Sun Oct 02, 2016 4:40 pm
I bought my GTI in 2013 from a work colleague who had bought it 10 years earlier with the intention of turning it into a track day car. He sent me a few pictures and said "I only want £300 for it" so I agreed to buy it.
He had used it for a couple of months before putting it in his garage and that is where it stayed for 10 long years!!!
The Rescue
This is the sight that greeted me the day I went to pick it up:
(https://i.ibb.co/ZNCnbxJ/20131110-134348.jpg)
As you can see, it had not been stored very well so was pretty filthy!
(https://i.ibb.co/fvkb3Hq/20131110-134453.jpg)
The interior was partially stripped and filthy as well as having Mk3 front seats
(https://i.ibb.co/wM0mz89/IMG-0528.jpg)
All ready for the journey to a new home
Despite the general filth, the car is absolutely solid and once the MAF sensor was lubricated and a new battery fitted it burst into life and drove & stopped like it had never been off the road.
The Fixup - Part 1
First job was to get rid of the Mk3 front seats so I sourced a complete interior from a 1990 GTI and fitted it
(https://i.ibb.co/fkp92kn/V-4E75.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/kHmtNWX/V-9A56.jpg)
Much better!!
After this brief flurry of activity and a partial service plus new grill and indicators, the Golf went into my garage where it sat for 2 years so I vowed to finally put the effort in to get it on the road again.
It is now booked in with a local mechanic (my brother-in-law :cool (y): ) to do whatever is needed to get it through it's MOT plus change the cambelt, waterpump and all the hoses so it will be mechanically sound.
The Fixup - Part 2
Below are a few pictures I took today:
(https://i.ibb.co/vwK7ShB/IMG-0172.jpg{/img]
Looks quite presentable but the poor storage means the paint is awful and it will need a re-paint at some point
[img]https://i.ibb.co/HHBHFgH/IMG-0164.jpg)
No rust here!
(https://i.ibb.co/qrH3LB9/IMG-0162.jpg)
This is the only "significant" spot on the car so I got rid of the rust and put rust killer on it. Just needs finishing off properly.
(https://i.ibb.co/x2kdcHJ/IMG-0169.jpg)
No sagging........
(https://i.ibb.co/vDdFJyP/IMG-0170.jpg)
Even the light in the heater controls works and who needs a radio when you have a GTI soundtrack??
(https://i.ibb.co/4WJFZdq/IMG-0163.jpg)
Think the tax may have expired.............
(https://i.ibb.co/R0hBfYk/IMG-0161.jpg)
Not pretty but it all works and once again, there is no rust in here!!
(https://i.ibb.co/tCDCvTF/20131110-134528.jpg)
The general condition of the car makes me believe that this is genuine
Work on the car will start tomorrow and we have provisionally booked an MoT for Friday so I will update on progress and I hope that I get to drive it for a while before winter sets in properly.
I would dearly love to do the mechanical work myself but I am undergoing some pretty intensive treatment for cancer which makes even the simplest tasks pretty challenging and it will be like this for the next couple of months. The car is one of the things that will get me through all this treatment and make a full recovery :D :D :D
The car was registered new in Brighton and I am led to believe that it spent all of it's life in that general area latterly being used as a trade vehicle between various VW enthusiasts so if anyone has any information on it's past, I would love to know.
Fri Oct 07, 2016 4:50 pm
The car is nearly MoT ready. Jobs so far have been:
Changed wheels & tyres for good set (£40 eBay bargain including 4 nearly new centre caps!!)
New cambelt & tensioner
New waterpump
Replaced both rear calipers
Replaced nearside front bottom balljoint
Replaced airbox & MAF sensor (the original airbox had a mouse living it when I got the car so had been well chewed. Replacement airbox, MAF sensor & brand new air filter was a £9 eBay bargain!!!)
New air filter
New plugs
New HT leads
New distributor cap
New rotor arm
Today it will have an oil/filter change and all the lights, wipers etc will be checked and bulbs replaced as necessary and I have a full set of coolant hoses arriving tomorrow which should be the last bit before it is finger biting time at the MoT test station on Thursday!!!
So far, including the cost of the car (minus what I have got for some surplus GTI bits I have sold) I have about £800 in the car so I will be pretty happy if I do not need to spend much more.
Once I have the hallowed piece of paper showing a valid MoT, I will borrow my brothers mop & some compound and go over the whole car to try and make it look more presentable as I am sure my bank manager would have a coronary if I tried to fund the respray right now!
Was given this piece of paper today by a nice man in overalls......
(https://i.ibb.co/DffwrLH/IMG-0176.jpg)
All it needs now is tax & insurance!!
Sat Oct 08, 2016 2:32 pm
Took it out for a run last night seeing as I had just taxed and insured it and it would have been rude not to!!!
I must be getting old as I had forgotten what it was like to drive a car with no power steering but boy what it a great feeling and I promise that I drove it sensibly and did not give it the full beans at any point....... :angel:
Tue Mar 28, 2017 8:41 pm
Took the cover off on the Saturday, took it out of the garage and left it in the sun for a few hours whilst I requisitioned the garage to put a GTI interior into the wife's Mk5 GT TDI (yes I know it's her car but the drab grey seats, even though nice & comfy, were really depressing and a bit of tartan was needed :D :D ). It's now back in the garage, under cover and waiting for me to get my backside in gear and drive it as I have taxed it for another 6 months so there is no excuse.
Apart from de-scening the lay-flat rear wiper to appease the OCD of Eddypeck ;) and getting new pre-2001 spec number plates made up for it, I've not touched it and am even getting to quite like the crappy paint finish.
Wed Sep 27, 2017 1:27 pm
Well today was the day normally filled with dread for any owner of an older car......yes it was time to see the man from the Ministry!!!
It managed a pass again with no advisories!!!! :party!:
Mon Oct 08, 2018 7:09 pm
Another MoT pass with no advisories to report so all good for another year. Only downer is that the headliner has decided that after 30 years it doesn't want to be attached to the roof anymore :sad: :sad:
On a positive note, my cousin has just purchased himself a Mk2 with an ABF conversion. He's very much a yoof so I will have first dibs on the original parts he will be taking off to replace for modified bits. 2 things he has done right so far are to sign up to the FB pages (he is a yoof after all) and swap the Jetta front end for a proper quad lamp setup........................he did, however, purchase some cross-hairs as he thinks they look proper sick!
Mon Oct 15, 2018 9:40 pm
Treated it to a bit of love on the weekend by fitting a nice new blue expansion tank cap (still had black one on there) and decided that the cork gasket on the rocker cover was doing a really poop job of keeping the engine oil in so changed it for a new & improved rubber version. Managed to pick up a weighted shift rod for the princely sum of £9.50 from eBay so got that fitted as well.
I have a splitter turning up at some point so car is almost back to being a full GTI. I might even get around to fitting the refurbished heater box I managed to pick up from a top bloke called eddypeck so there is less chance of what I suspect is the original matrix (no bypass valve either!!) won't explode unexpectedly.
Sat Oct 12, 2019 10:09 pm
So, another year has passed and the man from the ministry has deemed the car roadworthy for another 12 months and the fact it is only £89 for a years fully comprehensive insurance makes this the cheapest car I currently own :D
To celebrate, I raided my comprehensive spares stash and dug out a boot light & switch because that's an absolute must in any car and then tidied the dash wiring so that I can finally install a stereo (it's never bothered me before but I've got a few stereo's kicking about so thought sod it!!).
Next on the list is to actually fit a stereo and wire in the door speakers then get some tyres on the set of BBS reps I have in the garage then fit the red stripes above the door rub strips that I have finally sourced which means it's slowly getting back to how it looked when new.
I still have a heater box purchased from Eddypeck a couple of years ago that I have refurbished but it's sitting in my shed so I might as well chuck that in for good measure along with a new heater matrix.
I'm going to do my best to get to the next South East meet at the beginning of November as I really need to stop being such a lazy bum...
Miss my old 8v! Most reliable VW I've ever had! Nice to see another one being saved.
Nice... glad you made it across
Some progress has been made during lockdown.
First on the list was to replace the red side stripes removed by a previous owner.
(https://i.ibb.co/VtC68vF/stripes.jpg)
Who knew that something so simple would make such a difference to how the car looks.
Next was something that caused a fair bit of "discussion" on the FB group page......................
I wanted to replace the heater matrix and at the time fit the refurbished heater box that I had bought about a bazillion years ago from
@Eddypeck . I decided to remove the dash at the same time and this started a "discussion" that followed a similar theme to the following:
- 8v or 16v - which is the best?
- big bumper or small bumper - which would look best on my car?
- I have a Type 19 - does this mean my car is r a r e?
(https://i.ibb.co/cYKSRrd/wiring-mess.jpg)
Anyway, it was my decision to remove the dash and I am glad that I did because it uncovered the following:
- A pile of acorns left by a previous inhabitant from when the previous owner laid the car up
- Chewed wiring to the clocks courtesy of the previous inhabitant
- The ducting from the blower motor to the heater box was butchered beyond belief by a previous owner so was held together with fresh air and hope
- An unused johnny from the 90's behind the dash
I was fortunate that I had a spare duct (another of the items purchased from
@Eddypeck so that was a straightforward replacement and I had to splice in 5 new cables to the clocks.
I also replaced the butchered panel that the switches are attached to and finally fitted the radio!
(https://i.ibb.co/xm398S4/on-my-radio.jpg)
Last on the list of jobs was to replace the 2 temp sensors with new plus associated crispy wiring and non-connecting spade terminals. Luckily,
@Eddypeck to the rescue again with the loom I got from him as it yielded everything I needed to make this look good.
(https://i.ibb.co/5kH0WX7/sensory.jpg)
As a final note, I managed to scare myself silly. I took the car out for a blast after fitting the heater matrix and it ran very well. When I got back though, there was an ominous knocking from the bottom end..........................feeling despondent, I put the car away.
Fast forward a couple of days to ponder and price up a replacement engine I decided to have a look at the car to see if it was miraculously fixed!! Started it to hear the knocking and my heart sank even further so thought I would have a quick look to see if there was anything obvious amiss. Water pump pulley was wobbling quite badly which is where I noticed that the bolts securing the pulley to the water pump had worked themselves loose!! 1 quick removal, clean of the mating surfaces and plenty of threadlock on the bolts and no more knocking....PHEW
Don't you just love quick easy fixes
Best addition to the car is this badge.................................................
(https://i.ibb.co/bXfzBYG/golfy2-2.jpg)
The time has finally come to sort out the crunching gearbox............................new clutch & release bearing on order and will be delivered this week so will be fitted along with the replacement non-crunchy gearbox I have sitting in my garage. I will also change the cambelt tensioner as the one I had fitted when the cambelt was done in 2016 is a bit squeaky!
Where did you get the red side stripes from they are mega hens teeth
Where did you get the red side stripes from they are mega hens teeth
I found someone local to me that was breaking a stolen recovered 88 3 door Golf that had been in a police impound yard for at least 10 years and these were still intact!! I basically stripped the stripes, ISV, alternator, rear turret carpets, sun visor clips, wiper motor plus linkages & arms as well as loads of other little bits for £30. I went back a couple of weeks later to grab an unmolested CE1 loom, uncracked dash with every switch, full set of P-slots (not my thing but got them anyway) and anything else I could strip as my cousin was after some bits too :D
Another year goes by and the man from the ministry deems it worthy of another 12 months on the road with no advisories!!
Always a good feeling
Just realised that it is nearly 7 years since I rescued her from a 10 year sleep in a garage and just over 4 years since she was put back on the road so thought I would do a then and now shot.................
(https://i.ibb.co/KrNf1zJ/RTIC5061-1.jpg)
She's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but I was never out for perfection as I wanted something I could really enjoy without being unduly worried about the odd mark here and there!
Now here's my dilemma. This is a car that I will never get rid of so she should really have a name and I am kind of stuck on one that would be suitable.
It is kind of strange as I never intended to buy her and it was just luck that a random conversation with a work colleague made me finally sell the Mk3 Triumph Spitfire that was slowly disintegrating in my garage (still got nearly a grand for it) and replace it with the Golf.
There she sat for 3 long years while I kind of faffed about adding some of the nice stuff like a new interior without thinking about whether she would actually ever be roadworthy. All of a sudden, life went on hold when I got diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and the car was the furthest thing from my mind but it came back into sharp focus in a really strange way. I was in the 4th week of radiotherapy and was feeling pretty rubbish so went down to the garage just to try and take my mind off things and for some reason decided then that I would ask my mechanic brother-in-law if he would give the car a once over and let me know what it would cost to make road legal. He agreed so I gave him the garage keys and some cash and then left him to it with the expectation that he would tell me that I needed a second mortgage to even get close to an MoT but a week later I got a call and was told "you have change and the MoT is done".
I was so surprised that I put the car back in the garage but was immediately collared by the wife who said "what's the point of getting the MoT done if you aren't going to use it? Get the bloody thing taxed and insured". That is exactly what I did and within 2 hours I had a car that was 100% road legal so I took it for a quick spin as it seemed rude not to do so and I can honestly say that despite how physically and mentally drained I was feeling, it put the the biggest smile on my face that I had had in a long time 8) .
So, back to the dilemma of what I could call her so I will take "advice" from the wife and kids and then update my thread with whatever we agree.
Was looking at your tax disc for inspiration (dealer name etc.) and noticed the way F422 has been hand written makes it look like 'FUZZ' at first glance?
(https://i.ibb.co/4WJFZdq/IMG-0163.jpg)
I usually name a car after it’s type, “Adolph” Audi, Patrick Porcshe , Vincent Van Golf.. from your number plate I can see Fazz and (c) Kojak ... having watched an episode of “allo allo” the other day you could consider some of those names? ie General Von Klinkerhoffen , Herr Flick or Grueber?
I usually name a car after it’s type, “Adolph” Audi, Patrick Porcshe , Vincent Van Golf.. from your number plate I can see Fazz and (c) Kojak ... having watched an episode of “allo allo” the other day you could consider some of those names? ie General Von Klinkerhoffen , Herr Flick or Grueber?
That's a good shout. Car is definitely a she so it would probably be Helga as it has a very naughty side :))
On a side note and showing my age, I went to see the Allo Allo stage show in 1987.....................
Was looking at your tax disc for inspiration (dealer name etc.) and noticed the way F422 has been hand written makes it look like 'FUZZ' at first glance?
That's a really good spot and I hadn't even noticed that!! If my wife gets her way it will be called "what have you bought for it now???"
She now sports a rather splendid Alpine cassette player with a CD multi changer courtesy of
@Eddypeck and it suits the car a million times better than the modern Sony X-Plod that I put in there originally.
Sometimes the simple things make a massive difference ;D ;D
Biggest decision is green or orange as I have front panels for both colour?
(https://i.ibb.co/8gjx8HY/IMG-3800.jpg)(https://i.ibb.co/G08JvVf/IMG-3801.jpg)
Nice...I've got one of those too.
Bit of a 8u993r that the CD changer I have (which matched an older Alpine) uses a different connector...although I do need to replace it because it was draining my battery.
You just need an Allsop3 to keep the cassette head and rollers clean 😂
Green fo me... the back lights for the heater contols are an identical brightness / shade, have you new bulbs in?
Green fo me... the back lights for the heater contols are an identical brightness / shade, have you new bulbs in?
. The bulb was no good so I put an LED in there. Bit of a faff but looks decent.
Forgot I even had this!!!! Not sure if I have any mini-discs left but hopefully can use that tape adapter......................
(https://i.ibb.co/MswDTsK/IMG-3802.jpg)(https://i.ibb.co/DbSsdxf/IMG-3803.jpg)
Nice...I've got one of those too.
Bit of a 8u993r that the CD changer I have (which matched an older Alpine) uses a different connector...although I do need to replace it because it was draining my battery.
You just need an Allsop3 to keep the cassette head and rollers clean 😂
This uses the older M-bus CD connection that uses an 8 pin din, the later type uses Alpine's own Ai-net connector. The 8 pin din are quite handy as they're just a universal connector so in theory you can find the left and right sound channels and make a aux patch lead. I did consider trying this on a switch so I could still have the changer in the boot but switch between Aux, but 1. it was one project too far, I have so many other ideas in my head and 2. I don't have any music stored on my phone so was kind of pointless.
But you can get M-bus to Ai adapter so if you have an old M-bus headunit and a newer Ai-net changer you can still use them together. https://www.alpine.co.uk/p/Products/SingleView/KCA-130B
I'm fairly certain you can also use the remote control https://www.alpine.co.uk/p/Products/remote-controls59/rue-4360 with these head units, just in case you think the stereo is too far away from you.
I suppose the green looks better but the red seems more of the period but have a load of old blaupunkts and don’t normally drive in the dark so red not an issue , seems normal to me .. cds??? What’s that all about
Some of the Blaupunkts I had in the 80's and 90's had the facility to toggle the display colour between green and orange and I think either a dark screen background with lighter digits or vice versa (in each colour).
She now has a name and that name is Helga.
Hello Helga
(https://i.postimg.cc/xjKxFt5y/95-A341-E5-D28-F-42-B4-9-AC0-9-D3-E6-A8-AF415.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
That was my first thought too!
Hello Helga
(https://i.postimg.cc/xjKxFt5y/95-A341-E5-D28-F-42-B4-9-AC0-9-D3-E6-A8-AF415.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
That was my inspiration :)) :)) :))
I think lockdown has finally got to the car. I decided to change the flourescent lights in the garage for some nice LED battern fittings so needed to move the car. In all the time I have had it, there hasn't been a time when it hasn't started on the first turn of the key so I was shocked when I was greeted with the normal whirring of the starter motor but not the slightest hint that it would start :(
I can hear a pump prime and there is a good spark so I am guessing the in tank pump has decided that it's bored of pumping................hopefully I am not looking at a dead ECU or a dodgy immobiliser!
I did the only thing that I could think of and covered it back up, switched off the garage lights and crossed my fingers in the hope that the magic pixies would come and fix it over night :D