GolfGTIforum.co.uk
General => Shows, events, track days, motorsport => Topic started by: KMW on 31 August 2011, 11:42
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I recently bought a mk3 gti to use as a track car and have started stripping out the rear interior, seats, door trims, wiper motor etc, have any of you guys done this before and how far have you / should I go in removing stuff?
Should I take out the head lining, front carpet, heater matrix and dash? I plan on keeping it MOT'd & TAX'd so I can drive it to tracks so would the dash etc have to stay put?
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I'd leave the dash and heater matrix, but lose the carpets. See if you can remove the metal superstructure under the dash - this is heavy. Heater is particularly handy to maintain, if you are ever at a track day when it rains. :grin:
You might like to have the headlining out and pull the sound-deadening out from behind it - this will lighten the car, but put the headlining back if you can to stop condensation.
Don't forget to get the side-impact door bars out of the doors - they weigh kilos each! If you strip the doors, then cover them back over with foamalux or similar afterwards to cover up sharp edges.
You might like to get a spot-weld drill to take out brackets that are now redundant.
Are you going cage/buckets/harnesses too?
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Cheers, some great advice.
Think I'll leave the dash / heater in (live in scotland and plan on going mostly to Knockhill) as you say it could be pretty handy but will have a look at the lower dash tonight.
Deffo putting seats & harnesses in but not sure about a cage yet?
Stripped the bars from the doors last night but left the window motors in just now for ventilation, will probably remove them at some point and fit foamalux or perspex to cover the holes.
Its got a sun roof so thought about ditching that and filling with perspex too, how hard would it to do the same to the rear side and back window's as there bonded in?
Feels so bad throwing all the inside of what was a nice car away! :laugh:
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Deffo putting seats & harnesses in but not sure about a cage yet?
To be done right, the harnesses need to be secured at shoulder height. You can only do this properly with a cage with harness bars in it.
As such, it's either do all, or do none.
Stripped the bars from the doors last night but left the window motors in just now for ventilation, will probably remove them at some point and fit foamalux or perspex to cover the holes.
The foamalux is to replace the doorcards.
You need polycarbonate/Lexan to replace the windows. Perspex shatters into shards and is nasty.
Its got a sun roof so thought about ditching that and filling with perspex too, how hard would it to do the same to the rear side and back window's as there bonded in?
Remove sunroof and mechanism, replace with alloy sheet, bonded with Sikaflex or Tigerseal and rivetted in.
Rear windows can be removed and then you can use Sikaflex or Tigerseal to bond in polycarb items to replace. Same should be possible for the tailgate.
Talk to these guys about securing the rear windows and tailgate: http://www.acwmotorsportplastics.co.uk/
They were very helpful when I got mine.
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What's the thing that sits under the dash on the transmission tunnel with the sticker on
it that's says 'warning do not remove'??
Looks heavy want it gone, must reduce weight :grin:
Was shocked to find sand filled pads under the sound deadening in the front foot wells!
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Does it have an airbag? I would suspect it's the airbag module. Surely you'll have the wheel off for a better one anyway, right? :grin:
You'll need to strip out the rest of the airbag wiring to ensure there's no airbag light on on the dash, which would be an MOT fail.
Sound deadening is nearly always absurdly heavy. Get shut of it. :grin:
Next up - the black tarry stuff glued to the floor, I suspect.
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Does it have an airbag? I would suspect it's the airbag module. Surely you'll have the wheel off for a better one anyway, right? :grin:
You'll need to strip out the rest of the airbag wiring to ensure there's no airbag light on on the dash, which would be an MOT fail.
Sound deadening is nearly always absurdly heavy. Get shut of it. :grin:
Next up - the black tarry stuff glued to the floor, I suspect.
a right pig to remove !
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a right pig to remove !
Nah - a quick wave of the oxy-acetylene torch and it's like putty on the scraper. :grin:
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Must be the airbag module, so yeah it'll be coming out along with the standard wheel.
Cars bone dry on the inside not a wet patch anywhere (oh er missus)! :drool:
Think that's as much as I'll be going in the weight removal quest for now, looking for a cage now.
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a right pig to remove !
Nah - a quick wave of the oxy-acetylene torch and it's like putty on the scraper. :grin:
Good call lol
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Here's mine to give you an idea its also good to lose the sunroof if you have one, it weighs about 20kg.
I also replaced the windows with poloycarb and lost the bumper renforsing bars.
(http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp35/madmanmart666/CIMG0479-1.jpg)
(http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp35/madmanmart666/CIMG0465.jpg)
(http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp35/madmanmart666/CIMG0476.jpg)
(http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp35/madmanmart666/CIMG0475.jpg)
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what made you not go for a through the dash cage ? and bolt your harnesses to the cage ??
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what made you not go for a through the dash cage ? and bolt your harnesses to the cage ??
Basicly the whole car is built on a budget, the cage came up on ebay local at a low price so it's just the way it's worked out.
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and bolt your harnesses to the cage ??
No, never. To fit harnesses correctly and safely you need to have devoted harness bars in addition to the cross-brace. The harnesses wrap around the bars and go back through the clips to secure them. The harnesses should be between 0 and 10 degrees down below the shoulder height, as close as practical to the back of the chairs.... which should be fixed-back buckets.... and the harnesses should be 3", to avoid cutting in and snapping bones too much.
This is why putting in harnesses/cage/buckets is a particularly expensive exercise, if it's done properly and to make it safer than OEM.
The above set up is likely to cause spinal damage and snapped collarbones and generally being massively f*cked up in the event of an accident.
HTHs.
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the upright for that frount hoop need some padding ASAP i cant help looking at then and thinking knee YEOUCH
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Do most full cages have dedicated harness bars then or are they extra ?
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They're generally extra..... but define 'full cage'. Full cage ain't a few hundred quid of OMP 6-point. :grin:
Your best guide on all this is the MSA Blue Book, which has regulations and best practices for safety, developed over decades.
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Your cars looking good Madmanmart, is that a cold air feed in your headlight and if so have you got any more pics of the pipework?
Also do you have bigger brakes / what are they??
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Yer I have the blue book :grin:
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Remove the headlining completely - never had a problem with condensation without mine and we've done a lot of wet trackdays.
Get rid of as much weight as possible if you don't need it remove it.
You can save some weight by replacing the electric window motors with manual ones if you still want them to open.
Leave the dash and heater as DH said the heater and blower are needed in the cold and wet.
Its surprising how much the stuck on sound deadening weighs. A heat gun makes the removal of this much easier.
Madmart - nice choice of car, best mark of Golf for a trackcar :evil:
Not sure about removing the front bumper support, I think it is needed to keep the front chassis legs stable.
Paul
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Remove the headlining completely - never had a problem with condensation without mine and we've done a lot of wet trackdays.
Get rid of as much weight as possible if you don't need it remove it.
You can save some weight by replacing the electric window motors with manual ones if you still want them to open.
Leave the dash and heater as DH said the heater and blower are needed in the cold and wet.
Its surprising how much the stuck on sound deadening weighs. A heat gun makes the removal of this much easier.
Madmart - nice choice of car, best mark of Golf for a trackcar :evil:
Not sure about removing the front bumper support, I think it is needed to keep the front chassis legs stable.
Paul
I'm happy with how my mk3 performs on track, I cut the front bumper support in half so the bumper can still be mounted.
Currently fitting a 20VT engine to this car so that should liven things up a bit more.....