Andy's Mk1 Cabby GTi

Hey everyone,

I thought I'd start a thread to cover the progress of work carried out on my 1987 Cabriolet.
Alot of what will be detailed and shown has already being completed since buying the car in May 2015.

So, where did we start?

The start of last year was rather shocking* (*replace with more suitable word) to say the least, after an 8 year relationship I was ditched in the first week of January. I didn't take it too well and basically shutdown for the first half of the year blaming myself for the way it ended - It actaully wasn't me, it was her. Anyway, after moping about for months with little enthuisam for anything a friend suggested we should go out to a VW show. So we arranged to go to the Stanford hall VW show in my Citroen C4 VTS (Don't hate, actually not a bad car) I decided I needed another VW in my life and so the search began.
After starting to save some money together to buy my now ex-girlfriend an old Bettle for her 30th (in 2017) the year before I had a bit of spare cash burning a hole in my pocket. Ibiza with a mate had been booked, a new TV had been bought so I thought SOD IT. I also thought having a project would help give me something to concerntrate on rather than just feeling down all the time!

Initally I wanted another Mk2 Scirocco having owned one several years ago, thoughts then turned to a VR6 Corrado but one night while randomly looking on Ebay I found a White 1987 mk1 Cabriolet fairly local to me. Story was this guy had bought it 10 years ago as a bit of a do-er-up-er but other projects had got in the way and so the Golf was just left parked up in this guys garage, but not before he'd fitted a new roof . After a few phone calls and a bit of bartering after viewing it a deposit was left and the guy even offered to deliver it for me… I was back in VW ownership!

Here she is being delivered on a sunny Sunday morning in May.



From there, I initally wanted to just get her running and enjoy it over summer… What actually happened was several months of basically working my way from one problem to another, nearly all summer was spent fixing rather than driving (and I didn't get to take her to Le Mans ). After plenty of hard work and alot more money spent than I initally intended, here she is now (shonky phone picture)


(Photo taken this afternoon)

More details to follow.

Cheers,

Andy


 

Here's another photo taken during a local VW club meet of a cold, wet and windy morning in December.

Photo Storage | Photobucket

Since this photo was taken I've lowered it aprrox. another 20mm and replaced the big Cabby chrome waistline trim with the narror black GTi trim as fitted to the tin tops.

Below is a comprehensive list of what has been carried out (in no particular order):

Exterior

Pressed number plates
GTi red grill trim
Single lamp grill
Crystal crosshair headlights (with LED sidelights and Nightbreaker bulbs)
Crystal front indicators
Crystal side indicators
GTi black waistline trim
GTi front splitter
Aeriel hidden inside front wing
New windscreen
Rear fog light removed and integrated into rear lamps
New boot lock seal
All aches cleaned, any surface rust (very minimal) removed, protected and waxed
Lower strengthening sections painted black
Porsche Teledials with adaptors (obviously)

Brakes

New front discs (Brembo)
New front pads (Brembo)
Braided brake lines
New soild brake lines front to back
New rear cylinders
New brake fluid
New handbrake cables

Suspension

AP Coilovers
New top mounts (both sides)
OMP front lower brace

Engine

New sump and gasket
New oil/water cooler
New radiator
New coolant hoses
New headertank and sensor
Fresh coolant
New waterpump and thermostat
New oil pressure and temp sensors
New battery
New rockercover gasket
New sparkplugs
New oil and filter
New outer CV boots (both sides)
New gearbox oil
New trackrod ends (both sides)
New balljoints (both sides)
New fuel filter
New primary fuel pump
New secondary fuel pump


Interior

Carpet hoovered and aquavax'd
All seats hoovered and aquavax'd
Personal steering wheel
Apline headunit
Apline rear 17cm (on custome recessed shelf), mid 10cm, front 13cm speakers added
Apline 10" sub added in custom made sub box
InPhase Amp added in custom frame


__


I'm sure there is more but that's all my brain can process right now. I've got a load of photos that I need to upload to Photobucket so once they're up I'll add them to the thread.

I've still got alot of jobs I wanna get done to her before the show season gets up and running. She won't win anything (She's not on air, big wheels or finiance) and she's driven almost daily but I love her and the attention she draws.

I'd love to hear your thoughts good or bad (I'm a big boy, I can take negative comments)

Cheers,

Andy

You can't beat a small bumper Cabby in my opinion, and yours looks great, especially with the teledials.

sorry that the year didn't start out well for you, but just remember…

Cheers Richard, things are back on track and looking a hell of a lot better!

Quick update.

I've recently added a relay to the headlights so now I can actually see in the dark!



Here are a few pictures of my boot install.






(still need to sort the speaker wiring out)

And how she currently sits.


Since that photo, I've replaced the lower flakey trim with some proper black trim, fixed a few interior bits and smashed off my GTi splitter so currently running a 1 piece GL one and fitted a Stack oil pressure gauge.

Thinking of carbon/kevlar skinning the GTi splitter and just fitting it for shows and local meets.
Next jobs are to smooth the front bumper and weld up the aerial hole on the wing.

Andy

Looks good!  Have you got some engine bay and interior pictures to with?   Keep it up!   teledials

Will get some photos of the interior and engine bay up. Nothing marjorly exciting other than a Personal steering wheel and Alpine headunit.

Engine is all standard… for now

Made a start on this today.



Do love a bit of arts and crafts!

And yesterday I finished the splitter, here it is!





 

---

Currently smoothing the front bumper up and hoping to get it finished by UD. After that it's wheel change or refurb time.

Andy

Liking the front splitter.
Now you just need a Scirocco to add to your collection.  

From a Scirocco enthusiast.   

Already had one, would love another though!

Thanks for your comment regarding the splitter!

Andy

splitter looks spot on man  

gelstharp said

splitter looks spot on man  

Cheers mate!

Not so much of an update… more of an insight into my Cabby.

A few interior shots.
Changes in here include: Personal Steering wheel (to be retrimmed), Apline head unit, Extra speaekers in the centre console, Stack oil pressure gauge and a little hat for my nob

.
.
.
Oh! And Steve the StormTrooper

Custom made recessed parcel shelf with 17cm speakers.


Relayed headlights


Bonnet rams


Smoothed bumper


A clean engine bay (done today, 26/03/2016)


Next job (potentially) is the exhaust as it is blowing slightly and looks a bit pants!



Cheers Andy

I love this golf. Lots of nice neat touches without being in your face!

Small update. 

A few weeks ago I smashed off half my carbon splitter on a speed bump so I've been running a small splitter for a while. 

Over the last week I've refurb my teledials - It's gone horribly and I'm not happy with them but they're on the car… bloody crazy weather!!

Also repainted the spats as they were looking a bit tired, again had to rush them so they aren't perfect.

Spent all day cleaning the car for tomorrow and I'm happy with how she looks.





Hopefully see some of you at Stanford hall tomorrow! Come say hi!

Andy 

Bit of an update.

Smashed my splitter… again!
Repaired it and now it just needs flatting and then polishing up.


The backbox on the original was blowing and it was starting to kill my ear drums every time I drove the car. So a trip to Topgear Performance in Donny and I'm now sorted with a full SS exhaust. Slightly larger bore tailpipe but it's no louder than OEM… Just what I wanted.





Next jobs include:

Wheel retrim
Brake system improvements including Boxster calipers and 280mm discs on front, mk4 rear calipers, mk2 discs and a 9"servo and 22mm Master cylinder.
Find and fix a few rattles
Fix the fuel gauge
refurb the alloys.. again! Had to rush them last time and I'm not happy with them.

Just had a look at your pictures of the engine bay and noticed the clutch cable is routed wrong and it's on a angle at the gearbox end and you may find it's slowly sawing it's way through the gearbox or cable and making your clutch very heavy to use?

There may be a clip attached to the master cylinder to hold the clutch cable.
You can see how mine runs?


Picture of my Mk1 Scirocco clutch cable holder!

Lovely looking car, really like the teledials.

I love carbon fibre, was it hard to do?

Matt

mark1gls said

Just had a look at your pictures of the engine bay and noticed the clutch cable is routed wrong and it's on a angle at the gearbox end and you may find it's slowly sawing it's way through the gearbox or cable and making your clutch very heavy to use?

There may be a clip attached to the master cylinder to hold the clutch cable.
You can see how mine runs?


Picture of my Mk1 Scirocco clutch cable holder!

I've re-routed it and it is alot better! Cheers!

pazwaa said

Lovely looking car, really like the teledials.

I love carbon fibre, was it hard to do?

Matt

Cheers Matt!

The Carbon fibre wasnt too difficult though it is a bit tricky to work with and you have to take your time. I just wanted a few videos on YouTube from CarbonMods and had a crack. When I'm back in the country I'm going to have a go at making full carbon splitters without skinning, should be an interesting project if nothing else.

Andy