Heater Assembly - VW Polo Mk2

I have read several build logs recently that include the refurbish of the heater assembly. I think that I was quite fortunate in getting a pretty decent one from a breakers via eBay. Only paid £40 inclusive delivery. On closer inspection it looks like the heater assembly may have been separated in the past. Despite this I decided to replace the heater matrix with a nice shiny new one and also the small hot/cold regulator O-ring.

To split the 2 halves of the plastic surround you have to carefully depress the clips circled (more than just 2!) whilst trying to pull the halves apart simply working around the joint. Once I had found a suitable size screwdriver it proved to be not too difficult. Just needed to keep pressure applied else the clips wanted to snap back together.

The next job was to thoroughly clean all the parts and then re-assemble. It took quite a while and was actually worse on the inside than out.


Donor Parts - Pt 2

Well, what can I say. Its been some time since my last post and I have accomplished a fair amount since then. I have managed to dis-assemble all of the suspension parts now into a more manageable pile! (No photo I'm afraid!)

One thing I must stress is that you very carefully read the parts AK need for modification!!! After dismantling into more manageable parts I had a rather excessive clean up of my garage to make a little more space.

In my haste I disposed of the lower rear wishbones having convinced myself that these weren't needed as the chassis comes with tubular ones! The only thing I forgot was that the rear hub carrier bolts to this using the original XJ40 bracket!!! I must say that Jon at AK didn't laugh too much (well at least when I was just checking what parts he needed from me). Oh well! Another lesson learned and another good priced purchase from eBay.

2nd set of  Rear Wishbone's

All the calipers were re-furbished through Anthony at Black Country Jag and a great job was done. They look really good now, much better than the rusty lumps that I started with! I purchased ATE front caliper setup but retained the original rear Girling calipers although rear brake shoes are proving rather elusive. Anthony supplied most of the necessary suspension and brake parts for me at a very reasonable price. He's a really knowledgeable and most helpful chap. The few parts he could not supply came from SNG, again really good to deal with.

Caliper's all looking like new

Regarding the rear handbrake shoes I noticed recently whilst reading through Andy Menzies AK build, that he has had similar issues of getting hold of the Girling JLM800 rear handbrake shoes. ATE seem to be the ones supplied. He was fortunate to find a local supplier who had some in but they are now out of stock and not expecting any more! One thing he did mention was that I could consider having my old ones re-lined. Looks like this may be the way to go as the old ones aren't too bad. As they say, "watch this space".