Thought it was about time that I brought this story to an end, but first let me recap on the last couple of chapters if you like following on from the break in.
Despite advertising Poppy for sale through the forum I was unable to find anyone willing to take the project on despite the shell being extremely sound. In the end though at least some of her has been saved from going to scrap so, all being well, at least some of Poppy will get back on the road.
Matt (
creg) came up a couple of weeks ago and cut off the roof. He’s currently restoring his own Scirocco and it has a sunroof, which he wants to lose, so Poppy’s roof should help him achieve that goal.
He also intended to take the entire rear panel, but in the end just cut off the lower section, which was all he really needed.
Once he’d finished Poppy was really looking rather sad - the dream truly was coming to an end.
Then when I was at Cosford, Sean (
GTXTRA) introduced me to
sander hoogendijk who was looking for a section of scuttle panel to help fill the unused hole on his mk2 now he’s using a single wiper.
Poppy’s passenger side would give him just what he needed for his driver side.
He explained that I’d need to drill out the spot welds and although I’d never done this before I agreed to give it a go. I wouldn’t say I did a great job of drilling them out as some were too close to the edge, but I got it off and having been emailed a few photos of the panel he seems certain it’ll be just what he needs.
Next I began to think if there was anything else on Poppy’s shell that I might be able to use myself. My first task was to remove the stainless steel filler neck …
Then I decided to try and get out the petrol tank as it was replaced a few years back and is still in pretty good condition. However, I was a little concerned about how I’d get on dropping the rear beam to allow the removal of the tank, but again decided to give it a go.
As ever, there was a nut that just did not want to come off. The one in question this time was one of the two on the driver’s side that holds the rear beam onto the shell and it eventually came off using an impact socket. These are 17mm nuts by the way in case anyone is thinking of tackling this job themselves.
Amazingly, I did eventually get the tank out, but I did make the task a little harder than it needed to be by dropping the suspension along with the beam and so in effect removing the beam entirely. Still, all good practice for future projects. Even more amazing was the fact I managed to put the beam and the suspension back into place so as to keep Poppy as a rolling shell.
The tank removed, I drained out what little fuel there was left inside. Then I filled it to overflowing with water.
I know, I thought it strange too, but I was advised that’s the best way to kill off the petrol vapour in the tank particularly important as those vapours remain dangerous even when the petrol has been taken out.
The water was then emptied out and the tank left somewhere warm so as to help the remaining moisture evaporate and so prevent it rusting. Somewhere warm being our spare room!
I’ll let it rest there for a couple of weeks and then give the whole tank a good swirl out with motor oil - again this is supposed to help protect the tank and reduce the likelihood of any corrosion forming.
Not sure yet if I’ll keep it or sell it, but it was too good to scrap …
Those three tasks complete it was time to arrange for what was left of the shell to be removed from the workshop. A lot of the people I contacted wanted me to pay them to take it away as with so much removed from it already they said there wouldn’t be enough weight in it to make it worth them taking it away.
Thankfully, Dave at ADP in Starbeck who has given me a lot of advice over this last year or so put me in touch with a local chap who was willing to take it free of charge for what he could get by weighing it in at a local recycling yard.
So, on Tuesday morning Gus and his mate came along to the workshop to do the dastardly deed. Unfortunately, they’d not realised that it was still a rolling shell and the vehicle they came in wasn’t ideally suited for the job.
However, the chap I rent the workshop from agreed to use his JCB and it’s grabber to lift Poppy onto the back of his pick up …
And so it really was time to say one last farewell to Poppy. It truly was heartbreaking to see her all cut up being dumped onto the truck and taken away, but at least now we can move on and look to put the whole unfortunate episode of the break in behind us.
Did I cry when the truck drove off? Course not, but I came pretty damned close!
Nice try, but the decision is made. Not an easy one, but I feel it is the right one. I just wish there were more people coming forward showing an interest in using the shell … maybe the silence is telling me something! 
