New GX owner...

Evening

I've just aquired an '83 GX in Lhasa Green and am sure I'll be needing the forum quite a bit to sort out little bits and pieces with it

The car is pretty straight - with the exception of some horrible colour coded arch extensions and bumpers! And underneath one of the arch extensions it wasn't too pretty…but a little work this weekend will have it sorted…hopefully!

The car has 98000 miles and after a good service (including all belts etc) I'm sure it'll be as good as gold. The auto choke even seems to work which I understand is a bonus!

What I need to do is make it a little faster though - should it really struggle to get over 80mph?

This is very much a second/fishing car for me and I also drive a Rover Vitesse Coupe. I have just sold a mildly modified 620 turbo - the Golf is the replacement and I am loving it so far….apart from the lack of 200+bhp. Having lorries overtaking you is just so wrong.

Anyway it looks like there is lots of info here so I'll be asking (alot) and helping out whenever I can.

Cheers,

Tom

Welcome

Welcome to the site  

welcome mate drop a 20vt lump in it and sell the other car then the fun begins  :wink:

GX - you made the right choice  8)

Re. struggling to get over 80.. yes.  It'll go faster than 80 - max my clock has shown is about 103, so maybe 95 realistically.

'5th' - or E - is not an accelerating gear.  Usually, if I'm in a hurry to get somewhere, I'll get to 80 in 4th, then go to 'E' and it'll pull a good bit more, but in its own time.

Someone had put GTI wheel arch trim on my GX when I first had it - a straight looking car revealed quite a lot of rust.  Quite disheartening!!  All sorted now though, I've got the original spats on there (available from www.golfmk1.co.uk).

If it's in decent condition, unmodified (or at least, nothing undoable) then I'd really urge you to leave it stock - obviously personalise it, but there are few enough nice GXs around, we need to preserve them!

Any photos?

Hope you enjoy it

Dom

drochesaunders said

GX - you made the right choice  8)

Re. struggling to get over 80.. yes.  It'll go faster than 80 - max my clock has shown is about 103, so maybe 95 realistically.

'5th' - or E - is not an accelerating gear.  Usually, if I'm in a hurry to get somewhere, I'll get to 80 in 4th, then go to 'E' and it'll pull a good bit more, but in its own time.

Someone had put GTI wheel arch trim on my GX when I first had it - a straight looking car revealed quite a lot of rust.  Quite disheartening!!  All sorted now though, I've got the original spats on there (available from www.golfmk1.co.uk).

If it's in decent condition, unmodified (or at least, nothing undoable) then I'd really urge you to leave it stock - obviously personalise it, but there are few enough nice GXs around, we need to preserve them!

Any photos?

Hope you enjoy it

Dom

That's good to know that it *should* go a little faster! I'm sure after a good service and with an air filter that doesn't look 12 years old it should be a little happier.

The plan is to attack the rust and give it a good service this weekend, and then I'll give it  a proper clean and get some photos. I had it up on ramps and apart from the arches, there isn't anything else I can see up with it. It'll need a new downpipe in the next year or so I guess but that's about it I think.

This is only going to be a little runaround as I have my other car for driving distances (quickly ) so not going to mess around with it much. I have a deep gti spoiler to go on the front and the colour coded arches will be replaced but thats about it. I do think it needs a set of gauges though as I do like my extra dials! So all in, it'll be staying pretty stock.

Cheers,

Tom

GTI duck bill - that's what GXs come with anyway, see mine here.

Dials - you may find it has the holes for the dials to go in already.  In the centre console, is there a blank plate that's divided up into three sections?  If so, pull it off - the holes are behind there

Get a photo up!!!