brad mole's mk1 golf project

another crappy update to keep the thread going

got myself a battery and some oil for when the time comes


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr


Brad Mole Photography_9999_27 by bradmole, on Flickr

bought a chrome grill to swap the trim over to my single headlamp one, still need the chrome sides though


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr



chrome oil cap


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

and just about fitted the brake lines


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr
brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

also bought myself another fun little car


Lupo GTI by bradmole, on Flickr

oh my god im falling in love with your car ,great work keep the updates coming please  

Dude, I absolutely love your mk1 and I have been following the thread from pretty much the start, but PLEASE ditch the Kamei bonnet vent! I'm such a big fan, and for me it just doesn't work! Stunning work though mate, in any case

Nah, keep the vent, I LIKE it!

Heres a few more updates

I bought another full wiring loom so i can change my fusebox to the later blade type fusebox. got that fitted except for one of the engine bay looms


brad moles mk1 by bradmole, on Flickr

I bought some exhaust heatwrap


brad moles mk1 by bradmole, on Flickr


brad moles mk1 by bradmole, on Flickr


brad moles mk1 by bradmole, on Flickr


brad moles mk1 by bradmole, on Flickr

and fitted the exhaust too


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

fitted the airbox and stuff too (its not completely in place but just about there) but first i had to switch tot he narrower airbox, so took the old larger one off and put the new one on so it will fit in the engine bay right


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

and got it in there, secured it to the bumper iron bolt you can just make it out


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

the middle chrome grill fitted (havent got the outers yet)


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

some more snaps


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

looking pretty messy but its just till i can get my head around it and til its running then im gonna start tidying it up. just focussing on getting it running now


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

Well, another day another wiring loom, not much progress but i finally have the right engine bay wiring loom.


brad moles mk1 golf progress by bradmole, on Flickr

i used rubjonnys fusebox layout to help label it up and asked him a few questions on the ones i wasnt sure on which he helped out hugely with. Then today i started putting it in the bay to see what needed extending, started with that by taking bits from other looms i had, starting to get to grips with whats what now on the loom but the bay is looking a right mess until i get some more time to work on it


brad moles mk1 golf progress by bradmole, on Flickr


brad moles mk1 golf progress by bradmole, on Flickr

also bought a BMW battery wiring kit to move the battery to the boot, its very heavy duty and looks like a quality bit of kit


brad moles mk1 golf progress by bradmole, on Flickr

havent decided how to route it yet but just put it in place for now


brad moles mk1 golf progress by bradmole, on Flickr

the boot panels were in a bad way so i made up some templates from them so i can get on with making new ones up, i extended the right hand side one so it went over and covered the seatbelt bolt hole too then made them in MDF so i can use this as a template


brad moles mk1 golf progress by bradmole, on Flickr


brad moles mk1 golf progress by bradmole, on Flickr

bought some clips and stuff from VW


brad moles mk1 golf progress by bradmole, on Flickr

and thats about it, sorry its a boring update

ok so i bought my gazillionth wiring loom, but its finally the final final loom, the ISV control unit loom


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

took my loom back out and cut it all down, extended some wires, but being anal about things i made sure i used the same colour wires for extending, from the other billion wiring looms i had bought


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

action shot!


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

loom goes back in to figure out how i want to route the wires, i didnt want to go straight for hiding all the wires, as it would take up too much time i dont have right now, and im just focussing on getting the car running this year, so i decided to go for this sort of thing, tidy-ish but not hidden, all in position


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

took it back out and wrapped it with loom tape


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

and back in again


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

some new bits


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

100mm driveshafts


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

some fuel lines


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

fuel lines fitted


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

rotated dizzy 180 degrees to fit my ABF cap


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

pretty much sorted with my wiring now, started to tidy it up, im leaving the dash out until the car is running, just incase for easy access, only thing i cant fugure out, i cant seem to find any wires int he fusebox or anything for the handbrake, my old loom had one but this doesnt seem to, any help?


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

sold all my wheels so just bought a cheap set to roll the car about on and for when its ready to get MOTd


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

a shot with my other car


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

thats all folks

Coming along nicely! Thorough work my man! :mrgreen:

Great progress. Do you have the part number for the injector pipe clips? Mine are broken and I need to get some new ones.

Thanks

thanks guys, 027133689R is the part number for those clips, cost me a few quid each from VW

Hey brad, u noticed that all dubs have put a pic up of ur car and said how clean it is?

Lookin good mate, keep up the good work

Dan

thanks, yeah just seen the pic of it, its a shame the pics make it look alot cleaner than it actually is lol

Lovin your project excellent photos !!!
Keep up the great work

Great Job, its going very well! make sure you book a place inside for Players this year! looks like you will be ready and i want to have a snoop around!

hope you dont mind me asking but what wheels are on the Lupo? they look really nice

if i'm not mistaken they are turbine wheels of a renault clio or copies of them anyway lol

thanks again guys, the wheels are renault alpine turbo wheels, they are like renault turbines, but 10x more rare, 15x6 fronts and 15/8.5 rears.

im really not happy with the majority of the car to be honest, there are so many bits that are far from perfect so im debating even showing the car anywhere this year, i may just take it to vw festival and edition 38 and keep it on the campsite

a few updates,

been fiddling on with the engine and bits as ive been aiming to get the car running for a while now so i can focus on any other bits after that. bought some bits

some copper washers for the fuel lines


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

seatbelts


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

bottom radiator hose


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

put the clocks in


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

bought loads of bits for the vacuum setup so i can use what i need to make the right pipework


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

made a hole for the vaccum and king lead for ignition coil as ive places it beside the fusebox inside the car


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

we have soem life! connected the battery up to see whether my electrics were correct, to start with i had about half of the lights i should have, but after a few hours fiddling with it, turns out most of them were dodgey connections on the bulbs, just missing my brake lights but im looking into that


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

filled her up with fuel, felt like the time was close at this point


brad moles mk1 golf by bradmole, on Flickr

after a few other small issues i attempted to start the car, but with no luck, i thought the problem may be vacuum related but checked the setup and all seemed ok, i struggled for a few days thinking what the problem could be, changed a few things and still no luck, there was spark and fuel going into the metering head, but there was little/no fuel getting to the injectors, my last suggestion was that the metering head may be dodgey, i had a spare one lying around so i put that on as a last resort to see if it was any better, and she fired up, i was so happy to hear that engine noise after nearly 2 years of ownership without ever having it running.

now the engine sounded a bit rough which is to be expected, applying a bit of throttle makes the engine splutter and on startup it doesnt like to run smooth til youve given it a few revs, theres definitly some fine tuning to do but i think there may still be a vacuum leak.

now my next problem was that the exhaust manifold was almost touching the steering rack boot, and after 2 minutes of running the exhasut was so hot it started burning the boot, i knew this was a problem which ive read up on, so i wrapped the boot in foil tape and put a welding mat inbetween, this seemed to fix it but im not sure how safe it is, il just have to keep an eye on it.

my other problem at the minute is, as ive got rid of the ehater matrix, water pipes on side of head and expansion tank, i have a topfil radiator, the water in the system is obviously alot less than if i had all those other bits but it just seems to boil the water so quickly, the ive not managed to run the car enough for the fan to kick in as the water just boils out of the cap on the top fill rad, i dont understand, the only thing i can think is that the cap on the rad has a metal washer on it, is it supposed to also have a rubber washer on too? i dont know how it works, its a 1.5 vw topfill

less than 2 weeks til VW festival, not feeling too confident, ive got a long list of things to do and no time to do it

sorry for the essay

Sounds like an air lock in the engine ,i know it aint nice to do but try running her up until the fan cuts in and feel if the pipe from the thermostat gets hotter about the same time  and with the cap off the rad i know you will loose a fair bit of coolant but but with the fan running and the thermostat open you will see the water level drop as the air lock finds its way out,if that fails and you got a flow from the water pump take the thermostat out(when cold)so there s no restrictions in the coolant system as its summer and you ain,t got a heater any way there is  nothing to loose .if it still boils over start thinking about a head gasket check.But even then if the gaskets gone a car as pretty as yours still makes for a nice bit of drive way eye candy,good luck.

il give that a shot mate thanks for the info, we have tried similar things but ive ordered a radiator cap seal from vw so hoping that will be half the problem, really really hope it isnt a head gasket

hi again i saw redpetemk1 said about using the isv from the mk1 dx engine as it saves all that wiring so heres a pic of my last 16v conversion with the mk1 isv hope this helps,oh yer just a quick tip if you look at the top left of pic you can just see i relocated  the fuel filter and bracket to the scuttle  instead of leaving it on the air filter housing right behind the front panel and headlamp electrics as it seems a much safer place   (not interfering with your build as it looks great just a couple of friendly pointers)