Bens Mk3 GTi VR6, Twin Turbo build is starting

[benvictors]

Thought it high time I started one of these, had the Golf a year now and although its nowhere near finished, its starting to come together nicely me thinks 
It had 193,000 on the clock and was a little rough around the edges but for £500 with full service history I thought 'Why not'

When I first got her - 






First thing I did was to give it a good clean, even though it had full service history with it, it had been a little neglected when it came to the bodywork and interior and the gearbox was making a bit of a noise 

[benvictors]

Next job was the wheels, they were a bit of a mess, filthy, scratched, scraped and curbed. Needed a couple of new tyres too so got on the bay and managed to get a full set of Long Beach wheels with good tyres for £35.... BARGAIN.

As they were -



Stripped em -


Repaired em -


Sprayed em + New centre caps -


Back on the car (sprayed my calipers red whilst the wheels were off) -   

[benvictors]

Decided I didn't like the standard look wheels after aboput a week, so off they came again, stripped and re-sprayed Graphite Grey






Made myself some wheel spacers at work and fit them with the newly sprayed wheels, 25mm per side on the front, 30mm per side on the rear, made it look nice an fat






On the car with my newly purchased front fogs -

[SoundillusioN]

woh!... thats got some healthy miles on it, whats the mileage now!  

Nice work on the wheels!

[benvictors]

woh!... thats got some healthy miles on it, whats the mileage now!  

Nice work on the wheels!

Ha ha, indeed  Just coming up to 197,000, fires up first time, every time no matter the weather and still runs pretty sweet 

[Khare]

Liking the rear stance. I need to get myself some spaces, although isn't 30mm dangerous? Heard 15mm is max in terms of safety 

[benvictors]

By now (around February this year) the gearbox was making a hell of a noise and the gear change was sloppy to say the least.
Replaced the thrust bearing on the box to see if this helped but after finding the old bearing all mis-shaped and metal filings in the end of the box I thought I'd better source myself a new one so went out and bought this for £350 -



Had 100,000 on the clock, part service history, full stainless exhuast, full Mulberry leather interior and 10-disc cd changer but had been sat for a over a year without even been started, charged the battery and hey presto, it started  

Took it straight to my mates garage to see what it would need for an MOT, was gonna keep this one and break mine.
However, because it had been sat for so long the whole of the inner and outer sills had rotted, around £400 of welding aswell as new brake lines, new discs and pads and some other little bits an bats so went back to my original idea of stripping this one.

Took the gearbox out of it along with the leathers and the disc changer and got em on mine  

[benvictors]

Liking the rear stance. I need to get myself some spaces, although isn't 30mm dangerous? Heard 15mm is max in terms of safety 

Ha ha, not this topic again 
I would be so bold as to say 40mm would be just about ok, yes it will put more strain on your wheel bearings but as regards to safety I would say they will be fine, I'm a fully qualified mechanical engineer of 14 years so I know a little bit about stuff like this (Not a lot mind  )

[benvictors]

After replacing my gearbox I decided to strip down the old one and see exactly what the issue was, It wasn't pretty -


The Input shaft bearing had destroyed itself making the input shaft rattle around in the end of the box,


fifth gear proceeded to start eating its way through the Thrust bearing housing,


I had to knock out the thrust bearing with a hammer so christ knows how the clutch was working 

This is what was left of the bearing -

[benvictors]

On installation of the new box I had a check of the gear linkage etc to see why it was so sloppy when in gear (About a 2" movement back and fourth when in any gear)
Turns out the Linkage Bush had disintegrated (The one on the right) So I made myself a nice new one out of some Nylon I had at work (The one on the left)



Whilst I was at it I made myself a short shift linkage bar too -



The new one is about 13mm longer and gives a nice short shift between gears, NICE 

On the car -