My 16v Clipper Project

Let me introduce my Mk1 Golf Clipper.

This is my second mk1 Golf, my first was a tintop driver which i had as a first car and still own although the likelyhood of a resto on that are slim due to accident damage in the past.

The story on the Clipper is a bit of a long one so i'll keep it short and concentrate on the more recent stuff that i've done to it. I bought the car with my sister 14 years ago, she lost interest in it due to the heavy steering and it ended up being my daily driver while i was at uni. It did me proud for those years minus a replacement engine and even stayed with me on my 250mile a week commute for my first year of work until i retired it in favour of a Lupo Sport.

The stage where it came off the road saw a few shows attended then an engine change to the engine from my tintop which by which point i'd spent quite a lot on. It was a mildly modified mk2 8v motor on twin 40's with a Schrick cam and some headwork, great fun to drive fast but a pig in the town where the cabby was doing most of it's work. So that engine came out when i was offered a full mk2 16v non runner for £100.

The 16v stage has been a long one! I initially did the conversion in 2006/7 but also met my wife around this point so progress slowed while i did a 200 odd mile round trip to Brackley every other weekend and the rest of the time was taken up by the lupo and other family commitments. I was never happy with the first 16v swap attempt so i basically started over and did it to a standard i was happier with to the point where i've probably got enough parts left in the garage (that i wasn't happy with) that i could do at least another mk1 16v swap!

So the point i'm at with the car now is that it's back in daily duties and currently looks like this.



My thoughts when i was rebuilding the car was that i wanted it to be as close as i could get within reason to a factory mk1 16v mechanically and it's certainly nearly at that stage now. Starting with a clipper obviously meant that a lot of fuel injection parts had to be sourced, from the rear forwards i've installed a scirocco lift pump, late mk1 cab swirl pot, fuel pump and accumulator and all the associated brackets.



Finding these parts wasn't easy but i managed to get a bargain with all of them (£40 for the above and the pump and accumulator are almost new) due to shopping around and keeping my eyes open, i also managed to pick up some spares on my travels as the swirls pots appear to be obsolete now. Also new fuel lines were purchased from Crazy Quiffs.



One item i didn't plan on replacing was the fuel tank but once i got the car on the road i discovered mine was shot so everything came back off along with some extras and i stuck a new tank in too. Whilst that was off i refurbished the rear beam and made up some new brake lines, i'd already installed all new nuts and bolts so that made the job a bit easier! This is the old tank!



Rear beam painted



For anyone doing brake lines i highly recommend the tool below, i've never done brake lines before and it made life so easy. I managed to join one of the steel lines too no problem whatsoever which is supposed to be quite hard if you believe the internet! It's called a powerhand.



The metering head is from a 1.6 gti mk1 although i'm not sure this is the best route, maybe people can give me a bit of feedback on their own experiences? I'd read that it gave some benefit but it was that long ago i've since forgotten!  I've still got a new set of injectors which i got brand new for £20 to go in when i fit my cleaned up inlet manifold, another ebay bargain!

On the electrics side of things i installed a full mk2 16v CE1 engine loom and a mk1 gti fuel pump loom with thanks to rubjonny's fusebox FAQ. The idea with this is that i could have mk1 and mk2 elements of the car so if anything goes wrong i know which car it's associated with if that makes sense and also so i can run the MFA. I've got a couple of ecu's to use (early and late) so feedback on those would be good too. The wiring was all shortened to fit the mk1 engine bay but that also meant i could hide some of it and try and tidy it up. The only issue i've had with the electrics is that the temp guage light is constantly flashing but i've put this down to not having a sensor on the washer bottle so that's another thing on the list.

This is what the engine bay currently looks like. I've got another inlet manifold which i've painted up which will go on once i've ironed out all of the niggles.



The exhaust is an Ashley downpipe which fits perfectly which surprised me from what i'd read mated with a Miltek centre section and backbox.

There's a lot of stuff on the car that i won't get into but the majority of components have been replaced over time, a lot stuff is still to be replaced as it's really a never ending project. I'll keep updating as i go along though.

Here's the most recent picture of it outside my house the other day, probably one of the most satisfying pictures!

 

Beautiful looking car Chris. Looks like you've been working hard  

Love the wheels.

Matt

That's very nice. The engine transplant sounds complicated! I think I'll stick with the carb on mine.

How the hell do you get it off the kerb without killing it though  

Ian

Nice work Chris, tidy looking cabby and the wheels look good on it  

Cheers! It's been a long slog but i feel like i'm getting somewhere with it now.

I think i'll probably change the wheels at some point even though i do like them. I'd prefer to have a half inch less width on the front so i'm probably going to look for a set of rs's so i can build them to the widths i want. The Schmidts have been on for a lot of years now too!

borednow said

How the hell do you get it off the kerb without killing it though  

Ian

Haha luckily there's a drop kerb at either end, thanks to the person with the mobility scooter who complained to the council for that!  



I managed to get it out with the roof down yesterday, i've missed these days! Unfortunately the alternator doesn't appear to be charging so that's next on the list.



Here's an older non iPhone picture with the roof down too!

Nice colour, nice wheels it all looks just Perfect  well worth all your time and hard work.

Nice looking cabby there. Makes me wanna stretch and slam.

chris260 said

Cheers! It's been a long slog but i feel like i'm getting somewhere with it now.

I think i'll probably change the wheels at some point even though i do like them. I'd prefer to have a half inch less width on the front so i'm probably going to look for a set of rs's so i can build them to the widths i want. The Schmidts have been on for a lot of years now too!

borednow said

How the hell do you get it off the kerb without killing it though  

Ian

Haha luckily there's a drop kerb at either end, thanks to the person with the mobility scooter who complained to the council for that!  



I managed to get it out with the roof down yesterday, i've missed these days! Unfortunately the alternator doesn't appear to be charging so that's next on the list.



Here's an older non iPhone picture with the roof down too!

Wheels look awesome! Always considered a set of these on my saxo VTR actually which was my first car, but it died before I had the chance to buy them!

Great choice and suit the car down to a T!

I like those wheels too, they really suit the car! Nice car dude!!

Thanks very much guys, glad all the hard work is appreciated!

I'm a massive fan of the wheels too, depends on what angle i look at the car sometimes for whether i want to change them or not. I've got plenty of other things to get done before i get round to the little details like wheels too!

One thing i do need to do is upgrade the coilovers as these ones are ridiculously bad! I've gone from KW V2's on my Lupo GTI to supersports on the cab and you can definitely see where the extra grand goes!!

What is the ride like on coilovers?

I've seen from service history and receipts provided to me in the purchase of my car, that a few years ago a set of coilovers were removed and a standard suspension put back on, because of damage to top mounts I think.

It's quite a hard bumpy car as it is, so as much as I want to drop it a bit to get this kind of stance, I'm worried it will ruin the ride comfort completely, make more parts rattle loose and something I'd possibly regret?

SAMGLF said

What is the ride like on coilovers?

I've seen from service history and receipts provided to me in the purchase of my car, that a few years ago a set of coilovers were removed and a standard suspension put back on, because of damage to top mounts I think.

It's quite a hard bumpy car as it is, so as much as I want to drop it a bit to get this kind of stance, I'm worried it will ruin the ride comfort completely, make more parts rattle loose and something I'd possibly regret?

It really depends on the quality of the coilovers. The ones i've got on my cab at the moment were £200 and the ride is terrible and certainly wouldn't recommend them to anyone! I got them a few years ago after an MOT fail on a leaky shock so it was a quick fix really.

However the KW coilovers i've got on my Lupo GTI were nearly £1200 and the difference is unbelievable. The ride is by far the best i've experienced on any aftermarket suspension kit i've had before. The downside is obviously the price but KW do a budget brand called ST (previously Weitec) which are a bit more affordable. AP coilovers are another brand which i've heard good things about and are priced around £400.

Alternatively you could go for a shock and spring kit but coilovers just give you a bit more flexibility with ride height.

My plan for ride quality is to get a decent set of coilovers and extended top mounts to keep the ride quality and the current ride height.

that looks stunning!

do wish id got a cab some times and this doesnet help me haa

I've been kept busy by breaking my Lupo GTI recently but the mk1 was obviously getting jealous of not being on axle stands and developed a clunk from the gearbox when i was letting the clutch out.

I did a bit of reading up and put it down to best case scenario being the release bearing so ordered one of those and a cap and while i was on i treated the box to some Redline MTL as when i popped the endcap off the oil was black as anything! I also checked the pushrod while i was on and all looked well. I put it back together and the noise seems to have gone so fingers crossed that's all it was. It certainly changes gear better now with the new oil that's for sure!

The only other things i've done have been to swap the standard lights back on for a change.



I managed to get the roof down too which is always nice!




Next things i want to do are get the bootlid and front bumper painted and a new set of plates.

Looking good mate. Who are you going to get to do the painting?

MR_LONG said

Looking good mate. Who are you going to get to do the painting?

Not sure at the moment, i could do with the whole car doing but that'll have to wait for the moment.

Just back from VW Festival so i thought i'd do a quick update after seeing some nice mk1's at the weekend!

I've been getting a lot of use out of the golf recently and finding out all the little niggles, seems to be running well now apart from a slight oil leak from the cam cover.

Used it for transporting a few plants.



Went to a local vagcars meet which was it's first out of town trip and noticed a voltage drop which i think i traced to a comination of a dodgy voltage regulator and a bad earth so hopefully that's the end of that.



MOT'd it and passed with a couple of advisories so treated it to a wash!



Bought some new number plates and set off for VW Festival on Saturday morning, this was to furthest the cab has been in about 8 years i reckon so i made sure i packed plenty of tools and spares in the support vehicle. Turned out i didn't need any of them which was a relief, it even managed the traffic jam on the way in without getting too hot as i was slightly skeptical about the thermostat and fan wiring. Turns out it works fine!

All set up at Harewood.


Then on the showfield.


So all in all a successful trip! I did discover that i need to make a few changes to the suspension mainly as it's quite hard, i definitely got spoiled by my KW's on the Lupo so i'll have to save for some and i'm going to get some Coltech topmounts in the meantime and refit the front helpers. Apart from that the old cabby performed perfectly for the 130 odd mile round trip so i've got a lot more confidence in her now.

Love your wheels and stance, lovely  

Matt

That's looking great Chris, love that last pic

Pleased to hear that you're getting plenty of use out of it  

was scouting around this at leeds, was near my golf.

sits really well man