Hi all, as some of you will already know, I’ve recently joined up in to get some enthusiasm for my G40, which has been quite badly neglected of late. Firstly I’d like to say what a fantastic resource the site is, and I feel welcomed into the family!
Please persevere with the wordy bit, photos are at the end!
So my story is this…….
After owning a few water cooled VW’s (Mk2 Golf Driver, MK2 Scirocco GT, Mk2 Golf 16v, Mk1 Golf cab) I’d decided I wanted a Corrado G60. I’d been keeping an eye out in all the local rags for a couple of weeks when I spotted an ad for a dealer about an hour from me. What caught my eye was a Polo G40 being advertised for just £1800 (this was in July 2000). I rang the place, no mistake, a Tornado red G40 for 1800 notes - I had to go and see it!
When I got there I wasn’t initially impressed - it was various shades of pink, the interior was filthy with fag ash (but not damaged) and under the bonnet looked like an explosion at the oil refinery! But I was there now, so it would be rude not to take it for a test drive. Then I was impressed! Despite appearances it drove and went really well (my mate Rich practically threw the paperwork he was looking at over his head when I nailed it!), only issue was a balljoint needed doing, if memory serves. It was a 2 owner car, had the last owners purchase receipt and several garage bills for good money, so a deal was done for £1700 and I got him to cover the charger in the 3 month warranty - happy days!
Well, I was even happier when I went to pick it up. Having spoken to the previous owner who said the car was great with no major issues, I got to the place and was greeted by a different car! It had been valeted (ashtray still full though!), washed, polished and buffed, and the engine bay had now been hit by a degreaser bomb! Driving home I was a happy man!
The car was totally standard, the only downside was that the outside of the drivers door and the rear quarter was a totally different colour - must have been keyed as there was no sign of filler.
I can’t find any pics of the outside of the car, but I have found this one of the engine bay with just a cheapy filter on, and you can just see my JE Design Bad Boy eyebrow. Other than that it was std. Sorry about the quality, photo of a photo (no scanner).
For the next three years, the car wanted for nothing, all building up to a Jabbasport R1 charger service, a pretty comprehensive strip down, glass out paint job and a rebuild with plenty of upgrades. At least 90% of the parts used during this time were brand new, genuine VAG items, from clips and trims, to a new clutch and green glass, and much, much more in between. I have a folder stuffed full of receipts (thanks to my very bestest mate Rich, who then worked in the parts department of my local VW dealership!). Photos of it after the rebuild are below, but I still haven’t find many and again one is a photo of a photo.
Now for the bad part. In September 2003 the MOT was up, and for the last year the handbrake had been getting worse and worse. This was due to me putting rear discs on, but using the Polo compensator instead of proper cables running to the handbrake handle. My mum had just bought an MGF, which meant that there was a 5 year old low mileage Punto there for me to use while I sorted the handbrake.
A year later, the handbrake was still not done, but I had been keeping the car clean and taking it around the estate every so often. Now this is where it went wrong. “I know” I thought, “while it’s sitting here I’ll get a stage 1 head done and perhaps clean the engine a bit more”. So off came pretty much the entire front end, charger, alternator, rad, CAC, boost pipes etc, plus the cambelt covers and belt (all of which went into the boot). I didn’t quite finish the job though, and nearly 5 years later, and after buying a house in between (no garage - massive mistake!), nothing had changed and the car was less than a shadow of it’s former self. So a couple of months ago I managed to get part shares in a rented garage, moved the car there, and only really went to look at it for the first time today.
Generally, the bodywork isn’t really too bad (before it moved indoors my Dad had cleaned and polished most of it as he was fed up with a pink shite heap on the drive - thanks Dad ), there are rust spots here and there, but it still seems to have wheel arches, sills and a boot floor, although I think it’s probably minus a battery tray, this was ropey from day one. I haven’t looked underneath yet, the state of the charger is enough of a shock for today!
As you can still see, it has had a lot of work done to it (all by yours truly, except the body mods and paint, and glass removal/refitting), and I’m a complete plonker for letting it get to this state. But split milk and all that, I just have to sort it out again, and finish of those jobs I never got round too doing in the first place!
I wasn’t originally going to post photos of it as it is, but if you can all look past the obvious, I'm interested in any comments on how the car was and will be again. But please, nothing negative about my stupidity, only I can know how sick I felt when I looked under the bonnet for the first time in 5 years. Let this be a lesson to you, take it from me, don’t neglect your once prized G40.
Next time I’ll put up my immediate and future plans, plus report any progress I’ve made, hopefully it’ll make better reading!!