My Mars Red Driver 1.4 16V Long termer

Evening all - Thought I'd put up a post to jot down some trials and tribulations from owning my golf!

I bought it about 5 years ago - pulled it out of a garden in Doncaster after hearing about it from a friend of a friend. Hands were shaken, cash exchanged and I took my project home. It came to me as a gti replica 1.3 driver with a 1.4 polo engine.



It had been looked after but taken off the road in favour of a more reliable daily. It started and ran fine so I insured it and got it to a garage for the MOT. It failed on welding and a few bits and bobs that weren't too much of a concern. After a week at the welders they delivered the bad news of serious rot and hidden nasties - It came off the road for real and we stripped the whole thing.
New sills
Rear arches in and out
New front wings
Boot Floor
Chassis at the rear
Rear panel

After it was all welded up we painted it and rebuilt it. Loved every second of it up to this point and took it for a re-test. It dropped oil everywhere on the way to the test centre - Big problem. We took it back to the garage and the engine was given the boot.







Bought the bike carbs with manifold - have since stripped and new gaskets - new jets at bogg bros and then another garage fitted different jets as the drilled ones from bogg bros were a bit of a mess.






Got the engine in place and had a fabricator sort the exhaust to connect up to my existing stainless exhaust - sounds ridiculous with the full stainless set up on there but I do quite like it.



Inside is fairly standard - gti interior that's been well used but well loved. Cleans up nicely.





We went for a 1.4 16V AFH from a 2001 polo - running on CBR600 bike carbs and a bike fuel pump it made for a physically easy conversion with not much wiring and no real complications. It went in and all went on well, I had the engine full stripped and reconned as I had no guarantee it had done the 60k I was told (though I had no reason not to trust the guy I bought it from, I wanted to be sure it was all sorted)



Fast forward to the present day - It's on my drive, running the same engine and scruffy interior and going nicely.

A few cooling issues and still some bodged wiring from before I bought it to try and catch up with but it's all getting done bit by bit. I've now got a jobs list and a clear vision of where it's going. No grand ideas just a fun little weekend ride (possibly daily if my lovely other half decides to take the family car!) Pics to follow…

Here it is sat on the drive getting charged up ready for a run out - I was so on and off with it over summer because of work that everytime I wanted to drive it I had to charge it up.



I spent quite a bit of time trying to sort the wiring niggles in the engine bay. The only thing I'm short of now is reverse lights but I'll get to them when I have a spare morning.

Currently working on sorting the sloppy gearshift out - I seem to have a slightly different set up to what's common. I have a 5 speed box and bought a rebuild/bush kit for the linkage and 99% of it is useless as I don't have most of the rods/levers/brackets.

I am looking for a replacement bush for this:



as you can see that's the entirety of my shift linkage - finding it difficult to get my head around after reading up about the set up and refurb procedure for other types.

So far I've made it worse, not known how to sort it, put it back together and lost 5th gear. It seems that where the rod clamps to the shift assembly it's just trial and error as it moves freely where I was expecting it to be splined and predictable!

Had a day out driving the golf today - temp seems pretty stable with the needle bang in the middle of the gauge, creeping up a little when stuck in traffic but never hot enough to get the fan going.

Noticed a few things that want attention -

Gears aren't just sloppy - they get tougher the hotter the engine gets. Really difficult to put into gear. Could be clutch dragging on it's way out or maybe gearbox oil wants a change (not sure when it was last done so that's my first job before I worry about a clutch)

Speedo seems to jump around quite alot but I'm not sure if that's normal. Cable all seems seated quite normally and it's not a big discrepancy - just a few mph up and down all the time…

Coolant is a bit rank and brown after changing it a few days ago. Think my matrix was probably clogged up with crud so going to drain and flush the whole thing out tomorrow and re-fill with fresh coolant again.

Getting there slowly but surely…

looks good man, keep up the good work  

A few little tidying up jobs today - have no boot carpet or tailgate so just made a couple of temporary panels to tidy it up until I can get the real deal sorted.

Started off making a pretty technical template from some expertly sourced template making materials - I think transferred that onto some 4mm ply that I had lying about



Then did the same for the parcel shelf from 6mm ply - this was a little warped but I had some 90 degree pine trim that I stuck along the back edge to give it at least a little rigidity. This is only until I can find a real parcel shelf so I won't lose too much sleep over a bit of a bend in it.



I then trimmed both panels using carpet from megavanmats in Leeds - I've used them loads before and they always have exactly whats needed and will always make sure you're using the right stuff.






And with the parcel shelf in too - looks fairly smart.



Happy with that for a mornings work! I'll do some real work on the car next week as I'm going to collect some coilovers tonight to replace the absolutely battered budget lowering springs that have been on there since the dawn of time.



 

georgeyv said

A few little tidying up jobs today - have no boot carpet or tailgate so just made a couple of temporary panels to tidy it up until I can get the real deal sorted.

Started off making a pretty technical template from some expertly sourced template making materials - I think transferred that onto some 4mm ply that I had lying about



Then did the same for the parcel shelf from 6mm ply - this was a little warped but I had some 90 degree pine trim that I stuck along the back edge to give it at least a little rigidity. This is only until I can find a real parcel shelf so I won't lose too much sleep over a bit of a bend in it.



I then trimmed both panels using carpet from megavanmats in Leeds - I've used them loads before and they always have exactly whats needed and will always make sure you're using the right stuff.






And with the parcel shelf in too - looks fairly smart.



Happy with that for a mornings work! I'll do some real work on the car next week as I'm going to collect some coilovers tonight to replace the absolutely battered budget lowering springs that have been on there since the dawn of time.



 

It's really great to see this little car back on the road, and i am really glad she's looking great, me and my partner previously owned this car back in 1992 up until
2004. If you would like to know any past history, please get in touch it would be great to hear from you. Also have some photo's of what she looked like then.

Well executed plan for a temporary solution. Looks much better than having nothing there.     

nigel74 said

It's really great to see this little car back on the road, and i am really glad she's looking great, me and my partner previously owned this car back in 1992 up until
2004. If you would like to know any past history, please get in touch it would be great to hear from you. Also have some photo's of what she looked like then.

That would be amazing - could you PM me your email address and I'll be in touch? Would love to see some old pictures and find out some more about its history!

Beeno said

Well executed plan for a temporary solution. Looks much better than having nothing there.     

Cheers! I agree - it'll do the job until I can source the right bits and it looks fairly smart too.

Just spent the morning wrestling with the suspension - Old shocks and springs off along with top mounts that were absolutely shot.

Went to GSF and got some top mounts - 2 different brands - one Febi and one really budget version. Done one side and ordered in another febi so will do the other side when that arrives.

Started with removing the original shock -



Had loads of bother removing the bolts but used a tonne of plusgas and a breaker bar and they came off ok. Cleaned up the threads with a wire brush and they were in decent nick just not moved for a long time.



Got the new coilover on - including a new febi top mount as the old ones were a write off.






Height looks about right, will probably let them settle and then raise it up a bit as I don't fancy driving something too low - especially not with the state of roads near me.

Hit a brick wall after the first one, eccentric bolt on the other side snapped clean off, and the smaller bolt doesnt have a nut, just has a threaded round thing with no way to grip so going to have to cut it off when I have a free hour!

Left it sat on the drive looking sorry for itself…

Looking good so far. Got quite a bit done.  

Finally managed to get a couple of hours to myself to attack the stuck front shock -

I'd previously sheared the top bolt off and the bottom one was so rounded I couldnt even get started on it.

Decided to make some room and get the grinder on the job



Went for a cut straight down the bolt to take the nut in two as I could get the grinder in at that angle and it seemed to be the easiest way



Came off pretty well with a pry bar and hammer to split the nut off either side and then just pinged the bolt straight out with a punch and hammer



Popped the new top mount and shock into place but I'm waiting on a new eccentric bolt being delivered before I put it together. Going to get it somewhere near right then take it to have the camber and tracking done before I drive it anywhere.

Wow you sure had your  hands full with that one. Well done. And those coil overs looks great as any new part always does. Well done so far.    

Nice build this mate! I'm about to stick an AFH lump in my poverty spec mk1 also. May give you a shout if I get stuck if you don't mind :-)

The fuel lines under the tank are perished as above and need sorting, going to attempt it without taking the tank off. The tank came off early days and I'll never forget
The headache that it was. 

Still struggling with the rear shocks so I'm going to borrow an air saw and give it a go- hopefully as effective as the hacksaw blade method and less elbow grease required! We will see… 

Best of luck man I know replacing those pipes is a crappy job.

Little bit of messing about and the above method worked a treat, took a while to get the fuel lines tied together tight enough to not pull apart when it inevitably snagged on it's way through. Alot easier than I was expecting though.

The old fuel lines were just battered and perished from years of coming off and going back on and being under the car.

Great method you got there. Will keep it in mind.