Long awaited update?
Some of you are probably wondering why I've not updated this for just over three months. I won't bore you with details, but as you probably know Max Power closed down in December. The announcement went out two weeks, to the day, after I dropped the car at Perkins and so we took the decision to leave it be until I knew where I was and what I was doing job wise.
New year, new start. I'm now freelance, writing for a wide range of mags (my first PVW feature is on the shelves at the moment) and so I've decided to get the project moving again. Unfortunately I don't have the internet at home (STILL) so I've tagged this update onto a little McDonald's WiFi leeching session.
Now some of you may be wondering why I'm refreshing my car. It's hardly a wreck.
Well, I've spent most of the last five years sorting the way it goes and handles. In the meantime, while I've hardly neglected the bodywork, it's become an old car. It'll be 20 in June! I had a quick respray back in 2004, which gave it a new lease of life, but as a cheap job the bodyshop masked around the windows, vinyl and bodykit instead of stripping it. That's fine, it didn't need much more than that at the time, but it's always bothered me that there are a few visible masking lines on the car.
But in the meantime it's spent time in a wet garage while I was getting press cars, picked up lots of stone chips and the paint has gone flat in a few areas. So it really wanted a tidy up.
Yesterday, I started the process of stripping the car. Now, before anyone comments, yes it is filthy. It's been sat inside a bodyshop overnight for the last 3 months, wheeled in and out to make room for customers' cars. Hence the mud and the dust.
The easiest place to start was removing the plastic trim. I've had the arches off before, back in 2001 when I lowered the car on its original Spax kit, but the rub strips and sill trims were still as they left the factory. So I spent yesterday afternoon carefully removing these, they need to go back on afterwards. And the relief is, all four arches have only light surface rust (coming from the rivet holes). A chunk of paint came off with the front passenger side arch but that's it. Bear in mind this is the original, untouched, 20 year old paint underneath.
The bit I was really dreading was the sill trims but it's the same story under there, all solid. A big relief, as I've seen a few Polos rotting badly here.
The area behind the filler neck is solid (despite the compost I found back there) and the bottom of the doors haven't gone either. The worst bit of rust I've uncovered so far is this, under the trim on the passenger side rear quarter, and there's some more in the boot on the suspension turret. I'm assured both are an easy fix though.
Removing traces of trim tape and the stuff I used to bond the arches on took most of yesterday afternoon so that's all I've got to report. I'm back next week for the next step - removing the windows, door handles and the rest of the trim. It's pretty much all bolt-off stuff from here, so no more gunk to remove.
The windscreen will be interesting. My A pillars were solid until I had my windscreen replaced, but they've since bubbled up. The seal is FULL of sealant (which actually stops it working properly) so we're going to cut it out and fit a new one. The rubber seals which go along the bottom of the door windows will be replaced too, as they're a bit shitty.
More next week!