dscam - mk2 16v Royal Blue Resto

[jv]

here you go

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Well at long last I'm hoping to bring you a bit of the story of my efforts at restoring my 1990 Mk2 Gti 16V.

I bought the car in March 2005 and having found it to be structurally sound, felt it would be an excellent car to restore to it's former glory  

Finished in reasonably rare Royal Blue metallic (LOA5U02), virtually standard and with the seldom ever seen headlight washer jets fitted as standard (with 8 litre wash bottle!) was another deciding factor that this was a worthy project.

The paintwork had seen better days with some DIY looking repairs and the usual rust around the plinth on the tailgate.  There was also a large patch under the n/s door mirror but thankfully the arches were totally sound as was the sunroof channel.

Let the work begin!

Some pics not long after I bought the car:





 

 

 





Rust under mirror:



Rust on tailgate plinth:



Rust starting around wiper blank:

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Some other problems I noted with the car were that the sunroof seal was completely perished making it almost impossible to slide back.  This was fortunate as it meant the sunroof had not been used in a long time and therefore no water had managed to get into the channel or mechanism.  Any rust forming here can make the project pretty unfeasible due to the work required to try and cure the problem. 

On removing the seal and roof the deflector and arms were totally shot and a new set were obtained (I toyed with chrome but stuck with black for now)   I got a new seal from GPC and all this was to be refitted after the new paint.

Pic showing the new parts fitted up:



Next up was the removing the BBS RA's for refurbishing.  Considering they were 15 years old they weren't looking too bad but had the usual kerbing and peeling lacquer.  My plan for these was to have them stripped, powder coated the pianted and re-lacquered.  In the meantime I fitted some 14" Montreal alloys (now for sale with brand new tyres!) for the car to roll on:



The car went to the bodyshop who set about stripping the shell of all the trim, bumpers, doors, bonnet and tailgate.

 

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When the tailgate and doors were removed it also appeared the wiring had been fairly hacked-up over the years with various alarms and stereo equipment being fitted by less than professionals!






Any non-standard wiring was removed and the whole thing re-insulated where necessary.  The loom was tidied up and new speaker wire run throughout for decent speakers to be fitted in the factory positions later.

I also got hold of an almost mint tailgate to replace the original:



As you can see, there is a small crease/dent in the top edge but this was easily sorted and there was no rust at all which was key.  The paint was dark grey but obviously this would be stripped and sprayed anyway.  I was pleased to see it came with a working rear wiper motor and a linkage which was properly set....saved me at least 1 extra job!

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A common rust trap on Mk2 Gti's is on the arches under the plastic trim.  The rear arches were very nice indeed with only 15 years worth of dust and dirt on them:



 



Sadly the fronts had not fared so well and had rust starting on the lip under the plastic trim.  The arches were stripped off



 

 

and new OE parts obtained from VW and fitted:





I know there are some good pattern parts available but I bought one to try and it was a terrible fit.  On something as obvious as the front arches I wanted a perfect fit and finish and the genuine parts are a safe bet as you can see (don't ever pay full price if possible....and if you are buying 2 then a discount can be haggled!)

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Whilst the bodywork was being attended to I set about having a go at polishing up the inlet manifold.  This is before:



This is as I'm about to start work with a brass flap wheel, brush and much time with some steel wool cloth (much better than normal steel wool as you can pull it easily between hard to reach crevices etc:



I will get some pics of the finished result posted up soon!

For anyone thinking of tackling this I would only say it is one of the most laborious jobs you can imagine!  It's easy to get a decent looking finish after 15-20 minutes with the brush on the drill but all you are seeing is the grease and muck removed.  To start getting some kind of polished finish takes hour after hour of work and the shape and curvature of the inlet and manifold make it SO hard to get a consistent finish....gives me cold sweats just thinking about it again!

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Bodywork progressed slowly on the car.  It was masked and taped up and primer applied. 



 

Gradually it was flattened and minor fills made where necessary and the process repeated until a perfect surface was achieved:



Obviously all the glass was removed and this was cleaned seperately. Where possible waxoil was sprayed into cavities and on the back of panels but it is testament to the factory that the car was seriously dosed in rust-proofing which was still working very well.  As has been reported elsewhere, on a hot day you can often see the run marks on the rear panel of a MK2 where the hot rust-proofing runs down the panel seams!

Some more close-ups:










In the pic above you can see the wiper/scuttle panel.  I considered filling the wiper blank holes to stop any future rusting, but to keep things original I decided to keep the holes and fill them with the factory grommets.  Again, these areas were totally rustproofed before painting.

Another weak point that is sometimes overlooked when considering a Mk2 is the area around the fuel filler neck/flap.  Although not prone to the same rusting as Mk1's it is still worth checking.  Luckily my car was sound here and no work required:

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One of many parts that caused me some problems were on the inner sills.  On the '90 spec cars the side skirts mount onto the sills and the upper edge runs under the lower lip of the door, resting on the kick plate area.  Now, from the factory a piece of textured vinyl was applied to the sill here to protect the paintwork from the plastic side skirt rubbing on it.  It is mabe easier to show on these pics:



The vinyl fits on the narrow edge on the outer part of the sill:



As with all things that seem simple, obtaining these was not!  The vinyl strips are obsolete from VW and nobody does a replacement.  When I made some enquiries I was told most people just leave these off as they aren't really important.

I could see that it wouldn't make a huge difference whether I had these fitted or not but being a bit stubborn and a perfectionist I wanted to try and come up with something.

In the end I managed to get some trim tape which was meant for early Gti's and Jettas and fitted on the swage line I think (you can see them rolled up in the pic below).  With a bit of fiddling and cutting to size these were going to do the job!



I'll get some pics posted later showing these fitted to the car for anyone that's as sad as me and is interested!

I had similar problems with the rear black decal for the tailgate....I'll come on to how I solved this one later....

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Gradually the shell progressed towards painting which was to be done with 2 final coats of primer and 3 top coats of paint with 2 coats of clear lacquer:









The doors were next to be prepped and due to the passenger door having been left to corrode so badly I decided to replace it with a good donor door:



The drivers side door was in very good condition and just needed rubbed down and prepared to the standard of the 'new' door.

Inside the door frames were a lot of electronic gubbins wired into the central locking.  This had obviously been part of some alarm system that was now defunct so I took the lot out and binned it.  Made the door a few pounds lighter in the process!

Once painted I also renewed the plastic membrane that sticks to the door frame.  Again these are not available from VW but you can easily make some up with heavy duty plastic or even builders rubble bags, cleaned and cut to fit.  I opted for a transparent heavy plastic just so I could see any components without having to remove it should I need to at some point. 

My car is fitted with electric door mirrors and the mounting for the control switch was loose and required a bit of fabrication on the back of the door card.  I'm still not 100% happy that it is totally secure but I'll re-look at this and post some pics later on.  I also ran the new speaker wire through the plastic membrane before re-fitting the door cards.

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While all this work was progressing I got the BBS back from the metal refinishers.  They stripped the wheel, bead balsted and then powder coated the alloy.  When returned the wheels looked like this:



The finish was very good but the powder coating does leave a slight 'orange peel' effect.  Also, as you can see the standard colour is very dark grey.

After some asking around I decided a good colour to paint the wheels would be in Diamond Silver Metallic from the VW palette (LO97A02).

I thought this would give the wheels a little sparkle without being too bling, and also close to the original finish.  After a lot of work and 2 coats of lacquer the finished article ready to go for tyre fitting:



I'm pretty chuffed with them and hopefully even if the outer paint deteriorates over time, the powder coating will keep the wheel intact so they can just be repainted.

To finish off the wheels I had to get hold of some original BBS centre caps.  I was lucky to get hold of a set and you can see them here next to the original set which were all flaking and peeling: