'89 Mk2 Golf GTI 8v -> ABF -> VR6 -> VR6 Turbo

Cracking looking project you have there

 

Just spotted the oven cleaner trick, I have looked at these before and wondered if they would work well in the garage

 

Ahh cheers RJ! Seems weird they were chopped and block connector'd, maybe they were used to power something else. Oven cleaner does a better job than degreaser and a jet wash to be fair but im not sure about getting it anywhere near paint but its ideal for cleaning up individual parts.

A few new pics, courtesy of Lewis:

 

Cheers! So far i've really enjoyed working on this car, its really satisfying to remove an old rusty/worn out part and replace it with a new shiny one. I have a Corrado G60 subframe and wishbones coming next week, im going to get them powder coated gloss black before fitting. The only difference I can see with the G60 subframe is the extra two bracing arms that bolt to the floorpan, the golf doesn't use these so I will probably cut them off so it doesn't look like I have bolts missing . Apart from that should it bolt up fine? I didn't intend on going for a Corrado item but it came with a better ARB and poly bushes. While im down there I may aswell get some new engine mounts too.


Decided to remove the red pink pin stripe from the sides of the car as they were tatty and faded. They all peeled off in complete strips with a bit of heat unlike the grey swage line decal which took literally an hour to remove :angry:


Much cleaner.


Bought some Black Hole, really recommend this stuff!


After fitting the new discs all round the locking wheel nuts no longer gripped (they were barely long enough anyway. After driving a couple thousand miles with wheel bolts missing it was about time I replaced them


Old drop link out


The other side was worse! The bush fell to pieces


One of them was also bent!


Went for some Febi ones, seemed fine until I compared them to the OEM ones.


Its a shame that the old ones were so corroded as the replacements use a puny 13mm nut compared to the old 19mm unit. I cant see these lasting long before they snap.


Theres quite a lot of wear on the ends of the arb, it needs replacing. Luckily this is only a temporary fix until I get my uprated ARB on.


All done. I did order some new ARB bushes aswell but they got lost in the post so im not going to bother as its getting a whole new setup soon.


Painted the battery tray just to preserve it until the whole engine bay eventually gets a respray.


Fresh rubber for the front.

There should be a much more interesting update next week

 

Great stuff!! Your doing well, its looking good

 

Making good progress keep going

 

Thanks

This week I haven't done much to the car but I have a few bits to keep me going.


Put some glass cleaner in the fogs and sloshed it about.




Before


After, not perfect but a lot better. I just need some glass polish to try and improve the exterior of the lenses.


I then wiped the grille over with this stuff rather than the usual bumper shine.


Got the tracking and camber set up which which has transformed the feel of the car.


Going to get this lot powder coated gloss black and fit all new poly bushes and ball joints, ready to do a straight swap for my very very rusty one. Thats a 25mm Neuspeed ARB which looks ridiculous compared to my standard 18mm (?) one!


Got some wheels to play with. BBS RS 15 x 6.5J. The plan is to get either adapters or get them welded and re-drilled to allow me to run wider lips.


When they arrived I was confused to find 2 non-split 16 x 7 wheels in the one of the boxes, this is currently being rectified by the selller so its all good. Does anyone know what they are? They would make great winter wheels.


They are pretty good condition with only a bit of minor curbing, the bolts are all original stamped BBS and still shiny so I will be reusing these when I eventually rebuild them.






Being ET17 they already sit quite wide but im not sure how big of a lip im going to be able to fit without them poking too much.

 

Loving the car, I wish I could find someone to take my Borbets A's off my hands as I love the splits (subtle classy wheel).

 

I haven't had much time to work on the Golf recently but did a little mod recently.


Just the usual radio relocation to the center console but I don't like how people usually notch out the sides and let the surround overlap, so I wanted to try and do it a bit differently.


I cut out the bare minimum that was just enough for the radio to be fitted from behind.


Mounted the cage like so.


Later I need to add some sort of trim to hid the gaps at the bottom left by the ash tray. Although when fitted in the car its barely noticeable.


Reinforced with some brackets, probably a bit over engineered but it worked.


Added some TT knee bars, i've had them lying around for 2 years or so. I was going to fit them to my Polo but never got around to it. Im still not 100% sure if im going to keep them yet.


I've also got a complete TT shifter that could look good with a bit of work.


All back together, the wiring also reached so nothing had to be extended as I first thought.


I also picked up a G60 rocker cover which needs a good polish before I can fit it.

I've got the MOT coming up soon, I need to get the front washer to work aswell as the handbrake as its only locking 1 caliper.

 

The ISV packed in so I found one from a Mk3 at the scrapper, its a bit bigger but all the connections line up and it works fine. The idle is really smooth now.


I also bought a Jetex back box cheap and mated it up to the standard 2" system with an adapter, got it sitting really nice with a homemade rear hanger. Once funds allow im going to buy the middle box and straight pipe section to complete the system.


One of the rear calipers seized a week before the MOT. Rather than trying to find a replacement I picked up a pair of mk4 calipers and some conversion hoses.


The supplied bolts were really short so I reused the old ones as time was running out. Im going to contact Goodridge about this.


The Goodridge bolts barely poke through the banjos, surely this cant be right?


It literally took 5-10 minutes per side to do the swap as everything has been apart recently and all threads copper greased.





The car failed its MOT but on both headlights having broken adjusters and one of the rear number plate bulb lenses being too dirty so I was really happy with that! Only a couple advisories for a chip in the windscreen and both rear tyres being close to the limit. I have ordered a pair of genuine Hella lamps from VWHeritige which turned out to be the cheapest place.

Apparently the headlight units are the same both sides rather than being a pair, is this right?

 

Hi there,

Nice work with the car, and yes the headlights are the same on both sides.

Cheers

Dan

 

Nice work mate , I did the same with my stereo and centre console and the tt knee bars earlier this year, had the same problem with the stereo surround and still haven't sorted it yet lol

 

Thanks for the comments, im still not sure on my knee bars as they look a bit out of place. I might try doing them matt black or wrapping them in alcantara.


The parts arrived to get the Golf ready for its re-test.


I could probably have got away with cleaning the lenses to pass to re-test but for the sake of a few quid I just got new ones. The aren't genuine ones and they are a bit bigger but they look fine.


Before.


After.


To be fair the old ones were quite knackered! They have freshened up the front end quite nicely, I just need some brand new hella spot lights to match.


These things made me laugh so I had to buy them. Number plate bulbs with glass projector lenses, 2 leds inside and 4 around the edge.


They only just fit in the holders.





They give out a really decent glow and aren't too bright surprisingly.



I was tired of not having a working speedo so I finally got around to fixing it.


As suspected, a snapped speedo cable.

Is this the correct one?
http://www.vwheritage.com/vw_spares...p.product_pID_53169454_lang_EN_country_US.htm
The cluster end of the cable looks different.


The one thing I miss not having with this car is a cup holder. I grabbed this one from an A3 which should fit in the storage slot above the head unit quite easily (only placed in for the photo).


I should be able to blend in the trim panel aswell to give a nice finished edge above the head unit and give me somewhere to mount the electric window switches.


Fitted some tinted indicators a while ago but forgot to take a pic.


How the exhaust sits. Im happy with the height but its sat too far to the left so needs adjusting.


As it was raining today I gave the G60 cover a bit of a polish, It could still be better but it will do for now.


Muuuuch better. Just need to modify the ISV bracket to fit and turn the R8 Oil cap so its level.


Also noticed this bit of damage which is a bit strange, any ideas?

 

I like the way you mounted the radio into the centre console, looks very neat

I need to mount mine in the centre console, as the boost gauge panel is where the radio used to be.

Not sure on those side bars though But its your car and that's all that matters

Btw, what did you use to cut the hole ?

 

Cheers man! Thats the reason I moved my radio, to eventually mount 3 gauges in the original location. Sadly no boost gauge needed for me haha.

Yea I think I just fitted them out of boredom and because I already had them. I don't mind experimenting with this console though as its a bit tatty, once I know what I want ill pick up a fresh one and start again.

I used a Stanley knife with a brand new blade, doing several passes and taking my time rather than just digging in and making a mess. You could probably use a dremel or similar but I found a knife gave a really clean edge.

 

Sounds good

I'll give it a go as I've got two centre consoles to play about with.

Did you keep the cigarette lighter ?

 

When I can be bothered I think Ill mount the cigarette lighter socket on the passenger side of the console, it will be a better place when using it for charging the sat nav etc as the cable wont be in the way of the shifter.

 

Wish we had you as our neighbour to motivate us too... awesome work!

 

Cheers RJ! Ill order one now as I never got around to it lol

The rest of the exhaust pieces arrived, comparison shots with the standard boxes:





A non-res 2.5" system on an 8v is probably going to loose me a couple bhp but its ready for the future when I can afford an ABF or 20vt conversion. Personally it hasn't made it feel any slower it just sounds nice




It fitted really well and didn't take long but at idle its knocking a tiny bit which goes when you move off or if someone sits in the back which is odd. Im going to try some tougher exhaust rubbers but its not a big issue tbh.


Fresh GTI Badge from VWHeritage.


I've also split the RSs down ready to get them redrilled as I don't want to run adapters. The girlfriend soon took over to show me how it was done!


They came apart fairly easily, two of the wheels are almost brand new with no curbing and the lacquer is still intact on the lips. The other two have a bit of minor curbing, regardless of this I want to get all of them freshly powder coated and polish the lips. If funds allow I want to get some Wider lips. All of the bolts came up well too, so far i've only had them sat in some Pepsi overnight but with a bit of polish they should be sweet.


Tried some gold bolts to see how it would look but I think im going to stick with the genuine BBS bolts as they are in such good condition, even the nuts that go on the back came up well.

Some little prick also decided to 'slash' one of my front tyres! It must have been a kid as they made a complete hash of it and clearly didn't know what they were doing. There are 5 or 6 cuts on the tyre, the valve has been chewed up and the wheel is also badly scraped up around the valve.



I haven't got the spare cash to put yet another new tyre of at the moment so for now im running a couple of the Steffans I had left over from the Polo. I would have used the full set but the 9J rears rub on the beam. It looks odd but at least I can still use the car. This is probably how its going to look for the ED38 Krispy Kreme meet next weekend

I think thats it for this year really but expect major changes after xmas!