Project Dreamboat

thanks mate.

Despite working on her for about 6 hours on Tuesday, didn't get all that much done.



sanded my tail pipe clean, massive improvement and can tell it'll be shiny new when I clean it up once I'm all done.


bought some paint to refurb my grill.


and some gunk to clean my bay.


have taken tidy methodical resto to new levels, well, I've become Obsessive compulsive.


oooh what's that? you wanna go looooower?


rocker cover back on. Took an annoying long time.


gunk'd a wee tiny bit to see what it's like.  well….smelly!

this is a before shot….hopefully have a good after shot on Tuesday.



found some euros…will come in handy for my trip to como!



current favourite pic.

Tuesday's gonna see me Gunk my engine bay, and sort my fuel tank.

Once all is well, it's time to drop it like it's hot!

Thanks again for the kind words, and keep watchin' !

Peace.

Looking good, nice to see you're taking the time to clean everything up properly. Are you going to clean up the engine?

yeah, using gunk and brush, not reconditioning the engine or anything, as it's outwith my budget and tech knowledge.

good job I've bagged everything i've taken off so far, pulling apart your golf is addictive!, surpassed only by buying new parts!!

cheers for the encouragement and watch out for my update on tuesday!


Peace.

Well folks, the plan was sort fuel pump, gunk engine and get ready for next week's big suspension fit.

Replaced this:


this:


and these:


oh and my ignition leads


trial fitted my latest ebay purchase:



then made a good start on the gunk mission:


this is how I left it:


pretty happy but plan to try and get in behind the engine next time.

Broke my window taking it out, but planned to replace anyway because of 3 small cracks so not too bothered:


In keeping with the methodical planned approach of my wee project….



pulled the dash out!



glovebox wasn't attached! and stereo wiring is a mess, but everything else looks nice and tidy behind.  Have my eye on a dashboard on ebay, as mine is full of holes.

found this

behind this




but think my headunit looks neat there and is subtle.  Just need to think of something to replace my stereo hole with, suggestions?

That concludes this weeks work.  Quite a while I've been at this now, and still absolutely loving it.

Next week I'm gonna take my wheels for some new tyres and try and install coilovers!!

If I have time, finish gunking.

Thanks for watching.


Peace

3 VDO guages will replace the standard head unit location. You can buy a specific panel for the job aswell. You'd be able to pick some gauges cheap off someone on here or ebay.

Something like this:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VDO-3-Gauge-Panel-Under-Dash-1-DIN-Size-Gauges-NEW_W0QQitemZ310168714693QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item48377efdc5&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Cheers Bouchay,

Cool suggestion, i have a lot of ideas floating about just now, and have just won centre console that hasn't been molested on ebay, so watch this space for the interior revamp that will probably be on page 46 at this rate !

FOLKS, welcome back to the dreamboat drama.

I am having trouble fitting my coilovers (rear first) as I cannot for the life of me get the rear nut out the axle/shocks.

AS such, my update this week is merely to stop me getting to page 6 of projects before a proper full pic update next tuesday.

Last night I fitted my new coolant tank, with a lot of annoyance to get it fitted as it was too thin.  I then reverted to haynes and put coolant back in my car!

next job was my radiator, I've wanted to fit it since I got it, it looks so shiny!  So put my fan, housing, and radiator together and popped it in, connected up my hoses with new clips and new top mounts and she looks sweeet!!

Then I went to bed, started on the coilovers today and spent the last 4-6 hours doing nothing….If you can't get  a bolt out, and you try for ages, it is the most frustrating thing in the world!!

Anyway, here's a question.  My neighbour continously tells me I'm an arse for trying to fit coilies and putting my rad back on etc. when I'm having it all sprayed. Claiming the overspray will wreck everything.  He's adamant I should get it sprayed and sorted now, and then fitting everything on and together.

A) Any1 had a car sprayed and happy with the state that the bits that weren't mean to get painted came back in?

B) Does any1 see a problem with my plan of getting the car running sweet.   MOT it, insure it, drive it till i can afford to take to a painter and get it done?  At such time I can strip everything again, like rad, springs etc?

And for all the pic hungry here's what I've been buying this week:

tenner!


fiver!


Any1 else think that wheel's a bargain?

Thanks for watching and with a bit of luck I'll have the old (snapped all over the place) rusty prings off soon and a full update with my shiny springs.

Peace.

Hello Hello Hello.

Wanting to make up for the non eventfulness of last week, I was up til 6am this morning getting my rear suspension off!!

So here, lucky readers is a double update, including the few photos I took last week before I wasted 5 hours on a seized bolt or two.

My cleaned up fan and cowling and new radiator:


New coolant tank:


Fitted and filled:


Shiny:


I wanted to get her running at this point, to check it all worked, as I accidentally replaced a two pin thermo switch with a three pin.  She starts first time no bother, and sounds amazing, then for the first time in two years, I saw my fan working! ( I replaced the thermostat, coolant sensor and thermo switch, so one of them must have been faulty!) LOL.

To top it ~~ It didn't go "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeH" after 5 minutes, so I reckon my new fuel pumps already a brilliant purchase!

I then set these up:


And wasted the rest of the day trying to get at two bolts.  I came back to the garage last night with a fresh attitude, and….

my new favourite tool:


How I used it:


Eventually got my old springs off !! woop woop.

Look at the nick:


think they'd make a cool keyring or 2, as a reminder of the hardest part of my resto so far, but reckon that would be tempting fate and just heard i;ve to remove a steering wheel adapter.

Anyhoo, with the spring off, I cleaned inside my arches.

Before:


After:


Then fitted the new lovely coilovers!!!



So happy, look amazing, the car's def lower, but will measure it and probably get them low as poss.

Started to fit rear upper anti roll bar, but it was so fidgety that I gave up, also because I may be squeezing a sub into the boot, and that would make it impossible, and partly because I figure the rear suspension isn't really independent as they're both connected to one axle, am I talking nonsense or making sense?  I only really wanted the front bar anyway.

Happy with the suspension progressed, I gunked the engine bay again, this time removing the coil and doing the back wall.  



Decided against the can round the coil as I couldn't cut a can without it looking an absolute shambles, what do you all use? (all 2 other people who have put a can on their coil.

New bracket though


Took some photos and tidied my garage.

Here's this week's desktop


Here's some for you guys





Tune in next week and watch me lower the front.  Then what'll I do? Haven't really thought about it  Any suggestions?  Still need to paint her, get interior sorted, and hood.

Anyway, we'll see.


Peace.

Day 9 in the …weetony's garage.

Have been ill this past week, and as such didn't spend all night in the garage last night, I did go in and try and take my steering wheel spline adaptor off "quickly" (haha, what a fool!)…check out my modified finger…



Anyhoo, early rise today with the intention of lowering the front, as per usual, you start a job expecting it to be done in an hour, no more work/time than planned.  Then, if you don't cut off your finger, you either a) get stumped at a bolt/nut/25 year old rusted something or b) get carried away and do more and more and more…this resto started with a bucket and a sponge…

without further a do, the story as told by my canon…

wheel off, and I'm thinking, while I replace the front suspension, should I do something about those brakes?



I mean, they look pretty rotten.

okay, let's have it, calipers off, and disk, then spring…(camber nut and bolt took a bit of convincing)



bad and old…


Brake pads eh??



you can get these sorted apparently….

I heart cleaning out wheel arches

sneaky preview of what's to come there.


GUNK just didn't get them clean enough, i also heart sanding these days


I thought I might as well get some use out of my new mask…

and as I lost my ?300 bid on fake brembo calipers


RED and black, with touches of shiny, my colour scheme revealed!!


while strut was out, started to sort the rust round the mount.  


bought this 2 years ago, with the intention of sorting the rust patches on the car, HAHAHAHA I would still be at it!!!  Honestly, this is such a learning curve.

introducing…


NEW COILOVERS ! !


and disk! (pads too…when the calipers are ready)


did camber like this….is that okay?


shiny new mount for the keen eye.


sorted!

Don't worry about the door, I've got a shortcut in mind…



Thanks for watching, see you next Tuesday!!

All comments very welcome, esp. the motivationals.



Peace.

Great work, its coming along now.  What's next on the agenda?

Alex.

cant set zee camber with car in the air, as the angle will change once its got weight on the wheels.  What I do is put 1 wheel on then put a trolley jack under the ball joint on t'other side, drop car to floor and adjust jack till car is level. Set the camber on jack side, then repeat the procedure for the other side
You can check the car is level by measuring the distance from the wishbone to the floor on both sides and adjusting the jack till it is the same.

other option is to have a spirit level on the slam panel, but this assumes your car sits level when its on the ground.  to check this put both wheels on and drop it to the floor.  The advantage with coilovers is you can adjust it till its level

thanks guys, jonny, will sort camber as you've suggested when I get the other side sorted next week.

Alex, a good question…will probably sort out the rear brakes, to make them nice and shiny like the fronts, then start work on my interior…

then I'll get the hoodlining sorted and it's off for a paint job (prob. after winter, as I don't want it to get a lovely paint job and then leave it sitting in freezing cold.)

then all i'll have to do is put it back together, with the lots of parts growing under my bed, and go a long drive!!!

we'll see…

This week was a write off….and I had an angry day in the garage today.

Okay okay, I'll try be more positive…

I haven't broken any fingers or thumbs, nor have I cut myself seriously anywhere.  
I got my refurbed calipers back on.
I have got the nuts and bolts out the driver side suspension strut, and it can be removed (though currently is back in)
I have got ONE guide pin out the drivers side caliper, and ONE bolt out from the other part of the caliper.
I have got my drivers' front wing off, without too much bother.
My girlfriend's brother has donated a mint mk1 dash.  I didn't even know he was into VWs (golfs) let alone an accumulator of old parts for mk1s!!
It's been a great week on ebay (I don't want to give all my final ideas away - but wheels will look better, as will my grill and my interior!! - all bargain finds!)

"So," I hear you ask, "what's getting you down Tones?"

THESE TWO FECKING BOLTS!!



I have wrecked them trying to get them off and now completely up a creek as I haven't a welder or the know-how, any ideas?


My lovely new caliper, I made it manky putting it back on and thought: "Why did I bother?" Well, cos it's cool right?






Cheers Gav! I O U 1 Mate!


new rubber


new tool, for resetting piston.

Hopefully next week I'll get that caliper off, and sort the drivers side suspension and brakes, The disk isn't screwed on!!!  Any help greatly appreciated.

Still on the look out for a drivers side front wing too.

Thanks for watching folks and sorry for not having done anything a bit more exciting.  My swine flu is passing I think, so I should be at this Monday nights/Tuesday days again, hopefully!(it's getting cold in my garage!!)



Peace.

good work goin on bud  i live in glenrothes and have a welder, happy to help if ya want

thanks mate, if you weren't 100 miles away I'd get the kettle on.  There's an electrician who comes into my shop and has a blowtorch he says I can borrow so I'll give that a bash if my trade size WD40 hasn't done it's job yet.

Well Hellaaayyyy…..

Excuse the cheesy self-timered photo but THAT'S how low I've slammed the dreamboat!

She's been on axle stands for two weeks as well, so it really just seems ridiculous, love it! anyway, welcome back to my resto!

Drove to Sunderland on Thursday, 400 miles round trip, for…



trial fitted:



1977 911 seats, you like?  

Getting them black leather with red piping and perforated middle. If they look half as good as they do in my head, they're going to look just wonderful.

Managed to get my caliper off last night, but STILL couldn't get those two bolts…



did a wee pad comparison for you, can you tell the difference between old and new?



So unphased (yeah right) trial fitted new wing.



nice chrome bolts for the shiny bay



an improvement I'm sure you'll agree:



Just have to drill indicator holes.

So today went to halfords for some more gunk.  Putting it in a spray bottle is genius!! thanks to whoever posted a pic of gunk in a bottle (think it was coke) as you've saved me ages and effort!

Popped into my local VW on the way home for replacement bolts ( optimistic these rounded ones were coming out ) they gave me them for nowt!! Also gave me a loan of ETKA to install on my system to tell them what part no. i need.  Do you think I'm spending too much time there?  Asked a mechanic for help removing the nasty bolts….

…3 hours later



tadaaa!

so, vice grips are amazing!


(am i being too detailed with my photos?) spot the new bolts!

k, here's the moneyshot…..then i did the usual clean arch, fit new coils, fit new disk, drop it like its hot and put the icing on the cake with…



I have sanded primed and painted the mounts while I couldn't get those bolts. so my bay is nearly done (until paintshop)



I couldn't really find an angle that best showed how low dreamboat now sits…



It's v. low!  Basically, I couldn't get the jack out once i dropped it.  

When I took the axle stand off the passenger side, the axle stand on the drivers side was holding both drivers wheels off the ground!


Next week I'm going to sort the drivers side caliper and brakes, get the back lowered and then, i think, I will remove the hood.

thanks again for reading, and motivating.  It's because of feedback that I keep wanting to do more and more to get it posted up!!



Peace.

updates are overdue lol

apologies….

it's my birthday today!  here you go.

Started this week by sanding and painting my caliper again, but too keen to get it on, I didn't leave it till next week, I just hoovered my carpet while it dried…



I'm getting ready to work on my interior, needs a real good clean as you can see



once clean i'm gonna work out what I'm doing with the doorcards/rears and how to fit golf subframes to porsche tombstones, then get to work.

here's my new drivers side caliper fitted, completing the red stuff !



I wore plastic gloves this time after making the passenger side one manky.

this isn't a very good picture but i'm trying to show that now if i jack my car very close to the front wheel, and only slightly, the back wheel lifts!



and i'm using the crap jack cos i can't get my trolley jack in anymore!

anyway, obviously not that much done…but here's the treat :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jlbz3m1KNG0

next week i need to bleed the brakes and get some brake juice in! then I'll continue with the interior.  Any seat frame help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for watching.


Peace.

have you put any protection on your coilovers,and i dont mean a rubber lol,i used copper grease sticks like u no wat to a wet blanket.

lots of wd40? sufficient? i'm a noob, advice appreciated

wd40 no use, bike chain lube is good stuff, really sticks in all weather. just dont get it anywhere near your brakes