My MK1 16v project (long overdue update 25/10-08/03)

hi all, been on this website for years, keep on going away and coming back to the MK1 scene, this is my fourth MK1 and by far the best (although currently it doesnt even run)!!

I bought the car as a project, non runner so was a bit of a gamble but after looking at the body and extras it came with i though, what the heck, i'm gonna buy this and have some fun!!

Spec:-
1983 Y reg golf driver
1.8 kr 16v engine
twin 40 webers
Alpha mangement
lowered (unknown height or springs/shocks)
Alloys (fake splits )
Interior is part stripped, fully carpeted but only two seats

plans are to try have it running by this weekend 12/13th september and have it mot'd, taxed and insured by next weekend!!

Current state, engine all striped, just drive shafts and engine mounts to come out, cleaned the bay a little but will wait till i build a new engine for it before stripping it right back and doing it properly!!

Need a few things, posted in the wanted section if anyone could help…

heres the good bit, pictures… (how i bought it, looks the same but with no engine lol)











i will put up updated pics as soon as i get my camera back off my girlfriend…

cheers and hope you all like

stewart

Looks like you have found a minter there mate  

Very nice. I saw this for sale on scottishvag.

Its a shame you couldnt get it on the road a wekk sooner as theres a meet at knockhill on the 13th.

I know, i possibly could but got to work on Sunday so would miss it anyway, bad planning on my behalf!!

Rather take my time and clean it a bit more… Gonna be moving it into a big shed tonight so cause the weather right now is pants, gonna have to get a good car cover for it too as i dont have a garage at the moment!! Anyone know of a good mk1 specific car cover??

Yeah it was advertised on Scottishvag, emailed the guy numerous times with no reply, took ages to get hold of him (4 weeks) but i was persistent and in the end i got it

cheers

nice wee motor wak, would look even better with my bonnet on it , let me knw if you want it

Looks tidy  8)

Bodywork looks clean like, nice one!

love it.

don't change it too much!!

Bit of an update, engine out , didnt take long as there's practically no wires, good thing having twin 40's… still waiting on guy with engine to phone me

Bad points are that i took off those plastic arches and there are little rust bubbles (nothing major) but the worst bit is, whoever stuck them on used mastic, raging as wanted to take them off and put on the little spats…
how easy is it to scrape it off, mask up the are and then try spray, blend it in, will it look gash, the car will probably be getting sprayed next summer anyway , but want to sort out the rust before it gets worse over he winter months as its my daily for now (when its running lol)

The garage i also moved the car to, big one that my mates dad owns for some reason, dont know why as he is a hotelier… has lots of tools, its dry (previously doing work on my drive, not good in Scottish weather) 4 poster ramp, lights and warm…

best of all i had a look round it today, and outside sitting against a wall were two panels, looked at them and thought they look like golf panels, turns out they are hadrians repair panels, one drivers front wing and a front panel, what's the chances eh, esp with no rust on the wing and a little on the front?? anyone want some panels??

Cleaned a few bits up too, looks like the engine was losing oil and has sprayed the bottom half of the bay, also took off the mounts and cleaned all the dirt off them!! took the rocker cover off the old engine as its smooth, was thinking about painting it white the same as the car, what yous think??

that's all for now,

cheers

I like what you did in the engine bay.

Well today went well, apart from the girlfriend nagging me to come home lol…

But got my priorities right and carried on with the golf!! went and picked up my new engine today, a 90k mile kr, managed to change over all the parts onto donor engine, split the gearbox off the old one and started to clean the box, which is a 1.6 gti one!!

finally got the engine out of the car too, manage to get the engine crane and get it out myself, which was a little tricky getting it past the brake pipes, but heres the pictures to show the progress

Engine coming out,


Bay as it is now,




Gearbox prior to cleaning,


New engine with most parts swapped over,


and rocker cover from original engine which i plan on powdercoating white,


Will update more tomorrow as i will be putting engine in and trying to find out where all the bolts i have got came from!!

All for now  

Well tonight is the night i try to start it, got mostly everything in, just have to fill it with water, oil, put the fan belt on, tighten up the exhaust manifold and stick the battery in!!

Plan to take the car for an MOT on Tuesday, all it needs as far as i can see is a new CV gaiter!!

Wish me luck as i try to start it   

Fitted new timing kit and clutch so hopefully a fair few motor miles before anything goes wrong, but who knows with an engine converted MK1?!

Will try put up new pics tonight of the car as it is now…

First off the fan belt i got didn't fit, too big.. Then i topped it up with mineral water from spar and found out i had a leak, fixed that, then another, fixed that and finally, one more for good measure, 10 litres of spars finest later, yeehaa, no leaks!!

Bolted up the exhaust manifold, filled with new oil and filter, put old fan belt on which will have to do for now, found out the air filter is totally beyond it, its cooked at some point and has gone brittle, no wonder i got the car with a fooked engine!! Bolted rad to body and then connected battery, found out that the starter has a constant feed and wont stop trying to start the darned thing, so for the mean time disconnected the solenoid thingy (technical here)..

Then checked all the lights and horn and surprisingly, it all worked, but when i stuck the ignition on, what's that i hear, splish splosh splash, more liquid coming out from the engine bay, but this time  it turned out to be fuel from a knackered o ring on the carbs!! But mate coming to the rescue tomorrow with o rings and a gaiter for the cv, so there we go, almost started, here's some pics of my work so far…



















Cheers to dubhighland for the windscreen

And i know the wiring is a mess but just want to get the thing running and then sort out all the niggles, hope you all like!!

Looking good mate, you don`t hang around do you.

Hope you get it started soon

Kenno said

Looking good mate, you don`t hang around do you.

Hope you get it started soon

Hope to get it started this evening if all goes well… Gonna try do the cv gaiter tonight as well, then it should be ready for the mot bar probably a new set of discs and pads though they might not need done for that, just gonna do them for peace of mind!!

Soon i can start buying goodies for it, i've been sensible this time, i usually buy loads of stuff before getting a car and pray that it fits, so far i've not bought anything i dont need, so stroll on MOT so i can pamper this car with goodies  

Well its been a while since i've posted, but not much has changed since last post!!

first off, the car is now running, engine runs pretty sweet ans the carbs sound nice  , bought a new filter for them, lucky find on ebay, K&N at less than half the price of it from a shop, brand new… which i still have to fit but need to wait until the engine is sitting right!!

I have had numerous gearbox issues, on 4th clutch and still no go!! its as if the push rod is too short and doesn't hit the pressure plate.. ive been on the phone to various persons/companies and still nothing, ie finger cracked etc but its all there, all back in and still nothing!! really annoying!!

The exhaust has three tiny wee pin holes which will need welded, not exactly a hard job!!

Good news on the brakes front, turns out i have 280mm brakes on it, so much for the 239 ones the guy i bought it off said, also has almost new ferrodo pads ..

replaced the gubbed gaiter, luckily i did check that as all the nearside suspension, brake bolts were finger tight, think it was a half arsed attempt by previous owner to fix the gaiter!!

All the electrics work, managed to figure out the remote central locking (which is such a luxury, i hated my previous ones without rcl), wiring is such a piggin mess….

Also got a front chin spoiler as it didnt come with one, will look smart i think!!



Hopefully get the wee carbon arch spats next and then a bonnet!!

But apart from the exhaust and maybe emissions it should pass mot, i'm off work now for two weeks so hopefully spend some time on this and get it mot'd and taxed by the end of the week (aye right, that's what i said almost two months ago)

Think that's all, hopefully picking up a set of coilovers soon and changing the wheels, but the wheels can wait until its on the road,

Cheers

Stewart

Long time since update, sorry it's a bit long and random but have copied and pasted from another site…


Yaay, finaly got her moving  

Albeit with a few niggles but they are/were easy to sort,

Niggle 1, put a new rocker cover on it and when i came back i noticed blue smoke under bonnet, opened bonnet to find oil all over timing cover, worst thoughts crossed my mind but in the end it turns out i rushed the rocker cover and the rubber gasket didn't seal right, sorted!!

Niggle 2, the expansion tank bottle, the bloomin cap doesn't close properly, under pressure it leaks (anyone got one)??

Runs pretty well tbh, still got to fit the ram pipes and filters, mot the thing and then jobs done , i'm in the States now for two weeks so everything is on hold!!

Also fitted a carbon splitter, although it doesn't sit 100% right as i have a small dent in my front panel  

One thing i love about her, she's got remote central locking  :nahnah:

Also managed to fit the new windscreen…

One thing though, should i keep the arches and get the GTI stripes or ditch the arches?? The wheels that are on it will be coming off soon, either want new mini steels (black) or larger p-slots, or RM's…. Decisions, decisions…..




Not really any progress, just pics i forgot to post…

First is of some polishing i had been doing waiting on parts to arrive, this was only a quarter of the way into it, still not finished them all but they're all on the car now, will finish the rocker cover soon, it does look awesome just now though i have to admit (not from this photo as i spent another 5 hrs on it after this), for a first go at polishing and 6 hrs of hard graft…



These are the ram pipes i got to replace the K&N filter which didn't fit, the old single filter fitted because it was almost oval, the K&N being square… I still have to buy some socks for them though and fit them, hopefull my mate will have the small bolts to attatch them on when i get back, after all he'd have had over two weeks to get them!!  

richierich37 said

i think its just vw life in general!!!! :lmao:

keep the faith, its well worth it…………………..

I have almost lost faith in this wee project a few times, but i keep buying myself wee things for it that i don't need that keep me going.

The plan was to strip it, cage it and use it on track… But after a wee think I've decided to stick some rear seats in it and keep it quite standard looking, maybe get coilys and some rm's or rs's for it. (mainly cause tracking it would cost a fortune), plus the money saving i think i'm going to by a bay window here in the states for some decent road trip holidays!!

That's all for now, next update… probably interior going in  




Not touched the rocker cover since i did in December or probably even November lol, i haven't seen the car much either, looked/fiddled with it two days in the last two months.

I am about to sell the thing, well, when i eventually get round to getting it through its mot which i hope isn't far off… I hope to get it done before feb!! You never know, i might fall in love with it again once its on the road…

But as for updates, none i'm affraid, apart from two ITG air filters (although my mate hasn't even got me the bolts to put on the ram pipes yet    ) and i swapped the wheels with a set of G60 steels although one needs a new tyre but i'll get that for the weekend!!

I'll be going up maybe tomorrow if i get paid and i'll update with some nice new photos, and i must say thanks for bringing this post back from the death as it's actually given me a little bit of motivation to get off my arse and finish it, so cheers scottscotland, i owe you a pint  :rthumb:

And if i get the motivation going, i'll even try and drag this along to the Glasgow meet on the 27th i think it is, but that might be pushing it lol…

Cheers




Not so much an update, but a few things that i need to fit, which will be tomorrow hopefully.

The first photo is from when i had the car out for a wee test drive, back in November… The wet patch on the ground is water that had leaked out the dodgy expansion tank cap… This is it with its de badged grille on, which is off now and replaced with the original which i'm trying to get a red trim for, and the carbon splitter is on too!!



Next up is my second lot of filters as the K&N didn't fit, so bought these nice ITG filters  



Then a wee while ago when i was putting the carbs back on i noticed an un healthy washer, it was a paper type one and no one i knew has one so i stuck the thing back on without one and it worked ok, but looked them up on ebay and came across these which are the ones i needed, so £3.60 later they arrived today which ain't bad considering i ordered them at 1.30am Friday morning…



Then when the weather was cold and it was snowing outside i pulled the windscreen wipers up only to notice the rubbers were still attached to the window, oops, so i bought some nice ones off ebay for a fraction of the price they are at halfrauds…



Now, i'm going to work on my car tomorrow and stick it in for its mot next week whether its ready or not, if it does fail at least then it'll give me a kick up the bum to get it in for its free retest.

So tomorrow will have updated car pics  :rthumb:




Right, i'll start with the bad news….

Get to my car this morning all happy and ready for a day blasting through it and getting it ready for mot, open the bonnet, get out my lovely new filters to find that they are too deep, things don't fit!! Ah well, onto filter set number three to see if i can finally get the right ones!! (hopefully the ebay shop i got them from will exchange for others, i did buy them a month or so ago but they are still in packet except the one i took out, fingers crossed)

Secondly, the exhaust is beyond repair, needs welded throughout the whole system, manifold only needs tiny weld though so all not totally lost…

thirdly, Get there to find this new addition to the car…





Can't be too upset, my mates let me keep it at his for two months, although it wasn't even him that did it, it was a guy doing a homer fixing his quad  :bang:  Poop happens..

Fourthly (it ends soon lol) i took the debadged grille off to replace with original, left it at the side of 4 poster ramp, forgot about it, raised said ramp to look under car and it falls into chain drive and gets crushe, again  :bang:  (so new grille needed  

Think that's the bad news done with.. I hope anyway!!

Now for the good news  

Last time i visited the car, probably around a month ago she refused to start, i gave up after short time cause it was snowing.. This time she fired up, albeit after 10 mins of trying to persude her, i promised her a wash and she fired straight away.. Also, last time i took it for a wee drive i was disappointed by lack of acceleration, today, whole different kettle of fish, boy she was quick    , just goes to show, women (cars) like getting attention…

Then it was onto getting things looking nice, the polished rocker had gone all poopy due to lack of attention, looked like it did before i started it lol, but few mins later, it looked good again.

Think i spent a good 8 hours cleaning car today  :scared:  never polished a car before in my life… took the swage lines off, boy some amount of excrement builds up under them…

Also adapted the distributor cap as i dont need it due to alpha management…

Oh, notice the new wheels too  

I'll let the pics tell the rest cause its 1.44am and i need my sleep  :rthumb:

comments welcome  :p











night all  




not so much an update but a list of more parts i ave accumulated!! Hopefully i will be fitting the exhaust in the morning if i can get up in time…

Ashley exhaust bought off fellow member, never seen how an ashley exhaust looks on a mk1 or know what they sound like but it was a cheap (hopefully) fix…



I have also been buying a few badges, got a 'volkswagen' one as a previous owner had painted the background silver and letters black, looked horrible… The car right now has a '16v' badge on the back, i am either going to replace that with what was originally there, a 'golf c' badge or the 'rabbit' badge i have, although i think the rabbit badge would just get nicked…





any ideas of the easiest way to get the lettering on the badges silver again, if i go near it with a brush i'll wreck 'em…

Hopefully tomorrows update will be exhaust fitted  




And also picked up a new grille centre piece cause i broke my last one  :bang:  it's not an original but it feels sturdier and less flimsy than the original so all good..







Bad news, she failed her MOT yesterday… the not so bad news it's all pretty easy fixes, i hope!!

1: Very small split in the sill within 300mm of suspension mounting point, in this case on the sill where some c0ck has previously jacked it up, so have to do a small weld there, and the suspension point being the ARB!!

2: Directional tyre on wrong way, oops lol

3: headlight on passenger side not forming a bean pattern, hopefully it's just the bulb not seated correctly…

4: Rear wheel bearing needs tightened.

5: emissions..

6: cant remember!!

So today's list, sort out parts needed, i've ordered a sytec fuel pressure regulator as the MOT testing guy says it's well over fuelling which is what i suspected, ordered it special delivery so it arrive tomorrow, hopefully that will sort emissions, if not he's going to manually turn down the fuel on the carbs so it passes!!

Find someone to weld the sill, i welded the exhaust myself but that's easily replaces, sills are a little more tricky!!

All the other stuff should take a few mins each…

But what a journey getting to the MOT station, first off i ran out of fuel which i was kind of expecting to happen and being no petrol station where the car was, well i had to chance it, so a mile down the road (MOT 10 miles away) it happened, luckily my mate was travelling behind should it of happened, then get to Gartocharn petrol station where i decided to put in super (at 1.26 per litre)!! and started to fill up, half way through filling the station runs out of fuel, typical!!
Get it going again and proceeded on on journey, filled up with £20 in Balloch and carried on, heard a slight knocking noise so pulled over, got out to find my wheel nuts loose on front nearside, oops!!

But apart from that, it ran sweet, a little bit stuttery at lower revs due to over-fuelling, but no oil/water leaks, temps were all good, so once the regulator is on, it'll be ready to fly!!

Was so good driving a mk1 again!! GF doesn't like it, but its not hers so screw her lol!!

Thats all for now, hopefully post back up on Monday with a fresh MOT





Got a regulator for the fuel today as i didn't know what the fuel pump was pumping out pressure wise, before it was a bit stuttery at low revs as it was seriously over fuelling, i have since turned the pressure down to 2.5 psi which has helped a bit but might turn it down to two to see if it gets any better still!! this is what i got…



also ordered a new door scraper seal for the drivers door as the one on right now has perished and also the window thingy that i've been after for ages that holds the window to the runner, all bought from VW who still have them in stock, don't know why some people seem to think every last part for a mk1 is now obsolete  :uhm: !!

Will update with photos tomorrow, and that of the sill!!






Cant't really be bothered with it any more, it's taking all my money and this morning it really pi55ed me off… It's idling really high, around 2500/3000 so i went to adjust the idle screws on the carbs, didn't make a difference to the speed of the engine, just made it run like a bag on nuts!! So adjusted them back slightly and drove it to the garage who did the mot and said fix it as the guy apparently knows what he is doing with them!! I also said if it's going to be megabucks don't bother and i'll take it back, to which he replied, we don't do megabucks (which is a little assuring lol)!!

Put it this way, it's running that bad that a spirited 20 mile round trip from mot station to garage and back used £20 of fuel!! NOT good  

After dropping it off i went to VW to pick up my scraper seal and window support, then headed back to the mot station to put them on, i have a few photos to show the old and the new, the old ones were miles beyond repair…

The car also has a few other minor issues (although i fixed all the ones needed for mot).. Front tyre is scraping arch (think i put the camber bolts on wrong when messing with the drive shaft so should be easy fix) rattles but what do i expect from an old car and the front nearside shock is gone i think… Few things to save up for!!

Oh and Steering gaiter boot has started to melt by the mani, how hard a job is it to replace this in situe, or is it a rack out job??

This is the old and new scraper seal, why did it come an inch too long?? i have to cut it to size..



This is the window support, the old one is gubbed, but i didnt get a new rubber sleeve bit so had to reuse the old one…



just a wee one of interior and door…



couple of the bay as it is now..





and this one, which after a hard, stressful day of hating it made me love it again, it just looks so good!!



Thats all for now until the garage phone me with an update on the carbs!!

MOT'd

Sweet setup.

Good progress. Shame about the tailgate

Looking really good though.