JamesBBT's Mk1 Cabrio - 2.0 16v ITBs, RS's, TT Leather etc

Had a major tidy up in the garage today as it was getting stupid trying to climb over various bits of 8v and 16v engines, besides I'd lost a fuel injector, and wasn't happy!

After that decided to crack on with getting more done, so gunked the whole bay again, the steam cleaner wasn't available so had to resort to good old elbow grease, a bit more room to play with now there's no lump in there.

Removed the steering rack mounts and gave them a coat or two of paint, along with the rear gearbox mount:



"placed" my new 4-2-1 in as well, hopefully getting the rest of the system tomorrow



Once the mounts were all dry, I got on with fitting them, with the new Bugpack bushes, along with a test fit of my Wiechers lower brace.



Hopefully getting the block, head and box dropped in tomorrow to do some calculations on inlet manifold length.

Thanks for reading, and comments.

Big things are happening tonight…

Got the engine dropped in:





Gave the 4 branch a little go:



Then had a little play with the bodies:







Oh, and what's an update without any shiny $hit???



My new 2.5" Jetex Group A system, gonna have to hack this about a bit to fit, but eh, that's how it goes  

On the lookout for a short height radiator, word on the street is that a corsa one does the job, anyone shed any light?

Having had a play about with the chopped down inlet manifold it's become clear that to get the ideal inlet tract measurement we're going to need to run a shorter rad, so after a bit of research it appears that a Corsa B 1.2 16v rad is the one (the inlet and outlet are on the same side as the OE Mk rad) and whilst it's a thinner core, it's also a bit wider, so with addition of 2x 9" Spal fans it should stay cool enough, after some geeky workings out the fans will cover 54% of the surface area of the rad, and shifting around 1000 m3/hour each they should be more than up to the job.

Whilst waiting for the rad and fans to arrive I decided to tackle the rear beam bushes, not a job I've been looking forward to but actually they went pretty easily, loads of people say the OE bushes need pressing out, *******s, a few squirts of GT85 and a lighter and they popped straight out  



and simply pushed in the new ones:



Not the most exciting update, but will be ordering my Corsa radiator next week to go with my 2 x 9" Spal fans:



also got some new boots, a set of brand new 195/45 T1R's delivered to my door for a lot less than it would have cost me anywhere else, hopefully this will mean I can get the RS's built up and on, which should allow me to set ride heights etc, and get the mojo flowing again in these cold evenings. Originally I was going to run 185/45's but with Nankang being the only option it seemed stupid to spend a load of effort on getting the thing to go, stop and handle (at least for a cabrio) to then stick a set of DitchFinder II's on it… I've used T1R's on various cars before, and next to SP9000's they're my favorite tyre so hopefully it'll all be good  



Got my Pipercross filter backplate too, won't get the foam until we know what size trumpets we're going to run…



Just waiting for our delivery of wishbones and balljoints to be unpacked at work then I can get the new urethane bushed wishbones back on, and get it back down on all 4 wheels

Went and picked up a few bits from TPS today on my way home from work, got some new injector seats off a Digi 8v, and some new injector retaining clips for my 20vT fuel rail.

Beauty of this is that the injector spacing is the same on the 20vT as it is on the 16v, so by removing the original K-Jet injectors and seats, then screwing in the new Digi ones (same thread) it allows me to fit the 20vT injectors straight in.

Like so:









More soon, thanks for reading, as ever comments or criticism welcome

Which brings us up to date with todays update…

Got a couple of bits from my mate Rich, who's also handily a powder coater by profession, so I chucked him my RS barrels and my rocker cover, barrels are satin black, rocker cover is crackle/textured powder…nice!





usual top quality iPhone pics  :huh:

Another local MK1!

This is looking awesome mate! Hope its ready for the wedding and CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Rich

drakey91 said

Another local MK1!

This is looking awesome mate! Hope its ready for the wedding and CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Rich

Cheers dude, been engaged for near enough 5 years so it was about time, and I'm more local than you think probably if you're in Haywards!

Wicked its looking, really reminds me of mine bar the roof……….plus mine is still!!!!!! off the rd.  

kateski said

Wicked its looking, really reminds me of mine bar the roof……….plus mine is still!!!!!! off the rd.  

Cheers my dear, had a look at yours, looks pretty tidy, I'm liking the red roof, had considered doing it on mine, with matching leather but ended up staying with predictable black!

What's up with your one then?

Looking good.
Those mounts are going to shake your teeth out !!

yeh, a few people have said it'll be a bit brutal, but I drive a fully polybushed Mk2 every day, so I've not gone soft yet!

The mk2 engine is a much better design of engine mount.
It's the rear gearbox mount that will get you, at idle it will shake the dashboard really badly along with the steering wheel !!

ah well, we'll see how it plays out, it's not hard to change if i want too later!

more BBS related tomfoolery…









Centres Ceramic Polished by Mike and Darren, Rims, Centre nuts and barrel nuts done by me, Gold Bolts by Just Matz and Barrels satin black powdered by my mate Richard at GLF, proper job  B)

Crap photos ©iPhone

im luving it mate, seeing all this makes me miss my old cabby with a valver lump.keep up the good work

So what do you get if you cross one of these:



with one of these:



Well you get this:









I'm probably not the first to do it (I've seen something similar, but not the same before) but I'm well chuffed with it, I think it'll look the tits on top of the ITB'd lump, it took a fair bit of work, and I wouldn't want to know what it owes me, but credit due to Nick @ AMS for the welding/maching and Rich at GLF for the Powdercoating.

lovely work mate the rs's are pure porn  8)

nice touch with the cam cover too

mkoneman said

lovely work mate the rs's are pure porn  8)

nice touch with the cam cover too

Cheers James, quite the compliment coming from someone with a Mk1 like yours!

I am indeed in Haywards! Assume you are too? Where abouts are ya?

Not far away, I'm Burgess Hill chap, have you been over to any of the VW Heretics meets over at BBT/VW Heritage HQ?

I have been to one, the last evening one last year!
The cabby looks awesome by the way! I have a S1 in a fair old state that I will hopefully be restoring although I als have the oppurtunity to buy a GTi with an engine conversion too but have no where to store it and wouldnt be able to drive it for ages due to age which is annoying as its pretty cheap for what it is! So on the hunt for someone with a garage I can leave it in for a while for a couple of quid a month but not having much luck tbh!

When is the next Heretics meet?
Rich