Eefy's White Scala

[eefy]

Well I’ve had my Rocco for just shy of 3 years and thought it was time I set up a build thread/diary on here. First a little history, the car was originally bought for my other half who was learning to drive. The plan was once she got her licence she would run it for a year before she would be insured on my company car and I would get the rocco as an ongoing project. Unfortunately she decided driving wasn’t for her and the keys were handed to me a year early. I’d always wanted a car I could work on but more importantly learn on. Up to getting this car I had never even serviced a car let alone owned a socket set. Over the last 3 years, mainly due to the recession (I work in the construction industry) the budget has been a minimum and the car has just been kept running.

How I got it,





Jobs done over my ownership-

Suspension replaced 40mm lowered (done by a mate)-





Rear seatbelts replaced with inertia ones so my littles ones car seat could go in the back-





Replacement fuel tank with a refurb (put back in by mate with a car lift)-





Long grill made and fitted-



Tinted rear lights-





Refurbed fuel filler neck-





Towing hooks painted-





Side vinyl removed-





Fog lights changed and clear indicators-



Splitter custom made (by a mate)-





Unfortunately someone decided they liked it more than me and removed it from the car one night!!!

Front and rear brakes replaced and refurbed-










Along with all the above the cars been regularly serviced and had a few bits like an alternator, suspension top mount, a wheel bearing, cam belt, changed Cam Seals (done by mate), Rear Bumper replaced, speaker upgraded etc

How it looks now-



With old P slots, long story but ended up with thin rubber on the front and the 5 spokes fitted



All the above is detailed with more pics over on SciroccoUK, in the project area, White Scala

However due to the last few hard winters a job list has started coming together for essential works this year (before the national meet)-

- Few rust spots around the rear lights/number plate need sorting and painting
- 2 bad rust spots in the boot on arch to the back of the welds for the fuel filler neck brackets
- Refurb rear ARB, one of the clamps has rusted through so will remove, replace bushes, clean, paint etc
- Service with K&N air filter
- Handbrake cable (the adjuster thread is screwed and with changing the drums won’t go tight enough to hold on handbrake lever, cable ties currently helping out)
- Rust to rear of bonnet (preventative the bonnet will need to be replaced at some point)
- Swap passenger door, rusted through in middle and along quarter window, I have a replacement but struggling to get the counter sunk screws out of the latch, they rounded!!!!
- Swap quarter window in drivers side (current one isn’t tinted)
- Full detail and clean
- Get and fit auxiliary gauges
- Carport to protect car this winter

I have no doubt this list will increase as the year passes!!!!!!

Okay time to get started lol

[scrumpyone]

Good stuff Eefy.

I've been following the project over on SUK.

Keep it going mate.

[Cpt Custom]

Nice to see another new thread starting, especially from someone like me who started out having never even serviced a car.

Good luck with what you've got planned.

[eefy]

Well the weekend was dry and warm and i had permission of the otherhalf to change the door, so sunday got to it :)

First heres that last bolt that took ages to remove-



whats worse it turns out i didnt need to change the bloody catch arrrrrrgggggggg, just add a hook to the door release thinkgy

anyway I knew it would be a big job, the electric windows seem to be original, but the front central locking was not (no air pressure ones here oh no just dealer fitted actuator ones here), door card stripped-



the wiring-

Window



locking



fortunatly tha above were blade connectors just heat wrapped, so just cut them open :)

Bits coming out, although took me a while to work out how to get this out!!!!



Door off, bolts were pretty tight-





It then took ages to get the new door back on, you need 3 hands to hold the bolt, hinge and closely adjust the door into position, you also need an assistant (the afore mentioned otherehalf) to hold the door in position with the help of a trolley jack!!!!!



to get the fit quicker taped up the original position of the hinges, and it worked (well its raining today to i'll see when i get home)-



Next was reinstalling thenelectric window, saftey first-



It went in but was very tight, think I might readjust the window bolts when i take the door card off sson to treat a patch of surface rust i'd noticed inside the door near the handle. Only problem i had was the window wouldnt go down at first, fortunatly i'd just missed one of the conectors with the blade when re-wirering it up, so all working as it should. The otherhalf will be happy now the window will go all the way down :)

Next job was the acuator for the central locking, as already said these were a dealer fit and as such needed an additional hole drilling, that done I put some point round it just to make sure-



Everything else was straigt forward-





Granted it took me nearly 5 hours!!!!! I know, but i did have a problem getting the door strap pin out, theres not enough room to hit it with a hammer!!!! so I cut of the metal retaining clip and out it popped

just need to give the car a damn good clean, lots of finger prints and remove the vinyl. also going to use my trusty touch up paint to repaint the bolts etc

oh and the reason for changing the door-







it was also a bit out of shape, probably the reasin why the window wasnt working

oh and the day was finished of with a beer and this-

[Cpt Custom]

Check out my thread Eeefy and you’ll see we had very similar weekends!

Bits coming out, although took me a while to work out how to get this out!!!!

Door off, bolts were pretty tight-

Granted it took me nearly 5 hours!!!!! I know, but i did have a problem getting the door strap pin out, theres not enough room to hit it with a hammer!!!!

Ditto all of the above, though I’m afraid I missed out on the beer!

[Gilb666]

that makes 3 of us changing doors this weekend then

Car's looking good dude!

[eefy]

After popping into the local motor factors, found out that the pin for the door hold was a main dealer part, but good on em their advice was go direct. had a look round the manspace and came up with this fix-



will do for now (probably permanently lol)

[DT1]

Neat fix.

Is the nut a locknut?

[eefy]

Not yet, but now you mention it lol I'll probably put a locking washer on it as i have some in the shed :)

[eefy]

Had an hour today so decided to treat and sort some rust I found on the inside of the door I recently fitted, it was just to the rear of the door handle, a common rust area so it seems, just glad I caught it early :)

Rust-



Rust treatment-



Good coating of Hammerite-



Another job done :)

[geeza]

Loving the look of white roccos without the side strips

If the deal with one I'm looking at works out that is one of the things on my to do list

Nice work mate

[eefy]

well had another hour today so decided to remove the vinyl from the new door-







got a morning to myself tomorrow so will start the t-cutting of the whole car :) or if I can get the engine bay steamed cleaned :)

[eefy]

Okay another quick update, yesterday had a morning to myself after delivering the little one to school and the otherhalf to work so went and got the engine bay steamed cleaned, needed doing since the cam seal went over a year ago!!!!

Was a little nervous when the guy wanted the engine running and didn’t bag the battery or the disi cap!!!!! Only issue was some water coming through the bulk head around the fuse box, but the cars fine :)



Then went at the underside of the bonnet with the jet was and removed a rather large section of the sound proofing, this didn’t bother me so much as the bonnet needs some work. To be honest when the bonnets off for some touching up and rust treatment I’ll probably remover the rest quite like the look lol





I also gave the car an hour’s cleaning, 1st real clean its had this year, It’ll get a full t-cut and wax before the national meet as well (I know it’s a while off yet)







Next job will be when we have a decent dry weekend and will be tackling the following rust patches-

[the edmundator]

That has come through from the other side, and will need the filler neck removing and a new patch welding in to sort it out properly.

[eefy]

thats what i thought, but had the filler neck off a few months ago to refurb it and its all solid, I was thinking that the paint didnt take well to the spot weld as its just surface rust by the feel of it!!!! i'll find out soon though, if it needs welding i'll do a temporary rust treatment to try and slow it :)