Day 2 and I decided it needed a damn good clean, polis and back to black. The results are pleasing indeed. It appears under years of grime and neglect there’s a pretty straight and tidy car.
Day 3 and Mark (VeedubGTI16v) kindly came round and helped me change the cambelt and tensioner. Well when I say he helped me what I actually mean is he did it while I tried to make myself feel useful by making tea, rolling him fags and chatting rubbish while he worked away. The net result of all this was a gleaming new camblet and my power steering no longer squeeking on full lock!
After a couple of days shake down I compiled a list of things needing attention.
* Nasty rattle from rear suspension
* Ignition switch needs to be wiggled to start it. New barrel required me thinks!
* Interior stinks, needs a decent clean.
* Drivers side rear electric window not working.
* All windows and sunroof need mech greasing up.
* Rear wiper needs to go (It doesn't work anyway).
* Coilovers need to be ordered and fitted.
* Steels need repainting.
* One front fog needs replacing
* New plates
* Gear linkage needs attention.
The gear linkage finally broke and after phoning round I found that it’s rather expensive and VW only. In super bodge mode I repaired it for £7 with items bought from Robert Dyas. Seems to be holding OK for now but I have a more permanent bodge in mind for the weekend and a used replacement to keep in reserve. It lloks a nightmare to change so not going to do it till I really have to.
I also decided to investigate the rattle from the rear which turned out to be the rear drivers side calliper not being attached to the hub. It looks like when Chris changed the wheel bearing he forgot to torque up the bolts and they rattled out, this would explain the noise I heard on the way home from collecting it. I’m collecting some new bolts from VW today and fitting them tonight so we’re back in action!
Coilovers were ordered today and I expect to have them land on my doorstep middle of next week. So the plans for this weekend are:
* Repaint steels white
* Steam clean interior
* Investigate non working E/W
* Grease all the windows and sunroof mechs
* Remove rear wiper and gromit the hole.
That’s all for now folks!