Bete Noir's Ibiza Mk2 GTI 1.8T Track Project

bete noir

Green Meanie
Dec 11, 2008
353
10
Last Resort
I bought this from ReggieB on here, with a view to making it into a track toy. It had just over 100k on the clock, and looked like this:
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I very nearly bought one of these when they were new, but my children were young at the time, so we decided a Toledo Sport would be more practical, but I've wanted a Green Meanie ever since.

The first mod was to remove the South African flag sticker from the back, then I had to take a picture in decent light to show that the Kiwi paintwork has lost none of its impact [B)]
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A few weeks after buying the car, I was having fun splashing through puddles on a country lane, when my fun came to an abrupt halt :cry:
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I didn't like those nasty wheels anyway, so it was a good reason to swap for a set of OZ Superlegs :D. Round about the same time I bought a set of Mattig mirrors, which I was tempted to fit while still painted orange, but I sprayed them Kiwi in a moment of weakness.
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bete noir

Green Meanie
Dec 11, 2008
353
10
Last Resort
The interior was in pretty good condition (and still is, although now it is fitted in my son's car, see welly's readers ride thread), except the gear knob was a gnarly plastic job.

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Now I have a nice SEAT Sport gearknob, and an OMP steering wheel.

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The electric windows have been replaced with keep fit windows, and all the other wiring from the doors has been removed, as have the central locking and the rear screen wiper. The seats have been replaced with a pair of OMP buckets.

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The exhaust system was supposed to be a Magnex, but it turned-out to be a Magnex backbox welded to a standard centre section, so that is in the bin. Now I have a Milltek cat-back system which looks and sounds lovely :funk:

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I've loads more plans for this car, so hopefully I'll be updating this fairly regularly.
 
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dholdi

Active Member
Jul 3, 2008
931
4
Preston
Looking good so far, I like the oz wheels. They are the same as the ones I was trying to describe to you that are fitted to mrs holdi's 206.
You didnt seem old enough to have a son who's old enough to drive :)
 

bete noir

Green Meanie
Dec 11, 2008
353
10
Last Resort
You didnt seem old enough to have a son who's old enough to drive :)

Well thank you very much, I'm liking you more and more :thumbup: Actually I have a daughter who is 21, as well as my 17 yr old son. I might not look it, but I am very very old :)
 
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dholdi

Active Member
Jul 3, 2008
931
4
Preston
:lol: Mine are the other way round, my son is 23 and daughter 17.
We are only as old as we feel.
Mrs holdi keeps asking when I am going to grow up, I reply hopefully never.
 

welly

Active Member
Feb 20, 2009
111
0
Sussex/London
Few little touches been done but progress has been slow, to be far to my Dad he has spent the majority of his free time on my car.:redface:.
 

bete noir

Green Meanie
Dec 11, 2008
353
10
Last Resort
I just realised it has been 7 years since I posted on this thread :-o. This has been my back burner project whilst I have been working on other stuff, but this car now looks quite different from what it did in 2009. I have been taking pictures as I go, so I am going to have a mega update to make on here soon!
 
Jun 14, 2005
920
2
Northants.
I just realised it has been 7 years since I posted on this thread :-o. This has been my back burner project whilst I have been working on other stuff, but this car now looks quite different from what it did in 2009. I have been taking pictures as I go, so I am going to have a mega update to make on here soon!

I hope your not going to show us a picture of a cube fresh from the crusher!

Lets see the pictures then.
 

bete noir

Green Meanie
Dec 11, 2008
353
10
Last Resort
If I had known the hiatus on updates to this thread was going to be so long, I would never have started it when I did!

Since I last posted I have changed my road car twice; bought (at the second attempt), modified and fettled my Skaddy pick-up 1.8T; and (finally) got my garage / workshop built and fitted-out. After having spent years making slow progress on this Ibiza on my driveway, I moved it into the garage a few months back, and since then I have made some proper headway, so I no longer need to shy away from shamefully facing the prospect that I might never get it finished. I have been taking pictures as I have got bits done, so I will try to put together a coherent narrative on here. The order in which things have been done has been a bit random, but I will relate it in (roughly) chronological order.
 

bete noir

Green Meanie
Dec 11, 2008
353
10
Last Resort
The clutch pedal had been making plenty of noise for a while, and it had got to the point that it felt like much of the movement of the pedal was doing nothing to actually operate the clutch. Clearly I had encountered the common issue with failure of the pedal box. I did a bit of research, which told me that a) it was not a fun job, and b) the steering column needed to come out to do it. I can agree with the former, but I did manage it with the column in place.

The best picture I found to show the parts of the pedal box which need reinforcing was this one.
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I cannot remember where I found this, so if the person who took this picture spots this and objects to me using it then just let me know. I gave this picture to a welder and he did the business with my pedal box so that hopefully I should not have to worry about it failing again.

I found a couple of pictures of the pedal box out of the car, but as it is not possible to tell whether they were taken before or after it had been repaired, I will not bother to add them to this thread. Getting the pedal box re-fitted (still with the steering column in situ) was a bit of a faff, but improved the feel (and sound) of the clutch hugely.
 

bete noir

Green Meanie
Dec 11, 2008
353
10
Last Resort
I found a company near me (sadly long since defunct) advertising Ibiza carbon fibre door cards for a reasonable price, so I treated myself. When I went to collect them, I picked-up some carbon fibre off-cuts, of which more later.

When I tried the (flat) carbon door cards against the (not flat) doors, it was pretty obvious that some metal fettling was required. To make this a bit easier, I decided to take the doors off the car. With each of the doors laid flat, it was obvious which bit had to go, as shown by the hatched section in the photo.
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This photo shows the same door after I tickled it with the angle grinder.
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Apparently I failed to take any photos of the carbon door cards fitted at the time, so this shot was taken more recently.
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bete noir

Green Meanie
Dec 11, 2008
353
10
Last Resort
The ABF engine came out, and was sold. Strip-down continued with the front suspension, front sub-frame, and the crossmember. Along with a pair of new wishbones, the sub-frame and crossmember went off to be shot blasted and powder coated.
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All the bits were resplendent in gloss black when I collected them.
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bete noir

Green Meanie
Dec 11, 2008
353
10
Last Resort
The next job I did proved eventually to be a blind alley, but I will not leave it off here just because I have the benefit of hindsight. The original plan was to use DBW throttle control as on the mk3 Ibiza Cupra. With that in mind, I sourced a throttle pedal and shaft from the later model. In the photo the mk2 Ibiza part is at the top, with the mk3 part underneath.
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I had the throttle position sensor bracket from the mk3 pedal shaft welded onto a mk2 shaft, and chopped the cable mounting off the end. This picture shows the standard mk2 shaft in the front and my modified shaft behind it.
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I even got as far as fitting the modified pedal shaft into the car, before I decided to go with throttle cable operation, so I swapped back to the original shaft.
 

bete noir

Green Meanie
Dec 11, 2008
353
10
Last Resort
The track rods and gaiters were replaced with new, and the steering rack was bolted to the sub-frame, along with a Powerflex mounting bush. The standard anti-roll bar was replaced with a Neuspeed part I bought used, but which I managed to source new polyurethane bushes for.
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Putting the sub-frame assembly and front crossmember back into place made the engine compartment look only slightly less empty, but it was a nice feeling to be bolting things back together.
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bete noir

Green Meanie
Dec 11, 2008
353
10
Last Resort
Whilst the engine compartment was comparatively unoccupied, I took the opportunity to clean, prime, and paint some of the areas that were showing their age.
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As the Kiwi paint was open, I did a pair of OMP strut braces with it too.
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bete noir

Green Meanie
Dec 11, 2008
353
10
Last Resort
The front dampers I took off the car were Bilstein units, but they had clearly seen better days.
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The front suspension components which will be reused were all cleaned-up and given a lick of paint.
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The new and freshly powder-coated front wishbones had Powerflex bushes installed.
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The replacement front suspension parts are from a SEAT Sport kit marketed for the mk3 Ibiza. The dampers are Bilstein while the springs are Eibach. The more obvious choice would have been to go for coilovers, as this car is intended for track use, and I will be very surprised if I do not change it to coilovers in the future, but having picked-up this kit very cheap on eBay I am keen to at least try it out.
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The purple top mounts are more Powerflex parts.

The front suspension was bolted into place, with new hubs and bearings, so the front end could sit on some wheels for the first time in a long while.
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bete noir

Green Meanie
Dec 11, 2008
353
10
Last Resort
Attention now turned to the rear suspension. The rear axle beam was removed.
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It was dismantled, cleaned, and given a lick of paint.
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