Seat Leon FR 2.0 mk2 - Nicknamed Loretta - Progression Thread

[Ollie1990]

Hello to all you Seat lovers

Bought my Seat Leon FR mk2 in March and I've been reading these forums religiously looking for potential upgrades to my pride and joy.


So let's take a look at her when I first bought her.

After having a month of getting to know the car and figuring out what I could do to make it better, I started off with small touches, mainly interior.

New Car Mats

Drilled a few holes in Center Console to route wires through for my iPhone.

I will be upgrading to a double din sat nav type Stereo; but that's a costly purchase and there are more important things (to me) to be done first.

Next up was the smallest of upgrades, but one of my favourites. Seat Dust Caps
(not the best picture)

Then, went on the change the front grill. Badgeless.
I also changed some bulbs on this day, Osram Nightbreakers headlights and Phillips BlueVision sidelights.

And some Heko Wind Deflectors, Front and Back.

And then that's when it all went wrong...
After noticing that the previous owner had spray painted the wheels, through jetwashing and chipping off, I decided to take my wheels off and try get it all off.

This did not work so I went to Halfrauds and asked the guy behind the counter who told me to use Nitromors (I think) or some Graffiti Remover.
I went for the Graffiti Remover as it looked less dangerous to tyres.

The result was this:

ARGH!

I then spent 2 and a half hours trying to get it all off on another wheel, with a Wallpaper Scraper and some very fine sand paper.

This happened:

This doesn't look too bad from afar, or on the photo. However, I think I've taken off most of the enamel, if not all.
So I am getting them Powder Coated at the end of the week.

On the bright side, I decided I like the colour of the wheels without the spray paint, so I'm going for something similar. Gun Metal Grey I think

More to come, ordered some vinyl wrap which has been delivered today. Going to try a few interior pieces before anything else. I want to do the B and C pillars to match the Gloss Black body, because they look terrible plastic.

 

[Ollie1990]

Oh and Red Brake Calipers will be done soon hopefully. After I've had my wheels done.

Would it be better to take the calipers off or can I spray them on the car?

 

[Daniel M]

Looks good mate, similar to mine.

I would take the calipers off if spraying. You can paint them still on the car using a brush though.

 

[Ollie1990]

I know it probably doesn't matter too much, but do you get brush marks painting it with a brush? Is there anywhere on it I can't paint? Like inside or anything?

 

[Daniel M]

No brush marks if you use Hammerite smooth. Just try an be neat and not get any on the discs and pads.

 

[Ollie1990]

Small little touch. Stolen from the Golf design

Forgot to blank out my reg, will update this picture later.

Small red bit above Reg btw

 

[Ollie1990]

Tempted to put the red bit around the Seat badge on the back... Can always take it off after.

Tried my first vinyl wrap on some small interior pieces tonight, I'll post photos tomorrow but it's gone well and was really quite easy. Thinking of doing some more pieces now I've tried it

 

[Ollie1990]

Anyone know much about remaps? I don't know much tbh. The guy that sold me this car never mentioned anything about one, but my brother had a drive in my car the other day and he said its a hell of a lot quicker off the mark than his Scirocco, we thought they had pretty much the same engine?

 

[Ollie1990]

Ordered myself an Auto Glym car cleaning kit this week, and a Meguiar's Quik Clay Starter Kit. Planning on giving my car a decent clean next week after my new wheels are on.

 

[Ollie1990]

Also ordered some LED indicators and smoked side repeaters.
Been looking at some fly eye as well; not sure if it will make the car look too dark overall though.

 

[Ollie1990]

Painted Calipers Red

Wheels off and taken to Midas Touch in Castleford for a refurb and powder coat.

Also decided while the wheels were off to crack on with painting the Calipers.

I used Hammerite High Temperature paint.

Cleaned them up with a wire brush firstly.

Front

Back

First coat.

Front

Back

2nd coat (only remembered to take a picture of front)

Probably going to do a third coat while waiting to pick my wheels up tomorrow.
Also got my smoked side repeaters to put in later in the week.

Photos of my wheels will be posted tomorrow evening

 

[Ollie1990]

Rang up for my wheels and he's said the bead blasting isn't working on whatever is in my wheels so much...

Another day without my car I feel like I've had my legs cut off!

 

[Ollie1990]

New Wheels

The wheels were finished and look better than I expected :0

Really happy with these.

Front wheel on the Car

And the back wheel.

And a nice little picture of the car

 

[Ollie1990]

Vinyl Wrap B & C Pillars

And then on Friday I managed to Vinyl wrap my B & C Pillars.

This overall was pretty easy. The B Pillars are just 4 torque screws.

The C Pillars however...

I managed the first one fine, with very little difficulty, having to take the door card off and everything went fine, no problems with the window seal or anything.

But then on the second one, the yellow and black clip on the handle to lock pulley fell off and fell apart. I had no idea where to reattach it so I had to take the other door back apart just to compare.

What a ball ache.

But the end result looks good to me, and I really am a novice at Vinyl Wrapping. (If anyone has any tips or anything, that would be awesome, I am wanting to do some interior parts but curves and stuff are looking quite scary for vinyl wrapping atm)

Anyway, here is the end result.

B Pillar.

C Pillar.

 

[Daniel M]

Also ordered some LED indicators and smoked side repeaters.
Been looking at some fly eye as well; not sure if it will make the car look too dark overall though.

Fly eye will be fine. Check mine out as it has headlight tint on.

The wheels were finished and look better than I expected :0

Really happy with these.

Front wheel on the Car

And the back wheel.

And a nice little picture of the car

And then on Friday I managed to Vinyl wrap my B & C Pillars.

This overall was pretty easy. The B Pillars are just 4 torque screws.

The C Pillars however...

I managed the first one fine, with very little difficulty, having to take the door card off and everything went fine, no problems with the window seal or anything.

But then on the second one, the yellow and black clip on the handle to lock pulley fell off and fell apart. I had no idea where to reattach it so I had to take the other door back apart just to compare.

What a ball ache.

But the end result looks good to me, and I really am a novice at Vinyl Wrapping. (If anyone has any tips or anything, that would be awesome, I am wanting to do some interior parts but curves and stuff are looking quite scary for vinyl wrapping atm)

Anyway, here is the end result.

B Pillar.

C Pillar.

Wheels looks nice mate, would have gone slightly darker myself.

I'd like to do my pillars but hate wrapping things. I would look at some spacers next as the wheels look a little lost as standard I think.

Cars looking good though.

 

[Ollie1990]

Fly eye will be fine. Check mine out as it has headlight tint on.

Wheels looks nice mate, would have gone slightly darker myself.

I'd like to do my pillars but hate wrapping things. I would look at some spacers next as the wheels look a little lost as standard I think.

Cars looking good though.

Thanks a lot man. It's actually really nice for someone to comment every now and again
Yeah, I was reading through your RR earlier and noticed the headlight tint. Is it easy to do? How hard is it to take the bumper off?

I'm no good at wrapping to be totally honest, but for my first attempt I don't think I did too bad, the crack on the plastic on the Rear Door handle is still visible through the vinyl though, I was hoping that wouldn't show through.

Also, yeah, spacers would be a nice idea, and sounds like a simple enough job. You know if you can get FR logos on mudflaps?

I also want to look into some centre caps for the wheels, not the standard plastic ones, which are still black. Although they don't look too bad at the moment, they definitely need changing.

In the long term, wanting to get a rear diffuser and maybe a front splitter.
Definitely need to upgrade the stereo at some point too.

 

[Daniel M]

Thanks a lot man. It's actually really nice for someone to comment every now and again
Yeah, I was reading through your RR earlier and noticed the headlight tint. Is it easy to do? How hard is it to take the bumper off?

I'm no good at wrapping to be totally honest, but for my first attempt I don't think I did too bad, the crack on the plastic on the Rear Door handle is still visible through the vinyl though, I was hoping that wouldn't show through.

Also, yeah, spacers would be a nice idea, and sounds like a simple enough job. You know if you can get FR logos on mudflaps?

I also want to look into some centre caps for the wheels, not the standard plastic ones, which are still black. Although they don't look too bad at the moment, they definitely need changing.

In the long term, wanting to get a rear diffuser and maybe a front splitter.
Definitely need to upgrade the stereo at some point too.

Yeah took a while for people to start commenting on my thread when I first started it.

The headlight tint isn't the easiest of things to do as the curve of the headlight is a pain in the arse. Mine are far from perfect but will do lol. If I was to do it again I'd take the bumper off and the lights off. Bumper is really easy to get off, few screws in each wheel arch, then a few underneath and it should slide off.

Not sure on FR logo'd mudflaps, though sure you could get some stickers off eBay to put on the standard flaps.

 

[Ollie1990]

Ouch... I just looked at prices for the spacers on eBay.
How much did you pay for yours?

I never really thought about stickers on the mudflaps, nice thinking

Also, how much did you pay for your pedals?
Haha and again also, what is flocking? I was looking at your RR again, it looks like felt or something?

 

[Daniel M]

I paid £45 for mine but they were 2nd hand. Need some for the fronts now.

Pedals were £50 brand new off eBay. A guy sells them from Czech republic, but they are genuine items. i'll post the link to them when I find it again.

Flocking is what people do to dash boards in rally cars to prevent glare from the sun. Its like felt/suede to touch. Plus its different to just spraying though it is a pain to keep dust free.

 

[Ollie1990]

Ah well, payday on Friday, I'll have to hold out until then

Yeah, I do like the look of your dash but I'm a smoker and the ash flying around is hard enough to clean off the mats and stuff. Finally going to get around to using the clay this week as well!

I think I might have to spray mine though, I'd like some small red touches inside, but only small parts.