Thought I would start a bit of a build thread showing the slow progress of my dragon green b4 passat tdi saloon.
Previously had a vento but wanted something a little larger and something a little more economical.
Gumtree Leicester... up pops the passat!
Called the man straight away, chatted, went to view it and decided I wanted it.
The guy even drove it to my house with me as I was on my own. I dropped him off back in Leicester at his house and set off home in my new car.
Pulled up next to my vento and saw what a state it was in compared to my pristine vento.
A quick one of the vento :
Had so much potential but the 1.8 spi petrol engine was not for me!
Back to the passat....
Only had 88000 on the clock but there was minimal history and a few MOTs to back up the mileage.
The paint was rough around the edges and the only external thing it really had going for it were a set of brand new g60 steels.
Grim cream/grey cl interior which looked as new but was still disgusting, original vw rubber mats and the original sony headunit.
Here is a bad photo from the advert.
The front fogs blanks were rough looking and held together with what looked like glue gun glue and the front reflector things were marked and not very well stuck on. Headlights were also a bit tired looking.
Not a pretty car but as it was cheap to insure and would do 60mpg I was happy.
So after driving it for a week I decided I wanted to keep it and spend some money on it!
The first few things on my mind were to give it a damn good wash and cover up the tatty looking reflectors and fog blacks with some black stuff. I also painted the front grill and badge as that was looking a bit faded. Then I hammered out a large dent in the grill surround.
Notice the large gash on the front bumper.. its on my to do list!
Next I tackled the hideous interior and set about collecting black everything! carpets, seats, door cards, all the trim, parcel shelf, grab handles and whatever else needed changing:
Gone was the cream carpet and grey panels.. well some of it anyway
Next I covered up the orange rears and applied a sticker a found ( Too skint to afford rear vr6 rears)
Also de badged it
After reaching the 90000 mark I had a little faith in the car and after 2k of boat like handling I decided coilovers were needed!
Got a set of rokkor coilovers for the grand total of £145 posted which I thought was a bargain!
Preset the coils and after lots of fights with home made tools and rusty bolts I gave it to the mechanic to swap over!
I lost a fog blank somewhere along the line.
The boat like handling had gone and the car could actually go round corners!
This meant the flat cl seats had to go...
Struggled to find leathers in my budget so after calling dibs on redsheds interior before he had even removed it from his car I went and collected it and got it in my car.
Vr6 interior with cloth/leather door cards. They really made a huge difference and the car was on its way to making me actually like it. (photos will be added)
Next job was the wheels... Spent aaages trying to find something at a decent price that I actually liked until a set of 928s in 7j and 8j, painted in crackle black popped up.
They had nearly new toyo proxes on them and looked amazing on the mk3 they came off.
Also got a set of smoked side repeaters =]
I Picked up a set of cheap adapters and got them on until I could find a set of h&r spacers in the correct thickness's.
Had a few problems with the 20mm adapters and bolts that were too long causing me to nearly loose a wheel doing 60 on a country road!
After carefully driving about with the wrong sized adapters combined with spacers for a day I p/x's my old g60s for a set of H&R spacers.
After a treacherous 2 hour journey I returned g60less but had the adapters I wanted and got them fitted as quickly as I could before I killed myself.
So after 6 months of doing things on the cheap I have almost got the car how I want it.
I had also replace a few bulbs and window switches and other stuff
Here is how it sits in its current state after being towed from a muddy ditch:
The rears need spacing another 10mm as it sits a bit funny at the mo and I am trying to swap the rear tyres for some slightly larger ones to get it how I want.
Currently on 92k and still running perfectly bar a slight oil leak which it has had since day 1!
Had nothing to do over the past few days so:
Just installed new discs and pads on the front as the old ones were down to bare metal!
Had my cat removed and a straight bit of pipe put in.
Picked up a set of new hella fogs, centre blanks and indicators to tidy up the front end a tad.
If I can afford to in the new it will be going to a body shop for a small amount of rust repair around the windscreen and to have the front bumper fixed up!
Was going to remove the tow bar but it has come in useful as to tell me when to stop reversing and also to protect the rear of the car for being shunted by some **** driving too close being me.
Still not got a single decent photo of the car so hopefully make take some over the Christmas period