Keeping the faith alive!

Well, hello and welcome everyone to my mark 1 build thread!

First of all, everyone meet Diane:



She's a Series 2 Tintop, 1.1L Golf C.

This is how she looked when I originally bought her last year, of all places at VW All Types!





I originally intended to buy a mark 2 as a first car, however at a show and with a bit of persuasion from mates, I gave in and snapped her up, left Jack (previous owner) with a deposit and went with a friend to pick her up a couple of weeks later!

I hadn't passed my test until september so over the next few months, I started collecting bits for her that I wanted to change etc.

Once I got her back to mine, she needed a new radiator, a full flush, service, discs and pads.

So after a month or so, I did all of these bits.

For a while then I just concentrated on getting my test passed and collecting more bits for her!

The first thing I did in terms of modifications was swapping out the twin lamp front grille for a single lamp, badged grille.



I started to use the car once I'd passed my test and got insured etc.

Car was fine for a while until it started to get worse and worse trying to start it daily, turning over constantly and spluttering a bit then just cranking.

Eventually it broke down at the cinema, got towed home, thought it was just the coil or condenser but in the end I had to get a friend/mechanic to sort it.

Turns out it was the ignition block, was taking the feed into the ignition, but on cranking it wasn't sending it back out.

Got this sorted, started using it again but only for the alternator to go a couple of weeks later so that was another week off the road or so whilst it got sorted.

Then I managed to fit the front coilovers and wound it a fair bit down to just above the tyres








Then the worst of it up to now happened, I was coming home from the trafford centre, on the M56 sliproad, coming up to the Denton roundabout and I heard a massive "ppppsssshhhhhhh" and thought, I haven't got a dump valve?

Felt no loss of power etc so just focused on pulling over, then started to move off about 15 metres from the lights, and a massive plume of white smoke/steam came from under the bonnet, I pulled over on the little bit of tarmac/grass right on the inside lane at the lights and out the way.

Popped the bonnet to find the top hose at the thermostat housing end had blown a massive hole through it.

Got recovered home.

Thought it was gonna be an easy fix, replaced the hose the following night with a friend, drove it round the block.

Temperature shot right up, started over-heating and the top hose had swollen to pretty much twice it's size.

You guessed it, Head failure!

System was pressurising like mad!

Got it sorted weekend before last by a friend all for 190 quid! 90 quid for all the bits and 70 quid labour, 30 quid recovery!

She's running well now.

However my friend who did the head etc told me he'd noticed the carb can move on the mount, therefore explaining more than likely why she won't accelerate smoothly under acceleration.

There's "gapping" as in it'll pull but in bursts sort of thing.

So finally, i've decided to take her off the road for now.

So lastly past couple of nights i've started cleaning up some of the engine bay

This is how the engine bay looks at the moment



I started by cleaning my windscreen washer bottle,

looks rather clean now I think



I've also started cleaning around the offside strut turret and around that area, it's not amazing but it's cleaner than it was compared to the other side!





Well, that's all for now guys and girls!

I'll leave you to read that and tell me what you think!

I think i'll update tomorrow night with what my plans are for her!

Oh and just a little teaser of what's to come over the next few weeks/months…



There's a lot more on top of all that as well  :wink:

Cheers,

Josh.

NIce find JOsh, and good for you for getting stuck in.

Check shirt interior? niiice.

Looking forward to watching your progress.

How did you clean washer bottle? looks like new!

looks a nice motor mate, by the look of it she wont want for anything

chris

Haha, cheers for the replies guys!

Well Tony, you just gotta get on with it regardless of what happens ain't you haha!

And I didn't plan on a check shirt interior, just put it down on there but thanks for the idea actually!

All I used to clean the washer bottle was some white spirit, a couple of cloths and some good old elbow grease

And haha, she looks like she might not want for anything but believe me she seems to have done a fair bit recently!

Anyway, the only thing letting the car down is the crap paint job. The guy who owned it before me had it resprayed but didn't pay the guy that did it due to how rubbish of a job he did!

It's got about 2 layers of base coat and a tiny bit of lacquer that looks like accidental overspray!

The plans are, a full respray in GTI Mars Red, lowered on coilovers (halfway there haha!) set of banded steels to go on, weber carb, black waistline trim, put the badges back on the boot (anyone got a volkswagen and a golf C one?) got a cherrybomb to go on it, removing the rear bench and having a flat carpeted piece put in place instead and any other bits and bobs I decide on along the way really!

The respray isn't just going to be in GTI Mars Red, the waistline trim, grille surround and front VW badge are all going to be sprayed a very light cream colour to offset the red.

"Strawberries and cream" style. Might even get a few campino swirl style decals made up to go in the steelies dishes, who knows?

That's all for now, now to go off and tinker!  

sounds good man my car started life as a mars red an it's a lovley color infact i think it may be mars again one day lol The low on banded steelies look will be sweet 8)

ebo said

sounds good man my car started life as a mars red an it's a lovley color infact i think it may be mars again one day lol The low on banded steelies look will be sweet 8)

Haha, cheers matey  :wink:

Yeah, I can't wait to get it resprayed and to have the colour coding done too!

Well tonight, just had a bit of a tinker about, decided to take out the clocks surround so I can eventually get around to spraying the chrome in mars red…





However, I took apart my handbrake/choke light unit apart to inspect if my choke lightbulb had blown, turned the ignition on and now my dash indicator light has done the famous staying on faint constantly trick!

Anyone know how to sort this?

Moving on, also test-fitted my shiny rear strut brace. should look pretty good once the rear bench is gone and i've had a full rear black-carpeted flat piece put down  





Then, I test fitted my centre console that should have fitted nicely, however, to my disappointment, it doesn't fit properly and would take a fair bit of pokey-jiggery to get it to sit in right so i've decided to do without the guages and just keep the simple, tidy looking gearstick surround.

The centre console with VDO guages will be posted up in the for sale section soon if anyone's interested!

I decided to take a couple of pictures of a few of the bits i've got to go on her yet just for you guys!







That's all for now folks!

Aha, cheers.  8)

forgive my ignorance, but what's a cherry bomb?  Assuming it's an exhaust, but what makes it special? (apart from the name obv.)

Loving the systematic approach of your work as well man, it's like mine….pull out dash, buy a new exhaust, clean something, pull something else out.

I'm away to buy some white spirit!!

Keep it up!

white spirit is aesome, never gonna waste my money on engine degreaser again

WeeTony said

forgive my ignorance, but what's a cherry bomb?  Assuming it's an exhaust, but what makes it special? (apart from the name obv.)

Loving the systematic approach of your work as well man, it's like mine….pull out dash, buy a new exhaust, clean something, pull something else out.

I'm away to buy some white spirit!!

Keep it up!

Haha, no need to apologise!

Well from what my understanding is, cherrybomb's are an american brand, they don't have a resonating chamber. Instead they have a straight through tube with holes running down the side of it. The tubes covered in glass which provides a bit of muffling however the low pressure waves from the engine go straight through the system with hardly any muffling. This gives them their distinctive, low "growly" and throaty sound.

Aha, well yeah, I just get into it and look around at different bits and decide to start doing different things lol!

The exhaust isn't new, it's one of the many parts i've got in my room ready and waiting to go onto the car!

Not doing anything tonight as it's crapola weather outside and raining.

Question to everyone however, what does everyone think of the cherrybomb? I'm not a chav by far and so don't wanna be stereotyped as one just for putting a cherrybomb on mine!

Cheers,

Josh.  8)

i want one.

Looking good. Will be good to see it on the banded steels.

Just stick the cherrybomb on and see how it sounds . No ones really going to be able to tell unless they look under the car.

i had a cherry bomb on my old fiesta, straight through to it… f**k was it loud lol, sounded MINT! i think i will be hitting ebay in a mo for another one, i forgot about thos lol…

oh and whats the pipe size on yours? would be nice just to fit

Fit it nice an snug up to the real valance mate an it'll be fine :wink: Loud Proberely but if its flush (not sticking too far out the back of the car) it wont look chavey. Me an my bruv saw a e39 5 series face lift on m5 wheels looked very nice indeed untill we saw the twin dtm hanging off the back  

Av got a 6/4 oval straight through i've beeen trying to put on different cars for years bought it spanking at a show but the box + tail pipe are far too long. Im gonna go for the chop (spare wheel well) and put it on the mk1 with the 16v. Make it fit lol

Was talking to my bruv about the red pin stripe round the clocks (and the entire length of the dash on his jetta) I'd never seen it before it but it sets them appart i think i like it alot. Are you  gonna paint the whole section or just the stripe in?

How thicks your strut brace mate? Am thinking about makeing one up i just bought a weilder lol so experimenting welding different things.

Looking forward to seeing it done. :wink:

ross_m said

Looking good. Will be good to see it on the banded steels.

Just stick the cherrybomb on and see how it sounds . No ones really going to be able to tell unless they look under the car.

Thanks again for the replies and interest guys!

Yeah, I can't wait to put the steelies on, i'm thinking of spraying the inner baskets in a bright white so that it sets them off something a little different.

And yeah, i'm still gonna stick the cherrybomb on regardless and I think it'll sound pretty good considering they've always sounded better on older cars really.

Mixerman, they're going for like 40 quid on ebay all day long! Do it do it do it haha!
I think the tailpipe size is about 2 1/2 inch, pretty long as well so have a bit of flexibility on how I fancy mounting it etc.

Yeah exactly what I was thinking ebo, I hate it when chavs put a backbox on a corsa b or something daft and they don't bother to cut out a neat recess in the rear valance and it just hangs down underneath, looks absolute GASH!

Ahaha, yeah making it fit FTW!

I'm just gonna respray the chrome clocks surround in mars red as I don't have the line that goes along the whole dash. I agree though, i've seen the red line detailing and it really looks the part!

Not entirely sure on how thick my strut brace is, bought it from a guy on here!

I'll measure it for you and let you know, i'm gonna run this one for the while until I get one of the fat rear strut braces with the U clamps at either end, they're awesome!

Just trying to sell a few bits, in the meantime until payday so I can start to do a few odd bits on it really!

That's all for now guys!

Cheers,

Josh.  8)

i am gonna buy one! lol, i like the angle of the stock pipe so i was thinking about cutting around the tail piece and angeling it then welding a strip in, hopefully it will be under the body so you wont see the welds until you look under it

should look sick!

my first fiesta had a cherry bomb on a side exit from engine down about 5 foot of pipe to a cherry bomb, i was being pulled ALL the time proper chav mobile was low tho lol,

ill buy it when i get paid, get it on and done then do a vid as quick as i can
should be about a week hehe

mixerman said

i am gonna buy one! lol, i like the angle of the stock pipe so i was thinking about cutting around the tail piece and angeling it then welding a strip in, hopefully it will be under the body so you wont see the welds until you look under it

should look sick!

my first fiesta had a cherry bomb on a side exit from engine down about 5 foot of pipe to a cherry bomb, i was being pulled ALL the time proper chav mobile was low tho lol,

ill buy it when i get paid, get it on and done then do a vid as quick as i can
should be about a week hehe

Haha, good stuff!

Yeah, that's my only quarrel about being pulled =\

I really don't want the hassle etc so i'm still in two minds about whether to fit it or not really!

Update!

Well it's been quite some time since I've updated this thread so thought I'd give everyone an idea of what's happened since the last time I updated!

Since the last bit of work I did on the car (fitting the front coilovers) I've had a few ups and downs with her haha!

The Head gasket went whilst I was on the M62 slip road lol!

Speedo's stopped working, wishbones need replacing haha!

So I got the head gasket sorted, still need to buy a new speedo cable and i've got a pair of wishbones, just need to find the time to replace them!

What have I done since the last update?

Well, I've bought a couple of new bits for her, had my banded steels resprayed.

Also a new "one-off" front grill!

So the other day I fitted the front grill as follows…

Firstly I removed the previous front grill



Whilst also retaining all four grill clips without breaking a single one! How?
By removing them carefully using a centre punch!



Then I proceeded to fit the new grill and this is how it looks!









It's a three-lamp grill with a yellow smoked fog.

I still need to splice the fog lamp into the High beam on the headlight so that's hopefully a simple job when I get a spare hour or so to do it!

Oh and I also made the addition of a gingerbread man to my rear towing eye haha!



The other few bits I have bought since are some new door pins, can you guess what they're out of?



Swapped my brown wolfsburg wheel for an original Momo wooden wheel…



(Yes yes I know it's a Mitsubishi centre badge but I haven't found a Momo centre badge yet!)

Also put my vinyl's on that I bought up at GTI Inters…









And one from UD in march



And finally! The steels!

This is what they originally looked like…



And this is how they now look…



I haven't got the chrome centre's, i've got the other ones and they're a bit special ;]

What do you all think guys and girls!

Hopefully going to get her booked in at RE Performance in Bury in a few weeks time to have the weber carb and inlet manifold fitted and then set up properly on the rollers! Can't wait!

Oh and I almost forgot, i've put the rear coilovers on now so she's sitting nice and low, but still isn't low enough and will be going lower once I get some tyres and put my steels on!

I'll post up a couple of pics of how low she is once I take some haha!

That's all for now guys! Happy reading and enjoy!

Any comments/thoughts/ideas/suggestions more than welcome

(Be nice haha!)

Cheers, Josh

loving that grille  :mrgreen:

hurry up with them pics pls, cant wait to have a peek at it with these steels on  

loving that grille  :mrgreen:

hurry up with them pics pls, cant wait to have a peek at it with these steels on  

MK1CHICK said

loving that grille  :mrgreen:

hurry up with them pics pls, cant wait to have a peek at it with these steels on  

Haha thanks!

It's something different at least!

And yeah, well it'll be a couple of months yet as she's going on the rollers in 2-3 weeks then i'll wait till payday in sept and probably get some tyres and put the steels on then!

Cheers, Josh.