Guy's Rivage

helloo

well, its been a while but we're almost on the home straight..

I first joined up when I was looking to get a mk1 cab for the mrs a couple of years ago… it was a completely impulse buy but as soon as I saw it I knew that I had to have it!

mk1 newbie introduction

the day I got it back..


mk1 rivage by Guy Frankland, on Flickr

I gave it a bloody good exterior clean, the interior was a bit of a hill to climb (more on that later)

poor thing I don't think had ever had a proper clean…. so i clayed, polished and waxed until she started to look a bit happier…


mk1 rivage - clay by Guy Frankland, on Flickr


mk1 Rivage by Guy Frankland, on Flickr


mk1 Rivage by Guy Frankland, on Flickr


mk1 Rivage by Guy Frankland, on Flickr


mk1 Rivage by Guy Frankland, on Flickr


mk1 Rivage by Guy Frankland, on Flickr

aaah… thats more like it


mk1 Rivage by Guy Frankland, on Flickr


mk1 Rivage by Guy Frankland, on Flickr


mk1 Rivage by Guy Frankland, on Flickr

so since then various things have happened.. the mrs decided that the non-power steering wasn't for her… so I took it on (such a hardship)

its been a long time but there were several things wrong with it when I first got it..

fuel pump relay was staying on - corrected immediately

water pump was knackered - this was difficult to replace as I couldn't get the alternator off as some monkey had kindly rounded off the hex bolt.. eventually got there in the end by taking off the alternator and mounting bracket from the block and getting the bolt out in a workshop - a big thank you to rubjonny for this!


rounded off bolt by Guy Frankland, on Flickr

clifford cat1 microwave alarm and immobiliser

new head unit and speakers all round

cam belt & tensioner - thank you to rubjonny again!  8)

front flange, flange O ring and side O ring

new thermostat and full coolant flush replaced with G12++

this took me up to about the middle of July 2009

I then had a bit of a breather until I got fed up with the interior being so filthy…

Interior detail

I always knew this was going to be a big hill to climb so I set myself some time aside and decided to crack on with it…

I stripped all the seats out and was greeted by this…


Mk1 Interior Detail by Guy Frankland, on Flickr


Mk1 Interior Detail by Guy Frankland, on Flickr

mmmm… yummy

so out came the carpet..


Mk1 Interior Detail by Guy Frankland, on Flickr

and I realised nothing was tidy at all

so I cracked on with the carpet as I knew I had my work cut out with that…


Mk1 Interior Detail by Guy Frankland, on Flickr


Mk1 Interior Detail by Guy Frankland, on Flickr

part way through cleaning


Mk1 Interior Detail by Guy Frankland, on Flickr


Mk1 Interior Detail by Guy Frankland, on Flickr


Mk1 Interior Detail by Guy Frankland, on Flickr


Mk1 Interior Detail by Guy Frankland, on Flickr

and on the line to dry!


Mk1 Interior Detail by Guy Frankland, on Flickr

then it was back to the interior.. with all the wires cable tidied and managed in a logical manner…


Mk1 Interior Detail by Guy Frankland, on Flickr

lined with dynamat and soundproofing material


Mk1 Interior Detail by Guy Frankland, on Flickr

back in with the carpet


Mk1 Interior Detail by Guy Frankland, on Flickr


Mk1 Interior Detail by Guy Frankland, on Flickr

and back in with the interior


Mk1 interior by Guy Frankland, on Flickr


Mk1 interior by Guy Frankland, on Flickr

all hunky dory…

then about 2 months later this happened during a period of heavy rain…


wet rivage by Guy Frankland, on Flickr


wet rivage by Guy Frankland, on Flickr

to say I was gutted was not the word…

I eventually found the source of the leak to be where the monkey who fitted my alarm had taken a shortcut through the bulkhead, bypassing an important grommet, from the scuttle panel.. the water was going straight from there following the wires down and straight into the passenger compartment. I was furious, nay.. livid


leak found! by Guy Frankland, on Flickr

various things took over and in the november of 2009 I didn't renew the tax so declared it SORN with the intention of getting her back up and running in the spring after a rather harsh winter

this didn't happen  

so the following spring things took a different turn… business needed concentrating on and day to day life kinda took over…

I am not sure what happened to 2010 in all honesty.. it went by in a flash!

so winter was fast approaching again and I wanted to make sure that the cabby would be back up and running in 2011… and it wouldn't survive another winter being mothballed

I spoke to a VERY good friend of mine who had a garage and also time on his hands to help me with things that needed to be done

we set about a plan of action

although the driving in late 2009 had been 'reliable' it had never felt 100% safe… bits wobbled.. loud bangs going over bumps.. and it made driving feel well, risky…

I had it trailered over to my friends place in Nov 2010

we did a full assessment and decided upon the following

stainless steel filler pipe replacement
new suspension (springs and struts)
new wishbones and ball joints including bushes and ARB bushes

although many people might look at this as afternoons work please bear in mind that this is the first time I have done things like this myself… so with the aid of my trusty tutor (an aircraft mechanic with 22 years experience) we set about getting the mk1 'safe' - anything that we touched during the replacement process was replaced with new items wherever possible

the stainless filler pipe went on.. easy enough.





shocking how corroded the last pipe was…



the suspension was a replacement bilstein springs and shocks from europerformance - we had a MAJOR song and dance with this

the fronts came off and went back on… easy ish… i refurbished the struts…  but the new springs didn't seem quite right



the rears just seemed completely wrong



the springs didn't mount on the shocks at all  :?



old springs on new struts just to show how they should fit


europerformance suggested that maybe we had ordered the wrong parts… but that didn't tally with the part numbers on springs etc

so we had another look and my friend, who I will be forever indebted to, spotted this..

this was the part number we needed - just a shame it was on the wrong spring



and the feint original part number



so… back on the phone it was to europerformance and to be fair they held their hands up and sent out the correct bits… and had the others couried back..

they had sent out 60mm drop springs for both front and rear.. i had ordered -30mm drop

so the new rear springs fit…



and the fronts are now correct too!



here is how she sits now






Rivage by Guy Frankland, on Flickr

replaced the rocker cover gasket too… pretty sure the old one shouldn't look like this…


Untitled by Guy Frankland, on Flickr

So here we are.. up to date (almost)

we decided that it was time for an MOT and to see what she passed/failed on

we were both like expectant fathers waiting outside a maternity ward

she failed on three things with one advisory (nearside handbrake 30% down)

side offside indicator not working - fixed by giving it a whack   :twisted:
screen washers not working - fixed by giving the connector a wiggle  
nearside track rod end - excessive play

this was a far better result than we expected… I am not sure what I did expect.. but I will take this any day

it has been dropped off into a local garage for inspection… the steering rack was completely FUBAR… I kinda had this feeling as there was a lot of play in the steering… hopefully pick it up wednesday (11th May) morning… re-MOT and then tax it and drive it home!!

I cannot wait!  

oh… and it was lovely to be getting compliments about her again.. the bloke in the garage asked when I had her resprayed… when I said it was original paintwork (apart from bumpers and skirts) he couldn't quite believe it!

plans for when she comes out on the roads again

new roof - has to be done as there are two splits in it
new gear linkage set with mk3 shift rod weight in it
3 point seat belts in the back

then onto cosmetics…
custom steering wheel re-trim
interior refurb/retrim
boot space refurb
bumper respray and touch ups elsewhere

comments are welcome

Looking very nice mate.

A lot of work has gone into it.

The carpet looks a bit better :-)

Does the dynomat make a difference?

BigNormRivage said

Looking very nice mate.

A lot of work has gone into it.

The carpet looks a bit better :-)

Does the dynomat make a difference?

yeah.. the carpet was a shot to nothing… I wanted to keep original parts where I could and tbh it is a very good quality carpet, even if it was completely knackered.

the dynomat I had kicking about after an install I did on another car… I'm not sure whether the difference is all that massive.. but every little helps… If I pop a sub and amp in I will dynomat the boot - but the boot install will come later

Guy

Your car looks great, you say your a first timer but your doing great, it always helps when you have a good mate to help !!

Your carpet came up great, some elbow grease !!

I think I am worse than you but with MY good mate just replaced the cooling system and found it enjoyable, its just getting the confidence going.

I think our cars seem to be in a similar condition and we want to do the same things to them - roof, stereo, alarm and stainless exhaust system.

Attached my link and see what you think ?

http://www.vwgolfmk1.org.uk/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=89767&highlight=

Hope you like it as I tried to buy the same as yours b4 having to drive to London to get mine as all the cars up here were crap  :dontknow:

Looked at an immaculate green rivage leather the same as yours in Glasgow, please beleive me the only immaculate thing about it was the spiders webs inside  :dontknow: and she wanted £3500 for it with poss same again to be spent just to get it looking ok

Cheers Chris

a good read, thanks for posting

re the - 'nearside track rod end - excessive play ' could you tell by driving.. ??  

re the power steering for the wife…   Jetta on the forum can provide you with a modified steering column with a corsa eletronic power steering

I had an advisory on my last mot for play in track rod end and that may have been the source of the rattle on mine all along.. grr

cheers
tony

Massbad69 said

Guy

Your car looks great, you say your a first timer but your doing great, it always helps when you have a good mate to help !!

Your carpet came up great, some elbow grease !!

I think I am worse than you but with MY good mate just replaced the cooling system and found it enjoyable, its just getting the confidence going.

I think our cars seem to be in a similar condition and we want to do the same things to them - roof, stereo, alarm and stainless exhaust system.

Attached my link and see what you think ?

http://www.vwgolfmk1.org.uk/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=89767&highlight=

Hope you like it as I tried to buy the same as yours b4 having to drive to London to get mine as all the cars up here were crap  :dontknow:

Looked at an immaculate green rivage leather the same as yours in Glasgow, please beleive me the only immaculate thing about it was the spiders webs inside  :dontknow: and she wanted £3500 for it with poss same again to be spent just to get it looking ok

Cheers Chris

hi.. thanks… like your clipper!  8)

i say 'first timer' - i had my first mk1 back in 1992.. but then i moved over to astras and calibres until i found a mk3… that gave me the golf bug back so now I have a 2k caddy and a mk1 (the mk3 has just been sold).. I was tinkering more and more but I have only just got the balls to start having a proper go at mechanical stuff.. and i have had a lot of help from some very nice people in the vw scene over the last few years!

i was lucky with mine and managed to pick it up for £1950.. even with all the problems it seemed like a good deal.. would like to know what it would be worth when I have finished everything on it!

the stereo made it more enjoyable when I was using it as it was drowning out the rattles… don't think i'll be using it as loud from now on though

the alarm made real sense… i don't want anyone getting their hands on this and the old alarm was a pile of junk and stopped the car from functioning properly  

PNERivage said

a good read, thanks for posting

re the - 'nearside track rod end - excessive play ' could you tell by driving.. ??  

re the power steering for the wife…   Jetta on the forum can provide you with a modified steering column with a corsa eletronic power steering

I had an advisory on my last mot for play in track rod end and that may have been the source of the rattle on mine all along.. grr

cheers
tony

yeah… could tell by driving… there was a horrid rattle from the nearside front… the MOT tester said that when the steering was being turned left and right the boot was going up and down!  

it really didn't steer very well at all!!

if I were you I would change it… new steering racks only cost £60-£80 and take a couple of hours for a mechanic to fit or you could give it a whirl yourself as it is only 4 bolts i understand.

as for the p/steering… I will give it a miss but thank you.. she has her focus/workhorse which she likes and she says I am too anal about the mk1 for her to drive it. the steering has become a lot better now though!

Guy

Looking very good, look forward to seeing it at DATP & maybe the odd berks meet

James_W said

Guy

Looking very good, look forward to seeing it at DATP & maybe the odd berks meet

cheers James - very much hoping she'll be ready and MOT'd in time for DATP and will do my best to make the local meets 8)

Hey... great job being done. keep up the good work!

Shughy said

Hey… great job being done. keep up the good work!

cheers chap

balls!! had this booked in for re-MOT tomorrow lunchtime and the place where the steering rack is being fitted said it would be ready Wed morn…had a call from them about 8pm tonight saying that the steering rack they got in was the wrong one!!  :roll:

So we're now delayed till Friday/Saturday  :?

gfrankland said

balls!! had this booked in for re-MOT tomorrow lunchtime and the place where the steering rack is being fitted said it would be ready Wed morn…had a call from them about 8pm tonight saying that the steering rack they got in was the wrong one!!  :roll:

So we're now delayed till Friday/Saturday  :?

I feel your pain, My garage used to always get there parts from euro carparts and they more often than not they ended up with mk2 parts.  I tend to get my garage the parts myself  from tierod69 on ebay or vwspares

cheers
Tony

there is a horrid rumour going about that the car will be ready for collection tomorrow afternoon… i'm secretly excited but will refuse to believe it until I get the car back in my grubby hands!!

So what you doing Wednesday night then Guy

James_W said

So what you doing Wednesday night then Guy

going to the pub all being well?!