83 mk1 vr6 build

i got this 2 years ago as a project, body wise its pretty solid with rust just on the drivers side sill, rear quarter and a bit at bottom of passenger door all panels seem to be all original panels with only one patch on the the drivers sill not going to get my hopes up yet it must be hiding something somewhere. It came with a shoddy fitted vr6 motor held in by 1 bolt i would have loved to turn it back to original but the cost of doing that would be stupid as nearly everything on the car has been uprated and its missing its original engine which was a tsr 1.9 donnington i tried to locate the engine and box as it has reciepts totaling 6 grand and found out it was sold for 100 quid with no contact to the person who bought it so going to make most of what i have and hopefully finish it too a good standard. I know vr6 conversions are frowned upon in the forums but i dont have much of a choice as the original mounts are chopped and new mounts have been welded in the panel has been cut off above the firewall the interior is missing it would just cost too much. The stuff it has fitted are Weitec TX coilovers, Neuspeed ARB's, TSR big brake conversion, Polybushed all round, scorpion exhaust and loads of other bits so should handle well even with the vr6 in. i paid £700 quid for it and not touched it in 2 years as i havnt had time with getting a house shortly after but now ive loads of time so will be on it now for around 6-8 hours a day everyday with possibly daily updates on here.

Loving this! So much like my situation! I've got a red mk1 with a badly bodged v5 engine! Was pretty much empty inside and the engine is hanging out! Only major difference is you paid fack all and I paid out the a-hole! 3200 mine cost! But all worth it in the end (I hope)
Good luck with this mate! 

v5 good choice of motor is it the twin cam one? The problem with buying unfinished projects you end up doing twice as much work sorting out what the previous owners done ive stripped it down to nearly bare shell now and halfway through building a rollover jig problem is car at its widest point is 76" and my joists in garage are 76" so taken about a day just to work out exactly how to make it work might have to cut out the joist if need be plan this week is to get it mounted and remove 30 years of nastiness bought a needle scaler to make the job easier got a blast cabinet too to clean up all parts ive removed il get them coated when i decide on what colour scheme im doing it it'll be worth it in the end im sure.

Haha, 'Attention Seeker'

Is it an AAA or ABV engine? OBD1/2? I personally wouldn't swap one into a Golf just because of the crazy unreliability of my Corrado, but with such a light frame it'll certainly shift when finished…

Stone

It's the 150bhp engine.  Know exactly what you mean! So much work that I've found! Luckily I managed to source pretty much a whole interior for mine for a couple hundred! I'd love to get mine apart on the jig but I've just not got the space! Ah I shot blast and powder coat all my bits at work! Just refurbed my roofrack in gloss black

That would surprise me, didn't think that variant was sold in the UK (only fitted to US model Sharans, I thought…)

I would expect it to be 174hp (AAA) or 190hp (ABV) as those are the most common by far…prepared to be wrong, though!

its the AAA obd1 with coilpack has about 60,000 miles on it so plenty of life in it plus looks like a brand new clutch was fitted so happy days not my first choice of engine either but going to make do as dont want to weaken the chassis by cutting the mounts back off which look like the person who welded them on used a roll of welding wire on each one il just clean them up a bit with die grinder i just dont like how far forward the engine sits but guess theres plenty of room for a big turbo behind it if owt.

AAA OBD1 - early mk3 golfs I think with ~174bhp?

Looking forward to this project, looks good already!

Nice Fez RST in the background btw      

Cheers fiesta was my brothers car its since been sold he's a propper ford nut even though he's now driving a diesel golf and and vw van lol

some of the history that came with car

got the waxoil off the inner wing today what a mission must have been half inch thick in some places it did its job though as theres no rust at all also started welding the holes up.

nice when you clean something up and dont find rust  

matt

Yeah it is ive found a few hidden nasties but nowt serious bit of rust in sunroof gutter, bottom of inner sills but not too bad, a couple of rusty holes around the rear drivers tub and both edges of rear wheel arches had gone under the arch covers but not as bad as i thought it would be.

Blimey that's some history!!    

Been in garage today and decided to go ahead with building it with the vr6 motor im afraid. I just couldnt get the motivation to do owt not knowing which way to go its more of a time issue collecting all the bits and getting original mounts back on and i want it on the road for mid july and also will work out a hell a lot cheaper as i already have collected most stuff now to finish the vr6 conversion, but ive also decided im going to buy another golf to restore to original aswell to start on for when this one is done.

some more pics

rear passenger tub doesnt look bad


rear drivers needs a few holes sorting


And today im fixing the mess some1 made of the scuttle instead of them drilling the spotwelds they took an angle grinder to it and cut through the firewall also going to sort out the hole for the throttle cable which is a bit of a mess and if ive time im going to get the bay down to bare metal but thats proberbly a job for tomorrow.

Your engine looks like the (ABV) engine to me 190BHP 2.9 corrado. I would personally ditch that engine and go for a 1.8 20v turbo but that's just my opinion id double check your engine numbers I had nothing but trouble with my vr6 corrado I personally think the 2.8 is a lot better engine especially if your going to turbo it.    

But doesn't everyone go the 1.8T route ?
Nothing like the sound of a V6 !!

They don't half shift, and the noise is phenomenal. Put a BMC CDA and a Magnex back box on it, quiet as a mouse below 2000rpm and deranged, howling beast above

Yes, they're not as efficient as a 4-pot, but for sheer drama it's more than worth it. Shame about all the electrical niggles, really. Definitely bin the fans if they're the tri-speed Corrado type, mine have caught fire twice…

Stone 

the shell looks clean compared to what I started with mine looked clean when I bought it but after I had it sand blasted it needed 2 front floor pans inner and outer sill both sides 2 rear inner wheel arches scuttle panel and front panel I will try upload photos of mine to day ive just finished my 2 year build a type 1 1974 3dr golf with 4wd 412bhp 1.8 20v turbo
 

there not a v6 and they might sound good but ive had loads of vr6's and I do prefer the 1.8 20v turbo in my opinion its a lot better engine and a lot lighter so not has much under steer. Has my mate has a mk1 with a vr6 in and it dose nothing but under steer out on track its got coil overs adjustable arb's full weld in cage and he as just had a full corner weight and alignment set up and it still under steers when pushed quite hard into a corner