Project Dreamboat

cheers for the advice, properly lube my struts is now on the to-do…


Welcome back, soorrrry I'm late (again!) I've been sitting with my head in my hands crying over a broken rear brake nipple!!!!

Here's the update:


Like all Tuesday mornings these days, it started here:


then on the way home, for a wee coffee in here (the best coffee and lasagne in the world, and where I spend my other 6 days of the week):


home and unload:




it was all going so well, I was considering a future in car mechanics, or at least brake bleeding.

asked my maw to contribute to the dreamboat's resto:


snapped the rear nipple, swore, kicked the air, decided to start on my interior:


Ordered a new wheel cylinder, so hopefully get the brakes fixed next week, then the running is done, and I just need to sort the interior, paint it, and drive it.

but something else will no doubt pop up on the way.


Oh the joys…..


Peace.

I'd do both wheel cylinders dude, then you know they're both working as well as each other! shoes would be on my list as well if you aint already done em.

that bleeder is interesting, how does it work? I use the eezi bleed one which uses a spare tyre to pressurise the fluid reservoir. I guess that one uses a kind of vacuum pump?

edit: oh and you do realise handbrake is only held in with a circlip and a pin, dead easy to remove  

i am thinking of replacing whole drum and contents to be honest, but it's the expnse!

used the brake pedal to bleed.

Will replace both cylinders once I make sure I'm getting the right one…there are 3 types?

looking at AVS they list 2:
14.29mm (without brake reg upto 1984)    Febi    02216    ?4.95    each    

17.46mm (with brake reg upto 1984, all vehicles from 1984) Febi    02217    ?4.95    each

AVS have always been spot on for me so I trust them.

I've just read through whole thread,
your making good progress on your cabby tony.
but, when you cut the rear shock bolts off did you refit the same quality bolts? The bolts should have 10.9 on them not 8.8.

cheers rubjohnny, I bought this on ebay:

REAR WHEEL CYLINDER - Volkswagen Golf 1.8 82->83 GTI

it says it has a 17.5 cast iron cylinder and 17.5 bore diameter…

I've just fitted it and it does fit, although my car doesn't have brake regulator (or i can't find it!)…

please advise!

Cheers studs, I got the bolts for my rear shocks from VW, a direct replacement part.  Thanks for the advice though, much appreciated.

if you have a regulator it will be in front of the rear beam on the passenger side, since its an 83 GTI cab I'm pretty sure it should have one. My 83 cab did and it was a GL

Passenger Side!!! Aaaaaaaaaahhh…..I've been looking drivers side as it says driver side everywhere it's mentioned.  

Will have  a look there on tuesday, though, I did have  aquick glance ( Just in case) and I can't find it.

HAve I got the right cylinder?

thanks.

I would say so yes, if AVS says its right then almost without fail it is. their parts guys are top notch

this is what you are looking for, hopefully yours is better than mine was

hey mate nice work! all systems go thats what i like!  about the can cutting i used a scalpel swann morten blade, cut the top and bottom off then the back , then trimed it to size on a cutting mat, wear gloves for th efirst bit though..


hey on your'e project i noticed you were using the engine gunk stuff.  how effective is that stuff cause? i was thinking of maybe using that to clean up my gearbox and block and head perhaps  also how much is it and where dya get it from

cheers bud looking forward to seeing you're progress :wink:

hey dude, gunk is great, stick it in a spray bottle and invest in a brush.

About £5 a litre motor factors (halfords?)

here's this week's installment

Right let's get to the bottom of this….Do I have a brake pressure regulator??

passenger side rear:


driver side rear:


Am I being a dafty or is is not there?

Anyway, onto my resto…

Massive thanks to novocaine who made this a lot easier than it could have been, very very handy to have you around when I'm trying to restore my cab dude, thanks again!

but something else will no doubt pop up on the way.

yeah…that was a clever thing to say….

So my cylinder came by tuesday…and I fitted it, but for some reason the handbrake then wouldn't work….the reason was that I had replaced one of the shoe springs wrong.  Sorted (thanks haynes) and I then was back to square one (with a new clyinder) and it was time to bleed the brakes again, only this time I wouldn't make the mistake of snapping the other bleed nipple!

BUT OF COURSE I DID !! ! !  !!  !

I AM A NIPPLE BLEEDER SNAPPER EXTRAORDINAIRE, I could have cried…..

I didn't though, I just made it loads worse….sorry folks, you getting sick of reading?



Basically, i rounded allen bolts connecting the cylinder and eventually snapped the brake pipe!! !  It was left too short to fix.  I was having a major disaster session.  After about 2 hours, I left the garage, I wanted to make  aplan of action and sort this mess…

So I went online, I came on here and got some great help and then I spent a small fortune



New Cylinder ( again!)


25ft of copper nickel pipe.




new tool, why didn't I have one of these?! Why !?



the coolest wee toolkit for single use.

and tonnes of other wee bits and bobs to see me carry out my plan.

I knew my gf was away to preston this weekend, so was happy I would still make progress on my restothis week, and still be able to put this thread up tonight.

I had to remove the brake pipe I wrecked….cut a new piece (25ft is enough to practice cutting i figured) bend it to shape and reconnect it (wow, that is so much easier to write than it is to actually do…)

Once that was done….fit new cylinder, refit shoes, refit drum, bleed brakes, smile and exit to applause.

Photos…

 :sorry:


cut this off to make it easier to get the connecting nut…


well, that's the theory….


had to break the clip (accidentally) and pull down the flexi hose to stand a chance of getting this (any idea where I can get a replacement clip???


eventually (oh hello vice grip you little wonder you!)


wee worm thought he had found his mum.


new cylinder fitted to end of new pipe.

I'll save you 20 odd photos of the rusty underside of dreamboat…

tadaaaa….


Okay, so then I bled my brakes and guess what……



They bled ! ! ! ! !  WOOHOO! ! ! !  Is this a turn for the good? Are things going to start going my way???? ……

Dropped the car back onto the wheels….

It doesn't move cos I need to fit a new rear wheel bearking kit as the old one cant just be plugged in? (tbh thought this would come with the drums)

Brake fluid leaking everywhere  :lmao:

I know I haven't connected the pipe to the flexi well enough (despite tightening as much as I physically could it's such a nightmare to get the pipe into the flexi…given the lack of space and awkwardness.


So till tuesday folks….

Got a rear wheel bearing kit x 2 coming, and will think of a way to tighten the brake union bolts.


Peace, and thanks for reading !


P.S. don't know about you, but i hate seeing 20 photos of a resto thread, without a pic of the car…

for that reason and to give me more room round the back of the garage, here's the front bumper quickly back on… looks nice and low





Oh, and incase you were wondering, following yet another bad day in the garage….



the worm got it…

no compensator on there, can see the brake lines going direct to the flexis on both sides!

bit of an epic weekend for you, glad its all kinda sorted!  with the leaky fluid, you might just have to redo your flare on that side, I had the same problem

Tip for you, unbolt the beam from the car on that side (if you're feeling brave!!) then you'll have loads of room to sort that flexi. it was the only way i got enough clearance. as for the clips, i think GSF do them but VW certainly do, and shouldnt be that much.

As for beam unbolting, do that as a last resort, as the studs can shear off. on my cabby thats just about the only thing that went right for me, I got them off no problem. Just everything else back there that went wrong!

Clean the threads on the studs up as best you can, drown the nuts in penetrating oil. As you loosen them, for every 1/2 turn you loosen them, tighten back up 1/4 turn and clean the threads again + another blast of penetrating oil.  If you just unwind em all the way the threads will get clogged up with crud and you run the risk of shearing the stud!

hey, thanks for the advice, but think i'm gonna leave the beam, as it seems too tough to take off myself.  Will take it off when I change the engine…which is my next resto

Just a quick post to say I'm away to madeira for a week tomorrow morning so you won't be getting anything this week.

But I did just pick up two doors in mint condition and a new boot carpet and parcel shelf.

So I'll be back to fix the brake line and then onto the doors /interior soon.

Take it easy.

Keep it up Tony, there's nothing like learning as you go

Baz  :mrgreen:

page 4???

Winter Restos ftw!

the cold nights are among us, wasn't looking forward to today…

til i opened the garage…


can't get enough of my clean(er) bay….and it's not even finished yet.

sorry for the lack of updates, I've bene in madeira doing a bit of this…


and a bit of this…


but came back to my latest ebay purchase…


which replaces this…


and can be added to this…


my small under-bed collection….


somethings don't fit under the bed, like my new doors!


picked them up from a dude near me(after travelling 50 miles for one previously), they're mint.


so car currently sitting like this:


first job today was to sort this:


also got a carpet and parcel shelf off the door guy…the parcel shelf he made himself, looks the business, if a little manky.


so once, i'm finished sorting brakes and wheel bearings, need to finish fixing interior:


fit my new dash, and then fit these:


then fit my new doors…do something in the rear/boot, inspired by the likes of this:


then get this replaced

(defo leaving to the pros, saggy headlining = fail in my book, and i'm crap with the likes of that.)

get the whole interior reupholstered. (by a pro, see above) already planned colour scheme, it's gonna look amazing~!!

replace this…


get it sprayed…it's between two coachworks.

replace this…


then fill the rest of my photobucket space with pics of my completed resto…

then arrange to get to as many meets as poss, and meet you guys/ let you see dreamboat in the flesh.

meantime though, it's a lot of this


and a lot of this



UPDATE TIME ! ! !

SO i woke up today at around noon, after a night of playing computer games ?.  I've not been in my garage for 2 weeks, as I've been working flat out since i came back so was not overly excited about going back into the garage to get oily (i forget how satisfying it is.)

spent about 3 hours in their today and they were great, got loads done (considering such little time).

Here's some photos…

i had to fix this, it's where my brake pipe connects to flexi hose.  and it wasn't near tight enough, and so awkward to get to…


first things first, I swallowed my pride and accepted my first attempt wasn't good enough…

just as well i've got 25ft of pipe!

i think the reason being was that the flexi hose is all old and rusty, and not freely accepting the nuts on the end of the pipe. why was i trying to avoid replacing it? easyness i guess, but it wasn't working.

so the flexi had to come out….

eventually managed to convince it out like this.



can you tell which is the new one?


pretty boring photo, but my lovely new flexi, really securely connected to brake pipe. nothing is going wrong!


at least i get another use out of my flaring kit


job's a good 'un


now to fit my new wheel bearings in my new drums…


to save me running back and forward to a computer and this site:



DONE.

I know that's not a lot, but i was so chuffed everything just did what i wanted it to.  all i got to do now is fit the bearing on the other side and bleed the brakes.
with that done, i'm happy with the mechanicals, it's down to bodywork, interior and roll on summer.

It's definitely december but…


the dreamboat is becoming the reality boat, today was nice.



Hopefully get some time to work on her next week, but need to do all my christmas shopping. Time waits for no man.



Peace.

I wanted to make amends for the small amount of time spent on her last week, so got up early (noon ) only to discover it had snowed overnight.



Nevertheless,  the dreamboat was getting my last day of attention before christmas, after all, I had deliberately done all my christmas shopping online to make sure today was free..



the view from the garage was grim, though good for light, and 0 degrees was not great - but needs must..



nothing like a new tool to get you motivated.



My resto started with a rolson £14.99 toolkit.  I now have hundreds of pounds of tools, and not much space to put them!

anyway, today's first job, wheel bearing number 2…



took a bit of convincing to get my new drum off, but once i did, i fitted the new bearing, with the help of my new friend rubber mallet.



lovely shiny new bearing…



fitted.

jobs a good 'un, just need to fit the nut….



after a while of it not catching on the tread, i discovered it's somhow lost it's tread?



perhaps because it's 26 years old? but for whatever reason, thought it not wise to attach my rear wheel drum back on using only a locking pin.

drove to VW, ordered, and will have by Thursday (is it obsessive to work on your mk1 resto on christmas day? )

though decided to stop in at Halfrods and homesbase, just incase i could get a temp fix, and get working on other stuff.

got a nut that might have worked out of a scrappy in gourock and came home, by which time the snow was getting a bit more serious.





the nut doesn't work, and the roads are getting worse, so i'm off out to try and get home in ma big jeep.

next week i'll be finishing off the new bearing fitting (2 day job, geezo) bleeding the brakes, and starting work on the body or interior….not sure, we'll see.


Merry christmas to all the project dreamboat readers, hope santa's good to you, and I get to see you next year.


Peace.

Awesome thread and awesome work

Call me sad but my favourite pics are the ones with new and old, like the brake flexi's

Cant wait to tackle my rear wheel bearings now…might change my brake flexi's now

lovely work bud

at least you have a garage!!!!

kneeling in the snow is not a nice feeling

I can only imagine how horrible this resto malark is without a garage, and to all you garageless folks, massive kudos - sad as is, I just couldn't do it.

Thanks to all watching and big thanks for complements, makes this a million times easier, and very rewarding…

Ho hO Ho hope santa was good to you all (mind the type stutter).

This week's update is pretty small, as I spent all of an hour in the FREEZING COLD garage.  But I refuse to go a week without posting, for fear of proving so many people right and giving up halfway through something I've started and chucked  a lot of money at.  You listening da? Dreamboat's gonna roll summer 2010!!

pics time (slow connection guys must HATE this thread!)



santa came, and brought me a mountain bike.  It's a new hobby, but hopefully won't take up too much dreamboat time…though tbh it already is, as I spent an hour or two building it and worse: found the bike section in halfrauds and went a bit crazy on gloves and helmets etc…

anyway, sorry, golf resto, got this in halfords too…


£50 for a torque wrench!! I was desperate to get this done, but have since ordered another on machine mart, so might take this back.

following some excellent advice, regreased(heavily) my new bearings


then with my newest and coolest tool


and new nut (this for you mk1chick, can you tell which is new?)


finally fitted my new drum


dropped it like it was hot….

job done.

Rolled the car forward and back, to make sure all was swell, and grinned, before leaving my garage to go back to fitting accessories to my bike.

Apologies for the lack of stuff done, but all went swell, and all I need to do now is bleed the brakes and make sure all nuts are correct torque.

Following that, it's done with the oily jeans! Body work and interior resto and roll on sunshine.

Either that, or I sell a golf resto project on ebay and start a new thread on mountainbikevideos.com



Oh, and here's a photo of a girl posing next to a mark1, to attract another 2000 views and 5 pages of comments….




till next tuesday….


Peace and a happy new year.

thanks for the new and old nutz…my fav pic of that post! lol

oh and my brake flexi's are off to heaven as i type…