Sundays are for shopping
A little progress on the restoration today, whilst I have the front offside brake caliper off I decided to pull the disc off too, and then the brake shield. The brake shield has been clean, the surface rust rubbed down and treated with zinc primer followed by a coat of black hammerite. Did I mention I like shiny things? It looks much better bolted back into place.
The disc had a little surface rust on, but nothing a good rub down with wet and dry couldn't put right. They are actually in very good condition, probably new before the car was laid up. The disc measures up as 10.2 mm thick. Minimum thickness is 8mm, maximum when new is 10mm - go figure. With a few days use I'm sure they'll clean themselves up to full shininess - I like shiny.
Sundays are for shopping though aren't they? People go to B&Q or the garden centre on Sundays. I thought maybe we could give shopping a try - shopping of a car related type. Let me explain. When Thomas decided he wanted a Polo Breadvan for this 17th birthday we started the search immediatley, trawling ebay and autotrader, local websites and post office ads. Then his mate introduced him to a workmate called Matt who had a breadvan stowed away in his garage, a stalled project that had come off the road some three or four years earier. We went to see it just before Christmas but it was, putting it politely, a long term project. It was basically a shell, with the engine and gearbox, and steering box loosely hanging in. The rear wings had been cut out for rust repair and it need a complete respray and rebuild. It's one redeeming feature was a very good, slightly grubby interior, already stripped out, which would, we were assured, respond well to a good clean. Matt was keen to sell it as a whole though, and with the price and the work too much I turned it down and continued the search.
The search took us eventually to Leicester, were we looked at an '88 in white, in need of some extensive rust repairs and a respray before we found our car in Loughborough last weekend. Whilst the body is straight and largely rust free the interior has suffered from standing in the sun, the seat coverings had started to disintegrate and the bolsters had lost all form. The drivers side door card had also delaminated. Options considered included replacing the seats with newer modern equivalents and removing the trim from the door cards and spraying them with flock paint - both would destroy the period charm of the Polo but at least it would look smart and be useable.
It was while I was painting the brake splash shield that Thomas announced he had persuaded Matt to sell us the decent interior from his stalled project. Good news indeed. His car is an '89 whilst ours is an '82, but everything is basically the same - except the seatbelts, which we'll come to.
So, like everyone else on Sunday afternoon we went shopping. £200 sounds a lot of money to spend on used car parts, but it is all original stuff. That sum bought us carpets, front and rear seats, and a parcel shelf, a good one without speaker holes cut in it, the door cards, a piece of roofing trim which had broken into bits on ours, and a decent unbroken glovebox. Our car is a poverty spec version, so only had an offside door mirror, but we also secured a nearside mirror, plus a centre console and a neat little five cassette storage box which will look great under the period stereo cassette deck. Also thrown in was a pair of decent sun visors - ours had cleaned up great, but the plastic fittings had gone brittle, rendering them pretty much useless.
After chatting cars with Matt for an hour or so it was time to load up the Vectra, our purchases filling the boot with the rear seats folded down. Much better value than a pot plant and a shelving unit. Matt himself is a classic car nut, with a VW surf van, a Mk4 Polo and a 1990's Mercedes sharing space on his driveway. As well as being a welder/fabricator he is also an old school pinstriper, with great examples of his craft adorning his garage and garden. He has promised to laser cut a repair panel for our rotted battery tray in the plenum chamber area of the Polo, which Jacob, Thomas's mate will then weld into place. A quick snapshot of Matts battery tray area should provide sufficient to replicate and draw up the panel. That will make the Polo watertight once more.
This evening then has been just a few odd jobs - fitting the door mirror, removing the old seats and cleaning ready for the new to go in. Thomas isn't sure about the fabric of the new seats, he doesn't think they go with the burgundy metalwork exposed inside, but I think once they are in they'll look great. We also got the roof trim fitted to the offside guttering - that makes it look much better.
Tomorrow it's back to the brakes.
The disc had a little surface rust on, but nothing a good rub down with wet and dry couldn't put right. They are actually in very good condition, probably new before the car was laid up. The disc measures up as 10.2 mm thick. Minimum thickness is 8mm, maximum when new is 10mm - go figure. With a few days use I'm sure they'll clean themselves up to full shininess - I like shiny.
The search took us eventually to Leicester, were we looked at an '88 in white, in need of some extensive rust repairs and a respray before we found our car in Loughborough last weekend. Whilst the body is straight and largely rust free the interior has suffered from standing in the sun, the seat coverings had started to disintegrate and the bolsters had lost all form. The drivers side door card had also delaminated. Options considered included replacing the seats with newer modern equivalents and removing the trim from the door cards and spraying them with flock paint - both would destroy the period charm of the Polo but at least it would look smart and be useable.
It was while I was painting the brake splash shield that Thomas announced he had persuaded Matt to sell us the decent interior from his stalled project. Good news indeed. His car is an '89 whilst ours is an '82, but everything is basically the same - except the seatbelts, which we'll come to.
So, like everyone else on Sunday afternoon we went shopping. £200 sounds a lot of money to spend on used car parts, but it is all original stuff. That sum bought us carpets, front and rear seats, and a parcel shelf, a good one without speaker holes cut in it, the door cards, a piece of roofing trim which had broken into bits on ours, and a decent unbroken glovebox. Our car is a poverty spec version, so only had an offside door mirror, but we also secured a nearside mirror, plus a centre console and a neat little five cassette storage box which will look great under the period stereo cassette deck. Also thrown in was a pair of decent sun visors - ours had cleaned up great, but the plastic fittings had gone brittle, rendering them pretty much useless.
After chatting cars with Matt for an hour or so it was time to load up the Vectra, our purchases filling the boot with the rear seats folded down. Much better value than a pot plant and a shelving unit. Matt himself is a classic car nut, with a VW surf van, a Mk4 Polo and a 1990's Mercedes sharing space on his driveway. As well as being a welder/fabricator he is also an old school pinstriper, with great examples of his craft adorning his garage and garden. He has promised to laser cut a repair panel for our rotted battery tray in the plenum chamber area of the Polo, which Jacob, Thomas's mate will then weld into place. A quick snapshot of Matts battery tray area should provide sufficient to replicate and draw up the panel. That will make the Polo watertight once more.
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| The booty from our shopping trip - well some of it. seats just need a good clean. |
Tomorrow it's back to the brakes.
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