Big Six Two - Vento VR6

[Lozi 22]

I haven't been on here for a while but I have just purchased a dragon green vento vr6 so I thought I would start a thread.

I used to own a dragon green golf vr6 a few years ago which we used to call the big six so that makes this big six 2, I had big plans for my last one but after a promising start I started to get silly with money and the car didn't get the attention it deserved. After a few cracked sumps I sold it to a mate and bought a 3dr Citroen zx volcane turbo d which after a very eventful 2 weeks I crashed it into a telegraph pole (there's only 3 3dr volcanes left)

I had an RS2000, mondeo, pajero and mk2 fiesta after the Citroen but i always fancied another VR6.

Here's the thread for my old VR

http://www.vr6oc.com/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?268871.0

So onto the vento

Unfortunately I am in between hospital operations so I sent somebody else all the way to Leeds to get it, it was a dragon green R reg vento vr6 with leather so even tho its ropey as you like I just had to have it! I figured considering how many genuine vento vr6's are left it was unlikely I would see the idea combination in my head again.

It really is pretty in bad condition condition on the exterior so it will be a lot of work but I see it as worth saving, it has rusty doors and arches, botched paint in places some even brushed on paint, dents and a lot of really quite bad scratches. I really can't see how it's possible for a car to get this bad it's like the previous owners had no sense at all.

It has a tow bar which they have ruined the bumper to fit, a DTM exhaust which is just awful and a badgeless grill which has been brush painted black which matches the brush painted rear plate tub superb.

At some point in its life somebody decided the rotten arches needed hiding instead of repairing so they stuck on plastic arch trims using a classic nails, self tappers and silicone technique leaving the chosen fixings full length so the tyres have a chance to hit them should you decide inflated tyres are not for you. Luckily one of the rear arch trims fell off on the way home somewhere so I have had to remove the other to even out the look.

It has some coilovers which I'm guessing are cheap rubbish judging by the rest of the car and what I think is mk4 golf wheels.

The cam chain is grumbling abit and since its been on my drive it seems to have developed a bad coolant leak from the thermostat housing and the expansion tank cap isnt sealing which is nice.

Some pics

Some pics of the nice bits

It seems one of the owners had a Wolfsburg obsession, I'm not sure what the crack is with all this Wolfsburg stuff?

Pointless push button start

So I gave it a clean, it didn't help it just shows you can't polish a turd

Wish me luck I think I'm going to need it!

[WaynesVR6 2]

Good luck with the project.

[VR6Pete 1,455]

Welcome mate. Hope you have caught the tin worm early enough to save her!

Good luck with the project

[Lozi 22]

Thanks I have 3k plus worthof big spec rs turbo stuff to sell so I think I should be able to make something of this with that.

[Lozi 22]

So first things first i have been driving the car a few days and I am sick of seeing....

This

Or this

So I have purchased a few bits to try and rectify the problem

I'm hoping to get this sorted today so I can drive the car without carrying 6 litres of water lol

[Lozi 22]

Fixed the water leak today it turned out to be the part that goes onto the end of the crack pipe so I had to go get one of those, the o rings round the sensors were also leaking and the expansion cap was mullered. I'm hoping now with all new seals, stat and housings I won't be touching that again for a while.

While apart we noticed the electric water pump is missing and has been replaced with a cable tie and a pipe joiner lol

Also noticed this lovely cable tie gear linkage

There were certainly some yeehaw previous owners lol

[Swivelonit 119]

you certainly have bought yourself a challenge! Good luck with it matey.

Not sure where you are but Chadwick's in Bretton (near Chester) have V6 4 motion breaking, interior has gone but all engine parts and even the 312 brakes are still on it, you might get a bit of what you need from it?

[Daverse 175]

Welcome, Always nice to see another vento fan in the fold good luck with it all, you've got plenty to keep bust with!

[daxmatt 0]

Very best of luck with it, like the Vento and now getting rare as you say and it makes a change to see a car being saved rather than broke for profit

[Lozi 22]

you certainly have bought yourself a challenge! Good luck with it matey.

Not sure where you are but Chadwick's in Bretton (near Chester) have V6 4 motion breaking' date=' interior has gone but all engine parts and even the 312 brakes are still on it, you might get a bit of what you need from it?

[/quote']

Thanks but I think that's miles from me I'm in northants

Welcome' date=' Always nice to see another vento fan in the fold good luck with it all, you've got plenty to keep bust with!

[/quote']

The first fast car I remember one of my mates getting was a vento VR so I've always fancied one!

Very best of luck with it' date=' like the Vento and now getting rare as you say and it makes a change to see a car being saved rather than broke for profit

[/quote']

Hopefully this will be a keeper but whatever happens I won't be breaking it they are to rare!

[Nazza27 35]

Wow...You have bought yourself a challenging project. That exhaust though...no words can describe it. haha

All the best to you for this...Reckon though after some nice TLC that paint will come up a treat!

look forward to seeing what you do to this

[Lozi 22]

Wow...You have bought yourself a challenging project. That exhaust though...no words can describe it. haha

All the best to you for this...Reckon though after some nice TLC that paint will come up a treat!

look forward to seeing what you do to this

Yeah the exhaust has got to go its not just the 90's style it also blows a fair bit on the middle section.

The pics don't really show how bad it is the paint is pretty bogged in many places it needs a repaint

[Lozi 22]

It's definatly not top of my priorities but I have bought a nearly new alpine headunit and a wiring kit of a mate, both of which have seen very very little use in his cossie he just sold

Which means my subs which I have had for years will find their way into the vento, coincidently they are green so they match the car. They are infinity kappa 120.1 I have had them since I started driving almost but I don't often fit them to a car, the vento has a big boot so why not! They are pretty good considering they are over 10 years old.

Pictured in my £200 217k mondeo I had for a while lol

I think I need to move the amp so you can't see it.

[Lozi 22]

So far not so good when it comes to this vento.

I am yet to have a week of ownership where it hasn't broken down lol

The latest is a split water pipe, I had to buy 8 1.5 litre bottles of evian to get me home!

I have got an operation on Wednesday so to get me through until then we came up with the amazing bodge!

All the coolant pipes feel quite soft so I will buy a set of samcos once I'm all recovered from my op, for now the bodge is working fantastic lol

I have also had a quote I'm happy with to get the car welded/repaired and painted so now I need to try and source 4 clean doors, back bumper, clean bootlid, new wings, arch repair panels and new sills.

The gearbox is also a little unhappy when trying to change quickly into second, it goes in without grinding if I ease it in but I need to look into this.

[VR6Pete 1,455]

That's no bodge, it's using cable ties, that looks more like a permanent solution

[Lozi 22]

I'm out of hospital and getting back on my feet so now it's time to get on with this car.

The more I dig the more nightmares I find though so its touch and go currently wether I'm going to break it.

Abit more parts collecting

Heated seat loom and switch etc

Boot lid

Grill

Back bumper

Mint rears

Corrado spoiler

So today we set about removing the tow bar and hacked about rear bumper, the replacement bumper is far from mint but it doesn't have a huge hole in it and its the rite colour so it will do until its paint time.

Found quite abit of rust hiding behind the bumper, 2 of the bumper brackets just fell off lol

New bumper on

Then we removed the front arch trims and side skirts and took them to the tip along with the old bumper and tow bar.

Lots of rust and silicone for me to live with till it goes to the paint shop, here are some of the interesting fixings used for the front arch trims including wood and rubber lol

Also put the grill on to replace the black hand painted badgeless one, I think it's made a world of difference

It's a little embarrassing driving it round in this state but its getting there slowly!

[Swivelonit 119]

Massive project mate, you certainly have given yourself a challenge, looks like it is making steady progress, good luck

[palmer 17]

Good luck dude, ur making progress thats the main thing :-). It may take a while but it will be worth it in the end when its finished. Keep up the good work bud :-)

[Lozi 22]

The trouble is every element of the car has problems so the list if what needs doing is pretty long, ill just chip away at it and hope I don't get so pissed off with it that I break it.

[Daverse 175]

Please dont break it

[Lozi 22]

Please dont break it

To be honest I would more likely reshell it I to a mk2 than break it

[palmer 17]

Yea m8 I know how you feel, I stripped mine to do haldex conversion but I keep finding little problems. Like yours my bumper mounts are rotten, my outer sills are dead the scuttle panel has some nice big holes in and need to cut rear window out as its rusted in 1 corner an leaks :-/. Like you said just do a lil at a time an try keep ur head up :-)

[Daverse 175]

Yeah, problem is theres a dwindling number of Vento VR6s these days, especially as standard.

[Lozi 22]

The rarity is what makes it worth it I suppose, the list is long but I'm sure I will get through it!

The most annoying issues at the moment are the heater controls don't seem to have much bearing on what the heater does and it's got the crappest alarm in history installed by the biggest idiot in history so I need to try and get that removed somehow.

[Lozi 22]

Still slowly making progress with this, I have bought many boring things.

Firstly all four doors were rusty so I bought 4 rust free doors to replace them and proceeded to fit them at the weekend.

When working on this car it's never long till you stumble upon a bodge of some description and changing the doors carried on that tradition.

Literally the first thing I removed was the door pin on one of the rear doors where I found this

And then this

The drivers door randomly had dynamat in it so I guess this was replaced already at some point

I can see why the old doors rusted the inside of them was really manky and the drain holes were all blocked

Then a while later it came to taking doors off which is really pleasant and easy on these compared to the fords I'm used to

The next issue came in the first door I took off, the replacement door had a knackered window runner so I took the one out of the old door which was bodged together, as were all of the ones in the rear doors common fault it seems lol

And the result is nice rust free doors

I also bought another 4 leather door cards so I can make 4 nicer ones out of the 8 I now have

I also now have an auxiliary water pump, I'm wondering if when I fit it I will find a reason there isn't one there lol

H&R adapters for my new wheels

And my new wheels

I just need to order some tires then i can get them on the car, i will leave them as they are with the red bits until the car has been painted but after that I think I will try to find some gold bolts and green/gold or black/gold center caps.

And lastly today I got a car alarm place to come out and remove the crap old 90's alarm off so a nice new Clifford can go on