Author Topic: Doug's G40 - December 2004 to date  (Read 20602 times)

Offline SpikeyG40

  • Members
  • *****
  • Posts: 77
Doug's G40 - December 2004 to date
« on: October 22, 2009, 07:02:16 pm »
I've recently been writing a progress thread for my polo, so thought what better place to add it.   I am still writing the story so i will update it as i go along, eventaully ending up at present day.  A pic of my polo can be found in the random G40 picture thread incase your too eager to wait and see what it looks like now :)

December 2004 – The initial description and viewing

Found the advert on ClubG40 which was as follows:
Red G40. J reg, 86000 miles. Two owners from new. Some history, all MOTs. No problems. Wonderful car. 4 door required for new family. Photos to follow.
£2500
My initial thoughts were it was a little out of my price range, but the millage was good, it had some history and had “No Problems”

After a conversation with the owner and a few questions, I was emailed some pictures, which showed its true condition.









She looked like she had had a tough few years previous, the paint was very dull and she was quite grubby.  But, she was original with all the orange indicators, G40 grill badge.  She was missing the rear G40 badge which was damaged when a van bumped the back.  The only thing VW could replace it with was a GT badge.

So from this point, I decided to go and have a look, the car was based in east London so not to much of a trip.   So dad and I jumped on the train and went up one weekend.   We were met at the tube station by the current owners who were very friendly.  Once back at there place, they supplied us with much required cuppa.  Dad and I had a long look around the car.  The paint was very shabby and a pinky orange, the bumpers were faded and the wheels lightly curbed and grubby.  The engine bay was in a word, filthy.  Turning the key over did not fill me with joy either.  An unusual clunking noise was heard at idle and we expected the worst, the charger bearings.  However, after a little while, the noise stopped, but we kept this in mind.   Looking round the car, we also found the remains of an alarm hanging from the dash in the foot well.  Apart from that, the interior was in ni on mint condition, a small fag burn on the rear seat was the only disappointment.   One thing the did catch my eye was the millage, it wasn’t the previously stated 86k, it was infact under 67k.  the car had also had a dealer fitted sunroof which was colour coded, a rare option which was beneficial to me as with factory fitted sunroofs, you loose a couple of inches headroom.  As I am 6ft 5, that isn’t an option.  Another plus point, a suspected fuel leak turned out not to be the fuel tank neck, but a small bit of pipe to the fuel pump.   Further inspection found water in the boot, suspected to be perhaps from the shunt it had had in the past, but the repair work looks good, so that was going to be one to think about.  So, some pictures from that evening.













Leaving that evening, I was undecided on what to do, the car was no where near worth as much as they were asking, but the car was genuine, in original condition, and hadn’t been toyed with, like a previous one I had looked at.   She had a few months MOT left, and a few months tax.  I knew if I were to go ahead and buy the car, she’d need to come off the road for a period of time to sort all the issues.   I costed up everything I thought that was required to make the car “a good runner” and went back to the owners with a price of £1600.   They had a thought and came back to me with £1800.

The deal was done, and the car was mine.   I just had to wait till after Christmas.  But it wasn’t until late January 2005 until I was able to collect the car and drive a G40 for the first time.

Offline MartinB

  • Members
  • *****
  • Posts: 286
Re: Doug's G40 - December 2004 to date
« Reply #1 on: October 25, 2009, 11:58:31 pm »
Good read that, fairly decent price too :)

Offline SpikeyG40

  • Members
  • *****
  • Posts: 77
Re: Doug's G40 - December 2004 to date
« Reply #2 on: November 03, 2009, 08:45:24 am »
It was another cold winters morning in January sitting on the train, armed with a cheque in one hand and a bag of tools, oil, anti-freeze and other “just in case” items, that my dad and I made the trip up to collect the car.

A previous petrol leak had been sorted and the keys were ready to hand over.  We arrived and were welcomed by another cup of tea which is always nice.  The paperwork was ready to be signed and sorted.  It was at this point we realised the car had actually had 5 owners from new.  The cheque was handed over and I finally had the keys to my G40. 

Dad and I went outside and immediately started checking over the car for the 70 mile trip home.   Tyre pressures were checked, anti-freeze was topped up, oil was topped up as there was next to nothing in her.   It still hadn’t sunk in that I was the owner of this car, and the relationship didn’t start well, I stalled her 3 times just backing up to get out of the space.  Thankfully I knew what that was.  I had come across the joys of the self adjusting clutch in my last polo, so that was something to add to the ever growing list of new parts.   The rest of the trip home was without fault, the odd putting it into fifth instead of third occurred, but that was me not being used to having an extra gear.  We got home for lunch and I admired the car sitting on the drive next to my other polo.

To get the car home, I needed a weeks insurance, so I carefully used her for that week and enjoyed every minute of it.  The power was strong and she was boosting well, but I wasn’t giving her the full beans for the worry of the condition of that G-Lader.   Once the week was up, it was time to start the work.

I initially started by attempting to restore the paintwork using Auto Glym Colour restorer and polish, and to be honest, I was amazed at the results.

Dull paint untouched by polish it what I reckon was a couple of years



And the results on the wing





I had also started buying a few bits and piece for the sleeper look



My plans at this time were simple, firstly, get the car back on the road, with a few minor aesthetical changes, then the major changes could take place to make a stylish and simple street sleeper.
Major work started on the interior and the wiring.  I planned to remove all the speakers, speaker wiring, stereo and alarm ready for all new items.

Remains of the old alarm


Stereo wiring


Random cut wire in the boot which suggests that at some stage in its life, the polo had actually had a toe bar.


Alarm wiring out


Stereo and speakers and other random items out


Doing the proper thing – labelling the wires


My plans for the stereo were to install an MP3 head unit, uprated wiring, 6x9’s in the parcel shelf (Nabbed from the other polo), uprated front speakers which fitted in the original holes and a CD changer in the boot which I had already bought and never fitted to my other polo.

Every evening after work I would be outside doing a bit more polishing and bit by bit, she started to bring back her full colour but it was now time to tackle those original BBS RA’s.



After eventually getting them off, we were pleased to find plenty of meat left on the brakes, but they were in need of a good clean







A good job jobbed in my opinion.  And a few general pictures of her current state at the time.









It was nearly time to start some engine work.

Offline LeonL

  • Members
  • *****
  • Posts: 453
Re: Doug's G40 - December 2004 to date
« Reply #3 on: December 07, 2009, 07:44:46 pm »
Great read...

Whens this engine stuff start then? ;)

Offline SpikeyG40

  • Members
  • *****
  • Posts: 77
Re: Doug's G40 - December 2004 to date
« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2009, 08:55:14 pm »
The list of jobs for the engine

Cambelt
Oil change
Antifreeze change
Supercharger rebuild
Auxiliary belts change
Rocker cover gasket replacement
Air Filter replacement

Well that was the plan anyway.  First job would be the cambelt.  On removing the cambelt, the reason for all the noise on start up became clear……















The lower cambelt cover had undone itself and had been fowling on the belt.  The belt was slack and had been rubbing on the covers, and the belt had 5 teeth missing with several more “peeling” off.   You could say this car is very lucky to still have a working engine.

So after a few more bits were ordered, and a few more pennys spent, it was time to but her all back together.  The cambelt was completed along with a new water pump.  The charger was visually inspected and all seemed well.  A K&N panel filter was fitted to help the engine breath a bit.  A slight sprucing up of the engine bay was completed and all looked good, a far better image than when I picked her up.









Worked continued on the car visually while waiting for bits to arrive to put the engine back together.

Removal of the “Special” stickers.


A couple more interior shots which by now had be out completely for cleaning.







Work on cleaning up the wheels continued, not without hiccups, they didn’t come off that easy.





Offline Daryl

  • Members
  • *****
  • Posts: 122
Re: Doug's G40 - December 2004 to date
« Reply #5 on: December 09, 2009, 08:15:19 pm »
Great thread.

Very lucky that cam belt did not snap.

Offline SpikeyG40

  • Members
  • *****
  • Posts: 77
Re: Doug's G40 - December 2004 to date
« Reply #6 on: December 29, 2009, 06:55:51 pm »
She was nearing completion.  Just a few more jobs to complete and I would be happy to put her through the MOT.  All the engine work was complete.  The charger sounded good so didn’t need rebuilding yet.

Stereo install was completed with New Sony MP3 Headunit.









I had also had central locking and a new all singing, all dancing alarm fitted to the girl



The exterior work had just about been completed too. All panels had been washed, colour restored and polished.  I also fitted the half smoked rear lights from my other polo













Day before the MOT 23rd April 2005, the car had her final clean before she would see the road once more…..and what happens?  She gets shat on, and not just a little bit….



She needed washing all over again! Oh well, not to worry.

So the day of the MOT was a very nervous day for me.  IIRC I think I had college that day.  It was one of the longest days I can remember. But…………………..SHE PASSED!!! With flying colours, no issues in the slightest.  I was so pleased and couldn’t wait to get home and go for a spin.   A pick from that night.



She drove like a dream and was amazing to get into after driving the 1 litre around for so long, knowing that I had a G40 and couldn’t use it.  She boosted well and sounded awesome, you couldn’t wipe the smile off my face, the G smiles as anyone who has driven a G knows.











Of course, the story doesn’t end there, that was over four years ago now, and there was still plenty more to be doing.

Offline SpikeyG40

  • Members
  • *****
  • Posts: 77
Re: Doug's G40 - December 2004 to date
« Reply #7 on: December 29, 2009, 07:17:20 pm »
After a couple of months of trouble free driving and lots of G-smiles, it became clear that something needed to be done about the tyres.  After some unexpected oversteer on a roundabout, I thought it best to go about upgrading the tyres from the old budget ones that were found on the front and the probably original rears.  After much much thought, I decided to go for Toyo CF1’s.  A good all rounder with great quality and at an affordable price.











Meanwhile, a worth while interior upgrade occurred……



A month or so passed, I had decided the wheels were starting to look a bit shabby, and didn’t suit the nice new tyres.  So a change onto some 1 litre steel wheels (thanks for the loan Dan!) and the original BBS’ were off to Lepsons in Gillingham for a good seeing to. 
















A week passed and a few mm of tread missing from the Steelies, (oops) I went and picked up the wheels.  They looked good as new.   







The wheels stayed off the car until the Day before the VW expo at the hopfarm, Paddock wood.  Also while the wheels were away, I had the front bumper off to mesh the lower grill as the radiator and intercooler were a bit grubby.  It was quite clear this car had had a tough life at some point…..








And with a little extra something off Ebay……..



……………..She was ready for the show.













Offline Puncharado

  • Members
  • *****
  • Posts: 446
  • Back on the road in 2010! No, 2011! Maybe.
Re: Doug's G40 - December 2004 to date
« Reply #8 on: December 29, 2009, 07:35:17 pm »
That's looking really nice Doug, it almost makes me regret modding my car!

Offline SpikeyG40

  • Members
  • *****
  • Posts: 77
Re: Doug's G40 - December 2004 to date
« Reply #9 on: December 29, 2009, 09:04:41 pm »
Something had been bugging me since I bought the car…….those stripes.  They just seemed to look so out of place in my opinion.  But I knew it wouldn’t be an easy job to remove them.  If they were, they’d have been gone ages ago.   The reason this wasn’t going to be an easy job was that on two panels, the stripes had been painted on.  All I can imagine was that the stripes were stuck on but the car had a respray on the passenger side wing and door, but as they couldn’t get the stickers, someone very talented was able to paint the stripes back on.  It matched perfectly and you wouldn’t have known until you touched it.

I knew what had to be done, so a couple of evenings one week, I went at them with some extremely fine wet and dry.  Masking of the area around, I carefully sanded off the paint.  I was very pleased with how the job went, slightly scary taking sandpaper to your paint, but it was well worth the worry.  Then all that was left was to remove the stickered stripes.



























Another job on the list was a front wheel bearing.  It had been wurring for sometime but because its not one of the easiest jobs on a polo, it had been put off.   But one Saturday we tackled it.  The whole suspension strut had to come out.























The bearing could be removed but we didn’t have the equipment to put the new bearing in, so the job had to stop there. So I used the time to tidy up the calliper, painting it red.

I couldn’t be long without my car, it was my only form of transport and I needed to get to college with it on the Wednesday.  So the Monday night, in the dark, we set up lights and worked to get it done and back on the ground.  The suspension needed time to settle before we torqued everything up. (if you ever see a polo with a high nose, they probably tightened everything up while on the jacks).   The car was back on the ground on the Monday night and left to settle.  Tuesday night everything was torqued up and I was back on the road for Wednesday.











Offline SpikeyG40

  • Members
  • *****
  • Posts: 77
Re: Doug's G40 - December 2004 to date
« Reply #10 on: December 30, 2009, 09:25:23 pm »
The show season was over; it was now the November of 2005.  Nearly a year since I’d initially seen the polo.   Due to personal circumstances, the polo had now taken a bit of a back seat, I was busy with work and was out most nights, so didn’t really have anytime to keep the car clean, so she went from this:



To this in one month:

























Hard to believe she got that dirty really 

And here is a pick of her on boxing day 2005



So now I had had the G40 a year and loved every minute with her.   I was certainly looking forward to the next year of shows, but January held something which has stuck with me until now, I joined a new forum, it was called vagingit.co.uk   A local forum for dubs, and what better way to introduce the car two this new group of keen dubbers than a bright Sunday morning trip in January to the breakfast meet held at the restaurant opposite the Richborough power station.

Of course, I couldn’t turn up with a dirty car



















Offline SpikeyG40

  • Members
  • *****
  • Posts: 77
Re: Doug's G40 - December 2004 to date
« Reply #11 on: December 30, 2009, 09:30:13 pm »
During the months leading up to the show season, a few more jobs were done to the Polo.   It was going to be a testing few months.   The heater resistor packed up in early 2006 so one windy day I changed it.  So windy infact, I tied the bonnet down 







A good job jobbed!    Right, whats next?   Ah yes, the wobbly headlight.

On a more proactive note, sometime in the polo’s past, she must have been involved in some front end contact.   The bracket supporting the headlight had been damaged but had not cracked the headlight.   The light was being held steady with a bit of rubber pipe.   So ideally a new headlight was needed.   The issue I had with this was the headlights had the number plate etched into the glass.  It would have been a shame not to keep the original headlights with the car.   I had a spare headlight, so we set about separating the light from the housing.







Another job was added to the list as on my way to work, the exhaust decided to unhook itself of the rear hangers and dragged itself along the floor.   Thankfully I managed to pull over and re-hook it on.   Armed with some metal wire I got from work, I temporarily made the exhaust secure so it was a bit more useable until I had time to properly sort it.

I decided that while I was under the back of the car, I’d take the rear bumper off to see what Remained of a possibly tow bar (see pictures of loose cables earlier in the write up.   And to my astonishment…….there was nothing! Lol



At least that means I’m not carrying around any excess weight :D   some exhaust supports were fabricated and the job was complete.

Unfortunately for me, the exhaust issues reared its ugly head once more.   After driving home from college one evening, I booted off a roundabout to be met with a sudden power loss, a change in engine tone, and a big grey cloud of smoke out the back.  My initial thoughts as I pulled into a near by layby was “the charger has gone.”

It was immediately noticeable that something wasn’t right.  She seemed quieter without much pressure coming from the exhaust.   I stupidly decided to check the back pressure with my hand.   Silly move!   I had just done a 45 mile trip to college.  I burned my hand quite badly on the end of the exhaust.   (that’ll teach me for giving her too much beans).   Still, while I waited for my tow home, I couldn’t help but get a couple of snaps 





At least she looked quite nice anyway.

A trip to the hospital later, I was bandaged up, but I knew we were in trouble.   It was only a couple of weeks till my first big show!   GTi International.  I had never been before so I was really looking forward to it.   I set about trying to find out what was wrong.   The boost hoses were removed to find no problems.  All seemed well.  Everything pointed to that exhaust.  A crappy pattern one.   I didn’t have the time to take it off, not this close to inter, so I took it to the local garage so they could have a look.   Our suspicions were right.   The internals of the back box had dislodged and blocked up the exhaust.   There was no doubt I wanted a genuine VW exhaust.  The problem was, it wouldn’t be here in time for inters.  I was completely gutted.  I had the car back but there was nothing I could do until the new exhaust was fitted.   I had opted for a genuine VW long life exhaust from the Cat back.

A plan was afoot.    I had started to sort out my old mk3 coupe, a blue boulevard which the G had replaced.  The idea was to sell the old car but I needed to do some jobs to her first.   The plan was set, get the Blue mk3 ready and take her to Inters, and get the G ready for the show the following weekend, the VW Expo.

Offline breadman

  • Members
  • *****
  • Posts: 636
  • mk2 breadvan 1341 turbo sleeper (currently snoring
Re: Doug's G40 - December 2004 to date
« Reply #12 on: December 30, 2009, 10:18:59 pm »
Keep the updates coming Doug, makes for a really interesting read.
How much better does it look now you've lost those awful side stripes? :o My mk2 breadvan had some very similar crappy stripes with the words "Match" on each side and on the tailgate! :-[ Like on yours the difference after removal was a huge improvement!
It's great to see the way you make a proper job of repairing and cleaning everything before reassembly. Excellent!
The wheel refurb company did a superb job on the wheels, they look like new.
What is the mileage on it now Doug?
Keep us posted,
Cheers, Richard.

Offline SpikeyG40

  • Members
  • *****
  • Posts: 77
Re: Doug's G40 - December 2004 to date
« Reply #13 on: January 04, 2010, 12:22:10 pm »
Thanks Richard, She looks so much better without the stripes, amazing what a small touch can do!

The wheel refurbers are called lepsons in gillingham, Kent.  They did a great job within a week and were very helpful!

Mileage is now just over 84k.   i did 65mile in her last year!  The reasons why will become apparent later in the story  ::)

June 2006, and another job complete.  This time it was the front bumper.  The passenger side mounting bracket had snapped on the existing bumper causing the it to stick out slightly and not line up with the inner wing correctly.  So when a brand new one came up for sale, I jumped at the chance.











Then came the day when I had to say goodbye to my old mk3 coupe.  She’d been a good little car, but my intention was always to get a G40. Just a shot of the two together.



It was at this stage when my ideas for the G40 started to change.  Ever since I bought her, I wanted to modify and get some more ponies out of her, but I was now starting to think “why not leave her alone?”

It all started in the August of 2006 when a very quick and simple change made all the difference.   I changed the clear indicators back to the orange ones.





To me, it changed the front end completely







It was now time for the project to be stepped up a gear.  The project had turned a corner, I didn’t want to modify her anymore.  Concours would be the way forward.  However, I have the modding bug, so I needed something to fiddle with.   Plus if I was going to properly step things up a gear, I would need a daily.   My first thoughts were another polo, but something a bit newer.  A mk4 perhaps?  Or what about a mk3 golf?  With this in mind, I took the G40, with its orange indicators, to Edition 38.  However, all I saw were mk4 polos and mk3 golfs!  I wanted something different and had pretty much settled on……a vento!

A found myself a nice Flash red vento and took the polo off the road for the winter.  Of course, not without buying the polo an early Christmas present.



Offline MartinB

  • Members
  • *****
  • Posts: 286
Re: Doug's G40 - December 2004 to date
« Reply #14 on: January 04, 2010, 08:50:15 pm »
An awesome read. One of the best threads on the site  :)