L’y The 1.2 TDI

I’ve now owned A2’s personally for just under 3yrs. During that time I’ve enjoyed reading many peoples project threads and being amazed at what the like of @Birchall @2work @A2Steve @Rusty911 @dj_efk have managed to achieve. I think because of this I’ve always felt a little embarrassed to post what I see as my meagre efforts. Either that or I’ve been too bone idle to do so. But I thought now would be an sensible time to start a thread on my 1.2 odyssey so here goes!

Early last year it came to my attention that @RAB was going to be leaving A2 ownership due to moving onto the world of EV’s with an VW ID3. I’ve observed the help he has given many owners and given his undoubted knowledge of all things 1.2, it seemed an ideal opportunity to acquire a car that had been well looked after by an owner who knew what he was doing. A 1.2 appealed as I do circa 25-30k per year minimum and the extra economy made sense. We’ve family history with the model as my father @Erlingtheelder bought a 1.2 in 2005 and did a personal import from Germany. He is still running the car 260,000 miles + on and I’ve grown to really enjoy driving it.

On 8th June 2021, dad and I pottered down to Brighton to visit Rab and went for a test drive. He and Rab had plenty to chat about and I listened away and made mental notes of the questions to ask on the journey home regarding the bits I didn’t follow. I’d be lying if I said there weren’t quite a few! Fortunately the journey was worthwhile and a deal was struck for me to purchase the car. This is the car on Rab’s drive on that day.
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This pushed my wife to make it clear a life as a 3 A2 family was not one which she wanted any part of!

Sadly this meant my first A2 love, the grey car, had to go. I was very fortunate that it was actually sold to one of my best friends for his son. It was agreed I would have first refusal if he ever sold it and so I waved goodbye.
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👋😬
 
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In late summer my folks kindly went down to Brighton to collect the 1.2 for me. Rab had kindly done some final jobs to ensure it was in tiptop shape though I must be honest, I forget exactly what. Unfortunately at the latter end of that first journey back to Warwickshire the car developed a transmission issue. As a 1.2 veteran, dad managed to limp the car the last few miles up to the independent mechanic who has looked after his car in recent years. They inspected the car and surmised that the gear selector unit for the auto box was dumping it’s hydraulic fluid, likely caused by a failed seal somewhere within it. Despite much fettling by said mechanic, the thing simply wouldn’t hold its fluid.

Fortunately my father had a ‘spare’ which was tried on the car, the plan being that we would try and get the original repaired to replace the ‘spare’. Sadly this went totally wrong as the ‘spare’ wouldn’t code to the car so kindly Rab provided us with a spare he had. This coincided with a particularly busy period for the mechanic, a particularly bad period of health for my dad and a particularly busy work period for me meaning the car was effectively off the road until just before Christmas. But FINALLY I had my very own WORKING 1.2tdi!
 
The next job was to fit the black leather and alcantara sports seats which had been patiently waiting in the garage since last summer.
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I also fitted the rear cup holder I’d had tucked away.

It was at this moment I made the decision that a jive dash with black seats simply wasn’t doing to work for me. I like the twist/black combination very much as I think it gives a modern look that really appeals but adding jive into it just ruined it.

Unfortunately a fair amount of the trim was showing it’s 180,000 miles and because the car is left hand drive and many of the things are either 1.2 or LHD specific, parts aren’t so easy to acquire. However I got lucky. Dad did a D/D dash conversion very early in his ownership and had kept his near mint LHD single din dash so a solution was available. I just needed to find a window with Tom and save the necessary funds for what I had in mind……
 
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The next job was to sort out the heavily soiled mats. @2work had got agreement to add LHD mats to the group order so I offered to provide templates based on my cars filthy mats!
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Off they went and I can’t wait to get the finished product on my floors!
 
YES Erling! Been wondering where your project thread was!! The fact that this is a 1.2 really adds to the variety.

I really need to update mine - so much has happened!
 
So the next step in the journey was to acquire the necessary parts for my vision. I wanted to create a modern feeling and comfortable space to enjoy my daily commute. Whilst the Pure DAB head unit fitted had many pluses including Bluetooth phone integration, it certainly wasn’t OEM but most important, couldn’t be controlled via a MFSW which for me meant it had to go. So I needed to find an appropriate mfsw and a concert 2 head unit. @2work kindly agreed to pick this one up for me which I found for about £70 on gumtree. This was actually my first drive in the 1.2 and it happened to be to @2work towers!
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You’ll note it has paddles. You might consider this a waste in an A2 but mine has a tiptronic auto box in it, so one of my bucket list jobs for the future is to allow that to be controlled via said paddles. I know this has been achieved on another 1.2 in Germany so it’s just how 🤔

I also sourced this immaculate concert 2 from @ICowie as part of a px deal I did with him on a surplus R-NSE 193 unit which I believe ended up finally being fitted into @steve_c car last weekend in the same spot the concert 2 was fitted into this car. Small universe that of the A2!
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Nice write up, its going to be a modern looking auto. Love the bkack alcantara seats, hyper rare. Those jacket spuds look awesome. Scooped out and refilled, classic.
 
In the intervening period, the car has done about 12k miles, by and large behaving itself. It needed a new battery as a result of me forgetting to turn off the stereo (which had been installed to be permanently live) once too often and killing the aged one in it once and for all, but beyond that, all was well. So I now felt safe to invest in L’y the necessary funds to begin my plan to upgrade her.

I’d exchanged messages with @timmus who kindly managed to fit me into his hectic schedule at @Proghound towers. I had a huge list of wants, including a couple of last minute additions, but none the less Tom bravely committed to doing the jobs in a single day. This of course doesn’t take into account the many hours of preparation time that went into fabricating the looms etc. 15th June was a day I’d been looking forward too for a very long time!

After arriving at Ian’s and assisting with erecting the club gazebo (perfect size and height for an A2 to find under- who knew!!!) Tom got to work removing the Jive dash.
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Any of you who have seen him in action will know that this ‘before’ shot was taken 30 seconds too late. He doesn’t muck about!!!!
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A few minutes later
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And Ian’s drive looked more like one you’d find in a most blessed part of South Wales!!!
 
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This was the state of play by 11am
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And by 1pm he’d found this
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A very dirty underfloor compartment courtesy of this
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A hole in the floor, presumably made by a trolley Jack wielding vandal at some point in the cars past. Another job for the list!!!
 
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Talking of jobs, it would probably be helpful at this point to outline the list of jobs that Mr Cunningham had agreed to tackle.

1- dashboard swap
2- install colour dis
3- install Audi hands free Bluetooth
4- install HD Bluetooth music streaming to the concert 2
5- install MFSW
6- install wiring for the lumbar on the sports seats
7- install wiring for auto dimming mirror.

Quite a tall order in a day.
 
Unfortunately my planning was not what it should have been. I only collected the dash from my fathers garage loft the night before and on arriving with Tom and Ian, realised I’d not thought to procure some important things like side vents in black, centre vents in black, a black ash tray or indeed a grab handle.

Fortunately @Proghound and @timmus saved the day with some clipless side vents Ian loaned me (thank you sir, I’ll return them shortly 🙏🏻) and some soul black trim pieces @timmus removed from the car he’d travelled in (which may actually belong to his sister, not him, but he assured me it would be fine 🤣) to get it looking as good as it could do.

I’ve said elsewhere but I’ll say it again, not only did they work bloomin hard (Ian even fitted a new door check strap and rear window winders for me as one was broken in addition to the above job list) they are an absolute mine of information on all things a2 and many other subjects so it was an excellent day. I’m pretty sure they both slept well that night though, especially Tom as it transpires this was his first 1.2 Tdi dash swap (so I’m honoured) but as everything is in the ‘wrong place’ his muscle memory meant he banged his head a few times and had to think backwards for much of the installation. I finally left him about 20.20pm having arrived about 08.30am so it was a loooong day indeed for him.
 
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The next job was to sort out the heavily soiled mats. @2work had got agreement to add LHD mats to the group order so I offered to provide templates based on my cars filthy mats! View attachment 95902

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Off they went and I can’t wait to get the finished product on my floors!

Those front mats may be pretty grubby right now but they can (and should) clean up nicely with a bit of care. They are the original twist mats that came with the car, and they are made of tufted wool, rather than the synthetic materials used by most mainstream aftermarket mat suppliers.

Don't use hot water, don't use bleach, don't use synthetic quick fix miracle cleaning fluids, and don't rush the cleaning. There's plenty of good advice (and some horrendous offerings) online; just use a bit of common sense. Hot summer weather means right now is the ideal time for a proper clean.
 
To continue with the twist n black vibe, I decided to get the Volico out and re colour the old jive binnacle cover and grab handle Twist.
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Two coats of my trusty Halfords primer
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Followed by two coats of Volico Twist paint
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And I’m getting pretty close to what I want to achieve
 
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This evening I arrived home to a parcel from Wales. My soul black centre vents and ash tray had arrived 😊

So after putting my little girl to bed and having my dinner, I popped out to fit them and take some pictures of where I’m up too
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There is definitely lots more to do, not least fitting the auto dimming mirror which has been recoloured in Twist, but it’s starting to feel like the car I’d imagined.
 
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I'm definitely liking the cluster hood and the the (non-)grab bar in Twist against the black dash. Kudos to your vision! 👍
Cheers Ian. I’ll be honest, the grab handle was a pain as it’s not easy to fit without damaging the paint. The touch up I’ve done I’m not mad on so I may have to have it off again at some point but I’m thrilled with the look.
 
Those front mats may be pretty grubby right now but they can (and should) clean up nicely with a bit of care. They are the original twist mats that came with the car, and they are made of tufted wool, rather than the synthetic materials used by most mainstream aftermarket mat suppliers.

Don't use hot water, don't use bleach, don't use synthetic quick fix miracle cleaning fluids, and don't rush the cleaning. There's plenty of good advice (and some horrendous offerings) online; just use a bit of common sense. Hot summer weather means right now is the ideal time for a proper clean.
Thanks for this. I’m sure you’re right and as soon as the a2oc ones arrive I’ll definitely give it a go!
 
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