I think we all agree our Mk2's are great. But most of us also have the use more modern cars. We spend a lot of time focusing on the positives and enjoying the good bits, but what do you find the worse bit of driving/owning a mk2 Golf?
For me right now it's the stock brakes, I hopped out of the Mk2 and straight into the Mk5 and nearly went through the windscreen with the first tap of the pedal. I have to admit I was surprised the brakes on the Mk2 passed the MOT, I definitely need to sort them out.
First Friday of every month, North Bristol, just off M5 jct16 at the Toby Carvery Pub in Bradley Stoke on the first Friday of every month, 7:30pm til late.
For newcomers, we park on the straight strip of car park directly in front of you as you turn off the main road, and avoid the main pub car park. We usually hang around for a bit while others arrive, and park up before heading into the pub for a shandy or refillable Pepsi. ;-)
This is a long running VW meet that has historically started as a mk2 meet then a few of the mk1 OC guys got involved and rebranded as Bristol Dub Love. Over the years as regulars have changed vehicles we’ve welcomed all types, happy to call it a Car (and Bike) Enthusiasts Meet now.
Looking back over my own history of the past 8 years I’ve been in different Mk2s, a Mk4 and Mk5, a few times in my Beetle, BMW e30 touring and both classic and modern motorbikes.
Since COVID hit this has been on hold. We managed a decent 'Goodbye 2021 meet' Friday December 3rd and will be looking forward to making this a regular calendar event again in 2022.
Dates for 2022 January, No event - we need to get over Christmas/New Year February, Friday 4th March, Friday 4th April, Friday 1st May, Friday 6th June, Friday 3rd July, Friday 1st August, Friday 5th September, Friday 2nd October, Friday 7th November, Friday 4th December, Friday 2nd
I was talking about cars in general with my son, and together we kind of came up with an idea.
The problem with EVs is 1. the lifespan of the batteries, and 2. they are so loaded with ingrained tech that a 5-10 year old EV is kind of obsolete.
So what if a basic car platform could be built in a modular way, a bit like old cars - or kit cars.
A chassis / space frame / backbone or what have you. Swappable batteries and motors so they could be easily upgraded. A bolt in control system (CPU). And a body of some kind - or selection of available styles.
Granted this ignores air-bags and side curtains, and various safety features etc so in its most basic form wouldn't pass Euro standards. But wouldn't it be a great idea if someone produced something like this.
Imagine you could upgrade your batteries and motors as they wore out or as finances allowed. You could fit a newer control system as tech advanced, after all it's how the brain send information to the motor that allows it to get more out of the motor. And you could potentially swap body styles, to a lightweight two seater for the daily commute (making the most of battery and motor power) or fit the cargo load for the road trip.
Bonded aluminium frames would add strength without weight, bodies could be composites of plastic, fibreglass or more likely carbon fibre or kevlar.
You might end up with a Triggers Broom kind of car, but there's no reason your initial investment couldn't set you up for the next 20 years. Is this the future of transport?
General chat, not car realted, but wanted to say I've put it out there to the family that I want vouchers for surf lessons for Christmas!!!
They've buit the WAVE near me, the site where Bristol Volksfest used to be housed. A man made surf 'bay'.
I used to skateboard as a kid, and Jetski'ed in my mid 20s, never acutally surfed, been riding motorbikes for over 30 years so think I have decent core strength and blance - so how hard can it be?
I'm 47 now and thought wouldn't it be cool if I could surf before I was 50. I've always had it in my head that when the time comes I would retired to the south coast so why not make the most of that idea.
Not sure how commonly known this product is in car/classic car world but it's a big deal for all year bikers, and whilst I was just pondering this product it occurred to me that some of you (Monkey and L90E spring to mind) with your really really nice, high level builds, may well benefit from knowing about this.
As the history goes, it was developed for the aircraft industry, it's basically an anti corrosion coating but there's a lot more science to it so if anyone is interested it might be worth a look.
I was thinking of all these lovely zinc plated components etc, and with some of the 'repaired' metal the surface may still be pitted. This stuff will creep into nooks. It would be a shame to see some of these build looking a bit tired in a few years time.
I've been pondering this and wondered what anyone else thought.
As we know the car market has moved on a lot since the 80/90s and cars these days are far from what their great granparents were. Bloated heavywights loaded with tech (often unnecessary).
So if you were to buy a car today, (say something of the last 4 years) what car would you say captures the essence of what we all know and love. Something small, nippy, fun and fairly basic - an enjoyable driving expereince.
In particular I'm thinking about the GTI / Hot Hatch marque rather than a poverty spec 1.3 but feel free to share your thougth sbased on your own mk2 experience. And I'm not counting the current MK7/8 Golf in the running, it might be a great modern car but I feel it's lost the raw connectoin between driver and machine.
Maybe New Mini does it for you , or Suzuki Swift. Anyway what's your thoughts.....
have a very good friend that asked if I knew anyone that could help out. Her sisters husband recently took his own life. The sister is obviously in a bit of a state but is left with a lot of stuff to sort out.
The guy had a 1997 (tbc) T4 Caravelle in green, which although rough, was MOTed and in daily use till the event. Mot has since run out I believe. Vehicle has seats removed but they are all available. has been used as an all purpose van, has carried straw for horses and junk to tip etc so really used and abused.
Still waiting to get more info and pics, the widow is still waiting on DVLA to sort paperwork to put in her name so she has V5 in her name to be able to sell it.
This is obviously very delicate, she needs the van gone as seeing it, hearing it start up etc has too many painful memories.
For this reason she wants it gone out of sight with as much ease as possible. She can’t deal with eBay messers etc.
So I said I’d put some feelers out for genuine interest.
Not sure yet if it’ll be worth the effort to tidy up, maybe rat look is the way forward or perhaps it’s just a parts vehicle but if anyone would like to express an interest let me know and I’ll update with more information when I know more myself.
Would need collection by trailer from north Bristol.
Value is yet unknown, I haven’t had chance to see it myself yet. But based off current market values I would expect it could be worth a couple grand, I’m not sure.
For the widow she’s not asking for money just needs it gone for closure but I know she and the kids left behind are not well off. They had to have a local collection to pay for the funeral. Which was a simple affair.
I know a generous and honest donation would go a long way for the family.
Let me know if genuinely interested, or watch this space for more info and hopefully pics soon.
These were shared over Facebook for a 1991 Golf, so thought I'd put them up here.
Sorry to who shared them, I meant to credit you but lost the details where I saved your name. If you see this and want a shout, just get in touch. But thanks anyway.
Rear Bench I'll start with the rear bench as there's less variation there as it's mostly stayed the same across all years.
There are 2 types for the Golf, a full width rear bench and a 1/3 - 2/3 split folding seat. The only difference over the years was early seats had a carpeted rear panel, later it was just a hardboard panel.
The Jetta rear bench is slightly different and has a 'ski' hatch to access the boot.
Front Seats The main variation is between early and late seat frames. And obviously 3 and 5 door models, where the 5 door back is fixes and the 3 door has to flip for rear passenger access.
Early vs Late Early on the left, late on the right. Late is more curved on the front end and the side bolsters are angled lower/wider. Later also has a horizontal stitch line across the base. The other easy way to tell is the 'ejector seat' style lever for the height adjust on later seats, on early it's a horizontal lever.
Early Seats (GTI)
Late Seats (GTI)
Frames The frame bases are considerable different between early and late. This time Late on the left, early on the right.
For GTI frames on early cars the bolster bars are welded to the frame. Meaning the foam is just shaped foam. For non-GTI early cars the bolster bars are missing and the foam is lower. Meaning you cannot use non-GTI seat bases with GTI parts or vice versa unless you cut off the bars.
On later seats all seat bases are the same, the bolster bars for GTI seats are within the foam. Meaning you can use any seat frame on any model as long as you swap the appropriate foam pad too.
EARLY the seat bases are the same whether 3dr or 5 dr, the backs are the same all models (GIT non-GTI) just 3dr have the addition of a lever mech for the flipper. The frame for 5 door contains the bracket for the flipper you're just missing the mech. I'm fairly sure (TBC) you can fix 3dr seat frames in place for a 5dr by fitting the correct locking bolts from the 5 door.
LATE the seat bases and seat backs are slightly different between 3 dr and 5 dr and to my knowledge not easily interchangeable.
Misc.
pre 85 the drivers seat was not height adjustable. 86 onwards this was standard on GTI, not sure for base models, may have been an option.
