Small project log from Cornwall- Golf C

Yeah.  That ain't mine,  it's what I plan to do.
Lots of MDF and carpet.
Edit: As a sub has to be sealed, it isn't as simple as slapping an MDF sheet over. How can I easily make the enclosure? Should I buy a fibreglass kit and glass the back side?

Decided against the boot like that. Looks good,  but a lot of work and weight.
Also,  will get dirty way to easy.

Raised her up a bit more.  Now on 21 turns each.
The helper spring was full compressed whilst jacked up.  Is this bad? Also noticed a little slack the the top of the shock where it mounts.  Is this an issue?

Fitted new gear knob and window winders which I made,  also fixed the driver door drop with a washer spacer.

Now have £80 from selling stuff on eBay and a little work for my parents.  The problem is,  Christmas is coming up,  and I need to buy some presents for the family. What is left will go on the golf (if anything is left!)

My brother is getting me some 13cm speakers,  which I plan to mount on the parcel shelf supports with a little modification. In the front I will either make some kick pods or reinforce the centre console and mount some in there. May not bother with a sub, well see.

To buy:
Amp
Head unit
Another set of speakers
Paint for respraying wings and possibly a few other areas, considering rubbing down and spraying the boot,  there are quite a few chips and dings
Vht exhaust paint.

I am getting a stock air filter and some clocks with a rev counter. Going to sell the 52mm one I bought,  as it is quite small and hard to read at a glance.

Really considering a 5 Speed box from a newer polo.  Possibly an 8p box
.  

Couple of possible plans-
Remove engine and gearbox, thoroughly clean bay, put 5 speed box in.
Respray the boot as it looks like tools and crap have been chucked in there.

Argh need money, but got no time except weekends cos of school! Then loads of work then.  Just want to get on!!!

Oh and you can see my garage is terrible. Hopefully over Christmas me and my brother (he has a Renault 5 gt turbo) can get some solid plans down on the garage.  Probably a wooden structure with fake asbestos roof, a pit and a small work bench at the back. Can't wait!!! This weekend I only had Sunday free,  and it rained for half the day.  Was so pissed off! Then it gets dark at 4.30..
Ok rant about British weather over.

Any advice or comments readily accepted!
Cheers

Been following your thread since starting it and its looking good. Liking the wood details and the boot build has given me some ideas for my first car not the golf(staying original).
How hard was it to do the seats my drivers seat needs a slight re-trim.

Thanks. The small patch wasn't bad,  just used a donor seat and my mums sewing machine,  cost about £40 cos I got a new passenger seat and used the old one as a donor.  Considering 1m square of fabric is 40 quid,  this wasn't too bad

Boot builds can turn out to be a nightmare to keep clean. Had one in a Civic Type-r many moons ago, looked good for about 6 months but then got worse and worse.

I think these days decent sized door speakers front and back are enough for the average Joe.

Yeh,  gone off the boot build idea.  Instead I may respray the boot. Also want to put something over the spare wheel well,  maybe mdf,  to stop the sagging for the boot liner.

Brother is getting me some 13cm speakers for Christmas, going to go from there.

Today I got some acrylic plastic laser cut to reinforce the parcel shelf,  where there was a small tear to stop it sagging and growing in size.  I held it on with pop rivets and epoxy. I think it looks pretty good
I think the pop rivets look okay,  I also put a little brass washer over each one to reinforce it.

dont worry about the helper springs thats what they are supposed to do. they only extend when the suspension is at full drop to keep the main spring seated.

Thanks,  yeah though it was something like that

What do you guys reckon to the gaitor I made this evening?  It's the same leatherette that's used on the seats

Small update-
Ordered some rattle cans-
Plan on doing the rocker cover, cam belt cover and rad fan cover in gloss black. Never really done a lot of spraying before so it will be interesting to see how they come out!

Also, ordered some high temperature matt silver paint for the exhaust manifold.
I attacked the manifold with a wire brush, and then some electrolysis. Before:


After:


Happy with that. Hopefully the paint will hold.

Removed the old clocks, and the new rev counter. Installed a volt gauge in place of the rev counter. I have some standard clocks with a rev counter on their way. The 52mm one was hard to see whilst driving.

Found a place for a garage. Me and my brother plan on putting something up. Probably a basic wooden structure with a sliding door.


Oh and my front bumper thought it would rust, despite the fact that it is meant to be 'uk quality' triple plated. Whatever…
Got some aluminium foil and turtle wax on it. That seemed to cure it.

What it was doing:


Oh and I decided my wheels are too small. They look better when the car is slammed, but then the car is so inpractical!
Looking for some banded steelies or some bullet steels, either 14 or 15".
If anyone wants to do a trade I am up for that!

I like the look of this mate, you managed to sort out the standard air box and hot air intake okay?

its looking good matey...

Plan to fit the standard airbox tomorrow.
Have some pics though. added a rev counter/ modified the instrument panel, and painted some stuff up!










Really bad pic of cam cover and manifold. I have the other bits on now, but it was dark by the time I had finished so no pics


I am pretty pleased with the results of the painting. I plugged in the clocks, and after figuring out the connector was in the wrong way round, they worked as expected. The only thing is that the backlight seems really dim, but they are two new bulbs. Maybe thats just a MK1 thing?

More pics to come tomorrow, providing the rain holds off and I can do some work (two things that are p!ssing me off ATM- Rain and short days!)
Cheers
Rob

Painted bits look good, I've been wanting to swap in a rev counter into my dash clocks, just has an analogue clock instead at the mo, a rev counter came up on ebay cheap over summer but I missed the finish annoyingly! Was it an easy fit with the correct wires behind already there or was it a bit of fiddling around to be done?

Cheers.
Check the for sale section, there is a guy selling loads of instrument panels,  mine was 25 or 30 quid. The process was pretty simple,  but the fuel gauge is on the rev counter, so if you have the fuel gauge below the centre lights at the moment,  you may have a blank hole,  so you could get a digital clock in there instead, or something else.  My case was the opposite, I had both the water temperature and fuel gauges on the right hand side,  and nothing else (no clock or anything) and above and below the centre lights was blanked off,  so I had to cut a hole for the water temperature gauge. Hope that makes sense!

Nice work matey. Feels good refurbing old parts doesn't it

Yeh! I would like to clean up the whole block, but I dunno if I will have time, maybe at easter.

The bay is starting to look a little tidier. I made a crude shield to go over the manifold today. Hopefully it does something. Fitted the original air box too. Seems to run Ok, just needs richening up a touch as the choke needs to be on a little to run.

Been driving her around today, first time I have really driven a manual! I need a lot of practice before I get on the road though!  (plus a 17th birthday would be useful too!)
My mum had a drive too. She couldn't find the gears!

the hot air feed is very crude but should work!

Merry Christmas!

Keep up the good work and Merry Christmas