Mystic Blue, 3 Door, FSH including fresh service with new belt and tensioner, 7 Months MOT and 3 Months Tax at time of purchase, 179,000 miles.
I’m a sucker for Mk3’s and have owned another 2, a 1.4 8v and a VR6, I was running a 4motion Mk4, the Mk4 had a fair amount of issues including the diff, and all the electrics, and to be honest, it wasn’t for me, I craved another Mk3 but not a VR6 for insurance reasons (Currently have points on my license) So I arranged a part ex deal for this Mk3 owned by a friend.
The cars is in overall very good condition for the mileage, there has been a respray at some time, there are a few small lacquer areas to show this, one on the roof, at the top tops of the quarters and doors by the roof rails. There has also been some rust repair on the sills, and drivers rear arch, Hence why the wheel arch trims are still fitted and I have now fitted side skirts as previous the sills were painted black.
As soon as I drove the car I fell in love with it, drove the car home on September 11th 2012 from the PX and what follows is my progress diary of the cars progress.
The car on my drive the night of collecting it.
The first thing I wanted to do was give it a good clean up, which I did at home, this enabled me to see the true condition of the car, all looked promising bar some swirling on the bodywork, especially on the rear quarter sections which on this colour really showed in the light. Got in contact with ym friend Darren who gave the car a pass with Dodo Juice Lime prime on a buffer, followed by Meguiars Ultimate Polish. This really reduced the swirling and brought the colour out beautifully, the car was sealed with Dodo Juice Purple Haze wax.
Spotted a 62 plate boxster s on the way :lol:
Pictures of the mopping of the Golf
At this stage I started to purchase some small parts for the Mk3, had decided I wanted to run Votex fog grills with standard fogs and amber indicators. Was never a fan of the fitted indicators so picked up some Votex grilles from Edition classifieds and amber indicators from an ebay seller. Also picked up a replacement pipe that leads from the pancake to the standard induction pipe.
Wasted no time in getting the grilles and indicators fitted, fogs and reflector blanks were sourced from my friend when he mopped the car.
Once these parts were fitted I felt the headlights looked slightly out of place, decided rather than split and paint I’d have a go with some lamin X film, until I saw the price :lol: sourced some film very similar from ebay and fitted it up, went for a subtle tint.
Grill was off whilst I painted the slats black
Peek a boo!
Next up decided the bay needed some work, Just wanted it to look clean as there had already been some effort to make it look tidy previously, just a few things let it down. First of all I cleaned up the grease and muck from the strut towers and chassis legs, Didn’t get many photos of this unfortunately as I was shattered! :lol: Whilst doing this any rusty or marked brackets were repainted aswell as the bonnet catch.
Starting cleaning
As you can see from the previous photo the coolant tank was very yellow and the coolant was filty, so a full coolant flush and a new tank was sorted
Lastly I removed the bonnet sound deadening and cleaned the bonnet underside which came up beautifully
Overall result, still a lot to do but IMO it’s much improved
Next up, some small interior details I felt needed sorting. The dials were white, however you could clearly see they were stuck on and had lifted, this obviously was an issue to me so I removed and stripped the clocks, then heated the dial faces with a hairdryer to soften the glue holding the adhesive white dial faces on, this resulted in a nice clean finish and I re-fitted the needles, at some time I will fit standard white needles to replace the red.
The steering wheel of the car was badly worn, and I hate the feel of it to drive, a wheel boss was ordered and rather than the momo team’s I’ve run on previous occasion I decided I’d go for a replica OMP Corsica, would have preferred a genuine 330mm item but this 350mm rep saved me nearly £100…
Wheel arrived, nice dish
Wheel fitted with OMP horn push bought separately
Now this is where it got a little more interesting… I decided to lower the coilovers already fitted to the car, however upon removing the drivers rear wheel I was greeted with this,
Strut welded, wonky bottom adjuster ring, battered both rings, strut also welded at the bottom, and nothing between the helper and larger spring… was less than impressed!
Needless to say this resulted in me searching for new coilovers, happy to run budget as the car isn’t exactly a performance motor or massively valuable. A friend posted on facebook a set of Mk3 coilovers for sale for £80, and just down the road, went to have a look and found 3 day old FK AK Streets worth £230, made a cheeky offer of £70 and they were mine.
I contacted a friend who has a workshop and a ramp and a few days later we set to work fitting the coilovers, before fitting the helper springs were removed and bumpstops cut down. Fitting went without a hitch and the ride quality was hugely improved over the previous coils, not to mention the security of having coilovers without some dodgy welding
On the day of fitting my friend decided he’d spray his Caddy :lol:
And his dog took a liking to my wheel arches :wub:
Car up on the ramp, caddy having parts re fitted
First decent shots of the full car following new coilovers, really starting to come together, obviously wheels will be gone when I decided what I really want, change of tail lights, and eventually drivers rear arch repainted as repair work was done with black paint hence why the arch trims are still fitted to the car.
I then decided I wanted the car lower, I am slightly limited as the arches aren’t yet rolled, once the arches are rolled will be much lower with a chassis notch, need to remove the bumpstops as I believe I’m resting on them.
Car jacked up, practically in the hedge :lol:
The lowering did have a slight effect on the replica splitter that’s fitted…
And the day after… :lol:
My friend had a driver side half of another rep splitter and I smashed it in an hour :lol: I’ve sourced a genuine VR lip from another Edition member which is being posted soon
Got the paperwork through for my private registration plate, getting this on the car asap
And the final thing to bring me up to date, New exhaust. The current exhaust is a welded on backbox.. I had a tip off from a friend of a stainless cat back about 10 miles away, went and had a look seems very good condition, best part.. I paid £15 :lol: Gave it a good go with autosol when I got it home which brought it up nicely
This was fitted and sounds a lot nicer and replaces the mild steel centre and welded on back box previously fitted
Future plans involve new wheels, A lot more lows, getting the paintwork sorted so I can remove the arch trims, change of seats, and just maybe… VR6 lump next year as well as a lot of smaller things i have planned!. Will keep this thread updated with progress!
Thanks for reading,
Geo
