part-way through renovation of underside

The side stripes are now 95% fitted…..



I still have a bit to do this coming week before the MoT (and Gaydon) - I need to polish the rest of the paintwork, clean up the wheel arches, refit them, purchase a couple of trim clips and clip on the new trim I bought from GTI Inters. Hopefully it will pass the MoT and be at Gaydon…..

Nice one Paul - looking forward to seeing her at Gaydon!

Its been a little while since the last update, I have been thoroughly mucked around by parts suppliers (why me?) so the final few items took a long time to all come together properly.

Anyway……

If failed its first MoT due to a couple of small items, ironically the easiest to sort out was a small area of welding required at the front. It was near the front engine mount, which isn't even a real mount (anyone who looked under my bonnet at E38 on the other car will know, this mount is entirely optional   )

Once it had its MoT, It developed a running problem which only showed once warm and driven under load. Luckily, with another Golf I could swap-test many components, and one by one each ignition system component was swapped, the car was run warm and driven onto the road, whereupon it promptly broke down.

So with the ignition system ruled out, it was down to fuel system. I bit the bullet and bought a new fuel pump (?85). Swapping this revealed LOTS of crud in the tiny fine mesh fuel filter which is fitted in the pump inlet. So I cleaned this out, and the car lasted 6 miles before breaking down again. So I cleaned it out again, and peered inside the tank. It looks cleanish but there's definitely corrosion there, so its getting swapped. This is supposed to have been refurbished!

Anyway, it sort of runs now. Shame its now the end of summer and there are no more shows to go to. I am still not happy with the bodywork (there are spots of poor paint and corrosion all over the car) so one day it will go for a respray again. But…. for now I'm going to use it and save up for an engine conversion to turn it into a 'little monster'. It makes sense to do the necessary body mods before the respray.

Here's a pic:



The car doesn't rub at all, at -80mm drop so that's the final look. I just need to polish the paintwork a bit.

Gob smacked it doesn't rub at -80mm! 8O  Nice one :wink:

Hairyarse said

Gob smacked it doesn't rub at -80mm! 8O  Nice one :wink:

Why so? Do you have experience of tyres rubbing at -80mm? Are you running 185/60R14? I am running 175/70R13 and I am convinced the reduced width makes all the difference here. Soon to be running (in dry weather) 185/60R13 so I may have more room to play with, or not.

Yep, I'm running 14" P-slots on -40mm and I rub from time to time, yours looks very low compared to mine!

that looks 8)

Carbs4ever said

that looks 8)

I took it out for a drive and everybody looked at it. Definitely more looks than the cabby! I dunno if its the black, the Mk1-ness, or the lowering!

nice work fella

The stance is perfect… It must be the 13's that let it run that low without rubbing. Looks great.

paul, you are doing a sweet job on this car!!! please keep the pics comin!!!

i've seen it in the flesh and it looks so sweet!!!  the hard work that goes into this just makes me wanna carry on with mine!!!

get sum pics of the plates up!!!! :mrgreen:  8)

Amazing work and the end result is just wicked and low  :wink:   8)

Excellent work there… keep the pics comming..  

vw_tees

Most of the niggles sorted out now, I took it to the first real outing (60 miles up to a regional meet in Preston) and this has revealed that the wing mirrors I bought from Euro Car Parts are pants! They fold in if I go over 60mph!!!!!! It annoys me how they can sell this utter rubbish, but there you go.

Anyway, here is a pic at the 'event'. The car was cleaned yesterday and only got muddy in the last 100 yds up the road to the car park.

Paul


Have you had any issues with your coilovers ? Whats the ride like ? Have you hit the bump stops ?

Car looks good , whats next mate ?We don't want you and that rabbit getting bored    

Cheers …………..

No issues so far (160 miles) with the coilovers. The ride is terrible, so bad that I don't know if I've hit the bump stops or not! But once on smooth roads, its okay. I can feel even minor imperfections (like cats eyes, lines, joins in the road, etc) and on certain motorways, there is a 'jiggle' which is an up and down waviness which I've never noticed before. After 60 miles on the motorway I quite urgently needed to go to the loo!

I've a few niggles to sort (mirrors, finish polishing the paintwork) and then I've got to decide if I put a stereo in it or not. I've sort of run out of money, though, so I might need to sell one of the other cars; I'm keeping this one for a good while, now I've spent so long on it!

After 60 miles on the motorway I quite urgently needed to go to the loo!

    I am going to make my own coilovers [adjustable suspension] , thats why i asked .  8O

Cheers…………….

Not seen this therad Pual. Just wanted to say nice work mate! :clap:

Car looks very good, nice to see a bit of mud - proves its been driven .

Are the mirrors externally adjustable flag moirrors? You can tighten them a bit with the nut underneath when removed. Genuine N/S started closing at speed on C, a half turn on the nut sorted this. If no good take them back, agree with what your saying about sub-standrad parts from ECP and particlulry GSF (Beru HT's and Cofap inserts :evil: ), but I suppose they'll keep flogging them unless we start taking them back :dontknow: .

Cheers