MK3 2.0 16v road rally car build thread

Here goes then, my first build thread (and first VW project) since 1995 !

I'm building a road rally car based on a 3 door black MK3 GTi 16v.

Picked the car up as an MOT failure with rotten front wings and some patches underneath.

Plans are to sort out the transmission, brakes, chassis etc and then work on the engine as and when it needs things in the future.

I've bought a brand new 6 point OMP cage from a guy in London that had abandoned a rallycross MK3 project, and have some 288mm front calipers with EBC yellow stuff pads and grooved discs.

The car was trailered to my friends' bodyshop today for him to sort the wing and sills out, I'm going in Saturday to strip the interior so that the cage can be trial fitted before the baseplates are welded in and the cage powder coated.

Other things on the 'to do' list are:

• Spot lights
• Radiator fan manual override switch inside
• ABS pump disabling switch inside
• Oil pressure and voltage gauges
• 4.25 Final drive from Passat B4 2.0 and LSD (not decided which LSD yet)
• Uprated clutch
• Full engine service including belts / HT leads etc

Will get some pictures up Saturday when I remember to take my camera to the bodyshop.

 

Today we took the car to the local bodyshop (the guy who owns it is currently putting the finishing touches to a ground up rebuils on a UK imported Rallye, separate thread coming up on that one)

So here's some pictures

As it was when it came off the lorry last night




Interior starting to come out,
<p>

This was full of filler until I put my knee through it !




Rest of the floor was ok ish, I think it's had a bump at some point in it's life as quite a few of the fittings in the back were only finger tight although factory data sticker was still intact in the boot


Hmmm, what could I put in here....


This will do (literally put it in the car to save space until we weld in the plates next week.


Front half of cage is on a shelf infront of the car, don't think this is going to be a plug-and-play install....

 

Some more pics, headlining and sunroof mech removed (no room for sunroof).

Cage now goes in almost perfectly and the only bases that I think will need a bit of work are the central legs, but I don't think it will be too hard to adapt the supplied plates to fit round the front of the rear seat lower support.

Rear section almost in place



In place, going to work on the baseplates later this week.



Should be somewhere near installed by next week, the workshop are sorting out the floor, OS wing and chassis leg corrosion and then moving onto the cage. Can't believe how much weight the interior adds up to. It's a shame the the carpets, headlining and rear seats have to go back in for road rallying, but I should still save a lot of weight from all the other junk which is now in the bin.

 

An update at last, I collected the car last night after having this lots done to it:

-OMP 6 point cage installed and painted along with additional cross bracing.
-Rear turrets braced with welded tube
-All floor holes and rear arches repaired and painted
-New front wings
-Corrado sunroof metal panel bonded into place

After being in the bodyshop for four months, we reconnected all the looms and fuel lines, chucked a starter pack on the battery and it fired first time.

List of jobs for the next couple of weeks are:

-VR6 288mm front brakes with EBC grooved and drilled discs + yellowstuff pads
-New rear discs and yellowstuff pads
-Braided hoses all round
-Bilstein gas dampers with standard springs (to retain height for rallying)
-Racing seats with 3 or 4 point harnesses
-PIAA front spot lights
-FIA battery isolator
-Navigators reading light
-Hydraulic handbrake operating from exising lever with removable pin for normal use
-Some tough 15" alloys + tyres (not sure which ones yet)
-Plexi glass front windowns with sliders.

The ABS is being retained for the moment but I'm going to wire the pump so that a switch in the dashboard will allow the unit to be disabled when the handbrake is pulled up. I'm sure I'm being a bit of a wimp leaving it in but it's only until I've got my confidence in the car and then it will be taken out altogether at the same time the brakes lines are routed inside the car.

Will update with some pictures next week.

Longer term I'm looking at a fibreglass bonnet and tailgate and dog gearbox with heavy duty clutch.

 

Pics, yes please squire!

 

Yellow stuff? Forget them. You need something way more aggresive, I would have thought. DS2500?
Dog box? Unnecessary probably.

 

I'd be interested to here why you think that, I asked over on the brakes forum and I don't think anyone had a bad word to say about them.

The yellow stuff ones are race spec pads according to their website.

 

I have used them and compared to a proper pad they just didn't get hot enough. After 200 miles stage rallying on my pulsar they were like new. I eventually fitted 4 pots with a wide choice of pads to try and get some rear braking to balance the AP's on the front.
DS3000 get that hot inside 10 miles it smokes the paint of the pads. Man you can't half stop tho.

Also, years ago they were on my 1st rally mk1 golf on the day I bought it, and after a few roundabout near misses I got out of the car and crawled underneath looking for CV joint grease on the discs, they were that bad.
Maybe the compounds have improved dramatically since those days

 

AT last an updade, this has been on the back burner for a couple of months A-because we've been busy at work and B-because I broke the front wishbone bolts off in the subframe and lost interest for a short while.

Anytway, today was the day when me and my mate Chris decided to wheel the toolbox out and sort it out.

So today, we have done the following:
- Removed the subframe complete
-Built up a new (secondhand) subframe with front lower strutbrace and new wishbones / balljoints.

The bolts that hold the front of the subframe to the chassis legs were the most stubbourn I've EVER had to undo on any car. I spent about two hours WD40ing it, tightening it slightly, loosening etc. It still wouldn't go and started to feel like it was going to shear off.

In walks my commercial landlord (one of the experts from the scrapyard challenge TV programme FYI). He suggested drilling a small hole intto the chassis leg to squirt some penetrating oil in there, which we did. We left that to soak and kept repeating but it was still tight. So, he wandered off and got his 1/2" SnapOn cordless impact gun. Even that wouldn't move it for at least 5 or 6 attempts and then it went and it unwound so fast the engine nearly fell out.....

We got the otherside out and noticed that bolt the long bolts looked like they had had battery acid dripping down them (which I don't think is possible with their location). They weren't rusted but furred up with white powdery stuff.

Just ordered some anti roll bar bushes as the brackets were broken and then next week we can put it all back together.

When that's back in, got Passat VR6 front brake calipers with EBC discs and yellow stuff pads to go on.

The same landlord bloke is also making me up a sump guard over the weekend after having a ten second measure up, look forward to getting that on as we've been doing some entry level navigation scatters in my MK4 and we're losing a lot of time of the single track lanes with the grass growing down the middle.

 

A few photos

Old subframe with front wishbone bushes snapped off in subframe. When we looked at the bits of bolts that had come out, they had clearly started to shear when the previous owner attempted to remove them as they were corroded through to about 1/3 of the diameter of the bolt.


Engine support in holding it all up (with a few blocks of wood underneath just incase)


New (secondhand) subframe on the floor with new wishbones and balljoints attached. Waiting for antiroll bar bushes and brackets to come on Monday and then it can go back in.


Lower brace


Plexiglass side windows (a lot of weight saved on a MK3 when electrics and glass are removed)

 

This is taking a bit longer than I thought it would due to being busy with other things but I've got a small technical question regarding harnesses.

I'm going to put an eye bolt in the tunnel for the inner belt mounting eyes, this will have a reinforced plate around it.

I was looking for somewhere to mount the outer belt eyes and in the sill box section there's a thread in the sill that's the same thread as the seat belt bolts / harness eyes. It's about 60mm forward from the rear end of the (soon to be cut out) seat slider brackets.

Just wondering what thoughts people might have about screwing the outer harness eye straight into that thread, it looks strong in there as I think it was the thread for the seatbelt pretensioner ?

Cheers.
Noel

 

Read the harness guide in the trackday prep thread.

 

I used the points you are talking about for the outside fixing for the lap part of my harnesses, and I had to make my own as you have for the inner points. The original fixing points are designed to take the original seat belts so should be plenty strong enough.

 

Bi-monthly update time....

Bought a B4 Passat 2.0 last night, MOT failre with the CRU code gearbox with 4.2 FD.

Took it for a run up the farm track and it's very low geared which is what I was looking for, 2nd at indicated 40mph is nearly 5000 rpm, that shold keep the ABF on it's toes out on the lanes.

Was wondering if anyone had any experience of PI gas shocks, been offered some at the right money and was wondering how they were.

Tempted to bite the bullet and just get some Bilsteins but they're not cheap.

 

Got another couple of hours on it at the weekend.

Passat VR6 288mm brakes fitted with EBC yellows and dimpled discs + goodrich braided hoses now on.

Bilstein kit should be here this week, then I finally get it down off the axle stands if they've not 'become at one' with the underside of the car.

 

1994, scrapped it now. Kept what I needed. Why's that ?

 

I'll keep an eye out myself for 1, but I didn't know which year.

Did you keep all the wide track front end?

 

There's a CRU gearbox on eBay at the moment: Link

 

Hi, no I was quite ruthless with the car, took what I wanted from it and the parts that I'd advertised on here and in the Passat forum and binned the rest. I haven't got the space to keep it while I take every last bit off it so I called the scrap man the day after I took the 'box out.