Royal Blue MK2 GTI, 16v KR then ABF, now abf management+widetrack

yeah my long term plan is proper repair panels, then make my own dimple bits to accept audi TT type jacking bung things, hopefully stop this happening again! i might have to weld the old dimple back on though as thinking about it tyre places might use these to lift the car....

 

Not done much on the old beast for a long time, 2 boys under 2 seems to have a negative impact on your free time, who knew!

I have finally cured all my water leaks with a new febi made screen seal, its doesn't look perfect if you're bothered about a 100% OEM look as the ridge round the outside of the seal isnt so 'pronounced' but it fits well This means I can finally put all the carpets and lower dash trims back in after it was removed for the welding work almost 1 full year ago

A set of staggered silver G60 steels came up with new tyres cheap and reasonably local so I pounced on them as I'd been running the classic poor mans 1x 14" wheel and 3x 15" wheels for a while now due to no money and the lack of 4 matching 15" wheels for a while. I wasn't fussed about the staggered look so a bit of Facebook wheeler dealering saw me swap them for some normal black ones, he swapped the tyres over and delivered them to me in exchange so I didn't even have to use any petrol.

Don't look too bad I dont think, but they're still only temp till I manage to sort out my TSWs:

 

Ah I forgot about those again, but i didn't really have enough rubber left for a road trip on that scale either feel free to sell them on if they're in your way!

heatgun on the plastics is the least of the detailing worries for this motor, I've not washed it for several years I have a fukll set of decent g60 plastics stashed away, maybe one day in the next 10 years I'll get round to restoring it then they can go on

 

aye wouldn't change it for the world! give it a couple years and I can take them on trips to VW meets with Wife approval

 

Ta! I'm still debating if I should move it down to the console and pop the VDO up top. god knows when I'll ever get round to it

 

I wish, I get thru em so slowly these days. plus it all goes on shiny new parts that I have no time to fit

 

Small progress update, after moving house I finally had some time to investigate the leak that had appeared above the fusebox (shortly after the carpets went back in after being removed for the welding back in september of course!) anyway good news and bad, the good news is I've 'fixed' it for now, the bad news.....





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So yes, that'll be a fun job at some point! I've stuffed a load of POR patch over it for now to fill the holes so at least my fusebox wont get wrecked. Hopefully that'll keep it at bay till I can get a unit to strip it for rot repairs, or bin the shell and swap the goodies over to another. Right now I'm facing severe funds and time shortage so it'll just have to wait

 

Yeah mine was leaking past the seal passenger side a few months back too, sorted that after removing screen and filling a pinhole and some grotty bits with POR patch again and a new windscreen seal.

For the new driver side leak I was hoping it was the LHD air intake blank plate but after a look I could see it was coming in from higher than that. I knew the A pillar had some rot as I had seen it when changing the wing over a few years back, so I knew I was going to have to do a lot of choppy weldy to sort it at some point but had no idea it had got so bad!

screen seal is a possibility for your leak for sure, if you shine a bright torch down the gap at the rear of the dash and can see damp under the seal then get the screen out and have a look. I have a tried n tested way to save the screen, cut a slit all round the outer lip holdign the glass in, then it'll peel off. easy job with a sharp stanley knife and you can just lift the screen out of the seal. You have it out in all of 5 minutes no risk of damage and no stress.

I never re-use seals now either, I've had no end of problems doing this they never reseal properly. I have a febi made seal off ebay, fits well and very similar to oem. only thing if you're a purist is the ridge all the way round the outside is too smooth, and not stepped.

 

getting screen back in is easy enough too, fit the seal to the glass and run a strong and smooth string of some kind all round the outer lip. I used garden strimmer string, thin, strong and smooth so it wont catch.

Now smear a load of GP grease all on the inside of the seal where it fits over the metal lip, and some on the inside face of the rubber you see when you're inside the car at the lower corners, sides and top. No need to do the bottom, as you sit the screen in at the bottom and wiggle to seat the seal nicely. You just want to do the corners, sides and top as those are the bits you got to pull inside the car past the frame lip.

Now very gently pull the string in a circular motion, 90 degrees or as close to it from the glass. be sure to watch the other end of the string, if you're not careful its easy to drag the whole string out from round the lip then you got to start again do the lower corners first as those are the most tricky to access and the last corner is always the hardest! once the lower corners are in go outside and make sure the screen and rubber is central in the hole and go back inside and work it a bit more. Keep going outside to push/bash the screen while you massage and pull the inner rubber to get it seated nice. once all the way round a final push/bash all round it and the screen should drop into place, job done

Hard to explain, but when you're doing it you'll see what I mean

 

So long time no progress. Yesterday The Wife took the boys out for the day giving me permission to play with my oversize lego set

The plan was to service the car. I dug thru my spares and found I was missing an ABF sump plug seal, so I skipped the oil service. I recon I'll just buy one of them oil suckers off ebay and save myself a load of hassle! So I ended up starting with the timing belt, then things escalated quickly:


I had the bumper off so I could get better access to replace the crappy pattern make front mount bracket. This is why you should try to buy genuine if you can...


With the bumper off this meant all the wing bolts were now accessible, and since the fusebox still has a few drips of water in heavy rain I decided to have the wing off properly this time and have a better go at the rot at the inner wing. This is what I started with:


and the view from inside:


soon sealed that up with more por-patch, I would have welded it up properly but it was getting late by this stage and there wasn't time to weld it properly. Its a job for another day... Serves me right for drinking far too much beer on Saturday, I only managed to drag myself outside at 12

Just to round off the thread, heres the most up to date picture of the dash. Note it still isnt finished

 

yeah I really need somewhere to store it so i can fix all the rot properly, one day. If this doesn't stop the bloody leak I'll be proper stumped