justmatz mest me around a treat and charge through the nose for postage and for a custom design they can take up to a month to be dispatched
To be fair I don't need/want anything unique just something to protect the carpet if I can get them for 40 I will. Although I will bear in mind your warning about how much they messed you around.
After reading your comment I shot down to the car this morning to check if I had fitted the plate correctly... Luckily I had there was no movement up or down on the gear stick at all - thank god. I was convinced I would need to take it all apart again based on the fact that it went far too well yesterday when I was working on it. Thanks for the heads up though and now I know for sure it is fitted properly.
Is there an easier way to do it than the way I did? I ended up removing the whole gear lever turret combo because I just couldn't get to it otherwise.
it can be done without taking the shifter box out of the car, but its debatable if this makes it 'easier' main thing is swapping the ball over would be a proper mare with the housing in the car. luckily this never seems to wear so I've got away with leaving the ball on and just swapping the housing. I think you can drop the stick out the bottom of the car tho once the housing is out?
Hmm, the housing on mine was pretty wedged in - it has like a rubber gasket to make it watertight which seals it in pretty good. I had to use a rubber mallet to bash it out. If you were double jointed you might be able to do it while it is still in the car but the exhaust and heatshield make it difficult. I was weighting this up as I was taking it all apart and in the end I just took the whole thing out. Meant I could stick it in a vice at any angle I wanted to to work on it. You're right about the little ball thing wearing but there was a noticeable difference between the new and old once fitted up.
So near... Worked a 14 hour day on the car yesterday and managed to fit the once elusive steering column gaiter. Massive, MASSIVE thank you to funkbaron for sending me one in near perfect condition. It did mean I had to drop the subframe (again) to fit it but I was so pleased I had finally found one that I barely cared. Following that I cracked on with prepping the donor to give up it's engine, front bumper off etc. Also and because the driveshaft bolts had been rounded off I also had to remove the engine with the driveshafts fitted - fun... Pic of it out and the empty donor engine bay. Then whipped the engine into the now fully prepped project bay. This was the state of play at about 10:30 last night when I was so tired I think I actually fell asleep under the car while fitting the exhaust a couple of times. Hmmm time to pack up me thinks. This morning I cracked on again tightening more bolts, torquing everything like the hub bolts, engine mount bolts then checked and re-checked all the wiring. Also fitted the new gear linkage repair kit and sorted the gear linkage out good and proper. I have to say what a massive difference it made to the gear change. I also fitted a weighted gear shift rod - I think it's from a mk3 - it is stamped VW. Went to start it up and... The bloody battery was to flat to turn it over - whoops. It's now charging overnight and I will report back with either good or bad news. Wish me luck
mate that must have sucked big time you should put up a video of you starting it the first time good job on the engine and sleeping under a car is not the best idea hope you get it going soon good luck
A day of highs and lows Rocked up at the car at about half ten this morning, dropped in the freshly charged battery and she started up. No fuss, no hassle just turned over once and then sprang into life. I cannot describe how pleased I was. Notice I say was... Only ran the car for a minute as the rad wasn't plumbed in at this point - switched the car off put the slam panel in plumbed in the rad and then finished wrapping the loom. All the while feeling slightly pleased with myself. Filled it up with water, it seemed to take loads more than it should, then I could hear the sound of running water - seemingly from inside the car. Yep the heater matrix had decided to split at some point. The contents of the cooling system had now deposited itself inside the car. pic of the culprit After a little bit of swearing, and then some more swearing I stripped the interior - again mopped up all the mess stripped the heater matrix assembly and nicked the one out of the donor that luckily was in good nick. Then while putting the car back together I managed to snap one of the dashboard retaining bolts. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF for Flip sake. Anyway finished at 10:00 at around about the stage I started this morning. Did get most of the front back together though. Loving my shiny new Bonrath 5 slat grille. Tomorrow I hope shall bring better progress. I am seriously running out of things to break.
sound like a bit of a bad day mate but glad to see you got her going must have been a sweet sound shame about the matrix bad luck but at least you had a spare only thing is i think you should put it back to a 4 light grill with the vw badge (just my opinion) think you see to many mk2's with single light grill keep up the good work should bring it down my way could do some cruising not very often you see 2 nice golfs together. quoted by the guy at the garage on Friday night As me and my mate puled up in my mk2 8v gti and his oak green 16v beast
Thanks mate, it was a day of mixed emotions for sure. First time i've seriously contemplated just giving up on it. I kind of agree with you about the grille - I really wanted single lamp but then I couldn't get genuine VW so I plumped for the debadged one you can see in the pic. I put it on tonight and wasn't sure whether I liked it or not. I may go 4 lamp + badge again but I can't afford to at the minute. It'll have to wait for now. Would be good to meet up when it's finished any excuse to drive it hey! Where abouts you live?
i get that feeling of F it I'm selling it bloody golfs when something goes wrong on my mk3 but when you sitting behind the wheel at the traffic lights and the guy next to you says nice car mate you will never think of selling it again i live down in Kent M20 way you can get a 4 lamp grill from vw still 40 alot but its new also i spent many a long night on eBay searching for mine seen a few on there tonight but not many with the awsome red trim
I've got a 4 lamp grill laying around somewhere that's a spare. Try GSF aswell, I got a new one off them for a tenner a little while ago so it does happen.
Getting there Well after yesterdays fiasco today didn't appear to be going much better. Been having a massive issue sorting out the engine oil pressure light. I even bought a new oil pressure switch from VW. The mistake I made was not checking it before fitting (silly me thinking the VW parts department would be able to get me the right thing). After seriously contemplating the prospect of changing the oil pump/engine bearings I thought I would try the easy route and went to GSF and replaced both of the oil pressure switches. This seemed to have sorted the problem out. Thank god! Next was the cooling system and after she dumped all her coolant inside the passenger footwell yesterday I was hesitant to say the least. All went well today the newly fitted heater matrix seems to be doing it's job. Also fitted a new fan switch as I had been having overheating problems this is now also rectified. Didn't get any pics today to busy scratching my head looking confused for most of the day. Regardless that's now 3 less jobs to do. Only need to find out why my fuel gauge, rev counter and handbrake light don't work (or in the case of the handbrake light work whenever it feels like regardless of whether the handbrake is actually on). Nearly MOT time...
10 HOW?! Good work on that. I do have a 4 lamp grille in the garage but the clips are broken. Sounds silly but after the amount of work I've put into this I don't want it let down by a grille attached with zip ties...
Because my local GSF are idiots. That and I just happen to win, I don't buy things if it's not a bargain...
So nearly there now - 10/10/09 so spent the past day or so doing some of the smaller jobs. New gbox end cap Also bought a new header tank and filled the coolant system up checked for leaks etc, etc. had to get a new fan switch and also found the section of wiring that goes to the fan switch and replaced that as mine had been butchered at some point in the past. You can see in this pic of the engine bay (mostly finished) the shiny new bits. Obviously using g12 + + (why oh why is it called + +) Pic of her idling nicely The now complete front end. Not overly impressed with the fit of the bonrath grille considering the cost. Lastly please take the time to head my advice - never have your car resprayed black. look at the state of it...I haven't even driven it anywhere yet... That's about it for today, jobs for tomorrow are: fit rear coilovers finish making my hard brake lines (b*tch of a job), number plates and lastly sort out my fuel gauge which isn't working at the moment. Not much else left to do in preparation for the mot. Comments always welcome.
There is a good days worth of cleaning to be done there. So much dust and crap from me prepping the engine bay and generally putting dirty hands all over it while changing parts. I've decided to wait until its properly finished then I can give it a proper good seeing to. Will make it look fabulous.
