MrP's GTI Rivage

I've not updated in a while. Nothing has really changed with the Rivage, other than deciding what's on the agenda over winter! I have a healthy to do list!

Exterior:
- Sort the rear quarter bodywork defect
- Amber side repeaters
- Single headlights with early style chrome grill
- Early style single piece chrome side trim (currently has the black plastic with chrome trim)
- Source a tonneau cover
- Wiper arms need powder coating
- Refresh the badges
- Source some replacement glass (n/s quarter glass is non OE and the passenger door glass is scratched)
- New strut top covers
- Replacement OE style stickers (tyre pressure, warning stickers etc)
- Top radiator card
- remove armour door plates and fit new door handle seals

Interior:
- Re-trim the spare interior I have in the original beige leather colour.
- Source some Recaro front seats for the re-trim
- Source a cream carpet and carpet mats
- New rear boot cards / clips
- Boot carpet (black)
- Fusebox card and clips
- Driver side sill trim cover
- New door pin surrounds
- Pedal rubbers
- New dash switch surround
- Fit central locking (Possible Corrado Vacuum CL)
- VDO Gauges
- Refit top of door trim

Drivetrain:
- Coilovers (KW V3 more than likely)
- Rear Axel refresh - Bushes, powdewrcoat etc
- Front wishbone refresh, ball joints bushes etc (and spot/seam weld?) then powdercoat.
- ARB Upgrade
- MK2 Golf 9" servo and 22mm M/C
- 280mm Brake upgrade? (need to see if they'll fit under some 15" RS/RM's)
- BBS RM's or RS's
- Paint the rear brake conversion silver or black
- Front upper strut brace

Engine:
TBC
 

Is that all 👍

Massbad69 said

Is that all 👍

There's probably more. Going to be a busy winter!

That's a nice list and sure to keep you busy over the winter months!  

It's been aggges since I've updated this thread. I think I've done around 30 miles since August in the car and I have just almost sold it, mainly due to just not using it and saving for a mortgage. I was approached on Instagram of all places and a lengthy process started with the buyer backing out fairly last minute (car was meant to be collected this Sunday) as they wanted something with more history with the original interior. I think it was as very up and down for her as it was for me. In the end, I'm actually relieved she backed out. I'm very happy to be keeping it.

During this sale process I've really gone over the car again and again, serviced it, fitted a VIN plate and lots of engine bay genuine style stickers etc.

Chrotle also came around to critique the car on behalf of the seller - In all honesty this was a pretty horrible experience that I won't be doing again. Chortle is a great guy and really knows his stuff about the cabriolet roofs - But it's just not nice having your pride and joy picked apart for the behalf of someone else. There is a clear conflict of interest doing this and no holding back. Never, ever; ever again!  But, the good news is, the whole situation has given me a new enthusiasm for the MK1. I re-contacted a previous owner (I hassled and hassled) and have managed to get some service history scanned in, which is due to be e-mailed over any day now! I've also decided to move on with the Interior and found a nice original leather interior to fit in.  Progress!

It is hard having your car crtique'd but glad you've taken it on board - and are keeping it to put back to all of its former glory.

Keep us all update  

Yep, Chrotle really knows his stuff and he's pointed out some things which I didn't know about, so I have a few more items to work towards!

For the time being I'm planning on getting the standard car up to scratch and leaving any 'serious modifying' for the moment - I think at thee most a subtle drop and some BBS RM's which would be fully reversible should I want to.

I'm concentrating on the interior, boot and engine bay at the moment though!  

Sooooo… Just received this through the post from the DVLA….



My V888 Request finally came through… It has a list of all the previous owners, their addresses, any address change etc. Basically any old V5 document. Sadly, no MOT's which is what I was really hoping for to verify the mileage.

I now know that The car was supplied to Skippers of Cheltenham (which now appears to have long gone). Shame I was hoping to get some Original Plates made up. I can also verify that the VIN and Engine code match up with documentation going back to 1991 and the car is a proper Rivage. Invaluable!



As for the owners: The 1st owner was a lease company for 3 years, then the 2nd owner had it for 2 years until 1996 - Then the 3rd owner came along who owned it from 1996 to 2011! She's had three addresses and each one of her V5's shows the mileage! I now have mileage proof from '96, '99, '01 and '11! It looks as if the mileage is genuine and the car did very little from '01 to '11 so the story of being stood up matches! Wahoooo! It's not ideal or perfect history, but a damn sight better than nothing. I'm now very confident the mileage is genuine.

I'm over the moon!

Nice one mate, well done! 

So, bit of an update…

This happened:
Rivage Wiring (3) by Rich Perkins, on Flickr

It started when I wanted to re-fit the missing heated washer jet - I also noticed that the stereo wiring and electric roof wiring was a tad bodged - It's easier to assess wiring with the dash off, so off it came! I have a thread covering the technical here: http://vwgolfmk1.org.uk/forum/index.php?page=topicview&id=technical%2Felectrics_2%2Fheated-washer-jet&start=20&redirected=1#post_1520176

Long story short, It looks like the cars had the incorrect ignition switch fitted at some point which was minus the key ignition live (which feeds the roof and stereo) so the rest of the wiring was bodged to suit. Why do people do this!!! So I fitted a new switch, it was only £8 for goodness sake. You can see the old switch here:
Rivage Wiring (8) by Rich Perkins, on Flickr

You can see the cut wiring which was just bundled behind the dash:
Rivage Wiring (6) by Rich Perkins, on Flickr

All better now:
Rivage Wiring (4) by Rich Perkins, on Flickr

The radio is working as it should but I'm still figuring out the hood switch and getting the heated washer working as it should. Watch this space!

Oh the joys of 30 year old wiring

jellybelly said

Oh the joys of 30 year old wiring

Sad of me, but I really enjoy wiring. And to be fair, this car is the least bodged old VW I've owned!

It's all fixed now, everything works as it should! Wiring is sorted and dash is back on. The roof only works with the key in, ignition on and off! Yippie! The windows are the same, but I noticed they work with the key out for a few minutes - I presume this is a standard feature so you can close the windows after switching the car off. Clever!

The heated washer jet appears to be working too. I had x2 jets from a Corrado which both turned out to be dead. The positive terminal had corroded on both and one of the metal inserts had broken:


So I made x1 good one out of both. I used the old negative terminal and soldered onto the positive side. Removed the good jet, cleaned it all up and put it back together. I never quite figured out the little disc - I put it back where it was and left it: I assume it does something to help heat it up when it's cold enough - Maybe a thermal diode of some sort? Who knows! All I know is that it get's warm(ish) to the touch. Job done!

Back together:
Heated Washer Jets (2) by Rich Perkins, on Flickr

I also sorted a few other things curtsey of VW heritage… The steering column collar/adapter was hacked to death, it looks like some one has tried to remove it at some point and failed. All the splines were ruined and fitting and removing a steering wheel was very difficult.

Old:
Old Steering column Collar by Rich Perkins, on Flickr

New:
Steering Column Collar (1) by Rich Perkins, on Flickr

I bought some new door pull guides as I was missing one. These were described as genuine VW and suitable for the cabrio. I think someone is telling porkies. They fit perfect but aren't the same as original (original on the left, new on the right):
Door Pull by Rich Perkins, on Flickr

I also bought some new strut top covers as the old were cracked (did both sides):
Strut Covers (1) by Rich Perkins, on Flickr
Strut Covers (2) by Rich Perkins, on Flickr

I got some other bits and bobs but not fitted them yet, i'll update shortly. 

I've been very busy on the Rivage - The dashboard is back in and all the wiring woes are fixed as per factory operation -  But the rest of the interior is out of the car.. I wonder why…

Rivage leather interior by Rich Perkins, on Flickr

Been a busy few weeks but the interior is refurbished and finally in the car, it's not perfect but a damn site better than before. It took me all weekend getting it back together and in the car, I didn't fully finish until the light had gone so here is a  quick teaser…

Leather is in! by Rich Perkins, on Flickr

Really impressed with it so far.  

It's been a while and I've done quite a bit and spent a LOT of money…

I'll start by showing the to do-list I have.. Pretty epic, right!?
GolfRivageGTi-Todolist (1)-page-001 by Rich Perkins, on Flickr
GolfRivageGTi-Todolist (1)-page-002 by Rich Perkins, on

Further back in my thread you can see the very tired leather interior which came with the car. I was undecided whether to trim these or not. I decided I'd rather have an honest original interior than a brand new one. But I knew these were far too gone in some areas. So a while back I bought a replacement Leather interior from Germany - from a Classic line (Europe's equivalent the the Rivage). An Identical interior in every way other than the (tilt) bases are swapped over for the left hand drive. It was described as immaculate but when it arrived it was far from it. The pictures were good but on arrival you could clearly see the interior had been covered in new paint/dye, very thick in places, the leather was like cardboard in some areas and all the runners were rusted - these had obviously been sat in a damp garage for years then someone had given them a very poor once over so they look nice on photo's for a sale. Oh well. I contacted a few professional leather restorers and settled on a local chap called Better Leather. The quote was acceptable and he came to me and spruced them up. We mixed and matched the best of the two interiors and made one fantastic one! I spent ages sorting the bolsters and making sure all the mechs worked properly and chose the best plastics and heated elements.

My originals:


The new ones:
$_3 by Rich Perkins, on Flickr

And the finished article:
DSC_0179 by Rich Perkins, on Flickr

Once the weather gets better i'll get some decent DSLR photo's. I've had the interior out a couple of times to re-fit the covers here and there and sort some bits and bobs out. It's looking great! And the heated seats work perfect, nice and toasty!

Next up were the number plates. I bloody hated the ones which came on the car, I mean what's that font and the blue/yellow lion about?:
Rivage by Rich Perkins, on Flickr

So I did my research and found the original supplying dealer period graphics and came up with my own little drawing on how it should look. I contacted a company called DMB Graphics and sent them a description with this:
DSC_0200 by Rich Perkins, on Flickr

Which he then turned into this:
20160331_185652 by Rich Perkins, on Flickr

Which became:
DSC_0215 by Rich Perkins, on Flickr

All for the grand sum of £22.50 posted. Unbelievable really!

Then onto the stereo, I currently have a modern Alpine unit with some decent speakers, they aren't done justice - the door cards just aren't up to a decent sound system. So I decided to go period. I was looking at the VW Gamma 2/3 Unit, but they are hard to find in great condition with English writing and to be fair, they are basic at best. So I found this:
2016-04-14_07-03-28 by Rich Perkins, on Flickr
2016-04-14_07-03-51 by Rich Perkins, on Flickr

4x50w, Graphic Equaliser, green illumination and a Aux output. It' absolutely mint, It looks like it's never been fitted. Circa 1991 and were around £250 back in the day (that's around £450 in today's money!!). I know it's not original, but it's early 90's cool and I can happily use this day to day with an iPod. I've ordered an electric aerial to go with it too!

Then, I've moved onto the mechanics. The car's always had a tapping sound which I believe to be the gearbox output shaft bearing (dull tapping which goes away with the clutch pedal). I tried a new release bearing with no affect A few people have said this is a normal sound (including Chortle). I was never sure. One of my good mechanic friends thinks because the car was sat for nearly 10 years, the top half of the output shaft bearing became dry causing this noise - he, like everyone else said it's not an issue, but it was annoying me. So I found a recently refurbished 020 AUG gearbox - proper code for this car. And started to work. I'll get some photo's up in the next update!




 

You are doing a great job on this cabriolet.  

The seats have really came out beautifully and it's amazing how seats can make or break a car. Top job.  

Number plate looks spot on too.  

I must say this car is looking fabulous now! Nice work on those seats. I've been looking into upgrading my pressed metal plates for some DMB original style replicas. I share your hatred of the modern font euro badged plates!! Also on the lookout for a Gamma 3 too when funds allow, but that head unit looks brilliant. Do you use a cassette adaptor to play the iPod?

Thanks Chaps. I've done so many little things I can't really take photo's of, but I can't recommend the leather restorer and DMB Graphic enough (http://leatherbetter.co.uk) (http://www.dmb.uk.com/).

The Leather chap quoted me for a full days work (subject to me stripping the seats fully down). He ended up spending two days at no extra cost. He was very particular and was adamant I ended up happy.
I inspected periodically over the two days and he re-touched up any areas I wasn't happy with, no questions asked. I'm not the easiest of customers due to being particular and fussy (well, people call me fussy, but I just expect high standards) and he took everything with enthusiasm, pride and workmanship. Top chap. Though we had a bit of a disaster - The pigment takes around 3 days to cure and settle, for some reason the pigment settled different for the parts dyed on different days. We did it all in my garage and it was raining the entire time, it was dark and damp so a possible cause. Any who, I spoke with the chap and left it a week to see if they settled - they didn't. So I arranged for them to be dropped off with him (he was going to come back to me but I offered to drop them off so he can do them in his own time) and over the course of the following week he re-did them all so they are a perfect match - He pretty much wouldn't accept any other way as he wanted to make sure the job was perfect and I was smitten with the seats. A true professional. I can't wait to get the car back out and get some decent photo's to show them off.

The number plates are great, all it took was a few photo's/graphics and a quick phone call to discuss requirements. Within around 8 hours I had received the first custom made image example and within another week the actual plates. All original, custom and from scratch. For £22.50 posted. And they look great!

The head unit has a CD input, it's just a AUX socket on the front of the unit so I can use the headphone jack on a phone/ipod straight into the front of the unit. Unbelievable a head unit having one of these in 1991! It's the main reason I went for it. I've not fitted or tested it yet, I'l have a play this evening I think. My electric aerial comes today and I still need to fit a new speedo cable so going to strip the dash back and do them all in one go.

So I've just got the car back together after a bit of work. 

Replacement gearbox, clutch, release bearing, Rear gearbox mount, clutch cable and speedo cable. The knocking is now fully gone. But the speedo doesn't work (think the new cable may not be sat right?), the cabin is vibrating a tad (hoping it's the new mount and it'll settle down as it softens) and the gear knob alignment needs a fettle. 

I've also done the timing belt and reset Co2, idle and ignition timing. I also replaced all vacuum lines, cleaned all the earth's, stripped and cleaned the WUR, 5th Injector and TTS… Amongst many other things. 

Bloody hell, the car must have been running rough before, it goes like stink now! Idle is an almost perfect 900rpm and the car idles and drives like a dream, it actually shocked me. Night and day.

To add, I'm wondering if this gearbox had an LSD fitted, the car just pulls whichever way you hold the steering wheel, very unlike before.. How can I 100% confirm? 

Speedo fixed, the drive gear wasn't seated correctly.