Mars Red Y plate GTI

seats look familiar, been down the same road with mine, stripped them and then kinda stopped and thought " so what has that done for me!!!!"    

don't go too crazy with t-cut or with the rotary polisher, it is 30 year old paint don't forget, lots of gentle layers of polish by hand will get the paint back shiny again… but very gradually..
looks like it's already started to come up well though from the last pic…

Duckbill arrived today from Classic VW so had to get that on!!

With the resprayed grill trim and that it's starting to look like a proper GTI again!!





Ran it for a bit to generate some heat and look further at the leak - it's coming out of here:



It's where the mounting goes into the end casing on the rad and I fear it's a reasonable sized crack in the casing. Was going to try sticking some rad weld in and seeing whether that stopped it but now not so sure - it blows a little geezer of water when you turn it off and the pressure drops so it's hardly a pin hole. Grrrr - just want to drive it but getting and fitting a new rad is going to take me at least another two weeks.

Oh well - at least she's starting to look pretty again!!  

richievr said

seats look familiar, been down the same road with mine, stripped them and then kinda stopped and thought " so what has that done for me!!!!"    

don't go too crazy with t-cut or with the rotary polisher, it is 30 year old paint don't forget, lots of gentle layers of polish by hand will get the paint back shiny again… but very gradually..
looks like it's already started to come up well though from the last pic…

Hi Richie - couldn't agree more. I was pretty tentative about getting it and unfortunately haven't got on with it at all. Was concerned about it taking the paintwork back too much and when I have used it, it's just spat polish everywhere. The results were okay to be fair but the mess it made of everything wasn't worth the time saving in my view (doubtless my rubbish technique). I gave up pretty quickly and went back to doing it by hand which was fine and the results are pretty good at this point, given where it started.

I might try it on the Audi or the Bora which has bigger, unburdened panels but the Mk1 just has too many fiddly bits and black plastic trim that you don't want covered in a billion dots of polish. Failing that I'll probably move it on.

In brighter news, I just sold the rims it came on for £50 so that means my BBS's only owe me £50 - £12.50 a wheel and tyre doesn't sound too bad to me!!

looks lovely from the front!!

is the rad end case definately split? or is it the small hose that is perished??

richievr said

looks lovely from the front!!

is the rad end case definately split? or is it the small hose that is perished??

beat me to it, i thought small top hose, looks exactly like mine did…  in fact the whole project brings back memories, mine was very similar (but i didnt keep it stock see below), nice to see another Mars Red back on the road.

The machine polish worked wonders on mine… Meguairs ultimate cut, polish and Gold Class, did it a bit at a time to see how it went, couldnt believe how well it came up…, spot which bit i did first !!

SvenM said

Duckbill arrived today from Classic VW so had to get that on!!

With the resprayed grill trim and that it's starting to look like a proper GTI again!!





Ran it for a bit to generate some heat and look further at the leak - it's coming out of here:



It's where the mounting goes into the end casing on the rad and I fear it's a reasonable sized crack in the casing. Was going to try sticking some rad weld in and seeing whether that stopped it but now not so sure - it blows a little geezer of water when you turn it off and the pressure drops so it's hardly a pin hole. Grrrr - just want to drive it but getting and fitting a new rad is going to take me at least another two weeks.

Oh well - at least she's starting to look pretty again!!  

If it definitely is the radiator, I have a spare brand new one you can have for £25.  I thought mine was leaking, so bought a replacement.  It seems that the radiator fan switch was loose.  I tightened it up and the leak went away.

robos_rado said

richievr said

looks lovely from the front!!

is the rad end case definately split? or is it the small hose that is perished??

beat me to it, i thought small top hose, looks exactly like mine did…  in fact the whole project brings back memories, mine was very similar (but i didnt keep it stock see below), nice to see another Mars Red back on the road.

The machine polish worked wonders on mine… Meguairs ultimate cut, polish and Gold Class, did it a bit at a time to see how it went, couldnt believe how well it came up…, spot which bit i did first !!

What size wheels have you got there?

I remember your G40 from Club Polo days.

heartagram said

I remember your G40 from Club Polo days.

Interestingly I thought I remembered your user name when i was it the other day. Have you defected to the Golf camp too then?

Yeah sort of, hah. Only so much Poloing you can do in a life time.

 Wheels are pro race 1.2 size 15x7 ET35
with 195 Federal RSR tyres

 

Ok - so took butleraw  up on his offer and picked up a shiney new rad yesterday. However, having removed the old one in mine they are identical in every way other than the new one doesn't have the below - which I assume is some sort of thermostat. But, having look around on the internet (mainly eBay to be fair) there appears to be a larger number of them without this connection than with. Can someone give me an in sight here - do I need a different radiator or I can do something to the connector?



In other news, I've found more connectors not connected to anything:



Anyone got any ideas - I appreciate they are just electrical connectors in an engine bay so probably hard to tell but all suggestions welcomed!!

the 2 pin one is for the warm up regulator, red arrow.

the single pin is oil temp, for the mfa i believe.. , green arrow..

as for the rad, you should have a temp sender like that on the passenger side end, connector looks the same as mine, so should be ok .....

Yes, that's the sender for the fan, mines not there though, it's bottom right as you look in from the front, probably changed the position at some point, shouldn't matter as long as the wires reach!,

The bigger connector looks like its from the warm up valve, you can just see it in the pic down and right from the connector,
with no connector fitted.  The spade is a temp sender, just have a look around the block for it somewhere near…. It will either have a spade or a circular type connector on it.

Thanks both - just been out and checked all that out and all makes perfect sense now - connectors and rad! Perfect.

Stripped and primed the cowl this evening so should be able to spray tomorrow evening if the weathers okay and then all back together on Tuesday - wonder what we'll find then…

Well - I've been having fun!!

Old cowl when it came off - couldn't put it back on like that and really want to start powder coating things properly but didn't have the time / patience to go through that process at this point…want to drive it…so had some VHT in the garage so used that.



In reassembled form.



And fitted.



Ran it for ten minutes to get some temperature in it and check there were no leaks and all seemed fine. That was Monday evening and we should have been good for a drive - but it was late and the car was blocked in by at least two others so I closed the garage doors with a heavy heart! I had the pleasure of a day in Milton Keynes yesterday but managed to get home at a reasonable time so I figured it was time for the first drive. Took it up to Richards to show him as it's undergone a pretty significant transformation since he last saw it. Also needed to put some petrol in it. Anyway, showed him, got distracted and then started out on my first "proper" drive to see how it was. About a mile into the journey there was a bit of coughing and sputtering as I started to pull up behind a car turning right. The engine stopped when I did and then wouldn't restart. Two guys in a Transit pushed me to layby and I phoned Richard to come and rescue me.

I thought it was the battery (I'd done a fair few starts getting it in and out of the garage without a proper run) and he thought fuel. He towed me back, put some petrol in and she still wouldn't go so he stuck a battery pack on it and she fired up. So we were both right!!

Anyway - all's well that ends well and I was then able to take her for a quick run. Did about ten miles around the local area before returning home a happy man. So - that's another one back on the road.

Some proper pictures:











Still plenty to do but progress will probably be slower now that I've complete "Phase 1" (although do need to get those missing badges sorted).

nicely done matey!
as you say - another one saved!!!  

Well saved, it looks very tidy  

Thought it was about time for an update - if only to keep the thread alive and refresh my enthusiasm for the next phase of work…which may or may not be conducted in 2015…

Finally got new badges for the tailgate and treated the car to the obligatory Wolfsburg steering wheel, although have retained the other one for returning to standard as and when required. Although not certain whether the one I have is standard - should it say "GTI" on the horn push or just have the VW logo?



Was rather disconcerted to find that if I brim the tank that a fair amount of petrol pours out onto the forecourt. The filler neck appears to be okay so must be something to do with the flexi connection to the tank itself - need to look into it more.

The heater only blows hot (which was great over the summer) so got myself a new valve for it…and then managed to run it over getting the car out of the garage before I had fitted it….so need another one of those.

After months of searching and failing on eBay have finally managed to secure myself a set of new door pockets as well as the ones I had were in pretty poor condition so have those to fit.

One question - given that this is a normal GTI (not Campaign) should it have a twin light grill or, to be truly standard, should it be a single light grill?

So in short, I've bought some parts and either not fitted them or trashed them…well done me!

It's currently hiding in the garage under a Lotus Exige indoor car cover (and some other things) which just about fits….at a bit of a stretch. Not certain whether this counts as car cruelty though! ;0)