Andys Sportline

So this week my job was to tackle the drivers seat. Clearly a past owner liked to use his elbow to dig in to the side of the seat back bolster to help them get out of the car and it had created a hole in the foam and made the fabric wrinkly and also taken the bolster out of shape. I was going to send it to a trimmers as I didnt have a clue where to start on stripping back a seat but as with everything on these cars its quite simple if you work through it methodically and I really enjoy learning new things… plus at £100 for what was a 45min job glad I did.
Below pic of hole. I filled this with some seating foam I had laying which was really firm, cut a nice square hole and got ride of the damaged area then glued this in and cut to shape to get bolster shape back however the fabric wasnt pulling tight enough as it had stretched slightly with the damage and constant elbow pressure so then bought some wadding from fabric shop £2 for half a meter bargain and recovered the whole bolster. Fabric now sits nice and tight and no ripples and shape is back to original on bolster! Job done! Love working on these old cars, if that had been a modern car it would have taken me more than 45mins to get the seat out to start with lol!!

Great repair on the seat! and a transformation of the paint work.

I'm looking at fitting a pair of Recaro LS seats to my 93 cabriolet.

Is the seat base the standard cabriolet base or have they used a different base due to the lower seated position?

Thanks pal. Couldn't tell you the answer to your question as this is the first golf I have owned and comes with the recaros as standard. Would assume you will have to do some modifications however as the only units I think drop in to the cabs are mk1 and mk2 seats and mk3 seats if you cut the arm of the side and re-weld it in a different position.

Its been a bit cold lately so getting out to garage has been hard motivation. Given the April 'back on the road' deadline I decided to make a start on the underlay in the car. After lots of research i went with some treadaire Red. I fell lucky as its expensive stuff but I got a left over from a staircase job on gumtree. Its perfect for the job as it doesn't compress like felt under lays (reason I was put off the newton commercaisl and also there thickness), its rubber and heavy so is has great soundproofing 46db, plus its 11.4mm thick so doubled up in the foot well it should be just under an inch which is exactly what is needed to stop the 'common' carpet pulling away at the doors so many golf have when either a thin underlay is fit or the old one has compressed flat. It was  a tricky job shaping it around the firewall but came out very well with no gaps. Still needs sticking down and finishing around door openings but im going to test fit the carpet first.

For the second layer I will lay the tunnel section and the 2 front floor pans out side by side and cut them as one big piece so its a nice fit and keeps everything snug and will smooth out the floor pan bumps and lumps some more.

The rear of my sportline never had underlay in it (is this normal or has someone taken it out?) so I had to chamfer the sides of the underlay so I could tuck them and then the carpet under the seat guide rails to ensure they dont snag. Worked a treat and is nice and tight under them now.

Really happy with this underlay ticks a lot of boxes and should last.

that will for sure last a long time that underlay. All my cabs had underlay in the rear as well as up front. I've had various cab from 1982 through to 1992.

Cheers for the confirmation. Looks like someone had my original out at some point then and never put back in.

Gosh its been ages since I updated. So in short its 90% done… will post some interior pics up when its day light but in short had a nightmare fitting newton commercial carpet. To say it the 'best on the market' I expected it to be better. Took a long time to fit properly especially around the typical door pull area that most rip away from. Also rear carpet had to be packed in corners with underlay to ensure it didn't tug away from B piller… also after fitting rear carpet it had to come back out again as I soon realised how important it is to paint the seat runners as the metal colour jumps out so bad against a black carpet.





Then I painted the runner rails in textured paint so they look brand new again.



Also installed some new red seatbelts (kept originals) and got a bit anal about painting all the nuts and bolts

Next up was to give the interior a deep clean with meguires fabric and carpet cleaner… pics dont do the interior justice it look like new…. also installed some new door caps (bit at top of door card) as the old ones had split

Also upon re installing the knee bar I removed the aweful felt tape they put on to stop it rattling against the dash. I then fitted some P shape rubber draft excluder. It not only fills the gap perfect but also doesn't attracts dust and bits like the felt. Defo a must have job if you have the knee bar off for sake of £5. Looks a bit grey due to flash but it is black to the eye



Also installed the custom gaitor and gear know from page 2 you saw me doing just lifts the car to the next level… but I have kept all original bits as well just for future preservation.

So jobs left to do…. sort out radio wiring mess. Going to solder and heat shrink all wires as its just a mess at moment. Got a gamma 4 radio to go in so looks more period and a apline micro amp so I can still get the mist from the kicker speakers. Then just dash trims to go back on… wash car then a I can take some photos out in the open of all the details I have put in to this car.



Oh and decided to put a new ground in behind instrument cluster and pack the connector out as is suggested with a strip of electrical tape while I had most of dash apart. My MFA only gave me the clock so who knows if it fixes it or not as I havnt tried yet. Fingers crossed!

   looks really good, attention to detail is where it's at  

Can i just ask you mate after looking at your photos my centre console is identical to yours with the circle holes cut into one oval ? Why is that ? Thought mine was a bodge job then saw yours any info ? Regards Dean

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Not sure to be honest. Originally thought it was for the roof switch to fit in to better. Can't see any other reason for it really.

No worries I've just put a blanking plate over mine

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Ah sorry must have misunderstood. Mine does have a blanking plate that goes over it hence it doesnt really matter what it looked like its the plate that holds the electic hood and power windows switches pic below. think they cut it out so the hood switch didnt catch as it sits slightly to the right of the facia plate

Deano777 said

Can i just ask you mate after looking at your photos my centre console is identical to yours with the circle holes cut into one oval ? Why is that ? Thought mine was a bodge job then saw yours any info ? Regards Dean

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I've seen a few for sale on ebay with one circle and one oval so its not uncommon but I cant explain why

Ok mate cheers anyway.must be ine of lifes great mk1 mysterys lol

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The centre console were factory 3 holes.

Once later cabs came in with power  window and tops they mullered the holes out to fit the switch plate even though some late cabs only had one switch for roof, or 3 for window and roof.
Just chopped out the plastic.
Why they couldn’t of found a way of making individual round blanking plates for the switches I don’t know


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Thanks chortle that makes sense ,although theve damaged a classic in the process..funny thing is mine has neither power roof or power windows ???

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