GolfGTIforum.co.uk
Model specific boards => Golf mk2 => Golf mk2 gallery => Topic started by: jv on 15 March 2005, 21:53
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:tongue:
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background:
for starters i have done almost everything to my golf my self. its the first car i've had that i've cared about and have learnt everything as i've gone along. its been an education and i've surprised myself with how much i've learn't and how friendly the golf 'scene' is. i came close to selling it a few times but so glad i decided to keep it!!
I always wanted a mk2 gti and after spending a while playing with minis and being a student i could afford one without getting stung for insurance and getting in debt.
So not knowing anything about golfs i started looking at a few, test drove several and knew instantly that i had to have one! a few fairly local ones popped up but i wasn't too keen on any until i found one in woking. i arranged to meet the guy and when he pulled up i was very happy with what i saw and had a feeling i'd buy it! the first thing i noticed was the BBS split rims! i've always thought these suited the mk2 so was very happy and a few days later went back and haggled till i got a fair price.
i was happy as larry for a few weeks but after working with a couple of boy racers i decided i wanted to lower it. i bought a set of bilstein streetlines ( i think, whatever gibby bought!) and one weekend decided i'd have a go at fitting them myself. i was surprised how easy it all went and was very happy with the results!! handled better and looked better as well. end of chapter one!
ok so next on the list of things to do was to sort out the nasty orange on my lights! a quick call to euro car parts sorted me out with a set of half smoked rear lights, smoked side repeaters and smoked bumper indicators. i chose smoked ones as they make the indicators sort of disapear into the bumpers where as clear ones, while looking nice, will stand out. i wanted to go for the simple look.
not knowing anyone into cars let alone golfs, meant i made my first trip to gti international on my own, i found it very inspirational and took loads of photo's. it was also great to see some of the cars i'd seen in the golf magazine and i also spent alot of time looking at all the detailed BBS and getting jealous. i took a pic of a black g60 and knew that was how i wanted my car to look. it wasn't radical in any way but summed up what i always liked about mk2's. it was clean, simple, low and still had a slightly menacing look to it, like although it was almost standard you wouldn't want to race it!
At gti international i picked up a jetex response air filter for a bargain show price and slapped it in in the car park, while i had the air box open i thought i'd pull out all the gubbins from inside to see what difference it made. needless to say it never went back in!!
i then decided i wanted a set of big bumpers and got given a front one, already painted black and slapped that on with a set of smoked indicators for that as well.
i also decided i wanted a single headlamp grill but didn't want to get the same one as everyone else so had a go at making one myself! i decided i was going to mesh one and i liked how it looked for a while but looking back at it its not too nice!!! it also shows how lofty my car looks compared to how it does now!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/PIC0008.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/PIC0007.jpg)
thats it for the time being, then i think i went for more power!!!
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this has been quite funny trying to write this!
i've kept every receipt for everything i've bought over the 4 years i've had this car and i had to go back and look through them to work out what i've done and when i did it!
ok, so in jan '01 i had read 'the golf' magazine (now golf+) about a company called 'speedtech' who made exhausts for vw and audi, and they seemed to have a high standard of workmanship and their mk4 demo car impressed me as much as the shots of their showroom. so venom were/are the uk importers/distributors of these exhausts so i phoned them up to ask a bit more info. i couldn't afford their f1 stainless system at the time but they told me that they had one, unpackaged that had been used for the press photo's etc. whether this was true or not was irrelevant as they said they'd do me a deal on it and offered me the stainless system for the same price as the mild system, saving me over ?100!! so i had to get it didn't i?!
it arrived and i was so happy, as you can probably see from my sig pic, it has a sort of squarish letterbox style tailpipe, which i think suits the mk 2's boxy shape well. it fitted on easily and i did it while at work in my breaks?! hoping it would fit right so i could get home! it was pretty loud but sounded quality, rather than boy racer crap loud!
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one more thing, i forgot to say about when i bought the car was the fact that it had a genuine (with receipt from vw) VW Motorsport gearknob and combined gaiter!! the nicest thing about this is that the knob and gaiter are joined so it blends from the knob to the gaiter with no join. god knows how they do it, i've tried to replicate it in so many ways but it never works that well!!! heres a pic so you can all get jealous of this rare as hell beauty!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01107.jpg)
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so by now my confidence with working on cars had risen. like i said before i can't quite remember the ins and outs of how i went about doing things but looking back through my files of car stuff i realised how much stuff i did.
but after saving some money for something that i never ended up buying, i found i had a bundle of cash with nothing to spend it on! so i bought a cam kit. around the same time as doing this in 'the golf' magazine (again!!) they had just done a test on a same age digifant as mine with various different cams in it and the one that gave the most improvement in performance was the piper 285h. so i bought one with corresponding springs, cups etc. i then set about the scary task of stripping it all down. i took the head off at the same time and renewed the valve stem seals and ground down the valve seats as well. with the new cam in place it appeared that the lobes were all to one side of the followers which i wasn't too happy with and when lined up with the original cam they seemed miles out!
so with the wonders of modern technology i took some photos and emailed piper and they said that it was intentional as the followers spin as the lobe pushes down on them thus making them wear evenly. so i slapped it back in but couldn't get it to idle well, due to how lumpy it was. so i ordered up a vernier pulley and booked it in to get it tuned properly. plus it was blue and shiney so looked cool! i used to manage a motorway service station and they had this awesome forecourt cleaner that they used with a stean cleaner so every now and then i'd give my engine a blast, worked wonders!! wish i still worked there sometimes. so with the pulley on it was up and running and the mid range boost when the cam properly kicked in was awesome! my car did idle badly but sounded dangerous and was a bit faster so i was happy!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01121.jpg)
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being that i can't remember what i did when and i'm sure you lot don't really care too much, i'm gonna do a quick few posts of what else has been done.
as is obvious from my sig pic i have a flushed tailgate!! i'm getting a bit bored of it now but i always liked the smooth look of them. so i got a local guy to do it who's work i'd seen before. he did an amazing job and only charged me £60 which i thought was pretty good. it still looks as perfect as it did back then. unfortunately the guy had an accident not long after doing it and is now paralysed, poor sod, really nice guy too.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01113.jpg)
^^exhaust is wonky because at the moment its just hanging there!
so as my golf was a small bumper i got hold of a second hand set of 90 spec arches, side skirts, rear bumper, and rubbing strips to do the job properly. i then set about smoothing them all off to colourcode them. i borrowed a compressor and spray stuuf and did them all over a week. they weren't amazing but for a first effort i was pleased with my spraying. a bit of cutting got them up nice.
thats pretty much how my car stayed for a while then a friend told me of a rumoured rallye in a local breakers. we searched around for it and eventually found it hidden away. it was in a right mess from the front end crash and the guy who owned it had done some very odd things to it. but the interior was in it, mouldy as hell and with speaker holes cut in the rear door cards so i haggled with the owner of the scrapyard and got it for £225.
i also got a momo corse steering wheel for £20 and they gave me a bag of other trim bits they'd removed from the car which went straight on ebay.
i took the seats home and attacked them with a can of vanish, a spoon and scraped out all the sh!t from them! stuck them infront of a radiator for a day and they looked like new! was very pleased. the only downside of the whole day was blowing a head gasket on the way home but i was so chuffed with my scrap yard find i wasn't too bothered!
that was a pain in the arse but not too hard to fix.
a week later i went back and the car was stripped of anything going apart from a set of happich pop out windows which i bought for £20 with the intention of fitting them as well but when i moved house i sold them for £110, nice profit!
only pic i've got is of the steering wheel which was always a classic one for mk2's!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01108.jpg)
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i then got a new job, moved house and considered selling the golf as i had a company car. while i still loved it i thought it was a bit of a waste having it sitting there not being used.
i even sold the rallye interior as i knew i'd be selling my car on and got offered more money than i could refuse for it. so i stuck my old cloth back in.
the rear breaks had gone, so i decided i'd put mk4 calipers on it. i got the goodridge conversion hoses from c&r enterprises along with a set to do the fronts. while trying to re-do the lines on the rear i managed to damage one of the solid hoses and decided to re-new them as well as the whole system was going to be pulled apart. but due to sh!tty weather, not having a garage and generaly having no entheusiasm i took forever to get the brakes done. in fact considering i didn't drive the car for so long i probably bought more parts for it than when i was fully into it!!! i don't know why but i just had the urge to buy stuff for it.
i spent ages on ebay and pvw's classifieds buying up stuff like a now unavailable Eibach strut brace, chrome rocker cover and a few other tweaks.
i also spent a long time in scrap yards finding some good stuff like these on certain audi's
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01112.jpg)
i worked out how to adapt these to fit and then found loads of sets in various scrap yards so sold about 10 sets on ebay!!
i also found these one day and have since seen some on ebay for around £40!!!!! crazy!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01111.jpg)
i also decided to delock my doors and got a set of rear handles and converted them to fit, with some polished inserts all from a scrap yard.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01116.jpg)
and i bought a set of door kickplates from trimsport in brushed aluminium but wished i'd got polished stainless now. i may buy some new ones!!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01118.jpg)
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buying the chrome rocker cover made me realise that along with my chrome door locks/handles/inserts i wanted more bling!
with my engine bay looking clean, i painted the gearbox and the block in black engine paint. i'd already cleaned up my head and manifolds when i did the head gasket so i started to buy various chrome bits to smarten it up some more. i thought i had some pics of my engine but can't find them so sorry about that. i did various little things to the exterior like remaking my grill and colourcoding the gti badges.....
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01115.jpg)
and from this:(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01119.jpg)to this:(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01120.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/engine1.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/engine2.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/engine3.jpg)
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right so back to the mechanical stuff. after sorting my rear brakes, i found a guy just up the road selling a set of g60 hubs,calipers,brand new pagid fast road pads, brand new bottom ball joints etc, basicly everything to convert my 239mm to the 280mm versions. all for £80!! not bad! all i had to buy was new discs so i got a set of brembo's.
i fitted them after painting the calipers black but couldn't get the pressure to hold. i bled them several times but couldn't get them right. it was then i got put in touch with a bloke who has been so much help and has become a good friend ever since. he's called john mitchell and has his own tuning business called john mitchell racing (07974 020 031) or jmr for short. he has an awesome 16vg60 corrado and is one of these people that just 'knows'!! he sorted my brakes out and since then he's helped me out a few times and is a top bloke that i would have no problems reccomending anyone to.
so thats my car sorted up and running and i'd also bought a leather g60 interior from a guy up in slough. its basicly a standard leather interior but being from a left hand drive the drivers seat is perfect!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/mycarinterior.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/leather.jpg)
i'm sure other stuff happened but cant remember! i had made a sh!tty set of door speaker pods to house some jbl components i'd bought and decided i didn't like them so i thought i'd have a crack at making some more. i had another set of door pockets laying around so cut and fillered till they looked good, then got some leather and covered them. i was kinda pleased.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01109.jpg)
the old ones i'd made had the tweeters built in as well so this time i decided i'd try and make them fit in the door mirror covers. it took a bit of trial and error as there is f**k all room behind there and i wasn't going to cut the metal out of my door!! but i think they look pretty good!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01110.jpg)
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as i said before my car came with the lush 3pc BBS RS047, and one morning half asleep at about 5am, i clipped a curb and dented one of my rims. so i thought this was a good time to re-furb them and so got a set of teardrops to run around on.
in true fashion, i spent my sweet time doing them and ummed and arred about how wide i wanted to go and what colour to paint the centres. i also wanted to chrome my bolts but couldn't get a decent price for them and couldn't find anywhere to supply them. now you can get them from loads of places. anyway i went wide on the back and kept to 7" on the front because i couldn't be arsed to have to sort out rubbing issues as my car now sits looooow. the centres were powder coated a similar gunmetal grey to the colour i'd done my badges and a few people weren't sure but when they are on the car they look awesome!! i was very happy when i pieced them up. i also found a set of titanium bolts on ebay from the same guy who i bought my leather interior from. funny thing was he offered them to me before and wanted £150 for them, in the end i won them on ebay for just over £70!!! reeeesult!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/bbs1.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/bbs3.jpg)
some pics when i first built them up, looking mighty shiney!!!!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/wheels2.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/wheels1.jpg)
a silly thing i did when re-building the wheels was to make sure the 'titan' stamped on the bolts all faced the same way!!! i'll get a pic to show you what i mean!!
so i was now too scared to get the f**k*rs dirty and because the winter was drawing in i needed a set of winter wheels. i still had the teardrops and had a set of le castellettes but as my brakes had grown i had to get a set of "15's and as luck would have it a friend of a friend had just bought a golf and wanted it to look more original so wanted a set of teardrops in stead of his "15's. so i arranged a swap and got his set of 5 sebrings off a corrado!! they were a bit scabby so i refurbed them quickly and painted the centres a gunmetal grey with silver outers to sort of match my BBS, poser eh?
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01114.jpg)
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so we're getting close to where i'm at at the moment. i did a few other things like getting some crystal headlights and a set of half smoked crystal rears, just to update things a bit. i went to a few no-rice shows before it got moved to fleet, which is just that bit too far from me now. which is a shame because i enjoyed going there alot.
at the end of the summer i was getting pissed off with my job and a few weeks later quit to train as a trimmer. i love cars and although i seem able to do most things i didn't fancy becoming a mechanic and i don't think i've got the patience to be a sprayer/bodywork person. so becoming a trimmer seemd like a good thing to learn. i trained with a few guys who were good to me and let me do things that i wanted, but the downside was that i wasn't getting paid alot and in the end i had to go back to work. in this time though i had learnt alot and still do a bit of trimming in my spare time.
however, during this time of poverty and about the same time as i started posting on here, i managed to f**k my car up. i was driving around and it kept misfiring. then it went pop bang bang splutter etc till i got home. i couln't start it and got a pressure test done it and one cylinder was way down so i had to get it over to johns to investigate further. was a depressing day. pissing down and having my car loaded on the back of a lorry, but it looks quite good in the photo so i don't mind showing it!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/e50ad178.jpg)
me and john tried a few things and he had it running sweet for a while but in the end it was obvious something was wrong so i decided to get the engine out.
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right so if anyone's looked at my gallery they may have seen a few of these pics but i'll put them in order with a few bits of explaination.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/engineinpieces.jpg)
engine looks quite clean though!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/enginereadytocomeout.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/engineout1.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/engineout3.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/engineout2.jpg)
so thats the engine coming out!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/pistonsout.jpg)
thats the pistons out
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/fedpiston.jpg)
and thats the problem piston!!!
so this lead me down the road of, i'm as good as unemployed, no transport, buggered engine. i looked at a few engines but they were all so high mileage or a bit dubious so i wasn't sure what i was gonna do.
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so i got a bit depressed, thought of lots of things i could do found a set of electric recaro's in a scrap yard. quite funny conversation i had trying wangle them cheap as possible.
me "hello mate, how much for a mk2 golf interior?"
him"which one?"
me"just the one one in that blue one"
him"oh that one"
me"yeah, how much?"
him"hmmm well they're recaro's they are"
me thinking "arse he knows what they are"
him"so they'll have to be fifty quid"
me"ok, i 'spose so, i'll go and get some tools"
then ran off with a massive grin on my face knowing how much they're worth!!!
i intended on re-trimming them and putting them in my car but at the end of the day knew i was skint and i could sell these and put the money towards sorting my engine! so i offered them up for sale, sold them and made £250 for 10mins in a scrap yard and 10 mins on the internet!! but they were nice seats so i kept a photo of them!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/recaros.jpg)
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so i got another job, started to become solvent again so decided to sort my engine. i talked through the best options with john and we decided he'd polish and port my manifolds and throttle body. he'd get a friend of his who builds touring car engines to polish/port/gas flow/whatever my head. i've seen some of his heads before and he does excellent work. then i'd have the bottom end bored out to 1900 and re-new all the bearings etc while i was at it. and as john is an authorised miltek dealer he'd put a g60 downpipe on which is an amazing piece of kit. so this is all being done at the moment. my head is due back next week, later than expected. the pistons are here waiting to be put in the block which is waiting to be bored out next week so here's some stuff i did while i was deciding what to do and getting other things sorted.
i pulled out my dash and replaced the bulbs and filters with red ones and wanted to fit some VDO gauges so started with this mess.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00864.jpg)
with help from this site, i sorted out the wiring for the gauges
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/gaugeswiring.jpg)
then built a pod for them and set them into my dash.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01117.jpg)
then took some photos showing where i'd moved the stereo down to where the ashtray was because i was quite pleased with how it all came together!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/interiorfront.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/dash1.jpg)
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with my engine in bits and being a bit of a cleaning freak i took all sorts of bits to my dads work and stuck them in a bead blaster to see how they'd come up. they came up good!!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/partsblasted1.jpg)
then i painted some bits. i wanted to chrome alot of parts but i've got to be realistic here! so painting did the job, i also put some metalflake laquer on for a bit of a laugh. not sure if it looks hit or not though!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00849.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00850.jpg)
and while i was at it i cleaned and painted my gearbox
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/gearboxpainted2.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/gearboxpainted1.jpg)
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kinda hit a bit of a stand still. pistons haven't arrived which is annoying because they were promised to me over a week ago now. and the head isn't back yet so not much to report engine wise. but here is a pic of the new piston from the people i bought them off. wow fascinating!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/newpistons.jpg)
other than that been having a clean up in my engine bay and hiding as much wiring as possible. i didn't think i'd done too much but looking back at some old pics i've cleaned it up quite a bit.....without going over the top!
one bit that was the most mankiest was the master cylinder:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/mastercylinder.jpg)
it was one big scab of rust so i had a few options. 1. buy a new one, wasn't worth it as the old one works fine. 2. buy a chromed one. this was high on my list but was also kinda high in price so i'll save that for later. and 3. clean up and make the best of the old one. i did this, got a wire brush on a drill and attacked it not expecting much. the plan was to tart it up a bit, but knowing me, once the rust was gone (it came up surprisingly well!!) it was flatter than i thought! so i primered it, filler primered it, smoothed it off, filler primed it again, smoothed it off then gave it a coat of vw's finest black stuff!, its not perfect but it'll do till i can justify a chromed beauty!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01135.jpg)
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ages back i was speeding down the road minding my own business when i noticed something creeping up over the bonnit. when i stopped i realised that the grill/eyebrow spoiler had a crack coming from one of the mounting screws and was causing it to lift. i told my self i'd fix it when i got home with some adhesive or something. anyway to cut a long story short, i forgot and drove to my mates house a good 20 miles away later that night. got to his house and told him about it, we went and had a look and the air had a bit more pwer to it than i thought and the spoiler had torn off!! stupid thing was i didn't even notice it come flying off!! must have either been going fast or just not paying attention!
anyway got another one thats waiting to go on as part of the make over but thought i'd add it on here anyway!
other things i've bought that are sitting in waiting are a set of audioscape doorpods. at the end of the day they are better than my homemade efforts and i got them at an irresistable price *cough*£85includingpostage*cough* so they'll be part of the interior make over. didn't see the point in putting them on for a few months.
also only for a cosmetic point of view, i got hold of a sprinter wing vent that'll be welded in when money allows. i say for a cosmetic point of view as i'm sure they do little to add to the amount of air going into the filter box. this is because of something called the bernoullie effect, which is something to do with the air pressure rushing past the car being higher( or is that lower?) than that in the engine bay thus sucking air out. eitherway i doubt i'll notice any difference but it'll look cool i hope.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01134.jpg)
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nothing much to say as i spent the weekend with my girlie doing rude things and enjoying the weather!!!.... but got woken up early on saturday by a nice delivery man who handed me my pistons so there should be no holding back now!!!! just got to drop the block off to be bored and then start piecing it all back together, by which time the head should be back and then it can all get bolted back in there!! getting excited now!!!
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just read studubs thread about getting his car ready for inters.....4 weeks!!!!!! i've just got into panick mode and am now scared i'm not gonna make it!!! i really need to pull my finger out now!! thats all folks, expect more soon as i rush around trying to get stuff done!!
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thanks to mr jv, i managed to get the old pics i had on my old pc off to put them up here. i've added some to the relevant sections but these are just some where they looked cool and my car was up and running!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/sideview.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/rearquarter.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/frontshot.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/frontquarter.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/clubgtilineup.jpg)
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ok, things are almost falling into place!!!
my head is now all back together having been returned from being polished/ported and with all new valve guides, stem seals and valves with 3 angle cut seats. i pieced it up ready to be fitted to the block once i get theat back from being bored out.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01162.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01163.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01190.jpg)
the head was done by the same guy that did the 16 valve head tophers just bought and i can arrange to get others done if anyone is interested, cheaper than TSR and all of the other tuner out there and bloody good job too!!!
i also got a solid engine mount for the front. these deliver the power a bit better and apparently cause no increase in vibration so should be good.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01186.jpg)
by the way if anyone's interested in one of these mounts i can get them for you, i think they will fit all 8v and 16v and i know there was a prototype done for a vr6 so they should also be available. these are used alot on g60's with good results. pm me for more info if you want?
also the milltek down pipe that i was after which was designed by my friend john mitchell, for miltek (and only available through him) is a great bit of kit that shows big improvements on g60's. i wanted one of these to help out with removing the old gasses but couldn't justify the relatively high cost of them at the moment as i'd need to do some exhaust tweaks to get it on. they were designed for corrado's with a cat and my pipe is just a round end so i'd need a link pipe or a plate welded on the end of what i've got at the moment, to make it fit.
anyway one came up on ebay with only a few months use. as john is the only supplier of the i asked if he knew the seller and if so the age of the pipe. he said the guy who owned it had not had it long and had drifted to the japanese market and was breaking his corrado. i bid, i won, it turned up today!!!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01188.jpg)
it looks kinda brown but is alot cleaner in the flesh so i was very happy and have saved some cash for when i get the exhaust adapted.
you can see the bore size is much larger than the exhaust manifold so should work well and my manifold is getting ported to match the head and the downpipe.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01192.jpg)
again...not that i'm trying to pimp parts, if anyone wants anymore info on these pipes i can get you in touch with john. topher will vouch for his knowledge!!!!
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well the bloke has finally got my block and is apparently doing it. i added that i wanted it a.s.a.p so with any luck it'll be back to me and pieced up soon.
other than that i cleaned up the engine bay a bit more, hid a few more wires and generally sorted things out. fitted one of the new bits of chrome in the form of a coil bracket. wow. added a home made 'chrome' cover for extra effect!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01122.jpg)
here it is in place, with the home made coil cover......
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01196.jpg)
ages ago i bought off someone on here a set of poly steering rack bushes. didn't really need them but they were so cheap! as the engine was out i thought i'd get round to doing them. i had an absolute nightmare as the bolts were in such a state that a few neede cutting off then one just would not drop out. i hammed the f**k out of it and it didn't budge, tried drilling it out but i think i must have had a sh!tty drill as i got so far then it all went blue and hardened even more!! in the end i got a blow torch and heated the subframe up and gave it another belt with the hammer and out it popped!!! wanting to do a proper job i had bought new bolts etc and the brackets as mine were rusty. they were sooo tight to fit i spent ages trying to get them on. i even took the steering rack out to try to get some proper force on the bastards but got there in the end. almost wish i hadn't bothered but they look alot better for it.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01195.jpg)
also i noticed that after a while of not driving my brakes had turned a nice shade of orange!! so i took them off, cleaned up the disc (easier than i thought it would be!) and painted the calipers. i had painted them black before to keep with the subtle look but i also thought this was a bit boring. so decided as my engine will be detailed with little bits of blue, and a certain brand of silicone hoses will go on eventually, that i'd paint them blue. they looked alright although i didn't do the best job, wasn't in the mood really but they look better than before. while the brakes were off i cleaned up the hubs etc and gave them a lick of paint too. also noticed that the coils of my springs are almost an identical colour to my fresh calipers! result!
here they are peeking out from behind my sh!tty winter sebrings
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01194.jpg)
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things have been a bit stale. i hadn't heard from the guy boring my block out since he took it so i chased him up today and he told me he's been busy and would try to get it done tonight. fingers crossed!
as a result i'm not sure wether the car will be at inters or not? on the one hand the block is the last thing that needs doing and building it up and installing it shouldn't take a weekend to do, but on the other hand i'd like to have run it in and had time to sort out any niggles so not sure how its all going to work out....
so while i was bored i decided i'd colour code my roof spoiler so took it off and took advantage of the good weather and sprayed it up. my conservatory was roasting hot today so i left it in full sunlight to get baked on!!! here it is in place, looking good!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01197.jpg)
while i was at it i gave my eyebrow spoiler another few coats as it had managed to pick up a few scratches since i did it.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01193.jpg)
and a quick pic of one of the most important mods i've ever done!!!! the infamous golfgti.co.uk sticker!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01198.jpg)
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well being a realist i'm not gonna make inters with me golf... i'll be there but just in a frickin astra!! mind you looking on the bright side the new astra is quiet, comfy, fast and being a turbo diesel very economical so i'll be shopping up at the show for finishing touches to the engine.
yesterday (bank holiday monday) i ad a spare day as my girlfriend was busy so with nothing to do i decided to smooth out the number plate recess in my front bumper. i've never really used filler before so i prepped it as i thought it should be and decided to go for it. the bumper had picked up a few dings from being on and off the car so much recently so needed working over anyway! it went alot easier than i thought. i used a piece of wood to get the radius of the front edge right then when it was pretty good i used some filler primer before sanding the bastard back. was surprised and pleased with what i achieved in the day. i guess because it was so sunny everything dried fast and speeded up the whole process. will get some pics before i paint it.
but towards the end of the day i get a knock from the guy doing my block saying he's got it outside all built up with the new pistons, new bearings as well as the crank, conrods, pistons all fitted and ready for everything else to be bolted on!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01207.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01205.jpg)
got all the gaskets apart from the metal g60 head gasket i'm going to use for piece of mind. so my evenings will be putting as much together as possible until i can get a free weekend to stick it in the car.
i also got hold of some chrome rings to go round my dials from a guy in germany. they look cool but to be honest i'm a bit dissapointed. they don't even have any way of fixing them so i think it could be tricky to get them in place without making a mess. plus it means taking my dash apart AGAIN to put them in!!! mind you while i'm doing it i might put some blue l.e.d's in there or maybe even a dial kit as i've found someone who'll do matching faces for my VDO gauges. anyway, pics of the rings:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01210.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01209.jpg)
another slightly annoying thing... i got given a set of chrome bolts for the wings but when i went to fit them they were the small washer type and on removing the old ones it was obvious where the old ones had been so i'll need to do some crafty paint work to hide this descrepancy before i fit them. or i might wait till the wing gets the vent put in and get the sprayer to do the lot.
they look pretty though!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01127.jpg)
as i said at the beginning of this post, i'll be shopping at inters and i'll be after more chrome to go with the small pile i'm amassing under my bed! some bits are biiiiiig!!!!
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just a quick update..... Mix gave me a hard time for posting on here instead of building my engine up ..... so i stopped posting and i built it!!! well, most of it. the bottom end is as built up as it needs to be and the head is all done. i just need the odd bit and a free weekend before it can go in the car. still a bit miffed its not gonna make inters but at the same time its quite exciting that its all coming together!
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engine is as built as i want it to be before putting it in, would have done it at the weekend but got held up by frickin rain and my inlet manifiold is still at my mates house. might have to hurry him up with it!!! bought a few bits at inters for it and got given a bit more bling. i then found a local chromer who's got a few more bits. wish i'd founbd him sooner as they are quite important parts in order to get the car moving!!!
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a few pics showing the nice bits that i picked up at inters:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01266.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01263.jpg)
put them all together to get a bit of an idea of how it'll look, to be honest i was a bit excited about it almost coming to an end!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01268.jpg)
got held up by waiting for my manifold to get ported. it wasn't johns fault, i did tell him i wasn't in a rush but then everything came together quite quickly so i had to hurry him up. i never realised how long they take to port out but each one takes the best part of three hours and when you see the difference you can see where the time goes!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01277.jpg)
it still looks kind mingin but thats the nature of manifolds i suppose! you can see how much larger it is and is now as big as the gasket and milltek downpipe so in theory there should be no restrictions for the exhaust gasses to escape!
so with the manifold back i built the engine up with as much as i could apart from the gearbox. i used a metal g60 head gasket as reccommended by john. its a serious bit of gasket alright!
then as i had a saturday free form my girlfriend i decided i'd get it done. i got up early and after a cup of tea went to vw to get the new studs to put in the exhaust manifold. disaster! they didn't have them!! went to german and swedish, they didn't have any!!!!!! so just as i was beggining to panic thinkiong that i'd have to wait even longer to install my engine i passed a tyre place and thought i'd give them a try........ two minutes, six new studs and the bargain price of a quid (!) i was home fitting the studs and dragging the engine outside on a sacktruck. the bloke who was meant to be lending me the engine hoist that i took it out with was no-where to be seen so i built up more and more putting all the hoses and gearbox on and waited for him to come home.
heres the car as it looked early saturday morning:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01282.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01283.jpg)
the hoist guy came home....without the bloody hoist!!! i could've killed him as he said he'd drop it off in the week, so now i was twiddleing my thumbs with no-more i could do, so i told him i was off to a scrapyard and he promised me he'd have it by the time i got back.
one of the parts thats still at the chromers is the intermediate shaft pulley, which is quite important!! so i went to a scrappy to try and find one so i could at least start it up. spent ages but got no-where. found three but could i get the f**k*rs off??!? i was begginning to lose my rag so i decided to go home and,with luck, get the hoist off alan and put my engine in.
got home, no alan, no hoist!!!!
he turned up at almost 4pm when it had started to rain!!! arseholes. but i thought i'd get as far as i could, i wasn't happy with the hoist and the cables i had to lift the thing with but had to go with what i had which meant a bit of juggling to get it lined up on the engine mounts.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01284.jpg)
but it got there:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01285.jpg)
i love the fact that you can take the whole front off golfs with a few bolts! makes life so much easier so once i'd got the gearbox mount lined up i bolted up the front crossmember with the front mount in place then dropped the engine onto the rear mount.
from then on it was a case of plugging wires in and plumbing hoses in. while i was at it i decided to put my new chrome slam panel on and built as much as i could. all that was left to do was put the radiator in (when it arrives) and bolt up the drive shafts, put the pulley on, time it up and then fit the alternator. the only reason i haven't fitted it yet is because i'm intending on polishing it up.
some pics of my engine in place:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01290.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01291.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01293.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01286.jpg)
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i'm now at the stage where i want to get it running so i have time to sort any problems for the coming local meet and definately for stonor park!!!
so i went round to johns and got a spare pulley that he had laying around and while i was there i picked up one of only three exhaust pipes he had made by milltek specificaly for the mk2 which allow the fitment of that awesome downpipe and the remaining system from a g60 corrado. which i may do at some point but to be honest i like my rear box and am gonna try to mate up my old system first and see how i get on.
pipe looks like this:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01296.jpg)
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well a bit more of an update.
it seems its only when yuo start putting things back you realise how much there still is to do! after faffing around with the exhaust sections i eventually had to make up a combination of old exhaust and new pipes. it meant i couldn't use the new silencer but milltek said they will modify the pipe so it can be added on. which is very good of them.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01302.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01305.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01306.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01308.jpg)
i then went round the car finding all the little things i had to do before i started it. i think on some level i was putting off firing her up 'just in case' it all went wrong. having never done anything like this i found it very scary! i cleaned up a bit more wiring loom, and waited for my new radiator to turn up. i used to use a big ass radiator off a turbo diesel jetta as it fills the front of the car, but with my new samco hoses it wouldn't fit so i bought a brnad new one off ebay. i waited for the guy to get in touch and in the end i drove to his on a friday night so i could crack on with it on the saturday. he was a good lad, had just bought a 20vt rallye that needed a large amount of tlc, so i left him to it with his potential 4k spend to get it back to a reasonable state! kinda put mine into perspective a bit but his should be putting out almost 300bhp!!
so anyway, got up saturday, fitted radiator, filled cooling system with vw coolant (the cool pink stuff) and genuine vw oil filter and vw quantum sytna silver oil. realised i hadn't bled the brakes so did that with vw brake fluid as well.
so that was it no more stalling.... i had to start her up! connected the battery and everything seemed fine, turned the key ISV buzzing, fuel pump primed, turned key fully............. nothing. much. starter motor wasn't kicking in, so i took it off, had a fiddle then assumed i had forgotten a wire somewhere. called my mate john who said he'd test the motor if i went over. it all came down to the fact that as i was happily painting evrything, i didn't realise the starter motor gets its earth off the gearbox...which i'd painted! so i filed it off made sure i had a decent earth on the gear box and tried again.
as the engine has had pretty much everything rebuilt it was sooooo tight i stuck an extra battery on it to give it some ooomph and wahey, it fired up and ran sweet!!! if you could've seen the smile on my face!!! i let it run, for a bit turned it off and checked for leaks. all seemed clear so i started up again and let it get up to temperature. i was one happy chappy!
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so thats my engine pretty much sorted, i still hadn't driven it as i'd sent the gear shift linkage off to the chromers with my intermediate shaft pulley, but i had borrowed one from john to get it running.
i went to a scrappy and got the relevant parts to set the gears up so i could drive it. faffed around went out got majorly pissed at a mates birthday so never got round to doing the gears. i had called into the chromers to see how the bits were coming along after they had failed to do them by their original date and low and behold they were done!! so i ran off to get some cash before picking them up.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01299.jpg)
i f**kin love chrome!!!
anyway with my new shiny bits i went out and fitted them. the gearshift set up needed a bit of tweaking to get sorted but added to the new bushes made for a sweet set up. i also fitted the blinged up pulley and took some arty photo's!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01309.jpg)
the only problem i have with having a nice amount of chrome under my bonnit is that it highlights all the crappy bits but on the whole i'm pretty chuffed with my efforts.
but as with all things good some thing will always come along and piss on you!! i came home from work and saw a little puddle of oil and feared the worst! i got under it and all i could see was a drip coming from one of the exhaust manifold studs. i checked them for tightness and found that one had chewed up the in the head. when the car was running the oil appeared to be coming from this dodgy stud so i began thinkign the worst! now i didn't think that any of the studs passed through an oil way but i let it play on my mind. i fired a few questions at a few people. you know how little things grow out of proportion when theres nothing you can do at that moment in time? so once i'd got my rational head back on i cleaned everything up and sourced the leak down to a damaged rocker cover gasket, simple swap was all that was needed but that took place on one of the busiest days of the project so far!!! that'll come next!
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well i woke up earlyish and looked at what i had to do. stonor park was on the next day and my car was no-where near finished!!!
i had to go and get a rocker cover gasket, and fit it.....
get some new bulb holders for the side lights.....
sand down the filler on my bumper..........
paint my bumper.....
make a new grill......
fit indicators and foglights to bumper.....
fit bumper....
polish car.....
clean/polish BBS.....
put BBS back on......
err thats enough things to do!!!
so anyway to cut a long story short, it all got done! i was beginning to worry a bit as i wanted to have test driven the car beforte taking it up to stonor but i ran out of time!! painting the front bumper took ages and i had to flatten it back with wet and dry then t-cut the hell out of it to get it properly flat. considering, i was very pleased with the result! the grill came out well too. in fact i don't think i actually had any problems, other than my dash lights don't work at the moment, grrr, but that wasn't high on my list of priorities!!
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so here we are, almost up to date!!
woke up early on the sunday, sorted a few things, started my car, ran fine, looked at how scared my girlfriend looked but was kinda pleased she was gonna risk an 80 mile journey, first time out all down to my mechanical skills!!!
drove off down the road, filled up with petrol, pumped up the tyres and off we went!!
it drove well, forgot how noisy it was but at the same time sounded lush! i was trying to be sensible and didn't take it about 4k revs but it felt really strong and wanted to go on and on. it was a bit hard to remember the kind of performance before but it seems to go faster at lower revs which has to be a good thing for motorway cruising. pulling off a roundabout on dual carriadgeway and it felt like it wanted to fly off and was begging for a lot of right foot!! big smiles all round!
i really like the new position of the stereo down in the centre console although as i have hardly used it, it was a bit dodgy trying to set it up and keep my eyes on the road!
we got to horney's place at just about the right time where we met up with the rest of the golfgti.co.uk crew and set off in convoy. stonor park was pretty chilled and we all parked up. i had to move as some ass parked his icecream van in front of us and wouldn't move then toofunkyhouse said he'd entered his car into the show and shine as hardly anyone else had. so i thought, f**k it why not?! entered, moved my car to the correct place then sh!t myself looking at the competition. almost pulled out but thought it'd be good to get some feedback for its first show.
popped the bonnet and got alot of pleasing noises from all that had a look, didn't do too well but didn't come last either, so that was cool.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01313.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01314.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01315.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01316.jpg)
few shots of it looking clean! and yeah i drove up with no numberplate on the front! how naughty!
i sat around on the grass as it was nice and sunny and listened to what people were saying about my car. didn't hear a bad word which was nice!
i also had a chat with james wallace from the golf+ magazine and talked about featuring my car once i'm happy with it!!! it'd be featured on the strength of what an amateur can do in the street outside his house on a very limitd budget. he took a few pics too so it'd be nice to get a small pic in the show review, but we'll have to see, there were some amazing cars there!
had a bit of a nightmare trying to start her up after the show but luckily my mate john was at the show and he seems to think its just teathing troubles, things i wanted to get sorted before any big drive but hey, once it was running it was weet for the drive home. developed a few rattles etc as things bedded in and i think the down pipe is rubbing on the cup that the steering rack gaiter sits on but altogether i was pleased with my efforts.
not done alot since then but the neighbours all asked how it went which was cool, most of them are retired so its nice that they all take an interest rather than whinging about me working in the street!
it was also a great weight off my mind to get it finished (this stage anyway!) and driven a decent distance with no real problems. on to the next stage, but that may take a little while so this is the last update for a while!! i need a break!!
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well after initially thinking i'd stop doing stuff to my car for a while i soon found myself tinkering. i was rooting around and found a bunch of parts i was storing, waiting to do them when i had a chance. so i thought i'd fit them.
first thing was to fit a set of polished tailgate lifters that i'd bought back in november i think! it was a case of un clip old, clip on new. but me being me decided it would be better to polish up the corroded ball joint things as they were a bit minging. before and after shots.....
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01321.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01317.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01319.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01318.jpg)
then i'd bought some blue LED's to do my dash and thought i might as well do them too. now i'm not great with electronics but even i found it easy enough to solder the new bulbs in. quick too! so my dash now looks loads cooler at night, especially with the VDO gauges all lit up too.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01330.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01329.jpg)
and i fitted some chrome tacho rings i'd bought from germany a while back, they look cool in my opinion so i also polished the bezels on my gauges to match. they are a bit thicker but you know me, i like my shiney things!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01374.jpg)
driving up to bugjam i manged to blow my alpine 6x9's. this is probably due to their age and the fact that they hadn't been used for he best part of a year so its no surprise really. never mind, i'd arranged to meet up with blue to purchase a nice amp/sub set up. so with my new toys i went to get a decent wiring kit and some more 6x9's. my front components are JBL's, the sub i bought off blue is JBL so it made sense to buy JBL 6x9's.
i also decided to fit my audioscape door pods. yesterday i got it all wired up and hidden throughout the interior and have arranged a sub box to be made that fits in the side so at some point after thats made i'll do a tidy install and trim it out in something funky. sounds pretty good too!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/cf59716a.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01372.jpg)
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now mechanical things. since i'd been driving my new engine i'd developed the odd starting problem which i tracked down to the blue temp sensor. it was good to drive up to bugjam as not only did it take ages but it was far away too. this meant i clocked up a few hundred more miles on my car and got to see how it handled itself in traffic etc. its now running sweet and its due its first oil change but i'll have to wait for a frickin dry day before i get on my back again.
i have done the odd thing, just neatening things up and little rattles that have been annoying me.
going up to bugjam has shown me that my tyres are definately making contact with the arches!!!! i now have no lettering on the rears! so i took it off to see about getting them sorted which doesn't seem to be a problem. i want to get another quote though as there are a few more things i want spraying up so i might have to get it resprayed a side at a time as i can't justify the price of a full respray at the moment.
next on the cards (after spray job) is sorting my interior............
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well its been a while since i added to this section, but i suppose that i haven't been doing much other than going to shows and clocking up milage. my car has done just over a thousand miles since the engine re-build and i'm loving having it back and running. it starts on the button, feels really strong, but still quite tight so give it another thousand or so miles and it might start feelling spot on!
i spent alot of weekends making the effort and getting to as many shows as i can. this year i've properly felt part of the duc 'scene' and alot of this is down to this forum and the people i've met off it.
as hoped my car did get a small pic in the golf+ magazine:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/Toofunkyhouse/DSC00075.jpg)
i was really pleased and made me feel pretty proud to be honest as it was its first outing. other than that i've just been tarting up a few things and made a sh!tty boot install which i wont show as its really not good! i will re-do it soon but seem to have so much on the go at the moment that i need to focus on.
i was trying to sort my interior out and have bought some electric recaro's which i'll re-trim, but deciding on a colour is soooo hard. i had bought some beautiful dark red leather but with all the blue on my car i didn't think it would work. i messed around on photoshop and came up with a few ideas but even now i'm still not sure! i want it to stand out and to be talked about but at the same time i don't want it to be too lairy that i won't like driving around in it! decisions, decisions! on a plus side though i took apart one of the recaro's and they are so easy! should make the re-trim alot more enjoyable!
i'm still trying to find a place to get my body work sorted. ideallly i want someone who'll do some cash in hand work on all the little bits till its all done, then take it to a bodyshop to get a full re-spray. i just can't justify the huge amounts i've been quoted when part of this project has been about doing it all on a budget. whatever happens i'll get it sorted, even if i have to learn how to weld, panel beat and spray myself!
thats all for now, looks like it'll be getting a bit of a makeover over winter with the body work, stereo install and interior all being done at once. then i  can properly enjoy the show season next year even more so than i did this year. i'd advise anyone to get out to shows. does wonders for the entheusiasm!!
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small update:
at edition 38 i bought a new rear box, exactly the same as the one i have now but with a longer tailpipe so it should clear the bumper a bit more and stop the paint from getting too warm! haven't got off my arse to fit it yet as i've been on holiday so one for the weekend.
i also picked up one of dizzie's headlamp wiring looms and they are very well made i must say. trial fitted it and it works a treat, will take the grill etc off and hide everything a bit better.
got a few things planned for it after have a good long think about where i wanted to take my golf, modification wise. it'll take time and effort but will be worth it in the end. basiclly i've taken this as far as i'm going to in its current state. the next steps will take it even further, but don't hold your breath. might have to save up a few quid.
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sorted out a good guy to do my bodywork. i've seen alot of his work and they tend to do aircooled vw's but he's very into his golfs. one of the beetles he's done has won every show its been entered in since the respray! so should be good. we're going to do it slowly with all the bits i want doing over then next month or so, with me driving around with a primered car for a while but then we'll get it in the paint shop and do the full re-spray!!
the exhaust i bought at e38 is a bit odd. doesn't fit my old system even though they are the same model?! anyway i've just got a milltek g60 system so will be putting that on. i'm in two minds to chop the old tailpipe off and mate it up to the milltek rear box. not sure yet..........
also bought a set of audi tt pedals picked them up today and with a bit of tweaking they went on fairly easily.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01676.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01677.jpg)
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friday afternoon i came home early so decided to have a go at offering up the new milltek exhaust. it fits a treat but i didn't have the right sized clamps to do it up properly so it was blowing slightly. its got a completely different sound to the speedtech one. its smoother and a bit more 'wooshy' whereas the speedtech is more angry and raw!!
anyway even though it was blowing a bit i took it out to meet up with veedubgti16v to pass on my old winter wheels. its quieter in use but can't tell any difference in performance, so with the extra silencer ive got to put in, i'll be able to do the long trips to shows and get there without my brain resonating!!
it still needs the odd tweak to get it properly sorted but i'm more than happy with it. it also now means i have a full milltek from manifold to tailpipe so the fit is better and need no reducers etc as its all designed to go together.
i also picked up my new winter wheels today!! i got a set of azev a's off ebay for a bargain price. i was pleased to see they were actually better than i was expecting! two of the tyres are going to be changed due to damaged side walls but again, happy happy happy!! couldn't be arsed to trial fit one but they should go on fine. they are et25 so may need a bit of tweaking to get right but are gonna be cool for the winter. i did want to paint them black but as they are in such good condition i cant quite bring myself to slap a load of paint on them!! the laquer is coming away on one rim so i'll probably get them properly re-furbed next year when the BBS go back on, ready for next year!
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been a bit slack updating this section!! my golf had its frist MOT since the mechanical parts had all been removed, replaced re-fitted etc, and i was pleased to say it passed!! was a very happy boy i can tell you!
i'd already been under the car and sorted the exhaust out and fitted the extra silencer so its a bit quieter but not as much as i thought it would be? anyway it was good news!
so i decided to treat the car to a bit of new toys! i'd given the guy who's doing my bodywork another rear bumper and tailgate and after a week he called me to say they were ready for collection. man alive they turned out better than i expected!! the paint is soooo deep and looks amazing. i really want some base model rear glass so i can lose the spoiler so might be doing a swap with a local lad. shame as i want to get it on the car but without glass its holding me back a bit!! got a few pics of them but they don't really do the paint justice. i'll post the pics when i upload them.
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smallish pics of the bumper and tailgate:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01729.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01733.jpg)
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i'd made some half assed attempts at installing my amps/sub etc. at first it was going quite well but i have to admit i'm sh!te at wood work and so kind built everything off the top of my head as i went along. in hindsight i'd have planned it all a bit better!!
basiclly all i wanted was to keep as much of my boot space as possible, have easy acess to the spare wheel etc, and for it to look neat.
first attempt looked something like this:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01407.jpg)
doesn't look too bad but in reality it was a bit sh!te and messy. i also bodged the rear carpet by being tight and not wanting to pay for proper carpet. so used the original stuff. it kinda worked out ok but i wasn't happy with it. the biggest problem was that i was running a pretty basic headunit with only one pre out so was splitting it between the two amps which was less than desirable!!
so after hunting around i bought a new headunit for a bargain price. i listened to alot of opinions about which h/u to buy but at the end of the day i like sony's and have never had problems with them so decided to stick with another. plus the blue display matches all the other blue bits. it also has the all important 2x preouts and 1x sub out allowing it to set up the install nicely. so i stuck that in, tweaked the amp rack so they sit below the false floor and got some proper carpet. took me a while to get it all sounding as i liked but i'm very happy with it. the stereo also comes with a remote control which was very handy when it came to setting the amps (in the boot) while adjusting the headunit (in the front, obviously!)
the flase floor is split in two so you can gain quick access to the amps or the spare wheel.
headunit:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01738.jpg)
new improved install:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01737.jpg)
next on the cards is to add some pc cooling fans under the amps so they don't go pop and me and j_s are going to see a mate of his who a bit of a ICE don, to bulid fibreglass boxes to fit in the rear wheel arch. this will neaten things up further and give me more space for next years camping/show trips!
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quick update,
was getting tetchy about the weather being sh!te which meant i couldn't fit my new tailgate etc so i went to a scrappy and got hold of some glass off a basic model golf so i can do with out the rear spoiler. i was planning on fitting it at the weekend then had the bright idea that at some point i want my windows tinted, so i made a quick phone call. i knew i was working up near gatwick on the monday so arranged for keiran at gatwick autoshadesto tint the rear window before i put it in, he did a top notch job and would reccomend him to anyone. so i spent monday night swearing and sweating trying to get the frickin window in!!
but its all in and looking sweet! i really want to stick some pics up to show it off but can't seem to get a decent shot of it while its indoors. the only other thing i had a problem with was where i'd had the rear plinth smoothed over the original number plate lights wouldn't fit so i bought some water proof LED blocks from ultraleds.com, they arrived this morning and i wired them up quickly and man are they bright!! they fit nicely too so will break out the sikaflex to gte them in there nicely and make sure they seal up any gaps as mk2's are notorious for spray up the tailgate which only leads to rot!
thats it for now!! fingers crossed fror a nice weekend so i can get it on there! plus i might have to chase up my front bumper as i thought he'd have got back to me with it by now.....
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well my crossed fingers worked and i got my nice weekend but unfortunately i demolished a shed to make way for a new workshop type shed coming soon and ended up doing annoying DIY stuff. however i did manage to make up a nice little wiring loom for the led's so they use the original connectors and bonded them onto the tailgate. still cant seem to take any decent photo's indoors of it all though, with the flash it looks crap because of all the reflections etc and without its just to dark. might have a pop at it if i get home early enough next week. plus its cold!!!
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well even though i've been showing off about it on the other sections i thought i'd better update this.
i got home nice and early the other week and fitted up my new tailgate. really happy with it and its transformed the car. the guy who did the paint job did a great job and he buffed the paint back amazingly. with the matching bumper also on it completes things from the rear. the LED's i installed worked out really well and cast a very nice white light.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01794.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/newboot.jpg)
then at the weekend i got a call from my painter guy saying the front bumper was done as well so he bought that round and i've just fitted it:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01831.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01830.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01829.jpg)
having had everything smoothed off on the front bumper i had to relocate my indicators somewhere. i was going to stick them in the fogs but decided to do something a bit different. so i went to german and swedish and bought some small bumper smoked indicators as the big ones were too big and mounted them vertically in the grill. as i have that mesh grill they shine through no problem and although they aren't installed the neatest at the moment, they work well and more importantly, they are not obvious! i might have to take them off and spray the casing matt black just to make sure they stay hidden away and am probably going to make another grill with the indicators in mind. the thing is you have to screw them in from the front otherwise it makes changing bulbs etc a complete nightmare. a bit of headscratching and clever welding should make a neater job of it but for the time being they look and work fine.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01832.jpg)
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nothing much to report but i drove up to silverstone to meet up with the guys off here for a rolling road day. was good fun and i mwas sh!tting myself as i guess its a real test of how well my self taught engine building actually is! to be honest i was a bit disappointed with the 120bhp i got but speaking to the guys at WRC they said it was about right and that as the engine wears in (its still only done about 3k miles) it'll loosen up more and should have more power potential. plus i was speaking to my good man tesh about a chip to sort out my erratic fueling curve so it'll be good to see what difference that makes. it'll mean another trip up there but its the only way to get a good idea of the changes by putting it on the same rollers for comparison.
just as we left silverstone i pulled onto the dual carriageway with jv in the car and gibby and vaughn following and i couldn't get fifth?!? so we pulled into a layby and with the light from ym phone's display i found the little plastic gearshift linkage had cracked and wasn't allowing me to shift properly. we turned round and went back to tesh's unit and managed to pinch another linkage from him! thanks again tesh! anyway so off we trotted home with all 5 gears working, but as i said to jv the gears felt 'odd' after it going on the rollers...
then on the sunday coming home i floored it out of the tolls at dartford and couldn't get second? so i put it into third, that was fine, put it in fourth, and it popped out again so drove the rest of the way home with 1st, 3rd and 5th. now i was beggining to fear the worst as i'd noticed the shifting was bad on the saturday after the r/r day and thought my gearbox had given up. but i got under the car and found it was nothing so drastic but still a bit dodgy! on rod change boxes the gear shift linkage is mounted on the subframe but a bracket. on inspection the braket had come loose and was probably on its way to falling off! i tightened things up and removed my short shifter for the time being and it drove really nicely! all shifts were smooth and positive so i was a happy boy all right! i wasn't sure if it was my fault in not tightening it up properly when i renewed all the bushes etc or if it had just worked loose? but either way its sorted now.
over the past year or so i've been more 'into' my car and the whole scene more than ever and now i see things like this as more of a learning curve as to why things happen and how they are fixed and what you can learn from it. maybe i'm getting old?!
i've been doing alot of thinking about my interior too and had planned on doing it all in blue to match the blue hoses, brakes and suspension , but have been searching for the right blue for months now and its doing my head in!! i've had soo many samples of leather and can't find one that will be sublte enough, but still stand out. so i might be changing tack and doing a black leather/charcoal alcantara theme, which always looks good but is maybe a bit boring? or i was in traffic next to a black mk5 with a tan/brown interior and it looked lush. i've always liked those browns that alfa romeo use and am tempted to do something like that? its so annoying as i've got these recaro's sitting here waiting but until they're trimmed i don't want to use them! any opinions please say!
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quick update, bought more bling today. one of the parts i'd kept meaning to get chromed under the bonnet was my radiator shroud. but either couldn't find a decent enough one second hand or couldn't justify buying a new one, having it stripped then chromed. saw a second hand one on this forum for sale so went and picked it up today. it was in a bit worse condition than i hoped but for what you can see and how much it cost i'm happy enough!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01834.jpg)
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since the last update i fitted the chrome radiator surround and realised the chrome in my engine does not like the salty roads so might have to have some bits re-done. not happy.
on the plus side though i recieved my lovely new chip from tesh at gstar-dubworld, only to find that when i took my old ecu out it must have blown at some point as there was a bit of damaged track and a cracked resistor and it seems moving the ecu had f**ked it! i got another out of a scrap yard but really wanted another bosch one, so got on the phone to tesh again. being the top bloke that he is he got one out to me surprisingly quick, considering the christmas post. i fitted the new chip but didn't get the chance to fit the new ecu for a while due to dark nights etc.
so today i fitted it, and it ran nice and smooth. didn't take it for a drive but it idles alot better now. i also did something i'd been meaning to do for over a year! my interior is out of a g60 so would have been a left hand drive which is good in that the seat isn't worn at all but is bad in that it isn't height adjustable. so as i'd been doing some seat repairs for a few people i found i had a spare drivers seat base. 20 mins later i now have height adjustable seats on both side! it makes such a difference!!
i'll update with pics and how the car drives with the chip when i get the chance to drive it.
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hmmm for some reason the last update i added seems to have disappeared?! how strange?! anyway, it was only a small one to say that since fitting the chip it has made a load of difference. it now idles smoother and the power delivery is smoother too, smoothness all round!
it probably hasn't made a great deal of difference to the power output but its more 'drivable' now. i'm gonna take it to a local friend who's a tuner to get the co2 levels set up and try to make the most of the chip so i'll hopefully do that over the weekend.
thats all for now folks but i've ordered a few things so in the next few weeks there should be something more interesting to update with!
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first of new parts turned up today!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01872.jpg)
nice new rear strut brace! was nice and shiney and i was a happy chappy alright! took a few minute to fit and looks cool. my sub box is a bit tall and wont fit under it so it looks like my plans for a stealth style sub box might have to come quicker!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01873.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01875.jpg)
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right well i've been getting on with quite a bit but none of its finished so didn't see the point in updating this!! first i've split my BBS and have bought new, wider rims. the centres are being coated at this moment in an as yet undisclosed colour ;) as i want to keep them a bit of a surprise! the anthracite i had before was wicked but i've seen quite a few people with them like that now so as i was splitting them for the new rims i thought i'd have a change! as far as i know no-one has done this on a set of rs yet so should be cool!
i also switched on ebay one saturday mornign and saw this:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02000.jpg)
was only 99p so i bought it! was one of those little bits i'd never got round to doing on my car so was an easy fix! doesn't look amazingly bling in the photo but what can i say? its a chrome boot catch!
i have also made a good start on my interior but again can't see the point in showing too many work in progress pics but if it turns out as good as it started i'll be a happy chappy!
lastly i picked up a spare rear beam as i didn't think my rear bushes and bearings would survive the next MOT, so figured i'd build one up off the car and swap them over. i had the beam blasted and powder coated and it came back better than i expected, alot smoother and shiney! then tonight i built it up with new rear brake lines and bushes and am waiting for new rear bearings and discs to arrive so i can bolt them up then just do a swap with the crusty one thats currently on my car. i might re-paint the calipers while i'm at it as i'm a bit bored of the blue!
beam looks nice though!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01998.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC01999.jpg)
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fitted some new side repeaters in a sort of crystal/black effect/ look sweet! also made a new front grill, partly as i was bored of the mesh and partly because i want it looking a bit more standard. which also meant i had to hide the indicators as they are smoothed out of my bumper. i'll have to get a photo of them on for full effect. i checked with my mate who is an MOT man and he's not 100% sure if they'll pass. hmmmm ahh well its only just had an mot so i've got the best part of a year to worry about that!
updated pics with new front end!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02006.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02004.jpg)
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ok first of a few updates!
have had that beam sitting round here getting in the way, but the weather has been sh!t so i couldn't be arsed to try and do it in the street like i've done everything else, so tried to wangle a free spot at my mates workshop so at least it'd be in the dry with lots of cool tools to sort me out.
i bought up new rear bearings, disks etc with ebc greenstuff pads. while i was at it i figured i'd sort the front brakes as well. nothing really wrong with the old set up but the pagid pads create alot of dust and so bought ebc greenstuff for the fronts too, along with some zimmerman cross drilled discs. and thought what the hell lets buy a new rear brake bias valve while i'm at it!
i took my car over to johns and we checked the car on his co2 equipment. the engine runs a bit rich on tickover because of the cam but when tested throughout the rev range it is spot on and has almost 100% combustion which is pretty damn good. while we were there though we noticed my top mounts had seen better days so bought some new g60 ones from vag spares at a bargain price!
so lots of parts kicking around waiting for the time to be fitted. i also have been breaking an car with john and a few of the parts i pilfered off the donor car were the bonnet and wings so i can finally get that sprinter vent welded in and the bonnet can be painted and fitted up to replace my stone chipped one!
i also bought a pair of audi handled doors off paul (slammedmk2) and picked them up at spring festival so today i stripped everything out of them to have the rubbing strip holes welded up and painted over and i'll also be dynamatting them and replacing the manual winders with electrics and also electric mirrors. just got to take them off to the body shop to be done.
the plan is to get these painted, along with the bonnet and wings and then get the rest of the car in and get the roof and rear quarters blown over so it'll be fresh paint all over! i know its not the best way to paint a car but i cant afford to get it all done at once and this suits me. it'll all be fine when its done.
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ok got the pics sorted and a spare day at johns workshop, so cracked on with it!
first off parts:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02039.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02040.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02041.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02042.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02043.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02044.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02045.jpg)
i painted (badly) the section of the rear discs just to keep it looking smarter for a while, so with all my new bits i cracked on with it. the top mounts are easy as pie, the only problem being that my coilovers are so low they constantly put pressure on the fixings, but a quick job.
i then used a hydrolic press to fit the bearings into either side of the rear discs. one of the other reasons why i wanted to do all this at johns is because he has these tools at my disposal! makes life so much easier.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02047.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02046.jpg)
this is also true as john has the proper brake winding tools which makes light work of resetting the calipers
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02049.jpg)
and a few minutes later its all together and looking sweet!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02051.jpg)
i didn't take photos of the rear brakes/beam as by then i was covered in filth and the effort it took to get the beam bolts out was a nightmare! i was in no mood for taking pics but its all in there with the brake bias valve and looking sweet! and should do for a good long while as well. i'll get under neath and take some shots when the weather is good again!
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still no pics of my sexy assed rear beam however i did pick up my wheels from being re-done. was going to wait til i had built them up properly but haven't had the time yet. might get on with it tomorrow..... anyway pieced them up for a few photo's and i think they are sweet as f**k!
they were done in a 'black chrome' effect which froma small distance does actually look like chrome! i was pretty impressed and although the photo's don't do them justice they will look sweet on the car. seriously in the natural daylihg they look amazing!
before:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/wheels1.jpg)
i really like them like this but a few other people i know have done similar colours and i also had a bit of damage to one of the faces that needed re-doing anyway so went for a change.
after:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/IMG_6764.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/IMG_6766.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/IMG_6765.jpg)
they are only pieced up like i said and these are new rims as well. i bought two 1.5" rims and two 2" rims. these are the narrower of the two so you can imagine the rears are gonna be wiiiide!! looks like that arch work will be getting done sooner than i thought!
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i can get a bit obsessive with certain things! a few years ago before i came on this site i found a set of happich windows on a golf in a scrapyard. bought them for the bargain price of £20 and never got round to fitting them. i then decided i was going to sell my car so sold of the windows for £120 which was a nice profit! then after deciding i was keeping my car i regretted selling them and have half heartedly been looking for another set ever since. now these are frickin rare and second hand sets seem to be going for crazy money. we're talking like £150-£220 and brand new sets are hitting over £300!! now this has put me off a bit. but then i saw a set for sale, was in the running for them but got out priced as they weren't in the best condition and weren't worth what they went for. in my opinion.
then i got offered a set of just glass and researched finding new seals and fittings and though it was possible it made it too expensive. so now i start to get it in my head that no matter what i had to have another set of these!! i've been searching on german ebay for a set but they seem to fetch just as much, partly because they are still so rare and partly because alot of us brits know there are bargains to be had over there! so cutting a long story, 5 sets of these over the last few months that i've been let down on and searching everywhere, i finally found a set on ebay, the guy had stuck his number on the auction so i called him and we settled on a price as long as i picked them up the next day. good job i did too because by the time i got to his they had 43 watchers and he'd been getting phone calls all day about them! so although they cost me £200 i know for sure they would have hit more like £300 as they are brand new, boxed, and have never been taken out the box! i was chuffed to bits but am going to get them tinted and wait till i get the rear quarters of my car painted before fitting them. doesn't seem much point fitting them before.
here they are:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02100.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02101.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02102.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02103.jpg)
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well at the weekend i built up my wheels properly with bolts and all that, looking sweet! the mesh part of the centre caps have the odd bit of runs in the finish so i need to send them back to be re-done, which the guy who did them said would be fine.
i also spent a good while polishing a spare alternator and the inlet manifold of my new engine. so far looking good but takes alot longer than i thought it would! half the problem is that the inlet is pretty flat so any casting marks/ripples etc show up easily so i had to flatten it off first. had a quick blast at the rocker cover too which has been polished before at some point so wont be hard to bring it back.
also spoke to my bloke at the body shop to get a new bonnet painted along with new wings with the sprinter vent finally cut into it. the audi handled doors i got off paul resprayed with the rubbing strips taken out and finaly the rear quarters done so it'll be a fresh load of paint over everything! i'll need to get tyres on my bbs so we can see what kind of arch work i'll need to squeeze them under then the new g60 arches can be smoothed and fitted. we talked about the best way of doing this all and its now going over to his on a week sunday so we can do everything i have to then roll it about 200 yds to the paint shop for it to be painted! he said i can go and help/learn/decide/photograph as much as i want so should be cool! quite excited now as it should be looking sweet for stonor park (assuming its all done) but also i'm expecting a big dent in my bank balance! ahh well it'll be worth it i suppose!
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well the car is stripped, amazing how much stuff there is in a golf!! and its all looking a bit sorry for itself, the BBS now have tyres on them and i should be getting the centre caps back this week.
the windows are being tinted in a very light tint, almost a factory tint on saturday as they are out the car at the moment so is even easier.
i also bought a set of crystal m3 lights off sellers. now i like m3's, i have half tint half red crystals at the moment but fancied something a bit different, so with a bit of masking and a can of tinting spray i now have all red crystal which i've been trying to buy for ages! no-one seems to make them.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00122.jpg)
just hope the reverse lights show through without looking too pink! nothing else to report body work wise, i've left him to get on with it, but my interior is coming along now i've pulled my finger out. really want to get it all done so its ready to put in when its back from paint.
i still need to lay the wiring for the electric mirrors and the recaro's so i'll do that soon then once the holes in the doors etc for the rubbing strips are filled i can get busy with the sound deadening. then fit the electric windows, then fit everything else.... think its going to be a busy month for me!
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well i've been cracking on witht he interior, looks like it will be done in time, but i'm keeping it under wraps for now!!!
but my new badges for my wheels cam,e today fresh and brand new from der fatherland!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00124.jpg)
it was only when i got the new ones i realsied how much the originals had faded! make my sweet rims look even sweeter! i've posted pics in another thread but i'll have some here as well!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02118.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02116.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02114.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02112.jpg)
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well i'm a bit miffed. the painter guy hasn't done my car even though i've done all the bits i said i would. so i had stripped everything out the car in preperation for the spray work, but as it was all empty i took the lower dash trays off and sorted all the new wiring for the mirrors, seats and windows. it turned out to be a bit of a nightmare as i'm a complete dunce when it comes to electrics! the setas were easy to dao as they are just a positive and negative and i wired them so they work when the ignition's on. the mirrors came with no loom so i got one out of a corrado and after a bit of advice that was sorted, then i manged to get a window loom which also made things easier, but i got my mate john to do it anyway!
after driving to johns i remembered what fun it is driving my golf so i decided i'd give it a bit of attention and finished all the wiring off neatly, gave the interior a damn good clean as the seats were out and made a new centre console from a proper electric window console to house my stereo and its turned out better than the last one i did.
then sorted a few niggles and then got adam-c off of here to give me a hand putting the audi door handled doord on. was really easy and then gave it a good clean and went to the local clubgti meet. was pretty cool as although there is trim missing and no interior loads of people were saying it looks nice so i'm definately going to re-fit my old interior and take it to stonor park now.
thants it for now, hopefully i can kick the painters ass and get it looking as good as i want it!
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well after fitting everything i got a call from my painter, saying he'd take it in. however i wanted to go to stonor park so arranged to drop it off monday night. stonor park was wicked but highlighted how tatty my car had got so i was looking forward to monday. i got back from work early and stripped everything out again and a few more bits. dropped it off at the painters and while i was there i saw the morgan he'd been doing that was taking up all his time. i don't really like them but it looked incredible!! was in a weird metalic blue from alfa romeo, that was never available in this country and i almost asked him to do it in that, it was sooo lush!!
he's promised it'll be done by wednesday the 14th as he's off to cuba and needs to be done by then. he's called me twice, both times i've paniced that it was something disasterous but the first was to ask how to open the tailgate (its on a solenoid) and the second was to ask where the locking wheel nut key was. he's cracking on with it and has done all the welding of holes no longer needed etc and was just sorting some rust on the rear panel. i'm going up tomorrow to drop off the new side skirts so will take my camera and see how it looks. the wing vent was done when i dropped the car off and it looked spot on so hopefully it'll be sweet!
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few pics:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02174.jpg)
arches still need sorting to fit the wheels
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02173.jpg)
back end all smoothed out
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02172.jpg)
check the black azevs i did for stonor! don't think i got any pics of them before?
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02175.jpg)
wing...obviously, needs smoothing off a bit more.
apparently he's gonna primer tha whole thing tomorrow after he's sorted the rear wheel clearance so its looking good!
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well went to see how its getting on.... i'm a very happy boy!
the paint is on, he's cut the arches back, was building it back up when i was there and tomorrow morning he's mopping and polishing it so it'll be home on wednesday!!
some more work in progress pics:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02177.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02178.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02179.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02180.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02181.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02182.jpg)
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well it was all done by wednesday but i couldn't get there to pick it up. then as i was away at inters for the weekend i left it there for safety and picked it up tonight. had a blast driving it back and although its not finished i love how it looks!
i need/want new rubbers for the roof and windows and obviously i need to stick my BBS on the front as well but you can see how its coming together. i'm going to stick some mesh behind the wing vent as in certain lights you can see the inner wing which looks a bit gash. so before the new interior goes in i need to dynamat the doors etc and will thicken up the floor sound deadening. put the electric window mech's in, fit the new tinted glass ( i only went for a light 25% tint, just to tone it down a bit) so depending on how much spare time i get it might well be done by the weekend!
anyway pics!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02187.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02188.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02189.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02190.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02191.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02193.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02197.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02203.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02205.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02206.jpg)
and a quick sneaky pic of one of the new front seats.... alfa romeo tan leather on electric recaro's mmmmmm!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00123.jpg)
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well after the influx of pm's i've recieved it seems people like my car as much as i do!! the old leather interior is sold on and fitted in a mates 16v oak green and looking sweet, which has helped re-coup some cash from the re-spray. i spent ages scraping wax etc off the insides of the doors and rear quarters in order to install the dynamat. pretty easy to use although i need to get a roller to press it in a bit better. even in its rough state you can tell it will definately cut out a bit of road noise, which is what i was after, rather than stereo performance. on the down side though my lovely tilt and slide sunroof is too narrow!! ha ha well that'll teach me for assuming it would fit! turns out the audi i took it form is the only one in the range that has its own sized sunroof! typical! so i guess i'll have to find another at some point. bit annoying though as i told the sprayer not to bother doing the old on as i'd be whipping it out!
anyway, now the piant is done, the interior is all but done, the wheels are just waiting for the centre caps to come back, so i guess new engine is next!!
as i kinda let slip i've been planning a 16v turbo. i've ammassed pretty much all the parts i need so i need to start getting it machined as needed and built up so i can work on it over winter, the theory being it'll be ready for next year. pics and details to follow but it'll be less bling than the last as keeping chrome shiney when you live 2 mins from the sea is a bastard!
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found a pic of my car with the black azev's on. i'm taking them up tomorrow to be re-furbed in this colour way properly with the rims diamond cut, these will now be a nice set of fresh winter wheels unless i get bored of them again and sell them on!! you can see the audi doors on as well, they look good yeah?
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00129.jpg)
and last sunday it was the local club gti meet so i stuck my front seats in and rolled up there... so far the feedback is all good and my seats are super comfy!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00137.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00140.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00139.jpg)
managed to get a few more bits done and i'm hoping to get it as good as finished for spring festival but again, i don't want to rush anything!
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well i got most of what i wanted done for spring festival then hit a bit of a disaster! i'd not been on too many long trips with fast sections since getting ym car back and driving it the other day i noticed it felt a bit squirmy on the rear at 70+ i called the painter to ask if he'd done anything funky other than put the wheels on the rear and he said he hadn't. we then worked out that he'd stuck on whichever wheel was closest at the time and they were on the wrong sides. ie back to front tyres!!
so i'd left swapping wheels as the last thing i did on saturday, figuring it'd take 2 mins but after removing one side i couldn't get the other wheel off! it seems that the powder coat on the re-furbed centres of my bbs was a bit thick and they were well and truely wedged on there. i tried various things to get it off, even clobbering it with a rubber mallet but i couldn't shift it! so as it was getting dark and i was knackered i admitted defeat and have still got to get the rim off. been a bit busy though so it'll be dealt with tonight or i'll take it down the local tyre place and see if they can sort it out.
also after years of people saying it works, i bought some flashing tape to use a sound deadener. i'm sure it's not as good as dynamat but for the price it'll do for the boot, under the rear seat and possibly the floor. anything has got to be better than nothing right? i made a start last night and will hopefully get it finished and get some pics later.
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well been while since the last update partly because i've been too busy to take photos, and partly because the boss man thought it would be a good idea to keep the interior under wraps as much as possible until it had done a few shows, which it has now! so far the response has been good even though i'm still not happy with it.
pics of interior:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00173.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02419.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02420.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02428.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02426.jpg)
there are still things i need to do, like the c-pillars, parcel shelf and supports... things like that but i love it, its changed the whol look and feel of the car!
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i got the wheels off and swapped over which meant i could now drive around happily and safely, then had issues with the centre caps not fitting right... grrr. pissed me off big time! however now they are done i'm happy with them and think they suit the car so well.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02427.jpg)
having done a few good trips in my car i'll say i'm impressed with the flashing tape as sound deadening but its easily not as good as dynamat. i never got any pics of it as ultimately it just looks like silver stuff! i might well do over the exhaust tunnel as well in the future though.
so my car is pretty much how i want it so i haven't had much to do toher than try to keep it clean in the great british summer we've been having.
as e38 is under week away its brewing up time to start building the new engine. i've pretty much got all the parts i need for it so in theory i can crack onto it over the next few months as i'll have got most things out the way by then. more details of the engine later...
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few more pics of the car:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00190.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00191.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02437.jpg)
^^ these were taken over the weekend when i went up to leeds for the vw festival and i'm very pleased with them. the car was spot on, didn't miss a beat all the way there and back. response was good from show goers which makes the trip even more worth while.
this pic is giving it a clean before a local club gti meet today...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00193.jpg)
obviously worked as i entered the show and shine and got third!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00194.jpg)
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well bugger me sideways!! i just won 3rd at no-rice's annual guildford to brighton show and shine!! the 'g2b' is a convoy from guildford to brighton with a show and shine at the finish in stanmer park in brighton. every car is entered and you have a form where you fill out you're top three cars. so its kinda like a self judging thing which is pretty cool! anyway out of the 70 odd cars there i got third. 2nd was the hotrod style mk3 vr6 from ''the phirm'' (see last months pvw) and 1st was an awesome porsche turbo. i was very surprised and very happy when she read out my number plate as there were some cracking cars there. i forgot my camera as i wasn't planning on staying there long but then a load of local people also turned up so i hung about. good job too eh?!
when the photo's are up on no-rices website i'll link some pics to here!
big smile on my face as i type this!
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well i've mentioned it a few times so thought i'd better make a start with the engine build. so far i've done sweet fanny adams other than take these photo's and stock pile parts! i always planned on starting the re-build after e38, so i realy should get my arse in gear but i've been busy with leather stuff. so anyway i almost have all the parts i need and i'm planning on getting the head re-built in the next week or so. then i'll get the bottom end re-honed and re-built, after getting the pistons skimmed to lower the compression.
this engine won't be chromed like the last one as up-keep was too much effort....well it wont be chromed as much any way! anyway photos of stuff:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02052.jpg)
audi s2 inlet manifold with the 5th leg chopped off and a flange for the throttle body welded on.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02066.jpg)
ported/polished g60 throtle body
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02065.jpg)
the two bolted up and offered up to the head.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02064.jpg)
and a shot of the head, inlet and throttle body. the rocker cover and linlet will be the only bits to be polished and chromed.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02061.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02054.jpg)
head...nothing special here!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02057.jpg)
9a cams and KR cams. the KR ones will be used not sure what to do with the 9a ones.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02058.jpg)
new 2ltr crank, tempted to get this lightened.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02059.jpg)
brand new vw alloy sump!!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02053.jpg)
g60 green injectors on 20vt fuel rail. injectors will be re-furbed.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02055.jpg)
minging 9a bottom end, shouldn't be looking like this for long!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02056.jpg)
i've got two totes full of extra stuff like gaskets, hoses etc. i got most of this off one guy who had an unfinished project.
i have a turbo on order that i need to chase up and a turbonetics exhaust manifold. also i have a g60 02a gear box and cable shifter i just need a corrado pedal box to complete the shifting elements. all in all most of the parts are her, like i said i need to just get off my ass and start spanner weilding!
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well today i thought i'd make a bit of headway with the engine. started to polish the inlet manifold... what a tedious task that is! coming along nicely though...
i also went through the two totes and made a list of everything i currently have, quite a nice little amount of parts but i'm missing a distributer which is obviously a must! next step is to get the injectors re-furbed and the head reconditioned. i might try to get the majority of that done this week just so i feel like i'm actually doing something productive! i'm not sure who i'll get to do the pistons yet but the guy who did my re-bore last time will do the honing of the bores. great update eh?!
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tonight i went over to JMR's place to pick up my turbonetics exhaust manifold. its a nice bit of kit which is very compact which suits me fine, also with the turbo flange being on the right hand side of the engine (as you look from the front) it means there shouldn't be any clearance issues with the brake servo etc.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00204.jpg)
i then cleaned up my head in his cleaning bath, came up nicely and considering the amount of crap that was on it. i'm not sure if i'll paint the head yet and i didn't bother cleaning out the ports too much as its going to be ported anyway. john said he'll teach me how to do that and cut the valve seats so when we've both got the time i'll get that done and thats the head sorted.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00205.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00206.jpg)
little pic of the manifold in place, you can see how compact it is. the turbo got held up but i've been told it'll be here in the next week, so i can then do a mock up to see how it'll all look.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00207.jpg)
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turbo is paid for and should be with me next week! boring update! sorry :P
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turbo arrived a few weeks back and is huuuuge!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00222.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00221.jpg)
i've dropped the block off to get honed, but its at the guy who did my last re-bore and he kinda works at his own pace, so i'm not expecting it back anytime soon but i'm in no rush for it. been doing lots of thinking about what to do with the engine bay. i reeeealy need to pull my finger out thoughas time is going to fly by and i want it done so i have a sorted car for next show season!
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well as i said, time is flying by! done very little to the new engine other than organise myself and do alot of thinking! i'm helping a mate out to do a overhaul on a g60 corrado this week and as soon as its finished we'll do my head so that'll be one job down.
a little while ago i bought some eibach anti roll bars and poly-bushed wishbones. i also bought new bolts and clamps from vw because i knew i'd have one or two glitches! so anyway, they went on with alot of swearing! while i was at it i did an oil change, renewed the brake fluid and did a few other little jobs that i'd been putting off. they work reeeealy well in the dry but are a bit scary in the wet as they are so stiff. good stuff though!
one rubbish photo of them:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00246.jpg)
i also uploaded some pics from the no-rice show that i got third in so here they are:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/IMG_6862.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/IMG_6872.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/IMG_6878.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/IMG_9542.jpg)
and i know i've posted this before but for the sake of the project heres a scan of me in fast car, from the edition 38 show:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/LastScan-1.jpg)
and lastly some pics adam_c took of his, mine and our mate tom's cars:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/P1010007.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/P1010052.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/P1010040.jpg)
thats it for now, more when the head is done!
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well the head is now at my mates waiting to be stripped and then ported etc. its my own fault its not done already... felt rough over the last few days so i haven't been back to do it. but the new valve guides and cam chains are on order so once i start it should be pretty straight forward. we have 3 heads to do, mine, his (which is going in his westfield!!) and a 3rd which will probably be sold on to raise some dollars! i'll be doing the stripping and re-building but he'll be doing the porting as he's done plenty in his time so knows what he's doing and how much needs working. but it'll be a good learning experience for me to see what he does.
i also got a call from vw to tell me the rear headrest kit i had ordered had arrived from germany, so i picked that up and went home to re-trim some spare headrests i had laying around. a few hours later and they wer all fitted and back in the car. for something so minor as fitting a few rear headrests it makes a big difference i think, however i keep forgetting to take some pics in the light so you'll have to make do with these ones off my phone (taking pics with the flash makes them look sh!te!)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00250.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00249.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00248.jpg)
mind you the seats look a bit pale in these pics anyway?!
and lastly i bought a set of winter wheels i'm happy with off ebay last night and went to pick them up this morning. they're ok for now and i believe they are a pretty old school wheel. tsw omegas i think? but they have quite a nice dish to them which is cool. i'll give them a quick re-furb and spray before they go on but at least it will save my BBS from the ravages of winter! they are also the 6th set of wheels i've bought this year, not including my bbs! pics to follow when they are cleaned up...
* oh also forgot, don't buy any "chrome" door catch pins off ebay or anywhere else that have a dull orange plastic striker. i bought a set and they're f**king rusty already and i only put them on after the respray a few months back! so i bought a set from LMR but when they turned up they just look like stainless ones and not highly polished chrome so i'll collar him at no-rice and have a word..... not impressed though. and to be honest i feel a rant coming on!
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well rant resolved, turns out i got sent the wrong door pins and he did send stainless ones. he was very helpfull so i guess i'lkl see what the 'chrome' one come back like before i pass further judgement!!
i've started spraying the winter wheels and so far i'm really chuffed. i bought new centre cap badges for them and they look cool! they are starting to grow on me now. i'll get pics once they're on the car... i need some tyres fitting to them so will get that sorted soon.
finally i made some good progress on the head! got it all stripped out so its bare, its now getting checked for cracks etc before the porting starts. good news is it looks in bloody good shape! i don't know the history of the engine but so far it look sall good! the valves are still nice and shiney on the seats so it shouldn't take much grinding on the re-build. i neeeeeed to get cracking on this though, i had hoped to have got further than this by now but time just seems to fly away at the moment!
head before stripping:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02483.jpg)
stripped of valves, springs, etc:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02484.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02485.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02486.jpg)
^^^actually in these pics the studs and valve guides are still in place so i'm talking crap! the fully stripped pics came out all blurred so these will have to do......
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mmmmm shiney pistons!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/pistons.jpg)
they are bahn brenner low compression ones specifically for forced induction. just got off the phone to G-werkes and ordered them and they are hoping to get them in before christmas! now i just need those con rods to arrive.....
also took some pics of one of my winter wheels:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02492.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC02490.jpg)
not bad for some rattle cans and a badge! the trye on this one has had it but i've got two toyo's and two firestones to go on them.
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well not alot has happened on the engine build. still waiting for the block to come back, which should be monday or tuesday. head is still stripped, no polishing or porting yet. pistons still aren't here...annoying.s o thats all kinda been put on the back burner.
other than that, i noticed a puddle in my golf from the classic lack of door skin seals! so i dried it out, then thought i might as well do it properly! i stripped the whole interior out, pulled up all the carpets, pulled out all the old crappy felt underneath them and gave it all a good clean.
while everything was out i had a look at my alarm as it had been doing a few annoying things recently, like the indicators weren't flashing when you arm/disarm and the intellistart hadn't worked for a while, not sure how long as i rarely use the thing! after pulling the fuse box out and tracing wires i found there were two wires which should have been on the fuse box which had obviously come loose, plug them in and ta da everything works!
right back to the floor, i covered it with a few layers of sound deadening. i was going to do the exhaust tunnel as well but most of it is double skinned anyway so only did small amounts of it:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00260.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00261.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00262.jpg)
then i used the old felt (which was flat as holland) as a template to cut some new felt out of some real nice dense stuff which is normally used to soundproof planes! (cheers lewy) then layed it in place, while making up some extra pieces to replace some knackered sections on the bulkhead.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00263.jpg)
then i put the rear carpets back in, rear door cards on and then it got too dark!
will finish it next weekend i guess as its normally dark by the time i get home from work. i started my car up and you can tell its quieter already, should be good once the setas and door cards are back on. oh yeah i've also made some door seals and this will also be a good opportunity to re-do the front door cards, whcih i've never been happy with) and fit my audiobahn components in place of the JBL ones i currently have.
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well i forgot to follow up on the whole floor soundproofing thing.... basicly it allw ent back together nicely, bit hard to tell how much difference it has made but it must be quieter! i'v only driven it like a lunatic recently so its really for cruising to shows that i want it quieter for and to improve sound quality for the stereo.
while we're on the subject of stereo... i've always liked audiobahn gear, i've been told its not that good for the price but i just love the way it looks.
i bought a brand new amp off ebay, it was quite a small two channel one, so i was a bit worried it might not be up to the job of running the sub, but it was soooo cheap i had to buy it! anyway i hooked it up to my sub after listening to it powered through my phoenix gold amp and it was alot louder! happy smiles all round. so after that i bought a matching 4 channel amp for when i re-do the rest of the install.
i also got hold of a set of audiobahn components which again were bigger than the JBL's they are replacing. the only problem i have so far is the crossovers are massive and i don't really know where to hide them as i don't want them on show. anyway... pics!
2 channel amp... hiya!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00308.jpg)
4 channel amp...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00309.jpg)
tweeters, old and new
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00306.jpg)
flippin' huge crossovers...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00307.jpg)
mid, from behind in audioscape door pod..bad photo!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00311.jpg)
...from the front, even worse photo!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00312.jpg)
audiobahn tweeter in re-made holder
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00310.jpg)
thats about it for audio stuff at the moment, it's not going to be installed til after the engine is done anyway but by having it all i can plan out a new install which should give me more room than the last set up.
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so thats the audio stuff, more on the engine build. the guy who was going to to bore my block never got round to it so i took it to a place called QEP who honed and skimmed my block in no time at all and at a good price too! while at QEP i chatted to them about this dutch engine management they use, it all sounded a bit too techy for my liking but the more i spoke to them about it, it just seemed to be the best way to go. he showed me the wiring loom which looks great as well as using OE style fittings. they also use an audi coilpack so it keeps it kinda in the VAG family. they do a wideband lambda probe which does so much i couldn't begin to explain it all now. needless to say i'm convinced its the best set up for me and although it'll cost about £900 for everything i need, for what i actually get its a bargain!
block, nicely honed:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00302.jpg)
also work has finally started on the porting of my head, the timing chain and new valve guides are here and john has re-profiled the ports, it now needs polishing and the valve seats cutting... might have to kick his ass to get it finished!!
original port:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00275.jpg)
re-profiled port:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00276.jpg)
on a side note, my new pistons STILL haven't arrived!! so much for getting them before christmas!!
ok more engine bits... bought some more bits of blue. i wasn't sure what i was going to do with my new engine in regards to colour etc, but i decided as it will be less bling, i wanted a bit of show-off colour in there. so i bought a set of silicone hoses which were on sale til the end of january so i figured it was worth buying them so early in the build. i also bought some ht leads, again as they were too cheap to pass up! i'm not normally a fan of aftermarket leads but i have 'blue ignitors' on my 8v engine and they have been faultless, plus they are the only leads C&R Enterprises reccomend so i figured they'd be worth it.
hoses:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00303.jpg)
leads:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00305.jpg)
i also picked up a set of brake cooling ducts. i never use my fog lights and decided i wanted a set of the ducts which replace them. they seem to be pretty thin on the ground and to be honest i never looked for a set too hard. then someone advertised some, cheap and local, so i went to pick them up. when i got there i realised they were not only brand new but a complete kit! i was just expecting the part that clips into the bumper, not the whole kit! chuffed to bits but i'll wait til i get the engine bay painted so i can get these done at the same time before fitting them.
box o' ducts:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00298.jpg)
and one final update, a boring one mind.... i have long legs. because of this i find myself hunched over as i drive, because to get my legs comfy i have the seat quite far back and then cannot reach the steering wheel so well. anyway i aquired a spacer which is about an inch deep and it makes a hell of alot of difference than i was expecting! the only thing is it makes the stalks not so 'at your fingertips'. while i was at it i fitted a ring round the horn push and some stainless bolts as i needed longer ones to account for the spacer.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00314.jpg)
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well things are falling into place a bit more now!
pistons arrived over two months after they were promised to me. hmmmm. and they're not bahn brenner they are Ross Racing, which to be honest pleases me a bit more, knowing their reputation! they are super sexy and pretty light and come with all the gubbins needed to fit them. they also have a decent spec sheet for each piston and they are balanced to .001 gram of each other.
then about a week later my Scat conrods turned up, bargain ordering from the states and in total took about 2 weeks from ordering to arriving, which annoys me even more about the 2 month wait for the pistons. i went for H-section 4340 steel ones with ARP bolts and they should be more than up to the power i'll be running.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00359.jpg)
i also have sent my inlet manifold and rocker cover to be chromed. its gone via a few people but they guy who will be doing the chroming generally works on ferrari's and more exotic cars than VW's so i'm expecting a great job, and hopefully a price which wont make me ill!
now my head still isn't finished, been too busy with other peoples cars but i need it now! so john is cracking on with it soon.
i also have blown an exhaust manifold gaskett so i'll be doing that tomorrow. it sucks because not only is it noisy its definately slower! the guy i normally pull away from easily i struggled with the other day so that needs sorting!
i'm in the process of trimming up my sunvisors and the plastic inner door sill type thingy's in the leather as well. it all adds to the 'show' of the car and a bit of attention to detail maybe?
i also finally managed to track down the tilt and slide sunroof i've been looking for for ages. its all stripped down and i need to drop it off at the painters, but in the mean time i've trimmed the inner cover with the same alcantara as my headlining and i think i might polish up the alu runners, just for the hell of it!
photo's to follow as i want to show comparisons of the new/old pistons and conrods, but they're all att the bottom of a huge bunch of other parts!
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well a few things have happened since the forum downtime... still no pics though cos i is well lazy innit!
tilt and slide sunroof is painted, inner panel is trimmed and fitted, just waiting for a nice clear day or the loan of a garage to fit it... looks soooo shiney!
sunvisors have been trimmed, with the added addition of corrado electric mirror in the passenger side which has a switch on and off-able light and a much bigger mirror. door sills also trimmed. i re-did my door cards and added another membrane of sound proofing, loving the quiet cruising!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00371.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00374.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00372.jpg)
now things on the downside...
drove to johns place to pick something up and when i turned my stereo off i though my exhaust was a bit loud. i got it up in the air and there was a crack round one of the welds and my centre box was blowing badly! luckily john had a spare section exactly what i needed on the shelf! so i fitted that up and off i went, good old miltek and their lifetime warrenty! john'll sort that out with them.
also while driving to no rice last week my gear box got a bit noisy so i had to top it up en route, moved my car the other day and there was a small puddle of gear box oil.... drive shaft flange seals were leaking. spent most of today doing them which was no fun at all!
oh also on a parts buying thing i managed to pick up a g60 flywheel and clutch so i can now build that up onto the crank and get it balanced before i build the engine. pics soon.... promise!!
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more grief! well after replacing the driveshaft flange seals it turned out the diff was knackered on my gearbox anyway so i ended up getting another of a local guy who was breaking an 8v. its all in and done after a few days of it sitting around while i found a decent 'box, so i treated it to a goood clean!
after hanging around at g-werks with vaughn, waiting to pick his car up, i finally got my hands on one of the sweet schrick sumps they sell. to get excitied about a sump is pretty sad but i love this thing! it is a work of art and will help keep the turbo supplied with oil as the baffles stop the oil sloshing around when driving like a loon!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00360.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00361.jpg)
oh yeah also picked up my rocker cover and inlet manifold. not 100% happy with them but for the price they are great, alos the imperfections will be hard to spot when fitted so i'm not too bothered. p.s. they were a bargain!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00375.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00376.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00377.jpg)
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well i went through a big phase of hating old cars! after replacing the gearbox i had a few weeks of stress free driving, then it all went pear shaped! i pulled up at a roundabout and pressed the clutch and 'clunk' it went right to the floor and didn't do anything! i figured the clutch cable was bust so i wandered off to an autofactors, bought a new one, fitted it and it made no difference! balls. so after waiting for a recovery vehicle and then having to use various blocks of wood and taking my front splitter off just to get my low car on the loader i got it home. i figured it was one of two things. the clutch cable pulls a lever up. inside the gearbox this lever is on a splined shaft, on which has a finger, which pushes on the release bearing, which pushes a rod which engages/disengages the clutch when it pushes on the release plate. the lever and finger are accessable through the green end cap and i assumed it was either the finger shearing its splines, or the shaft of the lever shearing its splines.... apparently this is not uncommon. so took the end cap off and it was neither. the only other logical thing was the clutch so i had to take the bloody gearbox off again! came off pretty easily and i found the rod had pushed through the release plate! seems crazy to me but again not unheard of... while doing this i found both inner and outer c.v. boots on the passenger side had splits so i figured i might as well do them while i was at it.
none of this was hard, or nothing i hadn't done before but it was more annoying and time consuming, especially as i was car-less and had to cycle to german and swedish and another vw parts place. good job the weather was nice and it was good exercise, but an hour each way takes alot out your day!
but now its all back together its all good again and i still love my car... even though last week some tit in a mini bus pulled into my lane on the a27 and bent my wing grrrrr... can't even be bothered to write about that as its just annoying!
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well its been a while!
as i said the golf had a run in with a minibus, dented the wing and pissed me off. but to my joy, his insurance company contacted me, admitted it was his fault and told me to get a quote for sorting it! so i got ym mate chris, who painted the car previously, to do me a quote. he priced it up, took some photos and sent them off. they agreed to £900 worth of work?!
so obvoulsy a small dent wouldn't cost that much, so chris cut in some mk3 golf side repeaters, which sit almost flush, instead of poking out like mk2 ones. he also smoothed in the big bumper air ducts in place of the fogs and re-did my tailgate and sorted a few bits i wanted cleaning up.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00332.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00333.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/DSC00337.jpg)
looking good! someone took this pic at no-rice one month and it shows what i was always looking for... when you look down the side of the car its smooth and uncluttered, while still being totally legal and usable.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/1062097541_0788b28d6b_b.jpg)
so after becoming self employed and therefore having less time and money, i pretty much stopped doing stuff to my car. the 16vt engine was in parts all over the place and nothing much happened.
i then wrote a list of the things i wanted to do to the golf and got a bit depressed! none of it was hard but it was all stuff that took time etc. but after driving it up to santa pod and e38 i figured i should start on it again and this week i got some time to do so. i picked up my block and pistons, from being re-bored. and finally fitted the brake cooling ducts.
next is to press some new bearings into some EBC drilled/grooved rear discs and put them on the golf, the golf ones will go on my passat as they are pretty new anyway. while doing this i will paint my calipers a different colour, not sure what yet though.
i'll also start building my block up with new pistons and get the crank and flywheel balanced before bolting it all together. i'm hoping once i start it should all come together quite nicely.
few more pics people took of my car and its been in a few magazines at shows etc as well!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/1062097485_9466ac727e_b.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/200708_8298.jpg)
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oh i also put a chrome strip round my grill as a tester to see if i like it or not. still not sure but i have a new grill on its way so i'll decide then i suppose....
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/84654891_i8fSc1AF_noriceG2B0728.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/84655247_JS7c6rs3_noriceG2B0770.jpg)
i also blagged some spacers to push my wheels out a bit, but they didn't fit properly on the rears so i guess i'll have to buy some different ones.
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small update, spacers didn't fit but they're getting machined so they do. the head is STILL not finished, grrrr, so no progress on the engine build. new install is a few days away as i have a photoshoot for my car on sunday! need to tidy a few things up before then.
also finally got round to fitting the new rear EBC brake discs and found some hammerite in a cool colour so colour coded my calipers to my interior!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/IMG_6857.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/raaage/IMG_6858.jpg)
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yawn, another boring update...... nothing much has happened on the golf, but plans are afoot for the old engine to come out and is pre-sold. i also got hold of some new bosch red injectors and another fuel rail so thats a few more bits ticked off the list!
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Just having a reminisce over the old car and realised I obviously lost some of the project in the forum crash! Anyway I'll try to remember what happened but the long and short of it is... i sold the car and it got written off! End of an era? Maybe, it was a great car and i had alot of fun and learnt tons from doing it... I already have a replacement and have just started to work on it and hopefully it will be even better than this one.
New project section coming soon!