Blue on blue GTI cab :)

Here's my 1988 GTI cabby I picked up yesterday. Kept the wheels from the mk2 GTD and stuck them on, had to adjust the gear linkage as it wouldn't get 5th, and now its alright. Apart from needing another interior as the doorcards have been butchered and the driver's seat is in a bad way. Oh and some idiot has put a carb engine in it so that needs rectifying, just weighing up my options over what engine to put in her. Its just had a new blue mohair roof fitted, and it has a matching tonneau cover. Here's some pics…








I got absolutely soaked on my way to work this morning in the rain, so the roof needs some attention, I've noticed the driver's side pull handle for the roof is missing the little lever, so I think thats why it isn't pulling to roof tight enough. Also on the to-do list is coilovers, and a beefier exhaust

Hi adi1987

Welcome to the club - great pictures.  There are loads of great folk on here to help sort out any queries or problems you may have.

Regarding a couple of points you mentioned - only the roof release handle above the passenger side of the screen has the little extra safety catch on the release leaver. The one on the drivers side doesn't usually have one.  The acknowledged hood expert on here is a fine chap called Chortle - if you click on the search icon in the centre top of the page and type in say.."leaking hood" you will find previous posts on hood adjustment and advice others have been give on how th sort things out.

If is has had a new hood on recently - and it looks prety new in the pickies - the shiny "J" hooks on the release mechanisms may need adjustment to allow the front part of the roof seat properly on the header rail and the front of the door tops. I think I have seen that typically about 3 threads should be showing on the "J" hook to have a good setting and should give good contact - but be careful - don't do them up too tight, or you run the risk of snapping the leaver.

On the engine front - don't forget that VW fitted Carb engines to the Cabrio as well as injected engines (in the UK 1500, 1600 & 1800) - unless you are into the detailed bits, outwardly the cars look almost identical.  I had a clipper Carb engined car 1800cc that with a weber carb fitted was a belting drive.  There are lots of little clues to see if the car originally had a GTI engine or not.

An easy one is to look under the car ahead of the rear drivers side wheel (you'll need to lay on the floor with a torch) - injected cars have a fuel pump and lots of other little pipes & gubbins - not present on Carb engined cars. The cars themselves can be very similar otherwise.

Even easier I supose - does it say GTI on the V5?
  
I am sure you'll have great fun sorting stuff out

All the best

Thanks for the info on the roof, I shall look that up!

The car is definately a GTI, you can see under the golf badger where it used to have a golf GTI badge, also the logbook says its a GTI, and the wiring for the under car pump is present, as is some plugs under the bonnet that go nowhere.

The roof was only fitted a few weeks ago by a mate of mine and some mates, dare I say "ameteurs", and I know they had to fit the rear screen to it as new ones don't seem to come with a rear window apparently, and one of the places it leaks is on the passenger side bottom corner of the rear window seal. The passenger side front of the roof leaks near the handle, however that side seems so be pulling fairly tight, however the driver's side front has a noticable gap between the top of the window and the roofline.

Done a few bits today, took all the doorcards off and re-weatherproofed them all, took the dash apart and screwed the clocks in as they were rattling about all over the place, made a boot carpet out of an old escort cab one I had, dried my carpets out from being soaked due to my leaky roof, and finally gave it a clean an waxed

The car sits spot on mate, why ruin it by putting coilovers on?… The handles for the roof are the correct ones too… And as far as i m aware the car was not a gti…. That is why i got the correct boot badge for it.. the boot lid has been changed at some point and the badge that was on it was Cabriolet!
Put a webber carb on it and you will see a massive difference..

It says GTI on the logbook though and it does have the Kjet loom all present...

When i insured through a mates trade policy it didnt come up as a gti… when i tried myself it did? the car has had a lot of changes over the years from what i could make out.. front grill was a one piece that i traced back to a 3 piece one so i bought that n fitted it..
if you looking into the interior, there is a company on ebay that some lads have used on here for seat covers. that was the way i was gonna go.. the interior is standard non gti too.

It comes up with a GTI on every insurance company that I got quotes from too. Its missing the outer parts of the grille now, just waiting on pete diggin them out for me. I'm just going to find another interior for it, preferably a black GTI one. Wouldn't mind a black headliner too.

you have to be careful with grills on this one... i tried 3 before i got the right one.. still got two in me shed..

Would you part with one? I just want a complete one on the car, it looks naff with just a middle piece on it. I think it needs the headlight bezels too...

After a very educational visit to see Chortle yesterday, my roof is now in much better shape. Its by no means perfect, but touch wood it isn't leaking anymore! It now has new tensioning cables all round, new foam gaskets, and a new grille! Very happy with it now. Just got to get some new track rod ends for it, get my tracking done, then I can look into a new engine for it

hello, you got a great looking cabby, the wheels suit too, be careful with the track rod ends, i found when i did mine that one side is an end, the other is a complete rod, got mine from GSF they cheap enough, you get a discount too if your a paid member on here, well worth it

chris

Would that explain why one track rod end has no locknut on it? When I went to have my tracking done the other day they said they wouldn't do it as the passenger side has no locknut on the rack?

I've been a busy boy. I've fitted my new rear foglight that came from ebay as the old one was smashed, fixed the horn, fitted my new heater panel as the old one was manky and attacked by a screwdriver, and fitted some little plates that go on the front corners of my roof to help it seal better as they were missing. Some pics from today and I thought I'd give an example of just how mint the shell of this car is

New number plates finally arrived today! Didn't actually want them with the GB badge, so out come the hacksaw and file to round the edges off



One done



After chopping them both they're on. Front one is a tad wonky though, and I need to buy some of the coloured screw caps, but I'm happy with them.

spent the day on the cab today, good progress, got the carb engine out, Kjet engine is in, all thats left to do is fit the fuel pump, connect the fuel pipes to the metering head, fit the expansion tank, fill with coolant and fire her up! Pics from today

old carb engine in this morning


carb engine out



Kjet engine in, this was taken a few hours before I'd left so theres a bit more stuff connected up now

Well I've had it running tonight, although very badly, and not on petrol… but WD40 sprayed down the intake! Ran for about a minute, popping and farting. So I now have a spark, but obviously no petrol is being injected. Any ideas?

adi1987 said

Well I've had it running tonight, although very badly, and not on petrol… but WD40 sprayed down the intake! Ran for about a minute, popping and farting. So I now have a spark, but obviously no petrol is being injected. Any ideas?

I presume you've fitted the main fuel pump/accumulator etc. … Do you have a lift pump in the tank (3 pin plug on the top rather than 2 pin for a sender only) Is that running?
Is the main pump running?
Is the filter old or new?
If it was running using a mechanical pump before, and the electric pumps aren't running now, look at the relay first, check voltage at the pumps etc.

All pumps are working fine. It also has a brand new filter on it. When fuel is being pumped through you can here it go through the metering head and being returned.

I cracked off some unions on the top of the metering head, wedged the big flap open and turned it over to see if fuel squirted out, which it didn't….

Tried another metering head, cracked off unions, fuel squirts out, but engine won't run, so could be faulty injectors. Losing mojo! So I got the front coilovers on and let the polo borrow its wheels so I don't have to drive around on the pink and blue monstrosities. Here she is looking sorry for herself



And I gave the golf some sick rims and camber!