dbarksby

Hello!

Ive owned this car and been a member of this forum for about 2years now, just lurking and not posting. I figured that i would finally create a thread for my car, im not planning on any special build, just wanted to document the changes and progress of the car, as I'm planning on keeping this for a long time.

Enough about me, onto the car:

Its a 52 plate, issued in January 2003. I bought the car in February 2014 and it had 52000ish miles on the clock, which is amazing for a 11year old at the time, must have been a garage queen. Not sure if it used to exist to anyone on here, let me know if it had!!. I had my heart set on a Berlina Black model, age wasn't to big a factor. However, the better the condition the bigger the bonus. I eventually found the perfect one after 6months of looking, the only snag being i lived up in Newcastle and the car was in Kent. Never mind, on the phone to find out some details and away we go, only a 600mile round trip to go and she was mine!! A 300mile trip back up north it gave me plenty of time to find out what was wrong, the answer..... absolutely nothing.

Below pictures are just after i got back.










It was as stock as could be!!Best thing i ever bought

dbarksby

I owned the car for about 1year before changing things, i wanted to get a feel for the car, before any mods, and even then i wasnt planning anything huge. My previous car was a front wheel drive 1.2 litre Skoda Fabia, so this was quite a step up. I didn't want to put this car into a hedge straight away.

First changes were some hood dampers, as i was realising i had to be under the bonnet every other week to put oil in


Then onto interior changes. New head unit, gear gator, gear knob and speaker upgrades. I felt the original speakers were a bit... crap. So i put some new in:




The head-unit is a Kenwood KDC-BT9SD, 17cm 2way coaxial Alpine speakers, Skunk gear knob. Also got the Modifry DCI so the dash controls worked.

dbarksby

Fast forward a few months, i put a K&N FIPK air intake in:


Any eagle eyes will notice there is a pipe missing between the air intake and rocker cover. There is one there now!
Noticeable difference in the noise, its great!!!
2 years into ownership and im still in love with the car as much as i was when i first got it.

After a wash, a clay, a polish and a wax.

dbarksby

Ok so I've straight away started with a spelling mistake in the title. Anyone know how to fix this! - Never mind fixed it. This is why i haven't posted often!!

dbarksby

Tried my hand at restoring the headlights, didn't think it went too badly considering i had never done anything like this before.:

Before:



After:

dbarksby

I then started getting creative and that's what has prompted me to create this thread. This has been done recently probably this month.
Repainted the rocker cover and installed new gasket seals and spark plug seals.




Just want to add that masking this off was a right pain!!



Not the best final picture, but a picture on the car coming soon!

Also just clocked over 70000miles. Picture taken as safely as possible of course

dls91

Nice car. Some good updates to. What speakers did you use for the upgrade and did they make a big difference? Sound deadening? Amp?. Thanks

E4RTH WORM JIM

Well done

Flipz

Good stuff - BB's are the best

What did you use for the headlight restoration? I bought a bottle of Meguires PlastX but haven't tried it yet.

fatbaldboy

Question not directed at me but it but I've used Meguiars a couple of times with decent (not perfect) results. I'll try to remember to post pics later.

It's quick and easy but doesn't last so long. I wax the lenses afterwards and try to keep them waxed but I think there might be a specific sealant..?

OP - nice looking S. Looking forward to a decent pic of the painted cover.