Been rather quiet on the GTI front lately as I've been working on sorting out the 6R. Pretty much got her all done now so it was high time to get back on track with Faye. First thing I did was refit the wheels, lower her down and crack the hub nuts off. Breaker bar and a 5ft pole is the trick here, those things are welded on! But got both off now, so jacked her up on axle stands on all corners:
Decided that I wanted better access to the gear box selector housing so removed the exhaust, which I want to replace with a different system anyway so made sense to strip it off:
Wasn't able to get the exhaust manifold off without removing the inlet manifold, which was a bonus as I discovered on of the inlet pipes was broken at the bolt hole. It still sealed properly, but things like that just won't do in this project. Sourced a replacement from the previous owner so will get that ceramic coated and ready at some stage.
After this, was a case of removing things carefully, replacing bolts once things were removed so I wouldn't loose them and labelling any parts of the wiring loom I could, mainly for reference so I can work it out when it comes to putting it back into the car. Tempted to make a new one from scratch myself but make it more modular so it can be removed easier in the future should I decide to change things up. So she currently sits like this:
Oil and coolant drained, radiator and fan out, slam panel, grill and lights out, top section of inlet with throttle body removed, exhaust system gone and preparations for draining the fuel from the system are under way. Hoping to have the entire front end stripped down by end of June and smoothed/prep'd ready for painting.