I've been on here a while now & thought I'd get round to making a Readers Ride thread for my Leon.
I've had it since around June 2012. Bought it from a friend who runs his own auto-mechanic company so it had been well looked after - underneath anyway!
I'd initially gone to see him for advice on viewing an Ibiza FR & ended up buying this. A much better purchase I think.
How it sat when I had a look at it:
It had hit a deer a few weeks before, damaging the offside wing, destroying the mirror & leaving a few deep scratches in the paintwork. The wing was repaired as part of the purchase.
Underneath the car was sound. Standard throughout, 66k on the clock with the cambelt changed at 65k.
It has been quite a slow project. Between keeping this on the road & having a flat, my first year apprentice wages took a bit of a pounding
My main objective was to tidy the car up with smaller items at first before moving onto bigger hardware when funds allow. But just driving the car has been so much fun so I've been really happy with it.
New boot badge.
Fabia rear wiper
Fitted a replacement "teardrop" mirror in place of the temporary Golf item.
Gave the car a machine polish not long after purchase too, which gave results similar to this all over the car. This was the rear bumper before/after.
As you can see the tarnishing on the Starfish alloys is terrible in the pictures & I tried a number of things to sort that including a fallout remover which worked slightly, polishing by hand and finally went all-out & wetsanded all of them.
Before/After wetsanding.
The process involved cleaning, wetsanding with 1500 grit paper, and smoothing by hand with 3 progressively finer compounds of cutter/polish.
Also painted all 4 callipers red that weekend, along with fitting pressed aluminium plates.
So having put so much time into essentially refurbishing the Starfish wheels, I went & changed them
Trial fitting an RS6 rep.
And got them fitted with Seat centre caps a couple of months later after new tyres aswell.
Decided to fit a new induction and settled on a twin cone from Auto Silicone Hoses.
Perhaps should have been done a while before now
A much throatier noise on acceleration now, and the usual boost sounds when changing gear/releasing the throttle.
That's me pretty much up to date now, the only thing to add is that I've got a small bit of paint repair to do at some point as some
drove into the car last Saturday night as it parked outside my flat and drove away without leaving a note.
Only a bit of cosmetic damage, but I'm still to give it a proper check for the bumper hangers now etc. Still very annoying as it's extra & un-necessary work for me to do.
I've got most of the supplies either bought or ordered to carry-out that repair work now, along with new spark plugs, oil, a new filter & a magnetic sump plug for an oil change.
Plans are to get it through the MOT at New Year & by then I may be in a position to lower it. I think there's a problem with the o/s/f spring so that may happen before the MOT, killing 2 birds with one stone.
I'm really happy with how the car has been so far. Much more expensive to run than my old Fiesta but it's also been a good learning curve in more ways than one.
I'll update with progress as & when it happens.
Cheers, Jason.
I've had it since around June 2012. Bought it from a friend who runs his own auto-mechanic company so it had been well looked after - underneath anyway!
I'd initially gone to see him for advice on viewing an Ibiza FR & ended up buying this. A much better purchase I think.
How it sat when I had a look at it:
It had hit a deer a few weeks before, damaging the offside wing, destroying the mirror & leaving a few deep scratches in the paintwork. The wing was repaired as part of the purchase.
Underneath the car was sound. Standard throughout, 66k on the clock with the cambelt changed at 65k.
It has been quite a slow project. Between keeping this on the road & having a flat, my first year apprentice wages took a bit of a pounding
My main objective was to tidy the car up with smaller items at first before moving onto bigger hardware when funds allow. But just driving the car has been so much fun so I've been really happy with it.
New boot badge.
Fabia rear wiper
Fitted a replacement "teardrop" mirror in place of the temporary Golf item.
Gave the car a machine polish not long after purchase too, which gave results similar to this all over the car. This was the rear bumper before/after.
As you can see the tarnishing on the Starfish alloys is terrible in the pictures & I tried a number of things to sort that including a fallout remover which worked slightly, polishing by hand and finally went all-out & wetsanded all of them.
Before/After wetsanding.
The process involved cleaning, wetsanding with 1500 grit paper, and smoothing by hand with 3 progressively finer compounds of cutter/polish.
Also painted all 4 callipers red that weekend, along with fitting pressed aluminium plates.
So having put so much time into essentially refurbishing the Starfish wheels, I went & changed them
Trial fitting an RS6 rep.
And got them fitted with Seat centre caps a couple of months later after new tyres aswell.
Decided to fit a new induction and settled on a twin cone from Auto Silicone Hoses.
Perhaps should have been done a while before now
A much throatier noise on acceleration now, and the usual boost sounds when changing gear/releasing the throttle.
That's me pretty much up to date now, the only thing to add is that I've got a small bit of paint repair to do at some point as some
drove into the car last Saturday night as it parked outside my flat and drove away without leaving a note.
Only a bit of cosmetic damage, but I'm still to give it a proper check for the bumper hangers now etc. Still very annoying as it's extra & un-necessary work for me to do.
I've got most of the supplies either bought or ordered to carry-out that repair work now, along with new spark plugs, oil, a new filter & a magnetic sump plug for an oil change.
Plans are to get it through the MOT at New Year & by then I may be in a position to lower it. I think there's a problem with the o/s/f spring so that may happen before the MOT, killing 2 birds with one stone.
I'm really happy with how the car has been so far. Much more expensive to run than my old Fiesta but it's also been a good learning curve in more ways than one.
I'll update with progress as & when it happens.
Cheers, Jason.
