1988 GTI cabrio project - 10 years off the road

Welcome to my build/rebuild/repair thread.

I've introduced myself on the newbies section the other week.

My name is Mike, originally from Manchester but now a Lancashire country bumpkin.

I bought this car on a whim from ebay a few weeks ago - early March 2021 mainly to relive my youth a little along with the family.

It was originally a 1.8 GTI but has been converted to motorbike carbs/ITB's with all the relevant fuel pumps/restrictors fitted and has apparently had a rebore to 1900cc which is something that attracted me to it along with the Porsche D90 wheels and Cayman seats amongst other mods.

The previous owner has had it in his garage for 10 years, he's clearly spent a lot of money on it in the past few years going over it and it just needs finishing off ready for me to enjoy.

I'm an Architect by profession but pretty handy with a spanner and have fixed most Mk1 problems in my late teens and its all slowly coming back to me.

The car is probably 95% ready to go back on the road, it has had a respray at some point and as usual a few bits are missing which I am slowly sourcing.

I'm really enjoying getting stuck back into a bit of car repair, I don't dare go near my 'normal car', too many computers and things to break.

Jobs done and left to do are as follows:

DONE

refit external trims - (missing a passenger side front strip if anyone has one)
refit window seals
refit door seals
refit/source rear seat side panels
strip out the retrofitted power hood loom
realign the steering rack - wheels were toeing out dramatically
fit a later leather Mk2 GTI wheel and horn with a modified rack shim
fit a weber manual choke cable to the bike carbs
fix the clutch cable routing
fix the bonnet pull mech
fix the accelerator cable (pedal end falling off the pedal - new bung ordered and fitted)
fix the gear selector - No first or second gears when bought but now all gears selecting - Needs looking at a bit further once back on the road

TO DO:

Swap the perished front tyres with new Pirelli P Zeros (on order)
Check the steering rack bolts and replace a split steering boot gaiter
Fit the windscreen wipers/washers
Check the timing and adjust the advance on the dizzy - definitely too retarded at the moment
Fit a new rear fog light
Investigate the none operational water temp and fuel gauge on the dash cluster. Weirdly the MFA is actually still operational.
Check if the battery drain is solved - I've taken some HID lamps and ballasts out and fitted a Dis Car Nect isolator at the moment but not sure if this was the source of the drain.
Get it MOT'd
Give it a proper wash, mop and polish - I've promised myself I'm not doing this until its road legal.

BY OTHERS:

Get the Bike carbs set up properly on a rolling road
Get the car fully aligned incl camber

I'll try and keep this updated as best I can as things get fixed but here is a shot from yesterday with my other (now sold) toy.


 

Very slightly off the build topic - My Mk1 GTI running one of the first 16v conversions - converted circa 1995 with a 1900cc rebore. 

Photos from 1998

And my first car - a 1983 1.3 Golf Driver bought in 1993 😳

A small update - No pics because my phone has had a swim this weekend   Water temp gauge wiring fixed (I think - gauge now flashing on start up but engine not run long enough to check movement)

Pirelli P Zeros 195/45/16's fitted on the front D90 wheels

Bike carb install double checked ready for rolling road set up. All vacuum pipes and linkages seem to be there.

Timing adjusted and starting on the button - lumpy further up the rev range due to over fueling

Haynes manual arrived

Electric roof wiring removed - Have a full kit with dash panel switches and pump ready for sale if anyone is interested

Boot floor carpet reinforced with new hardboard base

Awaiting confirmation of a date for the rolling road but hoping to be on the road by the end of April all being well

Had a delivery from the postman this afternoon.

Going to be a fun filled weekend in the garage wresting auxiliary pulleys fitting trigger wheels and mocking up a crank sensor bracket but will hopefully have the car running right finally.

That's the plan anyway, the engine had a once over last week by DanST engineering, it's got decent compression and the carbs have been jetted and balanced off the car so I know it's getting fuel.

It just needs sparks and timing now and that's where the Nodiz should come in.

NODIZ install update

Had a few hours in the garage each evening this week, measuring, making templates etc and with a little bit of help from a friend who is a CDT teacher and their pillar drills I've managed to adapt the Universal crank pulley trigger wheel to fit the aux pulley and mounted the Ford Zetec crank sensor.

Not a job I was looking forward to, attempting to mount a sensor from a different car practically in mid air, a credit cards distance from the trigger wheel (which in itself is slightly adjustable off centre).

On to the wiring tonight and a hopeful first start at weekend.