Campaign resto

After three and a half years of owning this Campaign I'm finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel with regards getting it back on the road. 
As I owned two Mk1's up until this summer when I sold my Lhasa green GTI, this car was often sidelined a little due to the work I needed to do on the Lhasa, the arrival of my son and a busy work life. 

As the chap I bought it from had also done such an incredible job restoring it to such a high level, I must admit that it was a little intimidating to try to match the work he'd already done. I've also gained a lot more experience and confidence working on the cars since 2017 which also helps! This was the car when I bought it in 2017.

First job was to find a decent bonnet and then get the two doors and bonnet off to the paint shop. The previous owner had kindly supplied me with 1 litre of the paint that was used whilst the rest of the car was being painted so it all matched perfectly.

Once I'd finished building and refurbing all of the interior parts of the doors, I took them down to Wiltshire where the car was stored and transported it the 90 miles to its new home, just a couple of miles away.

As I mentioned before I still had my Lhasa GTI at this point and as that car was on the road the spare time I had was often spent working on that one. It was also really pricey sourcing bits for two MK1's at the same time so I'm really happy to be concentrating all of my efforts into just the one car. 

The small bits and pieces I did do to the Campaign were fitting the new radiator, bonnet and grill……oh and building the OE handles and re-coding all of the locks to match the ignition - brilliant 'how to' guide on here. I do have the original 4 light grill stored away but prefer the look of the single light.

One of the next jobs on the list is to assemble the steering column but as some of the parts are so bloody difficult to get hold of this may take a couple of months of waiting. 

As I didn't do the original work and am learning as I go along the next job on the list was to go through my box of switches, attach them to the loom, hook up the instrument cluster and an ignition switch and pop in a battery. I held my breath as I turned the ignition switch for the first time but it was a success as the lights popped on and no smoke appeared!








 Next up I turned the engine over briefly and the starter engaged as it should - phew!

As the engine hasn't run yet, next on the list was to add coolant and de-ironised water to the cooling system. I gave the hose at the top of the radiator a good few squeezes as I added more fluid and noticed a leak. Initially I thought it was a loose jubilee clip but on closer inspection realised that it was coming from the heater control valve so now have one of those on order.

Next up test fitting the dash. After finding all of the jigsaw pieces to direct the air from the blower to the vents I started to assemble. This proved to be a bit of a faff as the garage is very tight and I can only open the doors a little. After passing it through the boot hatch the dash popped in reasonably easily. I managed to attach the screws finger tight and will tighten them up when I manage to get the car out. 



Next stumbling block was to attach the heater control unit. After fumbling around for a while I realised that one of the cables for the unit actually needed to be detached and fed around the back of the fan unit to the right hand side. When I re-attached it two problems arose. Firstly, one of the tabs on the unit that screws to the dash had snapped off and was missing and secondly, the routing sheath for the cable with the sharp bend at the bottom of the fan box was separated in a couple of places. Diagram kindly supplied by briano.
   It's a good job I was digging around down at the bottom of the fan box as I also noticed on the jubilee clips holding one of the pipes through the bulk head to the matrix was loose and also leaking. 

so are you after the complete heater control
unit mate

nicci21paul said

so are you after the complete heater control
unit mate

 I've ordered one from eBay, was going to ask if anybody had one as I've had to buy the complete blower system. Do you have one? 

will have at work this morning and heavy snow
at the moment if you want to ring me 07739608140

nicci21paul said

will have at work this morning and heavy snow
at the moment if you want to ring me 07739608140

 great, thanks. Have dropped you a WhatsApp 

Just popped a little guide on using a free ETKA online program - real lifesaver for me!

View topic: Free Online ETKA Part Identifier Part Number Diagrams etc - The Mk1 Golf Owners Club

Still waiting on parts from all corners of the globe to rebuild the steering column assembly so decided to take a look at the perspex window on the console. As with most of these parts I've had stored waiting, I've not really studied them too closely so am noticing the flaws as I go along. 

As you can see below there's what appears to be a smudge in the centre of the perspex which I initially thought was grease or dirt but it's actually a scratched area/blemish that wouldn't clean off, god knows how it got there!







Thought I'd try the old headlight trick using that household fine abrasive, toothpaste and it worked really well. It took three or four goes but the finely scratched patch has now all but disappeared.










Not the most skilful or demanding of jobs but a really satisfying one all the same. The MFA LCD has a slight bleed on it too but I'll not touch that until I've started the engine and can proper test. The stalks were also covered in primer and metal filings so I gave them a good clean off too.  

A few more bits sorted, the replacement heater control unit and cables arrived and thankfully turned out to be pretty good. Nice to have a few spare bit for the future!








Next up the leaky heater control valve unit and knackered jubilee clip on the lower hose entering the car through the bulkhead. Fingers crossed all appears to be watertight!




Dash also now starting to take shape! It's a real lift when the inside starts to look a little more like a GTI!

Must be nice assembling all back together! Just ashame good condition parts are getting harder and harder to find now!

BISSONE said

Must be nice assembling all back together! Just ashame good condition parts are getting harder and harder to find now!

 Great feeling, really looking forward to a summer of driving!

are you still after heater control mate

nicci21paul said

are you still after heater control mate

I manage to find one thanks

Hello mate, hope you are well. Good to see that you are picking up where i left off and appear to be making a cracking job of completing the resto.

I will certainly watch this with interest and don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about the car.

daztheoneclaw said

Hello mate, hope you are well. Good to see that you are picking up where i left off and appear to be making a cracking job of completing the resto.

I will certainly watch this with interest and don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about the car.

 Thanks Daz, your work was nothing short of exceptional! So good in fact that as I mentioned earlier I was a little overly conscious of finishing the golf properly! I've done a good bit of head scratching over the past few weeks trying to iron bits out but am thoroughly enjoying it! I've a few days off now and have a long list of jobs ahead of me so should have a good few updates.