Ok, as I'm new I thought I'd show you all the many phases my car has been through,
some more ridiculous than others!
(Although in hindsight, I really wish I'd just kept it red, but it's my first car, and you live and learn!)
Ok, I haven't got any pictures with me when it was red, but you all know what a red mk3 polo looks like anyway!
-So after a few months of being boggo standard the first thing I did was sprayed it 'Shock Green Light....'
The name speaks for itself, I managed to find a set of homemade coilovers for it in Berkshire
(I'm based in Suffolk when not at uni, so a fair old trek!)-
I really liked it like this at first, however it did get a bit tiresome after a while, as it was SO obnoxious!
I decided that I wanted to paint it red oxide, as it would then be a little more subtle,
so I found a huge tin of red oxide boat primer on ebay for a bargain price, and snapped it up.
I then set about rollering (YES rollering....) it on.
This was a low point in the cars time! It was less 'red oxide', and more 'poo brown...'
The green bits were due to turn orange at some point, however I lost interest for a bit due to lack of funds;
both front dampers in my coilovers gave up the ghost. So I worked a bit of overtime
and gathered some money, and decided that I'd run gas shocks and springs, as it's less to go wrong.
So ordered a budget 80/60 kit, with the intention of fitting just the fronts and keeping my rear coilovers on
(these are intended for a mk1 golf but fit fine apart from with them wound right to the top it's an 80mm drop!)
As the brown looked so awful I thought I would surrender and do the thing I said I never would.... Matt black it
I had always said it would be a last resort for if I ruined the car to the point I had now done!
So I bought some blackboard paint, and decided that the least I could do is chequer the roof orange,
just to identify it from every other matt black motor out there.
If I'm honest I am rather happy with how it turned out, despite the fact that I felt a bit like I had
cheated myself on the originality stakes.
The next step was alloys, picked up some 'rocco scala rims for £5 on ebay, not in the best of nick,
but I'm just gonna run them as they are, and prep them and paint them anthracite once
the weather picks up a bit.
They scrub a bit at the moment, but I'm gonna home-flare the arches with the pole-jam technique,
since I don't have to worry about paint cos I can just whip the roller out again!
And finally the latest development, my exhaust was causing no end of problems,
the stick hangers on the polo were not really up to the task with a harder than standard ride,
and after running out of cable ties halfway back to uni, I had to call the RAC out and he tied it up with wire.
I decided it wasn't moving anywhere until the exhaust was sorted.
My dad said that I should get a stainless, as I needed a new system from the cat-back as the system
was so damaged from being dragged along the ground, and it wouldn't be much more than getting a
standard system once you sub labour in etc.
He also kindly said he'd put up £100 towards it!
Went to 'Top Gear' in St. Albans, the car got quite a few laughs and odd looks, but
generally went down surprisingly well! I asked them to make it fairly quiet, and I'm glad I did,
cos it's still fairly loud, but not ridiculous, so I am very happy with it!
I went for an outswept mk1 golf style tip, as I hadn't seen this done on a polo before.
Sadly as the car is '94 I had to keep the cat. so I haven't really seen much of a power increase,
maybe slightly more responsive to the throttle, got a load of GT bits to go on, hoping to make 65bhp,
as I'll be converting to multi-point, new cam, ecu and throttle body, plus making it breathe a bit better.
Loads more plans in the pipeline, but I'll keep you updated as they materialise!
Let me know what you think, and I'll hopefully see you at the meets!
Subject: My matt paint mk3 polo project 
Mon Mar 02 2009, 07:58
