Post Lockdown update.

Lockdown brought our restoration of the Polo grinding to a halt. With only a few jobs remaining we were stymied by the heater tube that bolts up behind the water pump and supplies the main coolant to the radiator with take offs for the heater. 38 years, 12 of them standing around doing nothing had rotted out the original tube and when we had to pull it to take the starter off to swap the gearbox it disintegrated. A search of the internet revealed this part is obsolete and unavailable new. Chances of one turning up in a scrap yard were minimal too- when did you last see an '82 Polo in the scrappy? Luckily Thomas has a friend Jacob, who is a trainee welder/fabricator, and he agreed to take on the project. So we handed him the remains of the old pipe as a template and promptly the entire country went into lockdown. With no steel suppliers open the project was on hold.

On hold unitl yesterday, when Jacob arrived with a viable part - in mild steel, not the stainless steel he'd promised, but he's working on that - call this one a prototype. It will do for now until the stainless steel arrives and once that is fitted it should last indefinitely. 

The part fits, but is a little too close tot he starter motor, so the bends aren't quite right. The tube has been bent by hand so the bends are a bit approximate, but when the stainless one is made a proper tube bender will be used and it should be a perfect fit. I've suggested Jacob makes a pattern template and makes a few of these, as I can forseee a market for them - if ours rusted out how many other elderly Polos will be in need of one too? It would be a shame to see cars scrapped for want of a relatively simple part like this.

Anyway, fitting it involves removing the inlet manifold and fuel pump to gain access, which meant making up paper gaskets for everything to refit it. With a smear of silicone everything is now nicely sealed - except the pipe which had a tiny seep which sealed itself once the engine had run warm.

With everything refitted we tried to start the car only to find out that the little bit of fuel we had put in had evaporated during the Coronavirus lockdown. With a fresh gallon in and a lot of cranking, and a little help from some carb cleaner the mighty Polo bellowed into life - and I mean bellowed - a big backfire blew the back box off the main pipe. Why was she running so roughly? Well somehow we had the plug leads mixed up, but with them put right she ran a lot better. She doesn't want to tick over though, she'll run nicely on choke but not tickover - A carb overhaul might be in order once we sort everything else. Nor did she like her fresh antifreeze, as she began to spew it out of the top of the radiator. Inspection shows a crack near the mounting at the header tank. Had she been a Mk1 she'd have had an old fashioned brass radiator, but as a Mk2 she has a plastic one, so not easily repairable. I have effected repairs on plastic radiators using plastic welding or araldite but I think she deserves better. Add a new radiator into the repair budget.

The success of starting was bitter sweet. Engaging a gear meant that she could drive under her own power for the first time in 12 years......but the clutch bite is right at the top of the pedal travel. A new clutch is needed. This was a risk I took when I put the replacement gearbox on. No doubt someone will say I told you so, becasue all expert advice is while you have the gearbox off put a new clutch in. A visible inspection of the clutch plate at the time showed it had plenty of meat left on it, and as the car has only done 67000 miles and we were on a budget I decided to risk it. Well, it's only time I need it's not as if I'm paying for labour, so I'll just pull the gearbox and put clutch in - piece of cake. Add a clutch kit to the parts order.

Final job today then was to adjust the handbrake so it works. I'm not sure why it didn't get adjusted when we did the brakes but it's done now.

A further development since my last update is my pending retirement. Although it seems far off in late October, shiftwork, annual leave and back rest days owed mean I only have 27 working days left, so I sort of entering semi-retirement from today. With the little red Polo now nearing completion, and the Focus ST170 project almost completed too I am finding myself browsing the internet for another Polo project. It seems they are addictive.