Arosa 1.4 16v Sport - My Trackday Project - '09 End of Season Report from Page 29

[driveforward]

where did you get your 0AWG cable?? if thats audio grade stuff will it not melt being used to run the cars full electrics ? surely some welding cable would be better?

Only the short red bit is audio stuff, but that only connects to a few ancillaries in the engine bay (plastic box). The rest of it is welding cable, so should stand up to the job

Given the amount of work your ploughing into the little beastie its going to look great. I quite like the idea of it being multi coloured - although I do like the harlequin Polo I know I havent commented much on this thread. Im reading and digesting the information and learning lots as it progresses, so thanks for updating it so regularly

It won't be staying multicoloured, but should look interesting once it's finally all bolted together!

 

[Stu B]

Gee I have some catch up reading it seems... Glad to hear that its still running Ian..

 

[iulian06]

 

[driveforward]

Gee I have some catch up reading it seems... Glad to hear that its still running Ian..

Hehe.. I'll have some more for you tomorrow Stu

 

[driveforward]

Electrics Finished, Arosa Harlequin Here!

Finally, this weekend I managed to get the electrics finished. First up, there was the missing oil pressure guage to fit and test:

Next I had finally received my battery isolation switch from Demon Tweeks, so after a quick trip to Maplin for a box to house it in, I got that fitted in the passenger footwell (it's at an angle due to the shape of the panel it is fitted to and not sloppy workmanship!):

That marked the end of the electrical work that I needed to get done this year.

This week had seen the delivery of both my new tyres (Toyo R888's: 195/50/15's), and also the alloys to put them on.. however, upon opening the alloy boxes, it was immediately evident that the wrong ones had been shipped Maybe next week I'll be able to show them off.. but for now, here's the tyres!:

Next up, I salvaged the lower front valance from the old bumper, reuniting it with the red upper bumper that it was originally part of. Here it is simply 'hanging' in place:

Then, it was time to remove the original passenger door (heavy!) and attach the hinges for both sides to the new Lupo GTI Aluminium doors.. and then temporarily trial fit them to help keep the forthcoming dust out of the car:

Remind you of a certain Polo?!


Finally, I resprayed the door bars on the cage, leaving the interior pretty much ready for reassembly.. Next up, the exterior..........!

Thanks for reading, until next time

 

[hopkinsgm]

Unusual location for a battery isolator - but then I guess I'm more used to seeing them on cars used for motorsport where they're used to remove the live connection for safety reasons rather than an isolator to stop the battery draining during periods when you're not using the car.

As an aside - and it's a bit late for you Ian - whilst Demon Tweeks are a nice convenient one-stop-shop, you could probably have got an equivalent switch quicker and considerably cheaper from Vehicle Wiring Products (http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.eu).

 

[Chris Eyre]

Coming along well, since I last read in.

The battery box does look well - where did you source that and the cabling, and what rating is it? It's a job perhaps I ought to put into this year's schedule after all.

 

[driveforward]

Coming along well, since I last read in.

The battery box does look well - where did you source that and the cabling, and what rating is it? It's a job perhaps I ought to put into this year's schedule after all.

The cable is 0AWG welding stuff, but I don't know where it came from as a mate (who's no longer with us) got it for me last year

The battery and bracket were from eBay - I looked around but it turned out to be the best place, PM me if you want to know the sellers

 

[driveforward]

Wheely Productive Weekend...!

Ok, I'll get my coat...

This week, my wheels turned up.. a set of brand new Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 15x7 ET35 'Matt Neal limited edition' - well, there had to be a downside

Here's a quick trial fit in progress:

Once I confirmed all was OK, I went to my local tyre fitters to get the new rubber mated up with the new alloys before returning home to test fit the new wheel and tyre combination.

First up, here's how the original wheels with GSD3's looked:

..and in comparison, on the other side we have the new wheel and tyre combination:

Once more, heres the standard 15x6 ET43 setup with 195/45/15 tyres:

..and with the new R888 195/50/15's:

Side to side, harlequin stylee:

Finally, here's the finished article:

 

[driveforward]

With a nice bit of girth.. grippy

The wheels will soon be back off again, and I'll probably need to get at least the front arches rolled. I then set about stripping the door cards, locks and electric mirrors from my original doors, ready to fit to the new aluminium ones. With that job done, I moved onto fitting another item that's been sitting on the workbench for a while now... bonnet pins. I've invested in a pair of Aerocatch lockable bonnet catches, which involved a fair bit of butchery and fabrication to get them to fit on such a short and steeply curved bonnet.

First up, marking out after deliberating for quite some time as to where they will go:

Next, butchery.. out came the Dremel and jigsaw:

Trial fit of latch:

Then I went through the same routine for the other side, before moving onto fabricating suitable mounting brackets for the pins themselves. This was necessary as the bonnet curves quite intensely at the front, making latch fitting difficult.. therefore the catches have been set back a bit to reside on a flatter section of the bonnet:

Then, once everything was lined up and working correctly, I removed the latches to Hammerite the edges of the cut out and drilled portions of the bonnet - to protect against rust:

You'll have to wait until a future instalment to see the finished article...!


Finally, I thought I'd grab a pic of the front of the car, given it is now starting to look normal again (for now), if only I could find the centre 'S-badge'

Until next time folks, thanks for reading!

 

[F2 Stu]

Why on earth did you go for the one with the polished lip? Weight saving?

#edit# Nice work with the Aerocatches

 

[driveforward]

Why on earth did you go for the one with the polished lip? Weight saving?

#edit# Nice work with the Aerocatches

To go with the silver and black colour scheme of the car... :gay:

Cheers on the catches - they took most of today!

 

[m0rk]

You're going to cut that down / insulate it from whatever electrics are under there?

probably just perspective that it'd short it in a crash?

 

[driveforward]

You're going to cut that down / insulate it from whatever electrics are under there?

probably just perspective that it'd short it in a crash?

It's perspective mate, there's miles of empty space between them.. although I'll probably cut them both down once it's all fitted together permanently.

 

[driveforward]

Bonnet & Bodywork Time (again)

My main aim for today was to finish the installation of the bonnet catches on the bonnet, but to do that I needed to get a few other things done!

First up, ever since I got the car, there has been a crater of a stone 'chip' near the front edge of the bonnet, so I mixed up some filler and got that sorted:

Whilst I had the filler out, I put some over the remaining damaged area of the wing, and also where there were two small but deep chips on the drivers door:

To prevent the garage getting full of dust, I left all but the bonnet sanding until later:

Earlier this week, I collected some new vinyl from SignsExpress (not cheap, but cheaper and quicker to use than paint!), so got to work with my 'design idea for 2009' on the bonnet - which conveniently allows me to forgo getting the bonnet sprayed and makes the Aerocatches less 'conspicuous' (even if the general effect is to make the car look more conspicuous!). Here's the Vinyl applied:

I used the bonnet lines as a guide, and followed them along both edges of the black vinyl thus giving the effect of continuing the black lines along the bonnet from the bumper grille and headlights. Here's a close-up and the bonnet catch 'hole':

A view from above:

Once the vinyl was in place, I was able to fully fit the latches into the bonnet, bolting them up tightly:

..and here's the finished article, it's part of a wider theme for the front end which will take shape over coming weeks:

 

[driveforward]

Now I was done vinyling for the day, I could get on with some sanding and smoothing of the filler on the front wing, drivers door and also the rear quarter following the earlier damage repair:

Since the day had turned out to be one of filler and subsequent dust, I decided to make a start on smoothing out my 'new' front bumper in the same fashion as I had done last year with the original (which, although could be saved given I repaired it after the accident, tbh, I'd rather start afresh):

I managed to get the bulk of the major filling done on the upper parts of the bumper, so just need to do some finer filling and sanding at a later date. Finishing this bumper will take some time yet!

Until next time

 

[DPJ]

Lovely work with the bonnet catches.

 

[lunalupi]

Can I be really fussy and annoying and say - I think the bonnet vinyl would look better a tiny bit narrower so they lined up with the width of the side grills, rather than the edges of the centre grill

Good work though, it's coming along well.

 

[UncleFester]

That looks really nice now, coming along in leaps and bounds - it's crying out for a bike engine though

 

[driveforward]

Lovely work with the bonnet catches.

Thanking you, I am pleased with them!

Can I be really fussy and annoying and say - I think the bonnet vinyl would look better a tiny bit narrower so they lined up with the width of the side grills, rather than the edges of the centre grill

Good work though, it's coming along well.

Hehe, you certainly can, and I understand what you're saying.. however, once the bumper is done it won't be the inside edges of the grilles the black needs to line up with (take a look at the markings on the red paint for a clue

That looks really nice now, coming along in leaps and bounds - it's crying out for a bike engine though

Haha.. you're gonna keep on saying that aren't you!? Maybe one day I'll give in