Alex's New Project - 2002 Ibiza!

So, as you all know, the Metro had to go due to the epic MOT failure (2 fails/12 advisories). I managed to give it as p/x for £225, and paid £1050 on top of that for the new motor, a 2002 plate Seat Ibiza with 75750 miles on the clock, running sweet as a nut. Massive change from the bone-disintegrating ride of the 'Tro!
Anyway, the specs are 1.2l, 63bhp, 0-60 in three and a half weeks, Ibiza 'S' model, full MOT and tax until August. I quickly found out the inevitable problems associated with buying a ten year old car - no reverse light, outer passenger lamp cluster not working (except for the indicator), and a hole in the fuse box. I plan to replace the fuse box fairly sharpish, but it doesn't look like it was an electrical fire, more like someone's shot it! Lol. Anyway, here's the car as I bought it:

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The fuse box:

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As you can see, it definitely needs replacing. So far all I've done to it is putting some stickers in various places, pics below:

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Anyway, after having the car a week (almost to the minute!), I was going around a roundabout when some old bloke drives in the side of me. Fantastic of course. Damaged rear arch and all down the drivers' door/sill. He's paying for the damage (nearly £300 for a full side respray and dent pulling), but the other night he tried to chance his luck on the phone and asked if I'd like to pay half, the cheeky fuck. Apparently it's my fault he didn't see me... Of course I told him no! He's told the garage he'll be paying the bill anyway, so it's up to them to chase him. Apparently he has his car sorted there 4 or 5 times a year, according to them!

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That's all for the time being, little bit low on funds at the moment! Will keep this updated as I go, can't wait to have a nice shiny drivers' side next month when it get resprayed!

Alex.

looking good man. Very tidy car in person, be even better when you get your side respray done you thought about making it Cupra replica.....?

Ohh yes! Not so much with the Cupra replica, I must admit. Euro look I reckon, with a hint of OEM+ in there. Low and smoothhh.

sounds good. Definatly got the curves for going down the euro route.

Haha, too many dents at the moment for the Euro look sadly! Will be sorting that out as we go along though.

So anyway, few bits have happened today. I went to Aylesbury to pick up a few bits for the car, a fusebox and both halves of the rear passenger light. I swiftly gave up on the fusebox idea, as it will need to be completely wired in, wire by wire, and I simply don't have the time for that at the moment. The rear lights sorted the broken light on the outer cluster, however the reverse light is still U/S. I need to find out if there's a switch of some description that may have broken to be honest.

Also, I got round to dewipering the rear, nice and smooth now! Debadging will be next, and I may use some of the remaining Fly Eyes Kit I have floating around in my flat from the Metro & from doing Craig's Saxo.

That's all for now though, will keep everyone in the loop as things progress!

Alex.

So I decided I was going to use the remaining Fly Eyes Kit I had, and I literally just had enough - I think I binned a piece just big enough to cover a side repeater. Quite chuffed that I didn't waste what was left by not quite having enough tbh! Anyway, here's some tinted rears/de-wipered photos:

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And just to compare, here is what the rear looked like before:

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Not a bad effort, I reckon! Looking good Next stop, alloys, lows & debadging (when I can be arsed)...

Alex.

Debadged the rear today, looks so much better! If the rub strips on the doors are just stuck on, I'm considering removing them completely rather than colour coding them...

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Alex.

Looking good mate

Cheers buddy!

Nothing exciting over the last few days, however I got my IbizaOC sticker in the post, and have a few more on order (including a SWC one for the back window - MOAR ADVERTISING!)

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Also, I'm picking up a set of Mk3 Golf VR6 BBS alloys on Tuesday, though they'll probably need spacers as well due to them being ET43, and will probably catch my inner wheel arches on full lock (and they'll probably look ridiculously sunk in!). I'll need a new set of wheel bolts as well, as mine are flat steel wheel ones, and I'll obviously need tapered ones. Then to sort out the lows!

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Alex.

So I will be retrimming the roof lining at some point, and have narrowed it down to the following two designs:

THIS ONE or THIS ONE. Opinions?

Alex.

look forward to seeing those wheels on! and i would personally go for the fist fabric for your roof lining. every time you look up you'll see spaceships! what could be better? lol

FUCKING LOVE SPACESHIPS. But seriously, I was looking at that one as well. And Star Wars is awesome.
Next month buddy. Maybe... Kind'a need two new tyres for the new alloys. I've put them on though, the rears are on the limit but they'll do for a couple of weeks, and I'm sick of looking at shite hubcaps. I really need to sort the lows out as well, I may see if I can pick up some 60mm drop lowering springs second hand off of IbizaOC for cheap next month... Saying that, I need to tax mine next month and MOT Katie's Rover 25... BAH. I need unlimited money!

Got my SWC smaller sized sticker this morning as well, got a couple more in the post, courtesy of fleaBay.

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Alex.

gotta be done! the wheels look much better bud and yeah we could all do with unlimited money! sticker looks good too.

Hey, I designed the stickers, they better look good! But yeah, keeping cars on the road is a bitch.

I'd love to retrim everything, some guy on IbizaOC has done literally EVERYTHING in black suede, and it looks ace. Fair play to the guy! But I don't think I've got the patience for it all... May have to trim the fabric on the door cards though, mine are a bit grubby, and they're some horrible blue/green colour... But what to trim it with?!

Alex.

MOAR STICKERS!

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And also got another, better shot of the alloys fitted. Arch gap needs sorting ASAP - it's upsetting me a little. Thank god that dent's getting sorted out this month too...

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Alex.

Right, so me & Ben (Benso18) went over to USC at Santa Pod yesterday for the day. Good day, we both enjoyed it, makes me wanna spend money on the car! Little did I know what was going to happen... (Don't worry, I didn't write it off!)

So we got back to the car after a pretty heavy, but brief, storm. Ground was nice and slippery, and we were parked on grass. Reversed out of the spot, put it in first, and the wheels span because of how wet it was. Put it into second and there was an almighty twang/snapping sound from the passenger side front corner. We both went 'what the FUCK was that', got out and had a look, but couldn't see anything - suspension hadn't dropped, nothing. Thought maybe we'd run over something on the grass.

Drove out of Santa Pod (at which point we were pelted with bottles of Mountain Dew by some promotional girls through the passenger window - we bagged 14 bottles in total, 6 of which were in a six-pack!) and heard some rattling in the front passenger corner. Pulled over, less than a 1/4 mile out of the arena in a lay by/farm entrance, jacked her up and had a look. From what we could see, the suspension top mount had shattered, hence the banging and rattling. We sadly called the AA in, much to the pleasure of most people driving past us from USC!

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Anyway, got the car towed back to Oxford from Santa Pod, to leave it at a garage. My Stepdad, Simon, had managed to get it booked in at 5pm on a Sunday night to be done first thing this morning, as he knows the guy. From there, Ben's Dad came and picked us up from Oxford to take us back to Swindon.

I then had a phonecall this morning from Simon - £90 fitted for the top mount, mates' rates (luckily!). However, on taking the strut apart to fit the new top mount, the spring fell out... It had sheared off three coils from the top, which is why it hadn't been noticed until this point. Pretty glad I didn't try to drive it anywhere; suspension was VERY close to completely collapsing, apparently! Cost me £110, parts and labour, for a job that the mechanic in question would normally charge £350 to someone who had just walked through the door. Anywho, Simon drove it over to Swindon once it was all done, and he paid for it (temporarily). Here's the remains of the spring & top mount:

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Interesting day, to say the least! Got me some Wheel Whores stickers too!

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If anyone wants to see the photos for USC that I took, head over to THIS link!

Alex.

hmmmm..... That spring has definatly seen better days! lol. liking the wheel whore stickers. your getting quite a collection going there! At least you had AA cover!

My AA cover is through Lloyds, and only 3 weeks ago my mother asked why I didn't cancel my Platinum account and go back to free banking, to then get breakdown cover at a later date... Thank god I dodged that bullet, eh.

But yeah, love my sticker collection! I don't think many more will appear though, I like it looking neat & orderly!

haha! that is a bit of luck! i've got it through my insurance, owning a french car i wouldnt be without it!! lol

lol! a bit of OCD sticker arranging. what could be better?

Nothing could be better mate, nothing at all. They need to be all at the right angles!

haha! fair enough!

Bit of an update guys, been a couple of weeks since my last one! Got my respray done, all paid for by the bloke who hit me last month, looks mint now, nice and shiny. Just given her a bath and polish too, laaavely. Not much else has happened to be honest though, completely skint! But never mind.

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You can definitely see where they mopped & waxed the surrounding panels down as well...

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Shiny pics:

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Next stop - TRAX!

Alex.