Thanks guys, hopefully more to come once tracks open back up. It looks like trackdays are selling out fast this year!!
Thanks A quick update, Got the Golf MOT'd last week. She passed nicely! with the oblatory "slight play in rear wheel bearings" Along with a steering rack boot that keep twisting, which is annoying. On the way to the MOT the gearbox felt wooly, and the shift very vague, I knew something was a miss... Stripped all the linkages down once I got back and found that the nut holding the aftermarket short shifter on was loose. Aftermarket on the left, Genuine VW on the right You might be able to just make out, but the ali short shifter has worn over time, the slot the relay shaft sits in has elongated and the metal deformed with it being so soft. To overcome this and ensure no issues in the future, I decided to extend the original VW item, which is made of much stronger stuff. choppy choppy Buzzy buzzy Grindy grindy Happy with that. Exciting ey! I've got Cadwell Park booked next month, so I'll be sorting a few bits and bobs out but luckily nothing major
funny that, the aftermarket relay shaft I tried to install in a customer car the slot was too big and wouldnt fit his shifter bracket. so I guess the aftermarket companies are copying each other rather than looking at genuine parts In the end I swapped the relay shaft ball over to the genuine shaft and refitted it all
Just reading back through your painting section - I've bought a similar compressor and gear but wondering what paint you used as it has come out really well - did you use 2k lacquer? Just reading up on paints and now see extra procautions need to be taken with 2k - I've bought a Geeson carbon mask and googles but can't stretch to the airfed mask and my compressor won't handle it. I've got a very similar job to you to do so wondering how you got on with it from this point of view and I will also be doing it in my garage. Cheers Matt
You just have to be careful, and use the best mask you can buy, and ensure you have LOTS of fresh air ventilation.
I used to use an isocyanate filtered mask, not air fed, when sprayed stuff in double or single garage back when the 2k stuff was worse for you. As Tristan says, be careful, sensible and loads of ventilation. Used cellulose primer, then 2 pack top coat, great results, I know paint has changed from when I did a lot, but just take a sensible approach to it, sure you'll be fine.
As other have said you have to take as much precaution as you possibly can. But unless you have an air fed mask there is no way of avoiding the really harmful isocyanates. The trouble with them is you cant smell them or see them and they are properly dangerous. I did a lot of reading up and scared myself silly, but like you I was unable to buy an airfed mask/another compressor etc. I used the Gerson mask too, lots of ventilation, sprayed quickly and got out of there asap. I'm not condoning it, its totally your risk. You could go down the 1k gloss route? which I'm told is much safer. I think its the 2k thinners that contains the harmful stuff.
https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/777847O/isocyanates-3m-techupdate.pdf Nice document from 3M. As mentioned isocyanates might as well be odourless, but they can be filtered. The reason everyone recommends air fed is because the normal way you tell a filter is used up is by smelling the solvent, but isocyanate that doesn’t work. Again not health and safety advice, but get a full a face if you can, with an equivalent of the big 3M solvent filters, or even better an AX rated filter and you’ll be a lot safer than no mask. Just get rid of the filter when you’ve done. It’s a fair bit of money but I’d rather not risk it. I keep a 3M half mask around even just for doing things like changing the fuel pump, well worth it
Love this build! A nice clean classic look and a bit of a track weapon - just the route i plan on going down with mine (eventually). Looking forward to seeing more track footage now the circuits are opening back up!
Cheers (& to the others that posted about it). Yeah I have scared myself silly on it but have bough the Gerson mask plus some googles and will do the same - won't hang about. From what i've read the base "2k" paint is just waterbased paint that can be used with the 2k top coat (so it's safe) and it's just the 2k top coat that has the isocynates.
Cadwell Park March 2021 I had a great time over at Cadwell, luckily didn’t have to do much to the Golf, just some general checks and the car ran semi faultless all day! Got the car loaded up ready for the 2.5 hour drive to Cadwell. I went down with my pal with his e46 330i touring and we has some great lapping together. I always pack heavy, but I’d rather that than be stuck and not have spares/correct tools with me and waste track time. – This trip that decision paid off! Going a bit deep on the kerb here! The only thing I would say was I was pretty shocked at the standard of driving at this event, it was defiantly the worst I’ve ever seen – People overtaking into apexes (saw this a lot!), People not indicating, people not moving over to let faster cars through (AC Cobra I’m looking at you) having to sit in a que of cars waiting lap after lap – and no blue flags from the marshalls. Having said that we both kept out of trouble and had a great day. We were really lucky with the weather and had a dry circuit all day. The Golf was going well! The front end seemed to need to a bit of lock and felt like I had to almost chuck it in a little around the tight stuff, I came back to the pits and added a click on rebound on the front which helped loads! I’ve got Anglesey booked in a week so I’m going to spend the morning having a play with the suspension, I’m happy with the dampening but I do think the rebound needs some work, I’ve been reading a lot to fully get my head around it all – I think I’ve been running the rebound pretty soft in comparison to the dampening, so that’s something I’ll look at. After having some tail happy moments in the wet at Blyton, caused by the rear brakes locking up, I didn’t have time to order a manual bias valve before Cadwell. With this track being dry it wasn’t so much of an issue, or so I thought. Brooke told me I was locking a rear wheel before almost every corner – unbeknownst to me. I had read on an old CGTI thread that Gurds had suggested removing the rear bias spring in the compensator valve. So at lunch time I gave that a go. After lunch the difference was quite unbelievable, no locking from the rear at all and a new confidence on the brakes. It really did feel like I’d fitted bigger brakes on the front, so I’m pretty chuffed with that, the spring is staying off. The only other issue I encountered whilst giving the car a quick check in-between sessions was some residue coming through the front passenger side wheel, a quick look and it seemed to be gearbox oil. (I love gearboxes…) The leak was narrowed down to the speedo cable hole and on further investigation it seemed the bolt I’d used when making the cover plate was only on by a thread! A quick rummage through a quality street tub full of random nuts and bolts I took with me, I found another bolt. It was too long but I put a flanged nut down the bolt first to effectively shorten it. That coupled with some high temp sealant and we were good to go! Stayed inplace and sealed all day. Result J! Its pays to take everything but the kitchen sink to a track day! We both had an absolute blast on track and finished the day very pleased. We were closely matched, obviously the 330 was much faster in a straight line, but that didn’t put off the plucky mk2! Loaded up ready for the trip back home. I just finished editing a video from our day. If like me you are a fan of 90s tv show Best Motoring/Hot Version you might appreciate the intro! After Cadwell I wanted to change the seating position slightly. I still felt like my legs were too close and the wheel not close enough to me. What I thought would be an easy job turned out to be a bit of a pain! 3 of the bolts holding the wheel on had rounded, and id snapped the ball end off an Allen key in one of them! I tried making a cut with my Dremel to get it out with a screwdriver but couldn’t get deep enough without potentially damaging my wheel! Drastic action was needed! Luckily it went smoothly! I’ve fitted a new spacer so the wheel sits 95mm further out than factory, herein lied another problem, I couldn’t see over the steering wheel!! So I set about lowering the steering column some more. I went to Ripon Engineering to pick up some new m8 bolts because I’d found the old ones were only 4.4 grade and had bent! YIKES! While I was there I found some m10 connectors, which I cut down to the right size and used as spacers for the column. This has worked really well! Its meant I’m another 2 clicks back on the seat rail and I can still see over the wheel, my wrist sits comfortably ontop of the wheel when I’m harnessed in and I can still reach the gearstick/control nicely. Result
did you reset the spring adjustment since lowering the car? that could well be why you were locking the brakes. I just set so the slack is taken out, the proper way to do it is with pressure gauges hooked inline with the rears so not so easy DIY. if you never put heavy loads in the back though and/or theres no real travel left in the rear suspension can just leave it off
I always bleed the brakes with the compensator clamped fully. Theres plenty of rear sus travel left, but no weight in the rear of the car so I dont need the rear to do much braking. With the spring out of the compensator the car was braking really hard and straight, whereas before it wanted to rotate ever so slightly, so that will do for me.
Another great update Cope, thanks. Loving the Best Motoring intro Car sounds great. I think you need a quick rack
Again its been a while since I last updated this! Since my last update I managed another track day at Anglesey, which was fantastic. We had some great weather and a trouble free day, which is always welcomed Anglesey is still one of my favourite tracks, very technical with a good mixture of fast and slow corners. Enjoying some rays in between sessions. I'd been setting up the suspension all day, tweaking it after every session, after not being too happy at Cadwell. I'd also changed my tyre pressures, I usually run 30psi hot all round, but upped that to 32 hot all round, which made a drastic difference!! Much less tyre squeal, better turn in and overall faster. Got some decent footage from Anglesey, managed to tag onto to back of 2 other classic 80s hatches, which made for a really good session. XR2: Stripped interior (800kg approx) Fiesta ST engine on ITBs (210bhp approx) GT5 Turbo: Stripped interior (800kg approx) Engine around 150-160bhp. and a nice chilled drive back to Yorkshire In the summer inbetween lockdowns I had a few trips over o the Motorist Cafe, really great place to grab a coffee if you are nearby The only thing I've really had to touch on the car is replace the front engine mount and fit a new alternator. more to come...
I've just had my MOT today, and she has passed again with a clean bill of health! Only did 2000 miles last year! I've booked onto Outlon Park trackday on the 29th, it will be my first time there, so I'm looking forward to seeing how the car will perform. I have a couple of weeks to make some final tweaks to the car. First off I've ordered a set of extended ball joints and rose jointed rod ends from Noath Engineering. I'm still waiting for them to arrive, but hoping to have them in before Oulton Before fitting im going to attempt to measuring the bump steer to work out what size spacers I need for the rod ends. I've also treated myself to a new lid, as my old one is too tight for my head. I found a great deal on Hawkes Motorsport page and couldnt resist going carbon! I got the Golf out last weekend, as Foot to Pedal Youtube channel wanted to go a little feature video of the car. They got some cracking shots! just not keen on me talking!
