Skip navigation

Mk1 Golf 16v - Full Body Restoration - Insta chrisqgolf

Post

Back to the top

Mk1 Golf Driver - 16V project

Ha.. I actually really enjoyed rebuilding the carbs, daunting but once they were all complete I was over the moon with the finish.
Yeah man, seems a perfect combo, especially for the brakes I'm running. How you finding the M/C? Whats your full brake setup?

Post

Back to the top
"Cheers Guys, and yeah loving the build so far! Gra, I'm a photographer by trade but self taught mechanic in my own spare time. Service my own cars for years and always been obsessed with understanding machines and mechanics etc. Should of become an engineer really, but oh well! ha."


That Explain's the Top photography chris didnt think you used a Kodak throw away either.Hehe

Keep us updated budd :thumbs:

Post

Back to the top

Mk1_Golf_Chriz said

Ha.. I actually really enjoyed rebuilding the carbs, daunting but once they were all complete I was over the moon with the finish.
Yeah man, seems a perfect combo, especially for the brakes I'm running. How you finding the M/C? Whats your full brake setup?

It's good to know you've done it yourself and when there's a problem (if there ever is) then at least you know where to start!

Not got it installed yet. Still at the bare shell stage, but the I'm not using the servo, I'm going old skool with just the M/C (My Derby hasn't got one and never had one from the factory and I upgraded to a golf GTI set up on that but without the servo and find it better than the GTI set up on the cabby with the servo.

I might live to regret that decision but if so I'll install the servo. Just means my leg gets a bit of work out that's all  :P

Gone with VW direct fit 256mm calipers on the front, discs on the rear  (the car came with a mk2 gti 16v rear beam in the boot) with an adjustable reducer valve (to take the pressure off the backs as required) and braided lines throughout. (all currently sat in boxes awaiting fitting once I'm a bit further ahead) I've only gone down this route as all my components were completely knackered and I had to start from scratch buying new, so thought 'meh, might as well upgrade everything'. The cost wasn't much more than buying all new anyway.  :thumbs:

Dunno if it'll all work but the theories sound  :lol:

Cornish Host.
1980 VW Derby
Clive the Cabby
Ujum the Invisible
Mynx the  Tintop

Post

Back to the top

Mk1_Golf_Chriz said

Cheers :D Its all a bit of a mix match of parts to be honest. The alternator and alt bracket are from a Mk3 Golf GTi 2L 8v (not 16v) which has the tension spring underneath, running a clutched alt pulley from a Mk4 Golf TDi, VR6 Water pump pulley, Mk4 1.8T crank pulley and a 6PK belt that fitted,..  odd huh?  :ninja:

wow! How have you worked all that out  :thumbs:

Would you mind educating me. Looking at the engine photo, the clutched alt pulley is attached to the alternator? And the crank pulley is left of the water pump pulley?

Thanks
Matt

Post

Back to the top

FXTURE said

That Explain's the Top photography chris didnt think you used a Kodak throw away either.Hehe

Keep us updated budd :thumbs:

These are just iphone pictures in this build… no intense photography needed, just a guy who loves pictures! :D

borednow said

I might live to regret that decision but if so I'll install the servo. Just means my leg gets a bit of work out that's all  :P

Ha maybe mate, but wont know until you try it! sounds an interesting setup though, kinda similar to my setup. Let me know how you get on!

pazwaa said

wow! How have you worked all that out  :thumbs:

Would you mind educating me. Looking at the engine photo, the clutched alt pulley is attached to the alternator? And the crank pulley is left of the water pump pulley?

Thanks
Matt

Ha, not sure really… just all pieced together like that. I guess I knew I wanted that style of alternator, and made things fit around it. I wanted the 1.8T crank pulley because I knew you had to space them out 5mm, which was a perfect size for my tirgger wheel to squeeze in behind, and then I really wanted a clutch pulley on the alt to reduce back kick and tension on the crank as they're prone for breaking the keyway.

Anyway, yeah sure… Was easier to make a picture for you:



Hope this helps? Only thing I would mention is there wasnt many threads holding on the clutch pulley, so if you find a more suitable one let me know. Also I might get a smaller belt as its at the maximum adjustment setting already.

Post

Back to the top
My headlining came yesterday, looks and feels the nuts. Its slightly different to an original headlining as the rear quaters are actually all stitched in to the roof lining rather than being two seperate pieces, making instulation far easier - hopefully. The material is VERY close to the original look too, so I doubt you could tell the difference, unless you're a true hardcore Mk1 nut.




Also fitted a water outlet blank on the side of the head, will probably give it a proper polish to take the scuffs off it as they'll only just drive me nuts.





I also couldnt resist whacking the carbs on for a perv -


[

Post

Back to the top
Your engine is looking perfect in my eyes, so nice  :thumbs:

Did jmr do the distributor blank/module mount bracket?

Matt

Post

Back to the top
Hey Matt, cheers for the kind words… its taken a while to get it where it is now, but glad its all coming together.

Yeah, Jason does the dizzy blank with the mounting points for a ford coil pack to go on, which was perfect for me. It's a lovely piece of work, will grab some pictures when I'm next down at the garage. He hasn't updated his website in ages, so they're not on there but he does do them as an off the shelf item. Along with the water outlet pipe, which is used to clear the linkage when using twin carbs, which go perfectly with his inlet manifold, all of which you can see on my engine. I also have his front and rear engine mounts which are on his website, but again will grab some pictures when I'm next down that way.

Jasons (JMR) website - http://www.jmrclubsport.co.uk/

Post

Back to the top
Cheers, much appreciated  :thumbs:

You and me seem to be heading in similar directions with regard to engines, just you're light years ahead of me  :lol:

Are you using megajolt?

Matt

Post

Back to the top
haha… we all had to start somewhere mate. Mines literally been like 12 years in the making, so totally understand how and why things take so long. No, I always planned on running Megajolt but went for a more modern ECU called Nodiz… basically the same, think its even the same guy that designed Megajolt that builds the Nodiz ECU's. But the Nodiz has bluetooth to tune and map from a laptop, it can also run both 36-1 and 60-2 trigger wheels and can read all maps from Megajolts.. so just seemed a better buy and heard a lot of good reviews from it. Will let you know how I get on with it when I wire it in and start actually using it.
Also.. just quickly popped down to the garage, here's a quick snap of the Dizzy blank plate.




 :thumbs:




Been working out the plumbing now the engines resting in place. Bought some pipe work and working out the right routes for them all.
So the bottom one looks pretty straight forward, just two 180 pipes and a connector to join the two in the middle and thats that one done.




But looks like the tops not going to be quite as straightforward. I'm running no expansion bottle to keep things neat and tidy, so plan on just joining my inline fill straight off the side of the radiator and then run another 180 pipe off the side of that to then join up to the water outlet on the front of the head. Just ordered another 90degree pipe to hopefully bend it back a lil and connect that pipe up to the outlet with a straight piece.




Also been playing with the HT cables and looking at where to route them nicely. Off the back off the head seems to work nicely and tucked into two small brackets mounted to the back of the head.





Also been toying with the idea of braiding the lines… but not sure i'll bother now that I wanted to tuck them behind the engine.




Oh and also got the correct short shift lever from ClassicVW   :thumbs:  Added to the box of stuff I need to get powder coated.

Post

Back to the top
I have sooooo much engine envy  :wub: thanks for the blank photo too  :thumbs:

I was thinking of (eventually) running the leads along the back of the engine, but wondered if the heat from the down pipes would melt them?

Matt

Post

Back to the top
Ha, cheers Matt :$ Yeah will probably create a heat shield of some degree to protect the cables from the rising heat off the manifold. Although the manifold will be wrapped but will still expect it to disperse heat of some degree.


Well, I took a plunge and bought a set of wheels I've wanted for a very long time recently. There's a few issues with them that'll have to address but over all nothing that can't be rectified easily enough. They're a set of 16" BBS E50's, the faces arn't original magnesium but an alloy replacement, making them heavier but far stronger. They're also 9J wide which is just far too wide to fit on a Mk1, but have a 1 inch lip on them so will only need to replace the barrels for more suitable sizes. The shoulder on the back of the faces is too big too, pushing the wheels out too far, so this will have to be taken down after I've calculated out the right size for them, and for them to also clear my brakes.





A quick test fit to roughly see what would be needed to rectify the wheels. yeah… they're not fitting.




And to do a test fit for the rear I decided to quickly swap over the rear hub setup. Drum brake/hub gone… now sat on a polo 6n GTi disc brake/hub set up. But in all fairness there wasn't much offset difference between the two.








To be fair, the rear didnt sit too badly, a little too far out for my liking but the barrel was millimetres away from the rear coil.






So time to strip them down and give them to the man John himself to sort of the centres as they're not in the correct BBS colour and have had the inserts powdercoated over too, and to sell off the barrels. Used a breaker bar to just crack the nuts loose then zipped them out with the drill







Also went and bought a set of centre caps and stickers for them. I couldnt find any original E50 BBS stickers so had to make do with an alternative which I think will suit.






I also spent the day yesterday sat down with a sparky friend talking over my wiring. Oh god…

Last edit: by Mk1_Golf_Chriz

Post

Back to the top
Oooh, those wheels!!!! Your just getting everything right on this build  :thumbs:  :wub:

Post

Back to the top
More top work!

It just keeps on coming  :thumbs:

Cornish Host.
1980 VW Derby
Clive the Cabby
Ujum the Invisible
Mynx the  Tintop

Post

Back to the top
It gets better and better :cool:

Lovely 16v motor there, really well thought out conversion this :thumbs:

Got the "scene" wheels there - only joking ;)   16" is a good size for looking low, but still with some decent clearance under the car.

I can also vouch for JMR's products, I have the front and rear engine/gearbox mounts, very nice bits of kit.


Post

Back to the top
Cheers Guys  :$

haha, Pete  :cool:  we all love a scene wh*re hey?


Throttle position sensor now mounted on the carbs, to be able to 3D map my ECU.





Isaac also brought me over a nice new shiny water blanking plate, as the one I had was looking a bit tatty  :thumbup:





And some new G60 discs and correctly mounted calipers/carriers -






Back to the wheels - So after the strip down I took the faces and mated them up to the hubs I had previously built up with the Girling 60's on to see how much of the shoulder can be taken down. There was just over 35mm space between the brake caliper and the back face of the wheel centre.





So I then I bought some barrels on the previous trial fit to do another trial fit for how much the faces needed to come down.





John kindly put some correctly sized test tyres on them for me to finish the measuring up to determine how much needs to come off the back faces. One 8.25J and one 7J

7J - 165/35/16






8.25J - 195/40/16









Then went about ripping one side of the suspension off the Golf, and fitting a spare set of coilovers I had for trial fitment -




Fronts -




Which was a good 40mm away from the suspension coil, so the fronts faces will have the maximum 35mm length machined away from the shoulder, which still leaves enough shoulder for my brakes to fit behind.





Then I got stumped on the rear as the bottom bolt would not budge at all, was literally seized inside the suspension bushing. Spent a good hour heating it up and trying to smash it out, with no success. So the decision was made to take off the rear beam to get better access to it and cut the bolt off.






So with that bolt cut off, rear beam back on, coilovers on, and test fit the wheel to check for clearance. Spot on.






Next on the list was to finish off the plumbing. I went for the Vauxhall Corsa B radiator with the understanding It fits nicely under the slam panel and slots into the pre-made radiator holes in the cross bar nicely, oddly enough. I flipped the radiator upside down as it sat under the bonnet pull mechanism better and chopped off the two lugs that support the radiator.









Then made some little brackets out of aluminum sheet to hold the radiator in place, which all nicely bolted up to the exsiting radiator support holes in the slam panel.





And how the radiator sits top down, a lil angle to allow room for the radiator fan to sit in front of it.




And the raditor fan and housing. Luckily enough I was able to flip the blade and turn it into a push fan rather then a pull fan.






Picked up an oil catch can -




I was so pleased with myself I found a nice little place to mount it on the cyclinder head, worked out the HT lead routing and slotted in out of view. But took a while to work out that it sits directly in the path of the gear shift mech. I think in the future I'll get a cable shift box and mount the catch can back up there, but for the mean time had to find a new place to mount it.






Then had to hunt for a new place to put it….. nope, to in your face here -




Compromised with it being put on the front panel out of sight. Once the battery tray has been removed I think it will fit nicely there out of sight.





I also had a dab at fabric dyeing my scirocco rear bench seat.






Midway -






After three coats - It didn't get rid of the pattern but it certainly reduced it alot.

Post

Back to the top
Engine back out again and placed on engine stand -




So then all panels back on again ready for the shell to be taken for metal work this Saturday.







Then back in the garage awaiting collection -




Freeze plug in the block, took abit of force to get in mind (35mm) Cheers Isaac  :thumbup:





Also got my breather blank from Joe at Fresh Reflections





Sprayed the freeze plug black and put on that annoying 3 way coolant pipe.




My front inner ARB mounts have seen better days, so decided to sort them out. One had a bolt in that looks like it had been welded on previously by someone else and the other side had no bolt, just a hole drilled through the head of the original bolt that used to be there. So i decided to chop them both off and weld on new bolts.








The welds don't look pretty… but no ones going to see them as they be facing upwards on the underside of the car and they're certainly not going to fall off. Sprayed them with some spare blue paint whist they wait to go to John for powder coating.





And then just a few items i've picked up recently  :twisted:

'Bottom ball' rose joints with extenders, with tie rod end flip bushes from Daves brother in law Adam, looks lovely :thumbup:





Some new Lemforder front wishbones, with the all important ARB holes pre-drilled  8-)





And my recent exciting purchase, some BC Racing coilovers. I went for a 6kg - 5kg ratio, which will be a pretty damn firm ride. One of the good things about the BC coilovers is if I wasn't happy with the 6-5kg ratio, I can always replace the springs for a different rating from their shop at a relevantly cheap cost. But the main selling point for me about these are the ability to lower the car whilst not changing the load on the spring. On conventional coilovers to alter the ride height, you raise or lower the bottom support of the spring to select the height you want - which increase or decreases the load on the spring. But the BC coilovers can alter the ride height without changing the load on the spring by moving the suspension column down through the bottom hub which keeps the same travel at different ride heights. They also come with camber adjustable rose jointed top mounts and 30 click adjustable dampening <3 Anyway, pictures -



Post

Back to the top
The car now lives up at Resto Shack with Dave :D Let the body work commence








Post

Back to the top
Wheels have been dipped and blasted and then now on to the engineer to sort the 4x108 to 4x100 and to also take down the should to the correct lengths.







The front barrels arrived from Germany. Passing these straight on to John to powder-coat and await to be built back up.





Oh… and its on a ramp! Going to spend Saturday stripping all the other bits off and have a proper look with Dave and make a plan.

Last edit: by Mk1_Golf_Chriz

Post

Back to the top
What an update chris it looks like things are rolling for you.I keep getting distracted away from mine,Loosing heart i'd say.Interesting selection of Suspension you have there.Mine run  coil's with compression and rebound  adjustment(old skool) looks like its moved on in the suspension world,I get what you say on consequences of altering my ride height…I think.. :lol:

You'll have to draw a picture to explain it  ,when  i see your Mk1  when she's out of the shop.. :thumbs:
0 guests and 0 members have just viewed this: None.