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Model specific boards => Golf mk2 => Golf mk2 gallery => Topic started by: jv on 02 November 2008, 15:33

Title: euro dave - mk2 track car project
Post by: jv on 02 November 2008, 15:33
:)
Title: Re: euro dave - mk2 track car project
Post by: euro dave on 02 November 2008, 22:18
The Mk2 budget track car thread

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/aec7b2cfba2a1e2f0ecf3426d512fce6.jpg)

The specifications, as bought:


The car is a project between for myself and a mate (joe), we're aiming to have a lot of fun on the track for not too much money.  The car's got no MOT or tax, and the conversion has been botched or just thrown together so there's a lot of tidying to do.

A list of things to do before the MOT:


More pics:

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/3e30ded3f9b4d4bf089ca55e7b305016.jpg)

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/f3b9d69e8f859916a96a92c35efb65d9.jpg)

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/a99fc901a98d474f149bbf7d5f3d2079.jpg)
Title: Re: euro dave - mk2 track car project
Post by: euro dave on 09 November 2008, 19:44
So, as a novice / amateur mechanic I've been spending a few hours on the car here and there to try and get some bits resolved.  There are several "easter eggs" we've found so far, and a fair bit of botching involved in it's past to try and get the mk3 running gear slotted in.  We've also noticed a worrying dent in the offside chassis leg that's clearly been done by one of the pulleys....

The mk3 power steering set up took a day to tidy up - it wasn't just a case of mounting the reservoir as the pipework was messy.  The reservoir was mounted by drilling a 6mm hole on the lip of the chassis leg and securing it there.  I had to shorten the rubber pipe on the pump side to make everything else fit, and managed to utilise some of the existing brackets to mount the metal pipes onto the starter motor bolt.  It's very secure now and no longer sits 6" below the sump.

Today we made the makeshift clocks / lights bracket.  Just something to get it through the MOT.  I also fabricated the brake pipe brackets needed to keep the rubber hoses secure when driving.

We've also come across an intermittent not starting issue.  It's only started twice since we got the car, and refuses to fire up most of the time.  I'm thinking this could be a fuel pressure issue as there is a spark and the car has run today but stopped with the application of hard throttle.  If anyone has any advice it would be appreciated, but for now I think a new fuel filter is in order.  I think it's a mk3 filter.....

The current list of things to do before the MOT:


pics of the budget dash, needs spraying in fetching matt black:

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/497766ec30412dc78e8f71eeee5843b4.jpg)

and the kinked heater matrix bypass pipe, pah

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/3f2bfbe29494d2237cd5e2032fe23bfe.jpg)
Title: Re: euro dave - mk2 track car project
Post by: euro dave on 16 November 2008, 22:23
Another full day with the car today and it was a bit of a handful.  First job was to replace the fuel filter and sort out its mounting and a couple of pipes.  This was potentially one of the starting issues as the car hasn't been starting recently.  The job was fairly straightforward once I'd stopped panicking that all the fuel was about to empty on the drive.....  it started first time and even idled well!

Time for a spot of food, went back to the car and...... no starting.  Too good to be true.  I set about mounting various ancillaries to make myself feel better, then set to the distributor cap and rotor arm with emery cloth.....  and lo and behold the thing now starts.  I'll get brand new ones tomorrow on my day off.

The kinked water pipe sucked up about 2-3 hours of my evening.  I cut the rubber pipe to make way for a 22mm copper elbow with lips to remove the kink.  Could I make it fit?  Could I hell.  Boiled water, heating it under a flame when stretched over a socket did nothing.  In the end a friend brought round a 22mm elbow without the lips and I managed to get it to fit.  Not sure this will work as it seemed too easy to pop it off.  We'll see how the jubilee clips hold out.

So now we have a car that will start (fingers crossed) and a shorter list of things to do before the MOT. 

Also just watched Top Gear and cursed them for saying money won't help make a car go faster!  How about no money?  That's the spirit!

Current list of things as it stands:

Title: Re: euro dave - mk2 track car project
Post by: euro dave on 17 November 2008, 20:34
Another day bites the dust, we spent an age trying to sort out new distributor and rotor arm as they had fused to the metal shaft.  Pah.  Interior is almost done bar the wobbly seat, then it's a quick bleed of the brakes and it should be roadworthy!

Current list of things as it stands:


and the engine bay as it stands:

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/b2b8889ddb338b342d9515b14e0bc982.jpg)
Title: Re: euro dave - mk2 track car project
Post by: euro dave on 23 November 2008, 17:24
Did a quick few hours on the car today with Joe, got the brakes bled and was shocked to look at the old fluid which was filthy and had air in it.  Spent a few hours tidying all the wiring and fabricating various brackets in the interior and exterior to get the wires neat and tidy and out of the way of the pedals and feet, plus a lot of degreasing in the engine bay.  The car is now running well (a bit noisy but can't figure out if it's a tappet or the injectors) and I think it's ready for an MOT.

Current list of things as it stands:


latest pics, not very interesting mind you:

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/3a8ec8bd58fc7b1a02422d38f27b4d38.jpg)

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/d6d12ed6ed4a9838331acf198254f718.jpg)
Title: Re: euro dave - mk2 track car project
Post by: euro dave on 07 February 2009, 22:30
A quick update: got the car MOT-ed today.  Only advisories were tyres and a brake pipe bracket missing on the rear beam.

Had a problem with the gear linkage, but this turned out to be the linkage bracket coming loose so once that was tightened up it was good to go!

Next jobs are:

2 x bucket seats mounted
Half cage sourced and installed
Either seats lowered or sunroof cut out or both (no space for our heads!)
Title: Re: euro dave - mk2 track car project
Post by: euro dave on 15 March 2009, 17:44
So, it's been a while since the last update.  The car has been taxed and insured and Joe is using it every now and then for work.  It's running well, starts first time and so on.

We've got 2 Corbeau Forza seats for it, with subframes.  A guy we know said he'd fit them for cash, or we could swap with his Cobra Monaco S seats and he'd do it for free.  So we've done this!  The Cobra's are less comfy but have more lateral support.

The seats were mounted by bolting them onto two box section tubes running across the original sliders.  The Corbeau runners were used, and we welded these onto the base plate for the Cobra seats.  This took a couple of days to do.

This afternoon we decided to paint the bare metal exposed by the welding, and stripped all of the sound deadening from passenger and driver footwells.  What a mission!  A quick clean with turps and a couple of coats of "No Nonsense" hammer finish paint and we're good to go.  Seats will be re-mounted later in the week.

Box section tubes welded in:

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/ee781f0c32e6b8436669c00a21b15bd7.jpg)


Joe does a bit of tidying:

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/0e2a8271c30f8488bf79a58d48839da3.jpg)


The boring bit, stripping the deadening off:

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/d1cc38e15cdef0a9a903897d41d6fbde.jpg)


Much better:

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/5022316a90d7c2bfbca8701b30928e0d.jpg)



(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/2543185791893e2b7436eb50e3be3551.jpg)
Title: Re: euro dave - mk2 track car project
Post by: euro dave on 18 March 2009, 21:20
Seats back in, and now I need to find a better way of mounting the harnesses:

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/fac34ab25d396908cac93e5054a52fb1.jpg)


(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/51b018f655611bbe09de8fab444600bd.jpg)
Title: Re: euro dave - mk2 track car project
Post by: euro dave on 18 April 2009, 13:21
So on to the engine bay....

I bought a remote sender kit for the oil sender as I just wasn't comfortable with mounting the sender off a T-Piece directly on the top of the filter housing.  Used PTFE tape on the taper threads - no oil leaks so far.  I needed to earth the sender properly as it didn't self earth.

I directed the braided line over to the alternator bracket and mounted it here on a rubberized clamp:

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/d922c0c0d663211e70c1a605585c1e73.jpg)

The car is showing above 50PSI when being driven on the road at 2k-3k rpm, this goes up to 90PSI when being redlined.  At tickover the PSI is very low, around 15PSI.

Next thing to do was the air filter - this had been gaffer taped onto the original housing and then ziptied onto the wing.  I hated it!  The cone was removed and properly glued onto the plastic intake on the MK3 airbox - this was cut out of the original box before I got the car.  A hot glue gun did the trick.  This allowed the cone to be bolted onto the metal AFM housing securely.

I fabricated a bracket for the housing that comes off the bolts on the suspension turret and then down the side of the housing.  With the housing upside down it bolts straight onto the bracket - no more zip ties.

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/19f9d01028c739da87f1c4c11396d130.jpg)

That's it for now. 
Title: Re: euro dave - mk2 track car project
Post by: euro dave on 08 May 2009, 23:13
So, on to some more interior bits!  I got a couple of cheap ASDA mats for a quid each and slapped these in the footwells, they give good grip and eliminate some of the undulations in the footwell.  Joe and I then tackled the gauge mounting and dash mounting.  This involved using a bit of shelving we got from the scrapyard and attacking it with an angle grinder and hole cutters! 

I painted it and installed the finished article tonight.  Just need to wire up the interior light and there's a 4 port cigarette adaptor round the back of it.  Then tidy up the rest of the wiring so it's out of the way.

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/a5b6e5513c839e267756d921afea8867.jpg)

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/d7c4b39e0c9b7dd9158bfc15fb5ac63f.jpg)
Title: Re: euro dave - mk2 track car project
Post by: euro dave on 09 May 2009, 12:08
For some reason I forgot to mention the door cards we made.  We picked up some alloy sheet (2m x 1m) from the local scrapyard for £10.  It was pretty beaten up but once cut out and screwed in place it doesn't look too bad.  It destroyed my jigsaw blades so we switched to the good old angle grinder in the end.  We just used some rope for the grab handles!

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/e30f3307dfa7040a2c91ada04dfdb2f3.jpg)

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/9a980ac083f63d0b91bb732a00a867d6.jpg)


And the car as it now stands:

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/6ae66b4a0bcabadb2d12bc8493f80c40.jpg)

Title: Re: euro dave - mk2 track car project
Post by: DarnPB on 09 May 2009, 12:38
Sorry to hi-jack. Be carefull using angle grinders on aluminium as it could potentially be very dangerous. Small particles of aluminium will get stuck into the griding wheel, expand with heat whilst being in use and can cause the wheel to fail. And at speed, can cause damage and/or injuries. Same goes for bench grinding wheels with any alloy.
Nice project though. :smiley: That aluminium sheet looks like aircraft grade alclad and is called duralumin. :nerd:
Title: Re: euro dave - mk2 track car project
Post by: euro dave on 04 July 2009, 22:45
We managed to enter the Practical Performance Car 999 challenge at the end of May at Mallory Park.

What a shambles! 

Joe and I trekked up on the Friday fully kitted out with tools, beer and tents.  It was supposed to be a 3 part event - Autotest, Sprint and Handling, with 3 runs at each.  I took part in the Autotest, finishing 9th out of 40:

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/b7c7483624f207afb84823c41ee364af.jpg)

This was a great laugh, but only 1st gear, reverse and the handbrake were used.  A good bit of fun but not what we wanted to use the car for!

So next up it was Joe in the Sprint.  A sprint that also turned out to be the handling course, and then ultimately turned out to be a single run instead of 6.....   Basically PPC magazine didn't forward plan enough to work out that there just wasn't enough equipment and time to do the logging and runs properly.  Most of the entrants were absolutely fuming.  Here's Joe on his run:

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/f001fe59683079311a84c96ff56a42c2.jpg)

It's now reorganised but we can't make it.  And to top it all off the crap that is the wiring on the car gave up on the way home.  The "external/makeshift" fuel pump relay has given up.  Shame we didn't work that out at the time.  Ended up being delivered home by the RAC.  Pah.
Title: Re: euro dave - mk2 track car project
Post by: euro dave on 04 July 2009, 22:51
So on to fix the loom.  It was a real mess - two looms in one car, a MK3 loom poking through the passenger bulkhead and the MK2 in the normal place.  The MK3 loom was then spliced (twisted and taped) into the MK2 loom but in amongst this Heath Robinson creation was a makeshift fuel pump relay.  Since that relay had given up I thought it was best to unravel the puzzle and start again.

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/eb5ff87cc3536adecfa5b871e5a97114.jpg)

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/ee7b12c467661397b3a06790673fc965.jpg)

Thanks to Rubjonny and DannyP for the advice / help / diagrams.  I rewired the twisted joins with solder rather than insulating tape, removed the PITA CAT1 immobiliser and then set out to get a fuel pump loom from a scrappy and also a few relays at the same time.  Fixed the fuel pump part of the loom last weekend and all is now well.

All neat and tidy in this pic:

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/4e33c7f1393b1ba955dde51fd0798284.jpg)
Title: Re: euro dave - mk2 track car project
Post by: euro dave on 04 July 2009, 22:56
The eagle eyed will notice a half cage in the last pic.  Joe and I purchased this and got it delivered in June.  It's an OMP half cage with diagonal, nice beefy diameter metal and weighs in at 18kg.  We don't want a full cage as they are more dangerous on the road unless you wear a helmet.  This half cage sits just behind the B-Pillar so offers lots of head protection anyway, amongst other chassis advantages. 

First stage was to prep the metal, it was badly painted before, done with a flexi-sanding disc and angle grinder:

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/5c1d236738741ff182eb814a058c88ee.jpg)

Next up was a blast with zinc primer:

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/ddbee9b9607ab09d7972d7eff6e188fe.jpg)

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/40fcfe07ec27d16605bfe3b1f3c55f3a.jpg)

And finally a thin top coat of white:

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/3c1b5fbcadab655ad6c6504f32d8275a.jpg)

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/4cc06b635edb64475fc2e6da021d7b02.jpg)
Title: Re: euro dave - mk2 track car project
Post by: euro dave on 04 July 2009, 23:02
So to continue the roll cage fitting story.....

I enlisted the help of Dad, who's an expert welder and looked bored one day.....

I cut the sunroof lining out this morning, right back to the reinforcement by the B pillar.  There was no way this cage was going in without the metal cut out.  So with this out we could line up the cage and go from there.  The idea was to reinforce the cage mounts with 3mm steel around the feet, and then bolt the cage to the body with a couple of edges of the feet welded as well to pick up the forces instantly and produce a stiffer result than just bolts alone. 

Joe, Dad and I offered up the cage and decided to bridge the gap between the foot of the cage and the floorpan with thick box section:

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/a2eafe8f6d9942b8b2c0485bf600b74f.jpg)

Mid welding, you can see the transfer of force here is a lot better than merely reinforcing a small area with plate:

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/44b5d9f520162ae6a0c9289cc8a28222.jpg)

Finished support:

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/0f3d10385824b9b0e2583d23407467aa.jpg)

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/26a71d29ef44ba5702b32fd4cf332edb.jpg)

The wheel arch mounts were done with 3mm steel plate, and some gussets welded in to bridge any gaps that were left:

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/1dff66b46c956a5154e5c5d07df8f3ac.jpg)

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/16625bf42cf00e24c2a99b179124d9bd.jpg)

Finished job:

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/6a058abbd24d7f1e5579c5863fbd5285.jpg)

(http://www.teamshock.co.uk/forum/album_mod/upload/080689819f359954be1e893d4fed9e64.jpg)

Lots of thanks to Dad, I think this would have taken us a few days without your help!