Grahams81-Leon 4wd, Big Turbo - Back in the saddle :-)

[shell-vt]

This progress thread is the best ive seen in years and your local to me.. i need to see this in the flesh..

if your still deciding on a color for the outta shell ever considered gray, as in porsche gray. its not often used, personally i love the colour..

 

[grahams81]

This progress thread is the best ive seen in years and your local to me.. i need to see this in the flesh..

if your still deciding on a color for the outta shell ever considered gray, as in porsche gray. its not often used, personally i love the colour..

Thanks mate, appreciate the kind words and the idea's on the paintwork

 

[ReDBull]

Brilliant.

I've been meaning to read this thread for ages. Once I started it's taken up all my spare time over the last couple of days. Glad you decided to do the 4WD conversion rather than just buy a TT/S3. It'll be great fun supriseing other drivers. Everything is going to look spot on, love your wheels you can beat motorsport parts. Good choice going the GT3 RS route with the interior.
Glad your enjoying family life. I've got two kids and they do take up alot of your time and finaces but there worth it.
Good luck with the rest of the build I'll watching with much interest. You'll end up with a car we'll all be dreaming of. Every time I see a photo of that turbo it makes laugh.

 

[grahams81]

Brilliant.

I've been meaning to read this thread for ages. Once I started it's taken up all my spare time over the last couple of days. Glad you decided to do the 4WD conversion rather than just buy a TT/S3. It'll be great fun supriseing other drivers. Everything is going to look spot on, love your wheels you can beat motorsport parts. Good choice going the GT3 RS route with the interior.
Glad your enjoying family life. I've got two kids and they do take up alot of your time and finaces but there worth it.
Good luck with the rest of the build I'll watching with much interest. You'll end up with a car we'll all be dreaming of. Every time I see a photo of that turbo it makes laugh.

Thanks For the comments bud

The Leon is not progressing very well at the moment, and to be honest since starting a family its fair to say my priorities have changed a bit
I've now set myself a new "doo-able" time scale for completion by next spring.... Still waiting to get the car into paint, if it takes any longer i may bust out the paint gun myself and give it a quick lick of matt black..... Then in the future i can have it painted later if i like.

Thanks for all the support and positive comments from you all, it really makes the difference when i start to loose the love with the project (which seems to be every time i open the garage and see how much i've still to do )

I WILL finish it, maybe just in time for my boy to drive it

 

[gdjohny]

Mate
That build is sick. I have tons of parts and other stauff to put in my LEON but my 6 moths old son keeps me busy.
Keep it up Mate.

 

[grahams81]

Mate
That build is sick. I have tons of parts and other stauff to put in my LEON but my 6 moths old son keeps me busy.
Keep it up Mate.

Thanks bud

Well i managed to get back on with the project today, been really neglecting it recently so it felt really good to spend a few hours in the garage while the wife and baby were out.

Last time i worked on it i finished off dressing up where i removed the front roll cage mounts.

I spent an hour sorting out all the wiring loom - i had managed to melt some of the insulation when i was going crackers with the plasma cutter removing the cage.

I then decided to remove the blower motor and clean out all all the paint and grinding dust from inside the heater assembly.
Once the heater assembly was clean i decided to start putting the dash back on. I know it's not ideal before i paint the car but I'm planning to cover it well and the main reason to fit it was just cos it was taking up sooooo much space in the garage.

Anyway i dropped the dash back on, forgot how much of a pain it was.... i then remembered i hadn't fed the temperature sensor wire for the climate control - in the end i took the dash back off and threaded a bit of the 4mm air pipe and refitted the dash then used the pipe to pull the sensor wire through the dash.

You can see the pipe sticking through the vent in the dash -

So i enjoyed myself today and eventually called it a day after i got the centre console and climate control parts back together -

I've booked Monday & Tuesday off work so i'll hopefully get some more done on the car this weekend....... i'm thinking after getting the dash finished i'm gonna start painting the car, i was going to get the car painted but TBH i can't really afford it anymore and the guy is taking ages painting my mates pontiac.

Thanks For reading.

 

[cupra-barn]

Glad to see some progress again mate, was getting worried

 

[cupra.al]

Glad to see some progress again mate, was getting worried

+1.
while you had the dash out is the heater matrix under the pollen filter? as my gfs golf has a whine when the blower is on so i think its the matrix fan.

 

[grahams81]

Glad to see some progress again mate, was getting worried

Thanks mate

+1.
while you had the dash out is the heater matrix under the pollen filter? as my gfs golf has a whine when the blower is on so i think its the matrix fan.

Cheers, unfortunately the heater matrix isn't under the pollen filter - the blower fan is directly under the filter and a couple of flaps for blocking off the re-circulation mode. The actual heat exchange is right in the depths of the system and would need the whole assembly removing (a massive job) I can't see why the heat exchanger would make any noise - there are no moving parts hopefully the noise will be the blower fan on it's way out. You can change that be just removing the glove box.

 

[cupra.al]

excellent thanks graham.

 

[grahams81]

Another Small Update -

Spend another couple of hours messing around in the garage again.
I decided to finish off the dashboard so i hastily fitted the panel below the steering wheel only to discover i forgot about the wires for the headlight switch - managed to fish them through the hole with a bit of TIG welding wire and then get them connected

I even refitted the throttle pedal and wired it back in, i forgot it was a total bitch to get out due to a big lump of white plastic being in the way..... it was as much fun refitting it as it was removing it.

I then stuck the passenger airbag back in and loosely fitted the Glovebox - i've still got to adjust the latch as the lid needs a bit of a slam.

I also decided to run the Power cable in for the battery relocation.

I was gonna take it through the bulkhead behind the glovebox but i looked at it and as i had the front wings just sat on loose i whipped them off and ran the cable up the front frame rail and out under the wing then back in....

Handy hole in the frame rail -

(i will be putting a grommet where the cable passes through)

Comes out here as the frame rail is blocked further up -

(i need to drill a hole in the OEM Grommets and seal up with silicone)

Comes into the cabin here -

So hopefully next time i get in the garage i will start doing bodywork.

I've also been looking at either buying a carport or making one or buying a tenty one or something, think it would make the rebuild / painting a lot easier.

Thanks for reading.

 

[andyuk1275]

hey mate im the darlo lad ive just seen youre reply a few months ago! im not too bad with a spanner, i know a guy whos awsome though if youve got a moment in the coming weeks ill come and have a look at it ! could also introduce you to my mate whos good with spanners who owns a 7.5 ltr v8 with a gt88 on !

Andy

 

[t0m]

Cracking progress Graham! Love it.

LCR dash will look great once fully in.

 

[grahams81]

hey mate im the darlo lad ive just seen youre reply a few months ago! im not too bad with a spanner, i know a guy whos awsome though if youve got a moment in the coming weeks ill come and have a look at it ! could also introduce you to my mate whos good with spanners who owns a 7.5 ltr v8 with a gt88 on !

Andy

Cool - you'll have to pop round later on, hopefully gonna start progressing quite quickly soon

Cracking progress Graham! Love it.

LCR dash will look great once fully in.

Cheers Tom, feels nice to get back on with it and starting to make it look like a car again

Small Update -

Sooooo after much thought i've decided to spend a bit of money on the project, nothing that can increase BHP etc but a rather large tent

The reason being is i've pretty much grown out of the singe garage now and working in there is getting difficult.... not enough room to swing a cat.

I started looking for a carport to keep the rain off the Leon if i was to put it back on the drive but the prices were upwards of a grand for a good 5meter long one.

I found these portable garages for a lot less and they seem really sturdy with a base that can be screwed to the deck. Couple of pics i stole from there website -

Should be great, this model has 2 openings so i can mate it up with the garage and still be able to open the garage door.

This will let me remove the engine again for some more modifications and get the car in the big tent up on axle stands and paint it whilst still having the garage to work in / store parts in.

Hopefully it should be here by the weekend so i get cracking mounting it all up

Onwards and upwards with the project now !!!!! i've got the love back

 

[4wdibiza]

Awesome progress bud, are you not guna be running a cage now? Also that tent where did you get and price plz that is a awesome bit of kit , need one of these badboys lol

 

[grahams81]

Awesome progress bud, are you not guna be running a cage now? Also that tent where did you get and price plz that is a awesome bit of kit , need one of these badboys lol

Thanks Mate, i'm just running a the rear part of a OMP bolt in cage.... er that i welded in.
I will be painting it black so it doesn't stand out too much.

The "Portable Garage" or big tent is from Dancover

Linky -

http://www.dancovershop.com/uk/product/portable-garages-6.1/storage-tent-27x51x23-m.aspx

It was £355 delivered so it's quite cheap for the quality - if look at the bottom there is a PDF with the assembly instructions that show the rigid base and build quality.

The size is good at 2.7M wide x 5.1M long x 2.3M high.

I would have got a bigger one but it's going on my drive and i have a small wall and the dimension is 2.9Meters betwen house and wall.

TBH i don't know why i didn't get one last winter
Hopefully it should make it a doddle to work around the car.

 

[matt g]

wow!

hope to see this on the road sometime (i live in newcastle but am in the chester le street area a fair bit).

 

[t0m]

Great buy on the tent Graham. Should really help you in cracking on

Loads more room for you to play with. Good stuff

Looks good quality that too!

 

[Ronin225]

Nice little work tent (or manly wendy house) sure it will be useful
Also on the cable routing for the battery where is ran through by the A pillar will it not stop the door opening fully?? due to the hinges not being on the extreme end of the door

 

[grahams81]

wow!

hope to see this on the road sometime (i live in newcastle but am in the chester le street area a fair bit).

Cheers, can't wait for it too see tarmac myself, gonna get my arse in gear and get her finished this winter.

Great buy on the tent Graham. Should really help you in cracking on

Loads more room for you to play with. Good stuff

Looks good quality that too!

Cheers bud, wish i bought it years ago....hindsights wonderful

Nice little work tent (or manly wendy house) sure it will be useful
Also on the cable routing for the battery where is ran through by the A pillar will it not stop the door opening fully?? due to the hinges not being on the extreme end of the door

Manly work tent
As for the cabling - i'll have to check. I need to pull it back though anyway as i took it through the oval hole....which is the hole for the door electrics
I'll rerun it at the weekend and check for clearance etc.

Also heard from tnt that me tents coming Friday so happy days....