Back to Black - My 16v, soon to be Daily

Without the arches I reckon - then you can sell them to me :wink:  Seriously tho, I think without looks best for your MK1 8)  Nice job by the way

personally i'd keep the arches on, and go for a standard single light grille

seriously though, looks amazing, top quality work for your first spray job - i can't trust myself to spray mine!

Cheers for the replies, funny you should say that John as I've just got myself a brand new standard single light grill, that'll be goin on tonight.

Don't know whether to go more towards the standard Gti look with the door stripes etc etc (in which case the arches will go on of course) or go for the slightly plainer look of no stripes, no arches etc.

As for spraying, I'd say its not rocket science to get a decent enough finish (getting a mint finish is a different story) however it is a lot of work and once you've done it yourself you realise where the money goes when you pay someone to so it.

arches on deffo and single grill too!

good job chappy!

love your car mate and well done with the spray job! you decided on he arches yet cos if it was my car i wud go for a cut down arch on the back

Hi again and once again thanks for the replies, done a little bit more on the car, mostly stuff you can't see.

Firstly last night after work swapped the gear linkage bushes - oh god what a difference - and I only bought the cheap kit without the arms and big bush thing (that'll teach me not to read the "how to" untill after I've bought them). Was struggling for 1st and sometimes I couldn't get it at all, now its lovely and smooth in all gears all for ?4 and an hours work.

have had a couple of problems though. Sunroof drain pipe to the rear O/S had got blocked with dust from the sanding and spraying etc and now I had a very wet drivers rear floor. So carpet out to dry, sunroof out, rear window out and headlining removed - bloody pain in the arse!! Also chipped the sunroof panel very badly while it was out so I've just had to respray that tonight.

Well less of the boring heres a pic of the one bit that does (in my eyes at least) improve the looks. Looks loads better to me and for ?5.50 can't winge, ebay does have its bargain sometimes. But I think it need the full arches now?????

Oh and I've already nearly broken the front spoiler off, its not even that low compared to some.

Glad I attached it with numberplate plastic bolts so they just broke and not the spoiler.

Little update. Been enjoying the car over the last couple of weeks. Makes a change to being under it.

Took my girlfriend to bath for the weekend two weeks ago went to stonehenge on the way car ran beautifully all the way.  Well apart from a really annoying speed related squeak, coming from the front drivers side.

I spent a while searching all around the front for anything that was rubbing on the drive shafts/wheel but couldn't see anything. On getting home I had a real good look but still nothing. Went for a quick drive and realised that the noise wasn't audiable from outside - it was the blooming speedo cable!!

In the process of changing said cable, guess what muggins here did….


Yep you guessed it - dropped the drive gear into the gearbox.
Couple of homemade tools sorted it though - old mini wheelnut worked a treat to undo the drain plug and a old piece of fuel pipe and a bit of copper wire made a nice lasso.


At the weekend went to the Deva Dubs and Rods show in Shrewsbury.



Unfortunately (in a way) the golf is no longer going to be my daily. I've just got a new job with a the choice of a company car or a car allowance. I thought brill I'll use the golf and pocket the cash - only problem is there is a clause that means my car must always be less than 5 years old    

Now I need a new modern car