First off I wasn't too sure if this thread was welcome, or where abouts was best to post it, so its in wrong place I apologise Hi, im Matt, and im 17. I bought a mk1 caddy when I was 16, but made the mistake of buying one that had already been seriously modded Things went bad quickly and having learnt my lesson I was on the hunt for another mk1, this time standard, to learn to drive in. Having played around with insurance quotes it turns out that commercial insurance prices meant I could get insured on a 1.8 gti caddy sport for less than your bog standard hatchback, so that was my goal. So when I bought the caddy it was running ok, but had a lot of surface rust. The paint was awful as well, proven when my stick on L plates left a square of bare metal behind I started on the bed first, removing all the sealant, and filling dents and what seemed like a million screw holes (bang) It had already had a rough coat of primer so I sanded down the worst bits and just gave it a load of cats of smooth white hammerite. In know a lot of people will hate on me for that but considering the condition of the rest of the paint, and the fact I use the bed often, combined with my staff discount at the hardware shop meant hammerite just made sense. I can touch up any bits that get damaged without fear of ruining it, and it seems to be holding the rust back pretty well :I Still not finished on that bit yet but there is enough paint down for it to be used daily so Ive moved on to other parts of the truck I have a foam bed liner to go in, its cut to size but I wont stick it down until the paint is finished... My exhaust was blowing in several places so as soon as i passed my test in February i headed up to London to have a custom stainless exhaust fitted. Sounds so much nicer now, and it pops a fair bit too! As i started driving it more and more, and doing the 40 minute journey to college and back every day i started noticing problems. I got a coolant leak, and replaced the radiator before finding a leaky hose. CV boot needed replacing and the clutch began slipping really badly. The MOT wasn't due till about a month ago but i decided to have it done in april as i was curious what would need doing. I expected it to fail and it did, but only on a few things inc fog light and a sport of welding on the sill. This meant i was able to get a fresh MOT later than week, and it alerted me to other potential problems. As a result the caddy went to the garage and had wheel bearing replaced, CV boot steering rack gaitor and numerous other stuff done. The clutch proved to be a right *****, and after having it replaced, as well as the changing the clutch cable and release bearing the mechanic didnt have a f*cking clue. I finally diagnosed it as a leaking gearbox oil and had some seals replaced in the gearbox. Two clutches later and it was all good and for the first time I was able to drive my car properly so I celebrated by fitting a shiny strut brace At one point my thermostat stuck when driving home from a party (wont tell you why I didn't notice ) and the engine got so hot the top rad hose burst and I had to be towed home. That caused the oil cooler to break as well, so a few replacement parts and it turns out I was very lucky and my engine still ran fine despite its traumatic experience! I have now fitted some 15" bbs splits for ma mk3 polo as its all I could afford and they look much better than the tarantulas that were on it. Ive swapped doors with a fellow caddy owner, so mine are now dehandled and open via remote operated solenoids. a mod not many will approve of, but its something Ive always dreamed of having so it had to be done I had to remove some of the bodykit for the welding to be done and this revealed more rust around the arches. I wasn't suprised so i took it all off except the front bumper and have now replaced both front wings with OEM ones i resprayed myself Also replaced the bonnet with a less rusty one and resprayed it satin black but it looked crap so I did it again but lacquered it for a glass finish. My tailgate is slightly bowed but looks straight enough, but the paint was awful, so its currently stripped down waiting to be painted gloss black like the bonnet I have the full original bodykit, but it was damaged and needed a respray, so thats in the garage on my 'to do' list. but for the time being I had to take the cabrio front bumper off because it just looked w*nk, and I got a standard bumper with the chrome trim. It was in an accident so i had to repair both corners and decided to remove and fill the bottom chrome trim/recess. I resprayed it black with mars red trim, as well as the number plate holder, and fitted clear indicators at front and sides i also did some other red detailing theme, following through with the gti theme, with red swage line, and respraying the gti grill badge Before... After... As I fitted original bumper and lost the bodykit etc, i also fitted the rear arch splats to complete the look Ive kept the rear sport bumper on, and it will be resprayed black in the near future. the decals have been removed by previous owner but I wanted some original features so i ordered just the 'sport' bonnet decal but stuck it on my new tinted sliding rear window To be continued...
Continued... Inside I have fitted chrome interior door handles from an old bug and ICE consists of a Kenwood head unit, and a boxed Kenwood 6x9 speaker behind each seat, as well as a mini alpine 6.5" sub in front of the gear stick. managed to hold it in places with brackets under the carpet, and hid all the wires for a cleaner install. Nothing special I know but I was pleased how it turned out Few pics of my bed after I sprayed it, and the new lockbox I fitted... I decided to take the rear bumper off so I could finally respray the rear panel and get rid of all that rust! It only took me the entire afternoon to get 8 bolts out and snap off my fog light (L) (bang) Just as im starting to make good progress my wheel bearing collapsed, and scored my hub so that was more money I replaced the front brake pads and disks with GTI replacements, and bled the front brakes A week after this my head gasket blew, meaning once again I would be getting the train to college! I managed to get the head gasket done and the engine was up and running the night before VW Action :music: Whilst it was in bits I took the liberty of bolting on a Kent GS2 fast road camshaft and cleaning it all up Whilst It was off the road I did a few other things... I fitted some Recaros from a Sierra Cosworth Had to butcher my speaker boxes as they wouldnt fit behind the new seats :bh They will get carpeted in the near future. I also fitted some GTI wind deflectors Had fun driving round for a week or so but it was short lived as my windscreen broke coming back from college! It was the loudest bang and my entire windscreen is white, cant see sh$t! RAC didnt want to know because I hadnt called Autoglass So I gave up, punched a hole in it, proceeded to cover my entire car with glass, then got a police escort home with plenty of wind and glass in my face 2 minutes form my house my caddy REFUSED to select a gear. 5 minutes later I just about forced it into 1st, by which time the police had given up and left [:^(] That problem with my gears got worse, and its now been down the garage for several weeks. All comments welcome, good and bad, thought bear in mind im a novice, its my first car AND I am now in huge debt! So worth it though :thumbs_up
Top Gear Whilst uploading caddy photos I found some I took when I went to top gear the other week (ep with cameron diaz on ) It started with a light snack... Whilst admiring the new Bugatti... [/IMG] Then i got moved right to the front by the director just in time for Cameron, because there were "too many old people at the front" 8D... My sister sent me this... (Im in purple polo...) ...At least now whenever I find another patch of rust or a dent on the caddy, im just grateful its not because it was driven into the sea, or blown off a building :thumbs_up
nice one, the Caddy looks great, cant believe the state of the front wings though haha. I always appreciate seeing threads with the younger generatio getting a Dub, its a massive learning curve and a fun one at that. Had my 1st mk1 GL at 17 and now on a 16v mk2 at 21, its a big difference Hope you get the gear problem sorted soon
Thanks for the comments guys I couldn't believe the state of the rust when I got the bodykit off either! And then I was even more shocked to see my rear arches were virtually free of rust Despite all the problems I have been experiencing I still love having an old VW! Not to mention its pretty damn quick for a first car But maybe relying ion it as my daily wasnt the best idea I knew nothing about cars when i started, but ive learnt so much; things I would never have learnt if i got a 'normal' car
Like the seats mate I've got an 83 gti tintop with the same seats in the look great!!!! Caddy looks top by the way.
Back in the game! That problem with my gears got worse and as a result the caddys been off the road for over a month, and ive had to ride shotgun in a F**d GayA to college everyday Turns out the impossible to select gears were down to my 3rd clutch of the year, which was smaller than the oem one, and so had single springs instead of double and gave up after a few weeks. A brand new sachs clutch of the correct dimensions solved the problem, but not before mistaking the problem for the gear linkage, so changing gear is no longer a struggle! ...So thats 4 clutch's since April and a pile of garage invoices higher than caddy with standard ride height The caddy wasnt able to celebrate my 18th with me, so i was forced to have a bit of fun with a newer model ...A 63 AMG with over 500bhp round the tracks at mercedes world Once it was finally back on my drive i fitted some of the stuff i was hoarding since my birthday My parents got me a Momo team steering wheel I didnt have the caddy when I asked for it so just guessed which size i wanted, turns out 280mm is damn small!! Took a bit of getting used to and now i try to just stop where i am rather than park, but it makes the drive to college more fun! I also finally got round to cleaning up all the paintwork inside the cab with a good t-cut session! Made a huge difference! I also got hold of a new grill with the red gti trim Today I introduced some new members to the caddy pit crew, my mum was on grill cleaning duty and my neighbour sorted me out a working lunch consisting of some freshly baked brownies and my dog helped me whilst I prepped the metal trim ready for a fresh coat of mars red
Hey Matty, Love the caddy, Reminds me how much i want mine back on the road (after 7 years sitting in my yard!). When you gonna flip the axle and give it a bit of stance!?!? Youve done a great job on it by the way (looks far better without the sport bodykit anyway!). Keep up the good work (and keep on inspiring the old gits)
Thanks for the positive comments Because sports are lower anyway and i do over 250 miles a week im not going to flip the axle, but fit lowering plates instead, and coilovers up front. Hopefully before Christmas there are other plans being executed this month as well What are the plans for your caddy?
Sh*t just got real Got hold of a GTI grill with the illusive red trim, so straightened, cleaned and resprayed it I know its too much red trim at the front, but the bumper is only temporary, as the bodykit will go back on at some point As mentioned before I took the rear bumper off and resprayed it, as well as the rear panel. Also fitted a Pro-net (which has been tightened up properly now) Been looking at getting twin carbs for a while but wanted an engine with lower mileage before investing too much money into it. A 1.9 Donnington TSR 8v became available and I decided to go for it. It came with twin webber carbs on it as well which meant two birds with one stone The old engine And out it came Ready to fill with the new TSR block Unfortunately our plan to get it fitted and running in one day didnt work out as the carbs were overfueling because of the wrong fuel pump, and we were struggling to get the dizzy/timing set up right. Next day we whipped the carbs off and bolted on and plugged in the old kjet. After a lot of fiddling turns out the dizzy was advanced. So once we retarded the dizzy () it fired up and ran nicely The current spec is 1.8 8v boared out to 1.9 Reconditioned and gas flowed cylinder head Re-profiled valves and valve seats Kent 272 high lift cam Heat wrapped 4 branch manifold Full stainless exhaust Original gti fuel injection with K&N panel filter, drilled airbox and aftermarket intake pipe Ill get some pictures of the new engine in the caddy when I fit the carbs and get it set up on a rolling road, but this wont happen until the weather warms up a bit next year as I use it as a daily and its running well as it is
Bit of an update Fuel pump went on the caddy, and at a similar time I came across another Sport for sale cheap on the bay and I couldnt help myself It had been sat since 2007, but I got an MOT on it 2nd attempt with no advisorys, so been using that as my daily for the last 6 weeks or so. Came with a sh*t tonne of spare panels, 3 sets of wheels, 2 interiors etc & it had some of the goodies off my first caddy at some points but is back to standard now as I plan to sell it in the next few weeks. Love how low it looked on coilovers behind a standard sport I did have those red BBS RZ's for a while but I sold them to my mate with a red polo genesis so I could afford a set of ally cats. As for caddy no.1 I decided since I had another daily, and fuel pumps are expensive it was the perfect excuse to pull the TSR engine back out and fit the twin weber carbs, lightened flywheel and diesel gearbox. The engine is all built up, but the caddy is booked in for a new front panel and jacking point to be welded on end of the month, and then I will paint the engine bay before putting it all back in Ive also collected more goodies, including black gti speedo, centre console with brand new gauges, white samco hoses, vw motorsport style front engine mount, front Vmaxx coilovers and a set of 13" ally cats, 7" at the front and 8" at the back, which are getting refurbed in white before the caddy goes back on the road
