Euro brace for dailying, and the extra UR boot brace when on the track.

Just slowly trying to nail everything out, probably aesthetics too (cup stuff), and do a big turbo build for fun next.

Salvage Auction Catalogue – Southern Salvage MID-RANGE BID NOW (TAS, VIC, SA, WA) – Lane 0 – Manheim National Online, National
Also coming up on Thursday morning. Hopefully get back what I put in otherwise I'll part it out.
Car's finished, would just need the reinspection from VW and then a VIV again. Just needs someone who knows what they're doing

[sambb]

I have a mid under body UR brace if you are lacking that one.
RE the shins, they are a one use only. They are basically buggered once they are removed and they are only designed to be torqued down on once. So unfortunately you pretty much need to run one set. Different matter for solid machined ones but these plastic ones aren’t reusable.
A useable one size fits all that would be fast on the track and fine still for the street would be 2mm rear total toe out (1mm out on each side) and say 1.75-2.00 deg neg. that’s if you didn’t want to bias it too heavily one way or the other and have a good compromise.

[JTop]

Out of the 7 available, I have the 6, just not their rear sway bar/Solid brace. Thanks anyway!
I always have in my head that I'll do the front swaybar when the engine is out. Should have done it whilst I had most the bits apart. Oh well...

Damn, that's what I thought. If you want the spare set all yours then Sam
I understand your new Polo doesn't have them so I'm happy to post them up and let you enjoy

I'll have a look at the sheet. So toe out ~4.5mm per side to have 1mm out each side. And might run the stronger 2deg neg camber.
Sounds good!
Thank you

[sambb]

All Good Jan. Mine just came from the UK the other day so i'll be string lining mine soon to know where to set mine when I fit them. Mine has whiteline solid shims already so I'll add the Eibach ones over the top of those.
Have you used/set up the Speciality/Eibach shims before?