My first dry track day highlighted an issue. My brakes last no longer than 15-20minutes before they get a bit warm and stop working So need to figure something out with that.
After the national meet I chucked it in the garage for a couple of weeks. I pulled it out of the garage to move it about and it had sprung a coolant leak coming out where the water pump meets the block.
Crap... I was booked in for mapping in 2 weeks. I didn't know if it was possible to swap the water pump on a VR6 without taking the engine out the chassis leg is right in the way. After a few words of advice I decided I was going to jack one side of the engine up and hopefully it will pivot on the gearbox mount.
PSA the power steering hard line won't clear the cross member....
On to mapping day... I took the plunge and took it to Stealth. Vince put it on the roller and reckoned after the first pull that it had been mapped before. I never knew but it revs to 7k. First run it put out 229bhp.
Ended up with 239bhp and more importantly the driveability is vastly improved and the engine is much happier.
Finally after all the days excitement we popped into Caffeine and Machine on the way home.
Hi, was good to see it, sorry we didn't get to chat.
The Saturday weather killed the community spirit a bit for me, once the driving is done it's usually a time to hang out around the camp fire but instead we ended up hiding in an awning. And Sunday we headed off early due to some family stuff.
Sorry to see your breakdown, I was actually watching when I saw you struggle on the track. But glad it was a relatively easy fix and all sorted now. It's a great little car.
Yes I agree about the Saturday, I ended up tucked up in bed at 10pm because there was nothing to do haha!
I was having so much fun in the Ibiza! Hope I put on a good show for the people watching.
Some of you might have seen the Ibiza at the national meet. Unfortunately it's track debut was cut short by the distributor imploding. The bearing in the distributor went making the shaft that the rotor arm pushes onto wobble, smashing the rotor arm into the dizzy cap. It limped to the pits spluttering and backfiring and then in true comedy fashion completely cut out as I pulled up and wouldn't start again.
Unfortunately I couldn't get recovery for a reasonable price on the Sunday so the Golf had to drag it away. We stashed it and went back the next day to pick it up with a trailer. New distributor on and everything is running well again
Wanted some kind of spoiler for aaaages, as I always felt the back end was missing something. Managed to find a Hella double. Paid more than I wanted to but hey I think with that the exterior is finished.
Bummer about the rim. I bashed mine again the other day, easily done. But for me it was just a reminder to get on and fix them anyway.
Great result with the polishing, red really does come up well. I've been going over mine a bit at a time, you don't get the same kind of pop with white but the shine really does come out.
I actually wished it had hit the chrome around the outside as I might have stood a chance at fixing that better. Hey ho! What it has told me is that I could never be one of the stancy people with wheels worth stupid money because I'd destroy them in no time ☠️
Thanks! I have a love hate relationship with detailing but it is worth is when you get results like this. I think little and often is the key to things like that!
I've managed to wallop the wheel again reversing into the garage. Still pretty sick about it tbh. Ordered some gold touch up paint in the hope I can get it looking semi decent.
Spent the rest of the weekend feeling sad and cleaning. Jetwashed all the arches out and all the underside. Got fed up of pink Matt paint so got the machine polisher out. Going to have a crack at Ceramic Coating it hopefully to stop the paint oxidising.
8864] Bummer, but at least it's just the lip and not the painted body that protrudes. If you look at the end of my post here I fixed my wheel that was worse than that with a cheap DA I got from Amazon. So far I've only done one wheel as a trial and didn't got so far as to a finished polish. Your damage is minimal so you'd be able to sand that back and polish no trouble.
I took the wheel to the local tyre place and he told me exactly the same as you, have a go at sanding it slowly working down the grades. He could do it but would have to relaquer the whole wheel and couldn't guarantee it would stay the same colour. Absolutely astounded how well it has come out!
I think I could improve it further spending a bit more time with the DA but I'm at the point where I struggle to find where I've sanded it. Very relieved haha
Can you get away with wider tyres? Might stop it happening again in the future and give you a little more grip on the track.
I could I'm sure if I got rid of the spacers on the back, but I'm super happy with how it sits at the moment. I'll just have to be much more careful around left hand bends