Jon's 91' Mk2 ABF Digi GTI

[jmsheahan]

Not often you get to drive about in a donor car!... 

Shame you have to hang up the m2 keys for a while, know that feeling....  good luck with it all.

  I guess that's true. It pulls really nicely, just handles like a complete dog! Thanks, I can't wait to get it into the Mk2. Watch this space 

[SoundillusioN]

Not often you get to drive about in a donor car!... 

Shame you have to hang up the m2 keys for a while, know that feeling....  good luck with it all.

  I guess that's true. It pulls really nicely, just handles like a complete dog! Thanks, I can't wait to get it into the Mk2. Watch this space 

Maybe some of the suspension components are just worn out???..

[lemski]

good luck with the conversion, its not that much of a bad conversion todo.  and atleast your donna works ands road legal to begin with

[jmsheahan]

Maybe some of the suspension components are just worn out???..

Most probably - I've spent a whole £15 getting the tracking reset and that's all the money I'm throwing at it 

good luck with the conversion, its not that much of a bad conversion todo.  and atleast your donna works ands road legal to begin with

Thanks 

[jmsheahan]

Decided to take the car off of the road early as the road tax ran out. I have covered around 500 miles in it over the past month and the engine seems good touch wood so I'm happy to transplant into the Golf.

I have to say it's been good fun to drive, absolutely loved the way the ABF delivers the power and how revvy it is. I think I may have to go for a lightened flywheel when it all comes apart to further emphasise this. Quite interesting to compare how the 8v and 16v deliver - the 2.0 8v felt like it had more go lower down but then the 16v sails past it in the higher rev ranges. Smitten with the 16v lump - sorry 8v lovers 

The 500 miles haven't been uneventful. The car pulled savagely to the left when I bought it and still did it after having the tracking reset. Shot discs and ditchfinder tyres made for an interesting driving experience! In addition to this whilst going round a roundabout the steering column decided to sheer itself from the pedalbox - brown trouser moment! As I've started to strip the car I'm pretty happy that it is now off of the road as the sills are completely rotten. The car has definitely had a replacement rear quarter at some point in it's life and perhaps crash damage would explain the terrible handling. How it passed it's last MOT I do not know. Those sill covers hide a lot! The back of the arches had 1.5 inches of compacted mud in.

Got quite a lot stripped in a day although not many pictures:

One normal looking Ibiza





Crap in the covers





The rotten sill join



Starting to strip the interior out (everything is practically removed now - excuse the terrible Iphone pics)









and how I left it a few hours ago - looking a tad more sorry for itself:



Hopefully get hold of an engine crane over the next couple of weeks and get the lump out and wiring loom. A long way off yet but I CAN NOT WAIT to get the mk2 back on the road.

If you need any beeza parts drop me a PM or check my ad in the classifieds 

[jmsheahan]

Had a few days off this week so have spent a few hours in the garage to escape the mad nature of xmas.

It's been reasonably productive as the Seat is now pretty much a rolling shell. Everything has been removed from the interior, all exterior parts to be sold are removed, brakes are off etc. The only thing remaining is the engine and shifter cables.

Myself and a mate managed to get the engine loom out the other night. Have been a little nervous about this but it was liberated in one piece with relative ease and is now sitting in a box waiting to be sent to the electrical guru that is RJ. Only one loom remains into the bay which appears to be for the ABS system so not needed. Right pain that Seat tie the engine and lighting loom together but at least it's nicely wrapped for ease of removal.

Dash out to be left with this 'orrible load of wires



Realised the issues I had with the pedal box must have happened before - it's clearly been re-welded and not to a great standard. Zip ties are a nice touch 



The surplus left over



Engine loom



Most of the components on the engine look to be in reasonable condition although will need a new metal water pipe. Anyone know where to source one of these from? Did wonder if maybe the one from my 2E block will fit?



The state of play as it is currently. Rolling on a nice miss match set of 14" and 15" spacesavers/Arosa alloys.



Just need the crane to arrive and then it can go off to the scrapyard in the sky and can begin stripping the Mk2 down. Best thing is it now only owes me £50 too.

Happy Christmas 

[jmsheahan]

Have been busy the past few weekends stripping the remaining salvageable parts for the conversion from the Ibiza. ABF is now out and the rest of the car is pretty much a carcus. Result.

Pretty happy the engine is now out. I managed to borrow a crane and with a mate hoisted the block and gearbox out the other week. All went nice and smoothly other than one manifold bolt (don't think the neighbours were too happy about me grinding it off at 9pm but I wanted to crack on  ) and two driveshaft bolts which were a complete SOD so removed them still attached the engine - will have to get an easy-out on them as they are rounded.

Prepped and ready:

   











Now the fun begins -lots and lots of cleaning to be done 





Not a lot left on the Seat now and the boot is rapidly filling with junk. Off to the breakers soon.



Dukes of hazard style doors after I sold the hinges and door mechanisms 




Really can't wait to scrap this POS now, sick of looking at it 

[jmsheahan]

Managed to switch the cars about a month ago. Fortunately my house is literally down the road from where the Ibiza is so with the help of a couple mates, some chemical metal, one massive bodge and a Polo convoy car we got the Seat down the hill. I WISH I had pics as it was a proper comedy sketch seeing the shell freewheel down the hill with my mate behind the wheel with a headtorch 

Crap pic but celebratory shot of the Golf seeing the light of day for the first time in months. Fired up first time in all but boy do it's 8v's sound rough. Going to have to shift the garage around as it's a bit longer than the beeza and only just fits in the garage. Not much to look at but a major motivation boost. Now the real work can begin.



Fast forward

Small amount of updates but have been making steady progress over the past couple of weekends on the Golf. Main priority has been to get the engine loom out so it can be sent off to RJ. Fortunately that was liberated from the car tonight along with driveshafts and gear linkage being removed so a productive evening all in all.

Couple of weekends back I began to strip the Mk2 down. All fluids drained out, front end dismantled, plugs disconnected etc. One last shot of it in one piece before tearing it apart again  . Oh well onwards and upwards:

Up in the air on stands



About an hour later all slam panel off, coolant drained, oil drained, power steering fluid drained, bumper off, lights disconnected.



Whilst doing this the new inlet manifold showed up from tshirt2k (cheers Russ).



Stripping and labelling everything on the engine loom - a bit nerve racking removing all of this as I'm not good with wires!




Checked the 280 G60 brakes will clear my Ronal LS's - they do thankfully!



Turned my attention to stripping down the ABF.



First things first was to get it mobile. Knocked up a ghetto engine stand - not the sturdiest but will do the job! Skateboard anyone?



Perfect fit and can be wheeled around with ease.





Stripped the gearbox off. Looks as though the Ibiza may might have had a new clutch fairly recently as it looked rather clean.





Unfortunately snow stopped play after that so took the bonnet off the Golf and called it a day.





Misses was out so boshed the inlet in the dishwasher/parts washer, came up quite well!



Few coats of high temp and bit of lettering detailing whilst watching Top Gear and it's freshened it up no end. Long way off of fitting this yet but one job off of the list.



Hoping to get the 2.0 8v out the Mk2 tomorrow evening and then clean the bay up at the weekend. May even get a few coats of paint on the ABF with any luck.

[Wayne]

Great work and progress keep at it.

[lemski]

Good work so far bud. Remindsmei have to reoaint my inlet manifold