1983 Standard GTI Concours 42000miles

Finshed the gearbox today…..



and got the block back in the car! It's on its way back up whoop whoop!

some nice work going into this car i cant wait to see the end result,keep the pics coming.

have to say i like the zinc plated look.

At Bloomers request. though hard to get in with the wheel and axle on. Hope it makes some sense.








the engine so far….

 :cheer:  :cheer:  :cheer:  :cheer:  :cheer:  :dance:  :dance:  :dance:  :dance:  :cheer:  :cheer:  :cheer:  :dance:  :dance:

Bring on the Autobahn !!!!!!!!

good work graham :mrgreen:  :mrgreen:  :mrgreen:

Yes indeed
I might drop a slightly hotter cam in it for the Germany trip but at this stage I'm happy to just set it up in standard form.
It still sounds quite tappety in the video but its loads better than it was. Prior to strip down all the clearances were on their maximum limit. With a few swaps of shims and some work on a surface grinder they are all now at their minimum.
I guess I'd have to go through the process again if I change the cam :roll:

I would hazard a guess this was a Friday afternoon engine with the faults I found - Lumps of swarf, big clearances, out of balance and a pinched and split "o" ring I found in the oil pick up pipe. 8O

Perhaps the Germans have off days to! :dontknow:  

Hats off to you!! looks the nuts!!

Where do you find the time?

funk-star said

Hats off to you!! looks the nuts!!

Where do you find the time?

Cheers Funk!
Where do I find the time?….Good question! I guess a very understanding wife (or more likely she prefers it when I'm not at home!), long hours, and work has been fairly quiet this year until tomorrow when I'm expecting a big job to land which will mean no more playing for about 12 weeks  (which is one reason I've tried to crack on with it as I knew the job was imminent.)

There's a few bits which still need plating which are now back on the engine and let it down a bit but they are easily removable parts so if I do find the time I can tinker with these at a later stage without too much upheaval.
I might send the car to the painters whilst i'm working to get the paint sorted.

Tonight I solved an issue with the running of it and might put a question in another section of the forum to see if anyone else has suffered the same as I'm not quite sure how i cured it.

Basically when blipping the throttle from idle I was getting a small hesitation - like it was momentarily  running weak.
I timed the ignition to the settings but I still felt like it was fuel related.
I'd got a spare metering head which I  thought I would try so started to disconnect the fuel lines. Whilst doing that I could here the spring inside the accumulator creaking as the pressure dropped. Rather than spray fuel over the engine I thought if I took the rubber top off the metering head and manually lift the metering arm it would dump the fuel pressure through the injectors. I then thought I would loosen the pipes to the injectors just as an experiment to see how much fuel pressure would be released by lifting the metering arm. As I lifted the arm, sure enough, fuel started to come out of the loose unions on the fuel distributor. Suddenly, after about 3 seconds of holding the arm up, there was distinct noise from the back of the car as the accumulator released a load of pressure and loads of fuel came peeing out the top of the distributor. I even felt the resistance change on the lever as the plunger pressure increased. I thought this was an odd occurrence considering it was meant to be relieving pressure and thought I would re-tighten all the pipes and fire it up. Sure enough the engine now runs sweet as a nut without a stumble or hesitation.

I can only assume it was either an air lock somewhere or the accumulator was sticking.  
It'll be interesting to see if it starts better from cold.

This is the trouble with stripping everything, there are so many problems it can be.
I think I've been a little lucky tonight! :mrgreen:

Have decided to get it painted now I've gone this far with it. Spent most of today masking off all the good bits to keep the dust off them while I block it back to bare metal.

Front panel back to bare metal. No dents :cheer:



O/S wing.



 I knew it had filler in it but wasn't sure how much. It's had some bodge panel beating done. The holes were where who ever bodged it used self tapping screws to pull out the dent. God knows why as you can easily get to the back.  Should be easy to sort properly 8) .

Got the pictures of the engine getting balanced………..

top work mate keep the updates coming :-)

car will be amazing when its done, was pretty amazing anyway!


Oh and how much you charge for blasting? need some bits done! lol

funk-star said

car will be amazing when its done, was pretty amazing anyway!


Oh and how much you charge for blasting? need some bits done! lol

What do you want blasting?

Gear linkage, rear beam, engine covers/mounts, hubs, few other bits.

Found a company that's cheap for powder coating but they cant blast stuff.

Was thinking of buying a cabinet as I could blast everything then, but there bloody expensive!! Lol

My cabinet is a wet blast unit and my shot blaster is £200 special from sealey tools. Not really man enough for the beam. Well it would but it'd take too long.

I have three powder coaters within a 10 mile radius who all do blasting as well. You should find somewhere in Aylesbury to do your blasting. :dontknow:

Yea omnicote will do it, it's just I found a place that will lump it in with someone else's job for next to nothing!

Took the glass out today to find the tailgate lip had some rot in it. Didn't really want to remove the tailgate as it meant upsetting the roof lining but I have a mint tailgate in my stock that I've decided to use instead.
Manged to peel back the roof lining without damaging it by softening it with a heat gun as I went along the lip.
Worst bit is getting the wiper motor wires out of the tail gate!
The boot seal was also damaged so I am replacing that which means removing the black sealer which is applied from new around the top by the roof. So that job became much easier without the tailgate in place.

Rust found on window lip of tailgate……





its not too bad but it gets between the spot welds and will always been there.

Good tailgate I've had for years……





What have I done?!!…….





Goes to the paintshop next week :cheer: