g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
|
|
Nov 22, 2013 20:28:47 GMT
|
Had a spare hour this eve, so decided to do something with the damaged speaker grills from the dash. I had planned to replace them, but I had a bit of a brainwave instead. Take one pair of damaged speaker grills tape a pair of mb quart tweeters to them! crack open the tin of fibreglass filler and stick tweeter pods to grills After some dinner, another layer of fibreglass was applied. They are now pretty heavy too! That's all for now. Hopefully I will get a skim of filler on them tomorrow, then they will be ready for a layer of satin black paint or two.
|
|
|
|
|
g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
|
|
Nov 22, 2013 19:52:43 GMT
|
yup all gone
|
|
|
|
g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
|
|
Nov 22, 2013 10:16:52 GMT
|
I don't have anything that would look right in a saab I'm afraid. I have sold off most of my retro radios, so just clearing the last few as I am not planning to convert any more radio, other than for my own personal use.
|
|
Last Edit: Nov 22, 2013 10:18:28 GMT by g40jon
|
|
g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
|
|
|
Shame it doesn't look nearly half as good currently. Every good part I fitted to it first time round has gone! That includes a full stainless exhaust and 4 branch, lower strut brace, uprated headlight loom, chipped ecu, the whole arch kit, the wheels and trim rings. The only two tweaks that have remained are the half tinted rear lights and the mk5 polo gearknob and surround (a mod I wish I had never done, as it involved chopping the gearstick down to the point where I canbarely reach it!) On a plus side it is a blank canvas! The replacement box and fuel tank arrived yesterday, so the two most important jobs needed to get the car useable are ready to start. Will try and get some fresh pics up over the weekend
|
|
|
|
g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
|
|
Nov 21, 2013 11:44:50 GMT
|
I have replaced the passive radiators in my other set with some that I got from china via good old ebay. They are smaller though at only 3". I have compared the two and there isn't a lot between them, both work equally well. Had they been speakers, rather than passive radiators I wouldn't have bothered trying to repair them, as the chance of me lining the voice-coil up again would have been zero! I know exactly what you are saying about the bass vanishing in a moving car. In my mx5 I have an 8 inch sub mounted in a home made wind blocker, so the sub is at head level, with a port firing directly into the back of my head! Even that can't produce enough bass with the roof down! These however will be going in my polo breadie, which is supposed to be my practical car, so filling the boot with subs isn't really viable (i've already done that to my g40 polo!). A shame as I've got a nice focal sub sat in my garage doing nothing! The plan is to have a pretty understated, period looking install consisting of a late 90s high end blaupunkt rd104 headunit, mb quart tweeters in the std dash positions to bring the sound stage forward and the shelf speakers to give a bit of midbass, that will at least be audible over the noise generated by the polo, without consuming too much space (I can live without the really low end bass for this car). It'll also be usefull to have something that can be reasonably easy to remove too, as it'll be getting used as a small van for my various home diy projects/tasks the wife insists I do.
|
|
|
|
g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
|
|
Nov 21, 2013 10:02:20 GMT
|
Got a few sets of these rare parcel shelf pods, so decided it was time to fix them up. They all suffer from the foam surround on the passive bass radiators disintegrating, here's how I fixed them! Take one ts-x6 speaker pod and remove the 6 hex-head screws The front will now come off with a bit of effort (they are sealed on with some kind of sealant to make them air-tight. With the front off, remove the wadding (on this set someone had already removed the wadding) Next task was to remove the radiator grill. On the inside of the box were a couple of tabs that needed straightening out before the grill could be prised off. With the grill removed, this was what I found The foam surround had completely rotted! The radiator itself was held by 4 self tappers, so this was easy enough to remove. Using a stanley knife I removed the remains of the gooey surround. I had planned to buy a re-foam kit, but I have really struggled to find any universal kits in the uk. Getting them from abroad was possible, but at great expense. With this in mind I decided I needed a plan b! I am terrible for hoarding bits n bobs!, on a plus side though I found some off-cut from some black vinyl in my hoard of bits. Having no idea how suitable it would be I decided to give it a try! Using some educated guess work I made a new surround Now for the tricky job of forming the surround. I started by using some all-purpose glue to adhere the surround to the paper cone. The really tricky part was gluing the outer edge to the basket of the radiator, whilst trying to form a curve to allow for movement of the cone. Once I was happy with my new surround, the card finishing trim was glued back on. At this point I noticed the dust cap which should cover the washer in the middle was missing. A bit of plastic folder divider came to the rescue. A sharpie marker finshed things off by making the cone nice and black. the finished bass radiator (probably not as efficient as it originally was when new, but much better than the flaky condition it was previously in. Back in the pod Whilst I had everything apart I decided to give the grills a blow over with some black paint and dye the speaker cones using a sharpie marker. Final job before re-assembling the speakers was to find something suitable to replace the missing wadding. I didn't take a pic of them all back together as I couldn't wait to try them out, so hooked up a headunit to the bench power supply at work and I have been too busy playing music through them since! Really pleased with the results. Compared to my other set which haven't been repaired there is more bass, they seem to be louder too. Really nice sounding speakers and have really made me question whether I need bother fitting a sub back into my polo. Might just run a set of these and a pair of mb quart tweeters up front. Total cost of repair was around 2 hours of my time, happy days! Edit: couple of pics of the finish article painted up the pioneer logo all done
|
|
Last Edit: Nov 21, 2013 10:56:22 GMT by g40jon
|
|
g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
|
|
|
Make sure you do your research! The h&r 60/40 cup kit is widely regarded as being one of the best setups for the old polo. Coilovers are expensive for them due to the front struts being one piece, so they have to be made using original struts (some companies will require you to send them your original struts in exchange). Another option, if you can find some is to use mk1 golf struts and hubs and get them converted. This gives you the nice bonus of having front camber adjustment. There isn't really any such thing as cheap coilovers for the early polos. The cheapest start at £400 and that is if you go to the hassle of shipping them in from germany. The downside of the cheap coilies is that they use cheap dampers, which tend to be harsh and no better than the shocks used in the £100 lowering kits you can get for them. They are fine if you don't want any ride comfort and will last well enough if correctly fitted. It all depends what you want from the car. If you just want to go low, then they are an option and they do have the added bonus of allowing fine adjustment in ride height. The flip side though is for the same money as cheap coilies you could have a quality spring and shock kit with adjustable dampers, so you can soften or stiffen the ride as and when you please.
|
|
|
|
g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
|
|
|
I haven't got any pics of it on my pc at the mo due to having to reload everything, but I do have the ebay listing for it, with plenty of pics. £40 is what I would like for it (including post). That is my break even price (that doesn't include the time spent modding it either). I had hoped it would sell for more but clearly the demand isn't there. It has got to the point where it simply isn't worth my while modding these old radios. I had at least hoped to make a bit of beer money from doing them, but the last few have failed to even achieve that! So I am clearing out the rest of my stock and won't be doing anymore for the foreseeable future, plus I have got my new project car to sort out. www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171169170366?ssPageName=STRK:MEUSX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1562.l2649
|
|
|
|
g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
|
|
Nov 20, 2013 22:23:05 GMT
|
Just the blaupunkt acr2221 (pictured above) and a couple of 60s philips and blaupunkts (not pictured) left now. Won't be doing anymore this year (possibly indefinitely) as I've too much on.
|
|
|
|
g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
|
|
Nov 20, 2013 21:00:17 GMT
|
It is a rare votex grille (dealer option I think) Sadly I sold it and wish I hadn't! Same story for the car!! Sold nearly 4 years ago, but oddly enough I have just bought the car back and plan to re-restore it back to factory spec. Got some side trims on the way along with a new fuel tank and a replacement gearbox as the diff has failed on the gt box. The interior is still in good shape. The exterior however is looking a bit frilly around the rear arches
|
|
|
|
|
g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
|
|
Nov 20, 2013 15:12:59 GMT
|
honestly those reps are rubbish. Save your money and get the right wheels first time. the std wheels aren't that horrific. coilovers will set you back around £500, a h&r 60/40 shock and spring kit would be a far more sensible option and would save you a few £££. Budget coilovers start at around £400 and will be no better riding than the cheap shock and spring kits. A set of bbr rms can be had 2nd hand for around £350, so I don't know why you would even bother with reps. 165/50s or 45s are the best tyre option, although 175/50s or 185/45s are useable options. 195/45s are a bit wide and bulky imo. The mk2/2f polos will take 15s on std arches up to 6j wide. Beyond that you will be rolling arches or even flaring if you go really wide or silly with the offset. As for what I run on my polos, I have run too many different sets of wheels to list, but have covered everything from 13 to 15£ on mk2 and mk2f polos.
|
|
|
|
g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
|
|
Nov 20, 2013 13:20:51 GMT
|
Wouldn't waste your money on reps. They will look like reps, anyone in the know will spot you have reps, they will corrode like reps. Essentially what I am saying is don't buy the rs reps! They will be too wide for your car anyway. Buy they and you will need to modify your arches extensively. Fine if done properly, but often people take a hammer to their arches and do a really 5hit job of re-painting the area. 15s will also look pretty stupid unless your car has been lowered. You'll also need to run really low profile tyres, something along the lines of 165/50s for them to look right on a polo
|
|
|
|
g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
|
|
|
ttt £50 collected or £60 posted no offers
|
|
|
|
g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
|
|
Nov 17, 2013 22:17:48 GMT
|
can you get a pry bar/screwdriver under the head of the bolt whilst turning it? I have used this method to remove bolts from worn holes in which the bolt just spins. Often it is enough to get the thread of the bolt to catch enough to get the bolt out
|
|
|
|
g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
|
|
Nov 17, 2013 21:44:12 GMT
|
Diff has gone wrong on my gearbox, so just need a spare gearbox I can sling on the car. It is a 91 polo gt 1.3 and uses the 085 series gearbox. would prefer a gearbox from either a mk2 or mk2f polo, 4 or 5 speed.
Would need to be local to chipping norton, oxon or postable.
|
|
|
|
g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
|
|
Nov 15, 2013 22:10:13 GMT
|
|
|
|
|
g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
|
|
Nov 15, 2013 20:43:55 GMT
|
Worst thing about those arches is that someone who owned the car after me binned them! BTW there is a guy who sells plug and play upgraded looms for £35. You struggle to diy make one for that price. They look good well made too. They really are a must have upgrade especially with winter knocking on the door www.clubpolo.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=306266&page=3#entry2580713
|
|
|
|
g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
|
|
|
tbh I think I will just pick up my old build thread from where I left off! My aim is to get it back to somewhere close to how it was when I previously owned it. I don't think I will get the rear arches again, as they are no longer available from the place I bought them from (from what I can tell, they weren't genuine vw items. Not really sure how they came into existance.) First jobs will be to fit a new clutch and re-make an uprated headlight loom (If your car doesn't have one, I woulf highly recommend making one, it'll give your healights around 20% more light output)
|
|
|
|
g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
|
|
Nov 14, 2013 19:13:52 GMT
|
Yeah I did buy my old polo back, minus all the good bits I fitted to it! Martin is a mate of mine, so I got the car back for less than I paid for it first time round. Needs a lot of cosmetic tlc though! heres my original build thread from nearly 4 years ago retrorides.proboards.com/thread/59414/1991-polo-gt-squarebackIf you do decide you want rid of the votex make sure you tell me first! Keep up the good work!
|
|
|
|
g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
|
|
Nov 14, 2013 17:16:03 GMT
|
nice looking gt, nice to see one that hasn't been overly modified! You mention earlier in your thread you have a votex grill. Do you still have it and would you be interested in selling it?
|
|
|
|
|