Hi I just thought id let you know what I've been up to on my mk1 for the last year, progress has been slow for various reasons but it should take off a bit this year! Anyways this is how it looked on the forsale advert when I bought it... Jan 10 I was pleasantly surprised to see a few more bits in it when I turned up to look at it, I paid the bloke and had it shipped up to my house, I had a good look at it and made a plan of action. All tucked up in my garage So a brief look at it revealed that the wiring had been cut, bodged and messed about with alot. The engine had several components missing and was in an unknown condition. There was various bits of trim missing (expensive series 1 stuff too!) and alot of bodywork to do. No service history, although there was a receipt for 4500 worth of bodywork in 2003 by a "restoration expert" - as you can see by the condition of it now the previous owner was seriously ripped off. I got to work on the wiring, adding a fuel pump relay and getting it to a stage where I could turn it over. in the end I whipped the head off and sent it for inspection. It ended up getting totally refurbed. When the head came back I finished it off with new injector inserts from VW and a set of stainless steel exhaust manifold studs and nuts from volksbits. I refitted it with a new headgasket and new belt etc and timed it all up, then I removed the dash and all the dash wiring loom and both engine wiring looms for diagnosis and repair. Clock refurbishment Were getting to the middle of last year now, sort of May/June time. The clocks that came with the car were completely dodgy, the T14 plug on the wiring harness had been changed about in a vain attempt to get it to work. The problem was the PCB was the wrong one, its actually a 77 scirocco part number! So I bought a champagne set off someone with a good PCB. Here they are together Here is the difference in PCB So I stripped the GTI clocks down Cleaned everything and changed the PCB's over (these PCB's are completely different!) I was left with this, a 0 mile set of series 1 GTI clocks Happy with that!
Wiring refurb Next up I refurbed the wiring, bought some stuff to do it Here is one of the looms stripped of its plastic shrouding and temporarily held together with tie wraps Cleaned, and repaired during the re wrapping process Known series 1 Fuel pump wiring issue... BOOM! I had the parts that VW fitted as a factory recall because this problem was known to them so I made this This fits into socket L of the fusebox and remotes the fuel pump/warmup circuit. The engine bay looms now look like this So I put the wiring back in temporarily I also replaced the missing componants in the engine bay and.... (click for video!) She fired! So I chucked it on my mates dolly and put it in storage whilst I moved down to London And it lived here with my mates mk1 for a bit Then it was delivered to the bodyshop in november just gone... I managed to find a genuine VW small light rear panel so that was grafted on as well as the rear arches being sorted out and inner wing etc... Id like to show you the bodywork pictures so far but photobucket is playing up so i can't. Anyways I hope you enjoy reading that so far.
looking good mate It has always shocked me what previous owners do to the car before you get it keep up the good work
Good work so fare just a shame it didn't get as good a job last time as you are doing If I find out about any more from my mate i'll let you know
Ah alright mushy mate? cheers for all your help! any news yet? Bodywork The car is now in the bodyshop and im getting semi regular updates, its been in there 2 months now. First the dodgy rear panel was chopped out Then my new rear panel was offered up That was then sent to be blasted and then welded up Then the drivers rear arch and filler panel was welded up, no pics of the welding mind The wings have been removed and this was found and this So thats getting sorted, as well as the rear passenger arch ] Trying to keep as much VAG metal as possible. Thats it right up to date now...
Very nice. I have a black S1 GTI, with the same fuel pump relay problem. Where did you get the parts from to make the realy remote thing? I'd like to make the same.
Hmm well im not decided yet tbh mate. Its never going to be slammed but I fancied a healthy drop on some decent coilovers with damping control etc so the car can be corner weighed etc. I am also undecided on the plastic series 2 style to stay original or a set of small black bumpers. What do you think? Something else thats also playing on my mind is to wether to go ABF or keep the 1.6 for originality? The original plan was to make as fast a EG block as I could within reasonable money but now im thinking ABF, can't decide. The whole idea of the project is to create a fast usable pleasure car, I wanted to truely 'build' something from scratch for myself so this is my first real build of a car from a wreck to something thats usable... Anyways since the last update my car has now moved down to London from Newcastle which means ive been getting stuff done. The car now runs pretty well however needs a new idle screw seal and a session with a timing gun and co2 meter. This said the last time I was working on the car I had a coolant explosion so ive got to check out what happened there, im thinking a core plug altho I don't know. I have been fitting parts in the last few weeks because I might be moving the car for the 4th time in my ownership so ive got the back fitted up more or less Some used lights I cleaned up, new VW seals Some NOS numberplate lights, I havent fitted these as im waiting on getting some orders from VW and ebay for screws and bulbs. And then... The boot needs sorting out as best as I can get it because its not sitting quite right. Next up was some Original seats I found I fitted those with a set of used rear door cards and some NOS Swallowtail fronts I had in stock, then a bit of the dash etc. This will all need to come back out soon as the wiring is getting sent off to Mr Rubjohny to be converted to a CE1 fusebox. Ive also done a gear linkage refurb altho I havent lined it up yet. Which brings us back up to date, I am still undecided about the Engine, this will determine what I instruct John to do with the loom.
If it was a ropey old cl then abf it slam it with shiney wheels, it's a series one Gti, the value for you will be in originality, put colies but keep back, refurb or source the original suspension, I owned a series one back in 1982. It was loads of fun and represents the first hot hatch, if you have a 1.6 1.8s are just modern updates not the original.... Here's mine on original wheels, the spots were dealer fit options
Yea I know what your saying mate. I have kept the series 2 bumpers just in case. Nice series 1 you had there, I have just bought a set of series 1 alloys for my car too - they look awesome on.
just think what it will be like parking next to some bloke who has what he thinks is a rare Campaign MK1
Yea I know, totally worth it! Im trial fitting a load of stuff to see what I need and to get it out the way of the garage as its less stuff to move separately to the car but its also had the effect of really motivating me to push on with the car as I can kinda see what its going to look like now too! Anyways ive had a productive day down the garage today. I fitted the rear wiper motor and got the back end lined up a little better (still needs more work and the right hand side of the rear panel hasn't been fitted right which isn't helping - it bulges slightly past the rear light but I can live with that. I had 2 flat tyres on the tarantula wheels it had on it and it was doing my head in having to blow the tyres up everytime I needed to push it out the garage so I bought these! Optional series 1 GTI alloy wheels with tyres on for a very good price so I have fitted those, stripped a few bolts on old rusty hubs but I don't mind as its getting all new running gear anyway. Next I bought a new set of expanding nuts for the door handles and made a door membrane and stuck it all on (no during pics as I was just firing through it) and then refitted the door card with a NOS inner door pull to boot. Next I mocked up a bit more of the interior ive been collecting - I think I have everything I need interior wise now bar a wolfsburg steering wheel When I was running the engine last week I heard a massive bang followed by lots of steam billowing out of somewhere in the bay. I couldn't see where about it was as it was like someone had fitted a smoke machine to my engine bay and it was of full blast. Today I think I have have found out why.... Ill be needing a new one of them then! I also fitted a new idle screw O ring, a new boot gas strut, some rear suspension strut covers and a new steering column bush. The bush issue is a weird one, while I was fitting it I noticed the steering column has collapsed in a bit. Ive put a nut on the end and tried to pull it back towards me to re extend it but its having none of it, to be honest I think I might just buy a new steering column as long as series 1's have a specific design. And then I finally put a twin tamp grill on it with spots fitted as im sick of looking at the old grill, this will do until I buy a single lamp grill. I refurbed a GTI badge too and stuck that on So thats where im at, in the very near future I am sending the car off to mr Rubjohnny to have a CE1 fusebox conversion done. I know im sacrificing originality here but my old loom plugs are really old and battered and keep falling out my old and battered fusebox so im having it done. Im off to wembley next week to pick up a clear front screen, once thats here I suppose it will be headliner time. I am also moving house on the 1st of november too so I will need to move the mk1 again to new premises (4th time), I might treat myself to a unit for 2013. :wub:
