2017 1.4 TSI "build thread"

[1.4_tsi]

A bit late, but I thought I'd share some of the jobs done since buying my 1.4 TSI base spec Scirocco six months ago. I bought it as a car to enjoy driving, but before too long, it turned into a bit of a project!

But first, a pleasing result in the water-cooled VW coupe Concours class at Sunday's Stanford Hall VW Show. Just my Scirocco and 3 Corrados (plus last year's winning Corrado in the "Super Class"):

Concours lineup.jpg

YF66 RHA Front.jpg

YF66 RHA Corner.jpg

Concours Trophy.jpg

I'll post some pictures over the next few days showing some of the work done over the first 6 months and 2,500 miles

[1.4_tsi]

First job was to tighten the battery terminal screws - left undone by the second hand car dealer:

Loose battery terminals.jpg

and to source missing rubber covers for the back of the headlight unit:

Missing headlamp seals.jpg

Next job was to peel off the headlamp eyelids. Note how far they obstructed the reflectors - not great for light output, especially on dip:

With eyebrow spoiler.jpg

Without eyebrow spolier.jpg

and to peel off the driver's side sill protectors, possibly a left-over from the first owner's Motability adaptations:

Sill protectors.jpg

[1.4_tsi]

As already mentioned, the car had received Motability adaptations to the interior. The conversion back to standard spec had left some minor issues in the rear, including loose C-pillar trims, cracked rear left side panel trim and many damaged clips. The rear backrest centre mount had come loose due to non-standard bolts and the hinge covers were missing. In addition the left side backrest wouldn't fold due to rust in the hinge mechanism:

Missing trim.jpg

So I decided to strip out everything from the B-pillar back, other than the headlining:

Interior rear removed.jpg

Being a base spec car, 2nd hand interior trim and seats are rare, but I managed to source a replacement backrest in the correct check fabric as part of full set of seats 50 miles away, and rear side trim panels from Germany. As seems common, the copper plated steel hooks on the rear of the seat base were rusty, so I rubbed down and protected them with a couple of coats of Hammerite Direct to Rust Satin Black, job in progress here:

Rusty seat hooks.jpg

After getting used to the raw sound of the tyres, brakes and exhaust with everything stripped out, it was nice after a few weeks to get the interior perfectly reassembled with the correct VW bolts, clips and covers:

Interior rear restored.jpg

[1.4_tsi]

Next I turned my attention to the exterior. The front bumper had received a poor quality SMART repair to the lower left and various scrapes to the underside. However, the biggest issue was that the rear bumper had been resprayed using the wrong colour - the original VW Flash Red on the left blending into VW Tornado Red on the right, creating an obvious colour mismatch at the wheel arch:

Original rear.jpg

After looking into a couple of options, I soon realised the chances of finding second hand bumper covers that didn't require work were slim. So I decided to strip the front and rear ends, with a view to getting the bumper covers repainted. Removing the bumper covers was straightforward, unclipping the black trims from them less so, especially the main front grille assembly.

Front bumper off.jpg

Rear bumper off.jpg

Knowing that the rest of the bodywork was near enough perfect, after discussion with the bodyshop, I decided to go all out with brand new bumper covers. The additional cost of going for new was a lot less than I expected, given the cost saving of not having to prep the old ones. Why didn't I take the opportunity to upgrade to R-line or even R trim? Quite apart from the additional cost, this was never an option for me, as I prefer the basic trim - closer to the spirit of the original Scirocco, and less of a magnet for crime.

While the bumpers were off, I took the opportunity to give everything a good clean, and to clear out the nine years' accumulation of mud and leaf mulch hidden under the water box covers and behind the wheel arch liners. When putting everything back together, I took the opportunity to renew dozens of screws and speed nuts, which had suffered various degrees of surface corrosion, most shown below, alongside some of the interior fixings replaced earlier, and locking wheel nut covers also replaced due to staining:

Replaced fixings.jpg

The finishing touch, after refitting the water box cover, was to fit a new pair of wiper arms, to replace the old ones which were looking tired with surface corrosion:

Wiper arm corrosion.jpg

This involved first using VCDS to temporarily disable the alternating park position feature, to enable correct alignment to be set, as once torqued up, fine adjustments to wiper position are no longer possible.