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Steve's story.
Blood, Sweat and Tears.
This story is based on Steve's own words and pictures which have been adjusted to be more suitable for the internet web site.
Click on any picture to get a larger image.
Steve has checked it for accuracy before it was posted on the Internet.
I went home filled with new ideas and of course went straight onto autotrader to see what they
looked like. Low and behold, a Scirocco Storm, tatty, in need of TLC [tender loving care], £250, perfect.
After a bit of pestering, my Dad and I arranged to go and have a look.
At this point I was expecting to maybe give it a good T-cut and polish,
wash the interior, bit of sorting etc. Mmm, that plan went a bit to pot! the guy owned it as his run
around in Brighton, and the condition showed it was not loved, it had MOT and tax, but deserved neither!
After driving it, pointing out it was a wreck, we should have left, and paid more money for a better
example. However, I was 17 and looking glazed eyed at my ideal car. I bartered him down to £130 and he left
the £40 of tax on it, bargain.
I then spent the next year or so spending weekends and evenings doing bits and bobs, with only loads
of problems on the way. A few days after we got it, which was about 20th Dec, we discovered it had no
antifreeze in it, luckily nothing got damaged. We also managed to slip the cam belt, because it was
well overdue being replaced! I really am not joking when I say every little bit of this car has been
repaired, replaced or fabricated.
I had to address the issue of the body work too. My Dads friend owned a
body shop and had said he would do it for free, but by this point I had the car almost two years (time and money really
slows things down) and he had sold the body shop. doh!A friend of mine knew someone who worked in
a body shop, so I befriended him and he helped me do welding, dent pulling, filling etc., paid of course. However before
he had finished, he lost interest and just stopped helping. At this point I really wished I'd never
started, in front of me I had a shell, in bits, no one to fix it and no one to spray it. It looked
like it was going to be expensive if I got professionals in! I ended up finishing the welding myself
and was planning on spraying it myself too. Whilst I was doing the body preparation work, I whipped off the washer
jets all round, welded and filled the seams, and converted it to and single wiper.
The body shop my Dads friend used to own, offered to sell me the paint trade price. Then one day, out the blue, they offered
me workshop space for 2 weeks, use of all their tools, and someone would spray it for £100. So all in
I prepped it all, someone else sprayed it for the total sum of £650 (its done in ICI 2PAC and their shop
would have normally charged near £2500 for it). I also had it finished in Mercedes brown because it was
the closest match to the VW Havana brown, which would have cost another £200 due to the dyes used. Sounds a
bit strange but there you go. I decided against perlescant lacquer, a decision which I'm now pleased about, because
I like it to be a little bit more subtle than that. The car arrived home in its new coat at 8 in the
morning, at 8.30 I left to go to university 5 hours drive away. I didn't see it again until xmas.
I spent all of the holidays putting it all back together and taking trips to the scrap yard to replace the
bit Mum 'cleared up'. I got the car on the road xmas 2003 and now have it down at university with
me. I have driven it for a year with only one major problem, which was a cheap car alarm draining the
battery after a week. I have now replaced it with a cobra (soon to be upgraded to full closure), it even
passed its mot the other week, with just a new centre section on the exhaust.
I still have a small list of bits that need to be done but nothing a couple of weekends won't sort out. Being a poor student,
everything is done a tight budget, mates here and friends there who can help you out. This is why it took
so long to do.
Also tracking down parts for the storm, is a nightmare. I had to buy the steering wheel
from America, funny thing was that we were going on holiday there so I was able to meet up with the guy
to pay for it, unfortunately it wasn't great and wore through the other day. So I ended up winning an
ebay auction in America and it arrived the other day. The most expensive part of it was the customs and
tax!!!
Because I'm always on a budget I spend a lot of time trying to get stuff
done cheaper. Its really good coz I met Darren not so long ago who breaks sciroccos, I find him a great
source of parts because most places won't hold them anymore. Anyhow, Ive reached 21 now and I'm sure my insurance
will start to get cheap soon, mmm. maybe not. I probably missed out loads of stuff, I tried to remember
it all. I wish now that I had kept I photo record, oh well.
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