How’s it going golfers… New to this forum, I may have been a member in the early 2000s but can’t remember. I’ve been a MK2 GTi driver on and off since I was a young fella and I’m now firmly into middle age unfortunately. I bought a tired, NZ-new Wolfsburg made ‘87 MK2 16v 2-door (KR) in 2003 with 250,000km. I rebuilt it top to bottom, literally a complete dismantling and reassembly with all wear & tear parts assessed and largely replaced, from crank bearings up basicially. I imported the new parts from a well-known supplier in the US in one hit, found the paperwork for that the other day and reminded myself all the stuff done to the car. I used the car as a daily driver and for occasional track days. So much fun. Went really well and was totally reliable. The engine rebuild was something I was quite proud of as it revved happily to 7.5k and pulled hard. The hardest part of the rebuild was tackling the abused close ratio gearbox which was the first time I had gotten into the dark realms of boxes…. I learnt a lot and the rebuild of the box was a great success. Drove the car for about 5 years until disaster struck in ‘09 and I was diagnosed with cancer and told “all over mate, sorry”. The car was parked up in the corner of a large dry shed used by my neighbour for his tractor collection. He promised me he would look after it - it was done properly, on axle stands with all the fuel drained from the tank, the engine run until it ran out of fuel. Remarkably it wasn’t all over and I’m still here. After recovering from major surgeries, we moved to Australia and worked in the mines for several years, then continued our lifelong passion of overland remote area travel in a Toyota 4WD. Spent 18months in the bush all over the continent with our two young boys. Years later, we returned to our home in NZ. The Golf was in a very sorry state. The neighbour’s son had moved the Golf from the dry garage to ramshackle old shed open to the elements and home to 1000 starlings and an infinity of rodents. He didn’t replace the cover, left one of the windows open and of course there was now fuel sitting in the pumps & K-jet which predictably went off over the years and turned into varnish (never forgive him for that). I was gutted and eventually towed the car into storage at our place where it sat for another five years burning a hole in my conscience. I dragged it out a couple of times to try and get it running again but was very reluctant to start spending money on it. The fuel system was rooted with sludge and crystalline “varnish”. Eventually I decided bugger this and pulled the K-jet apart including the fuel distributor, cleaned it all, bought new injectors, main pump and lifter pump (all shagged by improper storage) and got it running. The paintwork was stuffed by all the moisture and birdshit and the interior stank like rats nest, so if I was going to do anything it was going to be a big job. Anyway… if you’re still here with me after this long waffle then you’ll be surprised to know that I drove the car for the first time a couple of days ago. We’re rural so its quite handy to be able to zip up and down the road without traffic, especially when the car doesn’t have a bonnet, front wings, doors or a tailgate. It went really well and now I’m in the process of a back to front check of all the mechanicals and running gear, removing all surface rust with wire brushes, then rust converting, priming and painting as I go. I’ve reconditioned the rear disc brake assembly and cleaned and painted the rear subframe. Got the handbrake working perfectly on both sides without having to buy new parts which was very satisfying (actuators were seized). Next task is to attend to the leaking power steering pump and to clean up the front brakes. With the new fuel system components it starts on the first turn of the key and idles just fine. It’s got the original fuel pump housing which isn’t leaking (big relief) but I am considering replacing all the fuel lines at some point. Have rewired the engine bay and got all sensors working - VDO gauges in the dash for volts, oil pressure and oil temp all working fine. Driving it in its semi dismantled condition is entertaining and it feels really tight and solid which is great. Very revvy and wants to go. One of the best things that I did 20 years ago was reassemble the car with copper-eeze and rubber grease on all the important bits so there is no difficulty whatsoever getting things apart again. It needs a new exhaust from headers back. It needed a new exhaust when it was parked up tbh. Haven’t decided what to do with the car yet but considering the condition of the interior and the paint work it will probably be given a new chance at life as a historic Hillclimb car as our local club does a good job with a series specifically for older cars like this. Nothing seriously competitive and all very sensible. My boys are 16 & 15 now and learning to drive properly so they have some skin the the game too as they really want this old valver. So probably a cage, seats and harnesses and a decent fuel tank in the boot. The interior is probably not going to be used again. The rust spots will be treated and it will get a straightforward paint job, nothing fancy. The biggest issue we have these days in the New Zealand is that there is a very limited supply of parts for these cars now. Acquiring parts overseas is easy enough but the shipping is extortionate. Lots of individual purchases just isn’t affordable. There’s a couple of guys from the old community here that have hoarded parts and hopefully I’ll be able to track them down. The community was going great about 20 years ago but getting back into it now I’ve discovered that its pretty much done & dusted - guys have moved on with families and mortgages and the rest of the restrictive aspects of life. This forum is a great resource and I’ve already found a bunch of stuff that has steered me in the right direction. Sure they’ll be a few questions and requests for assistance along the way. i’ll post some photos at some point. Cheers Dave
Thats me,Dave appears we in the same situation,parts for the earlier cars are real hard to find,current resto on Corrado is hard work,Vask used to be a help but thats not much now as the older cars are somewhat out of the game...sad really. Welcome back,cheers.
