Nice.

You could, for track day chic, make those cards out of carbon fibre. Wouldn't cost much. Would be a little 2003 though luvie

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You didn't see anything. Right?

Ah yes, I meant that you could buy the carbon sheet instead of the acrylic/flock, it'd probably work out the same roughly.

I love that the bodge tape is still in the door

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You didn't see anything. Right?

NEXT

Gotta be the windows. That glass is heavy, and it looked easy enough to sort. Starting with the rear side windows, as they looked the easiest (and cheapest) to do.

My first thought was to cut out some acrylic sheet to the shape and size of the recess where the old window seal sat. Queue many hours of trial, error and Dremel I had a template that fitted, more or less.



Now, this acrylic stuff isn't UV coated, so the car would get awfully hot in the summer months, which we don't want. I therefore decided to get some tinting film on the go to make them more or less match standard.

What a pain in the ass that was. Trying to find green tint is impossible, trying to find *any* tinting film which wasn't completely illegal was a mission, and having to hang around in some of the most chav-infested shops I've ever known was damn near unbearable. Still, eventually I found a little shop in Baddow which had a little sample book of how dark they were - in the end I went for the Light Smoke stuff, which is actually exactly the stuff they have in Halfords after all that effort, but Halfords didn't have any samples and were twice the price.

It was a little darker than I'd liked, but oh well it'll have to do.

Applying the film was also a complete mission. The first one I completely messed up, and it's impossible to remove the glue once it's stuck on. Using the window as a template, I could cut out another one easily enough and try again. This time I had a little more success, having learned the lesson that you simply cannot have enough water on both sides of the film. They both need completely soaking, then the bubbles and water squeegee'd out from underneath. After some more swearing, I ended up with this, which wasn't too bad:



As for attaching it to the car, has to be rivets really.

Yeah, nooooo.

Little bugger just cracked, straight through. "NEVER MIND", said Owain's gritted teeth. "I can make another and attach it with sealant".

Cut out, sand edges, tint, let's try sealant. Now to be fair to it, this wasn't specific window sealant - it was a generic glue-in-a-tube type stuff I used for redoing the roof on my shed, but it's solid as. However the issue was keeping the plastic bent against the car enough for the glue to dry. This was not only not easy with one person, it was impossible.

At this point I decided that the best thing to do was to take out some anger on the window, and just punch clean through it, leaving you with no window and bleeding knuckles. Good move.

Days pass, mind whirrs.

The problem here is quite clearly one of materials, standard acrylic is easily available, but just isn't up to the job. What you *actually* want, is proper Lexan sheet. Luckily there's a company who flogs their offcuts on eBay. For the rear quarters I decided to go for 2mm Lexan, which should be more than strong enough for the rears. I'd go for 3 or 4mm for the fronts as they're a larger surface area but for the rears it'll do.

This time I planned on simply keeping the existing mechanism and heating the Lexan to get the curve in it; I'd experimented with this with the acrylic and it looked promising. This also meant I didn't have to bother with complex custom templates, I could just mark round the existing glass and cut it out. So this I did.

My word what incredible stuff Lexan is. I thought it was slightly poncy acrylic but DAMN. I tried drilling a hole 2mm from the corner - no problem. Rivet through it? No problem. I tried scoring a line to snap along as I'd done before, and it took pretty much my entire bodyweight (=large) to snap it. Genuinely impressive stuff, and clearly the way to go. It's also UV protected as standard, so no need for tinting.

I drilled the holes for the original fixings and all was well - the window fitted nicely. However it soon became clear that the stuff was too flimsy to be able to seal properly against the original window seal, even if I did bend it into shape. Okay sack off that idea, we'll go back to rivets knowing it's at least possible with this stuff.

I'd bought some rubber seal from a company called Seals Direct, with the initial intention of running it around the outside the plastic before attaching it. Slightly embarassingly, Seals Direct - "Solve your Sealing Problems" - sent me a catalogue of different rubber gaskets and p-section, which my girlfriend found and looked at me with that "I think I might leave you now" look. Luckily I got away with it this time, as it's not one I feel compelled to sit on the sofa and read as I do with Machine Mart or Sealey.

I decided instead to run this stuff around the inside of the window frame, to make sure there was a watertight seal. Irritatingly I'd wasted a fair bit if this stuff with draft one of the windows, so came up five inches short. At this point it is acceptable to stick on some draft excluder from your old house and just cover it in black gaffa tape, no-one will ever know.



Not forgetting, of course, the obligatory mystery injury:



But eventually I got there. Nothing difficult here now it's Lexan, simply drill then rivet. Keep going all round, and you're done.



Looks a bit weird there as it's catching the light a bit funny, but it's pretty much flat. As I'd already drilled the holes for the original fixings I just bolted them on anyway, just because.

And there we have it. Another day, another couple of kilos saved.

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Cheers matey, I'll get some pics up once they've got rubber on tomorrow.

The car came with silver mirrors but they were electric and didn't work thanks to someone previous. Eventually I might start working on the exterior of the car, at which point I'll give 'em some lovin

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Not as smart as the oil temperature guage I've just screwed to the top of my dashboard, now *that's* a bodge and a half.

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Yeah it's good stuff, don't know how it'll handle corners but as a quick fix it's awesome.

Was a lucky find, no more

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Well in that case definitely use this stuff - they do 650 and 1.2m wide rolls, sticks like poo to a blanket and is thin enough to go over bends and kinks tight enough.

Plus it looks pretty good

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Wheel update ?

wheel is in 6th pic up. dont see any 4pots fitted yet tho

Rick - I had to can the idea of doing the brakes before Donington in case I messed it up and ended up not being able to go. Weather being okay, they're going on this weekend

Eddy - unfortunately not - I'd initially thought about heating them into shape, but they're simply not rigid enough to make a tight seal around the edges, they'd just flap about and let in plenty of water.

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How watertight are the sliders on the front windows?

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Goldie the track car.

I was thinking more along the lines of leaving the car stood on the drive, i'm saving up to do something similar but mine will have to live on the drive and i'm worried it will let loads of water in when it rains.
Do you bother locking the slider in position to stop unwanted people getting their arms in or do you keep it garaged?

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Goldie the track car.

sliders will leak water in as will the windows if they aren't bonded but if it's purely a track car then it makes no odds. i have pop-it vents on mine and they snap flush with the window and don't leak but once you start doing stuff like this you are always opening yourself up for water leaks. you get to save a load of weight though!

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306 rallye reproduction decals (full sets/individual decals) | 306 b-pillar textured vinyl weatherstrips
306 slam panel esso stickers | 306 yellow / orange / pension fund red side door badges
gti6 inlet manifold badges | 306 rear boot badges (p2/p3)
winner of Extraction of toys from prams with outstanding vigour award 2009 [source: gti6 owners club]