Dizzie - Edition One 20vT

[jv]

I bought this very tidy Edition One 8v as a daily runaround but it was just too good a project base to waste. Seeing as it has taken me forever to get anything much done to my Rallye, I was persuaded to sell the Ed1 to Dizzie rather than have 2 unfinished cars!

I look forward to seeing this one complete. Aubergine is a stunning mk2 colour plus 20v power should make for a car

[Dizzie]

28th March 2006

Right then! Suppose I bettered explain myself for purchasing this car when I already have the blue 20vT. The bodywork on the blue one is bad in places which are difficult to fix. Namely under the dash, in the gap when you open the door, around the fuel flap, tailgate, rear arches and around the windscreen. Basically it would of cost me more to sort all those problems out than it would to buy another car and transfer my engine into it. so that's what I did. Lots of persuading and 4hrs on a train later I was at JVs

Right then. This is the car



You can't really see how lush the colour is in this pic because it was such a gloomy day, but in the sunlight it's a really gorgeous purple. The official colour isn't actually Aubergine as a lot of people say but it's "deep burgundy pearl". Originally the edition one's came with loads of lush little touches that the other golfs lacked. These included Blue electric recaro seats with matching door cards, plush blue carpet, blue parcel shelf (try finding a mint of those!) and chromlux glass. It also has a leather G60 steering wheel, gearbox and hand brake handle which make driving that little bit nicer. Most of the edition ones are G60 engined, but there are a small number of 8v and 16v versions. This is one of the 8v models.

The plan! I'd spent a lot of money on my blue golf in the engine department and it still wasn't finished. As the edition one's all came in LHD I wanted to convert it to RHD using the power steering setup off the blue one. I'm also going to install the 20vT engine out of the blue one into this car. The brakes are are currently on the car are the 8v standard 239mm ones so I shall also move my 280mm ones off the blue car onto this one to improve the braking! I will also be putting all those little luxuries like electric mirrors and windows 

So far I haven't really done much to the car. The blue carpet wouldn't look right with the non-blue seats so I've sold that. removed it all today. Also the carpet is different for RHD. Here's a few pics of what I've been up today.


Most of the original VAG soundproofing is still there are in VGC!


All the bits and bobs removed to let me remove the carpet!

[Dizzie]

2nd April 2006
"Déjà Vu"

Right then. During a normal boring sunday I decided to crack on with the conversion of LHD to RHD. Here's what I got up to!

I want to get the car back running again once I've made it RHD and then move onto installing the 20vT engine aswell as the mk3 dash. The mk2 dash obviously bolts straight in which I can do a lot quicker than a mk3 one which will require welding and fabricating to get it in there perfectly.

During the week I'd removed the blue carpet sections which have now been sold on aswell as my beloved electric recaro seats. All in the name of this car! During removal of the carpet I had to remove the lower section of the dash so the boot was full of that already. I set to work removing the surround housing all the switches. Off came the steering wheel and stalks. I then started removing peices of loom which went from the fusebox to the switches and stalks. These bits of loom won't need modifing due to the distance staying the same.



The dash was easily removed. a site which I'd seen before when I installed the mk3 dash into my other golf and one I'll see again in the future no doubt.

next I started to remove the steering column and pedal box. I knew how to do the column as I had to modify it during the mk3 dash swap to clear the dash. The pedal box was a different kettle of fish. I'd removed all the visible bolts which held the pedals to the car's bulkhead but still it wouldn't come clear. The cables and brake servo had also been disconnected, but this made no improvement to my situation. It turned out to be the hole where the clutch cable went through into the engine bay that held the pedals in now which was quickly solved by removing a clip under the bonnet. Unfortunally my original idea of what was involved had all the points where the pedal box, etc mounted ready there so I could just bolt it all back on. Unfortunally this isn't the case. All the grommets I had been hoping for weren't there.  This means I will have to make these holes. The though of cutting a 10cm hole into an edition one is a little un-nerving!



Still trying to remove the column from the rack which is tricky. I need a really big screwdriver and then I'll be able to lever it free.

As for the loom... I've got a cat 1 alarm installed on this car which I would like to remove in a way it can be reinstalled on another car later on. So far I've managed to remove it without cutting any wires to this plan is still going smoothly. I've also fed through 1 of the main engine harnesses. There are 2 in total. Both of these will need to be replaced with RHD versions to save me severly modifying the original one. As for the large bunch of wires which feed the rear lights, etc I shall be reusing the original one and swapping over the indicators so they flash the right side when I move the stalk. Easily done.



This is now the state of the rear of my car housing all the parts I've removed from the dash area aswell as the spare set of wheels from my grey runabout.

Next task is to further remove the remaining section of loom which is under the bonnet aswell as work on removing the alarm system without cutting too many wires and having no idea where they joined to making the alarm useless!

Plus I'm f**king knackered now from all this work 

[Dizzie]

3rd April 2006

After speaking with Gareth @ DUBusiness today he informs me I must fully remove the nut and bolt which hold the steering column to the small knuckle system which goes through the hole. There's a small cutout which prevents the 2 coming apart unless the bolt is completely removed. To add further humiliation once I'd removed said bolt the whole setup just fell apart! And there was me pulling with all my might holding it down with 1 foot yesterday trying to get the bloody thing apart 



So that was that. The steering column was now free and moved accross to the other side of the car where it will now live. Luckily the threads where it bolts to the bulkhead were there so I bolted that in 

The remaining loom section which I didn't remove yesterday was stuck because of the alarm's siren and bonnet pin. As these wires were all different colours I decided to cut them leaving the engine harness free to remove. So that's all the loom completely removed in the front of the car. The only section that remains is the main bunch that run the rear lights. I shall be modifying this section and reusing it once it's moved to the opposite side of the car.

Next came the brake servo. This was easy to separate from the master cylinder as it was a 2 bolt job and a bit of manouvering to get it past the brake hoses etc and free. That was the servo out of the car fairly straight forward. I also wanted to give the engine bay a nice wash before the loom goes back in so I removed the washer tank and header tank out of the way and cleared up the n/s wing as much as possible.



now onto the steering rack. This is held in by 4 bolts through the subframe and secured with 4 nuts on top. pretty straight forward enough to pop a spanner on the top nuts and use the ratchet underneath the car to loosen it all off. I then drained the PAS fluid (into a bucket, not onto the drive!) as I will need to swap over 2 of the 3 PAS hose sections when I reinstall the RHD steering rack. Now I've looked at the PAS hoses most of them are crimped on which is annoying. I guess the whole PAS system will have to be removed at this stage and I shall have a rethink on what my attack plan will be once I've removed the steering setup from my blue mk2.

At the moment the rack is loose and can be moved around, but not removed from the car just yet. I've also removed the bolts securing the rod gear change setup from the rack aswell as the trackrod ends from the hub carriers.

Tomorrow's tasks:
Completely remove steering rack
remove brake master cylinder

I've also bartered a RHD 90 spec 8v engine harness and other RHD parts in exchange for some work out at DUBusiness so project £0 continues 

[Dizzie]

5th, 6th and 7th April 2006

I've been so busy with working the last 3 days I haven't had a chance to get onto the PC to update!

Well as was trying to remove the subframe from the car in order to drop it down to remove the rack the bolts were giving me a bit of resistance. I then put all my strength into undoing this one front bolt with the breaker bar attached when I thought I'd got it. Unfortunally I had just sheered the head off the bolt so the subframe was no longer bolted in there. nuts.

I gave Gareth @ DUBusiness another call and he said if I brought the car up to his workshop I could work on it outside there and have access to all the tools and advice I needed. Also he would get the remains of the bolt out of the chassis and sort all that out for me. So on Thursday night we nipped back to my place and picked up the car to tow it up to his.

I have been working out with him for the last 3 days installing a VR6 lump into a once 2.0 8v mk3 which has gone well. learnt a fair bit about other engines and golfs other than the mk2 with a 4 cylinder engine! As I haven't been getting paid for this work he has been paying me in parts I have needed for this conversion I'm doing on the edition one. Sounds alright to me.

As I'd wired up the mk3 ready for it's engine and swapped the pedal boxes over and installed the cable shifter it was ready for it's engine to be installed. Since there was another car in the workshop I wouldn't be able to get the VR6 engine past on the crane so there was nothing else I could do to the conversion I was given the remaining half of the day to work on my car.

I managed to install the pedal box from the RHD mk2 I have parked next to the edition one which is being broken aswell as the fuse box hanger. I then bolted in my steering column support and attached the column aswell. It was starting to look more like a RHD mk2 now - yay I have also installed a new heater matrix into my RHD heating system, but haven't bolted it to the car yet as there isn't a hole for the air to enter the car yet above the fan. Once I've cut this hole I shall install the heating system.



As the car I took the fusebox hanger turned out to be a G plate '89 instead of a G plate '90 spec mk2 this caused a few problems. Firstly the loom I was planning on having has the older style plugs on the fuse box so there was no chance I could just plug it straight in. Arse. Secondly the lugs on the sides of the fuse boxes were slightly different between the '89 and '90 so I had the cut new guides for the lugs to rest in. This then gave me more problems as the fuse box wouldn't sit securely in the hanger even with the 2 white clips on both sides. I'm still looking into this problem and more than likely I shall hunt down a 90 spec hanger and avoid further problems with boxes not fitting right. grrr.

I haven't cut any new holes in my bulkhead yet, but I think I'll be getting on with that during tomorrow as there is no work booked in. I have also removed the old brake master cylinder ready to install the one removed from my blue 20v mk2 which we collected from my mum's house tonight so I can start transfering the goodies from that.

After talking with Gareth tonight during the drive there's a good chance I'll be installing the 20vT into the edition one sooner than I first thought

[Dizzie]

8th April 2006

Didn't really get much done to the car today, but I thought it was worth an update on what's happening. I've decided I'm going to drop the 20vT in now instead of wiring up the 8v and getting it running again. I've also decided to rebuild the engine while it's between cars and install the k04 turbo setup. I've got a buyer for my k03s downpipe so that'll provide me with some money to get the new one made up.

All I did to the edition one today was remove the rad and intake ready to lift the engine out.



I also stripped most of the blue mk2 out ready to sell all the little bits and get rid of the shell.

[Dizzie]

14th April 2006
"Removing the 8v"

With the whole interior bar the headlining removed to make way for the mk3 dash and RHD conversion next on the list was the engine bay. I had also removed the entire LHD loom as with the fusebox relocating to the opposite side of the 'cabin' the engine bay harness no longer reached and would have to be a) modified to reach or b) replaced with a complete RHD version. I opted for option b in this case so the entire RHD 90 spec loom has been agreed @ £48. I haven't paid for it yet so I haven't fitted it either! Once I purchase the new loom it'll all be fitted into the car. I will be removing some parts of the engine harness as I won't be running the 8v engine in the car anymore, but I want to retain the original sensors so that my clocks still function perfectly unlike before.

This is how the day started. I'd removed the radicator and intake eariler and drained all fluids apart from oil from it.



With the gorgeous welsh weather truely coming out it was a lovely day to work outside on the car. Also it showed off the true colour of my car - IT'S NOT BLACK! After removing the front of the car it became obvious why the side parts of the bumper which cover the lower front of the wings were so far away from the wings. Some donut in the past had fitted the guide peices that attach to the wings upside down putting the guide further away from the wing. They had then spaced the bottom section out with rubber washers holding it all together with a nut and bolt.  I rectified this little annoyance ready for when I refit my bumper.

Next was to remove the driveshafts so that the engine could be lifted out. After separating the hub housing from the wishbone aswell as the trackrod end and shock the driveshaft refused to part company with the hub leaving my no option than to remove the 2 together and attend to that problem in the workshop. I have G60 280mm brakes replacing the original 239mm GTi ones aswell as the driveshafts I removed from my blue mk2 so I wasn't that fused. Ali is having the GTi ones for her car so I best separate them later on. My shocks are also being replaced with the KW setup I bought a few months ago, but they're at Voodoo's workshop so i can't swap those over just yet.



With both driveshafts and hub assembley removed it was ready to lift the 8v free of the engine bay. The exhaust was causing more problems in the fact it had rusted itself together and I couldn't get the downpipe to separate from the cat. I guess this was coming out together then. I did split the exhaust after the cat though. With the remaining subframe bolts giving me loads of trouble, but no more sheering off it dropped to the floor. luckily I had already got the engine on the hoist so that didn't crash to the floor with the subframe 



1, 2, 3....



I shall be removing the sellable parts such as the alternator and starter motor and moving the HT leads and Dizzy cap onto my daily 8v runabout and scrapping the rest. If anyone is interested in this engine PM me and I'll leave it as it is!



With the subframe removed from the car you can see the remains of the bolt I sheered the head off sticking down. It's on the left just next to the row of sockets on the floor. I will need to weld a bar to that to try and remove it from the car. With the cross member, subframe and radiator supports all removed from the car I dowsed them in cleaner and pressure washed them off ready to recieve a nice coat of black paint so they should be looking like new when they go back into the car. not covered in oil and grim.  I will also remove the LHD PAS rack and fit the RHD one I removed from my blue mk2 before refitting commences.

When it came to replacing the original rod shifter with my cable one I needed to slightly modify the mk3 shifter to allow me to bolt it to the bottom of the car. This was only as the housing was slightly too wide for the bolt holes. Using the angle grinder I cut 4 half moons into the housing which lined up with the bolts perfectly.



All that was left for me to do then was slide back under the car and fix the shifter in place and replace the heat shield. voila 



I'm now waiting for the tools to rehone my bottom end so I can fit the new low compression pistons and rebuild the 20v engine back up and bolt on my k04 turbo. As funds are still very tight I won't be able to buy the DTA management loom or get it remapped so it could be a while before she's putting 280bhp to the floor.

Tomorrow I shall be working on fitting the mk3 dash in and more than likely replacing the headlining as it's just getting battered in the back of the car. Might even drill the holes needed to fit the steering and brake servo if we get some tank cutters.

[Dizzie]

23rd April 2006
"Putting it back on it's own 4 wheels..."

After some carefull pushing and pulling while the front of the car was on 2 jacks we managed to get the car inside the workshop and back down onto axle stands.



Ready for Gareth to weld on a bar to the remains of the bolt and remove it. I dunno how people see what they're doing with a welding mask on. I couldn't see a thing, but at least I avoided arc eye!



Once the bolt was removed it was over to me to refit my freshly painted subframe. I removed the 2 rear engine mounts from it before fitting as both of these were showing signs of wear. Best to pop 2 new ones in at this point than later down the line when the engine is in the bay. I managed to refit the subframe nicely under the car and bolted the ARB back down onto it when I realised I haddn't fitted the sodding RHD PAS rack to it. Grrr. 

I then decided I wasn't removing the subframe again and I would do it with it still on the car. After removing the one side tie rod I wiggled and pushed and got it back on the car and the tie rod refitted with the rubber boot secured over it as it was before. Subframe done. PAS tank was popped in it's little holder and the pipes secured in the hook on the chassis leg. The rad support needs a lick of black paint soon.



I then went onto refitting the radiator support and cross member to the front of the car and then tried to fit the front bumper back on the car. this proved to be impossible as the rad support bar haddn't lined up so the bumper bolts were never going to go through to secure it!  So I removed it all and started again making sure all the holes were lined up this time! I had also made slight repairs to the guide peice on the bumper as the previous one had broken at the top allowing it to sag. some monkey who owned the car before JV and myself had held it up with  2 screws through the splitter and into the plastic arch. what is the dubworld coming to! I tried again to refit the bumper, but it was still giving me grief. With 1 bolt in that was enough to hold it secure. I broke the opposite guide peice now so I'll have replace that one to get it sitting perfect.

With the slam panel and grill on I refitted the hubs from the blue car which had the G60 280mm brake setup attached. with the hubs on the G60 15" steelies were fitted. There's no a lot of room between the brakes and the wheel, but enough not to catch! The car was then dropped back down onto it's own 4 wheels for the first time since the last post so we can move it around again. There's still no steering column connected as I haven't cut the hole for it to go through, but at least the rack is there now! That'll be next week's task. I can then start to fit the heater matix and braking system.

It's amazing how much the engine lowers the front of the car LOL 

[Dizzie]

25th April 2005
"Engine rebuild begins..."

I did do some work on the car yesterday, but nothing really worth writing a separate post about. All I did was install the leccy window mechs and leccy mirrors in both doors. this gives me enough room to work on installing the dash better without the manual mirror adjusters hitting the dash.

Today I started to strip down the 20vT block ready for it to be rebuilt with the lower compression pistons and a few other little tricks here and there to get a healthy and reliable 280bhp once it's been remapped by Vince @ Stealth. There's so many little hoses and bits that need to be removed. I decided to remove everything bit of the engine so it can be throughly cleaned ready for paint. Hopefully it'll look like new once this is complete and I can reinstall it back into the engine bay. I also need to install the engine loom under the bonnet really really tidy seeing as I have loads of room to get that done.

First I lifted it up using the crane and drained most of the fluids from it while it was on there. One of the flywheel bolts didn't come off easy so we had to get the bolt remover to get that one out. the rest were easy.



Then onto the engine stand so it's easier to work on hopefully!



After all that the bits where rounded up and popped in a box so I wouldn't loose any of them! I have another inlet manifold which I plan to polish up aswell as the spare rocker cover I have. This should make under bonnet viewing very pleasing. 



I shall remove the head tomorrow and see what condition the bores are in. if they're ok I'll install the new pistons and start to rebuild the engine up. Should have it done this week

[Dizzie]

26/27th April 2006
"More engine work"

Continuing over the next couple of days I stripped the engine down further to the point there I removed the pistons and rods. I still can't remove the bolt from the end of the crank so I left it in the bottom end! I will be removing the pins soon and fitting my new lower compression pistons. I need to get the honing tool to slightly do the block before refitting can happen.







It's been reconmended I replace the big end bearing shells at this point so those will have to be ordered from VW aswell as a huge array of gaskets and bolts. There are too many bolts that can't be re-used! 

With various bits now removed from the engine I gave them a thorough clean in the parafin parts washer and then once dry gave them a lovely coat of my favorite paint - Hammerite  The plan is to paint the block black and all the little bits that bolt onto it a nice silver colour. I've made a start with the sump, oil cooler and the alternator and PAS pump bracket.



The day was ended with the tidy up as usual leaving my engine in about 100 peices