"TAG" - 1983 Campaign restoration blog

Saulty

Very many thanks for the detailed advice.  I have been away hence my tardiness in replying!!!!!  You seem to have done an excellent job - if I can achieve something close to that I will be a happy man.  As mentioned it will be first welding attempt……………

I see you welded the captive nut to the 60x60 plate - did you then weld that plate to the inside of  wheelarch - THEN fit a repair section from inside - joggling the edges???????  

Many thanks once again!  I may have to pop over to see you for advice…..!

No problem, glad to help. I would have struggled to get mine running without the help and advice from other forum members so it's good to be helping someone else for a change!
I welded the repair section with joggled edges into the inner wing first and then marked up the hole for the seatbelt mount with measurements taken from the original rusty mount before I cut it out. I probably still have the measurements in a notepad somewhere so I can try and dig them out if you're stuck. Do you have any seat belts as it would pay to hold them in position before you drill the bolt hole. Once I'd drilled out the hole, 12mm I think, I then drilled a series of 8mm holes to spot weld the plate in position. I held it in position using a seatbelt bolt.
If you want to pop over sometime then I'm sure we can arrange something, I do have a lot on between now and Christmas but let me know what you can do and we'll sort something out.

The exhaust shield and fuel tank shield after treating with POR 15 degreaser, POR 15 Metal Prep then POR 15, primer, and finally some gold high temperature paint.  The metal clip holding the exhaust shield was not in great condition so after a soak in Bilt Hamber rust remover I electro-plated it as it is no longer available as a spare part.

The petrol tank prior to cleaning.  Covered in a layer of Shutz underseal.

 

After removing the foam and rubber strips - then cleaning with a grinder.  Thankfully it was all very sound with minimal corrosion.  I did leave the factory applied "tar" on the underside - just roughing it up to remove muck and help paint to adhere.  I covered all the pipe inlet/outlets before cleaning to prevent any muck entering the tank.  Do note I left the tank for many weeks to fully air before going near it with a grinder!!

Then treated any rusty areas with Bilt Hamber.



 

The finished tank after etch primer followed by Simoniz Tough Paint Satin black and reapplying the rubbers/foam strips/clips.  Also the tank straps refurbed.











 

Whilst clearing out the debris from inside the tank I made an interesting discovery.  Looking into the base of the tank under the housing for the in-tank filter was a "spider-web" shaped piece of very thin rubber.  It was not attached to anything so I fished it all out.

Any ideas what it used to be??  Here are the bits in a pot after removal…..

I had a bit of fun with a "snake scope" attached to the lap-top to have an internal view of the tank.  All in excellent shape but it was strange to see the tank from the inside!  The pics are not great………………….!


Fuel tank inner flap


Inside top sender opening


The mystery rubber???????

Time to tackle the fuel pump and accumulator together with their various brackets and pipes.  Everything was once again coated in a thick layer of recently applied underseal - covering the rusty mess underneath!  Many of the nuts/bolts had to be cut off to remove it as did the pipes.













 

Well I'm not sure but some kind of reinforcement and that's not even an educated guess.

Because that if needed that would happen on the outside normally.
As it's not complete I just can't see what purpose it served. 🤔

Nice work really by the way! 👍

Finally removed…..

Fuel pump bracket and foam….
 












 

Fuel accumulator, bracket and pipes….





 

Amazing it still ran and was fuel tight!!

Cleaned and painted accumulator….

One issue I will have to resolve is that the main fuel supply pipe from the accumulator flexi pipe split about 2 inches from the flexi union as I tried to undo the union.

I have ordered a new accumulator flexi pipe.  The rest of the main supply pipe to the filter is in great condition and I am loathed to replace the whole length - it is also a major job from what I have read.

I am investigating an option to extend the pipe.  A company is happy to provide a short length of cunifer pipe with a flared end and a 14MM x 1.5MM MALE PIPE NUT to attach to the accumulator flexi pipe.  I can then try and use a 5/16 (8mm) inline coupling on to join it to the existing pipe.

Has anyone done anything similar successfully???

The broken pipe…..

One thing that has come up in discussions with the "well known copper brake pipe manufacturer" is this following qoute from them:

 "we are unable to supply a DIN flare on 8mm pipe. We have been supplying the fuel pipes for the MK1 Golf GTi with an SAE flare to match the SAE seat on the fittings for many years and, until now, we have not been advised that it should be DIN. If you still wish to go ahead with the order, the flares would have to be SAE as our fittings are only available with an SAE seat."

In reply I stated that the Golf uses a DIN flare and included photos.  Their reply:

"It does appear to be a DIN flare but we can use an OP1 single flare to create a similar flare to use with our fitting. The important thing is that the seat of  the back of the flare has to match the seat of the fitting on the pipe, not the part that it is going into. The copper nickel pipe is malleable so it will crush to form a seal which is why the SAE flare works with our fittings. We have not been made aware of any problems using the SAE flare with our fitting and we supply a lot of these GTi fuel pipes so there is no reason to believe that it will not work safely."


So they suggest using a male fitting with an SAE flare seat mated to their SAE fitting will successfully join with a DIN female fitting on the new accumulator pipe.

Anyone done this??


 

The rubber parts you have found are part of the internal swirl pot. In the GTI tanks there is a swirl pot and filter. The  filter is there to stop any debris in the tank reaching the fuel pump.

However, in addition to this, the swirl pot is there to prevent fuel starvation on long bends. It consists of an internal plastic chamber which has a trap door to allow fuel in. In the centre it has a rubber membrane and filter assembly. The rubber membrane is supposed to stop fuel\debris entering the swirl pot from underneath without passing through the tank filter. Although the filter can be removed and cleaned the plastic part\membrane cannot.

There was no trace of the rubber membrane when I cleaned my old tank out. I ended up swapping my fuel tank for a heritage one as mine was also rusted internally. 

Guy,

Cracking work here, really impressive.

Lots of interesting information on the differences associated with the GTI compared to the non GTI specs.

Having touched every part you will be very satisfied when the work is completed.

Malcolm