Helios Blue GTI

Hi all,

Been meaning to get around to this for a long time to give me an impetus to do something !

Little bit of a background on it. Bought the car off mk1jim about 3 or so months ago, and I believe it was owned by das_auto prior to that - that's my history on it exhausted  8O

Its a Helios Blue GTI, 1983 but not a campaign I believe, although has the twin light grille, metal sunroof etc. and the european rear seat belts so could be an import ?. Paint work is in decent condition apart from the seams of the tailgate and the inner wings where bit of tin worm is lurking, but hte sunroof seems to be a-ok and the underside seems decent. There were a few apparent points that I knew of when I got it, some rear impact damage, nothing too bad to stop it being drivable but enough to make it a Cat-D , also there seems to have been some damage to the front panel/ wing, so have replacement panels for both F+R awaiting to go on - so nothing to major so far  I've also been collecting a few bits and bobs for the cosmetic side of things over the last few months :



Wolfsburg Steering wheel - £80 delivered, cant knock it at that price  :mrgreen: especially to swap it from the 4-button one
Window Spats
Lower front valance trims
Duckbill Spoiler
Gear box timing cover
Water tray thing - covers the heater
Complete NOS badge set (Inc. Black VW front badge not in pic)
Complete Arch Spat set - the none smooth type, bit of cif and some plastic cleaner look brand new (got the from g60george a while ago)
x5 Toyo Proxes - Transformed the cars handling

Also on order from CQ, but not yet dispatched (been a month today  :? )

Black Waist + Lower Trim
Single Light grille + headlamp rings
Red Grille Trim for the GTI spec

On the car so far I've tackled the gear change - successfully after a week or so  Which after being triumphant has lead to me having a bold rush of blood to the head and deciding that I will buy a roll over jig and strip it from the ground up and rebuild :twisted:




The car has had a few mods prior to me, a mild steel 4-2-1 branch with a 3" tail pipe - sounds great driving around, but a bit on the large and showy side for me  :redfaced: will look to make it around 2 - 2.5" when i get a new one at the later stage of the build up



Its also at some point had lowering springs and uprated shocks - Bilstien ones so decent make, not sure on the springs - although they are red  Again I'm looking to replace with a coilover set - possibly some Weitec Hicon GT - although I'm not one for 'slamming' cars about its current hight or slightly higher is my aim (has about 1.5 - 2 inches from the bottom of the duckbill, any idea how far its been dropped anyone ?)



Interior is OK as well, carpet is a bit grubby, and teh seats are a bit tired and need a touch up, but it is 28/29 years old - got a new lower and upper bolster from mk1turbo so I can sort em some time in the future, apart from that there's no holes in the parcel shelf, rear bench and passenger seat are OK and the dash is decent (Y), all in all a medium trip to NC will sort it to be mint, new carpet, and door cards



The engine, seems to still be in good nick to say its done 185k miles 95k odd in a year or so tho looking back at some MOT's. Still pulls like a train in every gear (after the linkage refurb  :wink and is a fair bit quicker than anything i've ever driven  :mrgreen:.

I'm one that loves a bit of technical and hands on engine building I love the idea of a g40 or g60 with their superchargers, but….. as i see more and more Mk1's engines being swapped out and changed for something with x hundreds of bhp, I come to the thinking that a standard but improved - standard engine is something that will make it that bit rarer and in my eyes better in the future. Although when I see a g60 lump up for sale i do get tempted My eventual plan for the engine is to have its head and internals worked over by JMR - been in contact with Jason, seems very knowledgeable and into his MK1's, also seems highly regarded on ClubGti where I've had a few fleeting visits  :redfaced: ideal is to get 145 bhp from it, uprated and ultimately quicker, but looking and  essentially being a standard look.

Btw anyone know how to remove the aerial without going through the loom inside the car ? :



Also, I've seen a MK1 to g60 loom splicing service on offer, but is there anyone out there who fixes up/ refurbs standard looms ?  :dontknow:  as there's a bit of home wiring going on here, and I'm… how would you say limited in the wiring/ crimping/ capping skills  

Its booked into have the new front + rear panels welded in on the 9th August  , then its Jig - and sealent removal, followed by alot of priming, stonechip and painting haha  :twisted:

Thanks for looking and reading (first one so hopefully the longest update  8O )

Cheers
Adam.

really nice to see it has gone to a good home.  Keep us updated with progress pics ..

Good stuff.  Lot of work ahead if you are strippimg it all the way back!

Aye will be alot of work, but the colour is great, and i love the mk1's . Hopefully ill have it around with me for quite a while, so almost makes sence in my head, although probably not financially aha

Bit of a small update, not much done other than stripping everything out.

All the dash loom etc came out, be interesting to see if i ever get it all back in properly though, gives me a chance to get to know wiring i suppose!



Found one small hole on the floor plan where the leaking petrol lines had eaten through the metal and the bitumen floor covering  8O ,but hey ho one little hole and a bit of oxidisation around ain't to bad i suppose



Got the rear lights off eventrually, held on with sealent  :?



On offer if anyone wants to help take the engine out  



Hopefully the engine will be out wednesday of this week or next weekend, when my mate can come help me, then i can drop the heater out and its all go for the body shop.

Btw is there a good way or technique at removing the glass ? Not to bothered about the windscreen as a new one will be put in eventually….. Also once the engine is out these build updates should pick up  

On a more annoying note, this is what happened to me driving around the local village  




Little old lady came tearing out of a junction forcing me to avoid her and give a pebble dashed a wall a nice yellow stripe !  :x I mean its a empty road, with a yellow car coming down….. how bad must your eyesight be to miss that one !

Thanks for looking
Adam

Hi ,
I have a Helios Blue Campaing which I've got LOADS of parts for - ready for it to go to garage to be done!

Mine is not as clean as yours - needs new doors (got good second hand ones from CQ) and a new tailgate.

Tell me - where did you get the plastic inserts (in the photo) that fit in the front panel - below the lights and behind the bumper. Mine were lost ages ago when panel was changed. also, where did you get the 'A' pillar deflectors and steering wheeel?

Will take photos of mine once it the resto starts - though I will be giving it to a gagrage to do…

Hi,

Pretty much all the trim parts are from Ebay, got the lower bumper trim for £30, window pillar trims again £30 ish. The steering wheel was a bit different had been after a Wolfsburg one for a while, watching some go for ridiculous money £150 - £200 ish, there billed as quite rare but you do see them up for sale quite often, so when i saw that one for £80 delivered on buy it now, it was mine aha, it has got a bit of corrosion on the back - but when do people see that  :twisted: so all in all am happy with it, I think it gives a better look than the 4 button original as well.

Cool be good to see another Helios blue resto, will keep an eye out for it.

Cheers,
Adam.

Definitely going to be keeping a close eye on this one, glad to see its getting some proper attention  :mrgreen:
 

I think the exhaust seems more tucked in once the bumpers on, its 2.5 inch all the way down set me back a fair bit.






Regarding the euro seat belt clips…

the cars a RHD german import, apparently a guy in the british army bought it new whilst he was stationed over there, then brought it back over with him  


Also I had the spark timing and fuelling set up at JBS that unlocked a bit of power, it was only set up on normals petrol so could get abit more advance with some vpower etc  


Good luck  

Ahh cool, always good to find some history about it. Aye it did seem to go pretty well when I drove it around a little bit ago.

Not many updates recently but thats going to change as it was my last day of my year long placement on friday, was a bit emotinal, then promptly made a idot of myself once drunk aha ! But anyway to the smallish update.

As said in an earlier post, had my freind come and help take the engine out with me. (After buying what seems like half of machine mart)

Engine in, just before removal



Engine out - A bit of oil came out of the drivers side driveshaft  :dontknow:




State of the garage at end of play today! hah



Body shop next monday, tomorrow will be de-greasing the engine bay and getting some nitromorse on the gearbox + inlet manifold

Thanks for looking,
Adam.

Reyt guys,

Smallish update - just packed it off to the bodyshop for its panels to be done, felt a bit sad letting it go to be honest…… not sure how i've got so attached to it already  8O ……. can only be a good thing right ?

Whilst waiting for the guys to pick it up, attacked the inner wing again with a drill/ wirebrush



It Showed up a bit of damage….


On the flatbed, ready to go


Gone…


Left in the waiting area of Paintspot in Penistone .. next to the other car, made me think about the saftey of a MK1 in a crash Lol


With it gone, have had a bit more free space to do Stuff …. wire brushed inlet manif. and gearbox



Them and the servo etc are getting painted next week hopefully, also going to tackle the engine then as well. Going to try get my couisn from liverpool over to help.

More updates soon !

As always any comments are welcome !

Cheers,
Adam.

Hi

the oil out of the driveshaft will be the flange oil seal has split , you can still get them no problem & very easy to fit

cheers
barry

looking good fella which paint shop has it gone to, the one next to fancy dress place? Looking forward to bumping into you when you get it on the road.

Cheers for that Barry, will get onto it straight away, going to drain it when i get around to painting it as it leaks out of a maintenance cap at the top of it when its laid engine side down ? (leaks out of the cap with a big vw sign on it) i guess so that you dont overfill the thing? Anyway as I've found out the oil in there absolutley stinks ! guess its never been changed……. as its still on its orignal clutch by the looks of it as well.

Btw guys is there any special oil i should look out for in the gearbox ?

Heyup yeahh, its booked in at paintspot next to the fancydress place although not to get painted they wanted to get the welding done first like before anything else, so I might rock the 'rat look' for a bit haha, they've done my yellow ford in the past - wasnt too cheap tho thinking about it, but a decent job all the same which I guess counts the most.

Hope this weather doesnt get to it too bad !  

Cheers
Adam.

Quick update now its back from the bodyshop. Mixed feelings about the work done by them so far tbh, ill let you form your own opinons though :

Back - Quite happy with how this turned out tbh


Front - I'm not quite so happy with after further inspection + with hte wings ON



Not the best pic ever but I guess the wing should be flush to the wing, and not be casting a shadow that big on the FP  



Apart from that I've mainly been stripping the engine and ancilaries, wire brushing and sanding. Had a go at painting but it looked crap - so having the job lot powder coated, when i've got the rear beam off ! Should be tomorrow  

The box of mounts, cam cover etc awaiting blasting + powder coating


Engine on the stand, after about 1h of negotiating with it !, found a few rounded off bolts but eventually got them off with the help of a freind


The head's gone to said freind (Into his MG's aka Rover's   ) He's done alot of porting + polishing on 'KR' heads etc so thaught I'd let him have a go, he's going to be rebuilding it with all new seals, injector seats and stainless steel valves after its been skimmed and cleaned, also thinking of uprating the cam to a 280 degree rotation but think that may be a bit too noisy  :twisted:

The block its self is also going to have the bores re-honed, new piston rings, shells and seals etc and again dipped to clean it all out. Next pic will show why !



All the coolant components are orange and rusty- as shown in the pic above the cooling veins in the engine are also - hence the dip

Engine had been burning oil something bad, brand new spark plugs and oil were put in a few miles before the engine was out of the car, plugs were black, and the oil was also burned up and black ! in the pic you can see no1 piston…… and thats been cleaned with brake cleaner, although 28 y/o car so a bit of carbon build up as well. It seems to be either valve stem oil seals or the piston rings have gone, but as both are being replaced….. shouldn't have to worry ha

New hex head bolts for all the components, gost the grand sum of £2 from a local place in penistone  

If it all goes to pot gives me an excuse to source a G60  :twisted:

Coolant pipe - completely rotten, shall have to source a new one


One last part of the update, got some new alloys for it BBS RZ 14" , think they really set it off, well they will when there refurbed, its a bit lower and all the car's all same colour  :mrgreen:



As always any coments are greatly appreciated,
Thanks for looking !

Cheers,
Adam

Did they have the wings to line it all up?

You might be able to line the front of the wing up by "Bowing" the wing out a bit.
How much you need to bow it might make it all look a bit off though.

Was it out before, with the old panel?
Has the car had a knock on that corner at all?
to be fair to the guys that fitted it, it does just sit against the leading edge of the inner wing…

Yeah they were there, although unbolted - i thaught best so they could get the old front panel off more easily. But they were inside the car when i got it back this morning not actually on the car, it has had some damage on that side repaired so probably is a factor in it being a bit off not sure how bad, long before me owning it i assume. Think ill just accept it for now and when i get it painted have it looked at again then…….. be a very long while tbh looking at my bank account after the recent spending spree haha

Adam.

Right then guys time for an update,

First off all must apologise as I've been lazy and not done one for a while. Since the last update I've been down to Northampton and Aylesbury to get things for my MK1, and ordered some coliovers + anti-rollbars as well as spending a small fortune at CQ's which should arrive today or tomorrow  :mrgreen: Ill try do this in order of how its happened so far :

First I went down to Northampton as I'd managed to get Joe90k's roll over jig, and set of BBS RZ's both of which would be used straight away at this point as i was sticking with the standard engine until my head was turned  :?

OK so I had a rather full on dream and aspiration to do the underside, hence the roll over jig. This kind of happened although not to ideally how I wanted too, but as with all things it came down to cost, so I under sealed it with a few coats of Tetrosyl, bit like waxoyl I imagine (not so nice on your skin !)

Process of getting it on the jig - (on a gradient  , who said I jump at things  :mrgreen: )


Couple of mates helping, the only reason it was done outside was due to one of them rebuilding their engine in the garage !

Have to say the jig has worked admirably and has been especially useful with the wheels, makes it so easy - Thanks Joe !  




Front end up as well, although not without a bit of difficulty, the actual bar for the jig was a pain to get on, as the panel isnt straight - cheers paintspot  , will have to be done again if i find some money



In its new home, and how its been for weeks  

But now that's going to change after a mahusive spending spree monday ! it goes as such :

Weitec Hicon GT Coilovers,
Weitec Anti-Rollbars - thought I'd stay with green colours  

New Brake Pipe Kit - Green original type from CQ's
Stainless Steel Accumulator + Fuel Pump Bracket - Old ones kept together with tie raps !
Tank Hose
Braided fuel lines complete set - From CQ's (getting a theme here  :twisted: )
Powerflex Bushes for front engine mount and rear beam - ARB's should come with some, I hope
Front wheel bearings x2 - May as well as the hubs are off !
Set of new wishbones inc, bushes and ball joints - Again as mine were rusted through in some places, forwent refurb and got some new uns'
Strut fixing bolts x2 - On taking mine off it was a mish-mash of types :dontknow:
And of course rear ARB clamps as these literally split in two as i put the saw on them they were that corroded

Also to replace the rear drums I've gotten myself a rear disc set up from a 2001 16v 6N2 Polo, again advise will be appreciated immensely to help me find the correct handbrake cables/ flexi hoses  



Pile of accumulated stuff off the underside - most of which wont be used again as I'm going down a different engine route now  :redfaced: including the x5 tarantula alloys with brand new (driven 10 mile and £300's worth of tyre) Toyo Proxes    - Most of this this stuff will be up for sale soon if there's any interest including the jig as I'm almost done with it  8)  !

Now onto my earlier statements of keeping it original, well after evaluating it a lot, realising the costs of a rebuild etc and getting with my mate encouraging me, I've gone and got a 20v Turbo unit off Funk-Star, only spoke for a while, but a top bloke ! - was my trip to Aylesbury



Its an 98k AGU(all anclilaries minus powersteering, aicorcon)with a O2J box example although needs a head gasket, out of a MK4 GTI minus the ECU - So should make a strong runner ! …… when i can afford an ECU and downpipe  :cry:

A bit of a turn up on the books actually, another freind who i've not seen in a long time came over the other day, unknown to me is that he's into his VW's as well, and a mechanic by trade, so hopefully this will make the 20v conversion a bit smoother !



Also spied this at a scrap yard in Doncaster, think its off a transit ! not bad for £40 well at least as a back up

______________________________________________

Now onto more recent stuff,



Stripped it back with some Nitromorse and a small scraper, couldn't get every bit of VW under-sealer or paint off but enough around the corroded and oxidised bits, after 3 coats of primer, 2 of paint and 1 lacquer (bit over kill   but I don't want a pattern replacement !)



Underside sealed, bit thick in some places  :roll:

I will update the thread when my parts arrive, which should be soon  :twisted: But when they do It will be going on axle stands etc. so the Jig will go up for sale if there's interest, along with the, Tarantulas (need a refurb) but with brand new Toyos x5 + centre caps, 14' BBS RZ's x4 with centre caps(wheels need a refurbish tbh, but have 4 decent ish tyres) as I'm going for 280mm discs and them not fitting under anything >= 15" wheels

Cheers for looking, and as always please comment !!

Thanks,
Adam.

Well second update of the day, had a delivery from CQ's - almost next day  



Just got to wait for powdercoated parts to come back !

**Edit Third Post of the day !**

The rear set off the Polo turned up just before, sware there bigger than the Golf's original fronts !!  :twisted:


Just gotta work on this accumilator and FP !     


Cheers,
Adam.

Looking good mate! Glad to see the jig helped out! Shame about the wheels, same dilemma as me when I got the engine and realised the brakes needed to be big! Haha

Getting there though!

Joe

Thanks Joe ! Little bit of a good thing about the wheels actually, am keeping the original front brakes for now so there'll be no issue with them for a while ! Win win for me ! My vw mechanic mate convinced me that they just needed to be set up right before seeing if they need to be bigger, he showed me his 1.4 brakes on his GT TDi 150 - almost went through the windscreen ! lol

Now for a little update -



Assembled majority of the underside, ran new brake lines (not the straightest ever, found them hard to straighten after them being bent in the packaging from the CQ pack thing), fuel lines, fuel tank on, wishbones, fuel pump and refurbed the steering rack.

As well as these fetching green Weitec ARB's



Bit thicker than the original !




Pic's not amazing but you can probably tell the rear ARB is totally different to the original - with the instructions saying to drill x4 holes for new mounting brackets ! Am going to wait for people's opinion on doing this first tho.

Also had these arrive -



More updates when there on !

Cheers,
Adam.

loving the car good progress so far where abouts from barnsley are you from mate? my girlfriends from royston
keep up the good work !