Author Topic: tony_ack - 16v restore  (Read 21724 times)

Offline jv

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tony_ack - 16v restore
« on: 01 June 2010, 11:10 »
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Offline tony_ack

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Re: tony_ack - 16v restore
« Reply #1 on: 01 June 2010, 15:19 »
Thanks jv!

I got my first Golf GTI at the start of 2009 - a 5 door MK2 8v GTI. I spent a lot of time bringing it up to a good standard, but

unfortunately as some of you may have seen from my post in the General Chat section, it was involved in a smash a couple of

months ago.



Whilst I was gutted about this, it gave me the chance to start again with something else.

I decided to go for a 16v 3 door this time. I spent a lot of money on the 8v, but I could never justify fully restoring it as it was

never going to be really desirable, being a 5 door. A 16v 3 door is a different story - they will always be in demand - so I set

about trying to find the most solid one I could. I set myself a healthy budget of £2500, but for that money, I was expecting

something pretty nice.

I looked at a few without being impressed (two rotters, one undeclared cat c write off, and one priced at £3k which looked a little

bent), before finally seeing one that ticked all the boxes, priced at about half my budget.























« Last Edit: 01 June 2010, 15:25 by tony_ack »
1992 VW Golf MK2 GTI
1995 VW Corrado VR6

Offline tony_ack

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Re: tony_ack - 16v restore
« Reply #2 on: 01 June 2010, 15:33 »
The car looks like it needs a lot of TLC, but the shell looks solid. No rust on the sills, wiper blanks, rear valance or around the fuel filler. It needs a new driver's wing, and a new tailgate as they are rotting. The bonnet has some serious lacquer peel, and is starting to rust a little too, and there's also a rust spot on the driver's door. The bumper is sagging at one side, so I will need to take a look at that. The back bumper doesn't look quite right either. The shell itself has a couple of small rust spots on the rear quarter, just below each window which will need looking at, and there's a bit of surface rust on the rear panel. There are also quite a lot of small scratches and dents over the car. It could benefit from a respray at some point.

The engine has done 162k which is high for a 16v, but it doesn't seem to knock, tap or smoke. The idle is completely buggered and the car seems to be running very rich. The ISV has been unplugged to improve the idle, so that's probably the best place to start. Also, there's a bucket exhaust on the back which is a little loud for my liking, but actually sounds okay with a throaty growl under full throttle.

The interior is looking okay, but all the front base bolsters are sagging, and the drivers seat back material is starting to go too. The rear has headrests, but they look like they have been retrofitted with front headrests rather than using genuine rears. The headlining has gone too, and an aftermarket steering wheel has been fitted. The wheel actually feels quite nice, but there's nothing quite as good as genuine VAG.

The plan is to get the car mint (eventually). The 8v was pretty tidy, and this one has a long way to go to even match that standard.

Time for the list-making to start. Here is a list of jobs to do:

Bodywork/Exterior
Treat surface rust on shell (below rear windows)
Remove dents from shell
Replace front wing
Replace tailgate
Replace driver's door/repair driver's door rust
Replace bonnet
Replace front bumper (looks like the iron has broken where it mounts to the chassis leg)
Tidy up back bumper - make sure the bumper side mounts are okay
Make sure all rivets on wheel arches are present
Remove rub strips on re-seat, ensuring all clips are okay
Replace front indicators with OEM orange ones
Tidy up front grille
Find GTI 16v front grille badge
Replace broken 'Olf GTI' rear badge
Replace VW rear badge with a chrome one
Blacken bumpers and exterior trim
Repair rear wiper (doesn't work at all, though washer does)
Re-align front washer jets
Replace driver's door handle
Remove armour plate on passenger side
Refurb wheels
Fit set of matching tyres

Interior
Fit new radio headunit
Replace dash and rear speakers
Fit door speakers with VW grilles
Fit alarm/immobiliser (I miss my remote central locking :-)  )
Get a replacement spare key
Replace headlining
Replace centre console with genuine one (the electric window switches look wrong - probably been retrofitted)
Sort out sticking sunroof deflector
Replace steering wheel
Replace golf ball gearknob as the one in there is cracked
Replace gear gaitor
Replace front passenger seat base bolsters
Replace driver's seat back material
Fit VW floor mats
Fit first aid kit

Engine
Clean/replace ISV
Check for air leaks
Set CO/Idle
Fit K&N panel filter
Oil/filter change
Replace sump
New leads, rotor arm, dizzy cap, plugs
Replace dizzy oil seal
New clutch
Tighten altenator belt (squeals like a pig!)
Change PAS fluid
Adjust handbrake
Replace exhaust with OEM system
Replace worn gear linkage
Replace cam cover gasket
Replace thermostat
Replace water pump
Replace heater matrix

That should be a good start!
« Last Edit: 03 October 2010, 11:24 by tony_ack »
1992 VW Golf MK2 GTI
1995 VW Corrado VR6

Offline tony_ack

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Re: tony_ack - 16v restore
« Reply #3 on: 01 June 2010, 15:49 »
I've had the car for three weeks now, and I've made quite a lot of progress...

I fixed the squealing fanbelt so it's no longer embarrassing to go into car parks, and I've fitted a headunit, a nice little Sony unit with bluetooth and a built-in MOSFET amp, which will hopefully handle my modest audio needs. I also took out the idle valve and gave it a good blast with some carb cleaner. I also cleaned out the intake pipes and idle screw at the same time.

I took the car to Reading for work, and then into central London too, a total of about 400 miles. The car did okay on the whole, except for when the bucket exhaust fell off (that would explain the load throaty noise!). Nearly 200 miles from home, I took it into ATS. They found the front/downpipe section to be leaking also. I asked them to patch up the front the best they could, and to replace the back box which had snapped in two. I had wanted an OEM exhaust, but I didn't really have much choice, and settled for a Timax backbox, costing £150. The car is a lot quieter now at least, and it doesn't smell quite so bad!

Also, when I was stuck in traffic, the oil temp seemed to hold at 120 degrees for long periods of time. To be honest, the oil temp in general is very high compared to the 8v, but the 8v was running Mobil 1 0W40 which may explain it.

Most worryingly, when I was stuck in traffic on the way home on the M1, I started to hear a grinding/clunking noise from the front while idling in gear with the clutch down. It only happened once when the oil temp was up at 120 degrees, and went away as soon as the revs got past 2000rpm. I'm not sure what to make of it, but I'm putting it down to the clutch for now (fingers crossed!) which slips occasionally in 4th and 5th and will need replacing soon. Could also be the bottom end, though I've had no problems at all since then, and no other signs of a failure. Still, at 162k miles, I'm thinking that a bottom end rebuild may be on the cards anyway, sooner rather than later.

Last week I was away, so I asked my folks to take it into the garage for a few jobs. He did the cambelt, water pump, thermostat and gear linkage. He also messed about with the CO and idle, and the car is a lot smoother now, and smells even less, though I could swear it doesn't pull quite as well (I may just be getting used to the power). I've also done the dizzy oil seal, changed the rotor arm, cap, leads and plugs, and put in a K&N panel filter. I was going to change the oil and filter, but discovered that the sump was rotten, so I'm going to get a new sump first.

I've covered a fair few miles to pick up some parts. I went to pick up a few parts from a guy in Derbyshire for the 16v, only to find he also had a bonnet and grille in Pearl Grey (both bits that need replacing on the 8v). So I had those too.

The grille was in pretty good condition, and the spots were perfect, so I decided to swap it for the grille on the 16v. I also repainted the red stripe in Tornado Red, which took about 1 hour to mask up and 20 seconds to spray paint! Looks good now though.

I went to pick up a headlining when I was down in Reading. Note to anyone travelling to pick up a headlining in your MK2: It does just about fit in the back of the car, but these things fall apat when you even breathe on them, so don't keep them in the back of your car any longer than you have to. Unfortunately I wasn't returning home for another three days and by the last day the headlining was starting to suffer. I eventually got round to fitting it, and it doesn't look to bad - a tiny sag around the rear view mirror, but a hell of a lot better than the old one. Unfortunately I broke a c-pillar and b-pillar trim in the process, but I guess it was a small price to pay!

I also picked up a genuine steering wheel and boss from the same guy. This had to be the best improvement I have made so far to make the car feel Golf-like again. With the aftermarket steering wheel the car felt okay but a little unfamiliar, but once the original wheel was back in again, it felt like a Golf again :-)

I have to say that the handling on this car is much better than that on my 8v, and the ride is much better. I guess the 8v is due a major overhaul and a set of new bushes and mounts.

Last weekend I went to visit my 8v which is currently holed up in my gf's parents' garage. I went to start stripping down the front end ready of the 8v for the bodyshop, but I also decided to raid it for a few parts :-)

I swapped the wheels over, as the RAs on the 16v look a little worse for wear. The rims are probably in better shape on the 16v, but the paint had worn badly. Plus the 8v had a full set of nearly new Toyo Proxes T1Rs, so it was an easy decision. I also swapped over the Golf ball gearknobs, stole the GolfGTI and VW rear badges, VW floor mats, VW first aid kit, and front door speaker covers. I was going to swap the centre console but ran out of time. I'm hoping to get the 8v repaired, so I don't want to take too much.

I'm going to slow down a little now. The car is now running pretty well and most of the work I need to do is on the bodywork. Panels in Royal Blue are proving hard to come by, so I may bite the bullet and get a pattern bumper from Big Boys Toys next week, and some paint from VW. I want to give the car a full detail too, but it seems pointless if I'm planning to replace some panels soon. After the 8v has been in the bodyshop for a jig, I may book the 16v in too to get all the dents sorted out.
1992 VW Golf MK2 GTI
1995 VW Corrado VR6

Offline tony_ack

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Re: tony_ack - 16v restore
« Reply #4 on: 05 June 2010, 01:17 »
Door speakers now installed and working  :smiley: I was quite surprised that the original door membranes were still sealed along the sides and at the bottom.

No progress on Royal Blue parts yet. Found a decent tailgate but it was off a GL, and I couldn't justify the cost of the tailgate+GTI glass and spoiler (some of the heater elements have gone on mine)+vinyl decal, and a 100 mile round trip to pick it up. Unfortuately someone has 'welcomed' my new car to the street with a 3 foot key scratch down the passenger side, from about halfway along the door right to the rear light. Some of it is through the lacquer and into the paint too. They then obviously realised it wasn't deep enough so did another scratch, about 3 inches long on the door and rear panel, down to the primer. I was considering a full respray at some point in the near future but there's really no point if they're going to keep keying it (my 8v was keyed too a few months ago).

In better news, I realised that the groaning noise coming from the engine is probably the radiator fan. I first realised when I turned the engine off the other day, and heard a loud grinding noise from the front after the engine had stopped. Then I read a thread in the MK2 section about a guy with the same problem, which confirmed it. I turned it by hand with the engine off, and it doesn't turn smoothly at all, so I guess a new one of those needs to be added to the list

More pics coming soon...
1992 VW Golf MK2 GTI
1995 VW Corrado VR6

Offline tony_ack

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Re: tony_ack - 16v restore
« Reply #5 on: 09 June 2010, 00:36 »
More pics as promised  :smiley:





















1992 VW Golf MK2 GTI
1995 VW Corrado VR6

Offline tony_ack

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Re: tony_ack - 16v restore
« Reply #6 on: 14 June 2010, 21:28 »
I have quite a lot of new parts lying around the house now, but unfortunately I've been away a lot with work recently, and not had time to fit them.

I managed to pick up a 3-door rainbow interior in better condition than mine, and the passenger bolster was perfect. So I did a bit of surgery on the seats - I swapped the perfect passenger bolster onto the driver's seat, and used a spare bolster I had on the passenger side. The spare bolster isn't perfect, but was the best one I had left, so on it went. I put some gaffer tape across the foam while it was off the frame, just to try and stop the bolsters wearing more, and to protect them.

I also had a mint rear bench, so I decided that I would fit that in place of the one on my car with the headrests. I like the rear headrests, but they're not original ones (though the person who fitted them did a good job), and they're a pain in the ass when you try to fold the rear seats down.

I vacuumed the seats, and used the Vax and some Biobrisk on them, before swapping them over. It was a 30 minute job - would have been lsess, but I decided to vacuum the carpets while the seats were out. The interior is looking pretty good now.

On Saturday, I decided to give the outside a good clean. I degreased the car with G101, cleaned the wheels and under the arches, washed and dried the car, then clayed it. Unfortunately I ran out of lubricant halfway around, but there wasn't much I could do about that.

I then set to work with the G220 polisher and some fairly harsh polishing compound to get rid of some of the swirls and scratches. It took ages, and I had to keep moving the car to keep the bit I was working on in the shade, but I got there in the end. Then, finally a coat of Smart WAX to finish her off. Looking a lot better now:













1992 VW Golf MK2 GTI
1995 VW Corrado VR6

Offline tony_ack

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Re: tony_ack - 16v restore
« Reply #7 on: 24 June 2010, 11:42 »
A bit more progress over the last 10 days, but as always it feels like one step forwards, two steps back..

The electric windows stopped working just after my last post - both of them. Luckily they were up at the time. The radio also stopped working.

My new centre console arrived while I was away last week - the one that was in the car when I got it looked a little dodgy, as the panel was sticking out beyond the console, and the switches were in the middle, rather than being on the outside. So I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone, and swap the console at the same time as fixing the windows.

The electric windows had obviously been retrofitted. I traced the wiring back to the fusebox, and located an in-line fuse that I thought was the culprit. Then I discovered that the live feed for the windows was spliced to the wrong part of the fusebox, and was getting its feed off the live for the heated rear window. I tested the heated window, and it didn't work. A quick check, and one blackened fuse replaced, and I had working windows again. And the stereo was working again too - really don't know how that's been wired up... but it works now at least.

I plan to get the wiring for the stereo and windows sorted properly at some point and get the proper loom for the windows, but it all works for now.

Finally, the earth wire between the two window switches was too short for me to put the switches in the two outer spaces in the console. So I spliced in a bit of wire, and now all is well  :smiley:

I then set to work on the rear wiper. It does kind of work, but only wipes about 1/3 of a cycle at a time. I have changed the relay, motor and linkage (which was seized before I replaced it), with no luck. So this time I was looking at the wiring.

I popped off the rubber boot between the taligate and body, and the problem was right there in front of me - someone had messed with the wiring. To be fair I guess the wires had broken, and someone had fixed them, using some new wire, and some block terminals. One of the wires had come out of the block terminal. I put it back, tightened it extra tight, and hey presto! - one working wiper. I adjusted it all up to make sure it was in the right place, and it's spot on now.

I've also been collection bits of interior trim, and now was a good chance to replace the bits that I had butchered when changing the headlining. I finally managed to secure the bit that was hanging loose at the back (the bit that holds the back of the headlining up), and I swapped over the broken C-pillar and B-pillar trims on the passenger side. I also found the pivot washer for the rear seatbelt which I had previously lost, so that works properly too now.

That's about all for now. I've still got a lot of parts waiting to go on, but I'm running out of the easy jobs to do.

I got a new alarm immobiliser fitted last week - I went for the Toad AI606 following recommendations of the forum. I was going to go for a shock sensor, but don't want it to go off every two minutes, so I stuck with the standard offering. But I've got remote central locking now, so I'm happy
1992 VW Golf MK2 GTI
1995 VW Corrado VR6

Offline tony_ack

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Re: tony_ack - 16v restore
« Reply #8 on: 26 June 2010, 16:49 »
I woke up this morning thinking 'I want to do some work on the car'. I looked in my parts emporium to see what I could do. Not much unfortunately - I have a new sump to go on, but that will have to wait until I can get some off road space, or I can take it to a garage. Same goes for the new gearbox oil (some Redline MTL to attempt to hide the second gear crunch when cold!). I've also got a new clutch to put in, but I don't think I'm brave to attempt that myself.

Then I found a new cam cover gasket, so I decided that replacing my leaky seal was going to be the job for today. I also have a repacement ISV which I had cleaned last week, so I would give that a go too.

ISV was easy - one connector off, two pipes off, then swap and reconnect everything.

Got the inlet manifold off okay, and the cam cover was a doddle too. The new gasket was a genuine VAG part and fit like a glove  :smiley:

When putting everything back together, I found a vac pipe that didn't seem to connect to anywhere. (see: http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=159333.0 ) Everything was connected up properly, and the car ran okay with it disconnected. I decided in the end to plug it and the car seems a little smoother now (possibly the ISV), smells far less rich, though possibly a touch down on power. If that pipe wasn't connected last time the CO was set about a month ago it probably threw the settings a fair way out. Time to take it in to be set again...

I gave the inlet manifold a bit of the clean around the oil cap, where some owners (me included  :embarassed:) have spilt a bit of oil over the years when topping up. I also cleaned up the oil that had previously leaked out of the cam cover gasket.

Now I was into the swing of things, I decided to look for other things to do. I felt brave, so I took the battery out to see what sort of state the inner wing was in. Turns out it was quite good actually. Most of it was okay, with a couple of rust spots. I tried to put my finger through the biggest one, but it was pretty solid. I gave the whole area a good degrease and then a blast with the hose, before wiping up the exces water and letting it dry in the sun. I'll add the inner wing to list of touch-up repairs for the body shop - may as well treat the problme now before it gets worse.

Next I had a look at the bumper again. The iron is broken, so I had previously fixed it up with cable ties in an attempt to make it look straight. It was looking pretty bent again now though, and I discovered my cable-tie arrangement had snapped. Time for a new cable-tie! I mounted it a little better this time though, and it looks a lot straighter this time. I've actually got a couple of new front bumpers from BBT at my parents which I need to pick up at some point. For good measure I soaked the bumper bolts in WD40 - hopefully it should start to loosen them a little for when it is time to change the bumper.

Finally another wash and another coat of Smart WAX. I had wanted to put two coats of wax on in my mega detail a couple of weeks ago but didn't have time, so this should sort me know for a couple of months :smiley:
1992 VW Golf MK2 GTI
1995 VW Corrado VR6

Offline tony_ack

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Re: tony_ack - 16v restore
« Reply #9 on: 03 July 2010, 00:26 »
I'VE FOUND THE PANELS I NEED! I'm collecting them tomorrow. It's actually from a guy who is breaking one of the other Royal Blue valvers I looked at before I bought mine. The car had been a Cat C write-off, and the owner never knew (or claims to have never known). The guy who bought it wanted to do it up, but couldn't justify throwing money at it that he would never get back, so is stripping it. From what I remember, the bonnet and driver's wing are mint, as these were replaced after the write-off a couple of years ago, and I'm assured the other panels I'm after are in excellent condition too. The car also had some colour coded mirrors, so I'm having them too.

My folks are also bringing over the big front bumpers I've got, so it's all starting to come together now.

As for other parts, I picked up a standard downpipe and manifold this week. I found that the manifold had a crack in it when I got home, but I wasn't too fussed as I don't need it, the downpipe is nearly new and I got it all quite cheap.

So I'm at the point where I have pretty much all the parts I need!!

Due to the lack of a drive, garage or workshop, I'm going to book it into a garage in the coming weeks for the following:
-Change clutch
-Replace downpipe
-Replace sump
-Oil and filter change
-Change gearbox oil
-New brake fluid
-New PAS fluid
-Set CO and timing, test k-jet system and check for vac leaks.

I'd better get my wallet out....

The car has been better since I plugged the random vac pipe last week and changed the ISV, but the idle started racing a little yesterday when the engine was hot. Seemd okay again today.

Then this afternoon the lock on my driver's door went a bit crazy (see http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=159944.0) but at least I'm not locked out and can still open the driver's door!
1992 VW Golf MK2 GTI
1995 VW Corrado VR6