Project It'll be done when its done

Rad pipe gone pop A new one due in the next few days.

loving the white rims and clean bay, very nice.

Zeus said

It was looking nice but daily use means its looking quite rubbish at the mo

Yeah I know the feeling! Had mine all freshly built up, but now dailying it, tho i'd rather be enjoying it than stressing about dirt

redpetemk1 said

…….. i'd rather be enjoying it than stressing about dirt

Too true

Rad pipe fixed, now its leaking from the thermostat housing.

Oh well….hopefully be all sorted by edition.

Well a few weeks back a good mate of mine(geezer) fitted my 5 speed gear box I was supposed to get the reverse lights wired up. In the end I've had to change quite a few water pipes & the rad so not really had the time to sort it. Today I eventually got around to it…
Trip down to the scrappers resulted in this being raided from a Seat Inca van:


Then spliced in with original wiring to check if it works, it did so the it was crimped together heat shrink & then recovered:


Then put together :



It made it to ed38 and back no dramas, 70mph alot of the way, averaging 39mpg happy days.

Done abit of painting on th wing bottoms & polished it up:
















And 1 pic from tonight:

My new engine, gonna be changing a few bits here & there:


Got the inlet & Polo rocker cover blasted, cant decide what colour for paint:





Gotta save now for exhaust mani & to pay Geezer to fit it some time.

Something small, winter wheels on:


Needs 2 front bearings now

go to gsf, i got 2 front wheel bearings for like a tenner, twas trade price tho!!!!

car looks good mate the back needs lowering abit more in that pic  :mrgreen:  







p.s i think you should run bike carbs on that engine  :twisted:  :twisted:

Yea it needs lowering & no it doesnt need bike carbs, fuel injection is much better. GT/ABD hybrid is just the stopgap.

Despair, gearbox has a big hole in the casing after the driveshaft came loose

Sourced a new one just need to work out a way how to collect it & drop it off at my mates. Might be under going cosmetic surgery over winter too…….more on that if it happens but not sure if its going to happen yet.

Driveshaft came lose due to 50p wheels:


and coilies fitted:










Awaiting fitting:


Also got wishbones & powerflex bushes still unfitted after a nightmare today.

Well a text to Griff a few days ago and he agreed to fit my gearbox for some ££. Sunday morning & and he's here:


After 10 mins or so the taking apart starts, and an hour or 2 later its like this:




Then the reassemmbly started after cleaning the replacement gearbox and having a quick bite to eat:












Gearbox in, time for the wishbones to be fitted:


sorry for the crap pics it was cold :



Quick check of the haynes manual to check the torque then tighten driveshafts up:

One done, wheel on:

And the other  is done but wheel not on.

Cheers Griff 8-)

All that it needs to get it vauguely mobile is to sort the gear linkage out, was abit of a nightmare but gonna have to wait as funds are low due to insurance this friday.

So almost all the part are here & on saturday the mk1 was delivered up to geezers ready for work:

Well we have been busy on this for the last week, here are some pics of what Geez has done:



Me cleaning the block with a major hangover.


The block after abit a clean.



And lastly the wiring loom, this is what we actually need. No chance of me doing that part but Geez has done it well. Anyway here it is all labeled up and ready to splice into the original wiring.

I personally had a very bad day on monday, meanwhile Geez got on with this lot:


Puny old stuff will no longer cut the mustard.

New versus old , discs are temp stand in's to check it all fits , no point having new discs corroding whilst it sits here .


Fitted offside

and nearside, old audi 80 sport items I think.

Then on with the rack removal , old rack has a serious amount of play in it .

If you ever take the engine out of your mk1 do this , it'll save alot of headaches later , Mk1's really do suffer with the rack mounts tearing off the car especially when lowered on fat rims .





Right colour, should match lovely in a few weeks ie after I get a chance to drive it again.



New rack ready to be fitted with some polybushes .

Engine before taking apart for head skim:

All apart, dirty block:

Head off, with everything still attached:

Old engine:



Back home and removing valves:




Pogsons, where the head went for skim:

And arrived back with valves refitted:


Then over to Geezers for reassembly:

Main man at work :


Nearly built, few little bits needed:

Loads of work done on the weekend, I was taking most of the pics Geez took a few pre engine fit….









Note lambda probe facing downwards to prevent condesation building up .

Geez made some sense of the fuel system (due to it being delivered tangled up with all the recirc system) and got it all stripped off ready to make a bracket that'll fit in the mk1's usual fuel pump area.


Dont think space is gonna be an issue, it looks like babies first fuel pump (check comp with stanley blade)