SoundillusioN - Black From The Dead

1983 Richard Lloyd Racing MK1 Golf GTI Campaign

Ok so I have been busy working on my car and posting on a site I have been a member of for many years, thought it was about time to post this project here… sorry it took me so long to join!!!!!

Ok let's get this show on the road, I paid a big sum of money for this car, those that saw it in the steel may remember it as a minter with bad wheels, that's how I bought it.  The picture below was taken on the A14 on my way down to Inters back in 2004 which was where I was heading to hunt down some better rims to finish her off and to meet some forum friends.  As you can see I never made it!  The full story is posted on another site but in a nut shell, irresponsible "travellers" "gypsies" whatever you want to call them ruined my day, and my car!







Car was modified pretty much straight after original purchase:

Brief summary of spec:
The 80's
1983 MK1 Golf Campaign
Richard Lloyd Racing (now GTI Engineering) 1800 Silverstone Plus - Tuned to Stage 3
Supersprint 4 Branch Manifold
Supersprint 3" Full Stainless Exhaust
Magnum 3" Silencer
In Car Adjustable Hot Start kit
Scirroco Shifter
Dropped 60mm - Bilstein Shocks and Eibach springs
Full BBS Body Kit (rare now i think)
Bosch Fogs
Hella Rear Spoiler (never seen another like it!)
Richard Lloyd Racing Steering Wheel

The 90's
Brakes upgraded to:
Corrado G60 Calipers
MK2 16v Master Cylinder,
MK2 16v Servo,
MK2 16v 256mm Discs

Oh and not forgetting the nasty 3 spokes!!!!

The car stayed in this state, locked away for 5 years!!!

Car was locked away for a good 5 years until last year, a friend of a friend came to the rescue.  Long story short, she's had new inner wing, chassis rail and front end.  All OEM parts welded to production spec. Bonnet and wing fitted are old rusty items from a scrapper quickly painted black, also original busted grill, shoddy old bumber from a caddy and original lights fitted just to temporarily complete the car. (Mainly so it didnt look like too much of a sight on our drive whilst trying to sell the house)

I can't believe the body kit survived but it did!…. Those good old days when kits weren't made of fibreglass

Ok, so my first major issue after getting the car back is that it wouldn't start.  The engine had been out of the car for 5 years and it was obvious the electrics were in a mess. When I bought the car I knew it had a lot of additional wiring, it wasn't until now I realised how much!  The car was fitted with a Clifford Concept 50 with 12 Channels.  Remote central locking with dead locks, remote lights, Interior and exterior adjustable proximity sensors, magnetic resonance sensors, glass tamper sensors, anti-hijack, anti tow etc etc! Worst still a previous alarm that was fitted was not removed, just disabled via a master key!…  Every wire that could immobilise the car had been hacked into more than once! I had to bypass the lot , in the end I had to rewire the coil and get the fuel pump running by removing the relay and wiring it to a switch, after that, one flick of the key and she started 1st time! Took me a couple of weeks to get there though!

No matter how hard I tried I just couldnt get the car running with the alarms and it was clear to me now that the whole lot had to be strpped out and I would have to start again!

I waited patiently for complete dash and engine looms to turn up on ebay, and eventually they did.  A nice old boy who seems to make his living stripping dubs in his workshop down in Maida Vale had the whole lot including the rear lighting loom, got the lot for 70 notes.  Not one wire had ever been cut and even the stereo wiring was original with plugs! (Taken from a cabby GLI)

I have never rewired a whole car before but cant afford to get someone else to do it.  My biggest problem is the fact that a lot of my wiring was not connected when i got the car back so knew i would struggle putting a new lot in.  I marked up what i could i began to strip her down!



OMG!!! What is all this!!!! Don't remember any of this on my last MK1  :dontknow:  






Removed fuse box, it was clear it had been leaked on quite a bit recently, lots of green mould at the back where the connectors are… now discovered my windscreen is leaking!!! found a mint replacement fusebox on fleabay for 21 notes!   

Man thoes are some wires….
There is more wire in the car than anything else

allana13 said

Man thoes are some wires….
There is more wire in the car than anything else

Tell me about it!…. far too many non OEM things going on here, barely a dub wire left thats not been chopped into at some point!

I couldnt seem to find anything on the net about rewiring a Mk1 from scratch!!! plenty about making hybrid looms for fitting later engines etc…. best help I've found so far was on this site which has a detailed list of all the functions of every relay, the fuses and wires to the connection blocks to the fusebox. I'm hoping by the end of this thread, someone may find this build helpful when i get to the tricky stuff!  If i manage it of course!… I read on another site that when rewiring any car you should start from the engine bay and work backwards… So before I begin I am going to have to tidy up the bay while its wire free.

Stripped the front end down a bit for better access



Gave everything a really good clean and degrease



Repainted all the bay, added some tape at bottom of windscreen to stop the leak until i get it fixed

God help you mate re-wiring from scratch…

Just thinking about it gives me the chills. :dontknow:

You are a brave man. :punk:

Good luck with the build dude. Will be glued to this thread.
Keep us posted with the pics.
 :wink:

allana13 said

God help you mate re-wiring from scratch…

Just thinking about it gives me the chills. :dontknow:

You are a brave man. :punk:

Good luck with the build dude. Will be glued to this thread.
Keep us posted with the pics.
 :wink:

Cheers!…. didnt do enough pictures during the wiring as i'm easliy stressed out and hit a few problems!  May have to do a guide though at some point.

Started removing covers as they have seen better days….

Cambelt Cover


Bit of hard graft!




Cam cover, I'm hoping my mate who is a whizz on Photoshop can replicate the sticker, its going to get sanded off, its all flakey now anyway!



Got carried away and started rubbing down and painting other bits too… MK2 Servo is coming up nicely.. not sure what theme i'm going for yet though.
It will do for now, attention to detail later.  its all looking a lot cleaner in there for now..    

Whilst avoiding doing the electrics I went on a rust hunt, this car was very heavily waxoiled early on in life but after standing for so long the rear valance is shot… got the grinder out to get rid of the rust then painted it (not pictured) to stop it spreading, Spare wheel well i still mint and it hasnt spread to the arches yet and want to keep it that way.




Eventually found a repair panel on fleabay for 20 notes and it was 5 minutes away from where i live (Lucky)!.. its been sat in a garage for a while but stripped back and painted it will do the job nicely… I'm hoping a mate from work can do the welding for me when its ready.

Avoiding the rewiring once more i noticed the starter motor looked rough so thought i'd better give it some TLC.  Really good clean up, strip and paint.



 8)

Shes Alive!!!!!!  :cheer:

it was almost as if i'd never stripped it all out…. almost….

as far as bay electrics go i just chucked it all in to see if i could get her running… sadly the first attempt failed.  advise from rubjonny helped me out… not 100% sure what the issue was but with the fusebox in true MS windows style, unplugged it all and plugged it back in again and off she went.  probably a couple of bad connections in the back of the fuse box. I have 2 fuel pump relays, one that primes and one that doesnt, so fitted the one that does.  still got a way to go with the electrics… i have started to fit it all nicely now and have spotted a few things that still dont seem right and cant fins a home for them!

heres the total of what i had to remove from the car that wasn't VAG

thats a big pile of extra wires!!!

funk-star said

thats a big pile of extra wires!!!

Tell me about it! The problem was that one alarm was simply deactivated but left fitted and wired (old bosch system) and then the second was wired in (clifford Concept 50 sense and tell with all the trimmings)  the dub looms gave up in the end, especially when the engine had to come out!  In that lot there were four battery back up sirens, two were under the bonnet, one in the dash and one in the boot, glass tamper senors, proximity sensors inside and out, 5 brains, anti tow sensor, ultrasonsics from previous system and two manual kill switches plus more!!! was insane!

Before i stripped the car i took a picture and had someone do a quick photoshop of it with some BBS Sportlines (black centered RAs)…. have bought a set for £120 im pretty good nic but need new tyres.

Had quite a lot of rain here and with being desperate to get the car rewired this became a problem.  I've got a big drive and no garage.      I intend to build a car port before winter comes but in the mean time i bought a cheap gazebo… Does the trick, can work under the bonnet and in the car with doors open without getting wet! neighbours say it looks like the start/end of a rally stage.

managed to get a couple of hours in … Installed dash looms and fuse box properly now, refitted the dash, instruments and heater controls etc… i'm slightly concerned as my MFA doesnt work, only shows time.  Also my fuel and temp gauges read max with ignition onl!… i have no spare earths left so really stumped now as to whats up!  I'm starting to wonder if the clocks are bust…    

OK, so i have managed to fit another couple of hours in..  Wired up the engine bay, no dramas and i think i may have sorted out the constantly maxed out temp gauge, no rad fitted so cant get a reading but warning light goes out now and gauge stays low.  Fuel gauge still reads max and I still have no MFA!   

After all the jip ive had with wheels, crash on route to get some,  failed buy on ebay, a set came up on another site.  Set of BBS Sportlines (black centered RAs) in pretty good condition for £130..

Random shot from of the old girl in her make shift car port!

Started stripping down the front end to see whats what. I noticed a while back there was no movement in the front suspension untill  today when i jacked it up, sounded aweful, think the shocks are fecked.  Took some of the body kit off the front end and expected to see rust on the arches but there was none!



same story on the inner wings but then i knew that they had been well sealed from birth. not waxoyl, its that yellow/white stuff???  theres never been any plastic inner arch guards, they were removed early on in life, not sure why.  I intend to clean this all up and do it all black over the next couple of days.





Quick shot of the repaired side… Comparing both sides in person its almost impossible to tell there was any damage in the first place.