Golf GL

Here's the story of my little Golf…



Originally I was looking for a MK2 GTI when I came across an advertisement on Gumtree.ni which drew my attention. There was little information about the car in the description other than it was a 1982, Golf GL with 9 months MOT located in Bangor along with a few photos to complement the advert.






After a little back and forth with the seller a viewing was arranged. It was clear the car had some work done as it was well looked after as to drove very well especially with the raspy twin Dellorto carburettors giving the engine a nice note. The seller informed me that he took it as a part exchange and unfortunately had no knowledge of the car and had no interest in VW's but thought it was a 'cool little car' but had his time with it so decide to sell it on.

Seeing the potential and opportunity to own a MK1 a deal was negotiated and then car was collected two weeks later. The car drove perfectly from Bangor to Co.louth with no problems and finally home safe and sound.



The following months were dealt with alot of paperwork to get it VRT after the revenue made a mix up but eventually got everything sorted and the little GL was finally on Irish plates. Decided to stay with the ZV plate as it was in keeping with the age of the car.

I also replaced the sump as it was badly dinted and was dropping some oil and gave it, it's first service under my ownership. The stickers were also removed as they were plastered all over the car. The drivers wing was replaced as it was a non OEM wing which didn't sit well with me and I managed to pick up an original parcel shelf with no holes in it. Result.

Mk1 at our local Cars & Coffee meet in Dundalk.


So this is where things got interesting and I started to do a little more investigating.



When I bought the car it came with a folder that I started working my way through. One of which included the original service booklet which confirmed the car was sold on 15/12/82 from Walton Lodge Garage in Surrey which was a registered VW dealership. The booklet had service stamps until 1989 at 66,624 miles.

Having spent the majority of it's life in UK its clear that a VW nut had gotten their hands on the Golf at some from the parts receipts from VW heritage, piper cams and awesome tuning. A full engine rebuild was also completed in 2016 while in the UK.

It appears the car made it's way to Northern Ireland around 2017/2018 having had two owners before I got it.



After putting the car through the NCT it failed drastically on the HC's. While looking at tuning options I put a post up on mk1 Golf Owners club and got a reply from the owner who built the engine. After a lengthy conversation he was able to tell me that the little GL had the following:

Big compression cc head
1 / 1/2mm taken off the head and ported and polished
Twin Dellorto 40s carbs
Piper Race Cam
1.6 bottom end with 20k on it at the time all balanced and lightened
ACD close ratio gearbox
Coilovers
Drilled and vented discs

At this stage I opted to keep the Dollortos and looked into getting them tuned up. David Clarke kindly put me in touch with Ben Lawerence to get a tune up.

After speaking to Ben he told me that he had previously worked on the car which was great to gesr and knew exactly what needed to be done. Unfortunately the owner at the time he was working on it got impatient and pulled the car before Ben got to finish tuning it. He was more than happy to take it on once again to finish the tuning.

So first thing I need to do before Ben came was to replace the gasket with anti vibration mounts

Before:


During:


After:


I must give a huge thanks to Ben for sorting out the carb set up on my MK1 Golf  which was running rough and lumpy. He spent the majority of last Friday in the daffodil rain troubleshooting and tuning and wouldn't stop until everything was running perfect.

Completely different car now and a pleasure to drive. So much smoother at the lower end and good consist power through the whole range.

Couldn't have asked for a more decent fella. Very knowledgeable and easy to get along with. A real perfectionist with his work and highly recommended.



Picked up a set of 15" 7.5 autostar minus alloys to replace the old 13" before the last local cars and coffee







So what's next?

I had intentionally bought this car to sell on but with the history and character I think its would be shame to at this stage.

The car needs some small welding done and I'm going to replace the rear axle mounts as they are starting to show their age. Apart from that the car is solid which is positive. Few small areas to tidy up which I'm hoping to keep yous update on.

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Just a little update for you all. Having spoken to a friend and local vw guy a few discussions were had about what direction the mk1 should take.

So I arranged to buy a gti rear axle and front anti roll bar with the intention of converting the drums to discs.

I've been collecting a few parts over the last couple of weeks including a full rear disc conversion.

There was a brilliant guide on Edition38 I was going to follow but unfortunately the site has now closed down. So ill try to provide a detailed guide when rebuilding it back together. Bare in mind I'm a complete novice so I'll be taking my time to get it right.

First off the strip down.

Looking at getting the rear axle sand blasted and powder coated. Has anyone used any other methods for treating their rear axle. I see Por-15 seems a popular option but requires alot of materials to get it done properly.

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hi , this is a cool little car . i would of thought sandblast and powder coat would sort the rear beam out . were you going to do any more brake mods with the rear discs . 

Finally got some time to start getting the rear end built up.

First time ever doing something like this and fitting wheel bearings but its pretty straight forward once you have everything layed out in the correct order and take your  time.

I used a 36mm socket for the inner bearing race and a 30mm socket for the outter. You'll hear a distinctive sound when they are seated correctly and just remember to pack everything with plenty of grease.

Very important to set the adjustment on the outter nut also. To do this the outter bearing should be seated by tightening up the nut, then back it up so that it is just about finger tight. Next get a flathead screwdriver and make sure the washer is just about movable with the flathead. Once happy and the rotor freely moves put on the castle nut and split pin. You can also put some extra grease on the inside of the cap to prevent dust particles entering the bearing.

Weather started to deteriorate towards the end so didnt get as many pictures as I hoped.

So the rear set up is as follows:

mk1 gti rear beam, blasted, treated and powdercoated.

Mk2 dust shields, axle stubs and rotors.

Mk4 rear calipers

Mk4 goodridge braided hose lines

Mk2 16v scirroco handbrake cables

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Finished off the rear disc conversion but turns out the rear calipers provided in the conversation kit appeared to be from an Audi so I'll be replacing these for mk4 ones. You'll also see you have to grind down a bit of the rear beam to allow space for the bottom carrier bolt.

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Then the strip down began.

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Got the driveshafts removed. Tip: use a vice grip against the wishbone to stop the shaft from spinning while you remove the bolts. Also clean the threads and tap the spline bit in to get a good grip as so you dont want to round them.

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Rear door bolts turned to cheese which was fun trying to drill out but eventually got them removed using a bolt extractor. Excellent tool a d would highly recommend for any rounded bolts.

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Next on the list was removing the engine. First time doing this and only took a few minutes with some help from a friend. Split the engine from the box and got it onto the engine stand.

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Having dropped the rear beam and suspension I ran into a small issue as the handbrake cables would not feed though the tunnels (circleed in red) to remove the rear end as it was seized. Bit of wd40 overnight and the cables slid straight out.

Dashboard was also removed at this stage.

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So the day finally arrived to ge the car onto the roll over jig. Ordered it from Rolloverjig.co.uk pre assembled. Instructions wernt great but managed to figure it all out and is a solid bit of kit. One axle mount needs repaired and a few other bits including the rear inner arches and the sills need to be straighted. Petty solid underneath and contemplating where to sit fix what's needed or strip it all back and reseal it.

Any comments regarding the underside are welcome.

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Looks like you're having fun  

Good luck with it, can't beat a small block in my opinion.  I also have a small block on twin 40's in my Derby. Sound great don't they?

Ian

borednow said

Looks like you're having fun  

Good luck with it, can't beat a small block in my opinion.  I also have a small block on twin 40's in my Derby. Sound great don't they?

Ian

Thanks, yeah first time doing any type of work on a car so safe to say I've thrown myself in the deep end.

I really enjoy the small block. Plenty enough power in them for me personally and as you said hard to beat with the 40's.
Mines has been port and polished, piper race cam with a GTI bottom end and quick shift gearbox. Just hope it all works again when it goes back in

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Started on the underside at weekend. Overall the floors are solid which is good news. Just a few areas that need attention mainly the rear chassis mount which is why I decide to strip the car down in the first place. Support plate underneath is solid and just looks to be the outter skin that needs replacing.

Hoping to try my hand at some of the welding.

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Made a start on the repair sections. As can be seen the outter skin on the rear axle mount was poorly repaired at some stage. After remove this I found more damage to the sheet metal underneath.

First job was to line up the repair panel to get some reference points before removing the structural support section. You can see from the 3rd pic that it wasnt sitting flush. Took alot of 'fettling' but 4 hours later I got the panel to sit flush which I was very pleased with.

Also removed some of the rotted/damaged sections which are now ready for some new metal.

Can any recommend a good seam sealer? I'm between por 50 and raptor at the minute.

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Made a start on the underside. Luckily it's been very solid so far and no hidden rust which is a bonus. I'm using a wire wheel on an angle grinder and drill to tackle the underseal which has been working a treat.

After alot of research and advice I've decided to coat the underside in epoxy primer, 2k primer and dintirol when the time comes.

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Made a start on refurbishing the fuel tank and heat shield. Used hammerite smooth black spray to coat the tank, 3 coats both sides.

Very important to let the tank air out before taking sort of grinder to it.

Next up was the fuel tank heat shield. Originally they were not installed but problems with fuel vapourisation led to the recall and install of the shields which were produced in Mexico for Volkswagen.

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Like the work mate.

Getting there  

Ian

borednow said

Like the work mate.

Getting there  

Ian

Thanks. Getting he small components done which I wasnt looking forward to but came up well.

Got a few more brackets and mounts done at the weekend.

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Great work! Can I buy your roll over jog when you're finished with it?