bigman_10 - mk2 1.3 project

[jv]

[bigman_10]

Right then i'll start at the beggining i bought this car off an uncle. 85,000 miles on a G plate registerd in january 1990 which makes the car the same age as me to the month! i got it for 400 quid (rip off upon later inspection). My uncle knows sweet f.a. about cars and it seems like the mechanic he bought it off was a scammer! the bloke he bought it off was an m.o.t. assesor and he had obviously put the car through knowing it was a faliure and that it would cost him to much to repair. it had a huge hole in the front subframe, no oil left in the rear shocks, front dampers that didn't understand the concept of damping, seized piston in the rear left drum a handbrake that had to be pulled near vertical to get any grip. the front discs were as grooved as fcuk and the pads were 1mm off the metal. Now before you say what possed you to buy it in this state i'd just like to say the MOT was valid for another 11 months and it had tax for 6, so i thought it was fairly mechanically sound ride even if there were a few rust spots and dents, and the usual scratches.

but thats not the best part, the funniest thing is that the car is alpine white and the guy who owned it must have seen a few rust spots coming through. so he thinks to himself what would cover it up? the answer soon came to him in the form of.... TIP-EX! yep the noggging covered up the rust spots with some bog standard bodge work with the cheapest of tip-ex's! (The more i think about what i paid for this car the more it hurts )
there were a few otheer things that were wrong with it but the main releif (if i can call it that) was that the engine had nothing wrong and ran like a beauty!

Any way i bought it! although i could of got it alot cheaper and is was quite expensive on the insurance being group 7, i'm so glad i handed over the dosh as i've loved every second of owning it! its introduced me into the VW scene and i've become addicted to the old school cars, (much to my mates amusment  but who cares!!! if only they new better than 1.0L corsas the world may be a better place!) But sod all the boring stuff i got it about 3 weeks bfore my 17th birthday and whilst i was learning i didn't really do anything to the car but as soon as the glorious day that i'd been waiting 17 years 5 months and 6 and a half hours for arrived the fun began! (yes it took me 5 months to pass as i didn't have a job at the time and lessons aren't cheap, and failing first time isn't exactly helpful either!!!!)

but enough of the rabbling and have a look at what i've done (it's probably not the best mechanically sound project but hey if its that bad just have a laugh at my incompetance!)

[bigman_10]

i was learning the mechanics mostly out of haynes and off my dad as i'm going along with it. but the first things i did were sort all the suspension, i replaced the rear shocks and replaced the front subframe. had it 4 wheel aligned, replaced 2 rear tyres with some michelins and stuck them on the front. then i replaced the siezed rear piston along with tensioning the handbrake cables. then i replaced all 4 felxi brake hoses and alot of other stuff that i've forgotton about!

any way i had a slight collision with 106 about november time last year, oops i blame the woman in front! it left me with a fish hooked bonnet and a nice bent slam panel and a jigsaw puzzle for a grill plus a stuffed indicator relay along with a smashed indicator. this gave me a chance to get to grips with body work and heres what i did.

first off i replaced the indicator relay and the grill with a quad lamp replacement! i thought i did well by it! i also replaced the slam panel and bonnet for a nice blue one!

then i set on the lower valance. it had quite a bit of rust on it and i wanted it smooth so i got mr grinder out and took it back to the metal to give a smoother finish.
what i started with




i didn't like the rubber under coat thats supposed to protect against stone chips so i had a rumage round in the back of the garage and found one of my favourite tools... the angle grinder! i took it back to the bare metal as to remove the bobbly effect and smooth it off!



i only took it back in the places that would be seen as the lower spoiler would cover most of it anyway! (ok maybe i cut a few corners. i rust treated the whole thing with kurust and then applied the primer.



i've lost the picture of when its finished i'll try and get them up soon.






i also decided to give the wheels a new look. i didnt like the silver, and i was just abut to go and buy some met black when a hunt around in the garage found some old ford polaris grey. it looked alright and it was free so i set on the wheels too.




i was quite happy how these turned out. i still cant get away form the fact they have 155 tyres and they aren't fond of corners but it just adds to the fun factor!

[bigman_10]

i put my self some 8v clocks in aa while ago dont have any pictures of the process just the final product! i swapped my original speedo over and replaced it with the 8v one so i could keep the milage and not worry about the calibration. (saying that the 8v speedo was at 82k and i have mine was 88 with an mot of 85k 8 months ago. so i could have got a few 'free miles'  ) Thank god i'm not a proper pikey!



heres my 'handy work' wiring the spot lights in! i had to buy 4 scotch clips at a total of 40p! and one h3 bulb as i found another in the cupboards!

[bigman_10]

next job was to start on the rust on the back of the car. i think some one has bashed it at some point as the metal is warped just to the left of the vw badge. this has also rusted quite bad and looks minging!

[bigman_10]

heres a common problem  !!! the rear shelf has broken the hook holding the parcel shelf snapped off so a trip to dubfreeze and a look round the second hand parts came up trumps! the rear shelf for a fiver! only problem is it has carpet on it and the one i had before was just plastic. i think the guy before has taken a stanley knife to it and peeled the carpet off! note to self peel carpet off tomorrow!


also this new shelf comes with a boot light and pressure switch which i didn't have before so i'll try and get that working aswell somehow. if anybody has any tips as where to take the power from and how to fuse it etc a PM would be appreciated! i was thinking about taking power from the rear registration plate light but would that be suitable and it probably wouldnt work unless i had the keys in the ignition. second thoughts thats a sh1t idea!

[bigman_10]

Any way in the meantime i went down to the scrappy to see if i could get some big bumpers but no luck bu ti never leave emty handed so i decided to grab a vr6 leather handdbrake for a tenner!

Out with the old



In with the new



feel much better with a bit more girth  !!!

[bigman_10]

Little ebay update here last night i just bought some big bumpers, front and rear for 40 quid. they are described as very good condition but we'll see what they're really like on friday when i pick them up! mnd you the bloke is chucking another rear bumper that has slight damage and some door trims in for free so it may turn into a good deal.




also bought some rear lights but not sure if i will like them as much as i first thought? £21 i think they were from a guy off here


oh yeah i had a go at peeling the carpet off the parcel shelf support and it didn't really work! i just ppicked at a corner and peeled it back but it was almost like the carpet spilt into two layers so back to the drawing board on that one! again any tips welcome!

[bigman_10]

Got bored aswell today so i decided to sort the seal out in the back i did'nt realise how much of a draft it gave people in the back until my mate complained! not too hard just wind the window down and pull the seal up !

[bigman_10]

I found some pictures of my rear wiper lay flat conversion! pretty funky actually quite like it! cheapest mod ever total cost £0.00!!!


do you like the blue bonnet 

and i must of been bored one day and decided to take a picture of the 99. relay with the adjustable intermittent wiper