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

[grahams81]

Thanks for all the comments lads, really appreciate them all

I haven't been on here for a long time..... family / work / life but most of all money is all getting in the way, and to be honest i've had to let the car take the back seat (pardon the pun)

Being broke really does play havoc with this type of project.... that and the fact me and the missus are expecting another addition to the family next March

In the few short trips into the garage i've had over the months i've been trying to complete stuff without spending money..... this of course doesn't keep you very interested in the project as i've been jumping from one job to another when i realise i need to buy parts / materials to finish.

I have been taking pics along the way, none of which are very interesting but in the interest of keeping the thread alive i thought i best put them all together.

I tried to work out some milestones to meet to keep me going along the way.

First off i wanted to try and get the engine bay wiring finished off, so set away tidying / recovering / re-routing the wiring loom. As the turbo has a big ass 4" inlet i wanted to run the pipe to the air filter behind the headlight into the void in front of the from wheel behind the side grill of the bumper.
To do this i needed to reroute all the wiring for the fans as it normally sits in a plastic tray which takes up a lot of space -

I removed the tray and tidied it all up and recovered with new loom cover -

Once i finished off the engine bay i decided that due to the expense of the materials i'll leave building the exhaust for now..... and moved onto another free job, putting the front end of the car together -

I fitted the wings / bonnet etc -

I had to source some M8 to M6 captive nuts as the bonnet had the wrong size inserts in when it was made.

As its a fibreglass bonnet there is no means of locking the bonnet using the standard locking mechanism, so i bought these a long time ago.... dusty packet -

Deciding where to put them was quite difficult, they are flat so really need to go on a flatfish surface of the bonnet..... i hate to see them mounted on a rounded surface and you can see one end sticking up

After quite a bit of nervous measuring i had the position sorted -

Then using a dremmel proceeded to cut out the holes....which then promptly gave up the ghost half way through AGAIN (thats 4 dremmels this project has killed !!!!)
After a quick trip to Argos i had replacement sorted and cut everything out.
The best place for the holes was partly into the strengthening webs of the bonnet, so i carefully cut out recesses and had to grind the surface level.

Holey sheet -

All Done -

Really happy with the finish and the look..... because racecar

I'll hopefully update again tomorrow night, plenty more to come including outdoory shots !!!

Thanks again for all the comments and support.

Graham.

 

[S33RY M]

Congratulations on the future addition to the family
Pleased your still plodding on with the build


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[staceys3]

Congrats on the new addition on the way.

Had started to worry thinking you'd sold up and moved on!

Glad to see that your still continuing and know exactly where your coming from with the time and money with a growing family but I'm sure you'll keep chipping away till its done

 

[Kibby]

well this thread made my day in work very counter productive, but very very productive for me hahahaha thank you,

 

[grahams81]

Thanks guys

Next update -

My next milestone was to get the car back on its wheels as it'd been up on the chassis dollies for the best part of a year.....maybe even longer it's easy to loose count when the project is into it's fifth year

One of the main reasons was i wanted to see how the car sat and to see if the motorsport 17" wheels i bought were gonna look too small...

I started off buy finding a new set of 256mm vented rear discs, brand new genuine ones for £20 offof good old eBay (they were cheap as they were only listed with the part number and no description for what models they fitted.... Bonus !!!

For the fronts i still haven't bought a brake kit (far too expensive for the time being) so i fitted some 312mm discs that i had lying around the garage (bought them for the misses Golf 4 motion but found there was nothing wrong with them)
These are just temporary until i buy a big brake kit.

I dug the wheels out of the shed and tried one on.... oh poo they didn't fit, the inside of the rim was catching the adjusting nuts of the coilovers -

So i ordered some spacers and studs -

Put the studs in with a dab of loctite on the threads -

And stuck the discs back on -

The slid the spacers on -

While i was waiting for spacers to show up i made a start on stripping the rear brake callipers and cleaning them up.....

Before -

After, ready for a lick of paint -

I need to order a seal kit and new pistons for the rear callipers, the carriers are also in poor condition so i might splash out later on and buy a new set. So i set them to the side and carried on with "operation back on its feet"

The following weekend i fitted all the wheels and decided to start lowering it down off the dollies.
It took a long time to remove the stands as it was actually too high for my trolley jack and because it was up against one side of the garage i had to work under neath to access the passenger side... so i wasn't taking any chances with safety.

I slowly lowered the car completely peg by peg (on the dolly stands as they are adjustable)
Until i got the car low enough to support it using axle stands. The removed the dollies.

A few hours later i had the car back on it's wheels without being squashed underneath it and without any damage

A few weeks passed and i got a pass out from the wife for a day in the garage for good behaviour....

So i pushed the car out into the sunlight -

Face-off -

Dropped the front end bits back on (just dropped on nothing lined up properly yet) -

Still undecided on the wheels, they might look better with some bigger wide rubber on to fill out the arches more, but one of them has a flat spot on the inner rim... might just bite the bullet and source some 18's for it.

Popped the bonnet to see how it looked in the real light of day -

Complete with ghetto bonnet stay

I was shocked when i looked back at the pictures... the down pipe is 3" put looks tiny coming out of the turbo.
The reason i stopped with the exhaust was because i'm not happy with just a 3" exhaust, i'm going to try and build a bigger one... but thats for the future when the funds allow.

Next up i decided to crack on with the electrics / interior and put the dooryards on the drivers side, they are the original LC ones so grey plastic at the bottoms.... gonna get a set of black LCR ones eventually but the LC ones will do for now -

A few more weeks / months of working away halted progress for a while... then i started off again a few weeks back. I finished off repairing the interior wiring loom and fixing it back into position. Also wired in some seat airbag resistors and removed the electric seat wires / fuses then coiled the airbag wires up under the dash.

Midway through -

Cables all tidied and mounted, handbrake / fuel cap switch cables have been rerouted since this photo to run along the top of the centre tunnel. I also mounted the airbag crash sensor to the seat rails.

I then measured up and drilled the mountings for the drivers seat.... not easy as the "fatty" race seats i picked are quite wide and only just fit between the centre console and the drivers side wing is touching the B pillar plastic cover.

I can't drill the passenger side yet as i don't have a second seat..... more on my to buy list

New plugs fitted to the floor in preparation for fitting the carpet -

Trimmed back the edging trim to clear the roll cage -

Fits nice -

Then i cut the carpet up and placed the driver side part in, i've got no sound insulation in at the moment.... i'll see what it's like first, if it's unbearable i'll pull the carpet up and add some.

Still got to source a new gear knob, and get rid of those pedals (i've got a set of LCR ones to go in)

I'm planning on cracking on with the interior a bit more.... next time i get a free "pass"... god knows when that'll be.

So that's all up to date so far...thanks for reading, and any comments.

Cheers,

Graham.

 

[Kibby]

My God hahaha you don't do things in half's. Have you a desired time frame to turn the engine over? Sorry if I missed you already did it

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[grahams81]

Lol yeah it was 2012..... whoops missed that date nope not happened yet.

Just asap, but realistically the project is now a when funds allow project, with some expensive parts still to buy i can imagine it'll be another year or two before it's complete....

 

[Kibby]

Is it bad that I don't want it to end hahahaha its like breaking bad all over again I want to see how it turns out but I don't want to see it end hahaha

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[grahams81]

Thanks for all the comments, much appreciated as always.

Update - The Future.....isn't bright or Orange.

I have been on and off on this for so long now, nearly thrown the towel in a couple of times.... but due to the support i've had on the forums (mostly this one) i stuck at it, i reality i shouldn't have started it.... or not let myself get carried away with crazy plans.

Over the last few years i've been hoping / expecting my work would slow down a bit and result in more time at home, unfortunately the exact opposite has happened and i'm now spending increasing amounts of time away.... sometimes a few weeks at a time then home for a day or two then back away for a few weeks, it sucks

Also when i started this project i had no kids, plenty of time at home and a wife that didn't mind me spending plenty of time spannering away in the garage till the early hours every weekend... Fast forward and i now have a son who's 4 years old, a wife who's about to drop our second, and quite frankly when i come home from a week or two away the only thing i want to do is spend time with the family.

I'm sick of having this project hanging over me now so with a heavy heart i have to announce that it's going the distance and i'm moving on from this project.

The only silver lining is that the project will be finished, albeit different to how i've planned but finished never the less....

A friend has showed great enthusiasm to take the project on and he has much more time on his hands to complete it so hopefully you should all see it on the road one day.
I have all my confidence in this guy to do a sterling job on it - he has massive amounts of passion towards it, so i'm happy it's going to be in safe hands.

He's buying the car as is but minus the engine / gearbox etc... so all the go faster parts will be available real soon, i'll try and get some classifieds together.

Please don't ask for parts in this thread, i don't want it deleting / locking.

Hopefully the new owner will update this thread along the way or start his own.

Thanks as always, you've all been great....

So long,

Graham.

 

[S33RY M]

Good luck with your future plans and projects. And child number 2
It been a journey

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[Kibby]

Well made decision. Sorry that you didn't get to see it finished in your way. On to the next thing. Bigger and better ( and hopefully not as time consuming for you ) best of luck buddy

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[Ronin225]

Sad news indeed mate but realistically this is only a hobby at the end of the day
Im sure later in life when things have settled a bit the time will come for another project
I think many including myself would like to say thank you for such an in depth information and help this thread has offered to people over the years
PS i'll be in touch about shiny bits

 

[grahams81]

Thanks for the kind words guys, much appreciated.

I'm happy I'm making the right decision, especially with the fact it's still gonna get completed and i'll see it through its final build with its new owner.

 

[grahams81]

Classified add, is now in listing parts with prices, still to be cleared but keep an eye out.
Cheers and sorry for the shameless plug

 

[BH17DNB]

Sorry that you didn't get to finish it. Time will come for a project in the future. Real life comes first.
I want to thank you for this thread. Your thread was my biggest inspiration in doing my 4wd swap.
Once again I thank you and have a good one!

 

[matt g]

Fair enough graham.

Good luck for the second squarker.

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[grahams81]

Sorry that you didn't get to finish it. Time will come for a project in the future. Real life comes first.
I want to thank you for this thread. Your thread was my biggest inspiration in doing my 4wd swap.
Once again I thank you and have a good one!

Thanks mate, have you finished your 4wd conversion?

Fair enough graham.

Good luck for the second squarker.

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Cheers Buddy

 

[m0rk]

Bad times Graham, but I know that feeling of never having time.

Just look away when it's towed away

 

[BH17DNB]

Thanks mate, have you finished your 4wd conversion?



Cheers Buddy

The mechanical part yes. Still have to wire up the haldex, finish the exhaust and get an alignment. But the hard parts are over.
Thanks!

 

[Pimped up vario]

Wife and weans fairly keep you busy. You've done better than me anyway. I just about got servicing my wagan last week. Your thread will be porused many times more I'm sure as I have an 1.8t c5 a6 to tune as well.