decided to start a new thread for my car. This is the original post from when I first bought the car https://www.clubgti.com/forums/index.php?threads/hola-my-mk3-16v-gti.122863/ because of a company car, 2 kids and a wife it has been dry stored for the last 10 years or so. I decided during lockdown to start getting her back on the road. This is my progress so far... First it was dragged out of it's shed, quickly washed up then placed in the garage at work ready to get started on
Got hold of some original wheels, had them refurbed, ceramic coated and slapped on some new Toyo proxes and centre caps
Engine bay quickly scrubbed up then got to work stripping out all the running gear. The subframe was as absolute nightmare, bent rusted in bolts. Ended up buying a new subframe fot it
Rather than spend £300 on new calipers I rebuilt the old ones. Cleaned up the bearing housing, pressed in new bearings, new hubs, new ABS sensors and rings, new backing plates and new discs
Interior had to be stripped out because the mice/rats had been in the car and decided to eat through the fuel pump and sender wiring and central locking air hoses. It all had a clean up then i swapped the steering wheel for a mk3.5 one i've had lying around for years. Old plasma backlit dials were binned and swapped for some anniversary clocks after they were programmed to the correct mileage. Wiring loom for heated seats repaired and the seats are going for repair soon. Fuel pump was seized as i couldn't get any life out of it before the engine was taken out
A good mechanic friend of mine is rebuilding the engine for me. I had the job of cleaning up and painting the parts that are being kept
Inlet got stripped, painted and a little bit of polishing. Added new vacuum hose, ISV and some fancy stainless bolts
Bought a second hand head which I had skimmed, ported, polished, 3 angled valves seats cut and some new valve stem seals
Paintwork is in a bad way but it was repainted about 12 years ago in 2 pack paint with no lacquer so i decided to see if I could wet sand then polish the roof up. Stripped the roof lining out, added a new ariel and all new roof trim clips
Going great guns on this will be really nice once done! Are you upgrading cams to go with the p&p head?
Nice work well done for saving a mk3 those 10 years in storage must have saved a lot of the common rust issues on a mk3 as it looks very solid, I'm in the process of striping my 8v GTi then scrapping it due to rust.
The guy rebuilding the engine suggested getting some more aggressive cams for it, I just can’t justify the cost of them! I’m not after as much power as possible from it. The only reason I had the head done was because It was a nice freebie favour from a friend of another friend that works at a machine shop so I couldn’t turn it down! This build has already set my credit card back just under 4K in parts cost alone!
I can understand there is alot of cost with not alot of reward without stand alone. What I would suggest is good value for money as I have them in my Mk3 16v is one of Hotgolfs lightened flywheels and I have a CZM gearbox with 4.2 final drive. Luckily I only drive mine now and again when I get chance for a thrash so the gearbox is great but wouldn’t fancy going on a long journey down the motorway to regularly
Than thanks! This was my first car so it was always going to be put on the road at whatever cost, I could never sell it. I’m no mechanic, a lot of what I’m doing is not stuff I’ve done before so it’s taking longer than I’d hope