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

Just a mini update.


Scary sight! Stripped the cluster again to fit the speedo cable. All sorted and working now however the speedo needle still shakes upto 40mph as it did before the old cable snapped. Could this be faulty clocks? One of the dash lights also blew a couple days after putting it all back together, typical!


This piece of sleeve was also before the grommets so would have ended up behind the dash rather then in the engine bay where it should be so I cut it off and used a piece of hose to protect the cable.


Picked up this little lot for 30! I think I'll save the 16v badge encase I go for an ABF conversion next year. I'm not sure if I want to go for big bumpers yet though.


I'm guessing this is an early valver badge? As it looks different to all the others I've seen.

 

Hi - yep early valver badge - pretty rare to come across as only used on the first 2 or so years of valver production.

Cheers

Dan

 

sell the vavler badge mate that early and rare should get you close to what you payed

golf looks good

 

Looks good mate.
Dont put big bumpers on, the small ones look great on your car

 

Im not sure what engine I want still, I have ruled out a VR6 so its between a 1.8T AGU or an ABF. A 1.8T is cheaper to tune but so many people are saying ABF as its more fun and sounds better. My priorities are an engine thats not going to ruin the handling, be fairly ok on fuel, give me 150-200bhp with the option to add more power and have an excellent exhaust note. Adding power to an ABF is going to be more expensive in the long run but to be honest I think I will be satisfied with 150ish BHP for at least a year as im coming from a 1.8 8v, at which point I could look at doing a turbo/supercharger conversion on the ABF if necessary.

At the moment I just want to concentrate on getting the shell looking presentable, powdercoating / Por15ing all of the running gear, bigger brakes, coilovers and new polybushes throughout.


So the Golf is now off the road for a bit of work, im using my 6n2 for the daily commute, its boring but has a excellent heater and its much better on fuel


When you don't have a garage, drive it through the conservatory and park it in the garden!


I haven't had a great deal of time to work on the car recently due to working outside in this weather. But I started by labeling all of the wiring and bolts before removing/disconnecting.


Engine out.




The old 8V still looks pretty tidy in all fairness, I could just stick a 2.0 bottom end on it and fit a hot cam and be done


This mount was well beyond knackered! The other two weren't bad but im obviously replacing all of them. There is lots of dry crusty surface rust in places but structurally its sound.


The 6 manifold to downpipe studs were a nightmare I could only get two undone so I lost my patients and cute through the downpipe. I won't be re-using it anyway. Is it normal to be mis-shaped though? :blink:


This was the only bit of serious rust in the bay, I think the best course of action will be to cut it out and weld in a new piece. Other Mk2s I have seen have had a heat shield here as well as sound proofing, its strange that mine doesn't. Could I get away with just heat wrapping the manifold and downpipe?


I also bought some Genuine Hellas to replace the cheapo american rear lights.


As well as an early Mk2 rear washer bottle to remove it from the bay.

The next stage will be removing the seam sealer and any un-needed brackets and lugs. I will then just weld up all of the un-used holes and give it a fresh coat of paint, I am keeping the scuttle and all factory lines/shapes.

 

wow just checked out your build thread nice work, well done your cars looking very nice.

 

It is a shame but at least it looks fairly alright to repair, im sure heatwrap should be sufficient if I cant find a second hand shield.



I ground it back a bit to see how much will need cutting out, it doesn't look so bad now.


Any idea what this bolt is for? its attached to something on the inside.


I also made a start on the seam sealer with a knotted wheel. Generally its easy to remove the seam sealer, I can just see it being a issue in the hard to reach areas.


Whats the best way to deal with those two studs on the strut tower? Should I just keep grinding until they are flat? Or should they un-screw?


The chassis leg cleaned up well too with only a slight bit of pitting from light rust.

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Found a bit of rust at one of the seams, it looks like it may have come from below inside the wheel arch.

 

Top work!

You can perhaps use the adhesive heat shielding that can be had on ebay.

CLICKY

 

Nice work. Only thing that puts me off is the ''shirt button'' steering wheel. Had a momo race on my 89 GTI which i loved,just not keen on one so small,rest is spot on tho.

 

Wicked build so far, I will be looking forward to updates.

I have to agree with Steve re. The momo wheel, I ran the exact same wheel on a late GTi that had power steering and it wasnt until I replaced it with a leather G60 original wheel did I realise how twitchy the 280 made the car to drive.

Strong work!

 

Cheers for the comments guys, I hate driving my other car as the steering wheel is huge (350mm+) but maybe something inbetween would be better.

@ GG. - That stuff would be ideal and looks quite nice, cheers!

I've been working on the car whenever I get a spare hour etc so progress has been small but it is getting there slowly.


The passenger side leg is very solid so far with the tiniest amouth of surface rust and a bit on the underside


Im having trouble getting into the tight areas with the 4" grinder so i've resulted to using mini wire brushes Its taking forever though so I think I will invest in an air powered die grinder. Any thoughts/suggestions?


Still plenty of life left in that one!




Much better! I just need to get the rest of the bay to this stage then its time to weld up a lot of unnecessary holes.


When removing the suspension struts I tried the usual trick of a spark plug socket and an allen key (with a pipe extension) but they wouldn't budge :angry:


Crisis over.

Thats it for now really just lots of boring stuff to do before I can provide some more interesting updates.

 

Nothing about a project like this is boring Keep up the good work!

 

Really nice car emerging here! Agree with the guys- keep it small bumper for the original look. Have had two small bumper and one big bumper- silver 8v with big bumper looked good but I've always preferred the reds and blacks with small bumpers. Yours looks great!

 

great build. you removed the red side stripe and just left the side trim?
mines peeling but I want to keep the original look.

 

nice build keep up the good work

 

Thanks for the comments everyone. If the car was an early model with quarter light windows I would keep if fully original. As its a base spec 89 change over model with 'big' doors and 'small' bumpers im not to worried about originality. Theres quite a few small bumper models in gloucestershire so I think thats why big bumpers seems more appealing to me. Afterall its the sake of a few bolts and some clip on trim that makes the difference between the two looks, I can swap between them when I get bored.

 

The way I've managed to remove the remaining underseal in areas that are difficult to get at on the underside of my MK2 is to use a selection of drill wire brush attachments. In fact, I've used those to carefully go back to the original etch primer in most places, rather than going back to bare metal. However in some areas I also used brushes like you have. In all cases I apply heat from a gun.