Not much to update with. Covid has resulted in pretty much every show I was planning on going to being cancelled. I managed to take the Scirocco to two meets though, one of which was a monthly meet that's been going for about 30 years, but at the one held the month after the one I went to, a huge number of police came and shut it down, citing an injunction out in the area against 'anti-social driving', even though it's a static meet that, like I said, has been going for about 30 years with no problems. Ah well, glad I got to go to one before it was shut down!
As you can probbaly see, there was always a variety of cars there. It started out as an American car thing but over the years it's changed to let everyone come along. I'm sure the organisers will be back soon with a new location.
The other meet I went to was just a small local one organised by a local group. An X-Pack Capri followed me in and everyone turned to look, I thought they were all looking at the Capri but when I parked up, I had a few people come over to me, which was a surprise! Got chatting to a former VW mechanic who had fond memories working on Sciroccos when they were new. Also got chatting to a guy with a really nice Beetle, added him on Facebook, then soon found out he was a massive racist, so, uh, I quickly deleted him.
I also took a trip out to the coast with my parents. It was the longest journey I've taken in the Scirocco so far, and it performed faultlessly. Well, apart from the rev counter randomly dropping to zero, but a swift bang on the dash fixed that.
Apart from that, the Scirocco has spent most of its time parked in the garage. I know I threatened this last year and nothing happened, but this winter I'm
honestly thinking about getting the bodywork sorted. The doors are really badly rusty at the bottom now, worse than I thought, so something needs to be done sooner rather than later. I think I'm going to take it somewhere though, because if I try myself, I probably will 🤬 it up and never be happy with it. The guy I bought the Scirocco from has recently started up a company with a few other friends that specialise in classic car restoration, so I'm planning on taking it to them for a quote to see what they can do. They specialise in Porsches and old American stuff but I'm sure they can find room for a Scirocco. Their
website looks the bee's knees anyway.
On the topic of winter plans, I did a bit of an 'accidental' buy on eBay...
Speedline Maracanas from a Mk1 Clio. Always liked turbine-style wheels and always wanted something like that for the Scirocco. I was daydreaming at work last week about them, so I started searching for some. At first all that came up were 19/20" for VW Transporters and, well, those are a bit big. So I searched up 15" turbine wheels, discovered these from a Clio, did a bit of research on the fitment, realised they'd fit, had a look on eBay, found these, put in a cheeky offer I didn't think would get accepted, it did, and then here we are. They were up at £390 but I ended up getting them for £300. They could do with a refurb, but they're all straight, no major curb marks either, just some corrosion to the polished finish. My plan is to paint them white, but I can't decide whether to go all white, or keep the black part. They come with centre caps too, so all built up they look like this:
Abarth is still running great. Driver's rear wheel bearing started rumbling very loud a few months ago, a common fault apparently. A new bearing cost me £35 and took me about an hour to change. I had to take the stub axle completely off to get to the pad carrier bolts though, which was rather annoying. I also rounded off one of the pad carrier bolts putting it back on because I was doing it in a rush on the floor, but that's a problem for future me.
Oh, and had a special guest in the unit today, which was my first time working in there since about April/May, which is depressing to say the least. I fit some new rear discs and pads to an old Touareg belonging to someone at work. It's just clocked over 213,000 miles and the guy still loves it, no expense spared on it. I put a set of fresh Pirellis on it for him the other week which set him back nearly £400, which probably isn't far off what the car is worth! He's in his 60s and says he's keeping it until he passes away. Probably the most looked after '03 Touareg on the road! Just a shame he washes it with the brushes at work...
So, yeah. Seems I've written quite a lot considering I said there's not much to update. Hopefully I actually get my arse in gear and finally get the Scirocco sorted over winter. I might even take out the engine and gearbox and give them an overhaul!
