Hey everyone, I have a B reg gti 8v k-Jet that's been messed about with by a previous owner and I'm planning on bringing it back to original. I was just wondering if there is a list somewhere of all the little differences early gtis had like the red stripe bumpers, badges and vinyl stickers along the body and boot lid ect. Or if someone can tell me what the gtis came with that other trim levels didn't. Thanks
I I've been reading a few different things and have been getting different answers, just been a bit of a headache finding out what it left the factory with. From what I can tell VW changed thousands of little details over the years of the mk2.
Yeah, there’s even ce2 cars on early shells, all sorts. Main bits are small bumper, no centre VW badge on the back, 7 slat grill, stripe interior, 1/4 light doors, backwards wipers
My car has a centre rear badge, that's the major thing that has me scratching my head, no signs of accident damage at all in the rear so I'm not sure why a previous owner would change it. It also has a 5 slat grill but has the quarter light doors, lhd wipers, and the small bumpers and of course the 8v K-Jet EV engine Edit: also forgot it has side indicators that I think it shouldn't? Should have the GTI badges instead but I could be wrong
My 86 car has indicators but my dads LHD doesn’t so not sure on that one. I’m sure it was a cool thing to put in back in the day, I wouldn’t know tho, I’m too young
The previous owner must have changed the stuff over for some reason, when I bought it there was some aftermarket stuff going on from the early 2000s, I'm guessing he changed the rear panel over along with the rear exhaust cut out panel bit to fit a twin exit exhaust
Early mk2 golf left the factory with a single rear exhaust pipe, plane black bumpers, decals instead of plastic 'rub stips"front door quarter lights, no wing indicators, small vw round badge to left of rear panal, seven slat grill, wing mounted aerial. Best bet is to Google 1985 golf gti
There were several updates for the MK2 "19" GTI Golf, between 1984 and 1989. So this is off the top of my head based on vehicles owned. There will be more. 1984 UK A to B reg MK2 cars introduced. Left hand Wipers Sticker decals for doors Early 7 slat Grill "Volkswagen VW" Badges to the rear side Single light or double front lights Carry over Golf 1 4 spoke steering wheel Front 1/4 windows with rectangular door mounted mirrors. Swallow front chin spoiler (Ignore what is on JMRs car) 234 mm vented front brakes. Carry over Golf 1 Central Electrics. Cluster in GTI with economy meter. Economy and reverse light switch attached to the gearbox. Front and back small bumpers with black strips CIS KJet for GTI Bespoke interior colours for GTI Bespoke exterior colours GTI Carry over Golf 1 alloy wheels. Single exhaust valence GTI Single tail pipe on GTI. Shimmed tappit EV Kjet engine. 1986 UK C reg to early E reg cars. Bumpers with red inserts for GTIs Side repeaters added. Updated instrument cluster with 160 mph and 8K clocks for 16v Introduction of the Kejt KR 16v 02Y gearbox for the 16v models Bee Sting Aerial on 16v Updated interior patterns Updated exterior colours New alloy wheels (Bottle cap, teardop etc) Introduction of the Digifant ECU for GTI 8V cars Deep chin spoiler with air ducts for 16v models. Twin tail pipe on GTI and GTI 16v Enlarged valence for GTI and GTI 16v. UK later E reg to early G reg cars One piece front windows Door mirrors part of the window frame. Steering wheel refresh as well as control stalks. RHD parked wipers. Lucas/Girling 54mm piston 256 mm brakes on 16v Badging font for "GTI" and "GTI16v" from the front of the car changed. Round "VW" emblem now at the center of the rear panel. Interior colours updated for door cards and seats. PAS and electric windows as options. 5 slat grill introduced. 1989 crossover to 1G MK2 chassis, intro to the big bumper etc. Vehicles are: JMR's 8v My D reg GTI 8v Chandrin's GerTIe from How to ABF your MK2 Golf Trev's MS G6016v test car, now mine with a V6.
Cheers for the info mate, I think the previous owner may have added a few of the later options to my car with the side indicators and the rear panel for a dual exhaust ect. Looks like I've got some hunting around online to do so I can get all the bits to bring it back to 90% original, going to keep the daul exhaust and rear panel though
Some things to remember is VW updated and 'reinvented' the model every year, the two major facelifts during the lifespan are obviously changing the doors for 87/88 and big bumpers on 89/90 GTIs and GL. But in between there are many many incremental changes. Most of the info posted above is correct, some of it it not but I'm not going to start pulling apart other people's posts. It's also important to know the build/model year is not a calendar year so around late summer in 85 they would have started building 86 spec cars. Also the reg plates are not calendar years and don't directly coincide with the build year. So a B reg could be an 84 or 85 car. And whilst some of the things listed above are correct for an 84 car (side decals not rub strips, and single tail pipe) this is not necessarily the case for an early 85 B reg. Bear in mind, some of the press pictures going around for early GTIs are based on pre-release and non-UK spec cars. So some information that people base their builds on is based on might well have been different from the car actually looked like when it hit the UK dealers. And something that still happens today when marketing cars is the pictures and videos are filmed with LHD cars, these are often cleverly photoshopped for the UK market. I wouldn't get too bogged down with the detail. But 100% you car should not have a rear badge in the centre. This has had a repair at some point in the past.
For UK in 86 side repeaters were a requirement so yourswill be correct. As you dad's is LHD car I assume it's an import? Side repeaters were not required in other parts of Europe in 86 so your Dads car will also be correct for it's build. It will pass an MOT because that's how it was built and it's obviously an import, but if you put blanks in your car it would fail. Rallye and G60 were never sold in the UK as UK cars, so they have blanks. Some testers don't care. These days many MOT testers were not even born in 1986, some also don't know historic information like this.
The purpose of the post was to start the ball rolling by contributing my experience of owning the cars and listing what I remembered was different about the early to latest models of the 19 chassis of the MK2. I still the MK2 Golfs as per my signature from 19 to 1G chassis. As my posted stated, I may have missed detail as I am only limited to what I remembered from working, and owning the cars and the patterns observed with the model as it evolved. So feel to list what you understand were differences and we can stick it in the post for anybody else to reference. For example, I left out details such as the powertrain changes from shimmed lifters to hydraulic on the 8v engines, and gearbox specifics as I had to shoot and most would get the flavour. Look forward to your contribution. Maybe I will split the post if the content grows significantly.
As AKAeddypeck pointed out, some detail I shared might be missing. But you get the gist and you are welcome. From your responses, your car has been customised a bit to look updated, hence the mismatch in some components. I need to add the single valence and single tailpipe for the GTI in my listing for the 84 models. I do remember that pattern from years ago, when I drove around in my D reg back in 1998!
Yeh its the modified bits that confused me, the rear panel switch is the biggest as its not a quick change and there is zero evidence of a rear end shunt, no creases nothing. I'm guessing it was done for the dual exhaust as its got a stainless system from the downpipe back and had some money spent on it back in the day. I found the certificate check I got from VW classic parts and the manufacturer date for the car was the 10/1984. So the car will have 85 changes on it?
I found the build date was 10/1984 so definitely a late B reg so would that mean it's the same as an 85?
The early cars also had the rear brake calipers with the smaller diameter pistons in them, not that you would ever see them, I remember back in the day when big bumper cars were around an article in either The Golf or Performance VW iirc re modernising your mk2, big bumpers, later doors, later seats in etc so how many cars went down that route or just replacing parts that wore out or broke.
Yep, was all about making the early mk2s look 90 spec back in the day. People fell over themselves to swap out the nice early differences, me included. In 98 I had an 87 16v GTI with quarterlight doors, big bumpers, and 88 spec door and arch trims. What a dogs dinner it was
The stripy pattern on the interior seats (I believe this pattern was a carryover from the Mk1), the double buttoned steering wheel, the double stripe along the door bottoms, the aerial/grommet on the front passenger wing, Pirelli P alloys, some of the earlier ones did have a single headlamp grille, and at complete poverty specification, only the driver's side mirror. My father had an early one and I distinctly remember it and used to drive it - it had all of the above and the wipers were not converted for RHD either lol. Link to purchase this brochure on eBay: VOLKSWAGEN GOLF Car Sales Brochure For 1985 #420/11900225 9/84 C L CL GL GTi | eBay - might be worth a punt just to get a good idea of what you would need to try and source
