Octavia I vRS - going for a "stealth" look.

[amateurstuntman]

I have never felt like modifying a car before, I have had cars that were modded but not by me.

So, in February, I was offered a 51 plate repaired Cat C write off Octavia vRS by a friend of my father-in-law.

I was a postman at the time and I had a few garages on the routes I delivered to and asked all the mechanics for their opinions on the car.

Every one of them said "coil packs, water pumps, brilliant tunable engine, solid car", one of them recommended this forum too so I started trawling through the back posts and decided to go for it.

There were a couple of problems with the car so I got it for £1700.

Rude not to really.

The problems were:

Dodgy light in the heated rear window button.

Scuffed alloys.

Intermittent fault with left rear light cluster.

Headlights do not height adjust.

No Sat nav aerial so it doesn't get a lot of satellites.

New brake discs needed.

Tyres not the best.

No Aircon gas.

I started working through the list, heater button was easy did it first day.

Also sorted the light cluster, it was a bent pin in the connector.

Tyres, Brakes, and sat nav will all be sorted by buying new items.

I got a set of EBC plain discs for now, I am giving serious thought to the Comp brake 330mm kit though (slippery slope eh?), I like powerful brakes plus there is no weight penalty like there would be with the R32 set for example.

I have ordered a pair of Toyo Proxes T1R tyres to sort that problem and when I get back from holiday in September I will be getting a Kenwood DNX7240BT head unit, I was going to go for a cheaper one but I thought I might as well wait a bit and get a better one.

Aircon was easy, just went down to halfords and got a can of HFC134a and stuck it in the system.

Then all hell broke loose, I went down to Impossible Performance in Canterbury for a service and a chat (great service by the way) and saw Des' car. What a beast, so many great details.

So, this slope is only getting slipperier.

This month I have sold a load of gear from my other hobby and ordered:

►S3 steering rack

►S3 upper and lower front strut braces (fitted them)

►Golf MKIV aero wiper arms and blades (fitted them)

►Glass blanking plate for deleting rear wiper (fitted that)

►vRS carbon effect wheel centre decals (look good)

►A load of Superpro bushes

►Whiteline RARB

►Waiting to hear back about an R32 FARB

►Toad Ai606 alarm, fitted on the 25th, comes with remote start so I can have some classic transponder-less keys, looking good.

I have taken the front and rear vRS badges and the Octavia badge off plus removed the rear spoiler, I will be getting the holes welded and the boot lid re-painted on Monday.

I might speak to the guy about doing the chrome grille and tinting the rear lights a little bit (not too much).

I have ordered a spare alloy and am looking into getting them done Matte black.

Not much to see here for the moment but I will do some more pictures on Tuesday when I get it back from the sprayer.

Getting the Weitecs next month, I'll speak to IP about them.

Who needs money eh?

[geordie_21]

Massive Action and top draw enthusiasm. I can see this developing into quite a beast, good luck with the project bud

[amateurstuntman]

Thanks for the encouragement.

Here is a quick update, RE: the transponder keys.

The Toad Ai606 when fitted with auto start disables the factory immobiliser. It does that by fitting the immobiliser RF transponder inside the steering column and using a new system that is part of the alarm.

That means that I can have non-transponder key.

I ordered some very nice keys from vwkey.com but they have a VW logo on them.

I got the callipers out and measured the logo, it was 25mm in diameter.

A quick search on ebay turned up some nice enamel Skoda badges in 25mm so I bought some.

Here is a pic of the key, the badges (with the pins removed from the back) and a section of bicycle brake cable (bodge job).

I cut some channels in the key to accept the brake cable:

Then I sanded the surfaces, mixed up some epoxy resin and glued them all together in a sandwich.

Came out quite nice I think.

I prefer it to the two button transponder key anyway and if you take the price of a new transponder key (I only have one) and take it from the price of the alarm I would call that a pretty big discount on an alarm.

Final picture:

New brake discs and pads , space saver spare wheel, superpro rear beam bushes and whiteline rear anti roll bar going on on Saturday.

Paint Monday and Tuesday, more photos then.

[amateurstuntman]

Busy day today.

Went down to Erith to collect my 18" space saver wheel, it is in the wrong PCD though.

Guy said it was off a MKIV golf and was 5 x 100 so I think it must be a 5 x 112 from a MKVI golf.

So, people who work in scrap yards don't understand roman numerals. I'll sell it and get a 100 x 5 one.

Then I popped into Lepson's in Gillingham to drop off two of my wheels, I have two spare alloys so I can get them done 2 at a time and still drive the car.

They will be acid dipped, stripped tidied up and powder coated in matte black.

£120 for two, including fitting the two T1Rs I left with them.

Then I popped round to the father-in-law's house and got started on the car.

First job was to get the discs and pads done.

I have gone for plain EBC discs and some moderately priced pads, I have now decided that unless the Mrs gets pregnant I will be fitting the big brake kit.

The last guy let the discs get so bad we had to grind the lip off to get the calipers clear of the discs.

Impact driver made quick work of the screw that holds the disc on.

Then I set about the rear beam bushes, it was a total griz to get the old ones out but in the end we managed it without having to take the brake lines off.

I then climbed under and bolted a Whiteline RARB onto the thing.

I've taken it out for a drive and repeatedly slowed gently from 50 to 30 and the brakes are feeling a lot better already.

The back feels amazing, I can't throw it about a bit until the brakes are run in but the back feels so much more connected already.

It is lovely.

Paint next, then wheels (half of them anyway), then alarm, then wheels (the other half).

Next pay cheque is going on coilovers and fitting all the other bumpf in the basement (complete set of front bushes, S3 steering rack, R32 FARB etc.)

[jonnycatbiscuit]

that is looking good dude...

[amateurstuntman]

Thanks buddy.

Looking at the photos now I have just realised that I have left the ABS sensor cables out of their holders.

I'll sort that out tomorrow.

[amateurstuntman]

Finally finished getting all the damn chrome off the radiator surround and sanded it down ready to paint.

Put the second coat of Rustoleum black satin, went in to work on something and...

Thunder, lightning, hail, ruined paint.

I am fuming.

[gmaster]

That's a nice list of mods mate! be watching this thread with interest. Where did you get the blanking plate for the rear wiper thanks.

[amateurstuntman]

It is the one from venom motorsports:

Venom Motorsport Performance Car Parts - EBC Brakes, Black Diamond Brakes, FK Suspension, Eibach Suspension, Weitec Suspension, Supersport Suspension

I got the car back from paint and two of the wheels back from Lepson's.

Lepsons are brilliant, these wheels were in a terrible state and now they are flawless.

The place that did the paint was good too, Altered Image Coachworks in Strood, they build racing Minis and do crash repairs to pay the bills.

So, pictures:

One showing the two different coloured wheels:

And one showing the back, the wheels, wheel centres, deleted spoiler and wiper and de-badged:

Don't worry though, there is a Skoda badge going back on, one of these:

Just no Octavia or vRS badges.

[gmaster]

Thanks mate, looks much better with no wiper, good work.

[Guest westallc]

i personally dont like it without the spoiler but may look much better in the flesh:thumbup:

keep up the good work mate the rear wiper mod is class i think its a must so much smoother:D

nice list of mods fella

just put mne up in the freedom members cars have alook tell me wht you think:thumbup:

[amateurstuntman]

A word of warning on the blanking plate:

It is two sheets of glass with paint in between, but on my rear screen they were different thicknesses to the window glass.

The glass is also quite fragile. As I pushed the glass in from behind the larger piece that flanges it in place broke, slashed my thumb.

In the end I put a piece of wood on the outside of the window and pushed the inner bit until it contacted the wood.

I then glued it in place while holding it.

Bit of a pain but it had the same end result.

[amateurstuntman]

Got home from work today and my new badges had arrived.

Awesome.

I stuck them on just now, I think they look good.

Alarm on the 25th.

Load of other bits on the 3rd.

[gmaster]

No way! im after some of them badges!!!!!!!! please tell me where you got them from thanks again mate!

Looking good too.

[amateurstuntman]

PM Pastyboy, he'll sort you out.

With those badges and no wiper your car'll look really smooth.

[gmaster]

Cheers mate, yeah after 2 years of owning my vrs the time as come to start doing some exterior modding.....!

[amateurstuntman]

Good news/Bad news today.

The guy fitting my alarm called me to say he was stuck in South Mimms services with really bad diarrhoea from food poisoning.

No alarm fitted today.

Possible tomorrow but I'm not holding my breath.

On the good side, my former employers just sent me nearly £300 as my bonus for last year's work, which means I can get the other two wheels painted and get a couple of more T1Rs for the new wheels a wee bit ahead of schedule.

That made me smile.

*Edit*

Bad news again.

My wife was driving to Faversham and a lorry shed it's load in front and to the left of her.

A load of scaffolding poles and such came off the lorry and a breeze block which went straight under the car and made a nice big graunching noise.

I have had a look, doesn't seem to be a lot of damage, just cosmetic stuff on the plastic tray.

So, I asked her what the licence number of the lorry was so I caould see about a claim.

She didn't write it down!

Edited 25 June, 2009 by amateurstuntman
More bad news

[amateurstuntman]

Went out today and got:

2 buckets.

A lamb's wool cleaning mitt.

2 Micro fibre polishing cloths.

Some Auto Glym power max 3 cleaning stuff.

Some turtlewax shampoo.

Some Auto Glym Ultra deep shine wax stuff.

And

Some rain off.

Cleaned the car thoroughly using the powermax stuff and my outlaw's karcher.

shampooed it, waxed it and stuck the rain off on the car.

I took one photo:

and moved to take another and it started spitting:

Then it chucked it down.

I am not having a lot of luck with rain.

It turns out the alarm fitter had listeria or something and ended up in hospital.

Ouch.

[amateurstuntman]

So, there is a biblical torrent going on outside and I took a couple of videos of the rain-off working on the windscreen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqX1iGOpxyI

Edited 27 June, 2009 by amateurstuntman
This forum doesn't have the embed tags I'm used to

[amateurstuntman]

More bad news, Mike from IP phoned me to let me know that Weitech had sent the wrong suspension and that the coilovers wouldn't fit.

I will still go down there tomorrow and get the bushings, steering rack and FARB fitted then, when the coilovers come in I'll have a crack at sorting it out myself.

What could possibly go wrong?

*edit*

My Vag com cable arrived today.

Cool.

Edited 2 July, 2009 by amateurstuntman
Vag com cable

[amateurstuntman]

So, I got the car up on the ramps,

The Mike, Des and I got the bushes changed between us.

Mike did the Steering rack (old one being drained):

You can see the old, standard front anti roll bar in this picture too.

In this one you can see the new steering rack, the hydraulic hoses are all different but the connections are in the same place.

Also the two heat shields are totally different so if you do this mod make sure the replacement rack still has the heat shield fitted.

Another shot showing the new Golf MKIV R23 front anti roll bar:

Last one for this time, the new bushes in the dog bone:

The wife says she likes the new steering so that's good.

Awesome, car feels amazing I would recommend all these mods to anyone (unless you don't want to loose the softness I suppose)

[Delcac]

Nice work!

So much better than an Focus ST.

[David 8]

So much better than an Focus ST.

Errr....No it's not (allegedly):rofl:

[Jigger72]

Seems to be shaping up nicely

More pics please

[amateurstuntman]

Nice work!

So much better than an Focus ST.

Will be, I've prioritised the list we worked up on Friday and it will take about a year to get it all done (providing I don't get the wife pregnant).

I've been reading up on things and there doesn't seem to be a lot of love for the K04 but going down that route means the bits that fail are cheaper even if the bits that don't are still pricey.

Anyway, when people recommend other turbos they always say "with the K04 you get to a dead end".

Perhaps the dead end I'll get to is fine, I'm stuck with my wife but you won't hear me complain about that...

Sometimes enough is enough.

My worries at the moment surround the Tig Art manifold, yours blew up, I don't need exploding manifolds (interesting plural manifolds since manifold means multiple or many) in my life, the primary designs one is a billion pounds though, I suppose you get what you pay for.

Jigger, I'll do more pictures when I put the coilovers on, possible this weekend, depends if Mike gets them in this week.

Then there will be a bit of a lull in the procedings until September when I will get:

► Cold air intake

► Dump valve

► Denso Spark plugs

► Saikou Michi oil catch tank

and possibly an uprated fuel pump, I'll have to get it some time and I might not fit it right away.