Golf mk2 GTI 8v to 1.8t AGU, mk4 dash and wiring Updated 13/02/11

Thanks guys...I've been on holiday and busy with work etc so not had much time to work on it lately. I connected up all the headlight wires the other day using my little diagram above...

 

Hi guys...

Well...I've been busy over the last few weeks. I finally forked out for a welder and now I wish I'd bought it on day 1. It's one of the most useful tools I've bought in a long time!

Anyhoo...here's the updates:

I thought it was about time I conquered the dash so after a bit of advice from GolfIIVR6, I got on with it...

It's getting there, but it's still sitting a bit too far forward. Look at where the gear stick is in relation to the centre console. The top corners aren't reaching the A pillars either...





One of the bolts that will hold the brackets for the bar gets in the way of the vent plastics which distorts the shape of the dash.



With good advice from GolfIIVR6, I bought mysef a heat gun and got busy with the underside air vent plastics

Before



During




Finished





As for the bar itself (before further trimming) it looked like this:






A lot more trimming is required (I'll add pics next time I remove the dash to show you how my bar looks when it sits as it should)

I had to trim out a V section as shown in the pic below. Once the V section is removed, the round part of the dash has to be flattened and welded back to the side bracket. This lets it sit that much further back against the bulkhead.


Anyhoo, here's how the dash sits now after all the trimming...








It could still do with a bit more adjustment, but the worst is now over

I then saw some Mk4 GT TDI seats that I wanted because they were a bit firmer and were the right colour scheme for the car:



The original mk2 seat rollers are 480mm apart



The mk4 seat guides are 540mm apart



Some trimming is required, but first of all, we need to make a couple of observations...

Notice how in the pic below, the roller arms are pointing at different angles. I assume that the guides in the mk4 are at different heights. They are both the same height in the mk2, so the roller arm nearest the outside of the car (the one with the sliding roller wheel) needs to be chopped and adjusted.



Chop as close to the bottom of the weld as possible and try to keep it straight.



Move the roller arm in until the outer edges of the big roller wheels are 485mm apart. (I know the mk2 rollers are only 480mm apart, but trust me on this )
Make sure that the roller arm's angle is adjusted so that both the wheels are at exactly the same level so that the seat will sit straight in the car. (Don't worry, I welded it all up properly once I was happy with the angles)



Before you try fitting it into the car, you will need to trim the wheel a bit (the one that slides about)

before


bits that need to be trimmed...use the lines on the wheel as a guide


The wheel should be 6mm wide


Now you'll need to trim the middle slider part inside the car.


Once cut, measure out the holes for the slider mechanism on the mk4 seat and drill. Make sure that there is enough space to fit a nut onto the thread when you drill these holes...if you drill them too low you won't be able to get a nut on there.


Then push it through and tighten the nuts.

 

Job jobbed

 

Damn double post!

 

Looking awesome mate fair play, just read the whole threat start to finish! Very impressive indeed!

Keep those updates coming!!

 

Greetings from USA,

this, sir is the most easy to follow, most detailed build thread that i have seen. and i will be using it for my build in the summer. i like how you swapped out everything from the mk4 including the dash, must have made life a whole lot easier. all you needed to splice from the mk2 to the mk4 harness was the back lights, rear window defrost and wiper, and headlights right? the metal that you used for the dash bracket, is it straight from a mk4, and you cut that to fit them mk2? or is it a custom bracket? with your engine i assume its pre 2000 because its drive by wire and you didnt speak of an immobilizer? also did you use the whole steering column from the mk4 and married it up the the original mk2 pedal cluster? What car was the pedal cluster from? also with your hydraulic clutch servo that you made a hole for, i know that there are problems with it busting through the firewall (bulkhead as you call it) so people reinforce it by fabricating a metal bracket that goes in between the bolts and the servo. Also if you want more power i recommend getting a KO3s turbo which can be found in any one of these cars http://www.qpeng.com/faqs/engine_faqs/all_these_engine_codes_can_you_explain_what_they_mean.html, its roughly the same size but the fan is bigger. thanks for writing up such a detailed swap thread

 

Hi Hax,

Welcome to the Forum

Sorry for the very late reply...I didn't get an auto email

Thanks for the post...I hope this thread is useful to others. Make sure you see it to the end before you start chopping your car though because I've redone some bits I wasn't happy with.

To answer your questions:

On the contrary...it made my life a misery! It is a very fiddly and frustrating job. If I was to do an engine conversion again, I'd leave the wiring loom and interior and just swap the engine over and buy the converted QPeng engine loom. However, as my latest post shows...I have found a much quicker and less frustrating way of fitting the dash bar

That's right...also the reverse switch on the mk3 gearbox and the handbrake.

The metal bar is straight out of a mk4 or bora and has to be trimmed to fit to the mk2...look at my post below for an update on how I made it fit.

The engine is a 2000 model and has a cable operated throttle. It does have an immobiliser (I found out the hard way when I broke the chip in the key). The steering rack is from a late mk3 golf (VR6 in my case) and the steering column itself is out of a mk4. The pedal box is out of an early passat, but can be removed from the mk3 or corrado. I did need to drill new holes on the pedal box to fit the column higher up.

Thanks for the heads up. Someone mentioned this to me recently. I don't understand where the bracket needs to go? The pedal box itself acts as a bracket from the inside of the car. I assume one might be necessary on the outside? As far as I know the corrado I took it off of didn't have any bracket on the outside. I was told that some early VWs had this bracket, but haven't been able to find it on the catalogue...if anyone has the part number I'd really appreciate it.

Thank you for the info on the turbo. I'll probably do some power upgrades in the future, but just want to get it on the road for now

Anyway, here's the latest on the dash situation...


I had some issues with the way the dash was mounted. I didn't like the way I'd mullered the dash bar and it still wasn't giving me enough clearance from the gear shifter....Sooo...I decided to get a new one and start from scratch. Here goes...





With the front wall removed, the brackets that support the captive nuts (top and bottom) had to be chopped


While everything was out of the car, I took some time to weld in some holes and fix the massive hole I cut out for the air con pipes.
Got my mate to do the welding for this...




The old dash fixing points...


Hole for cable clutch filled in


Removed the paint from the edge of the top and bottom lips ready to weld the bar to


Three bolts to mount the airbag module



Also did some soundproofing on the bulkhead. Hoping this will make a difference.


I applied it to every surface in the front section, just didn't take a pic once finished.

The bar trial fitted:



I'm pleased to say that this will be a much better fit and once welded in, should be just as strong as it was before. More updates soon...

 

Looking good mate - this thread has just made a very long night shift go very slightly quicker. For 45 mins or so anyway.

On another note - I recognise that magic roundabout jumper you've got on in the photos of you making a hash of taking your old front screen out.

I was at 2F from 92 -

 

Hello mate...I'm glad it kept you entertained

Good stuff...yeah I'm ex 1187...helping out at Harpenden every now and then. Are you still at 2F?

 

No mate - I moved to Kent about 5.5 years ago. I occasionally pop in if I'm back during the week. Still know a lot of the staff down there though. Used to be good mates with a few of the lot from over your way as well.

 

Hi guys...more updates as promised:

The windscreen vent was a bit wide and was pushing the bar out. I got a heat gun onto it and quickly pushed the dash bar back for it to take shape.




A few spot welds to hold it in position. The bits where the bulkhead didn't quite touch the bar were hammered down and welded in.





Primed up...a few close ups to show how it fits.







Now that the dash fits nicely, I had to get the brackets for the centre console sorted...



(this one was welded in after i took the pic)


While I was working around the centre console, I thought I'd try fitting the air ducts for the rear passenger footwell...



The carpet had to be trimmed in the middle for it to fit over the ducts. With the centre console and the seat in, you can hardly tell it's there



The mk4 centre console (around the handbrake) sits slightly to the left, so I had to extend the handbrake handle to make it work.



This moved the puller mechanism to the left..


A temporary solution until I think of something better...pulls it to the left when the handbrake is tightened



It was time to get started on the rear seats. I decided it was best to get the necessary brackets out of a mk4 golf/bora rather than making my own. It made life a lot easier

Brackets for the bottom seats that fold forward.





Side brackets...Carefully removed from a bora.

I had to cut off one of the fixing points for the plastic trim that sits over the rear arch. Typically, the part of the arch where there is a dip is the part where the bracket needs to go.

I extended the bracket and cut it to the right shape so it would fit in the dip.




The middle bracket (took this one on phone, will take better ones next time)

 

Nice, defiantely a proper job your doing. I'm just putting some mk4 seats into mine. I'm looking forward to your next pic for the top mounting point for the back seat.

 

wow what a project that is brilliant you have obviously put alot of blood sweat and tears into this well done i wish i had that amount of patience .

 

Thanks guys....my camera is broken at the moment Gonna try and get it repaired/replaced so will give more updates soon

 

Christ mate you dont do things by half!
Looks like you have put a lot of thought and hard work into that, well done mate looks really good.

 

hey sorry i havent gotten back to you on the bracket. here is an idea of what youre looking for but since you have ABS you will want the ABS bracket of course. http://www.futrellautowerks.com/Non-ABS-Brake-Booster-Bracket-P76.aspx

they can be found on mk3's, and they go in between the brake servo and firewall and bolt onto the firewall.

 

Hi Folks,

Ok...here's the latest....

I had to get a new dash and get it to the right shape again, but this time leaving the air ducts for the windscreen intact.

I also used a better technique for trimming the plastic. Instead of intoxicating myself with the angle grinder, I used a heat gun to melt the plastic and cut it with a stanley knife.



















I then sealed the back of the windscreen duct by melting the top and bottom plastic together...be careful not to melt the vinyl on the other side!



I had to trim a bit of the glove box (by heating it then cutting) so that it would fit







The side cover is a bit big for the new fitment of the dash, so i measured up the difference and trimmed back







Here's the dash in a (reasonably) finished state lol. PS notice the heated windscreen has also been fitted in these pics...can see the wires coming out of the seal in the corners











Next came a little job that took a bit of improvising...

I fed the mk4 internal wiring up to the ceiling and thought I may as well install the extra reading lights. Only problem was that they are activated by opening the mk4's sun shade...so I made a little switch for it instead:









I also wired up the connection for the heated windscreen...the main power is taken straight from the battery and the relays are activated through another 'rear heated window' switch which i powered from the radio loom. They glow different colours so i can differentiate which is which







Lastly...I've decided that it's going to be near impossible to use the mk4 door wiring (can't get anything to work for some reason) so for that I'm going to stick with the mk2 wiring that came with the electric windows and mirrors. Unfortunately this means I'll lose the tray in the dash until I can think of a better solution.



I heated/cut out holes at the back for the wiring







This is only a temporary solution just to get the car on the road...but if it stays I'll have to make a more presentable back-plate for the switches.

 

Fantastic thread. I had missed this completely before.

 

woow! top work!

 

Thanks guys

I'll try to keep the updates coming...